Should I keep searching for a job during the holiday season?

If you are looking for a job, you may find December to be a slow month. Even though companies are often slow to hire this time of year, many still do hire. Don’t stop looking for the perfect job. If your job search is already underway, you have good momentum. One of my clients was going to stop her job search during the holidays because she thought the likelihood of getting a job would be low. I advised her to continue her search since she already had momentum. I am pleased to say, she is happily starting her great new job the week before Christmas! There are still jobs out there and you may be the perfect candidate for the one that is posted.

Be an Advisor and Build Your Credibility

When working with someone, it can be challenging to build trust. If
you are trying to sell something to someone, it is critical that you
approach the conversation with concern. After doing this, listen to what they have
to say and to make sure that you fully understand what they are
wanting. To make sure you understand, you may ask them questions and
you may paraphrase back what you think they are wanting for
confirmation from them. After you have clarification that you
understand what the individual wants, you can explain to the person
what might work. As you are doing this, if what they are asking for
is challenging, try to figure out a way you can give them what they
are wanting or needing.

This past summer, we hired a painter. He was referred to us by someone so we
had a bit of trust since he had done great work for her. I knew
what I wanted, but I am not an expert, so I needed his expertise. I
told him I wanted the building pressure washed to remove any paint
that may not be well adhered and that I wanted the building to be
scraped and then painted. I wanted it done right away. The painter
explained to me that he could start the pressure washing and scraping
right away. He said unfortunately, he would have to wait to paint until the temperature was above 50 degrees. If he did not wait for warmer temperatures, the paint may not adhere as it should. He was telling me he
could do what I wanted done, but also offering me his expertise and
explaining why he may not be able to paint immediately. I respected
his suggestions. He is the professional. When he shared with me that
he could not paint immediately and why (the temperature), he actually
built more trust with me.

Quality Work Beats 60 Hour Work Weeks Every Time!

In these crazy economic times, it is crucial that you set yourself apart. If you want to do well in your job, start concentrating on the quality of the work you do. If you choose between quality and quantity, choose quality. A company can always hire more people, but quality can be hard to find. Set yourself apart and work to be GREAT at what you do. If you work smart and choose to do great work in your niche area, you will WOW others! As you are doing your work, decide what part of it you love to do. Become a “Subject Matter Expert” in that area. If you do this, everyone will come to you for advice. You will become their advisor, expert and consultant. If you spend your time constantly concentrating on quantity of work, you will always be chasing your work and people will continue to dump more on you. If you determine what you want to excel in and concentrate on really learning it, you will be able to make great contributions to your company and you will become indispensable to your organization.

Promote Yourself!

One of the easiest ways to get promoted is to create a job for yourself in your organization that needs to be done. It needs to be one you would love to do and feel passionate about doing. To do this, you need to do a bit of brainstorming. Get your pen and paper and write down anything that comes to mind. Don’t think about what is possible and what is not, If something comes to mind, write it!

If you did this job, what problem would you solve for your company? What pain would you fix? A software company, that will we refer to as XYZ, has an employee by the name of Kevin. He has been a Project Manager on a Software Development Team. His company has their own email system and it is a bit clunky. Kevin recently realized that if they developed a software tool, the e-mail would run smoothly. This is the problem Kevin wants to solve for his company.

Once you have figured out what problem is that you would solve, you need to determine what the job would look like. Can you visualize the job in your mind? What would the job responsibilities be? If you did the job, what would you do? What would the title of the job be? Kevin of XYZ Company determined

A software company, that will we refer to as XYZ, has an employee by the name of Kevin. He has been a Project Manager on a Software Development Team. His company has their own email system and it is a bit clunky. Kevin recently realized that if they developed a software tool, the e-mail would run smoothly. This is the problem Kevin wants to solve for his company.

Take a minute and think, what would this job look like. company look like? If you did the job, what would you achieve for your company? Envision it in your mind. What would the job entail? How would it be done? Write this all down. Is there any training you would need to be able to do the work? As you look at this "new job" are there pieces of the work that you can start doing in your current
job? Once you have determined what the job will look like, it is time to create a proposal to take to management. There is more coming on writing the proposal. Stay tuned…

"So, How About That Slacker"

Have you ever been frustrated that there was a “slacker” on the team you worked on? Often on a team, there is a slacker! Everyone on the team usually knows who they are. A manager I was coaching mentioned that one of her employees told her that she needed to be harder on someone on the team who was not “pulling their weight.” The manager was caught off guard when her employee brought this up and was not sure how to respond. She did say though that she was constantly working with “the slacker” behind closed doors. She did not like to discipline in public. Great managers praise in public and discipline in private. If you have a great manager, you won’t know even know the “slacker” is being disciplined. It will all occur behind closed doors. Next time you think your manager is being unfair and allowing the slacker to get away with a lot, take a moment and remind yourself that perhaps you have a great manager that helps people make corrections and changes behind closed doors! In addition, stop thinking about others and concentrate on your own career. If you are concentrating on what they are doing, you are not moving yourself up! What steps can you take to better yourself?

Curiosity is Key to Building Strong Relationships

Curiosity is key to listening, learning and communicating

Has someone ever discussed something with you at work that you did not agree with? Maybe they had an idea of how the project you were working on should be done and you had a completely different idea of the direction it should go. Instead of being frustrated with the conversation, try changing your attitude to being completely curious! Think to yourself, “What could I learn about this subject or this person’s point of view?” As the person is talking, ask them lots of questions. Ask why they feel this is the best direction for the project? What are the positives and negatives of approaching the project the way they are suggesting?” Often, there are things we have not contemplated. Perhaps there are reasons to do the project the way they are suggesting it be done. There was a bank that had a website that had been up and running for a long time. They were planning to make some changes to it. The Software Engineer, Samantha, had done the original programming. She had created the site in a specific way. Jamie, who was on her team, wanted to make the site faster. He had ideas of how to do this. He went to her and explained what he wanted to do. Samantha asked him many question to learn what he planned to do and how he planned to do it. Samantha was concerned that by making the site fast, they may sacrifice security of the website. As you can imagine, this would be very detrimental to a bank! During the conversation, security came up. After listening carefully and intently to Jamie, Samantha brought up her concerns of website security and how she thought the changes would impact the site. Jamie was soon convinced that changes he wanted to make, were not worth the risk. Had Samantha immediately told Jamie his idea would never work, her relationship with him would likely suffer. Instead, she listened closely with an open mind and asked Jamie a lot of questions. She genuinely hoped he had an idea that would work.

As you are working with others, think to yourself, What can I learn?” “Why does this person think we should approach the project this way.” Ask questions of the other person. Ask them to explain their ideas and why they think you should do the project as they are proposing it. Maybe there is good reason for trying their method. You may or may not be convinced, but if you do not listen actively and use your curiosity to truly understand them, you will not understand what drives their preferences and ideas. By listening intently and keeping an open mind, you will have invested in building the relationship in a positive way. Having positive relationships, as you know, helps you to keep your career headed in the right direction!

Find Something In Common With Everyone You Meet

Find Something In Common With Everyone You Meet

To build trusting relationships, it helps to look for the things we have in common with others rather than the differences. There was a guy on a project, Jason. He seemed to really have a lot of ego. He was kind of loud and seemed obnoxious to Jessica. She tended to always think of him as the obnoxious guy on the project. She knew nothing about him other than the perception she had. She did not realize they had both grown up in the same city and lived in the same neighborhood. They had very similar backgrounds and they even liked to do many of the same things. The longer the two worked together, the more they both realized they had a lot in common. As they found commonalities, there was less tension in their relationship. When you meet someone new on a project you are working on, try to find out what you have in common. If you ask enough questions, you will find something in common with them. We each have something in common with everyone. When you find you have things in common with another person, you will find it is easier to like them and to enjoy their company. We can find things in common with every person we meet whether it is something work related or we learn we have both traveled recently to Italy. Having strong relationships will help you to get promoted in your career and it always helps to forget great relationships to help make this happen!