The Career Encouragement Blog

Can your boss trust you with a flexible schedule?

The following e-mail came from a business owner in response to the recent post about what your boss thinks about flex time :

"That is a GREAT article.  Kudos to Ms. Welsh for telling it like it is.  It is about performance, not entitlement.  Shame on those who abuse the opportunity and ruin it for the rest of us.  I've never read the "O" Magazine.  Perhaps I should start."

Did you read the article?  What do you think?  Please feel free to post a comment and join the encouraging dialogue!

Are you Savvy?

Billi Lee is a coach, workplace consultant and speaker.  She offers 7 Savvy Tips to help you be more successful in your career.  Check them out, and then take the Savvy Profile to find out just how savvy you are.

Make today a great day at work!

When was the last time you said "Ta Daaah!"?

What are you proud of in your work?  When was the last time you delivered your work and said "Ta Daaa!" to your boss and co-workers?  If you are a boss, when was the last time you applauded and said "Excellent!" when an employee delivered their work to you?  Your staff may not be yelling "Ta Daaah" on the outside, but many employees are saying it on the inside every day.

Amanda Gore is an expert on building connections and relationships in the workplace.  She is an enthusiastic and joyful speaker.  Check out her website and click on the link in the lower left hand corner to view a video sampler of some of her presentations.  Learn why it's important to recognize when you, and those around you are saying "Ta Daaah!!"  Then buy one of her video kits and have everyone in your company watch it too! 

Where are you GOING in your career?

I just spent a frustrating half hour on the phone with a confused and inarticulate candidate.  For the sake of this posting, let's call him Mark.  Mark has an impressive cover letter and resume.  It was well-tailored to the mid-management position he applied for and it stood out from the large stack of resumes that came in.  I give you this background so that you will understand that Mark had already passed a huge screening gate (the resume review) and I was predisposed to like him.

I called Mark the same day I received his resume and scheduled the phone interview.  I like to give candidates at least a day's notice on phone interviews because I want to see if they take the time to do some research before we talk.  Again Mark did not disappoint.  In our first few minutes of chatter it was obvious that he had reviewed the company website and recent press thoroughly. 

So where did he go wrong?  He wasn't GOING anywhere in his career.  Every statement he made to me for the rest of the call was about what he was leaving behind and what he wasn't going to do in his career.  No matter what question I posed, he couldn't cough up one single affirmative answer that demonstrated he was headed in a positive direction.  Some examples:

Me:  You've got a strong background with lot of experiences.  Can you tell me what you want to do next in your career?  (NOTE - the purpose of this question is to determine a) is the candidate a goal- directed person vs. a pain-avoid ant person; and b) does this job have what he is looking for - are we a match?)

Mark:  When I first joined ABC Company they had 40 employees and $13M in sales.  Then they got bought by a company with 45,000 employees worldwide and over $1B in sales.  I tried to make it work but I didn't like it.

Me (to myself):  I asked you where you are going, not what you left behind...

Me:  I see...can you tell me a little about what you saw in our posting that attracted you to this opportunity?

Mark:  I noticed that account management is part of the job.  I like customer care but I really don't like selling and making cold calls. I've done a lot of that in my career and I'm burned out on it.  I just don't want to do it any more.

Me (to myself):  But I asked you what you like, not what you don't like...

And on the call went with more of the same.  I ended the conversation as fast as I could and still be polite.   I am a firm believer that people end up exactly where they need to be.  Mark would not have been happy in this job, and he's blessed not to have to spend any more time pursuing it.  Maybe he even blew the interview on purpose because he didn't want this job.  But given the length of time that he has been unemployed and the work he put into doing research prior to our call, I'm guessing that he would indeed like to have a job but his poor interviewing skills are sabotaging his efforts.

So what should you do so that you don't end up sounding like Mark in an interview?

1. Be prepared with a clear statement about what you are looking for in your career (see Job Search Rule #1).
2. Know the position description well and be able to succinctly describe how what you are looking for is a match with the job you are discussing with the interviewer.
3. Talk about how you are looking forward to using your skills and experiences to make a contribution in this new job.

Bottom line - don't talk about what you are leaving behind in your career, and what you didn't like in your past - talk about where you are GOING, and how your skills and experience are going to help you get there!

How much should you be paid?

Ever wonder how your company determines how much salary to pay you?  Compensation professionals work with organizations (either as employees on the HR team, or as external consultants) to review and interpret industry and market salary data and trends.  They use this information to structure pay scales and bonus programs, and are often involved in the development of performance appraisal systems.  Their work is analytical, detailed, and occasionally fraught with political challenges.  Done well, it is an art form as much as it is a science.

My good colleague Ann blogs about compensation issues, questions, and information for other compensation professionals.  I encourage you to check out her site and read some of her work.  Because it's targeted specifically for compensation professionals it will give you good insight into how they think and advise companies on the topic of employee pay.  How can this benefit you?  Because it's always a good idea to learn as much as possible about the context that surrounds the career you are building!  Ann also reports on industry trend data - for example, you can learn what the average promotional increases in North America were this year and you can see how your company measures up.  Occasionally she posts good workforce humor too!

Take a look and let us both know what you think!

Can your boss trust you with a flexible schedule?

Want to have a more flexible schedule at work?  Earn the confidence and trust of your boss by being a top performer and flexible hours will usually be a no-brainer.  Take unfair advantage of a flexible schedule and you hurt your boss and your co-workers, not to mention your own professional reputation

Suzy Welsh has a great article on what your boss thinks about flex-time in Flex and the Office in the May, 2006 issue of O Magazine. 

Do you work flex-time?  Are you a boss who manages flex-timers?  Leave a comment and tell the Career Encouragement community what you've learned!

   

What does the Internet say about you?

I used to think I was the clever one who invented the practice of Googling candidates to see if I could learn anything interesting, but it appears the practice is more widespread than I thought.  Apparently recruiters and hiring managers are doing Internet research on a regular basis now to find out personal information about candidates.

Think what you do in your personal time is not your company's business?  Maybe, maybe not - the finer points of that one are debatable.  Regardless, depending on how your private activities are depicted on the Internet, your personal life WILL affect your chances of landing a job.  When I have a candidate that looks good on paper and passes the phone interview with flying colors, my next step is Google.  If discover via the Internet that he was on the planning committee for a local charity event, placed in the top 100 in the Oktoberfest 5k run, and coached the 4th grade Fighting Tigers to a 2nd place finish in the local league, I have a picture of a pretty well-rounded person who is making a contribution with his life.  That's the kind of person I want on my team.

On the other hand, if I find out - as I did recently - that a candidate seems to spend a lot of time posting snarky comments on various blogs and websites (in all lowercase letters without punctuation - another pet peeve!) I am probably going to move on to someone who has a more positive and uplifting image.  The workplace is challenging enough without bringing in one more sarcastic know-it-all.

So, what does the Internet say about you?

Resolving Conflicts at Work

Yours, Mine and Ours starring Dennis Quaid and Renee Russo is a pretty bad movie.  RottenTomatoes.com (arguably the best movie review site on the Internet) gave it a "Fresh Rating" of only 5%!  The movie is corny and saccharine, and the acting is so bad that it's almost painful to watch in some parts.  But the film does offer a redeeming feature in the form of a good career lesson. 

In the film, Dennis Quaid (a control freak with 8 kids) marries Renee Russo (an artsy free spirit who has 10 kids).  The 20 of them move in together and the two sets of kids immediately declare war on each other.  The children quickly figure out that the best way to end this nightmare of family togetherness is to work together to get their parents to argue and eventually break up.  As you would expect in a good formula fiction plot, the kids bond as friends and as a family during their escapades together.  Why do they bond?  Simple - they are working on a common goal.

The more their parents pushed them to get along and have fun together, the more frustrated they became with each other.  But when they quit focusing on their relationships with each other, and focused on their common goal, the relationship piece sorted itself out just fine.  It's the same way in the workplace.

All of us have experienced office conflict before.  We spend a lot of time at work, and we interact with a lot of people.  It's normal that we would run into folks that drive us crazy.  In my work in HR, I spend a lot of time listening to people complain about their co-workers.  I will listen to hear the particulars of each individual story, but 99% of the time my advice is the same:  Figure out a way to have a common goal with this person.  You don't have to be best friends, you don't even have to like the individual.  But if you want to behave like a professional in the workforce, then you need to figure out how to get along with people and the best way to do that is to work on a common goal together.

A few weeks ago I worked with a Salesperson who has frustrations with a lawyer in the Legal Department because it seems she always wants to make edits to his customer contracts and it slows down the process of closing the sale.  The friction between the two of them was starting to cause stress for each of them and for their co-workers too.  The Sales Rep and I talked about all of the ways he and the lawyer were on the same team (they both had responsibilities given to them by higher-ups, they both wanted the company to be successful so that their stock options would increase in value, they both wanted to be recognized for doing good work, etc.).  Then we worked on things he could say to the lawyer the next time he felt like she was over-editing one of his contracts - things like:

• This sales is worth $XX to the company in repeat business if they like this first project.  Can you help me figure out a way to make the customer happy?

or

• The client would like to present the contract at their Board meeting on Thursday.  I know you have a lot of other contracts you are working on, is there anything I could do to make this as easy as possible for you so we can work together to meet the client's requests?

Obviously, this is an oversimplification of how these situations play out in daily life - but the principle is the same:  When you have a conflict with someone, the fastest route to getting along is to stop thinking about the relationship.  Instead, figure out what goals you have in common and focus on those. 

Who is this blog for?

I have a colleague who has a very successful Internet business.  When I told him of this blog, we had the following conversation:

Him:  "Great idea, but no one will ever find you!"

Me:   "Why not?"

Him:  "Because it's too hard to spell - the average person cannot spell the word encouragement so they'll never be able to type in the right URL."

Me:  "In the first place, my intended audience is corporate employees who make between $40k - $120K, so I hope for the sake of the companies they work for that they can spell encouragement!"

Him:  "And in the second place...?"

Me:   "In the second place, everyone who visits this site will enjoy it so much that they will add it to their favorites!"

So why not add the Career Encouragement Blog to your favorites right now?  Send the link to anyone you know who could use a little encouragement on their career journey.  Take some time to make a comment or send in a question.  I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Update on Tim's Job Search / Job Search Overview

A few days ago Tim contacted me with a question about who to list as references (more on his story here).  Today he let me know that he got an offer.  Congratulations, Tim!! 

Tim's new position will pay nearly 20% more than he is making now, it will provide a significant career challenge that will help him build his resume, and he will have more opportunities for training and development than he does in his current role.  This is the outcome we all hope for when we begin a job search.  It is important to note that Tim was successful in this search because he executed well on the basics:

1. He checked out several possible opportunities for growth in his current company before looking externally
2. He was selective in the positions he applied and interviewed for (read: he didn't PANIC!)
3. He wasn't afraid to ask for expert help and listen carefully to what was offered (I know Tim through a community group where has more "clout" than I do, yet he respected that I know more about HR and job search strategies than he does)
4. He had maintained good relationship with past bosses who were willing to be positive references for him

I hope to be able to post many more positive stories on this blog in the future - please write in and share your questions and comments!