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Thriving in the Zone of Discomfort!

Jan 22nd, 2012 by Dilip Saraf

 

When clients come to me for help they are often looking for ways to advance their careers and to grow. Yet, when I look at their work and how they are engaged in it, I often find that they have slipped into a zone of comfort, and are not really pushing to grow. When I point this out to them they often get defensive by telling me how busy they are and how they do not have time to take on more work to show what they can really do.

What is happening here is that your hard work—long hours, managing teams in different time zones, and constantly reacting to the raging fires that need to be put out—mistakenly becomes your proxy for your value to the company. Many clients are surprised to learn this at the end of year when their performance review is presented to them. They are disappointed that despite all their hard work they have not advanced their station in any significant ways; perhaps a modicum salary increase, some kind words from the boss, and a few tips of encouragement: Keep up the good work!

What is happening here is that the client is mistaking hard work for creating new value for the employer. When you are doing the same work, more or less in a transactional mode, you have slipped into a comfort zone, and, despite all your hard work it is not going to make much difference in how it reflects on your résumé or in how the company sees your value. So, in every such case my guidance to my clients is the same: find something in your area of work that puts you in a zone of discomfort, take it on, and show the value you can create.

Even to do this right there is some method, which you must follow to translate your undertaking into something meaningful to both your career and to your growth. Here are my recommendations on how to do this right:

  1. First make an audit of your workload and evaluate how you spend your daily time attending to your work. Find repetitive work and see how much of that you can delegate it down, sideways, and to the trash heap. A case in point: When I was managing a large project with over 300 people I used to get urgent phone calls all day along about various project matters. When I decided to wait 24 hours to return many of those calls, nearly 80% of the requests vanished as the callers had found other ways to address the issues!
  2. Expect people around you, including your direct reports, to do more than they are doing. It if strange, but when you expect more from people, they often come through!
  3. Now find some worthy project or cause that you really want to sink your teeth into. Find the value of that initiative to the department, your boss, your company, and to your customer. Take on a high-value, high impact initiative that will make your résumé shine. Put together a plan and make a business case for it before going to your boss. Get it fully vetted and then present to your boss in a way that makes him look good in front of their superiors. More importantly, it should provide you a significant professional growth opportunity.
  4.  It is here that you negotiate how you are going to be rewarded for your initiative before you take it on. Do not assume that your boss will remember your work at review time and give you what you deserve out of the goodness of their heart. It does not work that way. You do not get what you deserve; you get what you negotiate beforehand! Get specific commitments. Merely hearing from your boss, We’ll take care of you, is not enough!
  5. Make sure that you have organized your project with sufficient resources of time, staff, equipment, and support. Generously use your ability to acknowledge people’s help by writing emails of commendations with copies to many higher-ups in the organization. It is amazing for a simple email of recognition what lengths people are willing to go!
  6. Keep a journal of your progress and evaluate what you are learning and how you are growing. Keep track of the benefits that are the result of your work. Such benefits might be: A more efficient workflow, a better product design, a smoother customer interaction, and so on. Try to monetize those benefits so that you have some ammunition at the time of your annual review, and for a bullet on your résumé.
  7. Make your boss an integral part of the ongoing activities in your initiative. They must feel committed to the project, so when it comes to taking credit it is appropriate. Also, when it gets into some trouble your boss’ neck is also on the line.
  8. At key milestones send out emails about what you have accomplished and, once again, acknowledge all those who have helped you get there. This will ensure their continuing help in the overall success that remains ahead.
  9. When you have completed what you have set out to do make sure that you send out an email documenting your overall initiative, how it has helped (or will help) the right cause, and how you were able to succeed getting this done with the help of those (with names) who worked with you!
  10. When your annual review comes due make sure that your contributions are well acknowledged with a commensurate change in your compensation. Remind your boss of the promises you extracted before you started working on this (a’ la # 4 above). Also, revise your résumé to get it market ready!

Getting out of your comfort zone is where your growth is. So, next time you start slipping into a rut, follow this advice and do something for yourself!

Good luck!

Posted in career growth, Career Repositioning, Career Tips, Enterpreneurship, Job Search, leadership, Life & Living, Mentoring, Office Behaviour | No Comments »

When You’re Out of Work, Don’t Look Unemployed!

Jan 14th, 2012 by Dilip Saraf

It is normal for us to display the state of our being in how we project ourselves and how others see us. So, when we’re happy we look happy and others who look at us witness our happiness. The same thing happens to many when they are out of work and are looking for a job. I routinely see clients, who are out of work and are looking to get back in. So, even before we start working on getting their résumé and LinkedIn Profile in shape to start their campaign, my first admonition to such clients is often, Don’t wear your unemployment on your sleeves; it will get in the way of getting you the very job you’re after!

Why?

When you are out of work it is easy to get in a state of funk. I personally have been laid off three times and had been out of work until I found a job (in each case by re-inventing myself into a new career). Getting into a new career is even harder when you are out of work because you must demonstrate something special in how the potential employer sees you in what you can do for them. What I learned from that experience was that how you project yourself and the confidence you display in selling your re-invention is what gets you past the obstacle you are facing. Your lack of expertise in the area of your re-invention is rarely a showstopper—as I found this out three times in my own case. On the other hand if you look diffident, downtrodden, and desperate no one is going to offer you a job regardless of how competent you are in the area of your specialty.

So, what does this all mean? Here is my guidance to those who are out of work and are trying to get back into the work force:

  1. First and foremost, do not translate being unemployed into something personal. Do not personalize your plight by wondering what you might have done to avoid what happened. Instead, take what has happened personally, which means taking charge of what you can do to move ahead and figuring out the best strategy to do that.
  2. Prepare a really strong branding message by redoing your résumé and by charging up your LinkedIn Profile. Learn how to come out at the top of any search on LinkedIn by correctly Profiling yourself. Avoid showing your current state of unemployment by volunteering and by engaging in contract or consulting work.
  3. Launch a campaign that combines responding to open jobs with prospectively looking into companies of your choosing. Approach someone in senior position to present an idea and get in front of them.
  4. Avoid going only to networking events where others looking for work also congregate. Although such support groups are helpful, going there too often can bring you down and it will show in how you project yourself.
  5. Quickly build your search pipeline and campaign hard to generate action. See where the setbacks and obstacles are. Each rejection should tell you something that you need to do differently the next time. Do not be shy to ask recruiters when they call you with a rejection about what you could have done differently.
  6. Keep in shape through physical exercise and through meditation. When things are not going well it is normal to resort to alcohol and other substances. Avoid those and keep your mind and yourself looking sharp.
  7. Keep a daily routine. Our work provides us our daily structure. So, when we are out of work that structure goes way, exposing us to an undisciplined personal routine, which can wreak havoc in our productivity and self-esteem. Find a space where you can stay as if you are at work and try to maintain a disciplined routine. Get lost in your work!
  8. Meet people, who are energized about what they do, and frequently engage with them in activities that energize you. Do not be bothered by where they are in their lives compared to where you are. We all deal with life’s vicissitudes, and must learn how to deal with our setbacks without getting down on ourselves.
  9. Regardless of how bad things become or get, always treat yourself and your family well (you do not need to spend money to indulge in this). Just remember that being unemployed for a while is a just a stage that you must deal with and learn from it.
  10. No matter how much you need help in finding yourself a job, find someone or some cause where you can help others. Helping others, especially when you are hurting yourself, can be quite empowering and can make you forget your own troubles.

Good luck!

Posted in career growth, Career Repositioning, Career Tips, Interview Skills, Job Search, leadership, Life & Living, Mentoring, Office Behaviour | No Comments »

Demystifying Soft Skills!

Jan 7th, 2012 by Dilip Saraf

 

Many of my clients are individual contributors vying to become managers. Others are already managers and are dreaming about executive positions. In such cases one of the recurring themes that comes up is the demonstration of their “soft skills.” There is such misapprehension around this phrase that I decided to devote an entire blog to this topic!

First of all, many up-and-coming managers think that management itself is a soft skill. They believe that the hard skills they have learned stem from their knowledge of the technical area of their expertise.

Contrary to common belief knowing how to manage is also a hard skill. For example, a manager is expected to perform the four functions of managing: Lead, Plan, Organize, and Establish Controls. Each one of these functions has its own tasks under them, with the attendant rules for making those tasks efficiently executable. Ironically, some believe that to be a good manager one must be “soft” in exercising their managerial authority.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

For a manager—or for anyone, for that matter—getting things done through others requires knowing what makes people tick. The technical skills that stem from your expertise as well as your managerial skills that allow you to get things done as a result of your position, both constitute hard skills. The soft skills stem from your ability to get others to do what needs to be done, despite your authority or influence, and not because of it!

Let me explain:

Someone in a managerial authority has the power to order their subordinates to do what they want done. Although this is how hierarchical management structure functions, a person in a managerial position can be much more effective in how they get their team members to respond to their needs if they take a more human approach to what they are trying to accomplish. So, if you can exercise your leadership authority and not your managerial power to persuade someone, who works for you, to get them to respond to your needs as if they are responding to their own, then you have succeeded in persuading them to own that task. A leader influences by virtue of creating willing followership; a manager gets things done by ordering others around. You are an effective manager when you are able to get things done merely by virtue of your leadership authority! By applying this subtle shift in how you approach getting work done through those who report to you, you have mastered the necessary soft skill. If you understand this subtle difference then you have began to appreciate what the “soft skills” are all about.

The best demonstration of one’s soft skills comes from how they approach others when they want you to do something for them merely through the power of influence—and not authority. I often get Introduction requests when someone in my LinkedIn network wants me to connect them to a hiring manager I know. Even though the managerial job that they they are after specifically asks for “demonstrated soft skills,” their approach to how they go about this simple step in their pursuit of this opportunity betrays their lack of those very soft skills that they are expected to have!

For example, a request to me couched in a curt and peremptory tone as, “Can you introduce me to Dave? I want to apply for a job that he just posted.” I have many Daves (or another such very common name) in my LinkedIn network, so without any further context I have no clue who this Dave person is. I am not inclined to spend any more time on this request for a person I just know casually, and am likely to ignore such a request. But, if I decide to honor this request—because of my relationship with the requestor—by first researching, then finding this Dave person, and then forwarding this poorly drafted request to Dave Smith, VP at NetPlus Systems, he is not going to be impressed by the requestor’s soft skills, or lack thereof (because he has the ability to see the entire request chain).

If, instead, the requester had framed their request differently, e.g., “Dilip, I see that Dave Smith, VP of Development at NetPlus Systems is in your network. This is very fortuitous for me! He just posted a Director opening in his group. I am very interested in this position. So, can I impose on you to please forward my request for an Introduction to him? I’d really appreciate it if you do!”

If you can see the difference in tone between the two Introduction requests I’ve cited here, then you are well on your way to master the “soft skills” that are so much in need these days!

Good luck!

 

Posted in career growth, Career Tips, Interview Skills, Job Search, leadership, Life & Living, Mentoring, Office Behaviour | No Comments »

Some Thoughts for the New Year!

Jan 1st, 2012 by Dilip Saraf

 

“The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.”—Charles Du Bos, French critic and essayist (1882–1939)

Happy New Year!

As we embark on this New Year, I thought to use this space for some guidance to those who are still in the process of making resolutions for this New Year. This guidance comes from having worked with many clients over the years and how they have been able to advance their career by doing simple things; things that require some sacrifice, some discipline, and holding yourself accountable for your success!

  1. Take a stock of your career and evaluate if you are enjoying what you do, and what it will take to bring joy back in your work. Make a list of things that you need to change, including your job—even your career—to venture out to do something you always wanted to do! Learn how to wake up scared (in a good way) every morning! Remember, “The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.” – Mike Murdock
  2. Identify one thing that you would want to improve and find some ways to get on a routine: e.g., if you want to improve your communication skills find ways to learn to write better, speak effectively, and make presentations impactful. Find someone to help you with this on an ongoing basis. Nearly 90% of my clients come to me because I can help them express what they have on their mind better than they can.
  3. Find a mentor or coach who can provide you ongoing guidance in your career. Do not wallow in the state of “unconscious incompetence.” Almost everyone who comes to me for guidance tells me that they did not know what they did know before coming to me for making a change in their career and their life.
  4. Mentor someone. You learn so much more by mentoring others. It does not matter where you are in your life or in your career.
  5. Find out the joy of working on something that truly engages you. Even if a small part of your work allows you to get yourself lost in it, the rest of the drudgery in your job can make it bearable.

Good luck and have a great year!

Posted in career growth, Career Repositioning, Career Tips, Job Search, leadership, Life & Living | No Comments »

A Job Precisely Defined is Not Worth Doing!

Dec 24th, 2011 by Dilip Saraf

 

In a keynote, Seth Godin, a well-known marketing and leadership consultant spoke  (watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgKAuz_wsgA) about how we should put art in any job that we do. By art he meant an ability to have freedom to contribute something inspired, stemming from the creativity that freedom allows in a job.

What a great idea!

On the backdrop of this admonition a client of mine, who is an executive at a US-based company, which is now known for its draconian Asian culture , came to see me the other day and started telling me how his company, despite its huge global presence and its competitors from the Fortune-100 roster, merely dictates to him what he must do in his job on a day-to-day basis, with no latitude for any discretion. They dictate to him whom he should see in the customers’ companies, what he must say to them, and how long he should spend.

They also tell him what outcomes he is expected to bring regardless of the competitive landscape that the customer sees. He was embarrassed to tell me that because of the company’s policy to have “handlers” with him wherever he goes, he has no latitude in doing anything creative in his job, because his handlers immediately report everything to the company’s HQ brass! By being at this company my client has now surrendered himself to become its obedient servant. To quote Godin, Obedience does not get us better productivity it gets us better dogs!

How sad!

The bottom line of Godin’s message is that if we are engaged in a job that is so precisely defined that it does not allow for our creativity, then we should not stay in that job, no matter how well compensated! Because, if we stay engaged in such jobs—and I have clients, who are in such jobs, in varying degrees—then we are wasting our energies in the wrong direction, staying there. So, what was my advice to this client?: Find another job that allows you the freedom to create so that you become alive in what you do!

Actually, this client had called me a month into his new job little more than a year back when he first realized this. Since he had just started there I was reluctant to tell him to quit and to look for yet another job. Instead, I advised him to stick it out for a while, learn new skills, with an eye on how his résumé will have to look to make him marketable when he has reached a “yield” point in his job—when staying beyond this point would be to his detriment. It was clear after last week’s meeting that he was now at this point.

So, what is the lesson from this nightmarish experience in light of Godin’s admonition? Here is my take:

  1. Before you get into a new job, especially at a company with deep foreign roots and culture, do some rigorous due diligence to understand how you are expected to perform in that culture. Talk to current and past employees to get their perspective, research on-line (e.g. glassdoor.com), and carefully evaluate the cultural compatibility with your value set.
  2. Do not be seduced by the salary and other benefits that are offered to you, especially if they are too good to support your open market price.
  3. If you are not able to fully uncover what you are in for, and get into a job that becomes a nightmare, evaluate to see if you can stick it out long enough to improve your marketability. In the case of this client he was able to focus in on two areas that were new and in high demand, despite his lack of experience in these areas. But, because he was able to bend, his company allowed him to play in this new area—as long as he was able to follow their orders. Thus, within the year that he has suffered there, he was able to use that time to his advantage to improve his marketability. He was, thus, able to offset his robotic existence with his ability to learn a new skill that he badly needed.
  4. In a less draconian environment, see if you can identify something that is being ignored by your company, and try to make a case for pursuing it. If that pursuit is in an area that improves your marketability, as it happened in the case of my client, then you can use this opportunity to continue your learning until the time comes when you are able to make a move.
  5. Do not look at your place of work as an obedience school! Try finding avenues to express your “art” and demonstrate your creativity through subterfuge if you have to. In more forgiving companies such behavior is rewarded if they are able to see the benefit of your “subterfuge.”
  6. Always keep your eye on how your résumé is going to look next year and three years from now, no matter where you are. Depending on the job-market drivers identify a few skills that you must have on page-one of your résumé and work diligently to get them under your belt.
  7. Learn from even harsh experiences and try to find new meaning in what is available to you. Despite my client’s surprise at the beginning of his new job and his deep disappointment, he was able to regroup and reinvent himself by applying his energies in a new direction. You, too, can do that!

Good luck!

Posted in career growth, Career Repositioning, Career Tips, Interview Skills, Job Search, leadership, Life & Living, Mentoring, Office Behaviour | No Comments »

Ten Questions I Ask My Clients in Their New Job!

Dec 17th, 2011 by Dilip Saraf

A segment of my client pool is always after new jobs. Some land laterally because they want a change, others get a promotion, yet others want to go into a new area, and do not much care how that looks on their résumé. In any case when they land a new job I often get a call from them in about two or three months to check with me for my assessment of how they are doing in their new job and if they should have any cause for concern.

In all cases I listen to what they have to say first, and then ask them to look at the following 10 questions. After their review of these questions I reconnect with them (by phone or in-person) to go over their responses—orally. Their honest responses tell me much about their potential success in their new job.

Here are these 10 questions:

  1. What surprised you in your new job in the first few weeks (something that did not surface during the interview process)?
  2. What is going really well?
  3. What is going off track that needs immediate attention?
  4. What one thing can you do that will define your leadership in the next 3-6 months? (my note: This question applies to everyone, even an individual contributor!)
  5. Now that you know the place better, what is that you really want to be and do there?
  6. What are you doing well that is helping you get there?
  7. What are you not doing well that is preventing you from getting there?
  8. What will you do differently on your next day at work to change that?
  9. How and where can I help?
  10. Where do you need most help (even if I cannot provide that help)?

Depending on how my client responds to these questions, one at a time, I form an opinion of how well situated they are in the new job and what they need to do to improve their engagement, value, and their enjoyment in their new job. Once I hear their responses, I provide them with a success score (#/100) that tells them how well they are likely to do in their new job going forward. I also tell them what they can do to improve the score. This change that they need to make includes improving their job skills, their relationships with key stakeholders, and also their attitude in how they are engaged in their job, among other things. Once I have a good sense that the client is able to make these changes in their new job I ask them to stay on track with these changes and call me in a few months to check again if there is any change in any of the areas of interest.

In some cases the score is low to begin with and the client is less enthusiastic about turning things around, even during the early stages of their new job. When the follow-up call (about 4-6 months into their new job) does not show much progress in their scores, I tell them that they need to consider a change, either within their own company or outside. My view is that when you are not properly engaged in your job and you are not able to turn things around to make them better, it is time to move on to something different and better than to delude yourself with the hope that things will somehow change—as some clients often think. They rarely change on their own accord for one, and if there is a basic mismatch in the job, they do not, even with a major effort on the client’s part. So, when this happens it is best to cut your losses and to move on to other opportunities.

I hope that you look at your own job and ask some tough questions about how you are engaged in your job and decide if you’re better off making a change to improve your own situation.

Good luck!

 

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Posted in career growth, Career Repositioning, Career Tips, Interview Skills, Job Search, leadership, Life & Living, Mentoring, Office Behaviour | No Comments »

Climbing the Executive Ladder!

Dec 11th, 2011 by Dilip Saraf

I have several clients, who are quite ambitious and who are working on their career growth with singular focus. Some have gone up from being a senior manager to being a director, others have rapidly progressed from a first-level manager to a vice president, and are continuing to look for their ongoing growth.

In many cases, where the growth has been rapid, I notice a certain “drag effect.” This effect comes from my clients’ inability to let go of the behaviors that worked for them well in their past roles, but are now getting in their way for further growth. As one progresses through the management ranks, how they are measured to assess their readiness for promotion to their next level changes at each level. There is also a phrase that has been coined to describe an executive’s effectiveness in their role and to define their readiness to move to the next level. Some call it executive intelligence, others, executive presence. The reason for this blog is to articulate some characteristics of this attribute and to provide guidance for those, who are ambitious enough to embrace this advice.

Executive intelligence or executive presence is an attribute that allows a person to think beyond their raw intelligence (IQ) and indulge in a realm of critical thinking to grasp and understand concepts that are difficult to logically synthesize. For example, a person with good executive intelligence is able to see things that are not obvious to others and articulate a point of view that makes others think differently; to see around the bends in a way differently than others.

Raw IQ is helpful in making arguments, developing ideas, and in debating a point with others, but translating those ideas into results is something that requires a very different skill. Executive intelligence or executive presence is understanding the difference between the two, and using it to mold your ongoing behavior to be seen as someone ready for their next promotion. So, what are some of the key attributes for being seen as ready for your next executive role? Here is my partial list:

  1. Self-awareness: As you grow inside an organization how you are coming across to others and what is expected of you to be seen as a worthy member of the club of your peers is a good start. While you are at it positioning yourself as someone, who is exhibiting the behaviors and traits at a level above you will help you accelerate your advancement to that next level.
  2. Building relationships: As your stature rises in your organization, you are increasingly exposed to political shenanigans. One way to deal with organizational politics is to always do great work (a’ la deliver what is expected of you, and then some) AND to manage key relationships. So, if you foresee any resistance to your ideas, do not have a showdown in a big meeting to win the battle, but anticipate this and meet in-person to win them over beforehand. Socialize your agenda well before it gets in the psyche of others at some major event.
  3. Learning to conceptualize: As one gets promoted to greater responsibilities it becomes nearly impossible to keep track of details. Learn how to conceptualize complexity and how to articulate that in simple, elegant way. Verbalizing such concepts is one of the most difficult—and rare—executive skills. It is also a learned skill. Yet another skill that goes well with this ability to conceptualize is to learn how to be laconic, especially in meetings with your seniors.
  4. Anticipate: One of the key requirements of senior executives is to be able to see around the bends and to create a compelling, cogent point of view. In many instances this ability is what saves a company from economic ruin and keeps it ahead of its competitors. Having a track record of progressively showing yourself as a winner, who can anticipate what is coming, and then delivering on that vision is a prerequisite for executive success.
  5. Inspiring Teams: Bringing on board great talent, inspiring them to act, and empowering them to take risks and succeed is one of the most coveted executive skills. So, show that you have built a great team that can deliver and that can come through regardless of what challenges you face. Also, knowing how to manage such teams to keep them engaged and loyal to you is also a critical executive skill.

By no means this list is complete. It is a good start to inventory your executive skills and to assess if you are ready for your next executive promotion.

Good luck!

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Posted in career growth, Career Repositioning, Career Tips, Enterpreneurship, Interview Skills, leadership, Life & Living, Mentoring, Office Behaviour | 4 Comments »

Managing Your Career Life-Cycle!

Dec 3rd, 2011 by Dilip Saraf

I’ve been a career and life coach for 10 years now. During this, my fifth career, I have worked with over 5,000 clients globally, and have come to realize that there is a life cycle to a professional’s career. These days a person can experience multiple careers during their working life, quite different from those from the previous generation, who went through just one career, but multiple jobs in that career. Nearly 50 years ago people then went through their entire life working for just one company, often in just one job.

During my life I’ve been laid-off three times and I have re-invented myself each time—and then some, with four re-inventions to my credit so far. In managing a career life cycle I have identified seven stages in which this cycle completes itself. So, as I work through my fifth career, here is some learning that I’d like to impart to those, who are equally adventurous about how to best manage each of the seven stages:

  1. End of life of one career: There are many telltale signs that you are at the end of your current career: losing interest in your work (not just your job); inability to compete with the new-generation of your counterparts; planning your weekends at work on Monday mornings, etc. When you enter this stage in your job you must assess if it is the job or the career that you are in that is causing this angst. At the first sense of becoming aware of this condition, you must act quickly, instead of going into denial over it (a common reaction). Either you must seek expert help, or find ways to bootstrap your own re-invention to transition yourself into your next career. This is one of the hardest conditions to detect (because of our ability to go into denial over it, coupled with your overconfidence in your ability for a re-invention), and also one of the hardest decisions to make to leave behind what has been your comfort zone so far.
  2. Transition Period: If you want to make a successful transition into a new career you must start actively thinking about a new career, well before you become a job—or even a career—zombie, which involves doing your job even without putting any effort into it. As you slowly devolve–even degenerate–from being “in” your job to being “on” it, you have successfully transitioned into the zombie state. You must plan to undertake your transition into a new career before you become a zombie, if you want to transition successfully into a new career. If you’ve allowed yourself to become a zombie for too long, you may not be able to transition successfully. This also applies when you are out of work.
  3. Re-invention: The key to a good re-invention is your ability to fashion and verbalize a new marketing message (your Unique Selling Proposition, or USP) and use that as a platform to become a strong candidate in a market that is new to you. There are several strategies that can be effectively applied to making this re-invention with speed and efficiency. Creating a coherent brand around your new USP is one of the most challenging undertakings during this process. Yet, it is not as hard as it may appear.
  4. Marketing Your New Message: Marketing a new message requires an understanding of your new audience and targeting of your message using multiple channels (résumé, LinkedIn, and other social media), including your business card. There are several ways to accelerate this brand building, but without this momentum it is difficult to transition into your new career in a seamless way.
  5. Engagement in Your New Career: Most people underestimate what it takes to get traction in your new career. My own experience with myself, and working with my clients, whom I helped in their re-invention, is that you should allow yourself about three years establishing your new brand in your changed career, so that you are seen as a veteran in that space. In my current career, it took me about that time before potential clients started coming to me for paid advice. As you get ensconced in your new career you must also take some key actions to keep your brand fresh and relevant.
  6. Managing Your New Career: As with any endeavor, managing your new career takes diligence, proactive actions, and a learning mind-set. Here, too, there are several strategies (now obvious) that have worked for me and for my clients. Although this is not rocket science, you must be prepared to experiment and learn what works best for you and for your new career.
  7. Getting Ready for Your Next Career: Once you have gone through the first career-change cycle, transitioning into the second and subsequent career avatars get easier. One thing you learn here is how to best use the available “runway” to make a seamless transition. My hardest transition, which I did on my own, was when I was laid-off as head of engineering at a high-tech company at 48. I did not know anything else then (nearly 22 years back), and career coaching as a profession did not exist as it does today. So, bootstrapping was the only way I was able to transition into my second career, and three others from then on. But, as you learn how to do this, it gets easier.

In today’s economy everyone must learn how to re-invent for themselves (with help as they need it), and to get into a brand-new area of economic activity. Retirement at 65 is also no longer an option for many because of a variety of circumstances. So, learning to re-invent yourself, while you are in prime of your professional life is the best countermeasure for a long-lasting professional life.

Good luck!

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Posted in career growth, Career Repositioning, Career Tips, Enterpreneurship, Interview Skills, Job Search, leadership, Life & Living, Mentoring | 3 Comments »

Demystifying Job Interviews

Nov 27th, 2011 by Dilip Saraf

When clients get a call for a job interview I strongly suggest that they work with me for practicing their interviewing skills. There is so much riding on how well you do in an interview that most underestimate its real importance. They also think that merely working hard on giving the right answers, especially in their area of technical expertise, will get them the job offer they are seeking.

Wrong!

Although one reason for an interview is to check you out and to evaluate the depth of your knowledge in the technical—or management—area of the job you are seeking, the main reason is to evaluate how well you fit in with the culture of the company and how well you work with the team that is part of your working group in your potential place of work. I say this because many of my clients, who come to me after an interview, bragging about how well they answered all the technical questions that were posed to them, are flummoxed by the rejection they get when the recruiter calls them and tells them that they have found a “stronger” candidate. I have to explain to my clients that “stronger” does not merely mean a candidate, who has better knowledge of that particular area, but it means someone with a better fit for that job.

Let me explain:

There are five factors that are important in a selection process as a result of a job interview. They are listed below with the percentage weight assigned to each:

Technical (or managerial) expertise (30%)

Chemistry and Compatibility (25%)

Attitude (25%)

Risk (10%)

Salary (10%)

The percentages for each factor are anecdotal based on my personal experience with thousands of data points. Let us look at each factor and what they mean to you and your interview.

  1. Technical or Managerial Expertise: This is the main reason a company is hiring you—your expertise. So, if you are going in for an interview as a Marketing Analytics expert in the consumer web business, make sure that you are equipped with the latest knowledge of that area.
  2. Chemistry and Compatibility: This item has to do with how well you get along the hiring team, and the hiring manager in particular. Although there is no set way to prepare for this item, using some of the psychological principles of body language, communication (eye-contact, for example), and confidence (not cockiness) can help you better deal with some of the issues that can come up on this front. Having a conversational exchange, instead of subjecting yourself to an interrogation, also helps on this front.
  3. Attitude: This item takes on the same weight as the previous one. Attitude is important because it will project you in a way that will amplify your positive attributes. Having an upbeat attitude in an interview creates a positive energy during the interview process, which can help you overcome some of the glitches that are inevitable in any interview. Projecting a positive attitude is important in acing an interview.
  4. Risk: This is a factor that a hiring manager is concerned about. This risk can stem from your not staying at the new company long enough to make it worth their while to offer you a job. Recruiters and hiring managers look at this risk based on your chronology (and gaps) from your résumé. They look for both, the risk of inertia (staying too long) and risk of job-hopping (not staying long enough at one place). In the case of one client, who was at a consulting company for almost 10 years a young high-tech company withdrew its original offer when that company’s CEO felt that the candidate had stayed at one company too long, and was hence risk averse.
  5. Salary is an important factor when all else is equal. If your salary is too low at your current place, the prospect employer may find you not ready for the level of responsibilities that the open job offers. If it is too high then they may be unwilling to match it, or wonder if you will stay in the job after accepting a lower salary.

The above factors are not all-inclusive, but provide a good glimpse of what factors go into making a hiring decision. Knowing how these factors play out in a job interview may help you present yourself in the proper light so that your chances of getting that job offer are protected. There are also ways to deal with some of these factors by being aware of them and then by neutralizing them with specific strategies.

Good luck!

 

Posted in career growth, Career Tips, Enterpreneurship, Interview Skills, Job Search, Life & Living, Mentoring | No Comments »

How Gen-Z Will Transform Our Workplace!

Nov 20th, 2011 by Dilip Saraf

Over the past 50 or so years each generation has helped our workplace turn into a better environment in which to work. In the mid 1900s people worked at one place, which was run more like a military unit, and retired from there at the end of their career. Then came the boomer generation (those born between 1946 and 1964), who for the first time experienced the vicissitudes of the economy and how that affected the workplace; layoffs became part of the job-market lexicon. The next generation of the workforce, Gen-X (1965–1980)—also called the Me Generation—became more resilient and became more immune to the workplace loyalty ethos, turning their focus on their own economic needs. Then came the Gen-Y (1988–2001), also known as the Millennials, which came of age during the Internet era.

The Generation-Z (born in the 1990s) will represent a major shift in their workplace attitudes. Although they will be entering the workplace in the decade ahead, they represent radically different ideas of how they want to work and what they want to get out of it. A recent study (of 2,800 college students and young professionals conducted in 14 countries) published in the 2011 Cisco Connected World Technology Report reveals some interesting and radical shifts in how the coming generation of workers look at work and at the places that will employ them:

  1. A majority—56%—of college students expressed that if they encountered a company that banned access to social media they would either not accept the job offer of would join and find a way to circumvent corporate policy.
  2. Nearly a third of the respondents under 30 said social media freedom and workplace mobility were important than salary—a major shift from the Millennials’ mindset.
  3. Nearly 25% of the college students expressed their unwillingness to accept a job from a company that has restrictive social media policies.
  4. In India and China more than 80% of young survey respondents expected that their primary work device should be mobile—a laptop, a smart phone, or a tablet.
  5. More than 70% also say that they want to be out of the office regularly, working remotely.
  6. Almost the same percentage of college student respondents also said that they did not want to differentiate between “personal devices” and exclusively work-related devices. This implies that company issued devices should be allowed for personal and business use because of the blending of work and personal communication in their daily lifestyle.

The reason these findings are significant is because, to attract the new generation of workers, employers must consider providing this environment to ALL its employees, not just the new comers. If these changes happen during the next 10 years—and they will—many of the commonly held beliefs about how we work will slowly diminish. Concepts such as work-life integration, telecommuting, and separation of personal and company IP will take on a whole different meaning in tomorrow’s workplace.

Despite these radical workplace changes that will be inevitable for employers in the decades to come, what will not change, though, is how each employee will create value at their company and how that company will deliver that value to the end customer and its investor. What this means to everyone is that unless they see these newly evolving work-place freedoms as enablers of value creation for their company and for their company’s customers and investors, the age-old rules of retaining those employees who contribute the greatest value to their company will still apply, and, in many ways, nothing will really change!

Thank goodness for that!

Posted in career growth, Career Repositioning, Career Tips, Enterpreneurship, Job Search, Life & Living, Office Behaviour | No Comments »

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