Freedom Isn't Free

Maybe it's my age, maybe it's the silent list of those killed in action at the end of the News Hour or maybe it's the impact of having just finished watching all ten episodes of The Pacific on HBO or some combination of the foregoing plus the fact that it is Memorial Day weekend that prompts this post. Who knows?

When I say my age, I am of the generation that was born just before WWII, so while I was aware that my father was "away" I really was too young to connect any dots. When the war was over I was six and about the most I remembered was handing a bouquet of flowers to the MPs at the base in Tallahassee, Fla.

Because I was so young, as I grew older and was exposed to programs such as Victory at Sea, it still all felt like the good guys against the bad guys and since you knew who "won" it was neat to watch, but even as a young adult, it didn't all hit home.

It wasn't until even later on that I began to read some histories (e.g. Truman by David McCullough) that I began to realize just how close we had come to losing what I took for granted every day, to the point where I rarely thought about it at all.

Fast forward to today, and I have to say when I look around and see the sort of thing that Steve McCallion has so eloquently portrayed in his post on Fast Company, it worries me a lot.

There is much I could say about it here, but as I say, it would do an injustice to McCallion's piece but if you have not read it, read it.

I have been fortunate enough to be in some countries at a time when the acknowledgements of the kind that McCallion's article references have taken place, and they are powerful, emotional and stick with you.

It is quite a feeling when no matter where you are or what you are doing everything comes to a total halt, and for sure is a different feeling than eating hot dogs that come wrapped in red, white and blue napkins.

The moments of silence that we sometimes have at sporting events are nothing by comparison in helping a nation to remember things like freedom isn't free until one sees their world simply stop.

If we did this as a start, maybe generations who have yet to relate will start to internalize the fact that there are some things where the term video game is an oxymoron.

That Time of Year

I live in a town just outside of Providence, RI. Of course, now that I think about and given the size of RI, I guess almost any town in RI is "just outside of Providence.

Be that as it may, I am happy to report that despite its size, Providence still has a daily newspaper; actually a pretty good one by my "lay person" standards which are pretty much made up of a criteria that includes large print, very little coverage of the Yankees, the virtually daily stories reporting with great color commentary which local politician has been arrested for what, and really good forecasts as to when the blues will be running.

There is also a columnist named Mark Patinkin who is syndicated around and about, but happens to live in Providence. Not that his living there is of any real import, just something for us to get puffed up about and living in RI, hopefully readers will understand that we need all of that we can get.

Anyway, to the crux of the post; Patinkin recently wrote a piece called Best advice? The simplest which as you might guess it being this time of year was what he called his own "low-key guidance".

I don't want to spoil it for those who might want to check out the whole column, but how far wrong could anyone go by knowing things like: "..Life is easier if you hang clothes instead of stuffing them in drawers" or "..It's all right to ask for a fork in a Chinese restaurant."

By this point some of you may be wondering where the business/career leadership point is since much of what I post here ends up in that arena in one form or another. Well, I thought there really was one.

Mr. Patinkin also had a couple of other pithy "tweets" that anyone who aspires to a leadership role in the years ahead or who may be in one now could do well to keep in mind:

- "A key test of character is how you treat salespeople."

- "It doesn't count as listening if you're thinking what you going to say next."

- In both hockey and life, skill matters but it matters more to really want the puck."

I think this sort of stuff applies equally well to the classes of '10 as much as it still rings true for those of us of with rings from '61.

The Data-Driven Life

They don't call it the digital age for nothing I guess and further proof showed up recently on the NY Times site with the publiation of an article written by Gary Wolf who, if you read the print article in the May 2nd Sunday Times magazine, you will already know writes about science and social issues for Wired, where he is a contributing editor. The article is called The Data-Driven Life. I found it a fascinating read.

Among other things it made me stop and think much more carefully about the degree to which data plays a role in our lives, both business and personal. If you believe what Wolf has to say in terms of the impact data has, you haven't, as the saying goes "seen nothin' yet."

From a business perspective it made me wonder if those executives who suffer from what back in the day was called analysis paralysis would soon become extinct or whether as data gathering becomes more and more sophisticated if those same executives would all of a sudden become the super heros of the corporate universe not to mention cyberspace.

Seemed to me one could make the argument on both sides and have an equal chance of making the right call.

On the other hand, as we all know data is just data until someone interprets and draws from it conclusions as to how it can most effectively be used to make decisions for the organization.

It was when I reminded myself of this last thought that I started to feel a bit better that maybe we were not all destined to be replaced by R2 D2 and/or C-3PO.

I found myself thinking that while technology continues to move at a pace that is harder to follow than re-runs of trauma cases arriving on ER, that at the end of day no matter how much data we are able to draw from the system value judgements will have to be made and so long as that holds true, people not machines will continue to manage the systems not the other way around.

And before you start sending in cards and letters that remind me that while all this may be true, given our track record as a species we would not likely get too many Oscar nominations for the decisions made to date, hopefully the advances about which Mr. Wolf has written will help us to do a better job.

Those who work with us and for us are probably hoping the same thing.

Wildcat I to Wildcat II Come In Please

Are you a trivia buff? If so, here's today's Six Figure Learnings trivia question:

In the 22 years that ExecuNet has been around, what topic gets members more ticked off than almost any other?

a. The world has too many Yankee fans?
b. Everything we like to eat is fattening?
c. I rarely hear back from recruiters?

Right, c. It's like things were vaporized.

The purpose of this post is not to condone the behavior but simply to report in the hope that while it may not make those who are angry any less angry but might help lower their blood pressure a little.

Some "learnings" for whatever they may be worth:

First, the fact that this frustration has been at or near the top of people’s PO'd lists for as long as it has probably suggests that it isn't going away any time soon.

Second, (and I know this is easy for me to say) while everyone takes it personally; don't. This isn't about you. I know it feels that way, but trust me, it isn't.

Life is too short and there are more important things to worry about other than wanting to send some recruiters to an Emily Post boot camp.

Third, while you may have been raised in one of those generations where it was considered simply common courtesy to acknowledge any sort of inquiry, based on the feedback we get from the real world it would seem that custom "went out", as they say, "with high button shoes."

Fourth, try to keep your eye on the prize which of course is to get yourself in front of the recruiter's client. You aren't contemplating going to work for the recruiter.

Fifth, the way things work these days is pretty simple. If there is an interest you will probably hear pretty quickly and if there isn't, silence is definitely the norm.

Lastly, the recruiting industry is no different than most others in terms of the spectrum of quality and professionalism. And as any of us would do, we compile our lists of who we trust and feel are the quality players and when we have a need, we act accordingly.

So with the foregoing in mind, when this is over and you find yourself once again into 12 hour days not including Blackberry time, just make sure you don't lose that short list you are carrying around so that when it comes time to add to your staff and you feel you feel you need the help of a recruiting professioinal, you don't have to get mad you can just get even.

It's a great feeling.

The Humble Hound

I know there are lots (i.e. millions) around the country who think that the New York Times is so liberal that when you even mention the name Bill O'Reilly breaks out in hives, but that is not what this post is about nor is this about trying to make a case for the Times in general.

It is, however, to suggest that anyone who either doesn't have the time to get their TV news from the News Hour or haven't got the time to read BusinessWeek, Fortune, Forbes or The Economist either in hard copy, on a Kindle or the new iPad that you stayed up all night to get, you might find reading the Op Ed columns in the Times very wothwhile.

It makes no difference what your political persuasion might be as they have a nice mix of both liberal and conservative viewpoints. More importantly, whether you agree with what folks like Paul Krugman, Tom Friedman, Gail Collins, Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich or David Brooks have to say, the writing is usually both provocative, not infrequently eye-opening and often very funny.

Not surprisingly these writers often are commenting on the issues of the day, but from time to time they also have some interesting perspectives on leadership, and it was a piece by David Brooks which he called The Humble Hound that caught my attention over coffee on a recent Sunday morning.

In short Brooks helps the reader to both think about and understand that the sterotypical vision most of us have in our heads of how leaders lead isn't the only game in town.

Living as we do in a time that seems to push everyone toward faster and faster responses, taking the time to think things through is not a bad way to go either.

Point being there is a fair amount of middle ground between intuitive instant knee-jerk reaction and "analysis paralysis."

Said differently, when it comes to leadership we sure don't live in a WYSIWYG world. All one need do is look at the turnover at the leadership levels across the corporate spectrum for all the data you need.

Global War for Talent

As this written, I no longer remember where I stumbled across the info that came out of a 2008 study by The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and which placed the United States 18th among the 36 nations examined.

While I know 2008 seems like ancient history and in Twitter years probably qualifies as prehistoric, but even way back then there were folks concerned about where America stood from an educational perspective.

Indeed, even with data this old, if you were looking for a way to get back on your diet by losing your appetite in a hurry, you can read the entire article here.

I am guessing that most of us would have a tendency to say, that if the sky hasn't fallen by now, it's time to worry about something else like trying to figure out if the Eagles trade of McNabb to the Redskins was a good one, and if so for which team. (As a Giants fan, I'm worried about both.)

If you read some of the think pieces about our country's prospects for the future as a global player most don't exactly make you want to run out and bet the ranch on our educational system as the answer.

Certainly I realize that many of the articles that look at this stuff as very much half empty are done to, as they say, "sell papers" but the fact remains that even if things are not as dismal as they project, to say that we do not face major challenges is a huge understatement.

When one reads articles on how to fix all this, the Rx always seems to say we need to develop more collaboration between parents, teachers and school administrations. Rarely, or at least not often enough, there is little talk about the role that business leaders should play.

Sure there is a fair amount of financial support for scholarships, but in a sense it feels to me that by the time those are awarded, we have already lost hundreds of thousands of kids with equal or better potential because they have been destroyed by the system before they even had the chance to compete.

As to putting cost of education out of reach for most middle class families, there is plenty of fodder there for books much less blogs.

If business leaders hope to compete effectively on a global basis, then they best think about putting some of that R&D money into helping to figure out how to save the intellectual capital that is going to waste.

H-1 visas are not an answer, they simply mask the disease.

Learnings from Leaders

There is a column in the Sunday New York Times called "Corner Office."

Essentially it is a structured interview with various and sundry luminaries (mostly CEOs) who talk about their management styles, how they approach different types of organizational challenges and their "learnings" and "beliefs."

One of the things that is neat about structured interviews, of course, is that you get to see how different people respond to the same set of questions. It is often both interesting, instructive and enlightening, especially when those questions are things like:

How do you hire?
Tell me about your most important leadership lessons.
How are you a different leader today than you were 5 or 10 years ago?
What’s your best career advice?
How do you manage your time, besides working a lot?
What should business schools teach more of, or less of?
How has your leadership style evolved?
Is there anything unusual about the way you run meetings?

And that's just a sample.

If you have not checked out this column I certainly offer it up as a great source of "Learnings from Leaders" and for the 5 minutes or so that it takes to read each segment, the ROI in terms of stimulating thought is as good an intellectual business investment of time as I think is out there.

This past week, the guest executive was Guy Kawasaki.

Not sure if executive is even the right moniker. Maybe it is more appropriate to label him as last week's guest "brand" for if anyone has built himself a brand on Web 3.0 he has.

I think he "tweets" more than any human being on the planet, and most of what he shares via Twitter is information not breakfast menus. Where he finds time to do anything else I have no idea, but then maybe his staff comes up with the links and tweets for him for all I know, but that doesn't change the fact that he is a brand.

Anyway, if you would like a sample from the Corner Office buffet, here's the link to the Kawasaki interview. Enjoy.

Meaningful Dialogue Isn't Dead Yet

A couple of weeks ago, I had the good fortune to attend a unique and powerful gathering of senior HR executives and CEOs at a conference put together by CTPartners.

The conference sought to create(and I thought very successfully) an open and candid discussion between business heads and the HR function to better understand why HR is not viewed as a true strategic player in most boardrooms and what can and should be done to change that picture.

It isn't like this subject has not been discussed many times before because obviously it has, but there were a number of things at this meeting that made it very different from others I have attended.

First, it was organized by one of the top retained search firms in the country along with a number of much respected sponsors. That credibility undoubtedly was an important factor in attracting major thought leaders from both the corporate world as well as HR.

But being able to attract "A" list participants is all well and good and maybe sells tickets, but if the content isn't there, it amounts to little more than an excuse to get out of the office, drink good coffee and destroy the diet you've been working on since January.

Believe me, the content was there with a capital "C", and among other things the participants didn't waste time pointing fingers but rather worked hard to make everyone understand that the ability of our business community to focus on the development of their human capital was not just "important" to their success - it was critical. Frankly, and given the pressures on the leadership position of our country around the globe, I am not sure that "critical" really captures the how important all this is to our future, but that's a subject for another day.

I realize that it seems a bit silly for me to be showering all this praise on the event when I am not really able to offer readers the chance to see/hear for themselves. Wish I could.

About the best I can do here is share a few of my notes so at least you can get some idea of what was discussed, so here goes:

The day was built off the following agenda and took the form of one hour panel discussions.

Talent – The True Differentiator

The Elephant in the Room – Why Doesn’t Human Resources Have a Seat at the Table?

Succession Planning – The Role of Management and the Board

Risk Management – A Key Human Capital Issue

Private Boards – Are They The Right Model?

Orchestrating the Right Fights – Getting Alignment and Constructive Tensions at the Top

Anyone interested in human capital issues at the top of organizations can see that any one of these topics could easily be an all day event, however, as I said, about all I can do is provide satellite view with some editorial comment:

Talent management is a full time task but Boards spend very little time on it. [Maybe that's because it takes real commitment, meaning to really make an evaluation of talent you need to spend real time with the candidate.]

Board magazine survey: 53% said they wanted to spend more time on succession planning, up from 41% a year ago. [Some would argue that these are "good" numbers, but given the importance of this they are really pretty bad. One of the panel members summed it up by asking "Where is the other half?"]

Bottom line: It is about commitment to the process....make the Board participate in the development process. [A great idea, and there are companies doing this with great success.]

It is a mistake to separate Talent Management from HR. [For sure.]

Do we have the right person in the right job at the right time? [Nothing new here, but the companies who focus on this realize just how important it is.]

Management’s role has changed from coordination to managing collaboration both inside and outside the organization. [A generational issue as well as a morale issue.]

Boards have not managed CEO succession well at all, yet business schools like Wharton, Columbia and HBS do not have courses on the subject. [They better wake up.]

SEC is pushing companies on more disclosure on human capital issues, including CEO succession plans and pressure by the SEC is going to force more board involvement in HR talent issues. [Sounds pretty good on the surface, but how it can be managed without causing chaos internally will be the neat trick of the week.]

The critical key failing of most HR execs is that they do not understand Finance/Accounting. [Absolutely true and those that complain need to revisit the notion that effective communications is about communicating is the other person's most preferred style, not yours.]

Director selection criteria: Their track record - time they have to devote - they can't be whimps. [Amen]

If you want to know how good the alignment is on the management team, see how much dissent is allowed. There is a difference between dissent and disloyalty. Management of conflict begins with respect for each other.[I'll drink to that!]

I have no idea if CT partners is going to make any of the panel discussions available beyond the audience that filled TIAA-CREF's spacious auditorium or not, but I hope so.

Maybe they will create a whitepaper that can be shared? Might be a good way to extend the discussion.

Intent To Hire

Many readers here are aware that since 2003, ExecuNet has been tracking how the search community feels about the market. We publish it on our website under what we call the Recruiter Confidence Index. We have seen that index climbing steadily the summer of last year. All good news.

As we all saw recently, the US economy lost 36,000 additional jobs in February which was a smaller loss than expected and buoyed hope that job creation would soon turn upward.

But getting data from recruiters is only one channel and so for the past year or so, we have been working on a new index which our President & Chief Economist Mark Anderson now feels is showing data worthy of sharing so I thought I would do so here.

Our Executive Job Creation Index, which we believe is a leading indicator of intent to hire by companies in the next 6 months, currently shows that this hope seems warranted.

It turned positive in January (+15) and continued at positive levels in February (+11) saying that more companies will be hiring over the next 6 months than eliminating jobs or holding back on their hiring plans. Last year at this time at the bottom of the recession, this index was at significantly negative levels (-48).

Point being this: When companies are starting to hire at the executive level, that often leads to more broad-based employment and this is good news for sure.

Jamie Oliver's TED Speech

I know there are some who think Jamie Oliver is a bit over the edge when it comes to his crusade re: obesity.

I also know that there are those who have both good and not so good things to say about the TED Awards, speeches, etc.

Indeed if you are one of the thousands (millions?) of Tech Crunch followers you probably saw the back and forth over the speech given by shock stand-up comedienne Sarah Silverman.

Be all that as it may, I came upon Jamie Oliver's speech because someone posted it on Twitter and thought it was something people should check out, so I did. I would give her credit here as well, but I have since lost the message.

Anyway, the reason I make reference to it here is twofold:

1. I have a lot of respect for what Oliver is trying to do and the commitment he demonstrates in trying to fight for change that he feels is critical on all sorts of levels.

With his background, and success, he could be spending his time and energy on lots of other stuff. He has chosen not to.

2. I also think that if you take the 18 or so minutes to hear what he has to say that as a result you will come away with some of the same feelings I have expressed above, and as a business leader, admire the passion he brings to those he hopes to influence to act.

After all, that's one of the key things leaders hope to do. Inspire people to follow. Oliver has his way of trying to achieve that, and each of us has ours.

Just watching him in action helped to renew my energy; something we all need from time to time.

No matter what needs renewing in your life, maybe Jamie's passion will help do that for you as well.

Don't Get Mad, Get Even

My guess is that most everyone who stops by this blog from time to time will recognize the name CareerXroads. However, just for the record for those who might be experiencing short-term memory loss, CareerXroads is an enterprise founded in 1994 by Mark Mehler and Gerry Crispin.

For many years among other things, Mark and Gerry have published a newsletter called: CareerXroads Update. The name is appropriate for sure as it follows and comments on trends (both good and bad) in the world of recruiting. The result? It provides good reading for those on both sides of the recruiting process. It's free and if you are not on the distribution list, you can register by clicking here.

That said, what prompted all this was actually one of the articles that was included in the CareerXroads Update published last month. In it, was a entry entitled: The Candidate Experience Revolution. Let Them Eat Cake.

The central to item was an article written by Michelle Goodman who writes for the ABC News/Money site in which she writes about what she called the Five Worst Hiring Trends of 2009 from the perspective of a job seeker. It's a great read.

Mark and Gerry's comment was that the piece could easily have covered the "last decade" much less only 5 years. I could not agree more, and I am not sure that I would stop at a decade. If you are a candidate in this market, check out her list of topics and see what emotions it conjures up for you.

• Labyrinthine Job Application Systems
• Overly-Demanding Job Descriptions
• Unscrupulous Recruiters
• Endless Interview Loops
• No Follow Up With Finalists

Over the course of my career I have been on both sides of the desk and I would like to think that I have a pretty good feel for the rationale that is offered by the staffing side as well as the frustration felt by the candidate side, and certainly if I could wave the proverbial magic wand I would fix it all, because if there is one thing where there is common agreement it is that this stuff needs fixing.

That said, and probably as the result of wandering around the business world for the past 45+ years I long ago threw away those rose colored glasses they give you along with your degree.

Translation: I don't think much of this sort of thing is going to get fixed anytime soon, but that doesn't mean that those who feel it should be can't and won't continue to cause some discomfort for those who need to feel it.

Executive jobs: It’s not you, it’s not me. It’s just not meant to be.

Just to show you how far being the times I am, the subject of this post was actually around since August of last year. Fortunately for readers, the content of Jose Ruiz's post was not time sensitive, indeed, in some respects it is timeless.

Jose, as you'll see if you check out his site, is a principal in Heidrick & Struggles Monterrey office where, as his bio indicates, he specializes in recruiting in Mexico for US companies with a strong focus on bilingual and bicultural candidates.

Since my Spanish is pretty much limited to "Amigo, Dos Equis por favor" and there isn't enough money in the world to move me from the shores of Narragansett Bay the fact that he is a recruiter was not the attraction.

What got my attention when I stumbled across this posting were two things:

1. He was an executive search consultant who had taken the time to try and dissect a process that remains a mystery to more folks than one would think, and

2. The way in which he takes the reader though his thought process in assessing candidates is clear, concise and very helpful to anyone who finds themselves on the candidate side of career change.

The reason I say this is because given the current economy, there are literally tens of thousands of executives who, while they may have been recruited by a search firm from time to time, nonetheless have discovered that being recruited is totally different from being a talented professional who doesn't happen to be employed at the moment, and finds him/herself at a loss to understand why if they were fortunate enough to get an interview, they were not selected.

For sure rejection on any level is no fun, and when it comes to a process that at the end of the day is subjective anyway, that doesn't help either.

What does help, however, is when someone at least makes an attempt to openly explain how they approach the process and why; and this I thought Jose did very well.

I really suggest you read the entire post, but as a teaser, what Jose has written about are the four key elements of what he calls "match and fit:"

- A broad cultural fit
- The "Must Haves"
- A "micro" cultural fit
- The task at hand

Furthermore, if you are one of those candidates, knowing the thought process as explained in Jose's posting ought be help you prepare for your next interview because no matter who you are interviewing with, while they may not use the same terminology, the "match and fit" items addressed in this post are what any interviewer worth his salt is really trying to figure out, and from this one can learn.

From Start To Finish

Okay, so here's today's cash call question: As you look over the list below, what do the numbers at in front of each statement have in common?

#59 Should you jump in and save every sales situation?
#39 Do you have to know everything that's happening?
#38 What is the one thing that makes people join your new company?
#6 Is having fun at work over-rated?
#7 Why is firing someone at your startup extra hard?
#96 Why do you have to be an energy-creator?
#82 Why you don't want your people to worry like you are worrying.
#66 Why the "new guy" could be doing more harm than good.
#67 Why you shouldn't trust those who say they can help you raise money.
#54 What is the biggest sign of a culture that is developing badly?

Here's a clue...they represent just 10% of the subjects covered in StartUp, 100 Tips to Get Your Business Going.

Some may recall a quip attributed to Mark Twain in which he said to a friend to whom he had written a letter something like "I would have made this shorter, but I didn't have the time."

To be honest, I don't know if Twain was the one who first came up with this truism or not, but it makes a very important point. Specifically, being able to deliver meaningful and powerful information in confined space is an art form. Few have done it, and fewer still can do it in a way that is truly memorable.

Exactly what the genes are that allow these few word wizards to do what they do I don't know; just wish they could be beamed into my Blackberry.

One thing I do believe, however, is that those who can do it have at least one characteristic in common and that is that they are super busy individuals.

By way of example, I offer up GL Hoffman, who among others things, describes himself as a serial entrepreneur. "Certifiable" is more like it.

If you know of GL then no further proof is needed. If you don't, you are missing something, and you check out everything that he is and has been involved in, and stand back amazed like the rest of us.

So what does all this have to do with a book that measures 4 x 5.5? Answer: If you ever wanted to see how much truly important management advice can be crammed into one place, set your cyber GPS right here, right now.

Here's why:

There is almost no executive I have ever met who isn't always looking for advice and counsel on those myriad of situations that confront leaders on a daily if not hourly basis. Most of us see all the well-publicized business books written by the gurus of managing that promise upon finishing their latest tome you will have the universal solvent for every management challenge known to man.

Unfortunately, most of us are way too busy fighting our way through the day to get much beyond the list of the best sellers in the NY Times and feeling depressed because we haven't gotten to any of them.

Well, here's a book you can not only have time to read but much more importantly you can't afford NOT to read. Better still, it is small enough to carry around with you so that you can very likely find the issue and the answer to almost any issue that stands between you and moving your enterprise forward.

If you are a type "A" personality like me, you may remember the satisfaction you felt when back in the day you got turned on to Ken Blanchard and the One Minute Manager. StartUp deserves similar standing.

With praise, however, also comes some criticism, and to that end I would say to GL that with the title he has sold himself short. This book goes way beyond great "learnings" for startups.

Anyone from first time supervisor to CEO would not only love this book, they will treasure it.

I gave copies to our management team and they are still cheering.

Three Questions Executives Should Ask for the New Year

We're almost out of January, and a lot of the resolution stuff is wearing off so I am rushing to get this off my chest before it simply proves I am further behind the power curve than even I thought.

Question: Do you hate stuff that makes you think as much as I do? Okay, maybe hate is too strong a word, maybe feeling humiliated and embarrassed is more like it.

Well, I have to admit publically that when I read Melissa Raffone's blog post in the Conversation section of the online Harvard Business Review, I had one of those moments.

It's a great post, and it ends with posing three questions, the kind that make it hard to look in the mirror for most of us. That said, like most such questions, they are super insightful and well worth pondering in January or any other time. The kind of stuff that some of us would tape to the bathroom mirror even if it was hard to see each morning:

1. If there was only one thing I could do to improve my business, what would it be and how would I make it happen?

2. If there was only one thing I could focus on to improve my personal performance, what would that be and how would I make it happen?

3. What messages am I not listening to or refusing to confront in my business and personal performance and how am I going to overcome that this year?

As uncomfortable as it made me feel for not being able to come up with immediate answers (was I afraid to hear what I would say?) I was struck by how flexible these questions were in terms of both one's professional as well as personal lives, and it is in that spirit that I pass them along in case you might have missed the post.

A belated Happy New Year from those of us who are still trying to catch up with ourselves.

Getting A Cyber Mulligan

There is an old saying that goes something like "when you're mad, write the letter but don't send it until the next day." The same can often be said for things you put out on the net.

In fact, even if you aren't particularly ticked off about something, but just fired stuff off after a few glasses of wine or when you were back in college and someone dared you to upload something that you now wish had been biodegradable, the fact is that once it's out there, it's out there.

Over the years this sort of stuff has come to be known as "Digital Dirt" a phrase that was coined by ExecuNet's Editor-in-Chief Robyn Greenspan. In fact, Robyn and her team even put together a career guide on the subject for our members called Dealing With Your Digital Dirt.

So, with literally millions of folks out there who would have liked to have had a cyber mulligan but know they can't, many have thought that the next best thing might be something where at least when someone typed their name into Google at least the "good stuff" would be what people would see first.

Well, guess what, it looks like that day may well have arrived with the launch this week of a service developed by James Alexander called Vizibility. How does it work? The launch press release describes it this way:

"Through a simple wizard, the Vizibility service enables people to quickly create the optimal Google search for themselves based on their name, employment history and relevant keywords."

All in all a pretty cool idea which you might want to check out. The basic service is free.

Leadership Values

When the new year begins the lists come out and it's always time to see who views what as "winners", "losers", and/or what's in store for the next twelve months or so.

The other thing that happens, at least for me, is that this time of year makes you think of where things have been, what's changed, and what worked and what didn't. It also makes me think of what hasn't changed and why.

And so it was when someone came up to me in the office the other day and offered up congratulations on our starting of year twenty-two since ExecuNet's founding in 1988. As we were talking, he asked how I thought the company had been able to react and adapt to all the changes and challenges over the years.

I wasn't quite sure how to respond other than to say that I felt a lot of it came from the fact that we have always worked very hard to stick to our core values and that this was one of the major advantages of being a small company.

He went on to say that it must be a pretty hard thing to do as the company has continued to grow over time. My response was that while for sure it wasn't easy, so long as we never lose sight of what we believe in I thought we would be able to work our way through most any challenge.

Every organization, large or small, certainly has similar ideals or rules by which they try to manage. In our case they aren't so much "rules" as they are "beliefs."

We have a number of them, but at the core are these:

1. Every relationship we have, be it inside or outside the organization. is built on trust.

2. We want a culture that feels like we are working "with" not "for" and

3. We don't want to ever forget that everything we do or say reflects on us both individually and collectively.

Interested in sharing yours?

One Man's Opinion

One of the things that has made being a part of ExecuNet so satisfying and rewarding over the years is meeting and getting to know our members be it in person, on the phone, or online.

In the case of Rick Hubbard it was first via email and then by phone.

His self-description is that of a "Technologist, Author & Professional Services Executive" and now having spent a fair amount of time with Rick, I would say that was a very apt description but doesn't really convey the depth of the talents he has. For that you need to get deeper into his profile.

Among other things, Rick is an active (read very) of a networking group in the bay area called PSVillage a 1500 member community of technology, professional services and consulting leaders.

Combining both personal interests with his broadcast and interviewing skill sets, for the past several months, Rick has been busy producing a series of podcasts for this group covering the subject of job search at the executive level.

As part of that effort he contacted me to see if I would be willing to spend some time with him and share my take on a number of questions that were subjects of interest to those who were listening to his special series. With his high energy level and enthusiasm to go with it, there was no way that I was going to say no.

As I suspected, it turned out to be a great experience for a number of reasons, not the least of which was his easy going style and the fact that we actually a reasonable amount of time to discuss the issues (it runs around 39 minutes) and it gave me the chance to not only express my opinion on a number of questions that frequently come up, but it also gave me the chance to explain why I felt as I did, and in this age of "sound bites" it was a welcome change.

So, if you are an executive and trying to wade through the jungle of the marketplace these days, you might want to check it out.

I also should mention since Rick is also an author as well as an accomplished broadcaster, he has just released a book on planning (a word frequently that raises the hairs on a lot of necks) called simply How to Plan. In fact, he tells me he is actually giving away some complimentary copies - for just how long I am not sure, but if you're interested in checking out the book, the site is here.

Mekong Blue

So I am driving to work and listening to NPR as I do on most days. On Morning Edition I hear this story about Mekong Blue and immediately said to myself this would be a good thing to share for those who may not yet know about this project.

Since I just recently returned from a trip to SE Asia, this might have had something to do with my wanting to help get the word out on a project like this, although Cambodia was not on my itinerary so maybe not.

Actually I think it is more likely that I was motivated by having seen first-hand how truly high quality silk is created and woven. For those who have seen this process I would guess that would agree that it is impressive to say the least.

In any event, while it is probably too late for any last minute Christmas shopping, given the beauty and quality of the products produced by this group of Cambodian women, it is a site you might want to put on a favorite list when you are looking for a gift for any special occasion.

If you would like to get full story the NPR clip is here.

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.

Getting Through The Maze

Given the current state of affairs on the unemployment front these days it probably comes as no surprise that two of the most asked questions we get from ExecuNet members who have been caught up in all this are:

1. What is the "secret" in dealing with recruiters, and

2. What sort of strategies are there for moving from one industry to another?

I could easily list another ten to twenty questions that would all have double digit percentages in terms of how often they come up, but for now and in the interest of both time and space, a comment and a recommendation.

Comment: When someone finds themselves in a job search, it has long been both a knee jerk reaction for the person to say to themselves that one of their primary strategies is going to be one of "working with recruiters." On the surface, of course, that has some logic to it in the sense that most equate recruiters with jobs.

What is forgotten all too often however is that recruiters "work for clients" not candidates. Once they have sourced a candidate they may "work with them" to help get them ready for presentation to their client, but they are a long way from being the person who is going to help the candidate find the next job.
Of course the other fact that is easily forgotten (maybe repressed?) is that the percentage of positions filled by recruiters vs. what is out there is relatively small. The numbers vary, but if it reaches as high as 20% that would be pushing the envelope. It is more likely 10-15%.

So maybe the question really ought to be not about working with recruiters but rather how should I be interacting with them as one potential contact point in my search.

Recommendation: While our members have any number of resources to draw upon, including a whole section of the site that is focused only on recruiters, if people ask me for just one resource that I think puts this all in perspective and has excellent, solid and practical advice, I point them to Nick Corcodilos and a book entitled: How to Work with Headhunters.

Recommendation: When it comes to looking for similar quality input on the issue of making a change from one industry to another (not an easy task by any means) my suggestion is to check out Nick's latest which he calls "an answer kit" that carries the title of (as you might guess) How Can I Change Careers? This is a 36 page PDF crammed with answers on this tricky challenge.

One of the hardest things about dealing with the issues of transition is trying to make some sense out of something that leaves many of us with the feeling of being caught in a maze and continually running into dead ends.

If you are looking for a maze guide, Nick comes highly recommended.