Archive for the ‘Mentor’ Category
According to Marshall–October Issue
October 10th, 2011 | 
Author: 
| Welcome to the October issue of According to Marshall…
The purpose of this message is to share just a quick summary of some of the topics that I think are relevant to your personal and professional success. If there are particular subjects that you would like to receive more information on from me, reach out and let me know. I also welcome any relevant information that you have produced or found that I can share with my readers. 7 Tips From CEOs On How To Eat Uncertainty For Lunch By Marc Figueroa, Vistage International “Today’s business owners and CEOs are constantly being tested. Faced with volatile markets, shifting customer demands and economic uncertainty, the only thing most business leaders are certain of is that there’s more change ahead. So how do you continue driving your business forward? We asked seven members of Vistage International, a CEO peer group organization, for their insight on how to lead with confidence in times of uncertainty.” Click here to read the full story 6 Personal Branding Mistakes That Can Threaten Your Job Search By Meridith Levinson “In 2009, personal branding became the buzzword of choice for job seekers and career coaches alike, and for good reason. When done right, personal branding—the act of identifying and communicating your unique value to people who can help advance your career—promised to be the job seeker’s silver bullet, his surefire way to stand out in a crowded job market.” Click here to read the full story Building Authentic Relationships in the Workplace By Chrissy Scivicque “Back when I worked in banking, as the Assistant Manager of a branch, I wore a mask. No, not literally, you silly goose. After all, banks and masks don’t go well together if you know what I mean…But I hid all the same. I was hiding behind an image of who I thought I should be, who I thought others wanted me to be. I didn’t show the “real me” because I was scared.” Read more at: Click here to read the full story Top 5 Secrets to Make Your Web 2.0 Job Search More Effective By Rosa Elizabeth Vargas “Social networking sites have dramatically changed the job search “game.” LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, and Online Career Sites can help you, from the comfort of your home, discover new opportunities and tap into the hidden job market. Why? Because networking, whether it is performed offline or online, is still the most effective way to find a job. However, building a brand, connecting with professionals in your field, and maintaining those relationships is not as easy as just setting up an account (don’t we wish!?). ” Click here to read the full story Top 10 Steps To Reclaim Your Life From Distraction By Guy Kawasaki, Co-Founder, Alltop “Peter Bregman is strategic advisor to CEOs and management teams and author of 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done. According to Peter, people are interrupted, on average, four times an hour, and the more challenging the work, the less likely you are to go back to it after the interruption. In other words, we are most likely to leave our most important work unfinished.” Click here to read the full story SEO for Your Resume By Mona Abdel-Halim “With the advent of “intelligent” technology, technology that more and more mimics human behavior, a slew of new tools have emerged to help recruiters quickly identify candidates with relevant skills. The behavior such technologies emulate are the mental scoring and comparing of candidate applications, primarily resumes, that recruiters used to take days to sort through manually. Now, by simply inputting key phrases or an entire job description, recruiters can automatically generate reports of upwards of thousands of job seekers in rank order.” Click here to read the full story I also invite you to forward this to a friend.
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Posted in According to Marshall, Branding, Career, Job Search, Job Search Strategies, Mentor, Networking, Personal Branding, Resume, Skills, business | 
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Credibility: A Critical Foundation of Leadership
“If you don’t believe in the messenger, you won’t believe the message.” —Jim Kouzes, co-author of Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It
When people trust and believe in you as a leader, they’ll follow you far and without much question. But without credibility, that critical foundation of leadership, you face an uphill battle, because you’ll have the extra strain of trying to pull people along with you. And whether you’re the one pulling or the one being pulled, pretty soon you’re both weary and ready to give up.
Credibility stands on several legs: expertise, trustworthiness and integrity.
Expertise is an objective judgment, determined by such things as your credentials, your rank in the company and your prior accomplishments.
Trustworthiness is a subjective judgment, formed over time from a person’s experience interacting with you. Do you do what you say you’re going to do? Do you know what you say you know? How does it feel to work for you?
Integrity is another subjective judgment, formed over time from a person’s observations of you. Do you walk your talk, or do you say one thing and do another? Are you honest? Do you admit and take responsibility for your mistakes?
You may think you have a pretty good sense of your credibility among your team members, but what are they really thinking?
One of the best ways to truly know how people are experiencing, observing and judging you as a leader is to conduct a 360° assessment. Named for the 360 degrees of a circle, this type of assessment measures your performance from the perspective of everyone you work with, including your direct reports.
It takes courage to enter into this process. You may not like everything you hear, and it may highlight some things that need changing. And that’s exactly why bringing credibility issues to the surface is such a crucial matter.
On the other hand, you may be doing most everything right, but your credibility in the eyes of your team members is still not where it needs to be. The most likely cause is that they don’t see what you’re doing.
In this case, it’s time to become more visible in the organization. Turn your office into a fishbowl and reveal what’s been going on behind closed doors. Then, get more involved and aware of what everyone else is working on. Practice “management by walking around,” the successful Hewlett-Packard strategy that Tom Peters and Bob Waterman popularized in their book, In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies.
A 360° assessment will reveal how credible you are in the eyes of your team. Then you’ll have the opportunity to improve that rating. It’s not enough to have the expertise and credentials. Your team members need to observe and experience your trustworthiness and integrity for themselves. So open up the office door more often, and get out and interact with people more. Show them you’re someone they can believe in.
Author’s content used under license, © 2008 Claire Communications
Posted in Coaching, General, Leadership, Make a Difference, Mentor, Networking, Skills, Success |
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Tips on finding a mentor
Question:
I have been thinking about getting a mentor to give me guidance on various professional issues. What should I be looking for?
Answer:
Good for you. I applaud you for taking charge of your career and being proactive. A mentoring relationship can be rewarding and provide a lot of benefits to the protégé, and the mentor, for that matter. It can also be a lot of hard work.
To ensure that you get out of the mentoring relationship what you want, I suggest that you first determine what you want out of the relationship and set specific goals and expectations. Make sure you discuss your expectations with your potential mentor to see if it is a good fit or not.
Talk with several individuals before making a decision. It’s okay to shop around and interview folks. This is about YOU. You want to be sure you are working with someone whom you can trust and with whom you are comfortable. Your mentor doesn’t need to necessarily be someone older and wiser–a mentor can also be someone who is your peer or a few steps ahead of you in your career.
Another suggestion for developing a successful mentoring relationship is to be sure that your clearly state your expectations. You want to be sure they are clear about what they can offer you in addition to establishing time and other parameters.
Trust and respect for each other are also critical elements in establishing a successful mentoring relationship. Therefore, it is important for you and your mentor to share your values and beliefs early. It is important for both of you to reveal just enough about yourselves to increase intimacy, without being too forward. Discuss this with your mentor and be sure that you are both in agreement.
Let your mentor know how you would like to communicate, both giving and receiving information. Find out how they like to give information and feedback. Then, determine if that is the best way for you. Also, determine the frequency of your conversations.
In the hectic world that we live in today, finding time for this type of relationship can be difficult. Be sure that both of you are willing to make the time commitment on a regular basis. Make regular appointments to meet; be prompt and committed. I personally think the more frequently you can meet, especially early on, the better and stronger your relationship will become.
And finally, commit to each other that you will discuss the relationship periodically. Revisit it on a regular basis to be sure that both of your needs are still being met. If they are, then continue to move ahead. If not, discuss other options and perhaps other mentor possibilities. It is guaranteed that the mentor doesn’t want to work with a protégé if the protégé doesn’t want to work with them.
Good luck and let me know when YOU become a mentor for someone.
Published by Marshall Brown, “The Career Coach Is In” for the Washington Post.
http://views.washingtonpost.com/on-success/career-coach/
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