Shortly after she gave birth I learned the baby’s middle name was the same as my first name. Given I am not a parent I was flabbergasted. When we got a chance to discuss the baby’s name I learned her husband’s late sister and I shared the same name. However, given my involvement they had decided when the time came they would also tell her how I cared for her brother and sisters while she was being born.

There are valuable lessons to be learned about networking from this blessed, memorable event. If you are currently or have been in a job search, you likely have been told that networking is the best way to get hired.  Approximately 80% of all people are hired due to a personal recommendation. Despite the high success rate networking can be frustrating, frightening and confusing.

Much like effective networkers, Melissa and I share a personal connection. This connection is what makes us willing to help one another. A week before she gave birth she made time to help me set up a budget to accommodate my new life as a single woman. Your professional network can help you achieve your goals when you treat your contacts like valued friends. To build and grow your network, select and for the next 90 days, implement three tips from the list that follows:

1. Determine what traits, values, and interests you share with people in your network. It’s best when these are both personal and professional.  Music, sports, philanthropy are great denominators.
2. Have heroes, role models, mentors – these are people who are where you want to be. Let them know how they have inspired you when you ask for advice and guidance.
3. As simple as it may sound, let people like you. People like to do business or help those they like. Smile, tell a joke or funny story, and make good eye contact.
4. Develop a genuine interest in other people’s lives. Listen for and seize opportunities to help other’s achieve their goals
5. Stay on the radar screen, both socialmedia and technology offer various ways to keep your name popping up. If someone doesn’t reply to your email or text try contacting them using Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
6. Ask your contacts the best way and times to contact them. Some will prefer email, while others will prefer LinkedIn.
7. Keep it friendly, keep it social, but keep it professional. If you haven’t spoken in awhile, schedule a lunch meeting or phone call to catch up with each other. This will go further then sending an email about their company’s need for a Senior Vice President.

During my former career as an account executive I realized people needed to like me before they could sign an agreement with me. So I made a conscious decision to let them know me. I took the time to ask about their business, what was happening with their family, and how their weekend was. In turn they asked about my life. Several clients became lifelong friends.

The lesson I learned is people like to do business with or help people who they feel a connection. In addition to your business card and resume be sure to bring your smile and curiosity to your next networking meeting.

Marc Cenedella
Founder & CEO
TheLadders.com, Inc.

Every week I receive tons of emails from friends and colleagues. While there are way too much for me to read, every now and then one will catch my eye as the aforementioned quote has.

Fear is running rampant and our nation is being called to to live with less while we huddle close and hope the monster of unemployment will pass by our doors. The crisis will eventually pass but the question remains how gracefully will get you get through it?

Just like Marc Cenedella, I urge you to focus on one thing; take control of your career and let go of what is beyond your power. What you can control is:

- Your attitude: Like any other project, every great job begins with an achievable vision.
- Your process: Finding a job that best matches your unique qualifications and skills requires you to create and stick to a strong project plan, schedule and specific milestones.
- Your resume: Always, always, always keep it current. You never know when your next great opportunity will appear.
- Your network -: Creating an active job search team means that you will keep in touch often, be both a generous giver and a gracious receiver. Coach your friends, family, colleagues and peers in the specifics, i.e. your goals and how they can help you achieve them.
- Where you look: When used properly, the internet is a great tool for finding employment. Make a list of employers you are interested in working for and look under the “Careers or Join Us” section of their websites.
- Your knowledge: Whether it is learning a new technology or completing your PMP, you must commit to being a lifelong learner to stay competitive in this market.
- Your image: From your head to your toes present a professional image. Always make sure your shoes are polished, your clothes are neat and crisp, you are well groomed and your smile is broad and welcoming.

The Olympic Games will begin shortly and, no doubt, treat us to a showcase of some of humankind’s best moments. Despite its imperfections, this quadrennial event confirms just how special people can be when they are dedicated to a goal, work hard at its accomplishment and have faith in themselves. For most of us, however, the athletes who compete in the Olympics seem a very different breed. They are more gifted than we, more talented, more able to succeed at realizing their aspirations. So, we assume that the journey of an Olympian holds little of relevance to our gifts and talent or to the aspirations at which we work. And, that assumption is incorrect.

Olympians are the living embodiment of three principles that are as important to each of us as they are to those who are world class athletes. Why is that so? Because every person has the ability to be a world class “career athlete,” to achieve career victories that may not award them a gold medal, but will earn them a perfect ten in self respect and happiness at work. How can that happen, especially in difficult times such as these? By incorporating those three Olympian principles into your career. And the key to doing that is to adopt the goals and beliefs of these special athletes.

Most Olympic athletes are ordinary people striving to do extraordinary things. They set out to be the best they can be in their chosen sport. That’s their all consuming goal. To continuously probe the outer limits of their ability to perform in archery, swimming, track or judo. They will reach for the outer reaches of what they can do, but at some point that reach will exceed their grasp. With some wonderful exceptions like Dara Torres, most of these athletes will see their push for perfection limited by the inherent aging of the human body. They have a brief shot at their personal best, and then their chance is gone.

Happily, we can adopt the very same goal but without the Olympian’s limitation. We can (and should) strive to be the best we can be in our chosen field of work, and with rare exceptions, we will never have to worry about being derailed in that quest by the frailties of the human body. All we have to do is accept the validity of this objective and make the commitment to work at it. We have to:

believe that we too have been graced with a special gift-a natural talent-at which we can become a world class performer;

and

acknowledge that we have an obligation to ourselves to express and experience that talent in its highest, its most developed state.

Unlike Olympians, of course, our quest to be the best we can be will play out in the workplace. Work is the one endeavor where everyone can be challenged and pushed to explore and ultimately express the full dimensions of the talent which is their special gift. Our contest, however, won’t be guided by events or lanes, but by jobs and responsibilities. And equally as important, we won’t be measuring ourselves against others-against our competitors-but against ourselves-against what we have already achieved and what more we can strive to do.

That’s the goal we can borrow from Olympians. It is a worthy vision in and of itself, but it is also the foundation for our understanding and using the three principles of Olympian success. They are:

• Find your natural talent and focus on nothing but it. Most of us aren’t ever going to be world class athletes, but every one of us can be world class performers in the workplace if we’re working at perfecting the talent with which we have been endowed. We all have a champion within us, we just have to figure out who that person is. That’s the secret to a healthy career-one replete with career victories at age 21, at age 61, and everywhere in between-find what it is that you most love to do and do best and center every minute you work on that. Admittedly, this insight is not always apparent at first glance. But everyone can acquire it because everyone already has it. Our insight is usually out of sight, but it’s there if we pay attention. We just have to listen to it to get it. That’s why it’s often referred to as our calling.
• It’s your job to develop and express your natural talent. As with your physical fitness, there is no free lunch when it comes to perfecting your natural talent. Even world class athletes must devote themselves to nurturing their talent. Equally as important, they acknowledge that it’s their responsibility to reach for and achieve their personal best. Some of us in the world of work, however, think that we can get by doing less or that someone else should make it possible for us to do more. We somehow get the idea that bringing our talent to the fore is the job of our employer or the government or our parents or … well, just about anyone but us. The truth, however, is that caring for your natural talent, like caring for your body, is a personal responsibility. You don’t have to eat a special diet, you don’t have to get up and run three miles every morning; but you do have to be sure you work in the right jobs-those that will engage and challenge you-and thereby enable you to do your best work.
• You have to work at perfecting your natural talent every day. Careers can grow slack and deteriorate just as our bodies can. Flabby bodies can lead to cardiac arrest; flabby careers can lead to career cardiac arrest or what most of us call unemployment. The only way to preserve and strengthen your career is by implementing the habits of a world class career athlete. These habits form a regimen of seven activities or “exercises” that should be performed on a daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly basis. One, for example, is to pump up your career’s cardiovascular system. The heart of a successful career athlete is their expertise in their profession, craft or trade. It’s not good enough, however, to know what you must do to perform your current job satisfactorily. You must also be competent in your knowledge of the state-of-the-art in your field and how to apply that expertise in an expanded definition of your current job or in a different and more expansive one. At best, the former gives you job security and even that for only as long as it suits your employer; the latter gives you career security or the ability to work in jobs that will engage and challenge you and thereby achieve the career victories that matter to you.

So, watch the Olympics. Thrill to the joy of victory and reflect on the agony of defeat. Then, turn off the TV set and turn on the contest of your life. You have your own wonderful race to run. It won’t take you to the world’s medal stand, but it will position you to reach your own platform of perfection. Unlike the Olympians, however, you don’t have to settle for gold. Your challenge is the pursuit of Happiness, and victory there shines deeper and richer than any medal. It is the mark of a true career champion.

Thanks for reading,
Peter

P.S. READER’S ALERT: Don’t miss the write-up below on our latest book-WEDDLE’s Guide to Staffing Firms & Employment Agencies. The American Staffing Association reports that one-third of those who take part time or contract jobs through a staffing firm end up being hired full time by their employers. That’s why this book is “a practical path to full and part time employment”.

For information about WEDDLE’s visit http://www.weddles.com/index.htm

1. Present a job objective that will appeal to the readers’ interest. A clearly stated objective such as PROJECT MANAGER / BUSINESS ANALYST will get more attention then “a challenging position that will utilize my skills and talents.”
2. Think of your PROFILE or CAREER SUMMARY as the back cover copy of a book or a mini sales letter. Some hiring managers decide in as little as 10 seconds whether to call you or toss your documents in the circular file.
3. Keep your profile no longer than 6 lines. Make every word count; your profile is 10 times more powerful than the sections that follow. Use SOUND BITES; ACTION ORIENTED VERBS and KEY WORDS; PICTURE AND EMOTIONAL WORDS, BENEFITS, NOT FEATURES to keep your message focused and capture your readers’ attention.
4. Writers know readers like to focus on one topic at a time. INCLUDE ONLY INFORMATION THAT IS RELEVANT TO YOUR CAREER OR JOB OBJECTIVE. Omit information such as marital status, age, weight, and any data that is unrelated to your objective.
5. What are your readers most interested in? Take the time to research the jobs and companies that interest you. What qualities, skills, or knowledge are they looking for? WHAT HAVE YOU ACCOMPLISHED, HAVE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT, OR ARE SKILLED IN THAT WILL DEMONSTRATE YOU ARE QUALIFIED TO DO THE JOB.
6. A WELL-DESIGNED, CLEAN, SIMPLE LAYOUT WITH AMPLE WHITE SPACE IS EASIER TO READ than a document that has multiple type fonts and type styles. Use BULLET POINTS TO CALL ATTENTION TO ACCOMPLISHMENTS, BOLD FACE TYPE FOR SECTION HEADERS, JOB TITLES and / or COMPANY NAMES, ACADEMIC DEGREES and / or COLLEGES or UNIVERSITIES.
7. The key to good writing is EDIT, EDIT AND EDIT SOME MORE. What if your readers can spot grammatical errors that you didn’t know were there? EVERY MISTAKE IN GRAMMAR, SPELLING, SENTENCE STRUCTURE, AND OVERALL ORGANIZATION, ANYTHING THAT TRIPS UP THE SMOOTH FLOW OF IDEAS FROM YOU TO YOUR READER IS A POTENTIAL MINEFIELD. Once your resume and cover letter are completed have the documents proofread by someone other than you.

According to my validation of personality type, I am an ENFP. ENFP’s are credited with being warmly enthusiastic and imaginative. See life as full of possibilities (for me, learning presents many new possibilities). Make connections between events and information very quickly (I am usually anxious to share my knowledge to benefit clients, friends, family and colleagues) and proceed on patterns they see. Want a lot of affirmation from others and readily give appreciation and support (I just love it when clients report back that they’ve gotten a better position or that the resume I wrote turned their job search around1) Spontaneous and flexible, often rely on their ability to improvise and their verbal fluency.