Watching Friends Get Laid Off
December 19, 2008
An article over at Advertising Age talks about watching your friends and colleagues get laid off, and it reminded me of why we’re doing this. From the article:
“ “You’re in a funny position,” Mr. Nawrocki said. “When you watch people have to leave, and you know they were good, you wonder why they had to go and you stayed. You’re scared because you’re thinking ‘Boy, that could have been me.’ ” ”
Watching those around you get laid off, whether within your company or just within your circle of friends, is a constant reminder of how fragile the idea of “job security” truly is. In the roller-coaster that is this economy, more and more people are afraid for their jobs every day.
In the people that we talk to, the overwhelming fear of job loss is becoming a constant theme. And it was what got Melina and I thinking about the idea of the Career Bailout. It’s a program for those who haven’t yet been faced with a genuine Career Crisis, but are facing the uncertainty of potential layoffs, firings or closures.
There’s a lot of that going on right now. We created the Career Bailout program to help you through it with as little stress as possible.
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Yes, you have a personal brand.
December 18, 2008
I would have liked my first new post on this blog to be full of wisdom and good advice. But, for today, my good friend Jason Alba stole my thunder. His post for today was entitled If you don’t have a personal brand, and you need to read it.
As Jason points out, we all have a personal brand:
“Everyone has some kind of branding, and I bet people will be able to sum you up in a few words… like “John is a really nice guy,” or “John is the best _____,” or something like that.”
The difference is, most people just allow the world to decide on their brand, without spending any time or effort making their brand count.
So, as the end of this year comes up, it’s time for you to decide what your brand is going to be. And if you don’t, well, then I’ll steal a quote from Rush (the band, not Limbaugh): “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”
“More Women Oriented” (Or: Ignorance creates a talentless environment)
December 28, 2007
Sometimes, I’m moved to blog because I am reminded of how unfair the world is. I suppose it’s something that most people are already aware of, but I usually forget that most of the world isn’t as enlightened as most of the people who I’m lucky to associate with on a daily basis.
This morning, my friend Jason twittered about Brazen Careerist Penelope Trunk getting fired from Yahoo. Now, that in itself isn’t that big a deal. People lose jobs all the time. It was when I read the entry that I found this wonderful quote:
Here’s what my boss’s boss’s boss said: “You should write for Lifestyles. That is more women oriented.â€
This is a senior manager at a major public company. And I know that this happens. A friend of mine was once fired from a similarly major corporation because she reported sexual harassment.
But this is 2007, and it’s ridiculous that we still have to put up with this ignorance and stupidity in the world. The thing about it is, it’s Yahoo’s loss. Penelope is brilliant, funny and a wonderful thinker when it comes to careers. And she’s going to land on her feet, because she’s so talented.
But if companies like Yahoo continue to treat their talent like this, soon enough, they won’t have any talent. Their short-term ignorance will cost them the talent.
This is why these companies are having such trouble attracting the young “GenNext” employees. More and more, the people who are under-30s today are looking for places that respect the talent around them. This often appears to be a “sense of entitlement” to the old fogeys (yes, I just called everybody older than 35 a fogey). But it isn’t… it’s about respect for skill and talent.
And the understanding that disrespecting someone’s talent because of what they look like, how they dress, or their gender is stupid and shouldn’t be rewarded.
Second Order Networking
July 25, 2007
Jason had a great post today about what I would call “second order networking” – the concept of using someone you are networked to to network to someone that they don’t know. This is the equivalent of making a “3rd” connection on LinkedIn, because the request goes from you to someone you know, ultimately to a person that they don’t know (through another contact).
From Jason’s post:
“In each case I was asking for my network contacts to hook me up. Here’s the interesting thing: in every case they did not know the person that I needed to talk to.
This presents an interesting decision….
But here is what I would do. I would take the opportunity to grow my own network and try and make the connection. Why? It’s easier to go to someone that you don’t know with a purpose…
It’s a great point – not only does this type of networking allow you to expand your own network, but helps your network expand theirs.
I loved the concept so much that I think I’m going to send a few emails… I could use an introduction or two.
Jason on Security
July 13, 2007
In this case, the Jason I’m talking about is Jason Alba of JibberJobber, and the security he’s talking about isn’t information security, but Job Security. From the post:
“ Look folks, here’s the deal. There is no job security! YOU need to take care of your career, not just your job! Do you find yourself doing any career stuff, outside of your job? Don’t have time? Fine – you’ll have plenty of time since a job search can take so long. Trust me, start doing a little every day, and it will add up. Do not wait until you are terminated to get moving. A little big-picture career stuff every day will go a long way.”
Usually, I’d comment here. But there’s nothing else to say.
(Except perhaps that, if you’re going to Defcon, you should come see my talk with the brilliant and funny Lee Kushner about how to create the real type of job security that Jason talks about in his post… we’re speaking on Saturday afternoon.
Old Blog Entries and Future Titles
April 23, 2007
A coworker sent out a link to the Wayback Machine the other day. Well, I was playing around and came across a link to a previous incarnation of this blog. And I was struck by something I wrote back then about a title I made up, and it made me start questioning what my next title is going to be. Because I’d like it to be something half as interesting and challenging as the one I came up with below.
My New Title…
No, I don’t really have a new title. But, along the lines of Tom Peters’ suggestion that we should change our titles to something more fitting, I have an idea of what it should be:
“Vice President of Cool Research, Team Conflict Promotion, and Unconscious Intervention for Developing Bad-Assed Talent”
VP – CR,TCP, UIfDBAT.
Makes a nice business card. If not a nice pronouncable acronym. Looks like a list of protocols on an old mainframe.
Seriously, though – I’ve been thinking a lot about the new requirements of what it takes to manage these days. The days of strict command are over – to quote a military general talked about in Blink, “we are in command and out of control.” That’s my life – though I may be in command, I simply don’t have time to control anything. I influence, I touch, I dance, and I try to keep things going the right way.
But I’m never in control. And if I tried to be, it would all slip through my fingers.
It’s why I think that the hypnotherapist certification was so important – as I see it, rapid change at the level of unconscious cognition is about the only chance that someone in a leadership role will have in the next 20 years. Things continue to accelerate – today, my team is running at 450% more productivity than we did a year ago. We’re doing more work in a month than we did in 2003. And we’re going to do more work in the next three months than in all of 2004.
Long, drawn out HR processes aren’t the way to interact and intervene in that environment – it just moves too quickly. It reminds me of the strategy we had playing basketball in school: “quick touches”. You get the ball, you immediately pass it off. Holding the ball is a major no-no – it slows the tempo of the team down.
So, what’s that look like? I’m not sure. But I know what my interventions look like of late – A quick meeting with the team that is feeling passive-agressive to provoke them into constructive conflict. A quick meeting with the group that isn’t working together to spark collaboration. A subtle reminder (spoken in quotes, no less) to a couple of people over lunch about a key piece of behavior that will connect the members of the team. Never more than 5 minutes of content from my end – big effects on behavior.
And, while some of the effect comes from the conscious content, most of it is being processed and handled at the unconscious level. It’s about making your team most effective by spending as much time leaving them alone as possible. And only intervening when absolutely required to get them back into a peak performance state.
I’m certainly not great at it – I held a quick intervention of this sort recently which only went about 1/2 as well as I’d have hoped – it certainly wasn’t a clean result. But, my own personal deficiencies aside, I’m genuinely beginning to believe that this is the next step in Tom Peters’ “white-collar revolution” – as everyone continues to increase in speed and efficiency, interventions will have to be streamlined.
I can imagine a day when most management is required to occur at the level of “priming” that Gladwell talks about – where progress happens so quickly that the only way to truly influence it is to be at the unconscious edge of the cognitive process.
On that day, managers would be required to understand the implications of tools like FACS and hypnosis – it becomes a race to see who understands what’s behind the locked door of the unconscious first.
Somehow, this all seems a little too fast, but, then, so does Moore’s Law when you think about it.
If you could define a title that described exactly what you do that is cool on a daily basis, what would it be?
A Career in Security
April 8, 2007
I was recently interviewed by the team over at RSA’s Speaking About Security Podcast. We spent our time talking about the shifting world of information security careers, how I ended up writing Forget The Parachute, Let Me Fly the Plane.
Click here and check out the interview.
Deal of the Century
April 5, 2007
I know that I’ve been quiet of late – Graver theorizes that I have something big going on, and I can neither confirm nor deny that rumor (though I will at some point soon).
More importantly, a friend of mine has something big going on that I wanted to mention. Jason has the deal of the century on JibberJobber memberships. From the blog:
“JibberJobber is offering a one-week special! From April 2-9, you can upgrade to JibberJobber Premium for life for only $99! This offer is 80% off the standard lifetime premium membership of $495.”
Now, if you haven’t used it, you should. JJ is one of the coolest products I have used in a long, long time, and the premium features are well worth it, especially at 80% off. Seriously – go check it out.
If you’re going to have a resume…
March 22, 2007
So, I recently went off about how your resume is junk mail. But I understand that many people still believe in job hunting the “old-fashioned way” (i.e. by sending their resume to every job posting on Craigslist). And it makes some sense.
But, if you’re going to send out your resume, there are a few things you probably shouldn’t do. And, while I was going to write up a full post on this one myself, this amazing rant from Best-Of Craigslist said nearly everything that I could have. And far, far snarkier. From the post:
“
Stop throwing in complete bullshit just to make it sound fancy.
The following is a list of why you should never throw words together if you don’t know
what they mean (the long-winded objective from above could also be put in this category).
“My ability to learn quickly is a key essential.”
“My numerous areas of expertise and professional work related skills are highly superior
in many office related skills.”
“Being so detailed and goal oriented provides me with the ability to have outstanding
organizational skills which enthusiastically allows me to succeed well within all goals
set.”
“My background and my education are the met qualifications in this job description.”
The rest of the rant is equally scathing. And equally true. Worth a perusal, and worth going through your own resume one more time to make sure you haven’t made any of those mistakes.
It’s Gobsmacking…
March 20, 2007
I have to confess something here. I’m an addict. I’m addicted to PBS. I can’t stop watching it on the weekends. Even though I went on a Steve Pavlina-inspired TV diet, I just can’t stop watching PBS.
So, over the weekend, I found myself sucked in entirely to Marcus Buckingham’s program about figuring out your strengths. And he talked in the show about writing statements (called “Strength Statements”) that describe those things that make you feel most alive, most challenged, and inspiring the most growth and success in your week.
Marcus showed one of his, and said:
“When you see [my strength statements], it might bore you to tears. But when I read it, it’s gobsmacking. It kind of rocks my world.”
It reminded me of one of the games in Forget the Parachute, Let Me Fly the Plane – that of describing your mission and vision for your life. Most self-help books talk about creating a mission and vision, but, in my experience, they end up sounding more like corporate pablum (“I am a strong, dedicated person who helps those around me be better than they are“) than they are things that are “gobsmacking”.
I put my own mission and vision statements in the book. And you may feel somewhat bored by them when you read them. Or that they’re sappy, or cheesy, or something else. But for me, they’re absolutely gobsmacking. I get chills when I think of living them out. And they fire me up.
A question: what mission, vision and strengths that you have get you fired up? What rocks your world about what you do on a daily basis?