I really do believe that most LinkedIn profiles (and resumes) send a more negative than positive message about their owner because not enough thought or positioning differentiation has been put into them. Too many profiles make the owner look like a commodity player, or, even if metrics are provided, don’t leave the reader convinced that this executive was the key to why company sales grew 10%. More importantly, 75% of readers of your LinkedIn profile are not looking to hire you but are looking for someone to answer a question or be the source of a referral. To receive those queries and turn them into networking opportunities, you need to demonstrate EQ or social intelligence in your profile and LI activities. So spend a few minutes re-examining your LinkedIn presence and consider these questions:

• What comes to mind when people think about me as a professional brand? What have been my greatest personal successes or epiphanies? How am I different from others with the same title? How am I better? Have I demonstrated it convincingly?
• When a company has never worked with me or my firm previously, what do they want the most assurance about? Do I reflect knowledge of how my customers measure success and excellent customer service?
• What issues in the industry am I very knowledgeable about or do I want to promote? (Green energy, less government regulation…)
• What business issues do I have a personal passion about? (Ethics, empowering others, world peace…)
• Have I demonstrated my willingness to help others whether it makes me money or not?
• Have I said all of this in a way that identifies for which target audience or company I am most valuable or most interested in for the future (which might be different than my last role?)
• Have I provided references from key customers?

You get the idea. To be seen as the preferred resource in LinkedIn, you need to present yourself as a multi-dimensional executive whom not only has credible technical competency, but can and wants to collaborate, facilitate, and empower the world around you.

Topics: branding + positioning, business skills, communications, getting ahead, leadership, selling skills, technical skills, visibility | 3 Comments »

Abandon the idea that, in order to be a good networker, you must learn to approach strangers with a sales pitch that convinces the listener to introduce you to their boss or best clients in 3 minutes or less. While this “speed dating” strategy is featured in some professional associations where everyone has agreed to it before the meeting, it doesn’t work as well as other methods. In fact, studies show this kind of “cold call” networking works for only 1-2% of the people who try it outside of the pre-approved environment. The same studies indicate that even 80-90% of professional sales people fail at it.

The best results occur from networking structured as “permission marketing.” What is permission marketing? Amazon.com is an example. You invite Amazon.com (give them permission) to share book descriptions and recommendations with you. Over time, they show you more books, learning your preferences, and you develop trust for their recommendations. Eventually, you are likely to purchase 35-70% of the books they recommend without hesitation.

Good business networking results from a similar, mutually beneficial, informed relationship. For that relationship to bear fruit, the other person needs to:

• Know you in some detail to know how you are relevant to him/her and what you might need
• Understand your differentiation from others with similar titles
• Trust you – which is strengthened by repeated and frequent encounters over time

The most effective currency of exchange is business information in the form of leads, advice, trade articles, cutting-edge news, compliance updates, and editorials from industry thought leaders (whitepapers, blogs, etc…) Studies show a business contact is most interested in information that helps him/her to make money, save money, or be more efficient, in that order. Doing them a personal favor like finding sports tickets ranks a distant 4^th.

You need to offer to help someone 3-4 times before they are generally willing to offer anything they consider high value in exchange. Hence, giving is more effective than asking in a networking relationship. Quality of relationship is more important than quantity of contacts. A great first question by you to a new contact is “If I could help you find a solution or solve a problem, what would it be?”  You want to uncover VOC (voice of customer) as soon as possible in the relationship. The more distant the contact initially (a friend of a friend), the more nurturing will be required before they share back.

So treat networking like any other business strategy. Devise a carefully constructed “marketing plan” with stratified target audiences and messages or articles selected to provide maximum business or social impact with a particular audience. Track your results and test market new approaches. Don’t let networking be an accidental or infrequent event when you have nothing better to do. Like any other business investment, for it to deliver the most interest, networking needs to be carefully allocated and deposited well before you need to withdraw the assets.

Topics: branding + positioning, communications, getting ahead, hidden job market, networking, selling skills, solving problems, visibility | 1 Comment »

Most folks only think about their brand when they are updating their resume or marketing plan. Consider this. You are reinforcing your brand positively or negatively, consciously or unconsciously, 24 hours/day, 365 days/year.

If you want to be more memorable and influential in a sea of other executives, separate yourself from the pack at every opportunity:

1. Elevate the thoughtfulness, strategic depth, and currency of all your conversations. Talk more about the latest trends in your industry, and cutting edge technology. Show thought leadership.
2. Demonstrate your ability to sell ideas, build consensus, and grow business. This goes beyond showing you are a good networker and relationship builder. Your community needs to know how well you can influence key decision makers, facilitate across departments, get results, and create revenue.
3. Create opportunities to network with business peers on a deeper-level than possible in a typical monthly networking event or occasional networking lunch. Increase the percentage of people in your network with heavy business influence.
4. Upgrade the quality of your interpersonal interactions. A salesperson I know never ends a conversation without asking “what can I do for you today?” He stands out amongst the thousands of sales people I know because of the way he communicates it. He really does mean it. His customers and network know it.
5. Improve your LinkedIn profile and activities. It says volumes about you. Whether or not you have self-awareness about your value to employers, and can communicate and sell your ideas. Whether you are interested in helping others in the industry, or just want their contacts. Whether you are willing to read and comment on someone’s blog or discussion in a LI group in exchange for reading your sales pitch. I believe most LI profiles are doing more damage than good to their owners.
6. Update your clothing and hairstyle, look less generic. Be more hip. Have a professional quality picture in LinkedIn.  Free, generic business cards are out. Even your email signature matters.
7. Lastly, once you have turbo-charged your brand, create “buzz” and sustain it.

The key is to establish and maintain your brand in terms that are as relevant as possible to current business needs. Your brand needs be memorable and easily repeated by your fans. (Most elevator speeches are not.) Your pitch needs to have focus and a theme offering synergy amongst skills. Emphasize how you are different, not how you are similar. Highlight what is most in demand in the marketplace.

If you don’t groom and maintain your brand image, you may have no recognizable value to the community or a very muddled image that makes people avoid you for fear of a poor return on investment. Establishing a positive brand in the industry for future contingencies takes time and is crucial to long term stability and growth. It takes little time to damage a brand and forever to repair negatives.

Topics: branding + positioning, communications, getting ahead, leadership, networking, selling skills, technical skills, visibility | No Comments »

As I sat in a kayak this weekend, I spent time thinking about how I have changed my own labor situation in the last few years. After 30+ years of working mostly for other people I have now been working for myself almost 3 years. Many of my clients have only worked in large corporations and they keep asking if I would go back inside if I get the chance? After all, I worked for global companies with at least 5,000 employees for at least 20 years. OK, I am 55+, so fewer companies would be willing to hire me, but don’t I find it desirable?

Security is a state of mind. I seriously believe I am better off controlling my own destiny than being subject to the whims and decisions of a larger company and other executives. Even though I might make more money right now working for someone else.

Labor is a state of mind. At least now, when I invest 70 hours a week, I know I will reap more of the rewards for my effort. It feels less like “work.” I CHOOSE what to do today and tomorrow. What I am building cannot be taken away from me as easily as it could at a larger corporation. Even a corporation of 3 people.

I worked in Manhattan for 20+ years. There used to be a very popular poster that there was Manhattan and then there was little else. You could see the edge of the earth just beyond the Hudson River. You had little or no work value if you were not working in NYC.

Well, I have outgrown that sentiment and finding my value in anyone or any company outside of myself. Working for myself doesn’t feel so much like work.

Topics: career strategy | No Comments »

Back around 1870, automation shifted the production of most goods consumed in the US to centralized factories. Factory owners needed workers who would contentedly stand in an assembly line for hours on end at low pay. Schools bred workers who were compliant and not trained well enough to have higher aspirations. The paternalistic employer offered workers life-long stability and benefits to keep them content. Unions guaranteed minimum working conditions. Detroit auto workers are an example of this co-dependent culture.

This education model continued through the 1970s when high tech innovation, and the increasing shift of low level manufacturing overseas required that most US workers needed a college education to succeed. Simultaneously, workers began to have higher aspirations for themselves in their relationship with employers. An engineering degree was a ticket to success and long-term approbation.

Fast forward to 2011. Innovation and globalization are well-known phenomena. I think we all understand that the rate of both is accelerating. The average permanent job is lasting 2-3 years as business owners must constantly re-group to meet competitive threats. Yet, workers have become increasingly less engaged, crabby that the employer is not taking care of them, threatening to move on at the first opportunity.

•  69% of employees describe themselves as under-engaged or un-engaged.
• 30% of executives describe themselves as under-engaged or un-engaged.
• 47% of engaged high potentials say they will leave “at the first opportunity.”  (#)

I don’t understand the disconnect. I talk to folks every day who proudly threaten they will move on within the next 12 months to a “nicer” employer.

Why do you think the next employer will be radically better? The phenomenon we are caught in is happening to all of us, employer and employee alike. Yes, the employers could be nicer in many instances. CEOs should not make so much more than the rest of us. However, the bigger trend is that employers will have less and less choice to nurture the relationship with employees in the way you are all accustomed to. Companies are being pushed into decisions that will make the relationship with employees more and more transient.

So what are you doing about it? Showing disengagement to your current employer or a hiring manager is likely to put you high on the first-to-be-fired list. Feeling disengaged is counter-productive, a dead end. It won’t get you promoted.

Instead, you need to learn how to succeed and shine versus other employees in the future or work for yourself.

(#) http://www.workforce.com/section/hr-management/feature/special-report-employee-engagement-losing-lifeblood/

Topics: career strategy, solving problems | 2 Comments »