I am currently coaching several leaders who wish to make major changes in their careers, for example:
- A former corporate Marketing VP wants to leverage his market insight, Big Brand product management, strategy and ‘category first’ expertise into building a different type of marketing consulting practice
- A senior executive decided to research and ‘try on’ two interrelated roles and make a decision on moving efficiently into one or both roles
- A Global Business Consultant with excellent competitor analysis and developing and emerging (D&E) markets expertise needs to revise her business model by creating new options based on social media re-positioning and constructing new strategic alliances
- An executive with a sought-after professional expertise wants to move from a private consultancy to a larger firm or private company
- A senior manager who is in an economically unhealthy company wants to move to a larger role in a healthy company with future career growth opportunities
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It’s been a bit of a wobbly start to 2012 for the UK economy and the job market as a whole. Unemployment among 18-25 year olds is the highest it’s been for decades and industry mutterings such as “graduates without existing work experience have
little or no chance of receiving a job offer in an organization’s graduate program” can’t be helping the confidence levels of recent grads. Thankfully, we know that fresh graduates are an optimistic and resilient bunch who aren’t easily discouraged! Still, it is worth recapping the news to allow us to understand the current situation better:
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A great question to ask yourself as the year begins is this:"What is ONE THING that I am NOT currently doing that if I BEGAN doing it REGULARLY would have the biggest positive impact on my success at work this year?"
What is IT for you? Think about it. Write it down. Then....begin doing it on Monday. At a minimum, TRY IT for the next 30 days .... and see what happens!
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Posted on Jan 20, 2012 under
Career Development & Management by
Andy Robinson.
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C-suite executives can often feel alone and ill-equipped
when it comes to managing their careers. As a Chief X Officer, who can they
trust? Who can help guide them through the myriad challenges in managing
high-profile career transitions? Who can assist them in leveraging the
intricacies of social media while effectively managing digital identities? Who
can help them build the [...]
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Day 20 of 31 days to Creating Your Inspiring Personal Plan for 2012
Congratulations, you are coming into the home stretch of this 31 day/step process for building a personal plan that will accelerate your success in 2012. I am delighted that you are among that small minority of the population who have the discipline to take the steps that bring success.
Your commitment to this process speaks volumes about what you should be able to achieve in 2012 with the benefit of your thoughtful plan.
Today’s task is one of the most important that you will be doing in the entire 31 day/step process. In this task, you will be choosing from among the many potential strategies you developed over the last week using a variety of techniques. I will be giving you some guidance as to ways to optimize your selection. But before I do so, I want to again remind you of the silent killer of so much potential – perfectionism. If you didn’t read it when first presented, I strongly urge you to
read this excellent quik-read guest post on perfectionism by the very thoughtful Janet Vanderhoof.
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I write a lot of articles on the topics of effective leadership strategies and out-of-the-box career management and career transformation methods. I have written about the ‘how tos’ and the ‘whys’ but I have not addressed the ‘what”.
So let’s go back to the beginning.
What is strategy?
In his book,
Crafting Strategy, Dr. Bob Frost notes most strategy theorists agree that “strategy differs from long-range planning…”
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Posted on Jan 18, 2012 under
Career Development & Management by
Christine Glasco.
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1. Fear of being your own boss: You have no choice to face this fear, because it is right there already. You are your own boss, whether you like it or not. Due to the trend of shrinking job tenure, everyone needs to think about what their next step is going to be, on a regular and strategic basis. Long gone is the lifetime career working for “the Man”. People need to consider not just one, but multiple sources of income and manage their career like a business. As such you need to become your own Chief Marketing officer.
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At age 88
Betty White had a leading role in the TV show
Hot in Cleveland, a memorable
Snickers commercial that first aired during the Superbowl, and a guest host spot on
Saturday Night Live. And in the two years that have followed, Bette White continues to be everywhere and the job offers don’t seem to be slowing down. Today is Betty White’s 90th birthday and she’s still working. And I think this is a testament to her relevance. Her age hasn’t held her back because she continues to be able to play roles that people young and old can relate to and appreciate.
In job search, people sometimes assume that they will be discriminated against because of their age. But I think that some candidates get passed up for others because they lack relevance. Maybe they don’t mesh well with the culture of a company with a demographic that skews younger, or their management style isn’t in sync with the needs of their younger subordinates. Perhaps their skills aren’t up to date or they are resistant to incorporate relevant social media and collaborative web-based project management tools into the way they do their job.
Perhaps we can all take a lesson from Bette White. Because whether you are 25, 35, 45, 55, or older you won’t be the right person for the job if you can’t prove you are relevant to a prospective employer’s needs.
Check out my earlier
tribute to Betty White and
5 tips for remaining relevant in your career on
AOL Jobs.
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Last Tuesday I presented at a networking event for local job seekers. There were 3 other career coach-types (technically I’m not a coach, but hey…let’s just call them coaches for this article to make things simple) talking to groups of 2 to 5 people at a time for about 15 minutes.
One was doing resume reviews, the other was talking about working with recruiters, and I was teaching about personal branding.
Every 15 minutes, the people at each table would migrate over to the next coach. It was kind of like speed dating, but for job seekers.
During one of my conversations, I was asked this question:
There are so many career coaches and job search programs out there, how do I know which one to hire? Is it even worth it?
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You can find numerous different opinions on the importance and value of education to your career success. Unscientifically, I’d say the weight of opinion probably favors having a college degree–preferably at least a bachelor’s and in some cases a master’s degree. If you already have a bachelor’s degree, you’re not necessarily home-free, but you probably are well ahead of most of those people who don’t have one. This aspect of career management deserves thoughtful attention, because it can have a major effect on your future, both financially and in terms of your marketability to employers as a professional.
Unemployment rates for non-college graduates versus college graduates
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