Just got off the phone with Howard. He was disappointed that he did not get an interview for a role as the senior writer of Executive Communications. He has years of writing to and on behalf of the F25 C-Suite but he had not done enough in this pitch to establish just how good and unique he is.

As a writer, Howard is used to the role of a support person, who reacts to assignments but doesn’t originate them. As a Minnesotan, he is not sure it isn’t a sin to strut his excellence. Yet he is frustrated because he has been praised for many years for his high caliber writing, and is looking for a next, awesome assignment.

Howard needs to give himself permission to create the platform that showcases his skills enough to claim one of those rarified assignments. Since he wants to move to a new corporation where he is unknown and there is high degree of scrutiny due to the visibility and sensitivity of the executive communications role, it is particularly important for him to match the sophistication of the assignment with a sophistication of pitch.

Most of you hope using the same kind of pitch everyone else uses will somehow get you an assignment that sets you apart from mere mortals.

To move through the wormhole and leave everyone else behind, you need a vehicle and an attitude that will get you there.

Perhaps you will also need a presentation that teaches your customers that a higher level of performance by their organization is possible and that you can show them how to get there.

If you are not quite ready to find yourself on another planet or in another dimension of time, you need to start exercising the muscles that will get you there when you are ready for change, fame, and fortune.

I believe all of us need to get better at these skills to survive and thrive in the future Workforce 2020 marketplace.

Topics: branding + positioning, business skills, getting ahead, ideation, selling skills, technical skills, visibility | No Comments »

One of the ways to prove your readiness for a promotion or why you should be hired before a sea of other candidates is to create hypothetical case histories of different business problems and discuss the problems, business ramifications, and proposed solutions in great detail. We are talking pages, not two lines on your resume. Put your remedies on the table with a deep, strategic discussion of why they offer the best ROI (return on investment) for the business situation and be willing to be graded/critiqued for your proposed fixes before or early in the interview process. It will help you get into higher level interviews sooner and more often.

It is giving away free consulting, perhaps, but in a risk-adverse job market, it may move you past other contestants. It is actually safer in this instance not to offer remedies to the potential employer’s current problems, because it is likely you will not know some choice business tidbit that suddenly makes your proposed remedy look foolish. If you write about enough different business situations credibly, you will suggest that you could make future headway on the problems of the employer you are hoping to impress even if you don’t currently have all the information to score an A+ today for the target project. It is an effective way to show you are viable for a new industry.

If you were thinking of whining about all the work I am suggesting, one of my coaching clients, who had been at $150K before being laid off, moved to a $235K salary in his next move by creating a “portfolio” showcasing his business insights. He intends to repeat the strategy in the near future to accelerate his next promotion. (He also pointed out the exercise cost less than his MBA and accomplished more.)

Another approach is to write an erudite white paper or two on bleeding edge industry issues. Write an article that gets into the WSJ or Financial Times or the leading trade magazine in your industry. You can’t plagiarize or try to “snow” anyone with these. You need to be ready to discuss any of the topics for 2-3 hours convincingly in an interview.

This process is a good exercise to test how credible you are as a candidate for a more senior role than you have had previously without long term risk to any party. Both you and the hiring manager may need to see the concrete proof of how you rank versus other candidates.

It is also good way to remove the personal stigma of having been at a failing company in a senior title. I just recommended the process to someone who has been at several small start-ups that did not make it long term.

The flip side of this strategy is that, for something like 10 years now, companies have been pulling in 10-15 candidates and giving them 40-70 hour assignments of what would they do in X situation without paying consulting fees. Then the company takes the consensus of all the hopeful applicants and doesn’t hire any of them. I first saw this phenomenon amongst high level IT Project Managers with PMPs. I happen to think this is unethical and would never work for a company that asked it. One way to defend yourself against it is to offer solutions to problems at other companies as suggested in the second paragraph, before or regardless if the company asks for “free advice” with bad intentions.

It is all about demonstrating your thought leadership in a way that allows you to hop, skip, and jump past other potential candidates.  It also allows you to grow as fast as you can rather than waiting for company projects that allow you to flex your muscles.

Topics: branding + positioning, communications, getting ahead, innovation, interviews, leadership, management skills, salary, selling skills, solving problems, technical skills, visibility | 1 Comment »

Back around 1870, automation shifted the production of most goods consumed in the US to centralized factories. Factory owners needed workers who would contentedly stand in an assembly line for hours on end at low pay. Schools bred workers who were compliant and not trained well enough to have higher aspirations. The paternalistic employer offered workers life-long stability and benefits to keep them content. Unions guaranteed minimum working conditions. Detroit auto workers are an example of this co-dependent culture.

This education model continued through the 1970s when high tech innovation, and the increasing shift of low level manufacturing overseas required that most US workers needed a college education to succeed. Simultaneously, workers began to have higher aspirations for themselves in their relationship with employers. An engineering degree was a ticket to success and long-term approbation.

Fast forward to 2011. Innovation and globalization are well-known phenomena. I think we all understand that the rate of both is accelerating. The average permanent job is lasting 2-3 years as business owners must constantly re-group to meet competitive threats. Yet, workers have become increasingly less engaged, crabby that the employer is not taking care of them, threatening to move on at the first opportunity.

•  69% of employees describe themselves as under-engaged or un-engaged.
• 30% of executives describe themselves as under-engaged or un-engaged.
• 47% of engaged high potentials say they will leave “at the first opportunity.”  (#)

I don’t understand the disconnect. I talk to folks every day who proudly threaten they will move on within the next 12 months to a “nicer” employer.

Why do you think the next employer will be radically better? The phenomenon we are caught in is happening to all of us, employer and employee alike. Yes, the employers could be nicer in many instances. CEOs should not make so much more than the rest of us. However, the bigger trend is that employers will have less and less choice to nurture the relationship with employees in the way you are all accustomed to. Companies are being pushed into decisions that will make the relationship with employees more and more transient.

So what are you doing about it? Showing disengagement to your current employer or a hiring manager is likely to put you high on the first-to-be-fired list. Feeling disengaged is counter-productive, a dead end. It won’t get you promoted.

Instead, you need to learn how to succeed and shine versus other employees in the future or work for yourself.

(#) http://www.workforce.com/section/hr-management/feature/special-report-employee-engagement-losing-lifeblood/

Topics: career strategy, solving problems | 2 Comments »

My apologies for stealing a bit of phrasing from Dr. Suess. Here is the point: Building your reputation as a SME (Subject Matter Expert) is one of the most effective strategies you could use to foster long-term career growth.

If you are a thought leader on a subject, you need to be creating instances where you can showcase your depth of strategy to others in your industry. Maybe it is a speech or board role at an association, a blog, whitepaper, newsletter article, or PowerPoint/Keynote presentation stored in your LinkedIn profile. Concentrate on 1-2 methods where you will be most comfortable and effective demonstrating a depth of understanding not possible in a resume or networking encounter over a beer and burger.

This is not just about job hunting. This is about entrenching knowledge of your credentials in the community over your long-term career. One of my Director-level coaching clients makes a point of writing a new article for a trade magazine every 6 months. She has received scores of phone calls from CEOs asking to meet her as a result of those articles. She has, with about 20 hours of writing, established herself as a high potential and in the top 10-15% of folks in sustainable energy nationwide.

Topics: branding + positioning, career strategy, networking | No Comments »

Most importantly, top executives can not only perform more effectively than many of their peers, but they can communicate their ideas and impact to the rest of the organization and industry. The CEO needs to be able to influence the world outside of the company such as VCs (Venture Capitalists), Wall Street stock analysts, and the industry at large. Most competencies of a successful CEO are about soft skills. The CEO must be able to advocate a vision and future success. Promote the potential of a company not yet delivering that service/product. Demonstrate presence, gravitas, and panache.

Regardless of how far down the path to CEO you are now, getting ahead in the work world is increasingly about soft skills and demonstrating your ability to lead ideas, influence others, and be a rainmaker. Are you building those skills? Are you having the conversation with your communities to demonstrate your prowess in these areas? Is your story as convincing as it could be?

Topics: branding + positioning, career strategy, interviews, negotiating, networking | No Comments »