March 13, 2010 • 7:58 am 0
Do you know what you want? Before you worry about how to get it, whether or not you can get it, or when you will get it, do you know what IT is? Do you know why you want it? Often the why is the most powerful motivator.
Filed under: life coaching , Ben Stein, goal setting, inspiration
March 12, 2010 • 7:50 am 0
“If I were managing a colleague I once hung out with, I’d stop doing it,” says Caroline Ceniza-Levine, co-founder of Six Figure Start, a career coaching and consulting firm in New York City.
See this and other advice for new managers in Elaine Pofeldt and Adriana Gardella’s new piece, “The Rookie Manager’s Guide to Office Politics” on Bnet:
Filed under: career coaching, resource recommendation , Adriana Gardella, BNET, Elaine Pofeldt, Rookie Manager's Guide to Office Politics
March 10, 2010 • 1:04 am 0
See my advice on how parents can support the Gen Y job search in a good way in Jaime Leick’s article “Black Hawk Down: Parents Help or Hinder the Job Search:”
Filed under: career coaching, resource recommendation , Generation Y, helicopter parents, Jaime Leick, job search, millenials
March 9, 2010 • 1:56 am 0
I recently coached a Boomer – 20 years of varied experience, deep industry expertise, substantial management background including P&L and staff oversight. You’d almost never know it! Read my advice for this Boomer and others looking to rebrand in my latest post for CNBC.com:
Filed under: career coaching , Baby Boomer, CNBC, job search
March 8, 2010 • 1:45 am 0
A former coaching client reached out with this question: Is it okay to connect to a prospective employer on LinkedIn?
The short answer is, “Of course!” LinkedIn is a professional networking site, and your contact at the prospective employer is a burgeoning professional relationship. However, this client shows reluctance similar to what I hear from other jobseekers around staying in touch with prospective employers. There is the fear of appearing too aggressive, too desperate or too forward. Whether to connect on LinkedIn is part of a broader question around the best way to stay connected to prospective employers without being a pest.
The first step is to establish the reason to stay connected. This is why it’s so important to focus the interview on establishing a relationship that will lead to more conversations, rather than trying to close on a specific job. The strength of the relationship, even if it’s a starter relationship, gives the prospective employer the desire and the rationale for staying connected (via LinkedIn) or otherwise. Did you give your contact good reason for wanting to stay in touch?
The second step is to understand the best way to stay connected. Does your contact use LinkedIn? If they are a recruiter, they most likely will be active and welcome a connection. If they are a senior executive and many levels above you, their LinkedIn connections might be more privately held, and you might want to first connect via email and phone. At the interview (or mixer or wherever you met), ask how best to stay in touch. Ask explicitly if they’d like to connect via LinkedIn.
Finally, when you do connect, the third and subsequent steps are to follow up, follow up and follow up. This is not about checking in on openings. This is about expanding and deepening the relationship by focusing on their needs. Ideas for business solutions. Referrals to helpful people. Congratulations when you hear good news about their company. These are just some of the many connection-focused touches that demonstrate your expertise, reflect your generosity, and have the added bonus of allowing you to stay in touch.
Caroline Ceniza-Levine is a career expert, writer, speaker and co-founder of SixFigureStart (www.sixfigurestart.com), a career coaching firm comprised of former Fortune 500 recruiters. Caroline is a co-author (along with Donald Trump, Jack Canfield and others) of the upcoming “How the Fierce Handle Fear: Secrets to Succeeding in Challenging Times” due out March 2010; Bascom Hill Books. Formerly in corporate HR and retained search, Caroline most recently headed University Relations for Time Inc and has also recruited for Accenture, Citibank, Disney ABC, and others. Caroline is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Professional Development at Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs, a life coach (www.thinkasinc.com) and a columnist for CNBC.com, Conde Nast’s Portfolio.com, Vault.com, Wetfeet.com and TheGlassHammer.com.
Filed under: career coaching , communication, employer, job search, LinkedIn, networking
March 7, 2010 • 9:23 am 0
Please feel free to share this free coaching teleseminar series with others in your network: www.FearlessFridaysTelesummit.com.
Some background on the teleseminar series: I am a co-author (along with Donald Trump, Jack Canfield and others) of the upcoming “How the Fierce Handle Fear: Secrets to Succeeding in Challenging Times” due out April 2010 by Bascom Hill Books. As part of the launch, the editor, Sophfronia Scott, has put together a series of free coaching teleseminars by the authors and other leading coaches starting March 12: www.FearlessFridaysTelesummit.com
My teleseminar is on Friday, April 9, 2p on Career Management in Scary Economic Times
When the book is released in April, you’ll be able to order it from our website. In the meantime, all orders of my 7-workshop series, Onward! Overcoming Obstacles and Reaching Success, include a copy of “How the Fierce Handle Fear: Secrets to Succeeding in Challenging Times” when it is released April 2010. So reserve your copy today at http://sixfigurestart.wordpress.com/for-individuals/coaching-to-go/
Filed under: career coaching, life coaching, resource recommendation , Donald Trump, fearless friday, free seminar, how the fierce handle fear, jack canfield, sophfronia scott
• 1:48 am 0
Tim Brown, CEO and president of IDEO, writes about design thinking in “Change By Design”. For business book lovers, this is a must for its accessible but comprehensive overview of what design thinking is and for real-life examples in a variety of companies and industries.
For job seekers and proactive career planners, I was struck by how useful some of the design thinking strategies are to career management. For example, in early 2000 when I used to give live career visioning workshops, I used an exercise called Prototypes, where participants would identify people with careers or lives they wanted and try to use what they knew and admired the prototype to more quickly identify what they wanted for themselves. Brown has a whole chapter on prototyping and its importance to efficient and effective discovery of potential solutions. Brown also covers mind-mapping, storytelling and the importance of observatiob — all of which have important career management parallels.
It’s a good mind-stretching book and accessible even for someone like myself with no design background. I was inspired and even hopeful after reading this, as it encourages creativity and the constant pursuit of solutions. Brown talks about seemingly intractable problems in a curious, optimistic way that begs for ideas. If “Change By Design” inpsires you to be as curious and inventive with your career and life, it is well worth the read.
Filed under: book review, career coaching, life coaching , book review, Career Change, Change By Design, ideo, tim brown
March 5, 2010 • 1:39 am 0
Where in your career and life are you being too cautious?
What is holding you back?
What is one thing you can do this week to mitigate perceived risks?
What is one thing you can do today to expand your comfort zone?
Filed under: life coaching , change, comfort zone, inspiration, Jawaharlal Nehru, risk
March 3, 2010 • 1:28 am 4
In the past three weeks, I’ve had three questions about career re-entry:
I had a high-level sales job but took seven years off to focus on family. I’ve done some non-profit volunteer work. How do I get back to for-profit and paid?
I sold my company and have been consulting part-time since. How do I ramp back up to a full-time career?
I retired but want to come back. How do I start?
Career re-entry is similar to career change in that you are moving into a substantially different circumstance for where you are now. In the case of career changes, sometimes you change the industry: the stay at home mom in the above example is moving from education where she has done most of her volunteer work to luxury goods where her target re-entry will be. Sometimes you change the function: the company founder went from CEO to consultant and wants to go into investments. Sometimes you change the geography: the retiree is coming back to a similar position but is launching a national search and open to relocation.
In all cases, you want to clearly demonstrate how your value translates from one circumstance to the next. The added challenge for career re-entrants is they sometimes don’t recognize their value and downplay their accomplishments. While I don’t suggest that you say you were a paid consultant when you volunteered or that you worked full-time when you didn’t, I strongly suggest that you focus on achievement and not pay or process. For the non-profit volunteer, this means highlighting money raised, events organized, or other specific tangible examples of your value. For the company founder, this means highlighting the lessons learned from building and selling the company, not just the most recent consulting.
You will need to demonstrate that your skills are current for today’s marketplace. For the retiree who is returning to asset management, he needs to have been following the markets. If he’s managed his portfolio since retiring, that’s another clear example that he’s stayed in the game. The non-profit volunteer needs to know the luxury goods business and specifically identify what department and what role she is targeting (in the language that the target sector understands).
In sum, if you are a career re-entrant, you need to build the bridge from your current spot to where you want to go. Like the career changer, it is not up to the target company to figure out how your skills translate. You identify how your skills translate, you position yourself accordingly for the new career, and you give tangible proof that you are already effectively doing the job.
Caroline Ceniza-Levine is a career expert, writer, speaker and co-founder of SixFigureStart (www.sixfigurestart.com), a career coaching firm comprised of former Fortune 500 recruiters. Caroline is a co-author (along with Donald Trump, Jack Canfield and others) of the upcoming “How the Fierce Handle Fear: Secrets to Succeeding in Challenging Times” due out March 2010; Bascom Hill Books. Formerly in corporate HR and retained search, Caroline most recently headed University Relations for Time Inc and has also recruited for Accenture, Citibank, Disney ABC, and others. Caroline is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Professional Development at Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs, a life coach (www.thinkasinc.com) and a columnist for CNBC.com, Conde Nast’s Portfolio.com, Vault.com, Wetfeet.com and TheGlassHammer.com.
Filed under: career coaching , Career Change, career re-entry, job search, onramping
March 1, 2010 • 1:53 am 0
Networking and relationship-building is the theme of “Who’s Got Your Back” by Keith Ferrazzi. Ferrazzi is a networking expert and co-author of the earlier “Never Eat Alone”. I am a big networking proponent but with “Never Eat Alone” even I found Ferrazzi’s strategies a bit intense. With “Who’s Got Your Back” Ferrazzi dials down the tone and makes the subject more inviting. There are solid tips, though not much new.
One thing I absolutely loved: late in the book, he recommends that managers get 2 pieces of feedback: 1) what is one thing I am doing that I should stop doing; and 2) what is one thing I am not doing that I should start doing? That is golden advice and applicable well beyond management relationships to goals in general. If you are stuck, posing those 2 questions might provide a fresh insight.
Another great aspect of the book are the accompanying resources. Ferrazzi offers goal-setting sheets and other handouts that enable you to start your own support network. This prompted a friend of mine to create her own Greenlight group (Greenlight is the name of Ferrazzi’s consulting company), and I have participated in her group to very positive results. So, if this book helps you to extend yourself, meet new people and deepen existing relationships, it is well worth the time to read.
Filed under: book review, career coaching , book review, Greenlight, Keith Ferrazzi, networking, Never Eat Alone, Who's Got Your Back
