“Start tapping into your network. Start investing in skills. Start taking intelligent risks. Start pursuing breakout opportunities. But most of all start forging your own differentiated career plans; start adapting these rules to your own adaptive life.

For life in permanent beta, the trick is to never stop starting.

The start-up is you.”

~ Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha in The Start-up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career.

You’ve probably heard this many times over – it’s not just the people you know. It’s the people they know – your second and third degree connections who matter.

Now, just knowing is not enough; The Start-up of YOU offers some valuable insights on what to do once you know that these people can help you at some point in your career.

It’s a career success roadmap that works for our changing times. And as you would expect from an engaging book, you’ll find numerous examples from the lives of successful people from the tech industry to Hollywood who have reached the higher rungs of success. It was never a one step or a solo journey, they have worked, re-pathed and have grown through their network.

The take back from these inspiring examples is that no one catapults to somewhere high, you can of course go leaps and bounds from one place to the other but for what seems to be ‘a sudden rise to fame’ there’s a long trail of persistence, hard work, focus and a good network.

The book inspires, motivates and nudges you to get on an actionable plan – to success. The Start-up of YOU presents some key opportunity-creating strategies that can help you on your way up and forward, either as an entrepreneur or simply when taking charge of your career.

Why I loved this book?

• Through the journeys and experiences of the founders of the now multi-million and billion dollar companies, I have the insight on how true resilience, fierce tenacity and the right network equates to success. All of the three have to be there – in the right proportion.

• This book doesn’t just tell me what to do to take my career or project to the next level, it shows me how. These few pages have cajoled me to prepare a strategic plan that can help me rise to the market competitiveness and assist others in gaining the career insight truly needed to for that significant jump in their careers.

• ‘Job security’ is no longer a word in the corporate dictionary; you must be proactive and be prepared with what needs to be done if we ride another recession wave. To be aware and to have an effective action plan can help you ride any wave – The start-up of YOU can be the oar for your lifeboat when time comes. Knowledge empowers. If it can excite you to appropriate action – it does even more.

• It’s a motivational tonic to the would-be and young entrepreneurs. It offers a boost to the movers and shakers who want to drive their career to higher grounds.

Some insights from Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha that you’ll agree to as you read through the book:

 You have to have your mind on fire

Entrepreneurs brim with curiosity; they see opportunity where others see problems, because while others simply complain, entrepreneurs ask Why? For those of you in your career, curiosity (with or without frustration) about industries, people, and jobs will make you alert to the professional opportunities. It’s hard to learn curiosity. But it is something you can get infected with by hanging out with passionately curious people. And once you catch curiosity, it’s luckily hard to shake off.

Do something to propel your career further

You won’t encounter accidental good fortune – you won’t stumble upon opportunities that rocket your career forward – if you’re lying in bed. When you do something you stir the pot and introduce the possibility that seemingly random ideas, people and places will collide and form new combinations and opportunities. Make things happen and in the long run, you’ll design your own serendipity and make your own opportunities.

Pursue relationships and networks that matter

If you want to increase your opportunity flow, join and participate in as many of these groups and associations as possible – local PTAs, alumni groups, book groups, beekeeping clubs, conferences, and industry meetings.

It is yet again on the list of the brilliant books which are to be read from the first word to the very end – without skipping and with a pen and paper to get started on your action plan straight away! You’re bound to miss on a lot if you dare skip a couple of pages. Each idea and each experience shared by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha is to be chewed on and acted on well.

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. ~ Sir Francis Bacon

About The Authors

 

REID HOFFMAN is a world-renowned entrepreneur and investor. He is cofounder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network with 100+ million members. Previously he was executive vice president and on the founding board of directors of PayPal. He is also a partner at Greylock, a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm. He is an early investor in over 100 technology companies, including Facebook and Zynga.

 

 

 

 

BEN CASNOCHA is an award-winning entrepreneur and author. He has written for Newsweek and public radio’s Marketplace and appeared on CNN, the CBS Early Show, and CNBC. BusinessWeek has named him one of “America’s best young entrepreneurs. He has spoken to more than ten thousand students and businesspeople in countries around the world.

 

 

 

What is business acumen?

Business acumen is keen, fundamental, street smart insight into how your business operates and how it makes money and sustains profitable growth, now and in the future.

Developing business acumen helps us cut through the complexity, get a bird’s eye view of a business and understand our specialized roles within it.

Kevin Cope’s new book, SEEING THE BIG PICTURE:  Business Acumen to Build Your Credibility, Career, and Company (Greenleaf Book Group Press, March 2012) enables everyone, business leaders and employees alike to build more profitable companies. A must read if you seek success at your business.

This is a must-have reference book for all entrepreneurs – a meaningful and helpful educational material which eventually becomes a valuable resource – to be referred to now and many times over. You’ll find valuable insights throughout the book in well cited examples on how the now successful companies have used opportunities and efficient vision to their competitive advantage.

The basics or the foundation of building a company are always the same, more or less – the success factors however depend on how you use your business acumen to ensure sustainable growth. Are you among the knowledgeable, diligent and insightful few who are aware of the key strategies to create a sustainable organization – by seeing the bigger picture?

“Cash is the fuel that drives a business.  Without cash, a business can’t pay its bills, can’t pay its employees, can’t buy the goods it needs to produce the products or services it sells…. Companies that have strong cash positions, good profit margins, and asset strength have the foundation to support growth both in the short-term and long-term.”

The book enlightens us through a series of examples on how fortune 500 companies and other organizations with amazing progressive culture have taken the leaps to success, building a sustainable brand and customer loyalty. Your business acumen truly enables you to have an edge above the “also-ran” and “launched-but-never-really-took-off” few. And not only entrepreneurs; any CEO, manager or employee can use this know-how to help build a financially strong and culturally sound workplace.

If you and your company understand the importance of the 5 Key Drivers – cash, profit, assets, growth, and people – you know that you have a strong foothold even in a stormy recession. This book can help everyone, from the factory floor to the executive suite, grasp the big picture:  how these five drivers interact to build great companies. In SEEING THE BIG PICTURE, Cope not only explains how these drivers operate, but how they work together and are impacted by everyone in the organization.

“The balance sheet is a financial snapshot taken at the end of a month, quarter, or fiscal year. Everything you do to impact cash, profits, and assets influences your balance sheet.”

Part 2 of the book is dedicated to simplifying the financial statements through the 5 drivers. I’ve never been enlightened better on seeing the big picture of the financials before than I did through this book. Covering the basics and details of a company’s financials – this book proves to be an essential learning tool which you perhaps missed out at school – this sure is an MBA in less than 180 pages!

 “Remember, growth is the key.” – Kevin Cope in Seeing the Big Picture

How are you growing?

Kevin Cope is President and CEO of Acumen Learning.  He is a trusted resource and confidant to business leaders from around the world and a sought-after keynote speaker. For over twenty-five years, Kevin has promoted the idea that the brightest minds in business understand the essence of how a company makes money, and they use this knowledge to drive their decisions.  These people have business acumen, and you’ll find them everywhere from the factory floor to the corner office.

In 2002, Kevin founded Acumen Learning, a training company that teaches his five key drivers model to some of the world’s most respected and successful organizations.  Kevin’s specialty is teaching employees how to speak the language of business as fluently as they speak the language of their department or function.  Kevin believes that people who exercise their business acumen are able to see the big picture, and maker better, smarter, and faster business decisions that drive sustainable and profitable growth.

Learn Your Way to Success: How to Customize Your Professional Learning Plan to Accelerate Your Career

Learn Your Way to Success helps us become more conscious of our daily opportunities to learn and guides us on the best practices to take advantage of them. Daniel Tobin presents a number of tools and methods readers can use to set a personal learning agenda, keep track of what is learned, and determine how to use that learning to improve performance in their current job, prepare for their next job, and plan their careers.

Learning on the job takes time and anything that eases the process is highly beneficial to the employee and the employer.

Learning in itself is not as effective as when applied appropriately in your day to day work and life – that’s what makes all the difference. And for this simple reason this book offers some brilliant advice to the new hires and those who want to make learning on the job meaningful and successful.

Note to HR and/or those responsible for training new hires – This book must be on your list to add to the new hires package. If you agree with these 5 reasons then it’s good enough to convince you why:

• You want your new hires to learn quickly and efficiently on the job.
• You want your employees to excel at what they do.
• You want to retain top-performers or talent since they’d only be happy in a growing and learning supported environment.
• You want them to be good team players and know how to take advantage of learning opportunities of working in a team.
• You want your employees to contribute positively to the organization and prove to be a good fit in the company culture.

For all this to happen you must offer them a strong initial platform to ease the ramp-up – and that’s why this book is an essential in your new-hires kit!

Make your e-Learning Experience a Success

What did you learn at work today?

Whether on a new job, career transition or simple career progression – constant learning is a must. It’s critical for your career advancement and being a pro at what you do. Daniel offers some practical advice for making e-learning successful. Some tips that you can use right away for

• Prepare for a smooth learning experience– Know your course outline and objective. Check your computer operating system / laptop requirements etc. Check any other requirements for the e-learning program.

• Focus to achieve the best results – e-learning is not something to be done on the go; you must focus your attention to one activity only – learning. All distractions must be avoided and you can get some simple but often disregarded tips that you can use during your next e-learning program.

• Follow-up – involve your manager to plan on how you will be applying what you learn during such program and ask for help on other resources or contacts which might be helpful during this learning process.

• Follow-through – Set periodic meeting with you manager to report on your progress and to help you with any roadblocks that you may encounter as you apply what you have learned.

In short, in this book, you will learn:

• How to work with your manager to identify your learning needs;
• How to get maximum value from instructor-led training or e-learning programs;
• How to take advantage of the myriad learning opportunities you have every day;
• How to keep track of what you learn through a personal learning journal

How New Hires can Benefit from this Book

The first few days and months on a new job whether fresh out of college or when re-entering the workforce after a gap can be pretty daunting. Work challenges, manager expectations, performance evaluations and more is on your mind and perhaps not letting you unleash the productivity and creativity potential that you had initially planned to wow your colleagues with. There’s much to learn and if you get to know beforehand what to do when things don’t work out your way, you’ve just found the right resource to expand your horizons and surpass your expectations.

This book offers some excellent tips for what most new hires need to know – you don’t know everything that’s to be done, you perhaps don’t know how it is expected to be done and you will probably make mistakes getting your tasks done. These all situations you might encounter during the first few days or months of your joining the new position, and here’s what you shouldn’t do:

• Don’t be embarrassed
• Don’t be afraid to admit an error you have made
• Don’t fear that you will expose your ignorance

Here’s what you should do: Ask for help.

And these are just the few brilliant tips that you take back from this straightforward, full of examples learning-on-the-job guide book.

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom. ~ Francis Bacon

Good enough; you can get your copy at Amazon.

A very informative interview with the author Daniel Tobin:

Question: What are some robust and effective employee learning techniques that can help engage high performers and offer a meaningful learning experience?

Daniel: There are many learning techniques, both formal and informal, that can be used for employee learning as discussed in my book.  Three keys to making any of them a “meaningful learning experience” are:

1. Set the expectation with the employee that what is learned will be used on the job and to set in place a plan for how the employee will use the new learning.
2. Focus on the learning activity, whether it is in a classroom or e-learning or any other learning method.  Don’t try to multi-task learning with other activities.
3. Provide reinforcement and follow-up after the learning activity is completed to help the employee succeed in applying the learning to the job.

Question: What’s the current trend in corporate America – are we seeing more of instructor-led or e-learning training programs? And what must employers consider when choosing one over the other?

Daniel: Over the past several decades, there has been a definite trend toward using more e-learning and less instructor-led, classroom-based training.  E-learning can be very effective in transmitting knowledge, while instructor-led training is generally more effective at building skills.  For example, there are a number of excellent e-learning programs on “Finance for Non-Financial Managers.”  But if you look at a skill such as presentation skills, e-learning may be helpful in teaching the basics of how to structure a presentation, how to make PowerPoint slides, etc., but if you really want to improve your presentation skills, you need to actually make presentations to an audience (class) and get critiques from the instructor and the other students.  It is also advisable to video-record your presentation so that you can critique yourself – and this cannot be done via e-learning.

Question: What are some tips that you share in your book that can make learning more applicable to present work and prepare for workplace changes in future?

Daniel: The first step in planning your learning activities is to meet with your manager to discuss what you do well and in what areas you need to improve or gain new knowledge and skills.  In the book, I provide a format for doing this.  Next, you need to prioritize your learning needs so that you focus on those competencies that will help you master your current job – if you haven’t mastered your current job, you are unlikely to be considered for promotion.  Third, you need to focus on the learning activities you have chosen, using the three steps outlined above.  Every employee has learning opportunities every day on the job – the trick is to recognize those opportunities and use them to improve your current job performance and to accelerate your career growth.

 About Daniel Tobin:

Daniel R. Tobin is a consultant and author on corporate learning strategies and leadership development programs. With more than 30 years of experience in the learning and development field, he has founded two corporate universities (Digital Equipment Corporation’s Network University and Wang Global/Getronics Virtual University), and served as vice president of design and development at the American Management Association (AMA). Throughout his career, he has always focused using learning and development to support his company’s business goals and strategies. Dan, a lifelong learner, gives workshops and keynotes regularly in the training and development fields, specifically at local chapters of ASTD.

For more information, please visit: http://www.whatdidyoulearnatworktoday.com.

The unending pursuit of quality, of perfection, is the single most important action any individual or organization can take to resolve problems and achieve goals. – Subir Chowdhury , in his new book THE POWER OF LEO.

How much you put emphasis on quality in whatever you do? On a scale of 1 to 10 what’s your current score on quality?

I’m sure your answer would not be anything less than 9.

Now honestly, how is it being implemented in the work you do today? Not an easy answer if we really have to answer that in true honesty. The point is not to revel under the false elation that I deliver a perfect 10 on quality. That’s more of  false bragging than a reality – the point is to efficiently continue on the pursuit to offer best quality of work in whatever you do, you might not be perfect but tending toward perfection always gets you there. That’s where this book offers an awesome inspiration, and not just about quality –“it offers a template for intelligent, organized and data-based decision making in any circumstances”.

The book,  THE POWER OF LEO: The Revolutionary Process for Achieving Extraordinary Results, aims to achieve these goals:

• Offering a powerful new management approach that can help you achieve quality at all levels of an organization.

• Informing readers that when you implement LEO, you work toward making your product better and more cost-efficient.

• How careful, intelligent listening is a crucial step on the road to organizational success. Listen hard and listen well to your customers.

And it does very well in getting these essential points across with successful case studies examples making it more evident that LEO can be easily embraced by everyone within an organization. The results are what everyone aspires for – improvement in your operations, products and bottom line.

With the basic aim of making your operations more optimized for superior results, The Power of LEO is a must read book for all who seek excellence, quality and success in our professions. AND WHO DOESN’T? Chowdhury reveals a groundbreaking concept that enables companies to achieve quality at all levels. It is not conceptual but a proven technique that Subir has seen being applied at organizations of every size and variety and you’ll see how easy the ideas can be to implement at your company right now.

As Subir Chowdhury says:

No company’s operations ever achieve perfection. Total quality is always going to be a goal rather than a reality. And the extra effort toward greater quality at reduced cost will benefit everyone, customers and employees alike.

What is LEO?

LEO’s game-changing approach is comprised of three basic elements:

Listen:  Observe and Understand

To obtain a deep understanding of the issue at hand, assumptions must be put aside and interaction with all relevant parties – including customers, suppliers, and employees – is critical.  “You must get up close and personal and go to the source,” explains Chowdhury. That could be the factory floor, a call center, or a customer’s home.  And listening is not only about asking questions, but about observing – whether that means watching a worker perform a task or a customer use a product.

 Enrich:  Explore and Discover

Once the real nature of the problem is uncovered, the next phase is about searching for the best solution.  Chowdhury advocates a special type of brainstorming session that encourages people to relax and try to come up with numerous ideas, no matter how far-fetched they may seem.  An informal environment where every idea receives a full and respectful hearing is key.  “To get the most out of the Enrich process, you need to embrace change and the idea that what you have now, and what you have done up to this point, simply isn’t good enough,” the author writes.

Optimize:  Improve and Perfect

During this phase, participants review the solutions that have already been proposed.  They look for flaws and find ways to improve the solutions, making them even more effective.  This is a step that some organizations think they can skip.  But it is essential, because good-enough no longer works, contends Chowdhury.  Everyone needs to strive for the highest quality possible.  “If you want to turn out the kind of products or services that will truly delight your customers and attract new ones, you need to keep raising the bar on quality,” he writes.  Once the Opitmize stage is complete, and only then, can the solutions be implemented.

In THE POWER OF LEO, Chowdhury uses detailed case histories of many different types of companies – from an automobile manufacturer, to a hospital, to a candy factory  – to show how the LEO approach has been used in real business situations.

It is one of those books that you would like to reach for every now and then; whenever you need help figuring out how to incorporate better quality and service in your business. And what will amaze you is that each time you’ll get some new inspiration on how to achieve these essential goals that lead a company to success and sustenance.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SUBIR CHOWDHURY is Chairman and CEO of ASI Consulting Group, LLC, a world leader on LEO and Quality leadership implementation, consulting, and training.  Hailed by The New York Times as a “leading quality expert” and by BusinessWeek as “The Quality Prophet,” Chowdhury is the author of thirteen books, including the international bestsellers The Power of Six Sigma and The Ice Cream Maker.  He has received numerous international awards for his leadership in quality management.  Chowdhury lives with his wife and two children in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

When new hires fail, and 46% of them will, 89% of the time it’s because of attitude and only 11% of the time because of skill.  It’s not that skills aren’t important, but when the top predictor of a new hire’s success or failure is dependent on attitude, then attitude is clearly what we need to be hiring for.  And that requires defining the specific attitudes (both good and bad) that make a specific organization different from all the rest, and then turning the hiring and interview process focus onto those attitudes.  – Mark Murphy, Author of Hiring for Attitude: A Revolutionary Approach to Recruiting and Selecting People with Both Tremendous Skills and Superb Attitude

In Hiring for Attitude, leadership strategist Mark Murphy presents convincing reasons and case studies on why your new hires fail to rise to your expectations. If you need people to fit to your company culture you must make the selection process smart enough to attract the right talent – there’s a five part interview question that gets candidates to reveal the truth and not just go about the beaten path of rehearsed interview answers.

Who’ll benefit the most from this book?

• A book must for those interested in finding the right talent for their organization.
• This book could be a good starting guide on hiring best practices for the new entrepreneurs, who have just a limited and very valuable time for the hiring process and desire high performers in their team.
• And equally valuable tips for the large orgs looking for a change who are currently stuck in the ATS hiring process or any other ‘old-school’ process just because it is how it has been!

It is high time we change the hiring process and there’s no other way to do it right than to aim for hiring for attitude first – skills of course are important but the idea is to reverse the preference. More emphasis on attitude – skills second!

Though hiring for talent is not an easy process and most often not a fast one, but the real life case studies presented in this book show that it is being done well and in many smart companies. It most certainly is not an easy job to indentify high performers from low or average performers through interviews and general recruiting methods but there is enough evidence on how smart companies are approaching this issue. Some examples that come forth well are with companies like Southwest Airlines, Google etc.

The long term effectiveness and benefits it brings to an organization are enormous and adds hugely to the bottom line profits.

Ready to Post your next Job Ad – These are the Tips you MUST Know

How effective has been your interviewing procedures in identifying optimum talent?

How has been the response to your job ads?

Are you seeing some high-performers applying for the job postings or is it just another resume pile where quantity overpowers quality?

If your answer is in negative to the above questions, you’ll find some good help here with examples of some intuitive questions that you can use during your next hiring cycle. And you just can’t overlook these brilliant tips (for the hiring managers and the HR) – it’s kind of essential for you to know these when posting your next job ads:

• What are the characteristics that make your company culture distinct from everyone else? That distinction is what you want to sell in your job ad, not some bland and generic description that makes you sound like everyplace else.

• It doesn’t matter how many people apply to a job posting; the only things that matter is how many of the right people apply, make the initial cut, accept your offer, and turn into high performers.

• The opening paragraphs of your ad are the most important. Your candidates form their opinions about you during those first precious moments.

• Don’t try to be something you’re not in your recruitment efforts, or you’ll fail to attract all the high performers who would fit your culture.

The ideas don’t stop here. Mark Murphy makes an in-depth analysis on how to incorporate performance-oriented recruiting approach. Some of the tips are an eye-opener and must be used in hiring by all smart companies, because if you won’t someone else will and you’ll see where the talent and eventually revenue goes!

Some insights from the author Mark Murphy:

Are companies really hiring these days?  And if so, where are the jobs?

While the macro unemployment rate is high, companies are absolutely hiring.  But they’re not hiring in the usual places.  They’re hiring in, what we call, the Underground Job Market.  According to new research outlined in the book, companies are finding their best people through employee referrals and networking.  They have started to realize that the high performers they already have fit the attitude they want and that these are the people they should be asking to help find more people just like them.

What do you mean when you say, “skills have become commoditized?”

Between the labor pool from China and India and the fact that there are so many quality workers sitting out there unemployed, we can find the skills we need.  Plus it is fairly easy to test for skills.  There is no shortage of skills, and this makes technical proficiency, once a guarantee of lifetime employment, a commodity in today’s job market.  Attitude is what today’s most successful companies are hiring for.

You say that you should never ask candidates “tell me about yourself” and “what are your weaknesses?”  Why?

Most of the commonly asked interview questions, such as these two, are useless for assessing attitude, and some of them even put companies at risk.  One of the most fundamental tests of the effectiveness of an interview question is the extent to which it differentiates high and low performers.  Yet, when asked “what are your weaknesses” virtually every candidate will say they “work too hard” or “care too much” or “have a perfectionist streak.”  You’re not going to discover someone’s real attitude by asking questions to which everyone has a canned or prepared answer. 

What’s so wrong with behavioral interview questions?

Behavioral questions usual contain an obvious “tip off” on how to give the “correct” answer; they’re leading questions.  Let’s take the question: “Tell me about a conflict with a co-worker and how you resolved it.”  This question goes wrong with the phrase “how you resolved it.”  With this question, we’ve just signaled that we don’t want to hear about any times that they did NOT resolve the conflict with a coworker.  But from a hiring perspective, that’s the really important information.  What if they resolved a conflict one time, and failed to resolve the conflict 500 times?  By asking this leading question, we’ve lost all the data on the 500 episodes where they couldn’t resolve a conflict.  Asking about past performance is fine, but the wording of most behavioral interview questions undercuts their effectiveness.

Can a company just copy and adopt the great attitudes of famous companies like Southwest Airlines and Google?

Southwest and Google are two companies that are very invested in hiring for attitude.  You see their employees live those attitudes every day and it’s a big part of what makes these organizations so successful.  But their attitudes are very different from each other.  Southwest, Google, Apple, and The Four Seasons are all great, but they’re also different.  So the point is not to try and emulate someone else’s culture.  You’ve got to discover the attitudes that make your organization unique and special; what we call your “Brown Short”s. Once you’ve got that, the sky’s the limit; you can attract the best people, hire the best people, and retain the best people.

What do job seekers need to know about getting hired?

Because companies are now looking for attitude as well as skill, it really changes how people need to prepare for an interview.  Companies now have the tools to accurately assess attitude, and you can’t fake it.  So if you do the homework and learn you are not an attitudinal match for an organization, it’s a waste of time to even apply there.  But if you do have the right attitude, and you’ve got the experience to back it, then make you sure you let them know.

Networking is one way to get a company’s attention, but one thing that people misconstrue is what networking is actually about.  Too many people are need-working, as in: “I need work from you”. Usually people on the receiving end of this dodge those calls.  Job seekers need to ask ‘how can I add value’ and then work from there.

This book inspires you to:

• Focus on the things most important and high up on your priority – and note that you list for the year could be as short as only 5 things you want to get done well.

• Replace the typical “To-Do List” with a focus list and an ignore list.

• Identify the four elements – your strengths, weaknesses, uniqueness, and passions – that form the foundation of your success and happiness and time well spent.

Sharing from his own life’s experiences, Peter Bregman does a good job in his book (18 MINUTES – Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done) as it almost represents our own day-to-day life story; written in an impeccable style which has you nodding in agreement and at the same time cringing on “that’s what I do; must change”.

A recommended must read to increase efficiency and get rid of our routine unproductive distractions. This is one of those books which is not going to my book shelf, it would be on or around my work table for long – until I learn well how to have a clear focus, avoid distractions and get done what means most to me.

And here are some brilliant insights from Harvard Business Review columnist and business consultant Peter Bregman, the author of 18 MINUTES: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done which will help you make a decision on when you’re getting this book to super charge your productivity and add success and satisfaction in whatever you do in life.

• Distraction is, in fact, the same thing as focus. To distract yourself from X you need to focus on Y.

• So often we scramble to get a lot accomplished in a day, and success – only to realize, in retrospect, that those things we accomplished won’t get us where we want to go. It’s not a lack of effort. It’s lack of direction and focus.

• You can change your success by changing your mindset. A growth mindset is the secret to maximizing potential.

• The secret to surviving a buffet us to eat fewer things and the secret to thriving in our life is same:  Do fewer things.

• Just 18 minutes a day can save you hours of inefficiency. The trick is to choose your focus deliberately and wisely, and then consistently remind yourself of that focus throughout the day.

• The world doesn’t reward perfection, it rewards productivity.

Peter Bregman says “A good story – one you feel deeply about and in which you see yourself – is tremendously motivating.” That’s exactly how the book flows, weaving stories from his experiences and those who he has observed. We can all relate to the incidents and that’s what makes the book an interesting read.

At times our lives go on too fast, too fast for us to catch on and we feel like living weekend to weekend doing work that is work but not completely satisfying or life fulfilling. If you’re at such a crossroad or just zooming fast on life’s highway, this book could be your ‘rest area’ stop; a few hours to pause and reflect on how you can make your career more satisfying or just making the current processes and tasks – efficient and streamlined.

We all want to achieve something in life, we want and value success, but don’t often achieve it. To pause and question WHY and then change what we aren’t doing right is the way to happiness. Overcoming distractions and finding the right focus is the very first step.

Get your copy of 18 MINUTES: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done on Amazon.

And don’t forget to stretch your neck now and then as you read through this … since chances are that you’ll be nodding all your way through or be reading the whole book in a go!

INTERVIEW WITH PETER BREGMAN

In an interview with Careerbright Peter Bregman brings to light how his ideas on productivity can bring efficiency and improvement in our ‘distraction-overflow’ world and when dealing with today’s tough economic situation.

Q. Welcome Peter! Congratulations on your book! Enjoyed reading it and trying my best to master distractions to find the stealth focus I need to get my tasks done. It’s imperative in our “socially” distracting world to plan on the tasks but witnessing time slipping by to the point of not meeting the deadlines.

What tips can you share with us that can help us manage the time spent on social media which is a major distracting force from getting things done?

 Social media can wreak havoc on a day. It’s so tempting to just “check in” and see what people are posting or to post yourself. My best advice is to cordon off specific time in the day or evening where you allot yourself “social media time.“  Choose the amount of time that works for you and put it in your calendar.  So for example, you might decide that you will check sites from 12:00 – 12:30. Outside those times, you let your social media continue flowing without your involvement. That’s how I handle email and it’s saved me a tremendous amount of time. I process it in batches – 30 minutes here and there – rather than answering it as it comes in.

Q. How do you see this principle being applied to organizations and especially the many start-ups these days with a lot to achieve in the short time they have for product launch or “fear” of competition?

18 Minutes is specifically geared towards people who have more to do than they have time for. And, these days, who doesn’t?

Part of the problem with time management books is that they aim to help us get it all done. But we can’t possibly get it all done – there’s too much to do. And it’s dangerous to try because the wrong things – the things that are most important to us – will fall through the cracks.  Anyone working in an organization – especially a tiny start up – knows that their competitive advantage is on spending high leverage time – where each minute produces real strategic value.

Q. Nobody’s ready to slow down, though we all want to! What’s the best approach to tackle our lengthy to-do list and not feel overwhelmed with all that’s on our plate?

Cut down the to do list! 

At the beginning of a year, I decide on 5 areas that I most want to focus on. My areas include things like “Speak and write about my ideas,” “Do great work for my current clients,” and “Nurture myself and my family.” And I make sure that the work I do in each of these areas places me in my sweet spot:  at the intersection of my strengths, weaknesses, passions, and differences, so that I can’t help but succeed and feel fulfilled.

Then, I use a Six Box To Do List (You can download a template from www.peterbregman.com. Each of my top 5 areas of focus gets a box. The 6th box is for “the other 5 percent.” I write each of my to do’s in the appropriate box.  Anything that doesn’t fit in my top 5 gets relegated to 5% of my time. Many things are left undone, but I know that the most important things – the ones that are in my top 5 boxes, are my priority. And each day brings me one day closer to what I want to get done in a year.

Q. With the slow economy it is taking more time than ever for many to get back to the workforce. Looking for a job is a full time job and not to mention highly stressful and time consuming. What tips would you share with those in job search in finding focus to achieve conducive results?

This is a terrible time for many people and my heart goes out to them. My best advice? Don’t spend all your time looking for a job. Spend one or two hours at most. It should be one of your boxes, not all 5. The other four should involve things you love doing with other people. In this economy, spending all day looking for a job won’t help you find one any faster and will leave you depressed and devoid of energy. If, instead, you spend a few hours looking and the rest of your time doing things you love with other people, you’ll be more energized, have more interesting things to talk about when you eventually get a job interview, and a far more attractive candidate to an employer. Most jobs come through referral so who knows? You might even end up getting a job from someone with whom you’re doing the things you love.

18 MINUTES:  Find your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done (September 28, 2011; Business Plus) by Harvard Business Review online columnist Peter Bregman.

Get your copy on Amazon.

Get to know more about the author and the book at http://peterbregman.com/

Career Expert Ginny Clarke’s new eBook titled Career Mapping comes right on time as the graduation celebrations cool off and the new grads embark on their career paths.

The world of work has changed forever.  The only way to thrive in this highly competitive, technology-driven economy is to think of yourself as a “free agent,” someone who takes full responsibility for his or her own career.  That means figuring out what you want to do, both now and in the long-term, and making a plan to achieve it.  In her new book, CAREER MAPPING:  Charting Your Course in the New World of Work (Morgan James; August 2011) written with Echo Garrett, Clarke shows how anyone from recent college graduates to seasoned professionals, can zero in on – and win – the perfect job.

In an interview with Careerbright, coach and author Ginny Clarke presents valuable tips on how to plan on your career path, preprare for interviews and more; and note these tips are equally valid for anyone reentering the workforce or in career transition.

Q. Welcome Ginny and congrats on your new eBook Career Mapping! What was your inspiration and what is the most important message that you want to get across as the new grads or those reentering the workforce plan on their career path this year?

Ginny: My inspiration was my own experiences.  I chose to change careers 5 times, not because I was indecisive, but because as I evolved I sought new and different platforms to deploy my skills and passions.  Also, as anexecutive recruiter I couldn’t always help nearly as many people who wanted or needed it.  The book is my way of sharing insights into how to not only find a job, but by being more conscious and thoughtful, always being in position of strength, whether employed or not.  I want people to understand you create your job and career choices – no one else.  Even if you don’t have depth of experience, you can educate yourself, make some clear decisions, based on your preferences, and network your way into new opportunities.  Your degree and past experiences don’t have to define you.

Q. Career discovery path is an essential first step toward a satisfying career, what advice do you have for the new grads or those in college who are confused on which career path to pursue?

Ginny:  I say don’t worry.  I was a French and Linguistics major who became a college recruiter, went to business school, worked in banking, commercial real estate and executive search. Learn to dissect the elements of your major that might be applicable to what job interests you have. For example, if you were an art history major, describe your ability to research historical facts, analyze different artists paying attention to detail and knowledge of various cultures.  This ability can be applied in many ways, but it is incumbent on you to be the one to explain the relevance to your prospective employer.  Be able to describe how you think, what you know about yourself that allows you to make some definitive choices – at this stage of your career.  Having passion, conviction, a commitment to learning and a strong work ethic can carry the day.

Q. What according to you are the three most important tips you have when preparing for interviews?

Ginny:

1. Do your homework. Google the people or person you are meeting or ask for a bio; read the company’s annual report; insist on a job description to compare against your own background.

2. Manage the interview. Know how much time you have.  Keep your responses concise and on point; practice them.

3. Ask intelligent questions. Have 3 -5 questions ready and even if you run out of time, send them as a follow-up with your thank you.  Don’t ask about compensation in the first interview.

Q. Now there’s a large population of baby boomers retiring this year and in the coming years, but still want to explore available career options here after; what suggestions do you have for them?

Ginny: Baby boomers or Encore workers, as I call them in my book, are in the unique position of having valuable skills, but always needing to be current, especially with technology.  Here are a few tips:

1. Make sure all competencies and skills sets are up to date; get training if need be.

2. Stay current on local and global trends. Know what is important to younger generations; what they read, watch and care about. Seek global awareness, cultural and language competency and proficiency.

3. Engage in social media – it is  imperative. You are invisible if you aren’t on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter; be comfortable being a participant, not just a watcher.

ABOUT GINNY CLARKE:

GINNY CLARKE is the founder of Talent Optimization Partners, LLC, which provides corporate consulting and executive coaching services.  A sought-after speaker, she spent twelve years at Spencer Stuart, one of the world’s largest senior-level executive search firms, as a partner and the leader of the global diversity practice.  Prior to joining Spencer Stuart, Clarke spent several years in banking and ten years in the real estate investment management business.  She received her B.A. from the University of California, Davis and her M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. She is a longtime resident of Chicago.   To learn more, go to: www.mycareermapping.com.

Now if you’re impressed with the title as much as I was when I first held the book in my hand, I surprised myself even further when I found it hard to put it down wanting to know more about how Casey’s going to find the right job and the right person – what are the rules which can get you the job you want and deserve? A compulsive page turner, it is not a love story nor a thriller or a mystery book; but out and out a job search rules book which takes you on a journey in a woman’s life as she struggles to find the right person in her life and the right job! You’ve always read about how story-telling can be a successful campaign or an idea to get the message across, now here’s a wonderful example – a story where you didn’t expect one – #jobsearch advice.  ’A funny and riveting story that will help you make smart decisions about landing your next – your best – job or relationship’.

Based on his many years of professional experience, Cahill has found that the actions that build great careers also lead to great relationships.  In his new book, HARPER’S RULES:  A Recruiter’s Guide to Finding a Dream Job and the Right Relationship (Greenleaf Book Group Press, April 2011), he delivers clear-cut strategies for landing the perfect job, while showing how these very same strategies apply to personal relationships.

Now who’s Harper and why do we need to know his rules? If you don’t have a headhunter rooting for you then for sure you need Harper Scott and his rules should guide you to where you want or ought to be. Harper’s Scott is the headhunter and author Danny Cahill of Harper’s Rules – A Recruiter’s Guide to Finding a Dream Job and the Right Relationship, has done a superb job in bringing his character to life – a desirable headhunter who sets these job search rules for Casey Mathews. You’ll be nodding all along and wondering “this is fascinating and simple …. wish I had known it before”.  So now you know you would not want to step into another interview without knowing what Harper’s Rules are!

A couple of my favorite Harper’s Rules are here as teasers for you, the rest you must discover on your own:

Harper’s Rules for Final Prep

Companies will go on poetically about their desire to build toward the future and hire talent that will complete this lofty vision, but in the end, in the overwhelming majority of employment situations, companies hire short-term solutions to short-term problems. They are focused on Now.

Harper’s Rule – Ending Interview with the Big Ask

Ask for the job at the end of the interview. Don’t leave this to chance. Companies want to know where you stand, And if they are torn between two candidates, one of the deciding factots is often who wants to the job more. Their reasoning is simple: the one who wants the job will work harder.

Now here’s an interview with Danny Cahill, the author who’s helped Harper Scott come up with the insightful job search and dating rules.

Q. Hello Danny, that was quite a unique approach to weave a story on dating with job search and career management! What was your inspiration?

The very first time I noticed the analogous relationship between how a recruiter works and the dating world was when I was an entry level recruiter, and as so often happens at crunch time, a candidate of mine wanted to think about a company’s offer over the weekend. I explained he had already been interviewing with the company for weeks and knew not only what the offer would be but when it was going to come. What was there to think about? But work, like love, is not rational. So I tried this: “Look at this way. A company making an offer is their way of saying “I love you.” How would you feel if you told your girlfriend you loved her, and she said, “gee, thanks, I appreciate that. Let me think about it over the weekend, run through my options with other men, and get back to you Monday morning. I want you to know I really expect to be able to say “I love you too” after some due diligence.” He took the job. It was the beginning of me seeing the parallels. Sometimes it worked in reverse. When my first wife began an affair, I couldn’t help but blurt out, “but you broke our non compete.”

Q. In present times, hiring has become more involved and the jobseekers are indeed frustrated with the specific job requirements and higher expectations from the employers. What rule is foremost for the jobseekers in such a situation?

The secret is your prospective boss is afraid of making a hiring mistake. Because he/she will be held accountable. So make it your business to ask in an interview…. “how can I, once I have this job, help you leverage your personal career goals. What can I bring to the table this year that would help you personally?” Your boss needs to see you not as a potential hiring mistake or success, but as part of his career plan to get where he/she wants to be. You are not a prospective worker, you are a prospective ally. “What can I achieve that would have you thanking me at some year end company event as you accept your promotion?” is one of my killer questions!

Q. I loved it when you said “Companies hire short-term solutions to short-term problems. They are focused on NOW.” This is so true! Most often we are misled with the overall descriptive job description on what can be done in broader terms, however to focus on how you can solve their short term problems is what the focus should be in an interview – for the job seeker. Would you elaborate on these thoughts?

With the possible exception of the word “dude”, I can’t think of a more over rated word than “talent.” Everyone talks about it (be wary of any term that no one is against. I’ve never had a client tell me they wanted to hire my firm to find them someone with not talent). But it took me years to realize that talent is a “tier two” requirement. Companies hire people to do Monday what the person who left Friday could do with as little ramp up time as possible. Period. The end. I began wealth building as a recruiter when I started asking, “what do you need this person to do in the next 60 days?” Companies wax eloquently about building cultures, about team spirit, about legacy….in practice they put fires out.

Q. From your own experience how would you define a smart and a winning applicant?

In executive search “smart and winning” are givens. The competition is tough! But interviewing is performance art, and I love the candidates who get this intuitively. Before interviews they do the Internet research I describe in my book so that they know what they’re talking about, during interviews they are hyperbolic people readers, they can sense what level of energy, charisma, humility is required for each person they meet, and at the end of interviews, they make a clear and concise statement about their intentions. The best candidates ask for the job. I love them!!

Great tips Danny, but I still don’t get it how you’ve managed to present a woman’s point of view so well.. that’s the mystery element!

Highly recommended for all job searchers; when the mind gets overwhlemed with all the job search advice on the internet and the best job search tips books on the bookshelves bring more confusion than respite, here’s a fresh breeze that lightens and enlightens at the same time.

Harper’s Rules – A Recruiter’s Guide to Finding a Dream Job and the Right Relationship. Follow on Twitter.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DANNY CAHILL is a popular keynote speaker, recruiter, and the owner of Hobson Associates, one of America’s largest search firms specializing in software sales, biotech sales, and industrial sales talent.  He is the founder of www.AccordingtoDanny.com , an online training and mentoring company dedicated to enhancing the skills and jumpstarting the spirits of recruiters worldwide.  A successful playwright with off-Broadway credentials who has won both the Maxwell Anderson and CAB theater awards, Danny has also written for CBS television, as well as various trade journals.

 

Who benefits from this book:

There are really three groups of people who will benefit the most from this book.

• The first, as the title implies, are people in the transition, or have been living through the transition from being a peer to delivering a performance evaluation!
• The second group is people who want to prepare themselves proactively for the role of leadership. These people are anticipating or planning for their first leadership role.
• The last group is more experienced leaders who are preparing or helping new leaders to be more successful.

Well, that says it all – this book surely is for most of us. leadership is a valued skill and every employee can be a leader in his/her own domain. Read on to know more about this book through an interview with book authors Kevin Eikenberry and Guy Harris.

To be an effective leader – one needs to experience the “role” and be in it to lead and begin a change. What was your first leadership experience? What training/support did you receive in the transition?

(Kevin) – My first leadership role was on our family farm and related business.  Often when people were hired to a specific task or season, I was responsible for supervising them.  In many cases (as is the case for many who will read the book) I was much younger than those I was leading.   I didn’t have any formal training.  Dad didn’t give me any book to read.  He was an example and role model.  We did talk about how things were going and answered questions.   He would have been the first to tell you he wasn’t the perfect leader, yet he was extremely supportive and aware of the need to coach others.

(Guy) – My first leadership role was as a division officer on a submarine. I led a division of 8 or 10 enlisted personnel. One of them was a chief petty officer with more years in the Navy than I had been a legal adult. Several members of the division had been in the Navy much longer than me, and they definitely knew more about operating the engineering plant than I did. I did have some basic leadership training in Officer Candidate School, but it did not really prepare me for what I experienced as a new leader. The best support I received came from the Chief Petty Officer and senior enlisted personnel. They were never easy on me. They were honest, sometimes brutally honest, about my shortcomings as a leader. And, they helped me grow because of their honesty.

You book focuses on the most important competencies to focus on building leadership competence and confidence. What are the core skills people need in order to make a successful transition to leadership in their organizations?

(Kevin) – Beyond the skills and strategies of the transition itself, we believe there are five big competency areas that need to come first, and we built the book around them.   They are:  change, communication, coaching, collaboration and teamwork, and commitment to success (everything related to goals and goal setting).

These aren’t the only competencies of leaders and we believe they are of prime importance for two reasons.

1. They are highly important and complex skills to learn
2. When someone first becomes a leader these skills take on a very different meaning or level of importance in their work and life.

(Guy) – The core skills are reflected in the sections of the book. When you carefully examine the content of each section, you will see that our focus is primarily on the people side of managing the transition and to developing competency in each of the six areas of leadership included in the book.  Both Kevin and I believe that leaders need to develop understanding and competency in the technical or transactional aspects of their role, and that the people side of leadership is the more complicated and difficult side. This book provides a solid foundation in understanding the people skills so vital to leadership success.

What do you think is the biggest gap in new supervisor training?

(Kevin) – I think there are two gaps.   First, most new supervisor training doesn’t talk at all about the issues of the transition. How do I lead the people I am friends with?  How do I deal with the team members who applied for and wanted the job I received?  How do maintain and manage those expectations?  How do I build relationships with my new peers, new boss?  And much more.

Second, while there is lots of great training available publicly and inside of organizations, it is often available later than would best help the new supervisor, and far too often doesn’t focus enough on application.  Learning can’t happen just by attending class (or reading a book for that matter) we must take that new knowledge and use it.

What do you want people to do once they finish the book?

(Kevin) – Put it to use!  Try some of the ideas in it, applying them to their situation.  Once they have done that, we hope they will contact us through the Community or otherwise to let us know their questions, and to share their successes with us and others.

(Guy) – Like Kevin says: Put it to use! Look for opportunities to apply the concepts. We hope readers will review the Remarkable Principles, Bonus Bytes, and Now Steps to find the most important issue (or issues) that they confront and then get to work confronting them using the ideas we share in the book. From there, they can engage in the Bud to Boss Community to continue honing the skills they start developing by reading the book.

More Resources:

GET MORE INFO at the Bud to Boss Community (http://BudtoBossCommunity.com). This free community supports anyone who wants to get better in these areas with free resources, tools and ideas.

Guy and Kevin also wrote the book as a connection to the Public workshop – The Bud to Boss Workshop (http://BudtoBossWorkshop.com).  This allows new leaders to work on their skills with others in the same boat as they are.  They are currently delivering this workshop around the U.S. and on site for companies wherever they are located.

Despite U.S. unemployment rates that hover around 10 percent, one segment of the population is not being hit as hard: employees age 55-plus. At its peak in December 2009, the unemployment rate for this group was 7.2 percent.  As of December, 2010, it was 6.9 percent. These statistics will no doubt come as a surprise to all the 55-plus job seekers who are still struggling to find work.

Ford R. Myers, Career Coach, Speaker and Author of “Get The Job You Want, Even When No One’s Hiring,” (John Wiley & Sons, 2009, www.GetTheJobBook.com) finds that mature workers offer experience and skills that younger workers cannot offer employers. “They are more likely to stay put for longer than their younger counterparts, thus reducing turnover – which lowers the costs associated with hiring and training,” says Myers.

Regardless of the benefits mature workers offer employers, many face age discrimination when searching for a new job.  Myers suggests the following four practical strategies that can increase the chance of landing a great job at any age:

1. Energy level.
Even if you’re a mature worker, it’s important to maintain a high level of energy and project real vitality. This allows you to take on challenging projects, keep up with the fast pace of business, and get things done efficiently. So show-up early, move fast throughout the day, and work hard.

2. Technology skills.
As an older candidate, you didn’t grow up in the computer age, but it’s critical that you learn and practice technical skills. Employers are much more likely to hire mature workers who can demonstrate strong computer skills and possess a comfort level with technology in general. This is a great way to compete effectively with younger candidates.

3. Personal image.
It’s always important to look your best, and this is especially true when the mature worker is looking for a job. Pay close attention to your appearance. You can make a more positive impression by updating your hairstyle, eyeglasses, clothing and many other personal attributes. Your wardrobe may also need a “makeover” to look more stylish.

4. Company culture.
Research the culture of your prospective employer. If everyone at the company is 20 to 30 years old, then the firm is not likely to hire an older candidate like you. On the other hand, there are companies that have a reputation for attracting and hiring mature workers. These firms actually like to have “adult supervision,” and they’ll pay a premium for your greater levels of experience and wisdom.

“You can’t change your chronological age, so don’t waste mental energy thinking about it. Older workers who understand that their maturity and expertise are assets are more likely to land the job they want in the long run,” adds Myers.

For more information and other useful tips to help those in career transition achieve career success, visit http://www.getthejobbook.com.

Reprinted by permission of Ford R. Myers, a nationally-known Career Coach and author of “Get The Job You Want, Even When No One’s Hiring.” Download your Free Special Report, “10 Vital Strategies to Maximize Your Career Success” at http://www.careerspecialreport.com.

About the Author:

Ford R. Myers is President of Career Potential, LLC. His firm helps clients take charge of their careers, create the work they love, and earn what they deserve! Ford has held senior consulting positions at three of the nation’s largest career service firms. His articles and interviews have appeared in many national magazines and newspapers, and he has conducted presentations at numerous companies, associations and universities. In addition, Ford has been a frequent guest on television and radio programs across the country. He is author of Get the Job You Want, Even When No One’s Hiring. More information is available at: http://www.getthejobbook.com and http://www.careerpotential.com.