Unleashing and Channeling Your Power To Succeed

Archive for the ‘Networking’ Category

Welcome to the December 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.

I want to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for your readership and your feedback over the course of this year. I wish you good health, happiness and  success in 2012. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can support your success in any way in the New Year.

If you have trouble reading this or seeing graphics click here for the online version.

Lessons in Leadership from Andy Bernard of ‘The Office’

By Julie Rains

“Underdogs inspire us. That’s the lesson Robert California, the fictional owner of the fictional paper vendor Dunder Mifflin, teaches us when he promotes Andy Bernard to branch manager of the Scranton sales office (aka The Office). Despite his Ivy League credentials, Andy is an unlikely choice to replace the departing Michael Scott. Watching Andy navigate his new accountabilities in the episode entitled “The Incentive” prompted me to consider how a less-than-perfect leader can inspire people.”

Click here to read the full story. . .

Best Gifts for Employees

By Helen Zhang

“During the holidays, giving the perfect gift is always a challenge. With tons of friends and family members on your shopping list, it’s easy for employees to get left behind. And let’s face it, it’s easy to dole out generic and thoughtless knick-knacks to your staff.

This year, take advantage of the holiday season to show genuine employee appreciation. We’ve talked about how important this is to your office morale, productivity and, ultimately, your bottom line. So why not use this time to show your employees how much you care? Here are 10 easy gifts, from affordable to high-end, for every type of employee.”

Click here to read the full story. . .

10 Innovative Ways to Reward Your Employees

By Kentin Waits

We often think that rewarding employees means big bonuses, which can affect the bottom line. But recognition for a job well-done can come in all shapes and sizes.

Small tokens of appreciation given at the right moment not only provide well-deserved acknowledgement—they can keep your employees motivated. Let’s explore the art of saying “thank you” in new and innovative ways.

Click here to read the full story. . .

Companies Hiring in Large Volume

By John Smith

“December often becomes a transition month for job seekers. As the busy holiday season approaches, calendars get filled with parties. Relatives come into town for a visit. Children have a few weeks off from school and need to be entertained. Plus, there’s probably shopping to be done.

In addition to this jam-packed schedule, many job seekers believe the myth that employers aren’t hiring new workers until next year. As a result, some job seekers decide to take a step back from sending out résumés and attending networking events and instead focus on how they will revise and improve their job search in 2012. You should always be thinking about how to tweak your job search, but don’t put everything on hold until next year. Employers aren’t.”

Click here to read the full story. . .

Focus on Others to Keep Social-Network Posts Professional

By Michael Crom

”Question: I work at a large financial company.

I have always maintained very professional behavior at work, and I believe this has led to respect from my co-workers. But like many of young professionals I enjoy social networking and I have built my profile on these sites. I recently started receiving requests from some of my younger co-workers, clients, and even higher-level professionals to add them as Facebook friends. Since I really want to maintain my professional image moving forward, I need some tips on how I can keep my profile on these sites as professional as possible.”

Click here to read the full story. . .

I also invite you to forward this to a friend.

Guest Blog Post By, Don Goodman

Networking is not about how many resumes or business cards you hand out, but how you establish rapport and build a relationship that can lead to opportunities.

Attending a networking event is only the beginning of the networking process. Effective networking takes time and builds lasting relationships where both parties can help one another.

Many job seekers I often speak with are intimidated by networking events. It’s not that they do not want to network; it’s that they don’t know how to approach people they don’t know.

As much as we all want to know how others can help us, when networking, it’s not recommended for you to go straight into pitching. It’s a turnoff to many people, especially when you don’t know the person.

So, how does a job seeker tackle breaking the ice at networking events and approach people in a way that later affords relationships where they can help one another?

1. Change your mindset: Think of networking as a chance to get to know others and as a place where you can seek advice from someone who may come with a different point of view. As you show interest in others and ask for advice, the conversation will naturally redirect itself in a manner where others will be more willing to help you or connect you to people who can help.

2. Mind your appearance: Walk in to a networking event with the appropriate attitude. Appear approachable and be willing to approach others. The simplest things you can do is offer a smile to people you come in eye contact with and avoid poor body language such as crossing your arms or keeping your head down.

3. Ask a mutual acquaintance for help: Asking a mutual friend or acquaintance to help with an introduction is one of the easiest ways to help get a conversation started between two people who don’t know one another. After the introduction, it’s up to you to build rapport and find out possible commonalities that will help both of you establish a relationship.

4. Directly introduce yourself: If there is a contact you know something about, you may want to approach them directly with an introduction. Introduce yourself by full name and appropriately ask a question or make a comment. For example, the person may have just given a presentation, so you may ask a question or comment related to what was discussed. As the conversation between the two of you becomes more comfortable, steer the conversation toward a direction where you may ask for advice.

5. Ask a general question or provide comment: You are not the only one who may be feeling awkward at the networking event. If you see someone simply standing there or sitting at a table by themselves, be willing to approach them and simply ask a question or provide a comment they could relate to. It can be a simple statement such as, “Wow, this event has a big attendance turnout!” This opens the door for conversation. After two or three more questions or comments, you can go in and say, “By the way, my name is… what’s yours?” From there, your conversation can change focus where you learn more about the other individual and share information about yourself.

A key to breaking the ice during networking is to establish a relationship where the other individual grows to feel comfortable speaking with you. Keep all questions open-ended and leave comments that allow others to probe. A question or comment that leaves one to simply have room to say “yes” or “no” will not help build a conversation.

To succeed at networking events, leave people you meet with a good impression. You want people to feel your positive energy and to see you are willing to help others, as well as have a special area of expertise they will potentially want your advice and counsel on in the future. This will help ensure the relationship and conversation you have continues to grow after you leave the event.

Don Goodman, president of Resume Writing Service – About Jobs is a nationally recognized career expert.
Source: http://www.careerealism.com/tips-networking-events/

The loss of a job can trigger a cascade of all kinds of emotions, but if you learn to focus your energy and attention and use the law of attraction you can turn this temporary misfortune around into the opportunity to manifest your dream job.

The law of attraction states that like attracts like. We attract to ourselves energy, situations and circumstance that are consistent with the kind of energy, thoughts and actions that we have been focusing on. So, if you want to change what you see, you’ve got to change what you are thinking, feeling and focusing on. This is fairly elementary stuff. In this article we’re going to focus in on using the law of attraction to land your dream job. Follow these tips consistently and you will begin to see things shifting in your experience:

1. Focus on feeling good

Everything is energy, and we attract things to us at the level of vibration. When you feel good you are vibrating at a higher level, which will attract those favorable experiences into your experience. Don’t let the disappointment that often occurs when you are job hunting keep you down. Schedule in some fun activities and spend time with people who build you up.

2. Express gratitude for the good that is already in your life

Gratitude creates a space for even more good things to appear in your life. Express your gratitude for everything—even the things that come disguised as misfortune because it’s all good.

3. Describe your ideal job

Create a vision board that visually depicts your dream job. Write a detailed description about the kind of job that you want. Describe the kinds of people that you will be working with, the kind of environment, the nature of the work from the point of view of it being in your life already. Read this description or look at your vision board every day to inspire your job search.

4. Don’t stop believing

Believe in yourself. Believe in your talent, skills and experience. Do not focus on the apparently negative things going on around you such as a less-than-favorable economic climate. Believe that what you are seeking is also seeking you.

5. Don’t take rejection personally

When you get rejected, take it as a gift because that job was not meant for you. Express your gratitude for the learning opportunity and keep your focus on your goal of landing your dream job.

A bonus tip is to surround yourself with positive people. A job search is a potentially demoralizing experience, but if you have a group of positive people to encourage you, give you advice and support, then you can stay positive and continue your job search with the knowledge that the universe has only your best interests at heart. Consider working with a career coach to help you explore some options that you might not have considered.

Follow these tips, network with positive people and remain focused on your goal and you will attract your dream job to you.

If you’d like to explore how a career coach can help you in your job search, you are welcome to contact me and schedule an initial consultation.

“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

Great networkers don’t just go to events (small or large) to promote themselves, they also contribute something to the people they meet.  Be sure to know what you can contribute and listen to what other people need.

I know, networking is very easy for extroverts, but for introverts the prospect of “meeting and greeting” can be very difficult.   Learn how to overcome this and more at my program:

“Career Success Toolkit” Teleseries:
The Ultimate Unfair Competitive Advantage to Open Doors & Get the Job You WANT!
Starting September 22, 2010 to a telephone near you:
http://www.mbrownassociates.com/toolkit/index.html

Unemployment rates are rising and layoffs are rampant. This is a really tough job market. So how do you get to the front of the Help Wanted line?

In today’s job market, resumes have become PURE MARKETING. If your resume is to open doors for you—within 10 seconds of landing on an employer’s desk—your resume MUST sell your value, what you can offer, and what your unique value offer is.

->COMING TO A TELEPHONE NEAR YOU ON SEPTEMBER 22, 2010<-

The Career Success Toolkit Teleseries

In this teleseries you will learn:

· Secrets to creating a powerful resume that gets you noticed and opens doors
· How to create compelling cover letters and marketing letters that GRAB attention
· The best job search strategies for you, including how to assemble your own job search plan
· How to network like a pro, including how to develop a great 30-second commercial
· How to ace any interview, get the job offer, and negotiate for perks and more money
· The Top 10 strategies for ongoing career success…how to make it to the top and stay there

The “Career Success Toolkit” Teleseries is a rare chance for you to learn insider secrets, avoid making common mistakes, AND have fun! 

I will show you how to get to the front of the Help Wanted  line and get the job!

Click here to learn more!

Marshall

* Be authentic. Be yourself. Don’t be concerned about what others might think. (That is sometimes difficult, but you owe it to yourself to try it.) Be real. Don’t try to be the “want to be” you. Let people see, and get to know, the real you.

* Know what you have to offer. Start conversations with people and tell them what you have to offer. Be bold! Be fearless! Speak intelligently and have interesting things to say (about you, your profession, current events, etc.).

* Have a 30-second elevator speech ready. This is a quick marketing response for the question most often asked (but often not taken advantage of), “what do you do for a living?” Your response to this question needs to clearly describe what you can do for an employer and also let people know that you are currently seeking career opportunities. Remember, you are in a selling position and you are the product. Why should someone hire you? What do you offer that others don’t? As an executive, what successes have you had?

Click here to read more.

Networking is very important both online and offline.

Marshall was recently interviewed by the Speaking Channel on this topic. Click here to view the video.

Read Marshall’s article on networking here:
http://www.mbrownassociates.com/tunningintonetwork.html