The following is a link to an interview with Dr. Jane Kise on Myers-Briggs and its application to career management. If you know Jane, then this interview is what you would expect. It is both insightful and filled with entertaining stories. You can download the free podcast, or listen to the recording, by clicking on this link.
You order cheap levitra have to have a credit card for the payment. A stamp from this cialis doctor well-known agency is a seal of respect for pharmacies. Endometriosis, which is a condition wherein the cells that line the endometrium (uterine cavity) grow outside the uterus. levitra mastercard When the muscles relax the blood online pharmacy viagra vessels attached to these muscles. Enjoy!
Words are power, not knowledge. If knowledge was power, then the most knowledgeable people would be the most powerful, and they aren’t. That is because the knowledge in our heads is not always expressed. Xerox developed a treasure trove of knowledge–the mouse for computers and the Graphical User Interface–and they did nothing with it. But Apple and Microsoft did.
Words have moved nations to war and reconciliation. Martin Luther King did not have the money to buy his way into power. He had no standing army. But his oratory touched the conscience of a nation and he wielded great power.
Words are power and stories make them more powerful. Corporations have figured this out and at Nike, the sporting goods company, all of the senior executives are designated corporate storytellers. Kimberly Clark offers two day seminars in how to develop stories. Proctor and Gamble has hired movie directors to train its executives on how to lead better through telling stories that inspire and connect with their teams.
Stories are a universal application. Well-crafted stories work well in corporations, at parties, during job interviews, you name it. But like most universal applications we fail to give this one its proper due. We might use it during a job interview, be awed by the results it produces, and then never use stories again.
The following is a true story about someone who harnessed the power of stories at work:
There was an employee named Jamie who was somewhat robotic at work. He believed he was at work to get his job done and not make friends. Then, when he went to a new job, he decided he would reach out to people and develop relationships that were less superficial, but after a year he knew his colleagues didn’t much care for him.
One day, at an anniversary celebration, the CEO of the company said, “I’d like everyone to tell us something about themselves, as much or as little as you’d care to share.”
When Jamie’s turn came he told the story of his younger brother, Steven, who had undiagnosed bipolar disorder. At the age of 19, Steven finally reached the point where he could not take his uncontrolled highs and lows and got in a car, drove until he crossed two state lines and ran out of gas, and then shot himself in the head. He drove as far as he could because he did not want his parents to be the ones who found him.
Jamie said that though this experience was extremely painful, it taught him to never take things for granted. And he started to volunteer at suicide prevention organizations as a way to honor his brother.
When he finished his story half the room was weeping, others came by and gave him a hug. His expression of vulnerability had a profound effect on his audience and on him. The once robotic Jamie was immediately humanized. As one worker put it, “All of the sudden Jamie had depth.”
This improved his ability to lead. His direct reports now cared about him and stopped watching the clock, working until needed projects were finished. [1]
The power of words is amplified when they appear in a story. When an application is as universal as this it pays to master it, and then use it throughout your life.
[1] Jamie’s story is adapted from Paul Smith, Lead With a Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives that Captivate, Convince and Inspire (New York, AMACOM, 2012), pp. 83-85.
There are certain techniques and strategies that are universal in their application. They work in business, in job search, in daily life, and yet we tend to forget about this and take advantage of their versatility.
Something as simple as asking good questions is an example of a universal application. Asking good questions is very different from merely asking questions. For example, I remember interviewing a person for a sales position and she asked if the job would require working over 40 hours a week. That was not a good question. I also remember a salesperson who asked customer after customer if he had some products that he could bid on. No one said yes, because he was asking them to generate a lot of extra work for very little return.
Unlike the above, good questions can have a favorable impact that helps you sell your product, win the job, or improve communications in your daily life, because it is one of life’s universal applications. The above-noted person who was floundering in sales by asking dumb questions soon produced double-digit revenue gains by asking good questions.
I taught him to ask the next customer we were seeing, 3-M, questions to uncover problems they may have been experiencing in the world of packaging. For example, “Are any of your packaging products failing and causing you to quarantine them?” After asking several more questions of this sort the 3-M engineer looked at me and said, “No one’s asked me these questions before.” He then turned to the salesperson and said, “Here is who you need to see.”
Asking good questions can change the way you are perceived by customers, friends, interviewers, everyone. But if it is such a powerful technique, then why don’t we spend more time refining this skill?
I was coaching someone who was working in real estate, not enjoying it, and looking to find a job outside of this area. During the coaching process he learned what his strengths were, how to articulate them, how to present his accomplishments in stories, and so on. Suddenly his real estate work became more successful and now he is going to re-engage himself in this area. He did not realize it but he was benefiting from some of the universal applications he had learned during job search.
Before he left I taught him one more, a good question that is itself universal in it application. I told him to start his conversations with potential real estate clients by asking one question, “What are your goals?” Because once he knew their goals he could craft a plan to help them achieve them. It would change their perception of him. He would transition from being a realtor to being a member of their team who was trying to help them achieve their hopes and dreams.
He was excited about using this technique, and then I reminded him of some of the other ones he’d learned in job search and how they applied very powerfully to his world of real estate, because they were universal applications. The next one we covered was stories, which I will cover in the next post.
Job search is tough for the sighted; imagine how much more difficult it is for the blind, or others with disabilities.
Job search is tough, but for a very large, growing percentage of the population it is even tougher. I am referring to those who have disabilities. About one in five people–a whopping 20%–have disabilities that require some special consideration during work. But as my interview with Kerry Obrist indicates, the extra work required to successfully integrate people with disabilities into their job is more than worth it, because they can be incredibly productive workers. Please click on the following link to download a podcast of this interview, or to play it right now.
Kerry’s own story is quite impressive and interesting. She was thirty years old, working as a school psychologist, when a degenerative disorder made her legally blind. She is now the CEO of a company that assists other companies in integrating the disabled into their work force.
If you want to learn about informational interviewing, then it helps to do so from someone who conducted over 100 of them and learned the nuances of this process. That person is Marty Gahbauer and my radio interview with him was a fun opportunity to go over many of the most important insights he shares during a much longer seminar.
The following link will take you to a site where you can download a free podcast and then listen to it when the time is right. That could be during your commute, at the gym, during a shopping trip, whenever. http://bit.ly/1gCrBlx
I hope you enjoy it and please share it with other jobseekers who could benefit from this approach. In a shameless plug, my book, No Medal for Second Place: How to Finish First in Job Interviews, has a chapter covering the subject.
This is not the title of a soap opera, it is where the U.S. finds itself and it is a dangerous place.
Almost 6 million young people, aged 16-24, are neither at work nor in school. That’s about 15% of this demographic. What makes this such an unsettling fact is the longer-term implication of a generation waiting for work and failing to develop those skills required for advancement. This isn’t about individuals being unable to climb a corporate ladder; it is about U.S. businesses one day needing talented people to compete globally and finding this talent in short supply, because it never had the opportunity to develop.
The U.S. Capitol Building
Who is at fault? President Obama? The Republican-led House of Representatives? The Democratic-led Senate? With respect to your current state of unemployment, it doesn’t matter. Furthermore, if the unemployed focus on assigning blame, then the struggle to find work will almost certainly fail. Why? Because it requires an incredible amount of energy to secure meaningful work in this environment and wallowing in the comfort of excuses, and blaming others, is a luxury the unemployed cannot afford.
The first step that must be taken by the young and unemployed is to steer clear of blaming the economy, politicians, or anyone else. Young or old, the mindset must be, “I am responsible for my current situation. Therefore,” the responsible jobseeker asks, “What am I doing wrong, and what must I do right, to change this situation?” This may seem like strong medicine, but until we take full responsibility for our current situation we will be distracted by excuses from focusing on what is important.
If you are serious about finding work, then assess your current job search condition with this simple diagnostic:
Do you understand the value your strengths offer?
Do you even know what your strengths are? (If you don’t, that’s okay, because most people don’t.)
Can you articulate them to a hiring authority in a compelling way?
Are you networking effectively? Besides your LinkedIn page, are you pursuing informational interviews to network your way into the hidden job market?
Have you developed stories to share your unique skills in a memorable way?
Are you taking advantage of professional help? Coaching? It may be within your financial reach and it will accelerate the growth of your job search skills in ways you cannot imagine. For example, I serve as a volunteer coach at the Career Transitions Center of Chicago and their three month program costs $300. Check your location for similar programs. They may be offered by churches or synagogues, Chambers of Commerce, University alumni programs, but they will give you another perspective which is invaluable.
There is much more to do than answering these few questions, but it is a start. It is moving in the right direction. It is acting responsibly and facing the challenge of this tough job market with a positive, focused, no-excuses attitude that will be far more productive than one that allows the crippling luxury of excuses.
If you do not have an effective problem solving approach, then you may be misled by the complexity of the challenges you face. There are always hundreds of possible things you might do, but until you focus on the one or two most important things, then you are wasting time on the irrelevant or the less relevant.
When Steve Jobs came back to Apple he had 350 mediocre products to deal with. It was a complex mess. He could have whittled this down to 200 average products, or 100 good products. He decided to choose neither one of these paths, because he understood that radically simplifying his product line would enable him to focus his energy on making a few “insanely great” products. Apple went from 350 products to 10.
The first step in a problem solving process is to simplify the complex. Listen to every possibility, test each one, rule it out or confirm that it is the essential area of focus, and then focus on it and nothing else to the degree that you are able.
In job search what are the one or two essential areas of focus? They are:
Find the best opportunity.
Secure it.
When females return to their homes after an eventful and stressed day, they are no longer energetic and deeprootsmag.org viagra no prescription uk not at all interested in her and go for divorce. cheap cialis try these guys now It runs with technology, which is safe to buy online Kamagra. Due to different causes, male erectile dysfunction has diverse range of http://deeprootsmag.org/2017/03/28/mendelssohns-hymn-of-praise/ best price for tadalafil approaches males with the sexual condition. In the event that there buy tadalafil in uk is a sudden loss of vision, and loss of hearing. Problem solving unlocks the secrets of the maze that life places us in.
That’s it. Now within these two areas there are many possible areas of focus, so you have to simplify these categories. The question becomes what is the most important thing I must do the find the best opportunity and to secure it? Networking is the most important activity to finding a job and interviewing skills will secure it, but to find the best opportunity, and secure it, one must create a value statement that expresses your strengths, your brand, in a compelling way. For until you know what your greatest gifts are, then how can you find the best opportunity, the one that allows you to express these strengths? Furthermore, how can you effectively network if you are unable to express your brand in a clear and compelling way?
Therefore, the first task is to develop this value statement. And do not be fooled by how simple this task might appear at first. It takes time, soul searching, analysis, and writing and rewriting until the powerful phrases come together.
The problem solving approach must be relentless in its quest for simplicity and disciplined in its focus. It asks, “What networking avenue do I focus on first?” In networking I would begin with LinkedIn, because it is the fastest way to access a network of thousands. I would follow that with informational interviewing.
Then, to improve my odds of securing the best opportunity, I would start to develop stories that memorably relate the value I would bring to an organization. I would write them down, edit them many times, and memorize them until I could say them naturally and without the thousand unnecessary words that a nervous jobseeker uses whenever he composes a story off the top of his head during an interview.
Even the story is subjected to the problem solving process. It is simplified to the point where its meaning is clear, memorable and, yes, entertaining. For one of our goals is to be liked during the interviewing process, since emotions like likability will help us secure the best opportunity.
Simplify. Focus. Achieve. These three words sum up my approach to problem solving. I highlight them on my blog and website, because there are few things more important than one’s problem solving approach.
The pet store owner told the parent, “Just take this puppy home and see if you want to keep it or not. And you are right. She is awfully cute.”
We know how this story ends. The cute puppy enters the house, the children adopt her, and there is no way she is ever going to leave. Sold!
One of the most powerful ways to promote yourself in an informational interview, or a job interview, is to create in the hiring authority’s mind the image of you already working for the company. There are several ways of achieving this.
For example, during an informational interview you begin with a statement that asserts the value you can bring to an organization:
“Hi Joe, I thought we’d begin this informational interview by me telling you a little about myself, because many of the questions I’m going to ask are tied directly to this.”
Joe, says, “Sure. Go ahead.”
“Okay. In previous positions I’ve demonstrated the ability to look at hundreds of obstacles, threats, opportunities, and the like, and filter out all but the most important task that deserves my complete attention. And then I focus on it until the task is completed. And this has produced outsized gains. For example, I saw the urgent need to develop a distributor sales training program and it took two months of focused effort, but it resulted in the doubling of revenue and growing our market share from a base of 25% to over 50%. How do you see these analytical, problem-solving skills, combined with creativity, transferring to the challenges in your industry?”
I’ve articulated my strengths, or presented my personal brand, and have now asked the interviewer to imagine these strengths working for him in his industry. I am starting to migrate from my side of the table to his. I continue this process with other questions.
“Some people who are between jobs view themselves as being a problem, a burden, and they are seeking a solution, or a job. But I think I am solution seeking some hiring company’s problems. So what are the most difficult problems you face?”
Then, once they share these problems with you, you begin to ask what their approach has been to solving it, and if they’ve tried doing this and that. By doing this, you’ve assumed the role of an employee doing what employees are hired to do: Solve their companies problems, remove obstacles to growth and profitability, and the more you do this and demonstrate how you are a positive force, the more you become like that cute puppy who has just found a new home.
However, you are not seeking a job during this informational interview. It is an attempt to both get information, and more importantly, to network within a new industry. That said, when you have made yourself so desirable that the interviewer would hire you, if he or she could, then how much more willing will this person be to share with you the names and numbers of potential job sources?
This is the first of several posts on informational interviewing. The final post will have a link to a radio interview I did with a master of this networking technique: Marty Gahbauer.
How do you gain access to a club that is operating behind closed doors? You knock. Requesting an informational interview is like knocking on a door and seeking a day pass to an exclusive club, and depending on how well your interview goes, you might end up getting an offer to join this club.
Companies frequently have opportunities that the rest of the world never sees. They are never posted and are filled by networking. Therefore, you’re only hope of being considered for these opportunities is through networking.
There are many ways to network beyond speaking with your personal contacts. LinkedIn is a networking tool. Recruiters can be used to network. But informational interviewing is unique in that it intentionally expands your networking into industries different from the ones you’ve worked in. And this is what makes it such a valuable tool.
The purpose of an informational interview is to learn about another field of work and see how well your skills, strengths and interests align with this field. It is also a way of exposing your brand to others in these industries to see if it is valued.
Something I strongly recommend is to choose more than one industry, but no more than three. By putting your eggs in more than one basket you will increase your odds of finding an opportunity. And by focusing on three industries instead of ten you will develop some buzz around your name within those industries. In other words, as you get to know more people in a particular industry, and they get to know you, you will increase the likelihood that your name will pop up in conversations and that you will be considered for open positions.
Next, we will speak about the importance of developing your brand and the powerful impact this can have during an informational interview.
I was giving a seminar to a group of about 20 people at the Career Transitions Center (CTC) of Chicago on interviewing. They were a delightful group, attentive and asking good questions. But when it came to attacking a powerful false assumption–you must ask for the job–I met some spirited resistance.
Let’s shake on it!
They said, “This is what I was told to do and by some of the coaches at the CTC!” More on that in a moment, because I’ve yet to meet a coach at the CTC who doesn’t operate at a high level. But first let’s return to this hot-air balloon for which I always have a perfect pin. I asked them, “Please tell me the exact words you use to ask for the job. Do you say, ‘Can I have the job?’ Because that is actually asking for the job. Or do you use an assumptive close, ‘When do I start?’ because that is implicitly asking for the job.”
The woman who was coached to ask for the job said, “No. I tell them, ‘I think I am a perfect fit for this opportunity and I want you to know how interested I am in pursuing this further.’ ”
To which I replied, “You just expressed interest in the opportunity. I support expressing this 100% of the time at the end of an interview. But you did not ask for the job. You may think I’m splitting hairs here, but I’ve met too many people who hear these words, ‘Ask for the job,’ and actually believe that these words mean what they say. Then, after thinking about it for hours or days, they wonder, ‘How do I ask for the job in a way that makes sense?’ ”
Someone else chimed in, “There are lots of different ways to ask for the job.”
To which I responded, “Please, tell me the exact words you would use.”
She said something like, “I’m ready to get started now.” (Her words were actually more aggressive and, alas, more forgettable.)
To which I said, “That’s way too aggressive and pushy and I wouldn’t recommend using it during an interview.”
“I’m just saying, there are many different ways to ask for the job and that is one of them,” she responded.
I replied, “There are many ways to ask for the job and none of them are good, because asking for the job makes no sense. It forces the hiring authority to tell you what you should already know. Namely, after the interviews are conducted the group of interviewers will get together and discuss who the best candidate was. When they make their decision there will not be a jobseeker in sight. So, asking for the job is a monumental, pushy waste of breath.”
How did this strange concept ever arrive on interviewing’s oft-troubled shores? I believe traditional sales ideas have infected the interviewing process. In traditional sales the first three rules are said to be, “Close, close, close.” You ask for the order. This approach works well when there is one decision maker who is considering a small purchase, or during what is called a simple sales situation. But when you make a complex sale, when there are multiple people involved in the decision (as there are in most interviews), to ask for the order is to reveal your ignorance of the sales process. When I was leading a sales team in the sale of a $4 million communication system we did not ask the purchasing team of ten people for the order after the first, second or third presentation. Nor did we ask for it after the plant tour, or the visit to a reference site, or ever. And we got the order.
Now how could the coaches at the CTC promote this notion. Based on the first woman’s response, they were telling her that to ask for the job means to express an interest in the opportunity. Okay, but here is where we part company. I believe the English language should be used to say what we mean, and if we mean “express an interest” then we should say, “Express an interest.” Otherwise, as the second contributor revealed, damaging, overly-aggressive, pushy “closing” statements may be used and they will not help your cause.
