Passport to International Career Success

Cited In CareerJournal.com

Cited in Wall Street Journal's CareerJournal.com as an expert resource on the differences between résumés and CVs. Here is the link to the article:

http://www.careerjournal.com/jobhunting/resumes/20060502-caverly.html?cjpos=home_whatsnew_major

Why make networking a priority

So you have a networking meeting. You have known about it for at least three weeks if not longer because it is always on the same weekday of the month every month. Yet, you hesitate to sign up because something else may come up. Or you sign up and then cancel. After all, it is just another meeting. There will be another one next month. Are you really sure about that? Because if everyone takes this attitude, there will be no network.

Your network cannot sustain you unless you sustain your network.

A basic rule of networking is that when you join, it should be with the attitude of what you can contribute to your network not how much business can I get out of the network. Regular attendance is required in order for

 

1. the membership to know what you look like (people like to associate a face with a name)
2. the membership knows what you are about (by attending on a regular basis, you can get your message across so that people remember it; this is part of your brand)
3. the membership sees your generosity (e.g. bringing referrals to others) and what you contribute to the network (visibility – part of your brand)

In return, you will be educated by the various speakers and the interaction with other members. This will automatically generate business for you. Networking is how you sustain your brand, what you are known for. It is a vital part of getting your message out. So make it a priority from now on.

 

Myriam-Rose Kohn

Certified Personal Brand Strategist

Landing and Thriving in the Global Workplace

Myriam-Rose Kohn will be speaking on Landing and Thriving in the Global Workplace at the annual conference of the Career Management Alliance. The conference will be held in San Antonio, Texas, this year from April 29 through May 1. To attend, please sign up at www.careermanagementalliance.com.  You may also contact me by calling 661-253-0801 or by emailing me at myriam-rose@jedaenterprises.com.

Why You Need to Be a Career Activist

"Here's a sobering truth for all of you out there who are happily employed: if you're not looking for your next job, you're probably looking at a period of forced unemployment," states Peter Weddle.

When you consider the average tenure of a CEO is now less than four years, there is reason for concern. In the wake of the CEO fiascos from Enron, WorldCom and Hewlett Packard, loyal employees were left without jobs, companies had to cut budgets or file bankruptcy after paying out big severance packages and hundreds of innocent employees were left in financial distress. Weddle says that in 2006, 14% of the world's largest companies fired their CEOs for lousy performance. What this means to employees is that no matter how much hard work and dedication you put in, there is no job security.

How can you protect yourself in such an environment? Weddle says, "Become a "career activist," defining him/her as is someone who:

*sets the direction for their career (by identifying near-, mid- and longer-term goals that are interesting, challenging and meaningful to them); and

*initiates the specific actions (e.g., finding a mentor, acquiring a certain kind of experience, learning new skills) that will enable them to make steady progress toward and actually accomplish those goals. A career activist, then, is in charge of the change in their career, rather than its victim.

In Weddle's analysis, job seekers are under the control of those who hire the, while career activists take charge of and control their own career destiny. They make the decisions and do so to meet their own goals. "The selection of one course over another is always based on a single guiding tenet: it is to do that which will advance you toward being the best you can be at your profession, craft or trade," writes Weddle.

Weddle suggests giving yourself a "personal performance appraisal by asking yourself the following questions:

*Am I doing my best work in my current job or am I just coasting?

*Are my skills and knowledge at the state-of-the-art in my career field or am I growing obsolete?

*What job should I be doing in the next 12-18 months in order to upgrade my performance and my satisfaction at work?

*What do I need to do now to prepare myself so that I can compete successfully for that job at that time?

"Career activism is essentially a pair of commitments you make to yourself: bringing the best you can be at work each day and improving your personal best every day. Those promises provide the only real security there is in today's volatile and perilous workplace...because you are relying on yourself" says Weddle.

Performance Reviews Without the Anxiety

Phillippe Lescornez's team of grocery sales specialists go into a performance evaluation expecting a summary of hundreds of discussions that have taken place throughout the year, rather than any big news. Lescornez is a veteran manager in Belgium who scores among the top 20% of supervisors worldwide on the Eleventh Element of Great Managing, which is measured by the statement: In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress. He was also recently recognized with the Line Manager Excellence award for Europe. Lescornez and his sales team work for Masterfoods (a division of Mars, Inc.), in Brussels, Belgium. What sets Lescornez apart?

* He gives his staff regular, insightful, personal feedback, rather than boilerplate reviews. He is noted for his challenging and invigorating discussions that leave no one guessing about how they are doing. He speaks with everyone on his team once a week, often more.

* Lescornez feels that for his team to be successful, he needs to be able to see the potential of each employee and decide what progress would be most meaningful.

* Lescornez develops in them a greater sense of ownership for building their markets and improving company bottom line. He spends time getting to know his team members and building a relationship before he gives constructive feedback, redirects any behaviors or advices improvement to processes. They trust him and take his feedback to heart.

* Lescornez goes into the field with his team members and engages in lots of discussions. He gives praise liberally, acknowledging what they have done well. Then he coaches them toward improvement.

* A hallmark of Lescornez's leadership is the responsibility he gives his team and how he makes them struggle a bit to find answers, asking, What would you do? He helps his team think, instead of solving problems with authoritarian directives.

* Lescornez inspires people by modeling to his sales teams better ways to approach challenges. In one case, his sales promoters had insufficient fact books. In the meeting, he asked them to pair up, discuss the good points in each other's fact book and then share with the group. Everyone learned something from the other person, and the experience was positive and constructive.

* At formal performance reviews, with so much direct coaching beforehand, there isn't much drama left. Lescornez says to them, Okay, now we have to do the paper part. We're going to do it together and fill it out, and then you can tell me if you are all right with what I've written down.

* Turnover is an issue - because of the high number of promotions he nurtures. Lescornez has built his reputation as someone who will work to accelerate the careers of his people.

Source: Gallup Management Journal newsletter, July 2007 (Adapted from the book 12: The Elements of Great Managing; Gallup Press, 2006.

The Blog Launches

I'm delighted to announce the launch of my blog. Thanks to the Brandego team for all their efforts on this and my new website.