Accelerate Your Search™ Now

Building your know, like and trust factor (aka KLT) is a critical component in a successful career.  Whether you have stepped into a new position, or soon will do so, know that it requires sustained engagement with influencers and advocates in your industry to be known, liked and trusted.

Yes, knowledge and experience are first steps, yet to be trusted as an expert your must also be known and develop clout, both in your organization and your industry.  To build trust, you must also market your expertise and your results.

Begin to build your visibility by assisting others and by being a strong brand ambassador for yourself and your organization.  Grow your external visibility by volunteering and staying connected to channels of trade that support your industry.  This allows you to stay engaged with key influencers inside and outside your industry and organization.

Share your knowledge and passion in relevant ways.  Write for a newsletter or mentor others.  Talk regularly to your boss and other key influencers.  Understand who the thought leaders are in your field and follow and engage them — making sure you have a strong online presence.

Here are three actions not to overlook:

1. Actively manager your online profiles, keeping them accurate and up-to-date.
2. Build your own thought leadership.  Write articles or a blog.  Curate and share content about your field/industry.  Become known as a subject matter expert.
3. Engage and stay engaged.  Relationships do count — both in person and online.  Read, comment and share information.  Introduce like-minded people.  Connect with thought leaders at meetings, conferences, and online.  Make phone calls. Write notes and send them by ‘snail mail’.

Read the reports and articles of others in your organization and industry.  Learn what is important to them.  Note what they are reading and watching.  Listen twice as much as you talk.  Social media has made connecting and sharing information with individuals in your industry so much easier than in years past.

Creating KLT is an ongoing process.  It requires that you build and maintain expertise; build and maintain relationships and share what you know.  Doing so provides proof of your influence and shows hiring managers that you are liked and trusted by people in your organization and industry.

Strategic tips for managing your career – if you are – or seek to be – a paddler…

In the US last week, we celebrated July 4^th the birthday of our wonderful country.  Our nation was founded on ideals, passions, strengths, and vision.

The US has grown and changed since it was founded and it continues to grow and change.  Yet as a nation we have a unique value and purpose in the world.  Our citizens live, fight, and have died to define the unique value of the US.  The nation’s Founding Fathers drafted a living document to define and communicate the value the young nation would offer the world.

2. Define who you are and the unique value you bring to the marketplace.

Have you done this for yourself?  Do you have a clear idea of who you are and the value you bring to the marketplace?

Identify your strengths, your interests, and your passions. The use of assessments can assist you in this step. Typically, these factors drive your career accomplishments and motivate you. Coaching can help you discover and better express your message, and your attributes to others in a manner that enhances your value in the marketplace.

Action Tip:

Label three pages Strengths, Interests, and Passions. Write until you fill each page with your strengths, your interests, and your passions.  Then ask yourself the questions below and write down your answers.

How do I currently use my strengths?

What interests are really important to me and why?

What do I have so much passion and drive about and why is this important to me?

How do I incorporate my strengths, my interests, and my passions into my career right now?

How do I want to incorporate my strengths, my interests, and my passions into my career in the future?

Do you have a question about your search? Look to the right and sign up for next Q & A session, join the session and ask your question.

Coaching or preparing to fire, which is it?

I got a call from someone who had attended one of my presentations several months ago.  He said he landed a job after 50 weeks of searching and had been on the job about 30 days.  His question, “Am I destined to fail in this job and should I quit now and I start a new job search?”

Hearing fear in his voice, I ask what had just happened.  He shared that in 20+ years of work he had never been coached on his performance until that morning. His new boss sat down with him to discuss his performance during the first 30 days.  His reaction was that he was destined to fail and that his “30 something boss” did not like him because of his age and experience and he wanted to know if he should go in the next day and quit.

WOW!  The company he joined had high standards.  He was told during the interview that the boss would review his performance and goals monthly.  His attitude was he had heard that before, it had never happened.  He viewed this experience in a very negative light and wanted to quit rather than be fired.

As the severe recession ends and companies rush to hire they may relax their hiring criteria, but not their standards.  They may also hire rookies without industry experience and train them.  Not at all a bad thing, everyone does their best to consistently hire talent with the skills to do the job, and who fit into the culture of the organization but no one bats a 1000 all the time.  In my view, a 30- day check in is great for all and a win-win.

One bad hire can cost a department or a company big time, in profits, morale, etc.  As this gentleman noted in over 20+ years, no one had discussed his performance with him.  Was his new boss doing the right thing?

How do you feel when someone agrees to a meeting with you to review progress, and offers input on areas that require improvement?

Many people work for 90 days or a probation period without the personal awareness to ask about their performance or a boss who trains, coaches and is interested in their performance or its improvement.  The result the job does not continue and they don’t have a clear understanding of why they didn’t make it.

What advice would you offer?  Should he quit?

What would you do?

Volcanic eruptions are not everyday career bumps.  Would you be ready if you woke up one day to learn that a long dormant volcano in Iceland has erupted and you job was gone?  Would it feel like the end of the world?  There was a time in my life and career, that I thought so.  Today, I know better. 

An unexpected career bump can cause as much of an economic crisis to you, your family, your plans, goals, and retirement, as the grounding of flights has to the British and European economy.  The experts estimated the grounding of flights would be £520 million ($800 million) impact to the airline industry alone by April 18.   In our global economy, this event has impacted air travel, the Boston Marathon, the price of flowers and vegetables and much more.   Was this a totally unexpected event?    

It is my view the signs were there that something was up with the volcano.  Day to day most of the world does not have what is up with a volcano in Iceland on the radar screen.  However, both recent events and the fact that Iceland is known for its glaciers and volcanic landscape provide information that this was not a totally unexpected event.  

Could this volcano continue sending ash into the air for 14 or more months or longer?  It happened before.  Like geophysicists who monitor what’s up with the Earth; top talent monitors what’s up in their business, operation and career, and they understand what the impact could be if an event caused a 14-month change to their revenue stream, aka their paycheck.

Knowing what is going on, requires an awareness and willingness to see the signs that tell you things are up in business that can impact you and your job.   For most, focus on career comes after all the other stuff is done.  What would happen to your career if it was derailed for 14 months? 

As with the volcano eruption, if you ignore or unaware of the signs around you; you get surprised!  Being aware and having a plan can help you avoid or lessen the impact of a sudden event that could derail or destroy your career. 

You can leverage your talent and be ready.  What if you walk in one day and receive a pink slip due to a 5% reduction of the workforce?  What if your job is changed to a new title or function that required you to do something that you don’t want to do for the next five, or more years even for the same money and the same earnings potential you have now?

Your career need not die, or change in a direction you will be unhappy with.  Nor should your bank account be destroyed by a business change, new boss, or some other event on the scale of volcanic eruption.     

Nature and business can be unpredictable.  Predicting volcanic eruption is not my area of expertise, career management is, and working with top talent to manage the career they want is not hard.  The tools are not complex nor are you dealing with factors as unpredictable as figuring out if a volcano will ground planes and changes lives forever. 

Top talent does not overlook, fail to monitor and study trends, or “see” what changes are in the environment.  Top talent does possible scenario planning. 

Scientists strive to understand what does and could happen when the Earth’s plates move.  Do you do this for your career?

For so many people, what’s up in the business, industry and the impact on their job is out of sight and out of mind.  They are clueless as to the signs of what is going on around them.  Even for top talent, it is easy to put your head down, go to work, focus on the day to day operation and never look up. 

The impact of “head down, tail up” working and never looking at the “radar screen” all too often results in being surprised by an unexpected event.  It also results in the misdirected view that your career path and your earnings are unpredictable and out of your ability to influence. 

What can you do to avoid this?  Understand your business, industry, and your job. Have an ongoing plan to accelerate your career and continually move it forward. 

Do these  five basics 1) stay aware of changing trends, 2) maintain contact with your network, 3) make your goals known, 4) have a plan to achieve your goals, and 5) update your résumé every 90 days. 

Simply executing on these basics will blunt the impact of an unseen or unpredictable event that might happen.   Top talent does not get caught “flat footed” time and time again.

What’s going on around you?  Have you allowed your busy life to take the place of staying focused on your career goals? 

Top talent does not stay on top by becoming overly focused on the day to day operations, and short term goals at the expense of long term goals, and the bigger view.  You know it is easy to waste time on meaningless stuff and stop doing the basics. 

Fix it now, before the eruption. Have a plan, execution the basics of the plan, review your progress, and as needed update to the plan.

What are you doing to accelerate your search or your career?  What will you do this week to lessen the impact to your career when a volcano does erupt?

Last April, Pete Johnson, posted a question on Linked IN and in his blog, “You want in? Career advice in 6 words”, asking others to share career advice in EXACTLY 6 words.  Many shared advice in just six words.

Today is April 6, and I thought it would be a great idea to ask you the same question Pete Johnson asked about a year ago.  Why?  First, it is a great question, worth asking again, and second, I wonder if the advice is different a year later.

Yes, a year can make a difference.  The job numbers look better.  Spring seems to have arrived a little early, at least in the New England.  Oh, yes and opening day for the Boston Red Sox was “Opening Night”.  Some things change, some do not.  Has your career advice changed?  What advice did you take to heart?

My career advice in EXACTLY 6 words is the same and has been for years.

Do what you enjoy, money follows.

What career advice can you offer in exactly 6 words?

Is your advice different than it was a year ago?

Last week Dan Schawbel captured the just of Google Buzz and provided four simple steps to begin to use Google Buzz, check out his post 4 Step Personal Branding With Google Buzz .  It is important to have a basic understanding of the many tools available to help you assemble your online presence and build relationships.

How are you communicating the value you add to the world and your future employer?

Being visible and helping those you want to reach find you is not only critical in a job search it is a requirement to accelerate your career.

What are the best tools for you to use?