If you’re trying to make professional connections, LinkedIn is clearly the place to be. Everybody’s there, everybody’s connecting.
But I’m surprised at the number of people who haven’t given much thought to the image they’re projecting.
I’m having a discussion with someone, and they just don’t seem to get it. Everything is so clear in my mind, so obviously they’re not as smart as me – otherwise they’d know what I’m saying.
There’s many a slip ‘twixt the mind and the mouth.
The problem is that communicating with other people is a very messy and imperfect activity.
The Career You’ll LoveSponsored by Carl Dierschow’s career blog at www.Dierschow.com |
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Where do you find Influencers?Whether you’re looking for a job, or to advance your career, one of the key needs is to find the decision makers who could help you achieve your goals. These are often highly placed managers who are given formal authority by the organization. They’re pretty easy to find, but often hard to connect with. That’s where the Influencers come in. (more…) |
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Earlier this year, Microsoft commissioned a study which asked hiring managers how much they used the internet to check out prospective candidates. Here’s a couple of interesting results:
This tells you that you need to have a positive presence on the internet, because your next boss is most likely going to check you out – perhaps even before ever setting up an interview.
It seems that recently many people, perhaps most, have struggled to be inspired by their work. With such an uncertain economy, 24/7 accessibility, fear of job loss, and lack of pay increases, we’ve created work environments where many focus more on keeping up with work than on making a great contribution.
There’s some really practical reasons why you should look to be engaged in your work:
The word “visibility” has gotten a bit of a bad rap inside organizations. I’ve seen it associated with concepts of playing politics, whitewashing, and generally creating a false image.
If your great work speaks for itself, why worry about making yourself visible?
Here’s the bonus category: Yourself. We’ve spent so much time thinking about other people, we might have forgotten that it’s important how we feel about our own work!
Looking at it this way, you realize that you are independent of your work. So how does the work help you to achieve your life and career goals? How would you LIKE to relate to your work?
I’ve broken out partners as a distinct category of stakeholders, because the relationships are much different than the others in our diagram.
The simple definition of “partner” is someone who works with you to deliver value to their customers and your customers, and to their management and your management. In the case of your teammates, the customers and management might be the same. In fact, that makes decisions much easier, because you hopefully have an environment that’s aligned and supports you working together.
As we travel through the stakeholders, your customers end up being one of the most powerful categories. And the length of this list might surprise you!
Depending on your job, the end customer might seem very distant. My first career out of college was as an engineer, and there were many stages between my work and the people who actually purchased the products I worked on. But as I became more experienced, I recognized that the people who spend money are the most important ones to understand, because that money paid my paycheck. If they didn’t want to spend money, there was no reason for me to have a job.
The Career You’ll LoveSponsored by Carl Dierschow’s career blog at www.Dierschow.com |
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| Welcome to my new career tips newsletter! I encourage you to pass this to anyone who might have an interest in revitalizing their career – instructions for subscribing are at the bottom. | |
How to Use Influence to Your AdvantageI can think of a million ways to “fix” other people around me. They’re just all so messed up, aren’t they? Here’s the brutal truth: That’s not the way the universe works. You don’t get to “fix” them. |
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