Phyllis Shabad, Executive Brand Coach

Executive Job Search: CEO Coach & the Big Game Strategy

Here at The Sounding Board blog, the sports analogy is out of season (think football in November, December, January and possibly early February) but baseball, spring training and a job-search campaign that you manage like a winning coach are apt thoughts to energize you on what is a dreary, post-Thanksgiving Sunday evening here in New York. Even if you work with me as your executive coach and career concierge to gain traction now (I hope you do), securing a new opportunity has never been more competitive. A new level of commitment and responsibility are fundamental to your results quotient, and that demands sharing of operational and planning activities. In other words, be your own coach for key search components and see a better, faster and smarter job-search return.

To continue from my previous post, you should be gearing up for the Sounding Board December, 2008 Job Search Action Plan. I'd like to share some more details of the "Big Game Strategy" as your coach.

More Action Plan Ideas:

• Remember that box you pitched your tangibles into? Begin organizing and categorizing the contents, and don't worry about missing items or gaps in chronology.

• Work on analyzing meaning and theme. Do some tangibles strike you as being particularly relevant to what you do and the direction in which you'd like to take your career? This is the beginning of a career self-assessment taking shape, as well as the bigger picture for resume creation and targeted research.

• Write down any unifying theme to the full content, or groups of items. Multiple themes are the norm.Out of the theme or themes, create a total of 10 stories. I'm certain you can identify that many stories because you should have reviewed accomplishments from both personal and professional activities. Do not eliminate any stories from the initial list, keeping in mind the strong probability that their relative importance to your career now will shift repeatedly over time and circumstance.
• Brainstorm the stories and note any thoughts that appeal to your intuition. If you are open to the idea, think of yourself as a "citizen journalist" and create headlines for each story as future media content for a top business website.
• As a CEO, tenure in your position is growing shorter every day, especially with angry workers, shareholders and retirees clamoring for strong leadership. Despite any real or potential failures that you imagine are reflected in your stories, don't mistake them as counterproductive. Take steps now to address any major pitfalls in broadcasting these stories to your market. Unresolved issues will take on larger meaning if you don't assign a value to them, assume ownership of failures as well as achievements and refocus to determine positive personal brand attributes that could emerge from your stories.
• You've heard the new message from the Obama team--that out of crisis can come real opportunity. Setting up an executive job search during the holidays should make you more reflective. Bad news has a tendency to anchor your career plans but should not become an excuse for lethargy. Failure to take action now will put you in the back of the queue as a competitive candidate for a new executive position in early 2009.

Get Ready for Job Search Now

We are now entering the "dead zone" of job-search behavior and mythology. You know--that the period between Thanksgiving and New Year's is less than ideal for preparing and executing a project that will yield worthwhile results. The mythology often overtakes reality, as people's perceptions are fueled by constant streams of disheartening data, compounded by old notions of how the pieces of a job-search campaign should be executed. Retreat into the comfort of what you did to get a desirable result three jobs ago and you may be expending considerable effort to no avail. Or, give in to the idea that it would be a waste of time in the current economy.

I know that the news isn't good. A Gallup poll published yesterday showed that only 12% of Americans think that this is a good time to launch a search for the right-fit job. Gallup reports that this perception of the market is the worst since they began tracking this monthly since 2001.

Should this deter you from even thinking about doing anything tangible until 2009? I think not, and I'll offer some quick tips on what you can and should do immediately so you can set yourself up for launch time.

Action Plan for Job Search in December, 2008:

• Conduct targeted research to identify which industries are in current or projected growth mode and compile your data in folders, files or notebooks that will be strategic to your campaign. Sign up for my newsletter to jumpstart your research.

• Do the critical preparatory work for creating a superior resume with meaningful content. Don't just think of this as dumping data into an aesthetic design. It needs to be both macro and micro. Did you ever think of storyboarding your background, accomplishments and interests?

• It's time to clean out the basement or garage anyway, so you might as well unearth content long-buried in boxes that will serve as concrete reminders of what you've done. Look for reports, projects, writing samples, graphs, charts, awards, letters of recommendation, notes from satisfied clients, summaries from performance appraisals and even photos.

• Retrieve the media. Newspaper, magazine or newsletter articles that either featured you, quoted you or that you authored.

• Did you earn any certificates from short-term training or professional development programs? Archive the titles.

Pitch anything tangible into a box or pocket folder. I know--very low-tech, no cost and it works! Ask your kid to share a large-format piece of oaktag or heavyweight paper with you, and promise to replace for a future school project. Now, get to work designing your unique story. This is a brainstorming model and not the finished product. Be as creative as you can without limit, and stretch your thinking. No borders, please.

So, are the year-end holidays really the dead zone for job search? Or is it the best time of all to create a blueprint in the correct chronology?

Use your time wisely, and have FUN accomplishing this.

Executive Leadership Roles & Women: Trends, Progress and Gaps

We’ve gained influence, power and positions in 2008, and there is potential for the results to have more than symbolic impact on women around the world. But to what extent have American women finally earned their seat at the table?

 

Women—highly qualified, accomplished, credentialed women—have been headlining the news in the last few weeks, as elected officials with executive management and legislative experience will be likely to fill key Cabinet roles in President-elect Barack Obama’s new administration. New York Senator Hillary Clinton is the probable new secretary of state; Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano is a strong mention for secretary of homeland security. Academic heft and policy expertise were central to Obama’s hiring decisions for a stellar economic team, as he announced today the appointments of Professor Christina Romer of Berkeley as chair of his Council of Economic Advisers, Melody Barnes as director of his White House Domestic Policy Council and Heather Higginbottom as her deputy.

 

Already hired in other prominent roles are Valerie Jarrett as an administration senior adviser and Executive Director of EMILY’s List Ellen Moran as Communications Director for the White House. A few names—anywhere from around nine to 11 or more—are mentioned as still in contention for senior management roles in the Obama administration. If you check a NYTimes.com graphic, out of 48 possible candidates competing for leadership jobs, only nine of those candidates are women; that would represent less than 20% viability in the total pool for a marquee job in the executive branch.

Yes, women were elected in record numbers in the 2008 elections, although more female candidates (12) ran for Senate in 2006. The state of the economy, fundraising clout and organizational competence all favored the Democratic brand. But according to The Center for Women in Politics at Rutgers University, despite current data showing that women account for 57% of the US population, they hold less than 25% of all elected positions. So, we’ve certainly made advances with government and political jobs secured by smart women, but there are obvious disparities in the numbers. Would authors Malcolm Gladwell—The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers—not to mention Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner who co-wrote the best-seller Freakonomics, like to take an analytical whack at this one? I’m not sure I’d agree completely, however, with their explanations as there are no simple or single answers historically.

Added to this are other startling statistics reported by Reuters. The World Economic Forum, a Swiss research organization, delivered its 2008 Global Gender Gap report on November 12^th and ranked Norway, Finland and Sweden as having the most equality of the sexes. The report’s good news was that girls and women were nearly equal, in general, with male peers in literacy, access to education and health and survival globally. The more-than-disappointing news? There is a very wide gap between women and men when it comes to economics and politics, and that includes the pathway to executive government and corporate positions. We are still not the decision-makers overall as far as the numbers reflect.

Where is the US on this list? We rank 27^th, behind Germany (11^th), Britain (13^th) and France (15^th) and, if you can believe, Cuba (25^th.)

A core piece of my business plan in 2009 will be to renew focus on women clients aiming for top corporate roles. I am currently preparing both women and men senior executive clients for a seat at the table. But for women, the numbers must rise dramatically. More Board Director and CEO mentors should be in place internally. Executive coaching and the subset of personal branding can speed the process externally.

Election 2008 & Personal Branding: Blueprint for Career Success

The winning candidate in the 2008 Presidential race, Barack Obama, took his singular brand all the way to the White House while executing his brand strategy with impeccable consistency. He outmaneuvered his competition and secured the top job in the country while laying out a coherent, confident and deftly articulated personal brand, affixing that to his campaign.

John McCain, on the other hand, began his campaign with an iconic brand, but lacked a systematic approach in concept and delivery. Even if you posit that McCain's personal brand of "maverick" was distinctive, it was not sustainable enough without a well-developed, consistent message and 21st-century technology blueprint. So, what does branding success have to do with reaching your career and job-search goals?

Rich analogies from Election 2008 are worth serious consideration if you must tackle job and career realities with a sobering urgency. Howard Fineman of Newsweek wrote in an election-day column for MSNBC.com entitled "The 'Obama Way': Seven Steps to Success" that "businessmen and politicians will reverently study the campaign for years to come as a model of innovative branding and an example for digital sales strategies."

Some suggested takeaways from President-elect Obama's campaign and brand execution:

• Begin your job-search campaign, career transition or turnaround by identifying your personal brand.

• Despite a tough, competitive environment, spend the necessary time to define and understand your personal values and career interests.

• Don't overlook the need for a comprehensive brand communication plan as you organize your search. I'll write more on this in another post to help you avoid a resume mistake that is unfortunately widespread.

• Work towards authenticity. Your audience in all it's diversity will know if you're the "real thing."

• Break out of the mindset that because you're an executive and feel that you must protect your brand, then you should avoid social networking tools altogether. There are plenty of business leaders and CEOs who use Facebook and other sites to communicate their personal brands.

After all, we can now analyze how the newest, top Chief Executive Officer built his following, earned brand devotion and achieved what was deemed an improbable career goal as he began his campaign.