Archive for July, 2008

Archives for Research

Let’s admit that it’s ironic to talk about talent shortages in a recession. Unemployment is rising in America, though it’s still better than in Europe. But in Manpower’s annual survey of 43,000 employers in 32 countries, nearly one-third of the companies experience difficulties filling open positions.

Globally, that’s down by 10% in a year, clear evidence that there’s more supply in the talent markets. But in the US of A the situation is more worrisome: a year ago 62% of employers said they were having difficulty filling jobs and this year only 28% shared the same complaint.

2008 Global Hot Jobs

1. Skilled Manual Trades
2. Sales Representatives
3. Technicians
4. Engineers
5. Management/Executives
6. Laborers
7. Administrative Assistants / PAs
8. Drivers
9. Accounting & Finance staff
10. IT Staff
Manpower, 2008 Talent Shortage Survey

Archives for Coaching

We look for star quality in politicians and actors, but rarely do we find it among corporate leaders. And, no, we’re not just talking about good looks. The quality known as charisma is an intangible, but valuable career asset, too.

Does it translate well from one culture to another? “The notion of charisma is extremely culture-specific,” says Olivia Fox Cabane, executive director of Spitfire Communications, who coaches leaders on this topic. “Be cautious with taking what has worked at home and trying to work it abroad. A big part of American charisma is making yourself look human and vulnerable - that can be suicide in Germany.”

Cabane, a 28-year-old entrepreneur, lawyer and author, who has two passports (U.S. & France), holds three degrees from two countries and is fluent in four languages, is one of the few among us who has shopped on different continents for where to live. Cabane, who has lived and worked in seven countries on three continents, says she evaluated countries on the basis of where her personal charisma would work best. She loves France, but felt that “lacking gray hair” she would never be taken seriously there.

She has gone to some extremes to win people over. “When I first started lecturing at the United Nations I was 24-years-old,” says Cabane. “I knew that I couldn’t go in there with my 24-year-old face and be listened to with any degree of respect - so I wore stage makeup.”  

Archives for Perfect Job

Beyond the razzle-dazzle of beer bashes and company play days, “every company needs a signature experience that sets it apart.” That’s the thrust of a new Harvard Business Review article called “What It Means to Work Here” by Tamara J. Erickson of the Concours Institute and Prof. Lynda Gratton of London Business School.

In other words, why spend the prime time of your life at Hyundai when you could be at Honda? Or at Novo Nordisk when you could be at Pfizer? True, it helps focus your decision when one company wants you and its competitor does not.

The authors state that “people also choose jobs-and, more important, become engaged with their work-on the basis of how well their preferences and aspirations mesh with those of the organization.” I’m not sold on that thesis, however. It is difficult at best to both assess corporate culture before we take a job and determine whether it meshes with our sensibilities, too.

Archives for Employment

It’s no joke: there really are too many lawyers. And there are too few nurses and accountants. At least, that’s the employment outlook this year.

What if you could glimpse the future and foresee low demand for your skills in 2012? Would you change careers based on that data or would you continue to chase your dream?

Most of us would pursue our passion - after all, we only get one shot at life. Still, amid an oversupply of lawyers (was it ever otherwise?), many of whom are struggling to pay off six figure law school debts, you have to wonder shouldn’t they have seen this coming?

Archives for Coaching

Ask anyone who has sourced or managed a globally distributed project. Collaborating with a customer, supplier, or co-worker located in another country typically brings more than you bargained for - a multicultural learning experience.

You can muddle through on your own or get help. Specialized trainers can heighten your cultural awareness and teach you about the tendencies and work styles of one culture compared to another. But there’s a catch: Fostering multicultural awareness usually involves perpetuating generalizations.

Let’s face it, cultural stereotypes often have more than grain of truth to them, but they also tend to rub people the wrong way. Is it possible to educate globally-collaborative workers about different cultures without making generalizations?

“People don’t like to be generalized about,” concedes Craig Storti, one of the leading cultural consultants. “And they especially don’t like somebody from another culture doing it. What I say in my book and in my workshops is I’m describing how Indians come across to westerners - it’s not how Indians see themselves.”

Archives for Branding You

In this post-Enron era of mandated transparency, corporate annual reports offer greater insights to a broader range of stakeholders, not just investors.

Though annual reports suffer from an excess of glossy prose and disclosures, savvy corporations realize that it’s not just financial analysts and investors reading between the lines. Increasingly, job candidates are mining annual reports to better equip themselves for interviews and to gauge the corporate culture.

“The strongest candidates are the ones that dig into annual reports,” says Lori Blackman, president of DNL Global, a Dallas-based recruiting firm. “The job candidates’ objective should be to help grow the company.”

Here are some questions job seekers should keep in mind when reading an annual statement:

• Is the company profitable? Which lines of business turn a profit and which underdeliver?
• What are the company’s biggest business or market-driven challenges?
• Does the company focus solely on executive compensation or does it tout an equity distribution plan for rank and file workers, too?
• Does the company discuss its commitment to talent management?
• Does the company express a preference for home-grown rather than acquired talent?
• Does the company have a commitment to global diversity? Is this commitment reflected in their choices of directors and executives?
• Does the company have a viable global growth strategy?
• Is the company committed to building greener, more energy efficient operations?
• Does the company support volunteerism and creative philanthropy?

Profitability. The good news is you don’t have to be an MBA or financial analyst to make sense of the numbers. There are a wide range of articles on the web and various books available about how to read financial statements and annual reports.

Archives for Branding You

They don’t teach this in management school, but learning how to build and maintain friendships in the workplace is a skill that can take you a long way in your career.

Just ask the founders of Google and Yahoo! But then again, when friends ‘break-up’ at work, whether it’s a legal partnership, two chefs at a bistro, or heads of a public company such as Disney, it can cause a permanent rift in the relationship. The truth is it’s risky to work with friends.

Yet it turns out that working with friends - or befriending co-workers - can enhance your job performance. Nearly two-thirds of employees believe that office productivity improves when co-workers are friendly outside of the office, according to a recent study by Accountemps, a staffing company for financial services professionals.

For many of us, friends are magnets that lure us to a new job and the ties that bind us when we might otherwise break away. Yet balancing the chemistry of friendships on and off the job is often a bit of an ordeal.