Hidden Benefits of the 360 Review for Your Career

Hidden Benefits of the 360 Review for Your Career Today I had a coaching session with a very smart Silicon Valley professional. He asked about the value of doing a 360 Review, and as we talked about I realized there were at least three great reasons to do it (more than the obvious, surface-level reasons). Im assuming you know a 360 Review is where you send a bunch of questions, about you, to different categories of people. Imagine you are in the middle of your contacts, and above you are your bosses, below you are the people who report to you, to one side you have your peers and colleagues, and to the other side you have customers.   These four groups of people are in a circle around you, hence the 360. You can, of course, figure out other types of relationships, including your family, etc. So, what are the three great reasons to do a 360 Review?   Especially considering you have to have thick skin because of some of the feedback you might get (if your questions are good and people are honest!). VALUE ONE: Derived from the exercise of creating The 360 The 360 will have two parts: the introduction, or The Ask, and the actual questions. When you have to think about your Ask, and then think through the questions, youll get greater clarity about what you are really after and what you should be asking. Compare these: Hey, will you answer these questions about me? vs Im evaluating my career and investigating some options I have right now. I have a number of assumptions about myself but Id really like to get opinions from people who Ive worked with and who see me differently. Id sincerely appreciate it if you could take 15 or 20 minutes and answer these questions about me. Please be honest in your response. Im looking for your perspective of my strengths and also things that I can work on. I should note that a really good 360 will give the person who responds anonymity. This really can only happen if you use a 360 tool (not too hard to find) instead of just asking them to reply to questions via email. Speaking of questions, what kind of questions will you ask?   You could ask super vague questions that are cute but feel like a waste of time, like what color car would Jason be, or What kind of cereal would Jason be, or Why is Jason so great (please provide 10 reasons)? Instead, ask questions that are directly related to the KSAs of the role, or skillset, that you want to have shine (or are ready to work on).   For example: How would you describe Jasons communication skills? What are Jasons communication strengths? What are Jasons communication weaknesses? What would make Jason a better leader? What three things does Jason need to improve? Those are just off the top of my head my point is, ask direct, specific questions that (1) can give you real and helpful feedback (2) on topics that are important. The whole point of this blog post is to talk about benefits that are beyond the obvious surface-level benefits of doing a 360. The benefit spending time to craft a proper introduction is that you get a more solid idea of what you are after (your goals), and how to frame them (communication that you can repurpose in other situations). There is immense value in clarifying and practicing this!! The benefit you get in creating great questions is that you get a serious chance to evaluate yourself, perhaps deeper than you normally are (and without beating yourself up). Thinking through those questions should be a therapeutic exercise and, again, a preparation for interviews and networking conversations. VALUE TWO:  Getting real information from the responses, and making a plan to work on weaknesses and communicate strengths The reason 360s are so valuable is simple: we have assumptions about our strengths or weaknesses that might not be accurate. Who better to give us a more real perspective than people we work with and around?   As important, the perspective we get, even if they are wrong, is super important. By this I mean that sometimes people might have a wrong impression, but their impression might be shared with others. Heres an example: Lets say I am a super great at doing my job but Im a horrible communicator and very impatient with people. I might be the best person in the world at performing the functions of my role, but because Im such a cruddy person around others, no one wants to work with me. Therefore, no one knows that Im actually good at something, they just know Im a jerk. This information comes out in the 360. What do I do with this information? I want to help people understand that I really am good at what I do. There are many tactics I can employ to help reinforce a strong and accurate and relevant personal brand Im not going to go into that in this post. I also want to figure out how to stop being such a jerk. Sure, Im awesome, but if no one wants to work with me, or wants me to be around, then whats the point?   Its not like Im going to have a career like House (the doctor on TV) had super good at medicine, but everyone hated him. Its unlikely that youll get many chances to have a career like his. So, take the information you get and really work on the feedback. If this sounds hard, it is. You have to face some harsh realities, and do things you havent done before. It might mean joining Toastmasters or the National Speakers Association. It might mean you work on active listening, or getting better at contributing in team meetings.   When people give you anything to work on, let me encourage you to embrace the feedback and work on getting better. Ive read a lot of articles lately about soft skills and emotional intelligence this is what people say they cant train you on. Work on it yourself, right now, and through the end of your career! VALUE THREE:  This is a personal branding play You now get to share your career ambitions and intentions with others.   This is tied into #1 above, where you have a great introduction, but it goes a little further. Look, you need to realize that most of your colleagues know you by what you do. If you are a software engineer, people think of you as surprise! A software engineer! Its pretty simple. You are branded by how people perceive you, including what your title is. But if you are a software engineer now with strong intentions of becoming a CIO, CTO, or VP of IT or Development, will people realize that? No one might even think of you as an executive, a strategist, a visionary, a leader, a manager!   Even though you might be those things, or have the capacity to do those things, they just know you as someone who pounds at a keyboard all day long, creating cool stuff. How do you get around this branding? By communicating the brand changes! Yes, you are a technologist and a great one! You also are very interested in taking your career to the next level. Tell people this when you invite them to respond to the 360. Tell everyone whether you invite them to respond to a 360 or not. One of the easiest ways to manage your personal brand is to communicate how you want others to perceive you. So use this activity as an opportunity to do just that. The 360 is a great tool. I hope the ideas here will help you advance your career! Hidden Benefits of the 360 Review for Your Career Today I had a coaching session with a very smart Silicon Valley professional. He asked about the value of doing a 360 Review, and as we talked about I realized there were at least three great reasons to do it (more than the obvious, surface-level reasons). Im assuming you know a 360 Review is where you send a bunch of questions, about you, to different categories of people. Imagine you are in the middle of your contacts, and above you are your bosses, below you are the people who report to you, to one side you have your peers and colleagues, and to the other side you have customers.   These four groups of people are in a circle around you, hence the 360. You can, of course, figure out other types of relationships, including your family, etc. So, what are the three great reasons to do a 360 Review?   Especially considering you have to have thick skin because of some of the feedback you might get (if your questions are good and people are honest!). VALUE ONE: Derived from the exercise of creating The 360 The 360 will have two parts: the introduction, or The Ask, and the actual questions. When you have to think about your Ask, and then think through the questions, youll get greater clarity about what you are really after and what you should be asking. Compare these: Hey, will you answer these questions about me? vs Im evaluating my career and investigating some options I have right now. I have a number of assumptions about myself but Id really like to get opinions from people who Ive worked with and who see me differently. Id sincerely appreciate it if you could take 15 or 20 minutes and answer these questions about me. Please be honest in your response. Im looking for your perspective of my strengths and also things that I can work on. I should note that a really good 360 will give the person who responds anonymity. This really can only happen if you use a 360 tool (not too hard to find) instead of just asking them to reply to questions via email. Speaking of questions, what kind of questions will you ask?   You could ask super vague questions that are cute but feel like a waste of time, like what color car would Jason be, or What kind of cereal would Jason be, or Why is Jason so great (please provide 10 reasons)? Instead, ask questions that are directly related to the KSAs of the role, or skillset, that you want to have shine (or are ready to work on).   For example: How would you describe Jasons communication skills? What are Jasons communication strengths? What are Jasons communication weaknesses? What would make Jason a better leader? What three things does Jason need to improve? Those are just off the top of my head my point is, ask direct, specific questions that (1) can give you real and helpful feedback (2) on topics that are important. The whole point of this blog post is to talk about benefits that are beyond the obvious surface-level benefits of doing a 360. The benefit spending time to craft a proper introduction is that you get a more solid idea of what you are after (your goals), and how to frame them (communication that you can repurpose in other situations). There is immense value in clarifying and practicing this!! The benefit you get in creating great questions is that you get a serious chance to evaluate yourself, perhaps deeper than you normally are (and without beating yourself up). Thinking through those questions should be a therapeutic exercise and, again, a preparation for interviews and networking conversations. VALUE TWO:  Getting real information from the responses, and making a plan to work on weaknesses and communicate strengths The reason 360s are so valuable is simple: we have assumptions about our strengths or weaknesses that might not be accurate. Who better to give us a more real perspective than people we work with and around?   As important, the perspective we get, even if they are wrong, is super important. By this I mean that sometimes people might have a wrong impression, but their impression might be shared with others. Heres an example: Lets say I am a super great at doing my job but Im a horrible communicator and very impatient with people. I might be the best person in the world at performing the functions of my role, but because Im such a cruddy person around others, no one wants to work with me. Therefore, no one knows that Im actually good at something, they just know Im a jerk. This information comes out in the 360. What do I do with this information? I want to help people understand that I really am good at what I do. There are many tactics I can employ to help reinforce a strong and accurate and relevant personal brand Im not going to go into that in this post. I also want to figure out how to stop being such a jerk. Sure, Im awesome, but if no one wants to work with me, or wants me to be around, then whats the point?   Its not like Im going to have a career like House (the doctor on TV) had super good at medicine, but everyone hated him. Its unlikely that youll get many chances to have a career like his. So, take the information you get and really work on the feedback. If this sounds hard, it is. You have to face some harsh realities, and do things you havent done before. It might mean joining Toastmasters or the National Speakers Association. It might mean you work on active listening, or getting better at contributing in team meetings.   When people give you anything to work on, let me encourage you to embrace the feedback and work on getting better. Ive read a lot of articles lately about soft skills and emotional intelligence this is what people say they cant train you on. Work on it yourself, right now, and through the end of your career! VALUE THREE:  This is a personal branding play You now get to share your career ambitions and intentions with others.   This is tied into #1 above, where you have a great introduction, but it goes a little further. Look, you need to realize that most of your colleagues know you by what you do. If you are a software engineer, people think of you as surprise! A software engineer! Its pretty simple. You are branded by how people perceive you, including what your title is. But if you are a software engineer now with strong intentions of becoming a CIO, CTO, or VP of IT or Development, will people realize that? No one might even think of you as an executive, a strategist, a visionary, a leader, a manager!   Even though you might be those things, or have the capacity to do those things, they just know you as someone who pounds at a keyboard all day long, creating cool stuff. How do you get around this branding? By communicating the brand changes! Yes, you are a technologist and a great one! You also are very interested in taking your career to the next level. Tell people this when you invite them to respond to the 360. Tell everyone whether you invite them to respond to a 360 or not. One of the easiest ways to manage your personal brand is to communicate how you want others to perceive you. So use this activity as an opportunity to do just that. The 360 is a great tool. I hope the ideas here will help you advance your career!

Does Ready, Fire!, Aim Describe Your Job Search Approach - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Does ‘Ready, Fire!, Aim’ Describe Your Job Search Approach - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career In this week’s blog I am going to use the analogy of target shooting (archery, pistol, rifle, etc.) to make some points about how I routinely see some (most?) job seekers approach finding a new job today. The protocol Ideally, the approach one should take in order to hit the “bull’s eye” on a shooting range is to follow this protocol: “Ready, Aim, Fire!,” with the heaviest emphasis on the “aim” part. Unfortunately, many job seekers today, particularly the “seasoned” job seekers, seem intent on taking the   “Ready, Fire, Aim!” approach, while the less-seasoned job seekers sometimes take the “Ready, Aim . . . ,” Ready, Aim . . . ,” “Ready, Aim . . .” approach! Both approaches are destined to end unfavorably for the job seeker utilizing them. Let me elaborate. Whether you are a relatively new job seeker or an “old hand” at job-hunting, you quite probably are finding (or will find) that today’s job market is unlike any you ever imagined or have experienced. If you’ve been in the job market during the last few years you already know this, of course. However, if you are, say, currently employed and have just begun looking for new career opportunities, or a recent (or soon to be) college graduate seeking your first job . . . well . . . suffice it to say that you are indeed in for quite a shock! If you are an “old timer,” for the most part, you will find that much of what worked when you landed  your current position (going online to locate a new job, posting to newspaper job ads, etc.) no longer works at all! (There is a legitimate reason why the subtitle of “Headhunter” Hiring Secrets” is “The Rules of the Hiring Game Have Changed . . . Forever!”) If you’re relatively new to the job market, it can seem overwhelming in its complexity and challenging in the extreme. In a word, today’s job market can best be described as stiflingâ€"for any job seeker. So, then, what’s the answer to effectively competing in today’s job market? It is to have a good, well-thought-out action plan, and then to effectively implement that plan. Only by taking this approach, i.e., a “Ready, Aim, Fire!” approach, can you brand yourself as being new, different and better than the “average” or “typical” job seeker today. You need to acquire a “roadmap” or a “track to run on,” in other words. The 4 essential phases to success One of my principal goals in writing “Headhunter” Hiring Secrets: The Rules of the Hiring Game Have Changed . . . Forever! (and the recently published “Headhunter” Hiring Secrets Application Workbook) was to provide those job seekers whom I couldn’t personally help through my executive recruiting firm with a “roadmap,” a “track to run on.” Based upon years of experience as a professional “headhunter,” I determined that there essentially are four basic “steps” or “phases” in the successful job search, and significant to note, they should ALL be included in a job hunting plan and implemented in the order presented: PHASE ONE â€" Preliminary Planning Preparation Begin branding yourself as a very desirable candidate by developing your basic personal marketing plan, setting up an efficient records-keeping system, assessing your skills and proficiencies, etc. PHASE TWO â€" Developing Your Marketing Plan Applying the “four Ps” of marketingâ€"Product (You!); Pricing (how much you will cost a company in salary and benefits versus how much value you will bring to a hiring company); Promotion (Disseminating information about you, the product, to the “target audience,” i.e., hiring companies); and Placement (Determining which “channels to market” to use to get yourself in front of prospective employers)â€"preparing and polishing your résumé, etc.]   PHASE THREE â€" Selling Yourself Utilizing a Daily Connection Log to keep track of daily contacts with potential employers because you know that, like selling, finding a new job is really just a “numbers” game. Developing effective telephone scripts to reach out to hiring companies you’ve identified as being in your “target” market. Routinely rehearse answers to the many “gotcha!” questions you can expect to be asked during interviews, etc. PHASE FOUR â€" Closing the Deal When you begin putting it all together and, again just like sales, implementing those tactics and strategies necessary to “close the deal,” i.e., land the job! To carry my target shooting analogy forward, Phases One and Two, of course, would be the “Ready” element; Phase Three would be the “Aim” element; and Phase Four would be the “Fire!” element. Relatively simple stuff, a relatively logical, easy-to-follow approach to job hunting, right? Well, certainly is was meant to be perceived that way, but unfortunately, I have found that, oftentimes, some job seekers, particularly the “seasoned” job hunters, either want to “improve” on the process, take “shortcuts,” or they (usually the newer, less-seasoned job seekers) simply get so bogged down in one of the early phases that they become immobilized and can’t seem to move on to the next phases, and finally, to “close the deal.” Group classifiers Some “seasoned” job seekers, for example, say (or think) something along these lines: “All I really need to do to find a new job is to ‘polish’ my existing résumé, start sending out résumés online to potential employers, make a few calls, contact a few ‘headhunters,’ and then just sit back and wait to be contacted.” This group I classify in the “Ready, Fire!, Aim” group. On the other hand, some less-seasoned job seekers think (or say) something like this: “Wow! I’ve got to really concentrate on Phases One and Two before I ever make a move to actually start contacting potential employers. I’ve got to get everything right!” I classify this group of job seekers as the “Ready, Aim” . . . “Ready, Aim” . . . “Ready, Aim” folks. They simply can’t seem to get to the point of actually “pulling the trigger”! And finally, the job seekers who are ultimately successful in landing a new job in today’s brutal job market are those who follow, and strictly adhere to, the four basic phases featured in “Headhunter” Hiring Secrets and in this blog. In other words, this group of job seekers can be classified as the “Ready, Aim, Fire!” group! (Just for the record, “Headhunter” Hiring Secrets is hardly the only best-selling job-hunting book that endorses and strongly recommends this four-phase approach to a successful job search. Virtually all of the top job-hunting booksâ€"Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters, co-authored by my friend and colleague David Perry; Purple Squirrel by top Google recruiter Mike Junge; and the perennial best-seller What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard Bollesâ€"either implicitly or explicitly suggest/recommend this same approach!) Which group would you put yourself in? If you desire to brand yourself as indeed a candidate who is new, different and better in every sense of the term than the “run-of-the-mill” candidate, who is merely “looking for a job” and who will almost never try anything new or venture out of his/her “comfort zone,” then you will want to make sure that your definitely are in the “Ready,” “Aim,” Fire!” group! Are you “Ready”? OK! Have you taken good, careful “Aim”? OK! Are you ready to “Fire!”? OK! You’re hired! Author: Skip Freeman is the author of “Headhunter” Hiring Secrets: The Rules of the Hiring Game Have Changed . . . Forever! and is the President and Chief Executive Officer of The HTW Group (Hire to Win), an Atlanta, GA, Metropolitan Area Executive Search Firm. Specializing in the placement of sales, engineering, manufacturing and RD professionals, he has developed powerful techniques that help companies hire the best and help the best get hired.

Win Over Your Brand Audience Despite the Rise of Ad Blockers - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Win Over Your Brand Audience Despite the Rise of Ad Blockers - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career A few years ago ad blockers began to emerge which has greatly impacted the number of visitors and subscribers on a brand website. Since Google has updated algorithm and new apps have emerged these important online relationships have dwindled. The good news is there are a few non-intrusive ways to encourage people to stay on your website and engage. Today it is much harder to connect with the audience on a personal brand’s website when there are too many ads. By implementing a few strategies your brand can start growing your audience again. How can your brand effectively change its advertising approach and bring back more subscribers? Through reminders, ad placement, and daily follow-up. Use these strategies to help facilitate growth again without being intrusive on your audience: How to build a strong website with ads The following steps are things your personal brand can start doing today with better results. Find out who your visitors are Conduct target market research to determine exactly who is coming to your website and how many are leaving, especially due to advertising. Through this data you can discover whether they are using ad blockers. If this is the case, your brand can install a simple message to encourage them to turn this off as some users may not even realize they have this installed. Request your website to be white listed Approach your visitors with a simple, clear, and direct message with a reminder for them to allow ads. Its important that you offer them something of value in your content and products or services to encourage them to white list your website. Make it easy for the end user Remove any hindrances to visitors coming to your website especially for mobile users. Know exactly where ads should be placed for all devices, including computers or laptops. Run a speed test to determine whether your pages are loading too slow as this can lead to people turning away as quickly as they arrive. Taking the time to asses your brands website means investing some time and effort, but the payoff is great as you begin to see an increase in subscribers and sales. Stay up to date with the latest changes on Google in order to avoid any conflicts with their policies, and pay attention to how many ads are being placed on your landing page.

Garret Kramer on How To Recover From Loss of a Dream Job - VocationVillage

Garret Kramer on How To Recover From Loss of a Dream Job - VocationVillage Garret Kramer responds to a music business professional who asks for career advice after losing his dream job.Hello,Before I provide the answer, let me impart an understanding of how human beings create their perceptions. Think of the human mind like an elevator: when the elevator moves up towards the penthouse, we are understanding, compassionate, resilient, competitive, loving, but most importantly, for your purposes right now, insightful. As that elevator moves toward the basement, however, we are judgmental, anxious, insecure, egotistical, over-analytical, and insights are impossible to find. So, what I’m getting at, is that our perceptions are created from the inside out, not vice versa. In other words, losing your job has no ability to create your state of mind. Quite the contrary: where the elevator is in the moment will always determine your perception of your circumstances.Now that this understanding is grasped, how can you use it to benefit your current life situation? Th e answer is this: Even in your writing I could sense your revved up process of thought. So what you need to immediately is take your foot off the gas pedal (as your tires are stuck in mud). Doing nothing right now, or being still, is the only way for that elevator to rise to a perspective where insight and answers will become obvious.At first glance, it may look like I have not directly answered your question. Yet the worst thing I could do would be to provide you with a quick and temporary fix. You are on the right track with your dream of following your passion. Just slow down and allow yourself to get there. Good luck.Garret Kramer, Author of StillPower and founder of Inner Sports, LLC. Read another guest opinion about how to recover from loss of a dream job.

Website To Help With Resume Writing

Website To Help With Resume WritingMany people have websites to help with resume writing. Some of them are just plain that and are created as personal pages. While others are great for networking and educational purposes.For people who want to have a website to help with resume writing, they should first decide if they want to use their own website. They can build a website that makes them unique by sharing information about themselves or help other people to create sites. A lot of people do not realize this but there are hundreds of thousands of free websites out there that they can use for free.For the most part if you want to host your website on a free website, it will be useless to you if you are an online home business. You need something that is going to be helpful to you when you are looking for work. It doesn't matter what you sell online because a lot of times free sites will not allow you to place your own website ads on their pages. That means you are not going to make an y money off of them.To be able to use a website to help with resume writing, you need to find a site that allows you to use them. There are many free ones that you can look at online. A great way to find a good one is to use Google and type in 'free website builder'. You may be surprised with the results that you get.The best thing about using a website to help with resume writing is that it will be free. This is a huge advantage. The only drawback is that you won't be able to be in charge of everything that is done. A lot of times a site that you are thinking about hiring is going to choose you based on the content that you offer.Your job will be to share information with others about you. A lot of times this will be what the site wants. It's important that you understand that you may not get as much traffic that you think you are going to get. It may take some time for your website to get noticed.One of the things that you want to remember when using a website to help with resume writing is that there will be some competition out there. You need to make sure that you are using a well known site that will help to get your resume noticed. This is especially true when you are working with someone else's job. You need to make sure that you are going to be trusted.Using a website to help with resume writing is a great way to get the job you want. With all of the different sites that are out there that are great for job hunting, you have to make sure that you are choosing a site that is going to be good for you. Make sure that you understand that a lot of people will not be able to help you. A lot of them require that you use their services in order to be able to help with resume writing.

Our 2nd International Partner Meetup was a blast - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Our 2nd International Partner Meetup was a blast - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog Last week we invited our Woohoo Inc Partners to Copenhagen for the second international partner meetup and let me just get this out of the way: These people ROCK. 20 partners from 9 countries made the trek to cold and snowy Copenhagen for two days of fun, learning and knowledge sharing. I am completely blown away by the amazing work they do all over the world promoting happiness at work and by the passion and smarts they bring to the table. ROCK ON, partners! Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

Summary Sunday Our New Economy

Summary Sunday Our New Economy This weeks summary pays tribute to the fast, furious and sometimes even curious changes occurring in the world we work and live in. But sometimes we are so close to the forest we cant see the trees. (Or our heads are stuck in the sand and we fail to notice what is going on around us!) In order to compete and stay ahead of the pack, you need information to keep you up-to-date on important changes. Do not judge. Instead, look for the possibilities and potential to adapt. 10 Ways Social Media is Transforming Our World from Jeff Bullas In case you are not familiar with Jeffs site and who he is: Jeff Bullas is a consultant, coach, mentor and speaker and work with companies and executives to optimize their online personal and company presence and brand with digital marketing and social media through the use of social media channels and other web and mobile technologies This is technically a guest post by Guest Author: Lisa Galarneau, a socio-cultural anthropologist who studies emerging cultures and trends in technology, information and media. This post is a MUST READ if you want to understand some of the ways social media is transforming how things get done! These three key points should help you see where this post goes. Now, please, go read! New Possibilities Created by Connections Tools for Total Transformation of Our World The Power to Reach Anyone Americas New Business Model: Sharing from USA TODAY In case you dont believe the previous post, all you need to do is go read this one! It talks about the different crowd-sourcing and peer-to-peer commerce that are popping up! Have you heard of Airbnb, TaskRabbit or Zimride? Huh? Its basically about moving to a world where access triumphs over ownership, and that unused value â€" things sitting in my garage â€" equals waste, says Lisa Gansky, who has written frequently on the topic and has listed 6,600 such sharing platforms on her site, Meshing.IT. Is Social Networking Important for Job Seekers? from Keppie Careers Now, here is one that directly impacts job seekers! (Finally, you say!) Jobvite recently released their social recruiting survey results and everyone is writing about it. The reality is that the use of social networks to recruit new employees is growing quickly and there are major benefits for companies using this method: Higher quality hires and done more quickly. Please, go read this summary of findings from this survey! Youll also learn more about what employers are looking at on your social profiles! Are you wondering how you can keep up with this better? Here are some recommended sources you should read regularly! Keeping Current Mashable SmartBrief Industry News: Social Media Social Media Today And by the way, if you havent read The World Is Flat, Trust Agents or The Thank You Economy; you should visit your library and check out these books!