Accelerate Your Search™ Now

“The most influential person who talks to you all day is you; so you should be very careful about what you say to you.” ~ Zig Ziglar

The Zig Ziglar quote above is one of my favorites.  Age, and what we think it means, is one of those conversations we have with ourselves.  And, that internal conversation can change the way the world sees us.

What conversations will you have about age today?

Will your age conversation center on your schedule, your emotions, or your current stage of life?

Here are a few of the conversations shared with me recently:

• From a new college grad:  “At my age and with a degree I won’t be working weekends in the future.”  
• From women 50+:  “My age, experience and education should allow me the opportunity to not stand all day.”  and “I have always looked old for my age, in fact my youngest grandchild asked me if I was a 100 yet.  Isn’t that cute?”

Yes, there is an “age issue” in almost ever job search — yours.  My experience is that when age is an issue for the candidate, the potential employer picks up on the matter.

Here are 3 things to consider as you embark on your job search:

1.  Age is a perspective.  If you think it matters, it does.  At least it matters to you.

What is your perspective?  Is your age an asset or a liability?  The primary reason others will focus on your age, as either asset or liability, is that you do.

2.  Age as a requirement for the job.  Yes, there are jobs that have age requirements.  However, only a small percentage of jobs have such a requirement.  When a job does have an age requirement, it is usually very clear.

When I hear someone say, “I did not get the job because of my age,” my first question is:  what was the age requirement? My second question is: how do you know?

The answers are very telling.  Often a candidate will share they interjected age into the conversation during the interview.

How do you bring up age?  Why do you view your age as relevant to discuss?

3.  Age is a process of life.  All things age.  The aging process does not ensure experience, knowledge, or skills.  Nor do your strengths or wisdom show up at a specific age.

Age does not guarantee the achievement of results, personal fulfillment, a look or energy level.  At any age you may seek opportunities to gain experience and learn to leverage all that is unique to you.

Telling others you have XX years of experience rarely helps someone leap for joy and assume you can do the job.  It simply states you held a job for XX years — nothing less, nothing more.

If you want someone to value your skills, make sure they know you unique value.  Craft your stories to share the information others need.  Include:   your results, what you have done, what you learned, what goals you want to achieve and how you can help them achieve their goals.

Stop hiding your value.  Be found and be visible.  Focus your conversations on what matters — to you and the potential employer.

You are the most influential person in the room when it comes validating your value.  How do you convey your value?

What conversations are you having with yourself and others?

The holiday rush is on.  The New Year is right around the corner.

This season is full of activities, energy and hope.  But, that is not always the case for unemployed people searching for a new job.

In the United States, we still have millions of unemployed or underemployed people — many of who feel lost, forgotten and sad.

Businesses, in all regions, are still struggling to find employees with the skills they need.

The holiday season presents challenges for both employers and potential candidates.  For many job seekers, the holiday season can intensify emotions, stifle momentum or even bring discouragement to an all-time high.

I have helped thousands of people with their job search and hundreds of top executives.  No matter what your level, expertise or industry almost all job seekers experience dry spells, dips in results, and times when confidence and hope seem lost.

If you have been unemployed for any period of time, there are points where you may need more than job search help.  Please seek assistance when you need it.  Little obstacles not resolved can turn into big barriers to your next job.

Whether you are in a state of depression and need medical help or need help with heat/food there are many resources.  Many you will never know about if you don’t ask for help.  There is no disgrace in asking for assistance.  We all need help in some form during our lives.

If you are experiencing a dip in expected results or feel like you have “hit the wall” in your job search, don’t worry, it is not uncommon.  Below are a few tips to ward off the blues or at least help you regain your momentum.

1.   Know your what you offer.

Learn how the market views your offering and who needs your skills and experience.

Be willing to flex your approach to the market.  Being open and realistic about your local market can help you maintain your focus and manage your fears.

Statistically, the time it takes to become re-employed has changed from 2007 to 2014.  If you want to learn more, here is a presentation for MIT Alumni by Ofer Sharone, a leading researcher in this area.

2.  Care for yourself.  

A job search can be stressful.  Create a plan that includes healthy nutrition, exercise and down time.  Take mini-breaks daily to relax and enjoy the fresh air. Breathe — providing oxygen to your brain has been proven to help you think more clearly.

Learn to meditate and/or visualize your actions.  Either, or both, help!

3.  Build and maintain a support system.

Stress and/or focused activity often causes humans to draw inward.  Most humans function best within a community.

Think about work teams and life structures, like our cities and towns.  People are social creatures and like to help, share and want others to be successful.

The U.S. culture also teaches us not to butt in.  So if you don’t reach out and ask for help you may find that the people around you are shy about offering assistance.

Ask.  You will be surprised what like-minded people will share.

Talk.  Conversations open many doors.

Join.  Professional groups, support groups and engage in your community.

Give.  Share your expertise or lessons learned.  Thank those who help you.

Receive.  Accept from those who support you.  You can always set aside an idea that does not work.  However, if you reject or are unwilling to receive, the flow of support may stop.

4.  Create a plan, take action, evaluate at benchmarks.

Finding a job requires you to market yourself.  Create a marketing plan with goals, action items and evaluation benchmarks.

Pick 3 action items daily and execute them.  Ensure 70% or more of your actions involve engaging people.  Neither voicemail nor email count as engaging people.  Interacting with people face-to-face, by phone or in groups is critical to generating ideas, support and opportunities.

Record your actions and your results and evaluate against your benchmarks/goals.

Recruit a mentor, coach, friend, family member or fellow job seeker to help you stay accountable to your goals — report to them each time a benchmark is reached.

5.  Be creative and consider alternatives.

Understand that some goals will not be achieved and others may not materialize on your timeframe.

Think about options.  How can you expand your network?   How can you create alternative income streams?  What can you do that you did not consider at the start of your search?

Test your views about temporary assignments or contract positions.  Test your beliefs about security and job tenure.

I often hear people speak about permanent or full-time jobs.  What does that mean to you?  What does that mean in the marketplace?

Be honest with yourself.  What is permanent?  If we are honest with ourselves, we realize no job is ever permanent — change happens all the time.

6.  Spend your time wisely and with the right people.

Not all tasks or people are as effective as others.  Yes, people do find jobs via job boards online, however, it is not the most common source of job leads.

Some people are helpful and positive and others are not.  When possible, stay away from negative people and situations.  If you are feeling blue, don’t spend your time with other sad or negative people.  Research shows that your body will sync with the vibrations around you.  Sad music creates a sad mood.  Upbeat music lifts the vibration of a room.

The same is true with people.  If there are people in your life that bring you down or impact your job search in a negative manner take a break from these people.

7.  Monitor your attitude.

You control how you view and react to the world.  Resilience and confidence are important.   Each are built on skills you can practice and a mindset you can develop.

Add things to your life (and your job search schedule) that bring you joy, hope and a sense of gratitude.  A simple quote or photo at the beginning of each day can lift your mood.

Understand you will have days and periods of time where your job search will plateau or drag.  Maintain focus on activities that garner results.  When you need help, seek a qualified counselor or career coach.  Build a team that provides encouragement and guidance.

Should the job search holiday blues grip you, my hope is that these tips will help.  Brighter days are ahead.  You can regain your momentum.

Have you beat the holiday blues?  Do you a tip or action that helped you?

Please share it below.  Your share might be the gift another reader needs this season.

Anyone fighting the holiday job search blues who calls me this week will receive a 30-minute one-on-one phone session during the week.  We will focus on action steps to accelerate your search and regain your momentum.  If you need help, pick up the phone.

Recently, a wise 8-year-old set me straight about reindeer hooves.  She shared, “I hope you know this talk of reindeer on rooftops is REALLY a myth.  The purpose of telling kids about reindeer hooves on the roof is to hide the fact that parents dragging stuff around are noisy.  Only kids who don’t pay attention to the world believe that myth.”

WOW!  What insight!  When you understand, at 8-years-old, the need to pay attention, nothing will stop you — as long as you maintain that awareness.

As a coach, I thought, what fun she will be to coach at 18, 28, or 48!  My wish for her this season is that she always maintains that level of awareness.

Of course, the clatter of reindeer hooves have little to do with personal branding and building a sustainable career –but — the wisdom of this eight year old certainly does.  Awareness is a key to leveraging many of life’s situations.

Building and sustaining a great career does not just happen.  It requires knowledge, the awareness and willingness to apply that knowledge, and knowing what you want.  Couple this with making key decisions and taking actions and you are on your way to a rewarding career.

Yes, the world and labor market are ever-changing and providing different opportunities.  And, while I do not have a crystal ball to see what the new year holds, I do know that it is easier to build your personal brand and create opportunities, than it is to convince a smart 8-year-old that reindeer can fly and land on rooftops!

Are you ready for your career to shine?

Yes?  Then, let’s talk.

If you want to take a serious look at whether or not your personal brand is attracting positive attention and helping you connect with people and opportunities, then my holiday season gift awaits you — just give me a call.

Sharing your unique gifts with the world requires willingness and awareness.  If you supply the willingness and awareness, I will help you build the career you want in the new year.  I will help you with the “how’s.”

Yes, you can leverage your personal brand with less stress, without just adding another thing to your “To Do” list!  Those who cut through the clatter, find the value is crystal clear.

Effectively sharing who you are, what you do, and what makes you unique makes employers take notice, hire, and promote you.  Call me by December 21st and I  will give you a coaching session to review your brand and give you 3 action steps to take before January 1st.  What a wonderful way to enjoy the season and launch the new year!

Have an amazing holiday season!

The Black Hole . . . is it real?

Would you like to have a different experience?

What exactly is the “Black Hole?”  For many seeking a new position, it is described as the experience of responding to job posting in one manner or another and then . . . receiving no reply or acknowledgment.

Has this happened to you?

If so, you may be asking why.  Or you may be, like many, simply ranting about it to all who will listen.

If you want a different experience, here are few questions to ask yourself, followed by a little food for thought:

• What was your expectation?  Why did you have that expectation?
• What is your relationship with the company and/or person you contacted?
• Was your initial connection relevant and compelling?
• Did the receiving party agree to send you a response?

To lessen the chances you will experience the “Black Hole,” here are two possible options:

First, what are the realistic expectations of this person or organization?  Take some time to gather the answers to the following questions:

• Who is the person or organization?
• What is the culture or what are the habits of person handling your correspondence?
• What connection have you made in advance of your reply to a posting/lead?

Second, use the information and understanding you gathered to evaluate your expectations.  Are your expectations aligned with what will likely be delivered?  What facts, thoughts or beliefs do you have that will help you determine if your expectation is realistic in this situation?

Third, note the feelings, emotions and thoughts that created your expectation.  Do these align with the data you gathered in the first or second step above?  Or, are you simply projecting the way you do things onto another?  Example:  do you reply to every email, voicemail or piece of mail you receive and therefore believe all others should manage their business the same way?

What is your experience with the “Black Hole?”  Will you have a different experience in the future?

Please share your thoughts and comments on ways to avoid the “Black Hole” below.

Humans are visual creatures.  Sight, photos and the environment all around us shape our view of the world.Photos and images are shared more often on social media than posts with text alone.  Why?  I believe it is because, as humans, we are hard-wired for connection — to live and work in community.  Images, or visual communication, helps in fostering connections and building relationships.  Sharing visual images with the world helps us understand each other -and- helps you show your value — how you serve and help others.

It is the same for your career.  When you have a “vision” for your career others can see what you see.  If you share it, others can help you achieve your vision.

What is your vision for your career?  What is your vision for your life?

From time to time we all need help updating our vision.  If you need help creating or updating your career vision, please allow me to gift you “My Ideal Career” activity.  Once you receive and use this quick activity you will have the foundation to easily “see” and share your career vision with the world.

Share your vision, accelerate your search, and land the job you want.  Have a comment?  Post it below.

Every thought drives your results . . . so, why not harness the power of your thoughts?

When you are ready to impact your results in record time, understanding and using the energy of your thoughts is one of the fastest ways to achieve the results YOU want.

Thoughts  ==>  Beliefs  ==>   Actions  ==>   Results

Your thoughts drive your beliefs, your beliefs drive your actions, and your actions drive your results.

The process is simple.  In fact, it is so simple that most people overlook it or assume there is no value in the process.

You have thousands of thoughts a day, including many you are not even conscious of.  It is time to tune in to your thoughts.

Tuning in to your thoughts allows you to be more intentional — often in a matter of days.  Conscious or not, your thoughts create your beliefs, your beliefs create your habits, and your habits drive your actions.  Your actions always create your results.

Do you have doubts?  I get it.  I doubted for a long time.

Why did I doubt?  I looked around and saw so many reasons for my lack of results.  It seemed changing my actions had little impact.  Then my coach asked me one simple question.  This one question was all it took for me to see and harness the power of my thoughts in a more meaningful way.  Are you, too, looking for this type of powerful shift?  The kind of shift that will accelerate your career and shorten your search time?

The starting place for the shift lies in knowing the power of your thoughts — not just understanding, but truly knowing.

The first step to knowing is to examine the process in reverse (Results  ==>  Actions  ==>   Beliefs  ==>   Thoughts).

As an example, here is how I assisted a recent coaching client reverse the process and harness the power of his thoughts.  This particular client wanted his next career move to include a step up in responsibility with a new organization and his search needed to be confidential.

We discussed the process in reverse:

Result:  No positive contact after 11 months and the door had been closed.

Actions:  Identified the contact; got a warm introduction; reached out; followed up; repeated follow up; had a brief phone conversation that closed with no clear next step; ended with a reply from the contact instructing my client not to follow up in the future.

Beliefs:  contact was too busy; contact had many responsibilities; there was no value in the contact talking to candidates when the organization was not officially hiring.

Thoughts:

1. “I will do this because it is what I should do, but no one this busy will take time to meet with me.”
2. “When I was working I would never waste my time this way.”
3. “It is not this contact’s job to talk to people, it is his job to get the work done.”

What do you think impacted this client’s results?  What drove his results?

The client saw the power of his thoughts (and their impact on his results) in a matter of minutes.  He immediately understood what he needed to shift to accelerate his search.

Your thoughts are very powerful.  If you don’t like your results take a look at your beliefs and your thoughts.

Tune in.  Know your thoughts.  Harness their power.  Every thought drives your results.

Share your thoughts below and if you need assistance accelerating your search, contact me.

Does your past or present behavior impact your job search?

Is the hurt, anger, and frustration you feel impacting your search?

Maybe.  Past behavior is a solid indicator of how you will perform in the future.

Unsettled emotions will show up when you least expect them — in an interview or during an important conversation.  At these times your emotions may be evident and misunderstood.  It is not always clear to you, or others, the impact your emotions have on your search.

The loss of a job brings up many emotions.  You will grieve.  It is a loss.  Go ahead and grieve.

You may need to forgive someone.  If so, I encourage you to do so.  I am not an expert on forgiveness, but I do know the power forgiveness has had in my life. There are many experts.  If you need one to help you forgive, seek out that assistance.

A very powerful tool in this process is journaling.  Spend 5 to 10 minutes per day writing down how you feel about your job search.  This is not about documenting what you are doing, but rather what you are feeling.  It will allow your feelings to come to the surface and help you see the situation more clearly.  Don’t type, write.  Set a timer.  Do not edit, correct or judge — just write.  When the time is up, move on to the other tasks of your day.

Recently, a client share with me a blind spot he had uncovered after only one week of journaling.  He felt it may have impacted his last 6 interviews!  The sadness he was feeling did not come from the job loss, but rather the loss of connections within his prior organization.  He realized these feelings were causing him to distance himself from people.  The realization was very powerful for him.

You never know what you might discover (or not).  The power of letting your feelings flow via your pen each day is amazing.  Give it a shot and let me know the impact it has on you.

Have an amazing week!