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

5. Quality and customer/employer satisfaction are principal to your success.

Paddlers live and work on purpose.  They understand themselves and the environment around them.  There are some rare conditions paddlers cannot control.  A paddler’s success always comes from controlling the things you can control and handling those conditions you don’t control with experience, knowledge, patience and grace.

If the people who use or purchase your services or products are dissatisfied with the experience, they will go elsewhere. That is a condition you can control.

Just like a consumer, an employer will shop around if your services are not up to standard. A cooperative attitude, timely delivery of quality work, and all other aspects of the employer’s expectations must be met consistently. If they aren’t, you are out of business or out of work.

Do you have an open mind about your performance?   Do you work consistently to hone your performance?

Effective coaching works to connect you to an awareness of your habits, your decision-making, and performance that can significantly influence your results. Coaching brings clarity to your assumptions by placing your efforts and energy on the activities that can alter outcomes. A good coach will challenge, question, and help you get to the truth of the situation.

Action Tip:

Where is your performance today?  How do you know? List the 3 strengths you need to focus on this week, and this month.  List 3 habits you have that significantly influence your results. Who is you coach?  How do you get feedback about your performance?

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.

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

4. Understand your value-added qualities.

What value do you offer? What qualities make you unique?

Often, they are the tasks you do better than most other people. Understanding how you communicate this value to your employer/customers is critical.

You must be able to articulate your value-added qualities to get hired, be promoted, and continue to be compensated accordingly.  Are you aware of the way you communicate your value and help others to link their value-added qualities to the organization?

Your personal brand attributes often help you communicate your value.  Do you know your top brand attributes?   Knowing the attributes others value in you and being able to communicate your brand attributes is an easy way to help your unique value stand out.

Action Tip:

Ask twenty-five or more people how you add value to your job, tasks or the things you do.  Create a list of all your value-added qualities and define how you will communication these qualities to your customers to help them solve their problems or address their needs.

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.

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.

To the paddler, career management—like the river—is serious business. It means taking control and focusing on “career” as a business, taking action in key areas, and selecting an effective coach as a guide when necessary.

If you are – or seek to be – a paddler, here are eight strategic tips for managing your career.

1. Don’t turn your career over to anyone else to run.
2. Define who you are and the unique value you bring to the marketplace.
3. Know your customer.
4. Understand your value-added qualities.
5. Quality and customer/employer satisfaction are principal to your success.
6. Know your industry and what’s happening within the industry.
7. Keep your skills current at all times.
8. Always be open and able to change direction.

Recently, a client who enjoys the rivers of New England shared this insight. For her, a river is much like life. She can choose to travel the river in many different ways . . . she can float on an inner tube or paddle in a kayak. Either choice will take her somewhere.

She chooses to paddle down the river — her river — because she has discovered that choice provides her with more enjoyment, fulfillment, and satisfaction. It allows her to take control of her journey and of the results she desires in her career.

Stay tuned, read and discuss these eight strategic tips.  I’ll share action items for managing your career and provide insights to help you execute these for your personal success.

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.

Mother’s Day in the US is almost here.  Since 1915, the second Sunday in May has been set aside to honor mothers, celebrate mothers and the role mothers have on our lives and in society.

Most of us have many mentors and coaches in our lives. Often our parents are the first coaches we experience.  

My mother without any formal training as a coach or mentor is a good coach and mentor.  Not always of course, did I listen, or want to hear what she had to say.  Yes, we have over the years had the intense mother vs. daughter discussions, disagreements and major differences in opinion.  Maybe that is our relationship or the norm.  I don’t know the answer to that question.

Actually, my mother is a good coach and connector.  She is also a good role model.  Connections from my mother helped me get many of my early jobs. From early babysitting engagements, project work typing insurance policies and what I view as my first ‘real’ job. 

When I look back over the years, especially when I was in high school some of the best career advice I ever received came from my mother.  That career advice had a positive and lasting impact on my career.

Did you receive career advice from your mother?   What was that advice?  Will you share your favorite career advice from your mother below?

Here is some of the advice I received from my mother:

Relationships count.  Building and nurturing relationships in your life and in your career matter.  My mother often encouraged me to see and understand the point of view of others, to learn about other people, what they liked and disliked, then to find a way to make a connection and build a relationship.  A skill that when honed is valuable to your career.

Service matters and when done gladly all the better.  Don’t just do the minimum, always do your best and then something extra.  My mother always adds the extra thing. It is part of her personal branding. Delivery of expected service and doing the job you are paid to do just covers the basics.  The skill of grateful service and adding value does set you apart from the crowd.  Something extra of significance to the person or organization you are serving adds instant value, gains favorable attention, encourages referrals, and repeat business, items critical to your career. 

I hope you will share some of the career advice you received from your mother, or someone special to that you will celebrate on Mother’s Day.  I thought it would be a cool way to honor my mother this year on Mother’s Day.  Join me in this honor if you wish. 

Sharing the advice your mother shared with you seems like a great way to say thank you and honor that advice.  Mothers you are also welcome to share the career advice you have given to your children if you wish.  Thanks for sharing your treasured advice.

Enjoy Mother’s Day on Sunday as you celebrate in whatever special way fits you!

Mother, Happy Mother’s Day – thank you for being a coach, a mentor, a role model, a friend and a wonderful mother.  See you soon.  Cindy

You are building your brand.  You are leveraging your strengths, gifts, and talents.  Your brand does help you stand out in a crowded market place.  Hiring managers remember you, then pick up the phone and call you – do you want this to continue?  If so, you will definitely want to read “7 Personal Branding Trends for Job Search in 2012”.

The personal branding trends to watch list is published annually by William Arruda.  Arruda is a personal branding guru, an author, and speaker.  He is credited with turning the concept of personal branding into a global industry and the founder of Reach Personal Branding (disclosure: Reach Personal Branding is a partner of my company).  His annual trends list is a quick snapshot of what’s evolving in personal branding.

Managing your brand is an ongoing project, not a once in a while task.  Keeping up with the trends, that help you communicate who you are and what you do, is critical to your career and you job search.

Just as you must hone your skills, stay in touch with what’s new and the ever changing world of  your industry and profession, you must understand the current trends in personal marketing and personal branding.  If you don’t market yourself, you will fall behind those do market themselves.  When you know the trends, you choose what is best for you and your target audience. 

Not all trends will interest you or work for you, yet you won’t ignore them.  Take a look. Then decide how to leverage the 2012 trends into a carefully crafted marketing plan.  Knowing where you are today, having a plan you can execute ensures you continue to communicate your personal brand to accelerate your search and success.  Here are William Arruda’s 2012 personal branding trends to watch list:

 1. Headshots Everywhere

2. Crowdsourcing for Professionals

3. Personal QR Codes

4. Job Postings R.I.P.

5. Professional, DIY Video

6. Permanent Unemployment

7. Personal Qwikis

Assess the trends.  Decide your course of action, stay relevant and gain the favorable attention of your key contacts, centers of influence, recruiters, and hiring managers.  That action will help you accelerate your search and land the job you want. 

If you need help implementing or incorporating one or all of these trends into your job search contact me.  Do you have a question about your job search or leveraging your personal brand?  Call or look to the right and sign up for next Q & A session, join the session and ask your question.

You have heard it and you know your reputation counts in your job search.  It is a given that employers will check your references.  Employers and recruiters will ask you and others about your experience, how you work, the quality of work you deliver, and many other questions to help them determine if you are the right person for the current opening in the organization. 

Do you know what others say about you when asked?  Do you know how others view you? 

Your reputation – who you are and what makes you tick all help you communicate your value to an employer.  What others share about you is critical.  Do you understand how others view you?

When you have a keen understanding of yourself and how you are communicating who you are, how you work, play and do all things it is much easier to communicate your value in a way that paints a clear picture for others.  When you also have an understanding of how others view and value you, you are better able to market and leverage your brand.

After all your reputation (your personal brand) is about what others think of you, not only what you think.  Do know what others value about your knowledge, your experience, your skills, your style, your value in the workplace, your vision and your values?

What would happen if you did?

All of these items are elements of your personal brand and who you will be as an employee.  These elements make up ‘fit’.  “Fit” for the job is one of the critical factors in hiring a new employee.  Employers want not only the skills need to do the job they also want employees who “fit” on the team and within the organization.  Don’t you want “fit” too?

One of the best indicators of future performance is past performance, and most if not all hiring managers know this.  Therefore, as employers seek employees for new or open positions they not only identify the skills and experience needed for the job, employers seek to discover how you have performed in the past and they seek information from others to learn about your possible ‘fit’.

When you began your job search you probably updated your résumé, your LinkedIn profile, contacted a few key people in your network, maybe asked for a reference or two, posted your résumé online, and set up a few online search agents to send to you emails of job openings in your field.  Then you may have made a few calls to see who might be hiring, and began to look at the job openings online.  You submitted a few applications or emailed out your résumé and now you are waiting to the phone to ring or the emails asking you to set up an interview.  Does that sound like your marketing efforts and your search plan so far?

If so maybe it is time to leverage your reputation and actively market yourself.  Here are the steps to leverage your reputation (your personal brand) and actively market yourself and have a better understanding of your personal reputation and how to market and communicate your ‘fit’ to employers who will value you.

1. Get feedback on your reputation.  Learn about what others think of you and how they communicate your strengths.  Assessments, interviews and conversations will help gather feedback.
2. Review the feedback.  After you selected those to provide feedback and gathered enough data, you will want to review the data.  This type of feedback will often provide valuable data to help you create a very on target message to share your value.
3. Review the feedback with a trusted advisor or coach.   To look at your reputation and grow and leverage your personal brand you will need help.  Companies hire teams of experts, don’t short change yourself by lacking the benefits and insights of having a trusted advisor or coach help you review the data you have gathered.
4. Establish your brand aspirations.  Your reputation evolves.  This occurs with or without your intention.  How can your reputation and your strengths help you achieve your goals?  How will you communicate these as you continue to grow and evolve?  Strong personal brands grow and evolve and your personal brand is a tool to help you market yourself and to achieve your goals.  What is your desire for your brand?  How would you like to communicate your desire?
5. Plan and execute.  Ideas, Thoughts, Aspirations are great, however without planning and action nothing happens.  Develop your plan to leverage your reputation, make a commitment to yourself to take action, now execute and market yourself communicate your value and use your reputation and what others say about you to demonstrate your “fit” for the job you want.

This can be a tough time of year. It is also is one of the best times of the year to be job searching. Businesses are looking forward to the new year and planning for the year ahead.

If you do have the holiday blues because you need or want a new job, yet you are not sure what to do to chase the blues away, ask yourself a few questions:

–          What am I willing to do to get the job what I want?

–          Can I clearly describe the job I want?

–          When will I start to take action to get the job I want?

–          Am I willing to help someone else get want they want?

The answers may surprise you or seem painfully obvious … but if you want to land the job you want now, you must stop doing what others are doing, what you have been doing and take a hard look at what you want to do and what your ideal employer wants and needs.

If an employer wants or needs something you don’t want to provide, that employer is not your ideal employer.  

If you are not willing to help an employer get want they want – more revenue, reduced costs, a better product, more customers, and/or more sales, then you are not their ideal employee and why would they hire you!

What is causing your holiday job search blues?  

Could it be because you are trying to cram your wants and needs on an employer with different wants and needs?  OR are you trying to cram yourself into a job where the wants and needs are different than what you really want to do to achieve your goals?

Take a look at what you are doing.  Are you willing to change what you are doing?

Stop and focus on your ideal employer.  What do their issues tend to be and what do they need most right now – how would you change your personal marketing message and your job search so that your ideal employer would see you as the solution to their needs right now and say WOW, let’s talk – you are just the person we need to join our team and get the results we want in the coming year.

Here is your assignment to chase away the holiday blues.  Discover what your ideal employer wants and needs.  If you can meet those needs formulate a clear message to communicate to your ideal employer how you can deliver what they want and need and how you will help them achieve their goals.

One of the fastest ways to chase away your blues is to help someone else get what they want.  Helping an employer get what they want and need is one of the fastest ways to get what you want, to help you achieve your goals and to get hired.

Do you need more action assignment to do to speed up your search? 

Look to the right and request my gift to you – “162 Ways to Accelerate Your Job Search and Land the Job You Want”.

Are you struggling to clarify your message and accelerate your search? 

I often share with my clients that clarity of message rarely comes as quickly as you wish it would. Yet when it does come together, it’s like the sun breaking out at about 10am on a foggy fall morning.

 You know the mornings, those mornings that are thick, gray, the road hard to see, you feel as if you are not sure where you are going and if you are on the right road, then the sun jumps out, the color of fall is all around you.  The sky is bright; the grass green and even if the payment in front of you disappeared, you would know you are on the right road.  Trust me the message will come, if you are doing the work and the message will come.

 Many people can do this work alone without help.  They have lots of time and they enjoy solo work. 

 Others like you may not have the time nor enjoy the solo journey.  If you have discovered that having help and feedback to help you speed the process is something you are seeking, or you have a question that you want to ask to clarify your message join the next Q & A call.   I am happy to listen to your question and see if I can help you.  Have a question now?  Give me a call and let’s talk.

“Do what you love. Lead with vision and passion; use your strengths and offer unique value, the market will notice and reward you.” ~ Cindy Key

Steven Wade Smith tackled three of the myths about hiring the unemployed in the weekly edition of the HR Examiner.  It is a great read.  I hope you will take time to read “Three Myths About Hiring the Unemployed” and share your thoughts and comments below.

Believe it or not, many are passionate about helping others find the job they want, and building teams of talented people to achieve goals.  Recruiters, HR professionals, workforce development professionals, hiring managers, those who have been unemployed and yes, those who right now find themselves unemployed are just some of the titles these passionate people engaged in this worthy work use.  I am proud, as a career strategist to share this passion with so many wonderful and dedicated people.

Myths as I understand them are traditional stories explaining some natural or social phenomenon.  Myths are stories – powerful stories. 

What is your career story?

Are you telling your story in a powerful manner?