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?

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!

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.

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.