Are you a female executive? Been called “honey” or “babe” in the workplace? Asked to pick up the coffee and donuts for the staff meeting? Been expected to ‘straighten up’ the conference room after an ideation session? Those (and many other) seemingly innocuous situations are indicative of a culture steeped in sexism. This article in Forbes magazine offers up three good reasons to confront the perpetrator(s) head-on.
Personal Branding For A Solid Transition
It seems that the concept of personal branding is becoming as ubiquitous as having a robust presence on every social media platform known to man. Career coaches, recruiters, and outplacement consultants pontificate about its importance. No doubt it is, but few practitioners put it into such understandable and actionable terms as Scott Ginsberg. He has written nine top-selling books and contributes to The Ladders blog. Ginsberg says, “Your brand is what you’re known for and what you’re known for knowing. Use that to your advantage in making a career transition.” This article is a worthwhile read for anyone contemplating a move up and out.
Squeezed By Everything: Life As A Middle Manager
This Wall Street Journal article by Melissa Korn is an illuminating look at life as a middle manager through the eyes of one at FICO. What’s it’s like being a middle manager is chronicled by following Michelle Davis from the start of her day in an empty parking lot at 6 am to the end when she hits the hay at 10 pm. Meetings, conference calls, crises, and precious little planning time seem to be the norm. She has many duties but little authority. People-pleasing is the order of her day. Upward mobility is limited and company loyalty is questionable. This article is a good read for those on “the fast track” and for their bosses who struggle to keep good employees engaged and motivated.
Age Discrimination Is Real. Here’s How To Deal With It.
Marc Cenedella founded The Ladders… you know the commercials, “$100K jobs for $100K people.” He writes a weekly topical letter that is often quite informative and, as the job market heats up, this week’s is worth a careful read. It is on the topic of age discrimination and, as Cenedella posits, age discrimination is prevalent while hidden and is affecting ever younger workers. It is something that the savvy jobseeker can overcome… without dressing in clothes from J Crew or getting the latest buzz-phrases from your teenage daughter. In fact, DON’T do that! Instead read the letter.
“One of the things I was most surprised by when I got into the jobs business over a decade ago was the prevalence and practice of age discrimination in hiring right here in the USA. Oh, sure… we’re not like some overseas markets where job ads explicitly demand youth, or a particular gender, or beauty(!), in the applicant, but there it is… the blank look on your interviewer’s face when you talk about growing up in the 60s or 70s. The skepticism with which your Twit-facebook-gram skills are regarded. The cultural references that pass silently like two Teslas in the night…
Well, at least the younger generation seems to get your reference to “Gunga-galunga” and giggle. Most of the time. All of it adds up to a pernicious undercutting of your ability to get hired and get ahead. We just have to admit the ugly truth that age discrimination exists — there’s no doubt about it. And there’s no silver bullet for those facing it. If you’re in the job market and over the age of 52, you will almost certainly face stereotypes and negative attitudes regarding your desirability because of your age. And in some cities, in some markets, that negative environment impacts candidates as young as 40 years of age.
While there’s nothing you can do to stop it, I have, over the years, observed which candidates and applicants have succeeded despite their age and which have failed because of it. If I had to summarize, I’d say it appears to me that age discrimination is mindset discrimination first and foremost. And you’ll need to review how you are presenting your mindset — your attitude — to your future employer. Every hiring manager is asking herself, every HR person is asking himself, these questions about you and every other candidate they’re interviewing. Will this candidate:
| – | Be able to excel in this role? |
| – | Be able to learn and adjust as the role evolves? |
| – | Be able to master the tools and technologies involved today and tomorrow? |
| – | Get along well with others on the team? |
| – | Take direction and feedback? |
And it’s important for you to realize that youth is the symptom, not the cause, of age discrimination. What I mean by that is that hiring managers are hiring for open-mindedness, flexibility, and a sociability with others. On average, there’s a perception on the part of hiring managers, whether right or wrong, that those attributes are more frequently found in the young, as opposed to the experienced.
And it’s worthwhile to review why these attributes have so much value in the business world today. As the world changes, businesses change even more rapidly. Companies sometimes need to jump on new trends before they pan out, or hedge their bets, or make sure they’re well-prepared for most contingencies. And that means there’s always plenty of “new” to keep up with. So a workforce that is flexible, open-minded and interested in learning is far better than a workforce that is determined to keep doing it the old way.
“The old way works fine” might be OK for you around the home, but in business, it has proven to be an enormous destroyer of value. Take a look at the hard times that old famous companies have fallen upon. Heck, even some of the newer tech companies that were darlings within the last decade have had difficulties mastering new environments. So expecting your future employer to be pleased with an “old ways are tried and true” mindset won’t serve you well in your job search. So it is not necessarily youth itself that companies are hiring for, rather, it is those attributes that have proven effective in today’s business environment.
The cause of age discrimination is the perception around older professionals’ adaptability, curiosity, and team spirit; youth is merely a symptom. Since you can’t change your age, your goal is to address the underlying root causes of age discrimination — your goal is not to appear or act age-inappropriate — it is to present yourself, effectively, as a constructive, resourceful, “coachable”, team player. When confronting misperceptions in your job search, it is always better to “show” than to “tell”:
|
– |
Describe situations in which you adapted new technologies to the problem at hand. It is helpful if these examples aren’t from the seventies, but rather represent transitions that your interviewer herself went through. |
|
– |
Recount how you were able to help younger (and older) staffers get to a solution that was stumping all. Detail the challenges you faced and what tactics you used to overcome them. |
|
– |
Relate your experiences with receiving and using feedback constructively. Discuss how you used the situation to update your behavior and outlook. Share the process you went through to find where you could perform better and the steps you took to achieve an improvement. Ideally, quantify that improvement. |
|
– |
Illustrate with specific stories your interest in, and passion for, the work that you do. Why does it drive you? What excites you about your work? Your younger competition does this out of habit — because they can’t talk about decades of success in the business — so you need to make sure you put yourself on a fair footing. |
As you can see, the important thing is that rather than telling the hiring manager that you’re open-minded, curious, flexible, adaptable to new circumstances, and sociable enough for the role, show him that you are. And a final word to remake the point about youth being a symptom and not a cause of age discrimination.
On occasion, one finds older candidates that mistake having an open mindset with mimicking a twenty-year-old’s mindset. There is a difference. Arriving at a job interview replete with the names of the latest bands, dropping age-inappropriate lingo into your answers, and wearing clothes that reveal too much about your desperation by trying too hard, all have the opposite effect of what you’d hope for. Interactions like these reconfirm your interviewer’s fears that you’ll be obtuse, unsavvy, and a management challenge on the job.
No, your best tactics are to communicate, verbally and nonverbally, that you are adept at keeping up with the times, and, even more importantly, interested in doing so. And the best way for you to do that is to show them precisely those behaviors and traits for which they are interviewing.”
Creativity and Inertia are Natural Enemies
With shifting political alliances, worldwide mobility, instant connectivity, global commerce, and the general acceptance of situational ethics, it may seem that there are few natural enemies left anymore. Even in the animal kingdom, we are witness to more species peacefully coexisting in a changing world – sometimes out of sheer necessity. It seems to me, however, that creativity and inertia will (and should) always be natural enemies.
One of the definitions of creativity according to Webster is “the ability to make new things or think of new ideas.” The very essence of this definition is that creativity is an active process. Creativity demands an interested party or parties working on a solution that addresses a unique circumstance or a perceived shortcoming in the status quo. Inertia on the other hand is a passive mindset. Look again to Webster. Inertia is defined as “a property of matter by which it remains at rest; indisposition to motion, exertion, or change.” Common synonyms for inertia include words like idleness, laziness, and sloth. Synonyms for creativity elicit words like imagination, ingenuity, and originality. Could these be more opposite? I don’t think so. Well, so what!
OK, here’s what. In my humble opinion, we are inundated with so much information and so many “expert views”, that it is easy to get lost in minutiae and discouraged about our own “lack of influence.” I heard a productivity guru the other day preaching a philosophy where his disciples ignore most events in the world and instead concentrate only on those things (mostly his books and CDs) that further individual, personal goals. I agree that being an “information junkie” can be both depressing and counter-productive, but being clueless-by-choice is to hand over our natural abilities to be creative. It is the essence of inertia or, as a popular TV commercial says “a body at rest tends to stay at rest.”
And here’s what else. In addition to being an activist disposition, creativity demands exercise. It is never at rest. It may sometimes be restful but it is never completely shut down. Sound daunting and unachievable? Actually, the process is frequently referred to as exhilarating and supremely satisfying. The musician Charles Mingus said, “Anybody can play weird. That’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.” The American inventor Edwin Land stated, “Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity.” And the famed movie maker Cecil B. DeMille said “Creativity is a drug I cannot live without.”
If it’s been awhile since you’ve experienced a “creativity high”, here are three quick hits to get you buzzed again:
- Get Moving. Remember, one of the synonyms for inertia is laziness. So, don’t be lazy. Explore. Go. Experience. If creativity is your goal and you want to look at things with a fresh set of eyes, then feed your senses by simply getting out. You’ll probably be shocked at how small you’ve allowed your world to become.
- Seek Difference. Fine, you’re moving… but to what? Well, err on the side of the different. Different people, venues, practices, habits, experiences, engagements, challenges. If you want to spark creativity again, it will only happen if you scramble the routine a little. No good high ever came from a look-alike drug.
- Embrace New. Well you’re different now… but what’s permanent? I say it should be a commitment to the new. Don’t toss everything that’s worked for sure, but ‘new’ should not mean ‘bad’ or ‘enemy’ either. It has a tendency to be that in business unless it’s a potential new revenue source. Not every ‘new’ idea or practice that you embrace will love you back, but you’ll be better for having taken the risk.
Finally, remember the old advice to keep your friends close and your enemies closer? It never applies here. Anytime. For any reason. Inertia is always the enemy of creativity.
The Power Of A Second Chance
Have you given a struggling employee a second chance? Of course you have! The real question is – did they know about it or did you just give them a “break?”
I recently experienced a powerful example of why just giving someone a break rarely works. This lesson came courtesy of a player on our 18 and under AA baseball team. #2 had a variety of home and school issues going on the last couple of seasons so everyone understood when I didn’t come down too hard on some of his on field behavior issues. However, when it crossed over into unsportsmanlike behavior I suspended him for two games and in a players’ only vote they decided not to reinstate him for the remainder of last season. The players and coaches did make it clear that he would be welcome to rejoin the team this season.
To his credit #2 did return this season but it was made clear to him what the behavior expectations were if he wanted to remain part of the team. What a difference – not a single outburst at the plate or in the field. His improvement was never more evident than in our last game when he committed an error on the opening batter of the game – last year his temper would have caused him to lose complete focus but instead he recorded three very nice putouts, had several productive at-bats and scored a run.
A lesson to me that the best second chances are the ones your “players” know about. It is not only acceptable but mutually beneficial to let someone know you observed some lack of performance on their part but only if you make it clear the performance you expect and that you will give them a real opportunity to improve.
Getting Your Resume Past The e-Gatekeeper
OK, anyone who has embarked on a recent job search knows the importance of getting your resume to the right person. But what happens when the first “right person” is a software program? Executive recruiters and employers both are adopting ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) with increasing frequency to streamline the sifting and ranking process. Knowing how these programs use your data is critical to success in the initial screening of your resume. If you’re good at tailoring your CV to the software, you have a great shot at moving on in the process. If not, no one will ever know you were their best option.
Lisa Vaas covers resume writing techniques and emerging technologies for The Ladders. In her post on modern resume writing, she offers 24 tips to make sure you are at the top of the heap in an increasingly machine-driven screening process. I suppose I could be critical that some of the tips might be redundant or simplistic (they are), but on balance this is a very cogent, thoughtful piece. Ms. Vaas has done a good job providing candidates with the “how-to” of tailoring a resume to ATS software while not losing sight of the personal touch. A quick primer and a worthwhile article to keep on hand in your job search.
How NOT To Get Hired.
Rebecca Rapple is a personal branding expert who has been featured in the Harvard Business Review, Business Insider, and other online and traditional publications. Her advice to the savvy job-seeker is timely and to the point. She takes us on a quick tour of some surefire ways to end up at the bottom of the heap. A few are pretty simplistic and you’d think even Homer Simpson wouldn’t make such mistakes, but “D’oh” many of them will leave you thankful for her reminder. Ms. Rapple provides a clear-eyed roadmap for avoiding how not to get hired. It’s a worthwhile read in a competitive marketplace and her solutions are direct and easy to implement.
Attracting The Best
This article originally appeared in the Sunday Business section of The Cincinnati Enquirer on June 9, 2013.
The best candidates are attracted by the intangibles. They expect the tangibles – compensation, benefits. From the very beginning of your search it is important to understand the intangibles your organization has to offer and to make certain they are consistently communicated. Communicate them early and often – not in response to the candidate’s question but up front so they believe they truly are part of your culture and not just a convenient response to their questions.
The three recurring themes I’ve heard in my practice whether I’ve been recruiting a Financial Controller or a Sales Executive are:
1) Will I have the chance to be involved in decision making? They don’t need to make the decisions they simply want to know you have an environment where input is valued.
2) Is there a mentor available? Top shelf candidates, especially those early in their career, want to learn and they realize it is about having a willing, capable and active mentor.
3) Is there an environment of professional flexibility? They don’t want flex-time or to be treated differently than others. They want to know that throughout your organization professionals who are achieving and exceeding goals are free to occasionally veer from a standard schedule to meet a personal obligation.
Attracting the best into your interview process is important, but now can you close the deal? Have you been gaining knowledge about each candidate’s real motivations since the beginning of the interview process? No surprise, money is part of it but money is by far not the key motivation to change for a top performer. Why? Because their current employer recognizes them as a top performer and compensates them competitively!
So how do you get them to open up and share their real motivations? Open up yourself. Move beyond the “About Us” and “Executive Profiles” sections of your website and share with them how you feel about your company and who you really are. Move beyond the questions focusing on the “Required” and “Preferred” sections of the position profile and really endeavor to get to know them. You’ll be much more successful in getting to know a top candidate’ motivations if they trust you, and for that they need to know you trust them.
Unless it is confidential information, share freely – about you, your company, the people they will meet in your interview process, the group they will be joining. Under the theory of reciprocation they will share with you and you will begin to understand if you can, and should, close them on your opportunity.
Are You Being Headhunted?
Admore Recruitment is a UK-based firm, and until I ran across their blog I had never heard of them. But I won’t hold anything against the Brits, and I’ll credit them with a good post about how to react to being “headhunted”. They are not referring to some recruiter performing a mass search on minimal information. Admore speaks to a specific search where a particular candidate has been identified as a top performer by the prospective new employer and is specifically targeted by their executive recruiter. This article is WAY better than most other things British – think jellied eel, deep-fried Mars bars, and black pudding as their culinary delights! When you are being headhunted, this article is definitely worth a close read.