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.

Back in January, my usually upbeat handyman confided to me that he was in a funk. Business was down and he could barely meet expenses. He decided to seek employment as a Superintendent or Facility Manager. While he enjoyed doing home repairs, he needed the security of a full time job. A change in situation would create a steady income and allow him to serve private customers after business hours. The problem was he lacked the personal awareness to effectively market himself.

After a brief discussion we agreed on a barter arrangement; I would write his resume and cover letter in exchange for his taking care of several projects around my home.

My familiarity with his work helped me to create a resume that would attract the opportunities he was seeking. The profile boasted about his talents, the skills section featured every tool he had operated and the professional skills he offered. I included a logo that depicted a hammer and nail to catch the attention of hiring managers.

The interview process and completed document gave my handyman the language he needed to market himself. What he learned about himself during the interview process of the resume program gave him a better understanding of his value to others and the role his previous experience in played in achieving his goals.

About a week after his resume was completed he called to tell me about all the opportunities that were coming his way. The newly created resume enabled him to clearly speak with friends and members of his congregation about his career goals. To his surprise he found people were more than willing to share contacts and job leads. I listened as he enthusiastically told me he was going to apply for a seasonal maintenance position with the Trump Organization…It has since occurred to me the real benefit of what I do is give people the confidence and hope they need to pursue their goals.

You Are Invited to Attend
“THE NEW JOB WARRIORS”
A FREE WEEKLY PROGRAM FOR PEOPLE IN A CAREER TRANSITION
Starting Tuesday, March 24, 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM
@ Starbucks
1 Depot Square, Tuckahoe, NY
Coffee and Danish Compliments of Starbucks
Seating is limited.
Call now to reserve your space
914-961-0579

Starbucks rocks! Thanks to Miryah, manager of Starbucks in Tuckahoe for her support.

15 years ago she worked around the very same issues  she is facing today. The difference was she felt appreciated by her bosses. Now, she waits anxiously for her boss, who is located across the country, to return her calls. During our meeting  she confided to me she feared he wasn’t interested in hearing her ideas.

Having coached her for several months, I knew I would be unable to convince her otherwise. Yet, I had to come up with something to help feel better or risk seeing her lose her new job because of her attitude. That’s when the word “perhaps” came to mind. I took a chance and asked her what would happen if she started her internal dialogues with the word perhaps? Perhaps, he is isn’t interested in what I have to say? Perhaps he is too busy ot respond to my email. She smiled, she could deal with knowing he might or might not be interested in her ideas. After practicing this for a few days, she called to tell me that her boss called her and said he wanted to hear more of her input.

Perhaps is a powerful tool. With an 8% unemployment rate there are a lot of people competing for work. It is stressful to wait for a response to your perfectly written cover letter and resume. Yet, stress can drain you of your optimism and enthusiasm. Both of which are needed to catch the attention of hiring managers. Perhaps, you could retain some of your optimism by saying to yourself “perhaps. I will be called in for an interview.”

The  next time you find yourself filled with thoughts of gloom and doom, preface your thoughts with perhaps. You might   feel a little better.

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

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.