Posted on by shersh

WANT A JOB? – JUST HAND-OVER THE CASH!—NOT!!!!!

For those of you who are hiring or want to hire a firm to find YOU a job ( guaranteed?)   STOP .

I have read too many sad articles reporting on the fate of the unemployed paying out thousands of dollars to firms “promising” to find them jobs.  And, of course, the promise never comes true. For example, Rewriting a resume for you and sending you out to do cold calling is not a  service  of value. We need to refocus on ourselves and reposition. are we getting value??    and you say  YAH, RIGHT!!!!!!    I do not have a magic bullet, no one person does!   Remember that…

So,   what is going on with you?  ( I’ll exclude 4 letter words in this blog. You can add them as you read)

You are out of a job. In this world of ours the resulting pressures are immense and create/drive emotions in ourselves like:

.Pressure to do something –

.Anxiety about money, family, self respect, ego, physical-mental-spiritual health

.Anxiety about achieving our expectations of ourselves, and maybe meeting the perceived expectations  others have of us

.Anger at others, disbelief, sadness, self recrimination,

.Anxiety over the morass of data and information that impales us, adding to our challenge of next step decsions

.Frustration over the coldness of the job search process and the realization that the relationships you have may not be as warm as you thought

Given all of this, and more I am sure, we are all open to anything and sometimes  relent to others suggestions.  In some ways, for a short time, we even feel better that someone else will solve our problem. No matter what it costs.    The weight comes off our shoulders, for a second, minute, day , week. Feels good. But no answer.

We forget, as everyone and everything around us each looses its head,  how strong each of us can be in facing this job search. We are a resilient race, we humans…

So when that phone call offering you nirvana, please , please stop, and don’t give any  answers. Hang up.

Take a deep breadth, and count to ten. (This advice has been around for thousands of years, and still works..)

And start having a dialogue with yourself ( and write down the answers).

At this point the “Yah, RIGHT” people and over-wrought Type As people  stop reading or listening and run off in all directions.

For the rest of you:

You are your job search – No one else can ultimately do the job for you. In the end, when you get a job, it is You who will be sitting at that desk, or talking on that phone or serving  that customer.  Just you.  No one else.

And if at this point you say, I don’t care about this stuff I just want a job. C’mon!!!!!

Remember If you don’t know where you are going, nobody else will.

Remember too, that when you are really frustrated, you are like a fish on a hook. The more you struggle, the deeper the hook penetrates.  Please stop, rethink and regain control. In this case, you can get off that hook!

Some simple starting questions I like to  ask

.Do you have a written detailed and specific plan ( not in your head) for your job search? Do you have a written career plan and a go to market strategy?  Have you created your foundation resume based on you career?

Without these documents you may not be in control of yourself and thus can be at the mercy of others.

I am a believer of human resiliency. I believe each and every one of you can build and execute a plan. I believe that the thousands you may want to spend on someone else, is much better invested in you, ( intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, physically).  Start planning, so you start doing!

more later….

Posted on by shersh

Future of HR

I had the opportunity this morning of listening to John Boudreau, co-author ( with Peter M. Ramstad) of the book Beyond HR, The New Science of Human Capital. The presentation was sponsored by the Strategic Capability Network ( http://www.scnetwork.ca ) in Toronto.

John has eloquently provided a deep and relevant context, models and language in which HR can grow from: Personnel ( Control stage) of the profession, to Human Resources ( the Services stage where many are now) to Talentship ( the strategic stage) where we integrate past learnings and deliver a level of decision science that will now underpin our profession.

The book is well worth the read. To make it more valuable we must tangibly integrate John Boudreau’s perspectives and execute on them . I do not believe this is another “management book with fad all over it”!

It provides the essential tools to better integrate with the Business Strategy, the questions to deepen our incite, priority, and focus in terms of tangible value delivery and the metrics that make sense to complement the execution.

The book is published by Harvard Business School Press.

Posted on by shersh

Leadership is not an island

Leadership is hard sometimes. We take a new role and find that we respond to the new dynamics in new unplanned ways .
From the outside we do well assessing the business situation ( like a case at school) and creating a number of pragmatic paper opinions based on good sound logic including ourselves. But we are not logical. surprise!

As we take on new roles, we can only do “so much” pre-analysis before jumping in and being. Sure we use our leadership skills , maybe stoically at first, but reality sets in. The numbers are not as high as we “promised”, out of the corner of our eye we may see the corner of the room coming closer, our board looks at us sceptically ( did we make a wrong choice?) and all of a sudden we respond or react.
Sometimes under pressure we may say things, do things in anger ( fire someone?) as if we had to prove our command position or assert so that in some way we will get respect.

But the world has changed. how we respond under pressure, how we emotionally engage, the personality traits we lean on, are all a currency that have not be counted before.

We realize that it is not enough to do the case study on the business problem/challenge. Now, more than ever, we need to understand ourselves, and team with others who will provide the support and the insight to succeed. We need to accept that we are not alone . That no matter how strong we are, we cannot be bulls in a china shop.

So next time an opportunity presents itself consider who you are, and, using the Heisenberg Principle, understand the effect we will have when we put ourselves on the case.