I'll Take Networking for $1000 Alex

No matter how cynical we can sometimes become the fact is, at least for me (and I certainly have developed my fair share of cynicism over time) when it comes to a new year you can't help but reflect on what has been, what might be to come, and what has changed. 

As we start a new year at ExecuNet, I can assure you, in between reading the crystal ball pieces written by all the bulls or bears telling us what to expect in 2012, I spent a fair amount of time over the last couple of weeks thinking about the career management world as well.

In the years we have been around, it doesn't seem possible that when we began in 1988 if you heard the phrase the Internet you would have thought it was a term from a Stephan King novel or an ad for the latest teen horror movie.  You could almost hear the voice-over booming "Time was running out; they were trapped in the never-ending web of The Internet!"  Talk about change!

Also as one does when thinking about the past, present, future and changes, I also reflected on some of the things that over time really haven't changed and for some crazy reason it brought to mind how many times I have been called by a reporter or writer who was doing a piece on career management and how the main focus of the story so often was and still is on the what a  Jeopardy clue might describe as "makes every job changer want to barf."  Answer: what is networking.

It felt like I have been talking to friends, members, reporters, writers, recruiters, and coaches about this subject for almost as long as I can remember.  Indeed, as this subject was crawling across my mind's radar screen, I was reminded of a conversation I had some years ago with a reporter from the WSJ who somehow tracked me down on my cell phone one Saturday.  It took me a while to get focused on what he was calling about because all I could think about was how the hell he got my cell number. 

Once I started to actually listen to him, he explained he wrote a column called CUBICLE CULTURE.  The column is still going strong today.

In any case, turns out he was writing about networking as a job search or business development technique, and the net of it (no pun intended) was that he wondered if it really was effective in this day and age or just something that technology and hype had created to annoy the heck out of people. We talked for quite a while, and at one point he gave me the following example which he was using in the piece and wanted my thoughts:

"...At another event, she was deep in conversation with an old friend when a fresh-faced young man starting out in financial services interrupted, introduced himself and then, after a long silence, came clean: "Well, can I get your business cards?" he asked them. "My boss told me I could only come to this event if I collect a certain number of business cards."

My answer was "That's not a relationship. It's a scavenger hunt!" and it reminded me yet again of how simplistic a world we live in, and how we are all looking for instant answers and how it is that so many people go through life worried about what's in it for them.  A attitude in life that is off-putting to say the least, and one which in the context of career management is the personification of a formula for guaranteed failure.

Turns out he liked the sound bite analogy of the scavenger hunt, but when the article was published what he didn't include in the column was what I tried to explain after I had made my flippant comment which was that there is "networking" and there is "effective networking" and the reason the word often makes the hair stand up on the back of people's necks (probably more PC than "barf" I guess) is because of the example he gave. It is the stereotypical image that many people have of what networking is when they hear the word.  They think the goal is number of business cards collected as opposed to relationships established.

What I wish he had the time to tell people is that "effective networking", at least based on my personal experience as well as the 24 years of involvement with ExecuNet is really about an attitude of simply being willing to help someone else without worrying about any quid pro quo, and actions whose cumulative effect is to equate your name with trust, or as Karen Armon, who facilitates our networking meetings in the Denver metro area likes to say, "Give first and results will follow."

She couldn't be more right.

Maybe We're Not So Crazy

I actually can’t recall when I first met Pete Weddle which is either yet another sign of my senior citizenship status or simply evidence of the fact that I have known and respected him for a long time. I think I’ll opt for the latter.

Over the years, at ExecuNet, we have been fortunate to have had Pete as a speaker at our networking meetings in and around the NY metro area as well as being able to treat our members to his insights via webinars, but what caught my attention recently was a newsletter article that he wrote way back in 2005 which we called: Why You Need to Be a Career Activist.  I know, that may seem like ions ago, but sometimes when you stumble across things like this and read them again in the context of today's world, they can often underscore just how "right" the message was.  The fact that the concept became a book just las year would also seem to add to the notion that the message was just a passing thought.  

In reading this piece, it reminded me of not only how well he writes, but also why he deserves the reputation he has as an expert on the world of online recruiting for executives at all levels, be they passive candidates or out there fighting the battle of job search in the 21st century, as well as the solid advice he has for his readers on the smart way to manage their own careers.

In re-reading the article, Pete made some really important points that had big time merit then and still do, especially about how today’s workforce really needs to understand that since the “loyalty” myth has long since evaporated and that in today’s world “you owe your employer performance, not permanence.” From a career development perspective, “your goal is to perfect what you can do at work, and your career is your personal quest to achieve that end.”

Pete goes on to say “Your supercharged performance on-the-job is your best insurance in the demanding, ever changing business landscape of the 21st Century. In good times, it will increase the paycheck and satisfaction you bring home from work. In hard times, it will enable you to land on your feet. It won’t prevent you from being laid off, but it will prevent a lay-off from derailing your career.”

As I read this, I kept saying to myself, why don’t more of us “get it”? It doesn’t seem like it is a concept that is all that hard to understand. When I talked to my partner Mark Anderson about it, he reminded me, as he often does, that maybe more people get it than I might think. He pointed out that 60% of our membership is made up of people who are currently employed whereas when we started way back in 1988 everyone who came to us arrived only after they had lost their jobs. I had to admit he had a pretty good point.

We have been pounding the drum for so long about how critical it is for executives to be proactive about managing their careers and yet it still feels like I constantly hear from members who tell me that it wasn’t until they faced the crisis of losing their job that they decided to “do something about it.” It makes me wonder if anyone is listening.

Reading what Pete had to say, as well as hearing Mark’s stats, made me feel that maybe more people may understand the issue than I realize, and that I just have a tendency to lose perspective when I get tied up in the day-to-day. Knowing me, that is probably true. Sometimes I can’t even remember if I’ve had lunch, but when I see people like Weddle pounding the same drum as we do, it feels good.

It's Not So Much The What As It Is The How

217,000,000 was the approximate number of "hits" that I got when I typed in "online profiles." When I "refined" the search to "online user profiles" it went up to about 461,000,000. So much for narrowing things down.

The whole thing kind of made we wonder if "profiles" would be in the running for one of the most used words these days. If not in the world, then certainly in the U.S.

I don't know about you, but to me it feels like every time you turn on anything electronic, someone wants your profile and given the hype around segmented and "personal" marketing efforts, it's little wonder.  It would not surprise me that as the technology continues to advance, pretty soon they'll want DNA samples!

Given the degree to which ExecuNet is part of the business and career networking space, we are certainly interested in profiles as well and talk about this with our members frequently as the member email below demonstrates: :

Dave,

How do you "truly distinguish" yourself from the thousands of other executives competing for the same VP or C level position? All of which have strong LinkedIn and ExecuNet profiles\networks.

When all is said and done, doesn't it come down to a personal recommendation from a contact\friend\colleague who's in a position to stick their neck out for you?

As I thought about his question I also thought I was hearing that there was a fair amount of frustration built into it, meaning that while he recognized that "profile" was the buzz word of the week, he was really wondering why really put the effort into it if as he said "...when all is said and done" it almost always comes down to a personal referral.

Well, for sure that's true, at least in my experience both on a personal level as well as the data we have gathered in survey after survey. Upwards of 70% of the time, the change comes about as the result of networking aka referrals.

In trying to formulate a response that I hoped would make some sense and be helpful, what I tried to do was separate things into two separate but very much related issues.

What follows was my response:

It isn’t so much the “what” you can do that makes you stand out as much as “how” you make people aware of what you do and “how” it is going to help them solve problems that they need fixed. Most of which comes down to research that is focused on organizations you have targeted because you have a genuine interest in what they make and/or the services they provide.

Your research (much of which can and will be helped by expanding your personal and professional network) will help you to be really well informed as to what the key business issues are that they face. Once known, you can then market the “what” that you will bring to them as you network your way into decision makers in the company.

When it comes to the "what", a profile is certainly one example of a what. Other "whats" can be things like: a resume, a blog you’ve written, an online portfolio, your active participation in events and organizations, etc. They are simply a framework.

The "how" is the style and tone (visual and written) that helps someone to get a more complete picture of you as not just someone with technical expertise, but as a person as well.

To answer the obvious question of why this is so important, it's because when someone is hired and something goes south, 9 times out of 10 (maybe more) it isn't because the technical skills weren't there, it was because the "chemistry" wasn't what both parties thought it was going in, and "chemistry" is about the person! (As if we didn't know!)

Another way to think about this is to think back at how you have made changes in the past. Organizations hired you because you “stood out” from other candidates. Whatever those traits/skill sets that attracted them to you are still there. You need to find vehicles that will put those on display.

Your challenge in today's world is to utilize the "framework" alternatives available to you to so others can see who's really there, and when it comes to profiles, you can do that by going beyond the name, rank and serial number approach of here's where I worked, for how long and for what I was "responsible."

What they want to know is "how" you made things happen!

If someone had asked this question of you, how would you have explained it to them?

Well Connected

Given that most of us have gone through our business and personal lives either knowing intuitively or having learned through experience just how important networking is to both our personal and/or career success, it should come as no surprise that when I see a book that talks to that subject that immediately want to check it out.

That's what I did when Gordon Curtis sent me a copy of his new book titled Well Connected, An Unconventional Approach to Building Genuine, Effective Business Relationships, and I'm glad I did.

Over the years, as anyone who knows me or ExecuNet is well aware we have tried to figure out 1001 ways to help people understand that when it comes to either your professional life or your personal life, by far and away the most powerful tool you have is your ability to build a network that you can call upon for any number of reasons.

There are times when I think that people have heard us talk or write about this that they just roll their eyes in a way that clearly says "Dave, don't tell me again, I have heard this all before."  I don't blame them, when I hear the same thing from the same source a lot, I certainly can and do tune out.

On the other hand, when I hear (or in this case read) how a different person comes at the same topic it often will resonate in a different and stimulating way, and this was another reason why I wanted to see how Gordon approached a topic that a lot of folks think they understand but not too many really know how it should be applied, especially when it comes to managing a career change.

In a sense, I think Gordon really has captured the essence of all this by choosing a title like Well Connected, because most of us can readily relate to and understand that there is a world of difference between being "connected" and being "well connected."

Whether it's your business or your career, success comes from the "well."  Indeed, that becomes even more important if the career piece is about making a job change. 

Our members know well the phrase "to be remembered and be referred."  We use it all the time to underscore the fact that the biggest percentage of job changes happen as the result of networking, and the name of the game when it comes to your network is to be remembered and referred.  The same, of course, is true in business as well, especially if you are in a service business as millions of us are.

My point, however, is that I might "know you" and be happy to refer you to my dry cleaners, gas station, or plumber, but when it comes to things where I am really putting my reputation on the line, I need to "know you well."

Wether you are interested from a business perspective or a careers perspective, Gordon's book, I believe, will do a lot to help with the operative word in the title: Effective.

It's About Giving, Not About Getting

Unless you have been in a time capsule, when it comes to managing a successful job search, everyone knows (or at least has heard - maybe more times than they wanted to) that the most effective strategy is networking.  That doesn't mean you don't do anything else, it just means where the biggest ROI is in terms of where you invest your time and energy.

Saying the word ‘networking’, reminds me of the conversations I used have in a former life around the subject of performance appraisals. We all agreed that it was needed, but nobody liked them. On the other hand, nobody has come up with something better either.

Those of you who follow this blog have seen this stat before but for those who haven't, I can tell you that over the years ExecuNet has been around (i.e. 23) of the members we have talked to who have made a change, 70% told us networking was the key for them.

But I also know people sometimes think that since we are always trying to drive home this message that somehow we have a plug and play answer on making it work for them, and preferably making it work like yesterday!

Would that we did and would that we could, but the truth is that when it comes to networking, it is a classic case of "leading the horse to water...."

What we do try to do, however, is not just talking about it, but putting all sorts of resources together to not only show people how, but also to provide them (both online and off) with the ways and means to implement their personal plan effectively. 

Said differently, what we try to do is not only tell people about the tool but give them the tools and show them how to use them.

One of the key components of the "how" is to try to get people to buy into the idea that if they really want networking to work for them that they need both a mindset and genuine belief that to be effective they need to be focused on giving, not getting. As Karen Armon who hosts our meetings in the Denver area likes to say: “Give first and results will follow.”

To that point, I came across a video the other day from a site called Simple Truths. It runs just over three and a half minutes. Title: The Power of Kindness.

Check it out. If you are in a job search, maybe the way this notion is expressed in the video will have a different impact than hearing it from me or others.  And, even if you are not in a job search, given some of the "noise" we are subjected to from inside and outside of Washington, it might be worth a look as well.

The Happenstance Theory of Career Planning

I guess I should start this post with a tip of the hat to longer vacations. I, like many Americans, rarely use all of the vacation time allotted, but this year I made an exception and invested three weeks to explore Bali, Burma and Thailand.

Once I got over the guilt's (that took about a week) by the time we returned, I didn't even know what day of the week it was.

Of course, some of that might have been the result of the 30+ hours of travel time, but I would rather believe that it was due to the chance to observe and participate in the unique cultures and beauty of SE Asia.

And, if you have checked out the picture here, I can tell you that the answer to the question of whether or not I ever thought I would have the chance to spend quality time with a live, 20 month old, 300 pound tiger, the answer is no, but it is something I will not soon forget.

In any case, what does all this have to do with careers and how they evolve? The answer is probably not much other than the fact had I not had the experience of losing my job some 20+ years ago, and as the result of that migrate into an experience which became ExecuNet, I am sure I would still be only fanaticizing about the chance to actually spend time with a tiger.

That said, over the years, many people have said to me that somewhere in my DNA there must have been a fair number of entrepreneurial genes in order for ExecuNet to be starting year 22 in 2010. My answer has always been that if that was true, I was certainly not aware of it, but rather it came about based on my own experience in career transition and that I just felt there had to be a better way to make the process of career management at the executive level more win-win, and ExecuNet turned out to be the answer for me.

It wasn't until I returned from vacation and was wading through my email that I noticed one from Pedro Ramirez, and Greg Skidmore who team up to do a podcast in which they interview entrepreneurs from around the area. Not sure how Pedro found me, but he did and some weeks ago I sat down with them to talk about how ExecuNet came to be and what do we do as well as the why and how of what we do.

Once I listened to the podcast, I actually thought it came out fairly well and more importantly as we got into a deeper discussion around senior level career management that there were some key learnings that might be of help to others trying to fight the current career battles.

If you want to listen, you can just click here. It runs about 30 minutes.

Serving Or Selling - Giving or Getting - Me or You

Patty Azzarello's blog is called The Desired Outcome.

In case her name is new to you, here's a brief bio:

Patty was the youngest person ever to become a general manager at Hewlett Packard
at the age of 33. She ran a $1B global software business at age 35
and became a CEO for the first time at the age of 38. With a scorecard like that, one can't help but say "this feels like someone I should pay some attention to" which when I read her recent posting called "Serving or Selliing" was exactly what I did.

While the post that she wrote was focused on sales and sales strategies, it seemed to me that one could easily overlay much of what she was saying to the job search experience and process.

That by itself would probably not come as a revalation to many. After all, most of us know full well that a job search is, in fact, a sales process. What struck me about this particular post was the emphasis she placed on "serving" vs. "selling."

Naturally, we all like it when we find others who support our beliefs, so maybe this is another reason why I wanted to expose

knowing full well that there are thousands of executives in this economy who are in the middle of a job search and are working as hard as they know how to bring that process to a successful conclusion just as fast as humanly possible in reading the post I thought a great deal of what she was saying.


http://azzarellogroup.com/blog/2009/03/02/serving-or-selling/



Now is the time to be serving/giving.

You will get more business in the short term, and you will be building a foundation of good will, which will pay huge dividends in the future. People remember who helped them in tough times.

And people do business with people they are currently engaged with. Stay engaged. Help.

Even if you are not a sales person, now is a good time to help people.

You build value in your network by putting value into it.

Think of always maintaining a balance of giving more than you take. Then when you need something you will find that help is abundantly available.

In your sales process, anything you give will increase the value of what you ultimately sell.

Mr. Rogers Networking Neighborhood

Like most companies, we set aside a couple of days a year to lock ourselves up somewhere out of the office and do the best we can to step back from the day to day and try and do two things:

1. Look ahead a few years and talk about where we are versus where we want to be, and

2. Make sure that our core beliefs continue to support the strategies we set for ourselves going forward.

In the course of our discussions, our CMO, Tony Vlahos was taking us through a discussion about the experience of being a member of a career and business network such as ExecuNet.

Aside from being very creative, Tony has a gift for painting extraordinary word pictures when he is trying to make a point. Actually he just has a way with words no matter what he's talking about.

In any event, we were talking about the hows, whys and ways of trying to help members to help each other and Tony concluded his presentation on the subject with a quote from Fred Rogers. It was one that I had not heard before but which I thought really hit home in terms of why we talk to our members all the time not just about networking, but much more importantly about effective networking. Translation: it about giving, not about getting.

What I so liked about this particular quote from the icon in the cardigan sweater is that he really is talking about the fundamental foundation upon which all meaningful relationships are built.

Be it related to your own career or your business these are not bad words to have pasted on your mirror or on the wall of your office:

“If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.”

How To Be More Likeable: 10 Things To Do Today

GL Hoffman, the "Dad" of WWDS drives me nuts. I like his stuff so much that I keep posting about it to the point where I am starting to worry that people will think that I am either a relative or on the payroll.

Honest, neither of these is the case, I just like the way he writes and love his sense of humor. Okay maybe jealous of the way he writes and his sense of humor, but what the heck, it's still neat stuff.

The post referred to in the title here is far too long paste in here, but here's the teaser list:

Number 1. No Left Turns.
Number 2. Be Engaged, Passionate.
Number 3. Be of Good Humor.
Number 4. Assume Goodwill
Number 5. We All Like Compliments.
Number 6. Control Your Insecurities.
Number 7. The Trick to Listening.
Number 8. Flexibility.
Number 9. Manners. Grooming. Language.
Number 10. Humility is Endearing.

If you are interested, take the time to check it out for yourself here. It's worth the trip.

Don't have time for all 10? Try #7.

It's Not a Program, It's a Process

For quite a while, I have followed a blog written with wonderful wit and sensitivity by GL Hoffman which he calls What Would Dad Say.

Maybe I like it so much because our sense of humor seems in sync or his philosophy regarding career and/or life management seems to be very much in the same ballpark as my own. I am not sure, but it also could be because somehow he finds the time to post stuff daily if not hourly. Not only is there volume, but it is well written and worth reading. No wonder I like it.

Anyway, he had a long post today which he called This is a Story about Networking and Not about Ohio State Football. It was an apt title and if you are curious enough to see how one connects to the other, I would suggest you check out the post. I think those folks who have the perception that networking is only something one does when they are looking for a job will find it particularly instructive.

I have been talking about effective networking being a process and not a program for so long now that I often think that I have worn the phrase out, but in reading about coach Tressel's actions in Hoffman's post, I think that he serves as the best example I have heard of in a long time that proves that real networking much more about giving than it is about getting.