Accelerate Your Search™ Now

This year, 2015, holds infinite possibilities for you.  The big question is, “What will you do to leverage the possibilities before you?”

Will you continue with a flurry of activities with little focus?

Will you continue to do what you have been doing and simply expect different results?

What is your number one goal for 2015?  Have you written it down?

Did you include an “achieve by date” for your goal?

Here is my formula for new job goals:

On or before __<insert date: Month, Day, Year> __ I am happy and enjoying the work I do in my new job as a _<insert job title> __ or better.   I am grateful for this job and the opportunities it provides to my family and me.

It is a powerful tool.  I invite all of you seeking a new job, or a promotion, to use this formula.  Read your goal daily.  Add focused intentional action to find the job you want.  Success awaits you.  Contact me and let me know your results.  I’d love to add you to my list of those who report amazing results.

Accelerate your search, accelerate your success.

Have an amazing 2015!

It’s time to drop the “stuff.”  It’s time to get real, get personal and talk to people.

As you look forward to 2015, no doubt you are assessing what’s ahead, planning how to be more effective and determining what you need to do to land your next position.  And, all that is great . . . however, you also need to drop the “stuff.”  You know the stuff — the time wasters, the excuses and the mask (all those sophisticated ways you are hoping will influence people and help you land a job).

What is the one of the biggest time wasters?  Surfing the web and job boards.  Get started by cutting the time you spend surfing by 50%.

Excuses?  The most common ones include:  a bad economy, your age, or your last salary.  Drop them.  Whatever time you are spending discussing, thinking or worrying about these matters cut the time by 75%.  By doing so, you now have more time to (authentically) talk to people.

Drop your mask and get real with yourself.  Identify your unique value, name it and embrace it.  Then, share your unique value all the time, in all modes of communication.

Next, go where people are gathered and share your value.  Make it your goal to have short focused personal conversations with 200% more people than you did last year.

Searching for a new job can take a long time — sometimes up to two or three years — and many people get frustrated by the length of time it takes.  If you want to avoid this frustration or can’t afford to draw out your search for years you need to –you guessed it — drop the “stuff!”

One of the fastest ways to accelerate your search is to talk to more people.

Bottom line, it takes between 150 and 160 conversations about what you do and your value to land an interview.  If you are only talking to 5 people a week, it will take you 30 weeks to talk to enough people to land an interview.

If you talked to 50 people this week and shared your value and what you do with only 5 people, you missed 45 opportunities.  On the bright side, if you confidently shared your value with all 50 people you shorten the time to land an interview from 30 weeks to 3 weeks.

Want to accelerate your search?  Talk to more people.

How many people will you talk to this week?  Will you drop the “stuff?”

Will you get personal and share your unique value and what you do?

This post was first shared in March 2012 and although LinkedIn has changed (with more changes on the way), one thing remains constant — if you want more opportunities you must market yourself.  LinkedIn is a key marketing tool and the tips below are still very timely — making this post worth revisiting:

LinkedIn, a business-oriented social networking service, helps leverage your brand.  Once your LinkedIn foundation is in place and you have started to add connections, it is time market yourself and your LinkedIn profile to your target audience and all who need to know you.

Do have your critical five pillars in place?

The critical five pillars are: Name, Headline, Photo, Personalized URL and Experience.

If they are in place, it’s time to add your personal contact information to your profile and make it visible.  During a job search it is critical that you can be found easily.  Before entering contact information into your profile decide how you want others in your network to reach you.  Phone?  Email?  Mail?

Then, share with your network, and the other users of LinkedIn, the types of connections and communications to which you are open.  Do you want job leads?  Are you open to introductions?  Or business ventures?

Next, make use of your Personalized URL.  Your Personalized URL gives you a web presence.  Add your URL to your email signature block, your business card and your résumé.  Mention how to find you on LinkedIn and, if you are interested in connecting, invite others to connect with you at appropriate times.

Now, enhance your brand with a strong summary.  Use your summary to tell your story.  Who are you?  What do you do?  What are your accomplishments and specific results?  Ensure it is readable, not too long and tedious, or filled with jargon.  Allow your personality to shine in your summary and share your unique value.  Be authentic.

Last, augment your profile and your brand by adding your specialties, unique brand attributes, leadership skills and a bit about your interests beyond work.  Do you collect and renew classic cars?  Build houses with Habitat for Humanity or volunteer for a special organization?  Did you receive a special award or honor in your last job?

Used appropriately, these are the areas that can boost your brand.  What will you do this week to market yourself on LinkedIn?

Need help with LinkedIn?  Call and schedule a one-on-one appointment.

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.

It is a powerful question.  Yet, many don’t like the question.Were you taught not to ask “Why?”  Did someone tell you to use “Why?” sparingly?Yes, some people are defensive when asked “Why?”  Others are not.  Frankly, I think if you want to search for facts,  “Why?”  is a very  powerful question.Asking “Why?” can help you discover information more quickly and in the process accelerate your search.  If you want to determine if a position or organization is a good fit for you, ask “Why?”

When considering a new position ask yourself the following five “Why” questions.  Remember to answer with facts, not interpretations.

1. Why do you want this job?
2. Why this job at this organization over any other job?
3. Why didn’t you know about this job before today?
4. Why will you be more successful at this job in this organization than at your past position or a previously applied for posting?
5. Why will you pursue this position and be successful?

These “Five Whys” are helpful in many situations.  The questions (and subsequent answers) allow you to get to the issue, arrive at a decision or gain a better understanding with speed and clarity.

What “Why” questions will you ask today?

Both sets of skills, soft and technical, are important to excelling in work and life.

During a recent social gathering the conversation turned to work and interactions at work.  This led to an additional   conversation about whether soft or technical skills were more important in the workplace.  As I listened with interest, I discovered that most in the group valued soft skills over technical ones.  Traits such as honesty and a strong work ethic were highly valued.

 

People began to share stories about employees/co-workers that did not know how to dress for their environment, communicate effectively or exhibit flexibility.  These are all soft skills.

One story revolved around a candidate who was unable to carry on a conversation with the CEO.  Another story shared concern over a friend who seemed to move jobs every six months because of his lack of flexibility.  A third story was about a good person whose serious, negative tone was impacting business.  In this case, the owner of the company suggested the employee take a month off with pay to find a new position and learn to “lighten up.”

These stories were all about real people and the skills impacting performance were all soft skills.

Employers often note a lack of soft skills as the reason for termination.  Employees, on the other hand, often share their reason for leaving a job as a conflict with their boss or another employee, not specific job duties.

As you search for you next position, take a look at your soft skills.  How do you communicate and add value with your soft skills?

Are you honing your soft skills as well as your technical skills?

Skills are like muscles — you need to use them to make them stronger.  If you don’t exercise your muscles, they get weak.

Here are the key things you can do this week to hone your soft skills:

1. Pick a soft skill where you excel.
2. Note three ways you used the soft skill this week.
3. Note the results of using the soft skill during the week.

“Rinse and repeat” 1-3 above with a soft skill you wish to hone.

What soft skills do you excel in?  What soft skills do you need to hone?

Share what soft skill you want to hone below and how that will help you.

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!