How to build an Olympic Attitude

What can we learn from watching the Olympics? Especially if you’re a regular person without athletic talent, what do you share with Olympic athletes? You don't have to be an Olympian to have the same kind of attitude, but you do have to work hard, and believe:

Set goals regarding your performance

• Focus on what is doable first. Make phone calls to friends and other job seekers to build your confidence. Then make phone calls to new contacts using what you learned from your practice. Then schedule networking meeting to grow your network into your job.

Plan for the event (The Interview)

• Find triggers or common questions which will help you stay focused on your performance during the interview. Then rehearse and practice. Do what Olympic athletes do and visualize yourself going through the the interview.

Your performance does not define your self-worth  

• Separate your self-worth from your performance. Putting the two together puts enormous pressure on the event and and makes it difficult to do well. You are not your performance; you are always you regardless of the score at the end of the day.

Relive your Successes

• Use your success stories; visualize the events and achievements. Remember how you felt and thought. You have done fantastic things in your career. Refer back to your success stories often so that you relive the experience.

Dump your ego, you’re only human

• If not, you won't allow yourself to do things that make you look bad, and in the end, that avoidance will keep you from getting better. Human beings learn from mistakes by making changes--often little changes which lead to achievements.

Temporary disappointments are normal (Except for Cubs fans; then it’s not temporary)

• Nobody's perfect, stuff happens. Know that you will make mistakes and mess up the interview or meeting, but let them slide, and focus on the next one.

Laugh often and laugh out loud!

• When it gets hard... laugh. Dump the negative and find something to laugh about. As I always tell my clients and audiences: "If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right!"

"How to build an Olympic Attitude" is inspired by Peter Haberl, United States Olympic Committee sports psychologist

New Year, New Career

Hey It’s a New Year

There are two kinds of people in the world... those who make New Year’s Resolutions and those that don’t. One might argue that there are a third kind, people who makes resolutions on January 1st and break them January 2nd. Regardless of which group you fit into, the New Year is a wonderful time to take stock on your career and where you’re going.

Vince Lombardi was famous for beginning the first day of football camp with the statement: Gentlemen, this is a football. Each new season he focused his team on the basics. I suggest this is a good strategy for us, regardless of where we are in our career journey. If you find that you’re 35 years old and haven’t be able to move out of front line management, or you’re 55 years old and hit the ceiling with your company, or you’re 45 years old and you have been looking for work for more than six months, it’s a good time to go back to basics.

Revisit your goals. Some goals are longer term than first considered. If you want a new job or a promotion and you’ve been working towards that for three, four or five months, now is a good time to sit down and review the goal, evaluating your progress and what still needs to be done. Then get to work.

Who can help. Making a move in your career isn’t a solo act. The other thing to realize is that there are people in your life who are willing to help you. You only need to ask for their assistance. It’s been an axiom pronounced by Success Gurus that if you desire success, surround yourself with successful people. Associate with people who have achieved what you would like to achieve because these folks are often in a position to assist you. I’ve found that when people are in a position to help someone, they are hurt or offended if the person fails to ask for their help.

Make some phone calls. It’s a new year, you can call everyone you know just to say Happy New Year. While you’re at it, go ahead and ask them if they know of anybody who could use a person with your skills and abilities. You can ask them if they have any contacts at any of your target companies. When they say yes, thank them and then call the new contacts you were just referred to.

Meet and Network with a lot of people. You can schedule a face to face network meeting with anyone you call who lives or works locally. The more networking meetings you have with folks, the more opportunities you’ll have to meet decision makers... and decision makers are in a better position to offer you a new job or promotion. It’s the new year... make it a successful new year!

Fear and Trepidation and the Darkside

To quote Master Yoda from Star Wars, "Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate; hate leads to suffering...”

In a job search or any aspect of career growth, acting out of fear is a losing proposition. Acting out of confidence is strength. When human beings live in fear, they are not seeing the world in its true light. We make mistakes in judgement and appear to others as afraid and desperate. This just doesn’t help you when you’re going for a new job or a promotion.

For my job seekers we talk in terms of landing a job. If we make land into an acronym:

L: LEARN. Learn all you can.  

A: APPRECIATE. Appreciate what you HAVE.  

N: NETWORK. NETWORK. NETWORK.

D: DON'T DOUBT. Don't doubt yourself, your skills, your abilities.

The D in LAND is an important, an essential point for anyone looking to succeed: staying positive and getting rid of stinkin’ thinkin’ and the worst kind of stinkin’ thinkin’ I know is living in fear.

Fear of failure is a struggle for many. Fear of success is a struggle for others. Yes, fear of success. Being unsure of your abilities is one thing, but being fearful that you won’t live up to others’ expectations is a set up for failure. If interviewers are just getting to know you, you cannot entertain those doubts and fears. It’s poison.

So have faith, You will LAND, you will succeed. Surround yourself with people who build you up. Ask those who can help you, to help you. Be positive: when you’re asked, “How’s it going?’ say, “Outstanding! fantastic, life is good!” And smile, even when you don’t feel like it. Sing or hum a happy song and don’t let fear lead you to the darkside.

F. U. Interviews

Bev Rautenberg

I have a client that always reminds me that I was the first to tell her to F. U. I’m always a tad nonplussed when she says this until I remember that F. U. is not an expletive.

Following Up (F. U.) after interviews is one of the more neglected aspects of a job search. Some research have cited 60% of job seekers fail to follow up after the interview. Client’s have told me...  “They said they would be making a decision is two weeks I’ll check in then.” Other’s say, “I don’t want to look too desperate.” And still others say, “The ball’s in their court, if they want me they’ll call me.” Sitting by the phone waiting for the phone to ring is a sad and lonely task. “But the interview went very well; I thought I hit a home run. Why haven’t they called? Maybe I should call them, but it’s been too long for me to follow up now!”

Following up is sometimes scary for the job seeker. “What if they tell me that I didn’t get the job?” or “I don’t know what to say.” So what if they tell you that they decided to go a different direction! Is that really bad? Sure, it doesn’t feel good to be told you didn’t get the job, however, two things are available for the job seeker if they give you this message.

First, express your disappointment, and wish them success with their choice. Then ask if they know of anything else that could utilize someone with your skills and abilities. “Gee, I’m sorry to hear that I didn’t get the job; I wish you success with the person you selected. You and I spent enough time together that I’m wondering if you would know of any other opportunities that could utilize someone with my experience and talents?”

Second, the job seeker can continue to create networking opportunities and follow up with other job leads. Just because you have an interview doesn’t mean that you will land the job. Having several so called irons in the fire allows you to relax a little. If you get a no, you have something else to follow up on. It’s just one more no which brings you closer to the yes. The sales adage goes, you have to get through the nos to get to the yeses. “So I’ve got another no, yea!!! I’m that much closer to the job offer.” Maybe that sounds a little Pollyannaish, but that really is the right attitude to have in times like today.

Success comes out of persistence and constancy. Doing what you need to do and staying the course when you meet defeat or disappointment is the path to success. Thomas Edison once said, “Many of life's failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” So even though you’ve not heard back from the interviewer or the HR rep; don’t quit and give up. Call them back with a positive expectation that you’re the right candidate... it may be that they are too busy because they don’t have you on their team.

The coach says, keep  following up (F. U.) until you get a definite yes or no.

Almost all the Time It's Great Being a Coach

To quote my friend, Terry Sharipo, Ph.D. "It's nice to be a dad.   Almost all the time!"  And, I find this to be true. The times it's not great to be a dad are when you're kids may be in danger, when they are out of our control, when they do things that could put them in harms way. The thought of losing a child is a parents worse fear. 


But, it is the greatest feeling seeing your kids succeed, grow and thrive. The same thing is true in my role as career coach. When my clients are thriving, growing and succeeding; I'm on top of the world. But, when they are struggling, failing and feeling depressed; it's a tough job.


Most of the time it's great being a coach... mostly because I know that beyond the struggles there will be growth, beyond the depression my clients will thrive and out of the failings come success! 

Job lose really SUCKS, (excuse my profaneness) but no one every says, thank goodness I got sacked! Even if you hate your job, no one feels good about being between jobs. But, being a coach and working with hundreds and hundreds of people has afforded me the perspective to know if a client keeps working at what I'm teaching, they'll land a job. I cannot predict when, but I know they'll land.


This is my wish for all you who are not where you want to be in your career. Regardless if you are not employed, under-employed or looking for the next step in your career growth at a company; my you stay positive and believe and work your tail off... and you'll get there!

Happy Father's Day

Success Stories: Part 2 -- Building the Stories

In a 45 minutes to one hour interview you'll have three to five opportunities to share a success story with the interviewer. If that is the case you're going to need more than one or two stories. Additionally you may be called back for one or two more follow-up interviews. I know of people who have had five interviews with a company before the process came to an end. Keeping this in mind you really need a pool of 15 to 20 success stories in your pocket.

How do you build your story? Where do you get the ideas for the stories? Remember to use the S-A-R format for the stories. Start with your resume and elevator speech and look at all the points and accomplishments listed. Every point and accomplishment is an avenue to convey your potential to the interviewer. Another source of successes are past co-workers of bosses and ask them if they remember a time when you helped them out of a tight spot. And if you still have them, look over past performance evaluations for stories ideas. 

Now you have the story idea. Remember to keep the listener's attention! You cannot overwhelm them with details, you need to present the situation in a compelling way. For example one client shared a story with me: 

On a wastewater treatment plant the equipment vendor could not provide the large anchor bolts until 6 weeks after our first planned concrete placement, severely messing up our schedule. I needed to get the bolts from somewhere else. The specifications were very distinctive due to the stresses the bolts would be required to hold once the plant was in full operation. I knew that even a small variance in the quality or strength of the bolt could result in more problems down the road.

The client made a few mistakes in his first attempt. The story is too specific and would only appeal to a very specific interview. Notice the personalization of the problem. The situation should describe the problem you fixed not direct the interviewer to a problem you were associated with. With a little editing we came up with: 

The company had a problem where an equipment vendor could not provide an essential part thus putting a project at risk of failure.

Short, sweet and to the point; plus it has the added benefit to fit a number of different business scenarios. Lets move into the action the client took in order to save the project: 

I needed a local fabricator who could make the Anchor Bolts to the required specifications and deliver them to the job in 2 weeks – just in time for our first foundation concrete placement.  With a great deal of research I contacted the original vendor's manufacture and negotiated a deal to deliver directly to our company.

The only real change here is in the specifics of the narrative. Every business has had a vendor drop the ball on them, but not every business needed Anchor Bolts in their concrete. We came up with: 

I researched and found a local vendor that could provide the part allowing us to meet the project's deadline.

This example allows the storyteller to utilize the listener's experience and frame of mind to set up the story in a quick and engaging way. Moving into the  result or the story's conclusion we need to expand its length by adding specifics... numbers, percentages and savings that the interviewer will appreciate: 

By doing this I preserved our schedule and saved $5,800.00 per part. This equated to a $1.5 million savings to the entire project. In addition to the materials savings there was an additional savings of 23% in labor costs due to the timely delivery of the parts.

The first draft of the story may be too wordy, but that is okay. The goal is to get the success story down to a length that creates dialogue between you and the interviewer where you can share the details that resonate within their environment. Once this story is done, the next stories will come easier and so on, until you have a collection of stories.

Success Stories Part 1

Once you know what the hiring manager is looking for, it is time to point out how you are the best qualified candidate. How? Share your success story. Challenger, Gray and Christmas- among others- teach that there are three basic elements in a good success story. First the situation, then what action did you take, and finally what was the result .

S-A-R

S – Situation

A – Action

R – Result

Success Story

I believe that the success story needs to be short, sweet, and told in a way that allows the hiring manager to see you doing the same for them. Short and sweet is so important especially in telling the first two elements S & R. Most people have a short attention span today. Just think about the average TV commercial for the Super Bowl. Ads are sold in 30 second spots― why? because average Americans can focus their attention only that long before their minds begins to wander.

The situation is essential to keep brief since it sets the stage. Be general in terms of the problem. State the situation so that it is clear that the company had the problem not you. Don’t be too specific. Don’t confuse the interviewer with a lot of needless data. Believe me, the data is more important to you than it is to the interviewer.

The action should be brief as well as spoken in terms of “I.” What did you do to solve the problem? Again, keep it general and brief. You want the interviewer envisioning you doing something similar for the company. You want to share just enough info so that the interviewer understands that you really are experienced.

The result is the coup-de-grâce of the success story. This is where you want the interviewer to be because this proof in numbers of your ability to do the job. It’s the story’s conclusion. Here you can go into more detail and tie in numbers, dollars earned, time saved, happy customers, or team accomplishments. The terms and numbers you share depend on the interviewer’s need or problem. This is where they see you doing this for their company.

The goal of all good storytelling is to bring the audience into the story. Get them to identify with the narrative and see you doing the same for them. When you are general and not detailed the listener- the interviewer- is then able to fill in the elements of their situation and the action in terms that fit their world. Don’t disturb this by talking too much or using too many particulars.

Next time we’ll talk more about how to build and practice your stories so that you are prepared for the interview. We’ll also look at specific examples and how to know which stories to use.

Success Stories: GMA & Diane Sawyer

This past week Diane Sawyer left ABC’s Good Morning America to take over the World News anchor seat. You could say that Ms. Sawyer is in transition. I point this out because of what the Diane Sawyer and staff put together for the last show on GMA. They developed a montage titled: “My Time on ‘GMA’” which included interviews with heads of state, US Presidents, celebrities and just regular folk. It displayed major stories she covered as well as cute and clever incidents that happened to her while on the show.

 

In essence, it was five minutes of video success stories. While she already has her next job and doesn’t need to use her success stories to help sell herself to a new boss, it is clear there is a great deal she has to feel proud about.

 

One of the positive things about being in transition that my clients have point out to me is realizing that they were really good at what they did on the job. If you haven’t done so, take an hour or so and write a history of your work experience. Highlight events that you are most proud of. Get a hold of co-workers, bosses and employees and ask for stories they remember. Also refer back to past performance evaluations and draw out different accomplishment, successes and lessons learned from your career.

 

All this will serve you well in your job search and especially as you prepare for your interviews. You will realize that you are the star of your show and just like Diane Sawyer, co-workers that you have left behind do miss you. Plus, the people you’ll work with in the future cannot wait to hear your stories about how you’re going to be successful with them.

 

We’ll talk more later about the psychology behind success stories and how to use the success story in an interview. 

Transition: What I am becoming? (part 1)

My brother, a survivor of job loss, recently asked me if I had seen the movie "The Rookie" starring Dennis Quaid. I had and he reminded me of a point in the movie where the star realizes that sometimes you need to do what you were meant to do. What an insight. So often people are in careers because they simply ended up doing the job they do and not because they always wanted be a “fill in the blank.” (Clerk, doctor, engineer, Indian Chief, teacher)

Many of my clients reported this to me as we talked about their career. They share that they

really didn’t have a passion for the job but simply did it because it was the job they had. Often they felt trapped because they rose in the salary structure and couldn’t afford to change. But

now that the job is gone they now had the opportunity to ask the question: “What do I want to do?”

It’s a question of vocation: What was I meant to be? Sometimes, if I have nothing to loose, then I have everything to gain. “I cannot do this anymore so what can I do?" is the question many are faced with. I would ask my clients what they wanted to do when they were teenagers. What keeps us from focusing on the dreams we had as teenagers? The answers to that are as numerous as there are people being asked the question. What’s important to realize is that job transition is the perfect time to ask the question.

One of my heroes is Joseph Campbell, an authority and a life long student of myth and mythology. He once told an interviewer he believed that a success in life comes from following one’s bliss. Doing what you love or what you are best at will lead to success.

As children, we will do what we want, play with the toys we like and ignore the things we don’t enjoy. Then in adolescence things change and we feel like things we do are wrong or don't quite fit… no matter how hard we try to please people we feel inadequate. Somewhere along the way someone says to you… “Grow up, do what you need to do.” "Be an adult!" How sad... However, imagine what could happen if the child heard, “You need to do what makes you happy and makes the world a better place.” Today a person in transition needs to ask themselves, “What can you do to be happy and make the world a better place?” and if Campbell is right success will follow.

So if you find yourself in transition between jobs or another life transition, take a moment to think about what you wanted to be when you were a kid, what really makes you happy and what are your talents. We'll discuss this more in part two.