Phyllis Shabad, Executive Brand Coach

Executive Job Search Valentine: Reframe Your Action Plan

Are you jobless in Gotham? Or, for that matter, anywhere right now around the world?

 

New York has been hit hard because of the losses in financial services, but so have other cities, states and countries since the bubble burst. This is more like an economic tsunami that has affected other sectors such as manufacturing and construction, not to mention the media, retail, pharmaceuticals and a long list of other industries. Well, you can tell yourself, friends and loved ones that “it isn’t my fault,” and “I’m going to start my job search and work at it 24x7” with the very best of intentions to stay afloat, and I’m sure you’re not alone in those thoughts. You think, “I’ll work hard at landing a new management position—as I have worked conscientiously my entire career—and eventually something will give” because hard work yields a reward. Except that this time, the dynamics of the job-search game have changed dramatically and everyone must adjust to new realities.

 

Old networks may have already dried up or will soon be dead ends, the constant barrage of bad news and dire warnings affect the decision-making process, and everyone thinks that economic and labor experts are making projections by looking into their crystal balls. So, is there anything you can do to change your mindset, turn around the job-search strategy and create a new path?

1.     Ask. Talk to anyone who fits into your demographic, psychographic or geographic circle and ask for help. Then, ask everyone else. It makes sense that if you don’t ask for it, you won’t get it, and in today’s environment you have nothing to lose.

2.     Follow the money. I know, you’re thinking: what money! But there is money that will flow and is flowing right now into certain sectors, companies and individuals who are in start-up or growth phase. Even though there are fewer IPOs now, the deals are still being structured. New companies are sometimes funded adequately by angel investors. Your job is to seek this information, analyze it and carve out a strategy around data.

3.     Creation vs. continuation. If the jobs and opportunities have disappeared for the foreseeable future and you’ve exhausted your leads, don’t think of your hard work as wasted effort. What you’ve done is plant seeds that may yield results at some point. Since you can’t afford to wait and do nothing, when you’ve saturated the market and executed an aggressive search, start your Plan B. (You have a Plan B, right?) Instead of continuing to seek positions, begin creating opportunities.

I’ll have much more to say on this, with links, ideas and specific information on all of the above later this week in my Valentines series of targeted career advice to start melting the frozen fear that has a lot of people stuck in their executive searches.

CEO-Speak, Obama & Language of Leadership Brands

When I was studying for my Masters Degree, the Chair of the English Department at Syracuse University embedded this thought into our minds: language elevates the level of literature, in ways both mundane and profound.

I've never encountered an instance of this where it did not correlate positvely, regardless of the genre, platform or purpose. I look forward to the third season of my newest television favorite, "Madmen", for many reasons, among them the acting and plot development, but especially the dialogue. Each character strikes me as having such a strong voice because the show is so well-written. Strong voice equals a strong, rich personal brand. And what carries this forward? The desire to influence at the intersection of words and personal identity.

What does this have to do with CEO resumes and career management? Well, just about everything. If you asked me to respond emotionally to an executive's resume that was loaded with data as opposed to one that was driven more by prose, I'll take the prose every time. So should corporate boards of directors as they respond to true or tepid CEO talent in the hiring process. It would be difficult to truly understand what and how a CEO thinks if there is scant copy on a resume or career portfolio that incorporates an interesting, unique mix of words to express the brand value. How could anyone determine, in fact, how an executive would act in an economic crisis, company downturn, growing profitability or technology challenge if there is only the dullest of language to reflect mindset or thought process?

In today's Week in Review section of The New York Times, Mark Leibovich writes a wonderful column on political buzzwords of 2008, concluding that "elections have consequences" ... and "lots of buzzwords." In a sidebar piece with buzzworthy contributions by lexicographer Grant Barrett, we come to one of my favorites, and I'm sure your buzz-favorite as well: Change. I'll give you some consolation on this one because you, Mr. or Ms. CEO, are in excellent company for making the "change" word the most overused word in your resume. I know Obama is soon to become our president, and he correctly identified the 2008 election as a change one. But, come on, you know there are abundant stories of your change management, descriptions of having been a change agent and a change catalyst. If you agree that too much "change" language will confer a sleepiness so deep on the resume reader that he or she will thank you for not having to resort to prescription drugs, then you're on the right track.

In another interesting piece in today's paper, Obama's choice of a poet to appear at his innauguration makes the strongest case possible for the use of inspired language in your career marketing documents. Elizabeth Alexander is quoted as saying that "President-elect Obama is extremely efficient with language" ... "it is tremendously righ and tremendously precise but also never excessive. I really admire that. That's a poet's sensibility. I'm going to follow his lead."

Now, CEOs, please follow this lead for the most appealing language of leadership. Express your personal brand with language that's polished and distinctly your voice.

CEO/Board Director Resumes: Examples & Big Ideas

Why do most executive résumés resemble each other so much that they appear to be products that emanate from a single-source résumé factory? Is it because of the culture of idea acquisition and execution that guides our daily behavior? In other words, did you—a CEO or Board Director—create your résumé with the best of intentions to tell a differentiated story, yet you lost focus because your sequence is to seek definitions, adhere to a structure in wide use, shepherd a product lifecycle with a rapid timeline so you can complete and launch, try to outdo the competition by acting before planning and seek information on how to create a résumé rather than why to or what to incorporate into the content?

 

I can’t blame you, because I, too, love finding ‘how-to’ do anything bullets that can help me accomplish my goals without getting mired in thoughts so deep that I don’t actually roll out my product. Résumés that are successful are not created to hang on museum walls but are invested with purpose and meaning to reach and attract the market.

 

If you only ask yourself “What is a good example of an executive résumé?” then the likely answer will be one that relates to length, sections, bullets, and design. And then the pain begins, because my tracking tells me that even if you reach a desirable market you won’t be able to make a strong case for why you should be chosen to lead over your competition.

 

Would you prefer to let go of some old, tired ideas and stretch your concepts?

Here are some initial questions you must ask yourself to anchor your content and shape your résumé product into something more innovative and successful in its application. By the way, you already knew that content sells as a primary factor in the decision-making process, right?

 

>       In the last 2-3 years, did you lead or advise your company across the blue ocean?

>       Did you reverse-engineer the mentoring of a staff member to increase diversity, age and gender impact?

>       Under your executive leadership, were you credited with dreaming of, creating and monetizing a great product that mattered?

>       If a CEO, did you hire board directors who were not all accountants or in your direct network?

 

There are more than 5 criteria for great résumé content, and maybe 100+ types of stories that need no justification for inclusion.

 

Not only will I be speaking on this topic in 2009, but I also look forward to working with some new executive clients exclusively on what these ideas mean to your careers and how they can get real results.

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.

CEO Personal Branding Feedback

If you are currently the CEO of a public company, and wish to continue in your current role, you may not be too inclined to make sweeping changes right now: to the overall mission; to the growth strategy in new and emerging markets; to your industry footprint. Your mindset may have been affected by the current credit crisis to do anything other than “keep the shareholders happy,” a drum roll of a message that I heard too often when I worked on Wall Street in the 1980s. The first commercial bank I worked for became the first US commercial bank taken over successfully in a hostile raid. I learned some important lessons when that happened in 1987—lessons that I apply to my coaching philosophy and personal branding strategy today when I work with CEOs. It was also a pivotal moment for my own career direction, as I became interested in working one-on-one with executives to manage and develop their careers separate from the organizational mission. 

CEOs tend to do predictable things in unpredictable economic environments. If you lead a company that is starved for cash, the first strategies (or impulses) are to reduce the workforce and sell off assets.  The current crisis is a clear example of CEOs who are left with few options to save a company in a near-death spiral. Or, we don’t have to look any further than the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers to understand the impact felt by executives one level below the C-Suite as well as company employees, not to mention the shareholders. In the last several weeks, reported layoffs are happening beyond Wall Street, as PepsiCo, General Motors, Merck and Yahoo—among many others—shed 1,000s of jobs. It’s the impact on human capital that I worry about here, tied to executive responsibility.

What will be the lasting effect of how CEOs manage and lead their companies now and through the tough times ahead? What are their lessons learned? Is there feedback for CEOs beyond company benchmarks and criteria for executive management skill sets? As their employees and managers make an exit, will there be a more critical lens focused on a personal brand that addresses specific, targeted leadership style, people management skill, and vision?

Some sites offer tools to the public as stand-in feedback for CEOs, such as Glassdoor.com, but they are not perfect models. Forbes.com has a CEO Approval Tracker, and again, they state “this is not a scientific poll.” Much better is 360º personal branding feedback that permits data from anonymous, diverse sources. A thorough analysis provides CEOs a blueprint if they remain in place or a prescription for what I call “career change management.” In both cases, the path to CEO success could well be through the personal branding process.