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Our professional identity is all too often determined by the title of our positions and the list of corresponding responsibilities we’ve had over the course of our careers. Unfortunately, these characteristics don’t communicate our confidence, competitive advantage or true value in the workplace. Knowledge that is accumulated through experience is good — APPLIED KNOWLEDGE that produces results is BETTER!
To demonstrate your expertise, separate yourself from the masses and command the compensation of a top performer, your focus has to switch from tasks associated with past jobs to the specific results you can produce in terms of creating change that improves bottom-line performance.
Steps are outlined below to provide an “accumulative stream of consciousness”. Follow each point to take an inventory of your skills, abilities and measurable accomplishments. Then incorporate the information you gather to use as meaningful statements on your resume and verbal networking and interview communications to re-position yourself as an exceptional Solution Provider rather then a common commodity in the workplace:
- Consider, in specific terms, the type of situations you have effectively dealt with in past positions. What were the obstacles you overcame? What roadblocks did you remove?
- Now ask yourself – What skills supported your success? Did you negotiate effectively? Did you use resourceful and creative problem-solving or delegating skills? Was it your detail orientation or relationship development abilities? Where do you absolutely excel?
- Do you see sets of skills that can be grouped together? I.e. negotiation, presentation, training, and/or public speaking skills could all be considered communication abilities; motivation, vision, clarity of purpose might all be combined as leadership traits. Where you see these associations you will be able to pinpoint your areas of competencies.
- Why are your unique competencies important in terms of business growth, improvement or development? (This will become part of your professional value proposition).
- How do you respond to situations and obstacles in the workplace? What actions or strategies do you typically use to generate results?
- What are some of the changes you’ve made, strategies you’ve implemented, or activities you’ve produced?
- Why were these important to the business? (How did they affect productivity, quality, quantity and/or profitability?)
- What were the specific, consistent, measurable results that were produced?
- Do the results listed in step 8 have universal appeal – meaning would someone else want to pay you to produce the same results for them? If not – why not?
- When asked what you do – dump the job title. Instead, take all the information you have accessed from this exercise and create a dynamic, concise one to two sentence statement that tells others your area of expertise, the problems you can consistently resolve and the meaningful bottom-line benefits you can produce. Case in point – If you asked me about myself, which has more impact: A. I’m an executive coach; B. I build successful careers and business capacity, fast. Where do you want to go next?
 HEY — are you one of the millions who have been “downsized” more then once at this point? Are you over 50 and curled up in a fetal position under your desk because you just found another gray hair? Have you thought about dropping out of the corporate insanity to create a little chaos of your own?
In meeting with clients, looking at media and watching the trends, these three situations seem to be the most worried and talked about perceived career killers of current times.
Let’s do a reality check……
I am not a believer in age discrimination. Does it happen? Of course it does – but often it’s more of a “self-fulfilling prophecy.” People buy into the hype and it erodes their their self-esteem and confidence so they don’t present themselves from a position of strength; OR some have been in the same job for 30 years and get stuck in a rut and become resistant to change – that’s personality, not age; OR after being in the job market for so long and building an income based on perks and bonuses, there are others who have unrealistic expectations of what today’s market can bear as far as competitive salaries – pay is much the same as any other commodity – it’s more frequently based on the balance of supply and demand. Beyond that, whoever brings the most business savvy to the table, wins.
In addition, we live and work in a time of immediate gratification. If there is a choice between age and competence, most companies will still go with the person who brings the most current value because they want an ROI on their investment as fast as possible. If you’re 60+ but you have energy, confidence, contacts, up-to date knowledge and you know how to communicate your value as a solution provider to your target market (you know what keeps them up a night and you can fix it in a profitable way)- once again, you win.
By the way, did I mention that the average job stint in today’s workplace is between 2-5 years? So if you plan on working longer then that, plan that you will be changing jobs again (your choice or not) within that time frame.
As for the employment/self-employment question – the trend for 50+ professionals is that more and more folks are going the entrepreneurial route. So many people have gone through the job loss routine multiple times that self-employment seems less scary. Plus people are taking stock of their market value and through the process of evaluation and research are recognizing how to best use their unique expertise.
If you decide to start (or evaluate) a business the first step is to create a complete business plan. Some people choose to work the start-up full time and others grow their companies while working full or part-time for someone else. There’s no right or wrong on this one – ya just have to do it “right” in either scenario.
 I believe the fastest way to build a business is through collaborations – and I’m not talking about business partners. I mean referral partners. Finding complimentary services that are established and creating a cross promotion or referral program is one example.
Come out from under the table and get busy. Take some time to evaluate employment vs self employment. If you haven’t read the book, The E Myth, I highly recommend it. Evaluate your financial needs, consider your tolerance to risk, research the market/industry to see where you offer the most value and use this data to make an intelligent vs emotional decision.
Then as Nike likes to say, Just Do It!
This information was sent to me from my good friend Terri Eileen Liggins. (terri@theliteraryfront.com). She’s not only a great writer but she uses her talent to keep us in the know about things that can affect our personal and professional success.
If you’ve ever plugged your name into Google, you were probably pretty surprised to see the information that turned up. (If you’ve never done this – you should). Terri just filled me in on another site I had never heard of and was shocked when I checked it out. See what she has to say:
Have you jumped on the social network bandwagon yet? If not, you’re one among few. Whether people use it for corporate social networking or just plain ol’ noseyness networking, it’s a hybrid of the 21st century that is here to stay.
I know several folks who are still “facebook phobic” and I suppose their hesitation is justified – well, to an extent. When dealing with ALL Internet venues, even just e-mail, one should stay mindful of what he/she is writing. Once your information is out there in cyberspace, it’s virtually there for good. So just because you steer clear of MySpace™ and facebook™ don’t think you’re safe from Big Cyber-Brother or Big Cyber-Sister watching and tracking almost every move you make in life.
Take for instance, this people-search site, www.spokeo.com, compliments of another Ivy League-type brainy kid. Spokeo™ is a powerful search and organization technology that with one click of the mouse far surpasses conventional search engines. What would normally take an individual multiple searches (some paid ones) to determine a person’s age, income, home’s value and credit score is now down to a single search in some cases.
The concept of Spokeo™ started in 2005, when a Stanford student named Harrison looked for a way to avoid juggling between various social networks to keep up with his friends’ profiles, activities and YouTube™ videos. He rounded up his college buddies who helped him build a social-network aggregator: a collector of information. In 2006, from his parents’ basement (as the cliche’ goes), Harrison’s pioneering concept launched on Techcrunch. Since then, the innovative technology of this Pasadena, CA based company has received numerous accolades from Newsweek, WSJ, PCWorld, and the like.
What distinguishes Spokeo™ from Google™ and facebook™ – and why it’s such an effective people-related search engine – is its ability to gather and organize vast quantities of various types of web data from third-party sources. Just a few of its sources are social networks, phone books and marketing surveys. Who knows what their many other sources consist of. Your utility companies, perhaps? Lenders? Insurance companies? The possibilities are far-reaching.
Of course, you can’t sit around worrying about something like this. Instead, we just have to be watchful and vigilant about all things – that includes our personal information.
Here’s how to remove your personal information from Spokeo’s site now!
- Go to www.spokeo.com
- Put your name in the search bar. Nine times out of ten you will find yourself listed there – and multiple times!
- Find the URL of your page(s)
- Go to the bottom right corner of the home page, click on the Privacy button and remove yourself!
Get more great information from Terri at www.theliteraryfront.com or email her at terri@theliteraryfront.com.
Once upon a time there was a professional who didn’t have to do everything, know everything or have everything but this person lived happily ever after multiplying their contacts, resources, time, energy and income without increasing their workload. The really good news is, this is no tall tale and it could be your new reality. Just remember the magic word. It’s collaboration.
A collaboration could also be called a partnership or strategic alliance and participants are often referred to as colleagues, associates, partners, supporters, sidekicks and possibly an accomplice (meant only in the most upstanding of ways). But no matter what terminology you use, the concept remains the same. It is a group of two or more people who come together to cooperatively achieve a mutually desired objective. In the process, the benefits of an effective collaboration are much greater then the end result.
Collaboration allows you to
- Learn from others: Each person brings and contributes their unique skills and knowledge. It is a great way to have diverse expertise within an environment that allows you to acquire new undeveloped abilities.
- Model Success: You can benefit from the insights that come from “hind-sight” and proven performance while expanding your own experience base.
- Increase opportunities: Pre-existing limitations are removed. When you collaborate with others, your opportunities increase as the “span of influence” broadens through your partnerships. By span of influence, I mean contacts, experience, resources and demonstrated results.
- Share responsibilities: It doesn’t get much simpler then this. When you partner with other people, you don’t have to do everything yourself. Responsibilities can be divided based on strengthens so that tasks not only get done, but they are completed with greater proficiency.
- Expand resources: Whether you need a resume writer or a copy writer; a color printer or a fax machine, Collaborators pool their resources to provide the wherewithal to support objectives.
- Increase income – Sometimes you can increase your income simply by decreasing your costs, which would be a benefit of a collaborative effort where everyone contributes to overhead. But you can actually raise your perceived market value by your associations –the company you keep, the referrals you get, the testimonials offered and/or the introductions that are made on your behalf.
- Create a brain-trust. A collaboration creates a mastermind group of sorts and illustrates the adage of how two people can each have one idea, but when shared their ideas double.
- Fast-forward results. As the saying goes, “many hands make light work.” When you can divide duties, optimize experience and align responsibilities with expertise, the job gets done faster and better than doing it yourself.
- Enjoy third-party endorsements. Effective collaborations mean you’ll only work with people you like and respect who bring value to a project. When relationships are built on these characteristics endorsements and promotions are genuine and free-flowing. In addition, once you understand the power of collaborations, you’ll be able to ask and get big-name endorsements for your work. (That’s how I got motivational speaker extraordinaire Les Brown to write the forward for my book)
- Have more fun: Let’s face it working alone can be lonely and kind of a drag. Add a partner or two and gain greater pleasure, satisfaction and support that will make work feel more like “playing with purpose.”
For those of you who know me well, you know I love a challenge – I find it exhilarating to overcome an obstacle, defy a risk or breakthrough a limitation. You also know I am adamant about helping people find and keep meaningful employment.
Here’s something you may not know. I have been affiliated with an organization called The Women’s Alliance for over ten years.
The Women’s Alliance is a national membership organization of independent, community based non-profit agencies who share a unified mission:
To provide professional attire and career skills training to disadvantaged women and their families to achieve self-sufficiency through employment.
The Women’s Alliance functions as a national resource for collaborative program development, fund raising, public relations, marketing and advocacy to help members maximize services within their local communities while raising awareness and support of employment solutions for underserved populations nationwide.
After over a decade of service helping a diverse population transition into the workplace by providing appropriate professional attire, skill development and job training support, our services are needed more than ever.
And in these difficult economic times, clothing, training and job search support are needed not only by women, but by men and disadvantaged youth too. The Women’s Alliance is not only aware of these needs, but working to respond with real solutions that can and will help people regain their self-sufficiency through employment.
Over the years when we said, “Someone’s Future Is hanging in Your Closet”™, you’ve given generously of your clothes, your time and your resources. And for this, we thank you.
Now we’d like to ask you to join with us in our $10 Challenge to prove that it doesn’t take a lot to make a big difference in the lives of those around us.
- $10 will provide a new suit to a client
- $10 will provide two blouses and a pair of work shoes
- $10 will help off-set the cost of a training room to provide career and job search training
- $10 will help to provide someone out of work with the resources needed to support the confidence and skills required to get a job
There is true power in small actions when those actions are backed by many. Your $10 gift will help one of the 60,000 people we serve each year. Your donation will also help us achieve our goal to raise $100,000 so that we may dress and train a growing population to transition back into the workforce.
Please click here to share your $10 with us…and a little bit more if you like.
And, through the support of FlipCam, you will be able to see the immediate effect your contributions will provide.
Flip Cam is providing The Women’s Alliance with their video recorders as part of their Flipforgood program. Over the coming months you’ll be able to go to our website at www.thewomensalliance.org to see our $10 Challenge at work — to create work! Thanks in advance for your support.
Enjoy the happiest of holiday seasons
All the best
Jeannette ,
Managing Partner, The Women’s Alliance
Ok everyone. I have something to tell you. I just have to come clean. Here it is:
I’m not an expert at all this web and social media stuff.
Sure I got my website, Twitter, Facebook and a gazillion other things, but I create the magic using the smarts of my web guy who takes care of all my needs. (I’m talkin’ web needs everybody. My gosh!)
But here’s a suggestion I want to recommend for someone who needs a really inexpensive solution but still wants to look professional. I can’t tell you enough about Google and all their stuff. This article, which you can reach by clicking here, shows you how to make use of a few Google pieces and parts to get your email and website all put in place so people reach you by typing www.yourcompanyname.com and youremailaddress@yourcompanyname.com.
You get rid of the less than professional looking myemailaddress@yahoo.com or whoknowswhere@gmail.com which looks really amateurish. You get a matching website at the same time. And it all really costs $10 for the domain name.
I’ve run this by my web guy and he says it’s all legit. No scam here.
Let me know what you think.
Getting on Twitter means a lot of things, but let’s make sure it means a lot of good things. You can so easily look amaturish or way too newbee if you take to long to come up to speed on the right protocols. And there actually is some ettiquette and rules of politeness you gotta follow so you look just right.
To help you with this, I’m publishing a link to this article I found. It’s called 32 Twitter Best Practices. Read it through (it’s not too long) and bring your Twitter skills up a notch. You never know when you’re going to come in contact with that next contact that’s going to make a difference in your job search.
The Financial Post reprinted an article by Susan Adams from Forbes that gave some really good advice on using these social media sites to get ourselves some real job hunt value. You can get to the article by clicking here.
It not only gives some good specific and practical advice. It gives links to six articles at Forbes that include additional advice.
I wanted to share with you a list I discovered online. It contains some really solid online employment sites. Check them out and tell me what you think about using them to find your next job.
When we change our thoughts we can change our life. Consider adapting the BACO and BAPO concepts to the way you manage your career. It’ll be a huge leap outside your comfort zone but the pay-offs will be in direct proportion to the stretch!
Here’s an article by Seth Godin that says it as well as anyone:
BACO and your career
Brian Trelstad and his team at Acumen have had great success using a metric they call BACO (the best alternative charitable option). They can compare the results of the development and investment work they do to the results that direct aid or charity would generate instead. In short: when you understand the alternative, it’s far easier to not only measure your work, but value it.
If you are familiar with a great restaurant just down the street, that raises the bar for a new restaurant to get your business…
If you live in a one-company town and have but one skill, you don’t have a lot of options. The boss tells you what to do and you do it. On the other hand, if you’re a world-class Ruby on Rails programmer with a reputation on Stack Overflow, you have plenty of options, and as a result, your boss treats you with more respect… and you can be a lot more choosy about which projects you take on (realizing, of course, that you stake your reputation on everything you do.)
Call it your BAPO… best alternative professional option. It changes your posture when you have an option. If you’ve got another client more interesting or better paying than this one, you can confidently act that way–it raises the bar in the way people treat you. When St. Luke’s was the hottest ad agency in the UK, they made the decision not to grow–in order to take a new client, they had to fire an old one.
What do you think that did to the behavior of the current clients?
Corporations and organizations brainwashed generations of people to believe that they had no option. Go to school, go to the placement office, get a job, do what you’re told. The amazing reality of our time is this is no longer true. And yet. And yet few people are developing their alternative, building an external reputation and yes, even moonlighting on the weekends. When you have the option, not only does your confidence change, your work does as well.
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