Archive for September, 2010

Has this ever happened to you? At the end of the day your spouse or your boss asked you, “what did you do today?” and you had no answer. Of course it has. It’s happened to all of us!

It wasn’t that way when you started the day. You set out to do something good or important. In your efforts to search for a job or complete an important business project you threw yourself into it heart and soul. You were busy all day long and yet, at the end of the day (or week, or month) you wondered if you really accomplished anything important. How did that happen? You were busy, but not productive.

One of the problems many of us face is that we don’t have a system for defining, achieving and measuring our effectiveness.  We haven’t set specific goals for our business, project, or job search. Because we have not set specific goals, we don’t know when we have been successful at achieving your goals. . . or even if we HAVE achieved them.

A professor of mine in business school famously said, “if you can measure it, you can improve it.”  I wasn’t sure what he meant at the time, but as I have spent more time pursuing both life and business objectives I have begun to understand.  Setting specific goals allows us to measure our effectiveness at our work. Having a system to measure the outcome of our activities allows us to improve on what we have done in the past or achieve want to get done in the future.

Here are some tips that will help you develop a system for defining, achieving and measuring goals.

1. Make time to set goals.  It is said that every hour spent on planning saves 5-6 hours in execution. The simplest way to get something done is to set a goal to accomplish it.  For your business you want to set chronological goals (annual, monthly, weekly and daily goals) as well as project goals. The same is true of your job search – and here’s an important hint: applying to jobs on the Internet is NOT a goal you should set for more than 30 minutes per day! Schedule time for planning and goal setting. I recommend you block out a couple of days each year for strategic planning and setting annual goals; a half day each month to set monthly goals and a few minutes each week to set weekly goals. Be sure to make your goals specific and achievable.
2. Define clear objectives.  Objectives are the steps required to accomplish a goal. They formulate your action plan for accomplishing your goals. Your objectives should be measurable so you know when you have accomplished them. They should be realistic and time bound as well.
3. Keep track of your progress. What metrics or benchmarks will you use to mark your progress.  Set the tracking mechanism up before you start, that way you will be able to prioritize and focus on the parts of the project or goal that are the most important. If you need to let something fall between the cracks, make sure it’s not the most important thing. Setting metrics and tracking your progress will help you keep the first things first.
4. Make mid-course corrections as needed.  Things seldom go exactly as planned. Life happens. Things break or need to be replaced. People get sick. Money runs out before the project is complete. The successful person is able to step back and make course corrections if necessary to accomplish their goals.  In order to be effective at this you must focus on the ultimate goal or objective – not the action itself.  Remember, it’s easy to forget your objective is to drain the swamp when you are up to your eyeballs in alligators!

A mentor of mine used to say, “plan your work, then work your plan.”  He was a wise man! If we follow that advice we will have fewer days (weeks, months, years. . . ) where we get to the end of the project and say, “gee what HAVE I accomplished?”

Happy Hunting, friends!

Dr. Sean Harry
Career Management Solutions

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“I’m not smart enough to start my own business.”
“I don’t have enough experience to get this job.”
“I don’t deserve to be successful.”

Are you plagued with thoughts like these?  If so, they are probably keeping you from moving forward with your job search, business plans or even the ability to deepen important relationships.  Negative thoughts can be discouraging or even debilitating, but you don’t have to let them rule your actions! You can beat negative thoughts and negative self talk with a few simple steps.

In his recent book, “Change Your Brain, Change Your Life: The Breakthrough Program for Conquering Anxiety, Depression, Obsessiveness, Anger, and Impulsiveness“, Dr. Daniel Amen calls this negative self-talk the “fortune-telling ANT.”  These ANTs (Automatic Negative Thoughts) can cause anxiety, stress, inaction and even problems with our physical health.  If you are a job seeker or an entrepreneur you are, no doubt, intimately familiar with ANTs.  They are the little voice inside your head that tells you that you aren’t smart enough or good enough or experienced enough.

The good news is that these ANTs can be killed quite easily.  Here’s Dr. Amen’s recipe:

Step 1 – write down the event that is causing you stress or anxiety.

Step 2 – Notice and write down the automatic negative thoughts that come to your mind when you think of this event.

Step 3 – Label those thought as a fortune-telling ANT. Amen writes, “Often, just naming the thought can help take away its power.” (Amen, p. 98)

Step 4 – Talk back to the ANT – or squash and kill it. Chances are that the negative thought is only partially true. Squash the ANT by bringing in as many positive responses as possible.  For instance, if the ANT is telling you that you don’t have enough experience, make a list of the experience you DO have.  Counter the ANT with facts.

Dr. Amen offers the above 4 steps to kill ANTs.  To that I add this fifth one:

Step 5 – Make an action list of 2 or 3 things you can do TODAY that will prove the ANT wrong.  Being proactive will help you prove to yourself that the ANT is wrong and you are right.  Thus, the ANT stays dead longer!

You don’t have to be held hostage by your negative thoughts.  You can beat your negative thoughts with these few simple steps.  Now, go and kill those ANTs!

Happy Hunting!

“What do you do?”

Does your answer to this question stop the conversation cold or does it take the conversation to the next level? Whether you are looking for more clients or searching for a new job, the way you answer this question is vitally important for getting the other person to talk to you.

As a small business owner who is looking for more clients, you want your answer to engage the listener so they can determine whether or not your product or service can help solve their problems.  Most of the time, however, our answers make the hearer feel like you are trying to sell them something. That will turn them off quickly!

If you are looking for a job, your answer to this question will determine whether the listener helps you uncover job leads or whether they offer you sympathy for looking for work in a time of unprecedented high unemployment. You don’t want sympathy!  What you want is a hot lead to a position that will provide satisfactory work and a good salary.

Here are a few tips for answering the question, “what do you do?” These tips will help you keep the conversation moving forward rather than stop it dead in its tracks.

1. Pepper your answer with action words. Since the question is “what do you DO?” your answer needs to be verb heavy.  Don’t give a title (“I’m as insurance sales person” “I’m an accountant”).  Right or wrong, titles place you in a box in the other person’s mind. Action words, on the other hand, will allow the listener to put themselves in the place of a person who may need your products or services. Action words will allow the other person to say, “that’s interesting. Please tell me more.”
2. Strike a familiar chord. Use language that meets the needs of your perfect client or prospective boss. We too often use the technical language of our field. That’s great if we are talking to professionals who do what we do. It’s rotten if we are trying to pique the interest of someone who needs what we have to offer. Use the language of your clients to explain what you do.  It will open many doors!
3. Focus on the problem, not the solution. Our clients all have a problem that needs to be fixed. However, most of them do not know exactly what the problem is, let alone how to fix it. If you jump to the solution too quickly you run the risk of shutting down the conversation. Remember, people don’t really care what you know until they know that you care about them. Focusing on the problem keeps you from sounding like a used care salesman.

The next time someone asks you “what you do”, I hope you will be able to keep the conversation moving forward. Work on these three tips and you will get some amazing responses!  I guarantee it!

And for those of you who wonder what I do, well . . . my job is to help you answer the “what do you do” question. I help people discover, develop and promote their personal brand so they can find more terrific clients or land the perfect job.

Yep, that’s what I do. What do YOU do?

Happy Hunting, friends!

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