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Benefit the Future of Your Career: What Changes are you Ready to Make?

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Benefit the Future of Your Career: What Changes are you Ready to Make?

As 2019 comes to a close and you reflect on your goals for the future of your career, you will likely consider what changes you can make to improve your professional life next year. While a complete overhaul is often too extreme, you can make various changes that are right for you at this time.

De-stress

The negative impacts stress have on your career—and life—compound over time. Stress hinders your productivity by making prioritizing tasks a challenge. When you are overwhelmed by stress it also hampers your ability to accomplish professional goals. Therefore, finding ways to cope with your stress is essential. Perhaps consider getting into an exercise routine, eating right, or picking up a new hobby to combat stress. Finding something that allows you to de-stress and reach your potential will benefit your career. Consider using these tips to maintain your positivity during a stressful transition.

Make a Change…even if the time isn’t perfect

Are you currently in a position you feel lacks potential to help you accomplish your career goals? Too often, people wait to make a change until timing is perfect. And, more often than not, perfect timing proves to be elusive. Therefore, if you know a job or position change is necessary to help you achieve your goals, now is the time to take action.

Take Risks

Calculated risks often reap big rewards. Fear of the unknown only holds you back, and, if you do not act, you never know what could have been. If you shy away from taking risks, you may only end up with regret. Getting outside your comfort zone is essential to building the future you want.

Invest in Your Network

Build a solid network to connect with people who could have a positive impact on the future of your career. Take the time to strengthen your LinkedIn profile and build relationships with people within—and outside—your current industry. Building a strong network gives you something to rely on when you do not have a natural in for a position you want. In fact, your network may open up possibilities you had not even considered.

Is Your LinkedIn Profile Getting Noticed?

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Is Your LinkedIn Profile Getting Noticed

Do you question if the hassle of maintaining your LinkedIn profile is worth it? Perhaps you are not seeing the networking output  you hoped to gain via LinkedIn. Therefore, you might be feeling like, because you are not generating the results you hoped, it is  a waste to invest your time and energy when there may be other avenues with better results.

Rest assured. With a few quick fixes, you can bolster your LinkedIn profile to produce the results you are hoping for.

Five Tips to  Ensure Your LinkedIn Profile Gets Noticed:

1. Professional Profile Picture

First, your profile picture is essential to getting noticed. Unlike  typical photos on other social media sites, your LinkedIn profile picture must be professional. After all, this picture offers a first-impression of your professional personal brand. If it is less than professional, it will cause potential contacts to question your professionalism.

Secondly, you should be the focus of your profile picture. For example, if someone met you at a networking function, you want them to be able to immediately and easily identify you from your profile picture. Therefore, a picture of you standing at the top of a mountain may be nice, but it is not appropriate for your LinkedIn profile picture.

2. Customize Your URL

When creating your LinkedIn profile, you are provided a generic URL. This URL usually consists of your name followed by random letters and numbers. Personalize your URL to garner attention while showcasing your personal brand. Eliminate the default characters and shorten the URL to your firstname+lastname. Are you an EMBA grad? You could personalize to joe.smith.EMBA.

3. Use Industry Related Keywords

Similar to website SEO, it is critical to optimize your LinkedIn profile with keywords specific to your industry. Through optimization your profile will appear in more searches allowing others to find and connect with you.

4. Build Connections with New Contacts

As you create your LinkedIn profile, you have the option to sync your email list. Doing so with your professional contacts will send an invite for them to connect with you on LinkedIn. This is an effective way to connect with people you already know and use those connections to expand your network.

Furthermore, expanding your network requires you to invest time to create authentic human connections. When you interact with new contacts, personalize your communication with them. Tell them  who you are and why you are interested in connecting. Most importantly, avoid generic invitations as people will write it off immediately. Connection is critical to building a strong network.

5. Promote Your Personal Brand

Lastly, consistently promote your personal brand through LinkedIn. The appearance of your page should be uniform throughout all your branding materials. Engage with articles through posting and commenting to demonstrate your own experience and expertise. This allows your connections to get to know you, engage with you on LinkedIn, and foster positive professional relationships.

Hire a Career Coach?

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Hire a Career Coach

Do you have aspirations to take your career to the next level?

Consider this: Elite athletes did not wake up yesterday ready to compete at the highest levels.

It took years of training guided by the expertise of specialized coaches to help them hone their skills and train their bodies to maximize their performance. In fact, they have coaches for various aspects of training to prepare their bodies for the highest levels of competition; they have a strength and conditioning coach, a nutritionist, and a skills coach. 

Why do elite athletes seek the knowledge of coaches? Well, they have the talent and basic skills to excel in their sport, but talent alone is not enough. They rely on coaches to not only help them know what they need to do in order to maximize their innate talent and expand their skills but also to help them navigate the world of professional sports.

Therefore, if you consider your own career, you have innate skills that have  paved the way to where you are, but a coach can help you navigate how to improve upon your skills and make beneficial career moves to maximize your potential and reach your goals.

Why  invest in yourself and your future by hiring a career coach:

Helps You Gain Valuable Perspective

A career coach listens to you in order to evaluate your goals and collaborate on a path that is best for you. Often it is hard to see the big picture when you’re attempting to do so by yourself; therefore, an executive career coach’s vast knowledge of the executive world can help you see the bigger picture of your career and how you fit in it to ensure you are truly in charge of your career.

Helps You in Transitional Moments

Finding yourself in a moment of transition elicits uneasiness. However, with the guidance of a career coach, you can assess your innate talents, expertise, and experience to leverage yourself as a quality candidate regardless of the reason for your transition. A coach who aids in career management can help you avoid boredom and burnout by pushing you to reach for positions that will ultimately lead to your ideal job. Moreover, a coach will help you navigate the hectic job search process and ensure you’re ready to tackle whatever comes your way such as creating a resume so you’re as good on paper as you are in person.

A career coach is a game-changer and will mentor you to push your career beyond what you may believe is attainable.

Reset Your Mindset When Your Career Catches You Off-Guard

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Has your career taken you in a direction that you did not anticipate?

When you find yourself in this predicament, it elicits feelings of disappointment and discouragement. These feelings are hard to shake.

However, a mindset reset can make all the difference.  

Take Time to Reset

Reset Your Mindset When Your Career Catches You Off-Guard

Before moving on, give yourself time to reset. Do things for yourself. Give yourself the time to feel disappointed and discouraged, but avoid dwelling on those feelings too long. There’s a grieving process that’s important to moving on when you are faced with unexpected changes. But, the key is to acknowledge it, feel it, and start moving forward.

Acknowledge It for What It Is

When you find yourself grappling with the why and how of an unexpected career change, acknowledge it for what it is: a turn. Change happens, and often it is out of your control. It is part of life. Yes, it’s unexpected and disheartening, but not the end of the road. It’s your chance to determine your next path. Have you been feeling dissatisfied by monotony? Take this opportunity to re-evaluate your career and goals or make the changes you’ve possibly wanted to make for a long time.

Allow this unexpected turn to take you on a new, exciting path in your career. Be open to new possibilities.

Take the Opportunity to Learn

What would you have done differently prior to this unexpected change in your career? Were you happy where you were or do you desire something more? During an unexpected career event, step back, reflect, and evaluate your future. Learn from the past and use your knowledge to set goals for the future of your career. Figure out how you can improve your leadership skills and expertise to make yourself more marketable and valuable to companies.  

Focus on the Future

The most important part is to avoid dwelling on the past. Learn from mistakes, set goals for growth, and keep your focus on the future. How are you going to meet your goals? What do you need to do to get there? Keep pushing forward and only look back with the intent to learn from the past.

Is Social Media Damaging Your Career? 3 Questions to Ask Before You Post

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Is Social Media Damaging Your Career? 3 Questions to Ask Before You Post

The world of social media is nothing new, and it seems to be evolving every day. As a result, litigations, resignations, and dismissals due to postings deemed inappropriate or offensive on social media are becoming more commonplace.

Therefore, now more than ever, it is important you take the necessary steps to ensure that social media is used to advance your career rather than hinder it in any way.

Potentially Career Saving Questions to Ask Before You Post:

Would I want my employer/potential employer to see this?

It is no secret that employers comb through social media to determine if candidates are the right fit for the job. This means that your resume can be chock full of accomplishments and your interview responses can be strong, but if something on your social media does not sit right with decisions makers, it could cost you a job.

Anything you post—from articles and shares to pictures and off-hand comments—is up for scrutiny. Take the time to think about every post or share before doing so. Be mindful of how you repost or share information on social media, and be sure to add in your own perspective if the ideas in the post could be misinterpreted.

Additionally, monitor your own posts, tweets, and comments. They reflect who you are, your values, and could end up being an employer’s deciding factor of whether or not they hire you.

Does this fit my personal brand?

Social media—especially a professional site such as LinkedIn—is a great tool to garner attention, seduce your audience, and advance your career. However, this only works to your benefit if your social media profiles align with your personal brand.

Social media often portrays your values both professionally and personally. Therefore, it is critical the content you post reflects your values as you communicate them through your personal brand.

Could my words be construed as harmful to any particular person or group?

The types of posts that generate the most negative attention seem to malign a particular person or group. Refrain from negative posts about employees, team members, former or potential employers, and any particular group. Such posts will potentially cause damage to your current position and any position you hope to hold in the future.

AVOID THESE MISTAKES ON SOCIAL MEDIA

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AVOID THESE MISTAKES ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Every day, I browse through the three main platforms I use, and you should use, for career management:  LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. There isn’t a day that goes by without me finding someone who harms their personal brand, insults someone, or shares inaccurate information. Do they do it just to make me chuckle?

Social media is for communicating your brand and for sharing and relaying positive and educational messages, not for posting your personal feelings about religion, politics or other issues. Yes, you can have fun on social media, but be careful with your posts and presence. Remember, your social media accounts will be viewed, evaluated and scrutinized prior to all interviews today. Don’t cause yourself to be counted out of potential opportunities where you might be the perfect candidate simply because you posted something foolish or you don’t want to be present on the platforms. Here are three mistakes to avoid:

#1. Being non-existent

Several years ago, during my presentations, there was a time when I posed the question, “Who is not on LinkedIn?” Hands went up in masses. Today, I ask the same question and very few hands go up, which is good for all of us. If you are not on LinkedIn, as an expert in career management, I will tell you that you are committing career suicide. LinkedIn can bring you massive value. You have the opportunity to network with 600 million other users on this platform. It is the first stop an executive recruiter or HR professional makes in learning about you. I would very much encourage you to also be on Twitter and Facebook which are becoming increasingly important for viewing by career decision makers as they process your application or are looking for talent.

It is great to have a profile on all three of these platforms, but are you active on all three of these platforms? A big difference.

#2. Not being consistent

Again, a cause of joviality for me when I cruise through peoples’ profiles is seeing contradicting information listed on one of their profiles vs another with yet something completely different on their resume. What does this tell me if I was your career hiring influencer? It demonstrates a lack of attention to detail and indifference or sloppiness in the way you construct your communications throughout the platforms. Keep everything consistent while remaining positive.

#3. Sharing inappropriate content, comments and pictures

Don’t shy away from expressing your personality and opinions on various topics, but don’t focus solely on your beliefs as far as religion, ethics, politics or gender differences are concerned. Keep your posts to what a future employer or executive recruiter could warm up to and stay away from opportunities for employers to misinterpret your social media dialogue. Never give the impression that you could damage a potential employer’s reputation through online conversations. Be active. Be professional. Inject fun. Inject humour. Show that you are an expert and committed to keeping your career and your personal life in a positive light.

HIRING IS HOT! – TAKE ADVANTAGE NOW

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I keep an eye on hiring trends across the world relating data from my vast network of career decision makers and senior executive clients across all continents. In my two and a half decades of business, I have never seen recruitment across all functions and industries, except oil and gas, as hot as it is right now. Statistics from country-based governments support my deep understanding of trends with unemployment reaching 50-year lows in some western countries and wage growth reaching records.

Hiring is Hot - Take Advantage Now!

Job search used to be highly competitive. The worse the economy, the more people there are competing for each job. Today, that is turned in the other direction in favour of you, the candidate. You hold the keys to steer your career laterally into another function or industry or to seek a promotion upwards. Despite the bubbling economy and robust hiring, you still need to make yourself stand out from the others in the race for the trophy. Jobs don’t fall into your lap. They must be searched out through in-person networking, online networking, building and retaining relationships with executive recruiters, and lastly, replying to adverts.

Now is the time to leap to your next challenge, but it is also a time to reflect and recession-proof your career as much as you can. This good economy, according to experts, won’t last for much longer. Look for sectors that service the economy, including government, education, food, retail and health care. It is prudent to do extensive research to uncover opportunities where you can make an impact and, of course, be happy. Do not be a procrastinator and put off a job search that can dramatically help you with spin offs to your family life.

Finding a new job is a little bit like dating. You must attract other audiences. One way is to craft, stick to, and express your personal brand, clearly communicating your value to your next employer. Understand what makes you unique. Do a self-audit to decipher your differentiator from your peers. Ask friends and colleagues what words and phrases describe you. Use this information to create a resonating personal brand statement, emphasizing the value you will bring. This statement can then be used on all your marketing collateral, resume, cover letter, LinkedIn profile and networking card. To make yourself stand out further, actively engage in social media, be proactive on Facebook, Twitter and concentrate on LinkedIn. Blogging also brings deep value as you can share your expertise and thoughts.

Job search doesn’t happen overnight, and the available time horizon has been considerably reduced by the buoyant global economy. Are you ready to accept a new challenge? Are you ready to leap? If so, go for it!

Does your Employer Value You? Is it Time to Ask for a Salary Increase?

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Asking for a salary increase can be a touchy subject, certainly not an enjoyable prospect. However, you can simplify this task if you initiate action at the right time and conduct some research prior to entering discussions. The more prepared you are, the more rewards will pass your way. In today’s world where companies are leaner than ever before, going above and beyond your responsibilities and expectations is common. As you take stock of your work and build a business case to advance your salary, you will be surprised to see how much you have accomplished throughout your tenure and what you have been asked to do, shifting the mindset for greater compensation.

Proceed with caution when asking for a raise. Often, companies will ask you to assume additional responsibilities. This is the time to put forward a business case for a salary increase. Seize on this opportunity, especially if your performance has been acknowledged by management.

Another chance to initiate a conversation is when the company has performed well, and finances are sound. Again, research the company’s financial reports and strike while the chatter over the recent corporate quarterly or annual earnings report is hot. Back your case with some examples of your own performance.

Finally, another option is to wait until your annual performance appraisal. A few weeks prior to the anticipated review, open a constructive dialogue with your boss about a potential salary increase based on an assessment of your accomplishments and how you have assisted the company or the department in reaching its goals.

A salary increase may not be at the top of peoples’ agendas as it can lead to misinformation and awkward conversations. So be firm with your request and support it with facts and figures.

Yay! I’ve Landed! Now What?

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Career management should be as high in priority as your own financial management and planning. My philosophy as an executive career management practitioner is, the day you land your job is the day you start your next job search. That may seem tough and may frighten some people, but I am a realistic coach. All jobs today are temporary. There is no such thing as a permanent appointment. Your company can decide to terminate you at any time. And they do, in high numbers, each week, in every country across the world. Tenure is tenuous. It can be long or short. Tenure can be comfortable and it can be scary.

Here are some of the things you need to do after you land.

I've landed, now what

#1. Update your resume with your new employer and position title.

#2. Amend your LinkedIn profile with your up-to-date employer and position title.

#3. Thank all those who helped you with your job search and share details with them about your new employer and the company mandate.

#4. Network. Yes, did I say that word? Didn’t you network enough during your job search? Well, you can never network enough. You don’t need to network as much as you did, however, don’t drop off the face of the earth and stop networking. You need to continue to build a defined and targeted network and give as much as you take.

#5. Search for areas to advance your education, both in the workplace and externally in academic institutions. Often, an employer might contribute financially to your skill development.

#6. Look for opportunities where you can become a thought leader in your new place of employment, industry, or both. Industry associations have conferences and they are always looking for speakers. What a great way to enhance your profile when you speak at a conference.

#7. Collaborate with your new peers and build productive rapport and relationships. Don’t be in the closet and hide. Be overt, be a contributor and be willing to help when requested.

Congratulations on your new job! Remember to keep YOUR career management at the forefront of your mind.

Optimize the Future of Your Executive Career

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Career Management Tips to Optimize Your Executive Career:

If you are sitting comfortably in an executive-level position thinking that career management is a thing of your past, you may be making a terrible mistake. While you may be comfortable right now,  that could evolve over time, and, as CEO of your career, if you do not make career management a priority now, it may be a costly mistake down the road.

Focus on Learning

In your current position, you may be working within one department, and that is your expertise. However, it is helpful and beneficial to learn as much as you can about the other departments, how they work and how you can add value. This knowledge can lead to a promotion within the organization you are currently in, or it can lead to broader career opportunities.

Optimize the Future of Your Executive CareerNetwork

Never underestimate the power of networking. Who you know is just as important as what you know in an age where hiring managers seek references from their trusted circle before a position is even posted. Professional networking often leads to opportunities that you may not have thought to seek out. Therefore, even for someone who is comfortable in their current position, networking should always be a priority.

Build Your Personal Brand

Every day is a perfect opportunity to build your personal brand and establish yourself as an industry expert. Don`t avoid promoting your brand simply because you feel secure right now. You have valuable working knowledge and experience that would prove beneficial to those who are seeking advancement in their own careers. Right now, you do not have the pressure of a job search, so you can add value and expertise to your networking circles. Share posts on social media, comment on the posts of others or write an article on LinkedIn. Then, if the time should come where you are in search of a new opportunity, you have a well-established personal brand that will do a lot of the heavy lifting for you.

Assess Your Values

Often, as executives are in the thick of climbing the corporate ladder, they forget to stop to assess their values. Your career is important, but so is your personal happiness; therefore, at some point, you may find that your current position no longer feels right. You may find that now is the time to make a change or take a chance. If you discover this is true in your life, it is much easier to make that change when you have consistently taken the time to invest in career management.