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| Conselium | |
| 14001 Dallas Parkway | |
| Suite 1200 | |
| Dallas, TX 75240 | |
| (972) 934-8444 | |
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Think you’re not in sales? Think again.
Recruiting top professionals requires you to sell your company in the interview.
Here’s a guideline for the order in which to sell to the candidate in the interview p
rocess:
1. Sell the company
2. Sell the position
3. Sell career growth options
4. Sell yourself as a manager/mentor
This is the second installment of 10 Strategies to Help Develop Your Career. See our website for last month’s archived article.
6. Manage your own morale; in today’s flat organization don’t look to senior management to be your cheerleader. Be self-motivated.
7. Be deliberate in changing employers; if your learning and career growth options have stalled, look elsewhere.
8. Take initiative; take a bold step in becoming a leader. Offer to take the lead on an important project or volunteer to give a presentation on a topic you would like to learn about or are already an expert on.
9. Create work/life balance; time away from work recharges your batteries.
10. Be a lifelong learner; learning shouldn’t end with graduation. Read books and articles to develop your technical skills and presentation skills.
Career success is not obtained by accident or luck.. It requires commitment, which is defined as the difference between wishing and doing.
This is the first of a two-part series on Work Strategies that will further your career developm
ent. We will cover 5 in this eTip and the remainder in December’s eTip.
1. Crave Change; beat the curve by creating change to help your company stay competitive.
2. Bring great energy; eat healthy food, exercise and get adequate sleep. This is what professional athletes do to compete at their best. You’re a corporate athlete.
3. Explore new ideas; create value by bringing imagination and a fresh approach to problem solving. Take a few minutes to brainstorm before meetings to think of new ideas.
4. Create a positive environment; negative thinking diminishes your power and energy. Stay positive and your energy and confidence will soar – and rub off on others.
5. Go above and beyond your job description; great performers take on additional responsibilities and get noticed.
Career success does not happen by accident or luck. It requires commitment, which is defined as the difference between wishing and doing.
A bad hire is an expensive mistake. AIM high when you interview and reduce the chances of hiring the wrong person.
To AIM high, ask questions about:
Adversity – to show maturity, strength of character and ability to learn from mistakes. Examples:
1. Describe a time of adversity in your personal or professional life. How did you respond? Were you successful in overcoming the problem? Why? What did you learn from the experience?
2. Tell the person about a specific adverse situation your company faced recently. Ask: If you were faced with this situation, how would you respond?
Ideology – to tell you if the candidate fits the company culture. Examples:
1. What is your understanding of our company culture and specifically why do you think you would thrive here?
2. What do you believe this department contributes to the company?
Motivation – to show desire to excel. Examples:
1. What are your career goals 5 years from now?
2. How do you intend to achieve your career goals?
Your company has a formal network, i.e. lines of communication and structure to channel information throughout the organization.
Create your own “informal” internal network and reap the potential rewards:
➢ By developing support and sponsorship in departments other than your own, you may be able to make a career enhancing move
➢ You may receive advanced knowledge of what skills are going to be most in demand at your company
➢ You may receive advanced knowledge of proposed layoffs and what departments are most likely to be affected
➢ You may receive advanced knowledge of “illegal conduct” that may tarnish the reputation or ongoing viability of the company, i.e. Enron, MCI-WorldCom
Do you think your company can or desires to provide this information in a timely manner? Of course not. It pays to develop your own network.
Get started today: invite someone from another department to go to lunch.
Great managers are great recruiters. You can be a great recruiter by:
1) Being active in your professional trade associations
2) Being active in the initial hiring process and not delegating it all to HR and staff
3) Looking for opportunity hires, i.e. hiring when great talent is available even if no specific opening was contemplated
4) Re-recruiting your current staff. Show them you care (if you’re not re-recruiting your best staff, someone outside your company is)
Your involvement in recruiting is crucial to your department’s success in today’s environment where talent is scarce. Demographics and the retirement of the Baby-boomers indicate that talent scarcity is a long-term issue.
Career success is achieved by thoughtful preparation, implementation, and sacrifice. Look at these 5 keys and commit to integrating them into your life over the next several months.
Map Out Your Career Goals:
“Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I will give you a man who will make history. Give me a man without a goal, and I will give you a stock clerk.” – J.C. Penney 
Excel at Networking:
Networking is a lifestyle of cultivating and maintaining relationships. It is not selling. It is not asking for a job.
Improve Your Communication Skills:
62% of CEOs said communication skills got them to the top.
Develop Your Personal Brand:
Be able to tell someone who you are, what you do, and how you ad value. (See archived tip on the Conselium web site dated December 2005).
Take on Extra Responsibilities:
Take on duties of your boss so he/she can get promoted and you can slide into his/her vacated position.
This is the second part of a two-part e-tip on team building. Last month’s e-tip focused on the “harder” topics such as structuring your team. This month’s e-tip will give tips on the “softer topics,” such as communication, recognition and creating trust.
7 Tips for Strengthening Your Team
1. Communicate well. Make sure team members know what is expected of them to accomplish the team’s goals.
2. Recognize personal sacrifice. When a team member goes the extra mile on a project, make sure to re
cognize that in front of the group. That way team members know that their own personal sacrifice will be appreciated also.
3. Encourage teammates to support one another emotionally. Be a cheerleader, offer encouragement, catch someone doing things right and sing their praises.
4. Spend time with teammates away from work. The most powerful way to develop a bond with team members is to get to know them on a personal level. Organize an after-work happy hour or take different team members to lunch occasionally.
5. Communicate well. Make sure team members know what is expected of them to accomplish the team’s goals.
6. Recognize personal sacrifice. When a team member goes the extra mile on a project, make sure to recognize that in front of the group. That way team members know that their own personal sacrifice will be appreciated also.
7. Encourage teammates to support one another emotionally. Be a cheerleader, offer encouragement, catch someone doing things right and sing their praises.
8. Spend time with teammates away from work. The most powerful way to develop a bond with team members is to get to know them on a personal level. Organize an after-work happy hour or take different team members to lunch occasionally.
This is the first part of a two-part e-tip on team building. This month’s e-tip focuses on the “harder” topics such as structuring your team. Next week’s e-tip will give tips on the “softer topics,” such as communication, recognition and creating trust.
7 Tips for Building Your Team
1. Observe group dynamics. Should an individual be an underperformer or have a negative attitude, they mu
st be removed from the team. It’s true: one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch.
2. Hire carefully. Bring appropriate talent to the team; identify what talent is needed for each individual role. Encourage and support continuous improvement.
3. Diversify. Having team members with different experiences, ethnicity, and problem-solving approaches leads to fresh ideas.
4. Clarify each person’s role including deliverables, timeframes, etc.
5. Develop a cross training program. This protects the team should someone leave and it also provides stimulation that keeps everyone challenged.
6. Welcome new teammates. Turnover is inevitable to all teams. Assign a mentor to the new team member until he/she gets up to speed.
7. Encourage individual team members to hold each other accountable. Have everyone agree on an accountability system. The team leader cannot be everywhere and observe all interaction.
Look to Yourself First.
People don’t want to be micro-managed; they want to be taught, coached and lead by someone they admire and respect.
Here are some ideas that great managers use to build successful teams:
1) Hire smart people; they make you and your department look good
2) Hire positive people; you cannot change attitude
3) Provide encouragement; threats detract from morale and lead to turnover
4) Openly acknowledge success of your staff; praise is powerful
5) Allow your staff to make mistakes without reprisal; we grow from our setbacks more than from our
successes
Your key to being a great manager; become a effective leader, teacher, coach and encourager.
