Be on fire about your career

The news this week  had a story of not one, but two couch fires in the Chicagoland area. Holy smokes, how much time does someone have to sit on the couch to get it to combust? I actually don’t know the cause of the fires in the stories, but I hope these fires did not cause any additional financial burden for anyone suffering from job loss.

Activity in the job search means that you are out and about, talking and networking with people. Actually the job seeker needs to be on fire about finding a job. Meaning, you need to have a passion about your career, the opportunities and the abilities you bring to the job market.

After a job seeker has many weeks of looking for work under her belt, she starts to lose the expectation that she’ll find a job soon. Doubt starts to insert itself into the job seeker’s consciousness. Doubt can lead to negative thoughts and negative self-talk which start to feed on themselves and the job seeker can soon lose hope of ever finding gainful employment.

Back in 2009 I told the story of being as enthusiastic as a puppy dog when the doorbell rings. <Link> Keeping a positive attitude isn’t easy especially in a job search that seems to go on and on. But, I believe that one of the things that allows doubts to grow into depression is inactivity. Being a couch potato is one of the best ways to kill a job search. Focused activity leads to proficiency of your job search skills,  which leads to more network meetings, which leads to interviews, which leads to job offers.

Note the terminology focused activity: what do I mean by “focused activity?” Not all activity is productive and sometimes can be distracting the job seeker from meeting job search goals.  So, activity for activity’s sake can be counter productive and even destructive. When your activity is focused, it clearly enables you to achieve a short-term or long-term goal... getting you that much closer to landing the job.  

Be on fire about your job search, passionate about your next job and the future you’ll have. Don’t, however, let you the couch suck you into killing your job search and burn up your dreams.

Accountability Groups Findings

   Over the summer I did some observing of groups reporting to be accountability groups. This wasn’t  a long, controlled research project... I just went around to check out six different Networking Accountability Groups and I learned a lot.

   I met with six groups in Chicago’s western suburbs. The largest group had eight members and the smallest had three. (This group just had two members land job and hadn’t replaced them during the time of my visits.) The average size of a group was five.

   Only one of the meetings I attended began on time. Most of the groups had 100% attendance with phone calls to alert the group if someone was going to be absent. Most meetings lasted between an hour and 90 minutes. Most of the groups have been meeting for over a year with the newest group meeting for less that six months.
 
   Every group but the newest saw some level of success. One group measured and track members status and they had high turnover in their group. Turnover is defined as members who find full time regular or contract work and no longer meet with the group. AKA: Success!

   While these observations only produced anecdotal data, there are some conclusions that are somewhat obvious. Most of the groups I observed would more correctly be called “Support Groups” rather than accountability groups because they are run in a very relaxed manner. Most groups meeting are made up of people reporting their status in an ad hoc manner and many of the folks never mention to the group what their goals are for the next week.

Other observations:

• Groups focus on the meeting and not on one another’s accomplishments for the week
• Groups pass leads among one another which became the goal of the meeting
• All groups had a non elected but clear leader instead of the leadership role being shared
• Groups were relaxed without a formal agenda
• One group used the “St. Hubert’s Accountability Check List” by its members
• No group collected and shared accountability data with the group members

I would suggest the following for all groups.

1. Increase the level of commitment from members
2. Have a formal contract to help create a more “business like” atmosphere
3. Set meeting start & stop times and agenda
4. Focus on members’ activity and accomplishments in their job search
5. Select and use an “Accountability Check List” -- see Google Docs Forms
6. Collect and report on members activity and accomplishments using a spreadsheet

Be accountable and succeed!

In theory, all the members of the group are looking for full time work. They all have the same goal and in times of weakness the members need to count on the group to fill the role of the boss or customer holding the expectation that the member will deliver what was promised. It's kind of silly that human beings will quit on themselves but not quit on a commitment they made to a group or even one other person. This is the power of an accountability group to give it's members the motivation to do the hard work of job search. So when the group holds it members accountability in a safe and honest manner, everyone wins.

How do accountability groups hold you accountable?

   The short answer is that they don’t; you have to hold yourself accountable first. Accountability groups help its members hold themselves accountable. It’s important to know what the group can help you with. You need to know how to utilize the power of such a group.  The group can...


... offer support and comradeship during a difficult time
If you are a small business owner who doesn’t like sales or a job seeker looking for the next opportunity you are basically on your own. If you succeed or fail you have no one to answer to, except yourself. Frankly this is lonely.  It is difficult to do sales or a job search and experience rejection with no support system. If you have a group who is going through the same kind of experiences you feel less alone. And you can pump one another up from time to time. While you are still on your own, you not all alone.

... clarify your goals and help you to stay focused
When you are on your own as either a job seeker or as an entrepreneur you are alone. If you were working in a job with peers and colleagues around, you can bounce ideas off people. As a single force in the world, having a group to bounce ideas off of can help in qualifying and quantifying your goals. With an accountability group to check in with, a conflicting goal or action can be identified and put into check; allowing you to remain focused on key goals and actions. If a goal is too big and requires a mini goals to be identified a group can point this out to you.

... provide some motivation to meet goals
Many of us are too easy on ourselves and accept our own rationalizations without question. The accountability group is a place to announce your goals and then report your status. Telling someone makes the goal real. Putting a date to a goal gives it a sense of urgency. When you’ve communicated the goal with a date to a group you’re more motivated to make the goal happen. Most of us hate to tell someone that we didn’t do what we said we would do. Also when you don’t feel like doing what you need to, having a group to report to gives you a proper kick to do it anyway.

   With the support and backing of a group of people who have made a commitment to aid in each other’s success by holding one another accountability -- you can achieve you sales or job seeking goals. The commitment is key. Each member needs to commit to personal responsibility, to attend meetings regularly, to ask questions of the other group members--even tough questions, and to expect one another to do the same for you and the group.

Inspirational Books and Movies

   A few weeks ago I asked the readers of my blog to comment on the books, movies and music that inspire them and have helped them deal with difficult times in their lives. The movies that people reported that were inspirational to them are:


Endurance (the story of Ernest Shackleton), by Alfred Lansing
Survivor's Club, by Ben Sherwood
Jump Start Your Brain, by Doug Hall & David Wecker
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, by John Maxwell
Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will, by Noel M. Tichy & Stratford Sherman
Who Moved my Cheese, by Spencer Johnson, M.D.
The Power of Focus, by Jack Canfield, et. al.
Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway, by Susan Jeffers, Ph.D.
The Laidoff Ninja, by Craig Brown & Javed Ikbal
90 Minutes in Heaven, by Rev. Don Piper


I want to thank Rien, Jim, Sharon, Chuck and Katy for their suggestions. I also recommend:


How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie 
Leadership Jazz, by Max DePree 
Success The Glenn Bland Method, by Glenn Bland 
How to Have Power and Confidence in Dealing With People, by Les Giblin 
See You at the Top, by Zig Ziglar

   These are very good books for anyone in sales or a job search. And as I have said before, but bears repeating, to maintain a positive attitude you need to put positive things into your brain. Reading is the most powerful way to influence your attitude. Many of these books are also on tape or CD. However, listening to a book is great in the car but research cites that a listener needs to hear the recording as many as 4 times to get the same impact as reading. Often I read the book and then get a recorded edition to reinforce what I've read previously.

   Sadly, I found out that if you don't have a Google account, Live Journal, Wordpress, TypePad, AIM  or OpenID account you cannot comment on my blog. I'm sorry for that inconvenience. I also only got two movie suggestions: Jerimiah Johnson and The Outlaw Jose Wales. To that I add the Shawshank Redemption as one of the best inspirational movies. 

   One final thought. Of all the books, movies and songs suggested, I read 90 Minutes in Heaven for the first time. Wow. Regardless of your life situation this story really hit the nail on the head regarding transition. I will be doing a presentation in the near future on "90 Minutes: A Life Metaphor." Before this suggestion, whenever someone had a tragedy in their life, I offered them one of two books to read. First, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, by Harold S. Kushner and second The Gift of Peace, by Joseph Cardinal Bernardin. Now I have a third book to offer. All three of these books and the stories they contain confirm what Viktor Frankl wrote in Man's Search for Meaning, namely if you believe that you have someone in your corner, you can survive anything and thrive beyond the tragedy you suffer.