Career Coach eNewsletter
Issue No. 11 February 2003
Brought to you by the Careers International: "Helping you take your career to the next level.- internationally."
Web site: http://www.careersnet.com
Editor: Margaret Stead, margaret@careersnet.com
Subscribers: 1301 copies, worldwide
Welcome to this issue of Career Coach - a free newsletter for those interested in using coaching to improve their career performance. Please share this newsletter with colleagues and contacts who will benefit from reading it.
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CONTENTS
- EDITORIAL: You've Got Mail?
- JOB HUNTING NOTES: Your Career Planning Calendar
- AUTHOR’S NOTE: Job Hunting Secrets Revealed - Blogging!
- CAREER TIP: SMART Goals
- SUCCESS STORY: How to Get Ahead - Free Lunch
- RECRUITMENT: Many Happy Returns
- CAREER TIP: Coaching & Feedback - Post-it Note on Your Pay Slip?
- JUST FOR A LAUGH! What Not to Put on Your CV! (Part 2)
: You've Got Mail?
Subject: God's E-mail
One day God was looking down at Earth and saw all of the rascally behaviour that was going on. He decided to send an angel down to Earth to check it out.
So he called one of His angels and sent the angel to Earth for a time. When he returned, he told God, "Yes, it is bad on Earth; 95% are misbehaving and 5% are not."
God thought for a moment and said, "Maybe I had better send down a second angel to get another opinion." So God called another angel and sent him to earth for a time too.
When the angel returned he went to God and said, "Yes, it's true - the earth is in decline; 95% are misbehaving and 5% are being good."
God was not pleased. So He decided to E-mail the 5% that were good, because He wanted to encourage them.
Give them a little something to help them keep going.
Do you know what that E-mail said?
No?
I didn't get one either
Your Career Planning Calendar
February is a good time to get to know yourself better. If you are thinking about entering the job market you must remember that it is just that 'a market'. You will be 'selling' yourself into a marketplace and as every good salesman will tell you to be able to sell successfully you need to 'Know thy product,' and that product is 'YOU.'
Take some time out to do some assessment of your skills, interests, personality and values and make some SMART goals. (see article in this issue) You can invest in a career coaching programme for yourself and use the skills of your coach to identify your own and where they will take you.
If you've started a career journal (as I suggested in January) you can start tracking your accomplishments in your current job and brainstorming achievements from your past jobs and education. One way to do it, is to think back to your first day in your last job. What were the problems you faced? What did you do about them? What skills did you use? What were the results?
This information will be vital, not just for your CV or portfolio of achievements but so that you can clearly describe yourself to prospective employers.
If your plans involve relocating for a new job or career, now's the time to start planning the move. You've decided it's time for a fresh start in a new location. But how do you go about landing a job in a new locale when your current location is far from your destination? Some tips:
Identify the city, cost of living, climate & culture
Develop a strategy, plan at least two trips, exploratory/interviews
Research job opportunities - major employers/Chambers of Commerce/university leads
Target companies and network with people who know them or know of them
Ask for referrals and go and talk to them.
Contact Kathryn Kelly for a coaching programme of your own. develop@careersnet.com or call +44 1564 779932/0845 130 4344 UK Locall)
Job Hunting Secrets Revealed
"Conversation is an art in which a man has all mankind for competitors."
Join me now in a conversation online, about jobs, careers, life, moccachinos etc using my new weblog at http://www.careersnet.blogspot.com
I'm still very much of a novice at 'blogging' so email me with your thoughts on margaret@careersnet.com
SMART Goals
"One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. Which road do I take? she asked. Where do you want to go? Was his response. I don't know, Alice answered. Then, said the cat, it doesn't matter." ~ Lewis Carroll ~
It amazes me how deep inside a child's fairy tale we can find a statement as profound as the one from the Cheshire cat. We can very easily wander through life without ever setting goals or planning our life. That seems like a very easy going and relaxing way to approach life. While this might seem to be the "easy way out" I believe it's an extremely risky choice and it's also the path to mediocrity. If we really want to realize our dreams and live our ideal life, we need to do a good job planning the steps necessary to make them happen.
While having goals is certainly better than not having goals, having SMART goals takes the process one step further. As I discuss the meaning of SMART goals, let's use an example of someone saying "I want to get my body better conditioned by starting to exercise". This is certainly an excellent goal, but there really isn't enough "meat" there to insure a reasonable level of success. Let's rework this statement into a SMART goal. SMART is an acronym meaning:
S - Specific. The more detailed your goals, the more likely they are to happen. There should be enough detail in the goal that the action to accomplish the goal is defined. Looking at our example, how does this person know when they are in better shape? What are they going to do to improve in this area? This initial goal is too vague.
M - Measurable. How is this person going to know when and if they are in better condition? Will they monitor their weight, their waistline, running times, blood pressure, etc? Any and/or all of these are legitimate things to measure. We need to decide what we want to measure from the start so we can track the improvement as we go. Seeing the improvement over time will be the main incentive to continue through to the end.
A - Advertise. The more visible your goal, the more likely you are to succeed. This step is two pronged. First make your goal highly visible to yourself. Hang something in a spot where you'll see it every day. I like to use a chart where I plot my actual performance against my plan or you can just have a few words on a sheet of paper reminding you of your goal. The second prong is having your friends help. The more people you tell about your goal, the more people will ask "How are you doing?", and the more likely you will stay with the program so you don't have to report disappointing results. This is where having a personal coach is very effective. A good coach will hold you accountable to your goals.
R - Relative. This step means not setting goals that are counterproductive to other things in your life. Most examples of this are highly unusual, but by way of an example it wouldn't be a good idea for a sumo wrestler to go on a diet trying to lose weight, or on the flip side a ballet dancer wouldn't want to start lifting weights with the intent of bulking-up with muscle.
T - Time based. Very simply, you need to give yourself a deadline. I believe this is the most important factor in making your goal a success. If you are too aggressive in setting your goal, you'll likely not succeed and end-up abandoning the plan before you get to the end. Conversely, if you are too conservative the results might be too slow in happening to keep you motivated throughout your plan. Success breeds success. I'm slightly conservative in my planning so I have a high probability of succeeding while still seeing the results that I want.
Now to summarize, let's take that initial plan of "getting their body into better condition" and make that into a SMART goal. The SMART goal would be something like: "I'm going to improve my conditioning by getting to a point that I can run (Specific) a 5K road race in under 30 minutes (Measurable) by March 1, 2003 (Time based). I will chart my progress on a graph that will be posted on my cupboard door for myself and my family to see (Advertise). Accomplishing this goal will improve my conditioning for playing tennis in the winter tennis league (Relative)."
Now that you know what SMART goals are I invite you to try this approach on one goal or resolution from the past that you haven't been successful with. See for yourself if using SMART goals improves your chances of success!
Jack Cronin, Plainville, MA USA http://www.JackCoaching@aol.com
Jack Cronin is a successful personal coach whose motivation is to help each client turn their dreams into reality and live their ideal life.
How Not To Get Ahead!
Our congratulations go to Rebecca who has landed herself a plum role as HR Director for a global aerospace company and VP - International HR. We are truly thrilled, not only because it means she can keep her horses in the manner to which they have become accustomed but she can also continue to run one of the best joke mailing lists we know!
Rebecca is one of the senior operational and organisational HR professionals who have agreed to take part in a steering forum/committee to advise us in the development of a new web site for corporate HR.
The attractions of taking part are that participants will get wined and dined in 'opulent' style, whilst only being obliged to make the occasional 'You could do this' comment. If you feel that you are not getting enough lunches and that your opinion should be sort on services for HR practitioners, then please send us a blank email with 'HUNGRY' in the subject line and a name/title/contact telephone number in the big blank space. develop@careersnet.com or call +44 1564 779932/0845 130 4344 UK Locall)
Many Happy Returns
What return do you get when you invest in a new employee?
Taking on a new member of staff -especially someone in a senior position - can be a costly gamble yet few businesses actually stop to work out the likely return on their investment.
We all say how important our human resources are to our business but when, for example, we recruit a salesperson who's not up to the job, we don't go on to quantify the true cost of this mistake.
On top of the time and trouble of taking on the salesperson in the first place - and then the cost of finding a replacement - has to be added the price in lost turnover and missed opportunities for business growth. It mounts up surprisingly quickly.
No-one would open an office, roll out a new application or buy software without knowing - not thinking, guessing, wishing or hoping but knowing -they were getting a return on their investment.
To do otherwise is bad business - but in recruitment, it happens all the time.
Recruitment consultant Clive Wadelin, of Solihull-based Careers International, says there is no other area of business where so much money is spent with so little accountability.
Somehow, recruitment has flown under the radar, but businesses are becoming more answerable to shareholders for these decisions.
It's not surprising. A survey in the Financial Times last year found that 90 per cent of companies were increasing the emphasis on the importance of human capital while 68 per cent said their recruitment budgets would rise as well.
But it is possible to meet the growing need for good people - and the right good people - without dramatically increasing your budget. By recruiting more effectively.
David Wallwork, managing director of Bunzl Retail Supplies, has sampled this return on investment that recruitment requires " "It includes the cost of doing the recruitment, of it going wrong, going through the whole process again if the preferred candidate doesn't actually turn up for work on day one. There is a one-in-six chance of an employee leaving in the first two months, bringing further costs in lost productivity, lower staff-morale and lack of continuity."
This is where Clive's approach comes into its own, because so often it's not wisdom first hand. He says: "We knew there were significant costs in employee acquisition, in quantifiable terms and in softer terms.
Working out the return on investment in relation to recruitment can be complicated, which is why few people ever do it. But Clive Wadelin says businesses need to make sure new staff will contribute to the achievement of the business goals to justify the cost of recruitment. "Establishing the employees. If they cannot fit into the team and culture, no matter how competent they may seem, they are rarely the right candidate for your business.
At Careers International we take time to understand your goals and identify the tight people-mix for you business and pinpoint any shortfalls. "I will work with you to identify your people needs, position the job in the overall market context, advertise and search for candidates and then select them using proprietary psychometrics that work." Clive will then write a report on each short-listed candidate, looking at how they would help to improve profits and - importantly - how they would fit into the existing team. This is where Clive's approach comes into its own, because so often it's not just a question of recruiting someone with the right qualifications but someone who will add to the drive and direction of your existing employees. If they cannot fit into the team and culture, no matter how competent they may seem, they are rarely the right candidate for your business.
"Over the years, I have had a chance to measure the success of Clive's methods and there is no doubt it has had a major impact on the businesses I've led because he has ensured we get a good return on our investment in recruitment," says David Wallwork.
Given the shortage of good people and the increasing need to make every head count, failing to measure the effectiveness of the recruitment process is a sure way to cripple a business - " A return on investment audit of the recruitment process is one of the best tools a business has to ensure that quality is being delivered," says Clive.
If you need someone who is a good fit for your business, contact Clive on 0845 130 4344 (UK Locall) or +44 (0) 1564 779932 or email
Coaching & Feedback - Post-It Note on Your Pay Slip!
"The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated."
I remember going to visit a Footsie 50 company some years ago and as I walked into the HR Department the new chief of operations said to me "What is it today, Margaret? Carrot or stick, carrot or stick? I had to work pretty hard to stop an unattractive expression appearing on my face and as the French Minister said recently about a remark by Donald Rumsfield on 'Old Empires' - "The answer should normally have contained a swear word."
Years ago managers were taught that motivating people was a case of rewarding them for good actions and punishing them for bad actions. Now we know that human motivation is far more complex than this. People respond to a variety of motivators but the one common denominator seems to be that people want feedback on how they are doing.
Thus:
People want to know that they are making a difference.
People like to see the results of their efforts.
People want respect and acknowledgement.
People want to have say in the decision-making process.
People want to learn and grow.
"I praise loudly, I blame softly."
If you can include these motivators in your operation you can create the basic conditions needed for a 'coaching environment'. The important characteristics of the coaching environment include:
Freely given feedback that is constructive and appreciative
A coaching mentality amongst leaders
A caring and supportive environment
When I ask people to think back and recall the person who has been most influential in their lives, this is how they describe the environment and the way they got their feedback.
Think about your personal situation. Do you give your colleagues enough appreciative feedback? If not, why not? What's stopping you doing it more often - if it's just a thank you post-it note on their pay slip?
JUST FOR A LAUGH! What not to put on your CV2!
‘S/He deserves Paradise who makes his companions laugh.’ Koran
These are some (allegedly) real-life examples:
Disposed of £2.5 million in assets.
My intensity and focus are at inordinately high levels, and my ability to complete projects on time is unspeakable.
Education: Curses in liberal arts, curses in computer science, curses in accounting.
Personal: Married, 1992 Chevrolet.
I have an excellent track record, although I am not a horse.
Exposure to German for two years, but many words are not appropriate for business.
Proven ability to track down and correct erors.
I have become completely paranoid, trusting completely nothing and absolutely no one.
References: None, I've left a path of destruction behind me.
Don't take the comments of my former employer too seriously they were unappreciative beggars and slave drivers.
I am loyal to my employer at all costs. Please feel free to respond to my CV on my office voice-mail.
Qualifications: No education or experience.
Accomplishments: Oversight of entire department.
Extensive background in Accounting: I can also stand on my head.
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If you enjoyed this newsletter, you might also enjoy Corporate Coach for senior executives and teams in organisations interested in using coaching to improve corporate performance.
Be sure to visit the Careersnet web site at http://www.careersnet.com
We hope you enjoyed this issue of Career Coach. If you would like to learn more about how we can work together, then please contact me, Margaret Stead:
Telephone: +44 (0) 845 130 4344 E-mail: margaret@careersnet.com
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