You say you hate to network? So did I. Not anymore. Here’s something I wrote for AOL Jobs about maximizing the networking experience.
Category Archives: career
The Jobseeker’s Holiday Survival Guide
The Jobseeker’s Holiday Survival Guide
10 steps to find the joy in the December job hunt (something I wrote for @aoljobs)
The Power of Great Management
There seem to be endless books and articles praising leadership as a virtue and vilifying management as a vice, that somehow mere management is beneath the lofty status of the great leader. Often portrayed as unforgiving, solitary geniuses who demand excellence and punish mediocrity, leaders can’t be bothered with the day-to-day minutiae of running an organization. They are busy singlehandedly building a brave new world while managers are cruel and stupid thugs hobbling us with layers of process and pointless bureaucracy. Leaders lead and managers block the way.
While those stereotypes make for captivating copy, great leadership requires great management. The only thing wrong with management is BAD management.
Company politics so often create an environment that encourages and rewards poor oversight. Suck up, punch down and never stick your neck out. This style of supervision breeds apathy, resentment and lowered productivity. It’s why people leave and organizations limp along. How can we change that?
Excellent managers provide leadership with a series of simple daily actions so teams can GET SHIT DONE.
- Set goals
- Make decisions
- Give clear direction
- Offer immediate feedback
- Solve problems
And don’t overlook the awesome power of face time with your team. What we spend so much time trying to accomplish through endless meetings, email, phone calls, IM and conference calls can often be solved instantly and effectively with a few minutes of face-to-face. It takes time, but a lap around the office can be good for you, good for morale and great for the team.
in the end great management provides leadership, so lead from the front, not from behind. Clear the road ahead so your staff can be excellent every day. It’s harder and everything hits you first, but your results will always be better. What do you think?
A Few Thoughts on NJ Tech Meetup with Lewis Schiff
One of my favorite Meetups is the monthly NJ Tech gathering. It’s a great crowd with excellent speakers and there is always a wait list.
Here’s how it works every month.
- Pizza and networking.
- Opening remarks.
- A word from the sponsors.
- A chance for the crowd to give rapid fire pitches or requests.
- Three quick startup presentations with Q&A.
- The guest speaker.
- Vote on the best startup.
- Adjourn for beer.
Repeat that formula every month and you have a pretty killer meetup.
Aaron Price is the mastermind who organizes this extravaganza. Every month he lines up both smart startups willing to throw themselves to the lions and high profile special guests. Just a few of the past speakers include Ari Meisel, David Kidder, Scott Belsky, Peter Bell and Bob Dorf.
Tonight, three startups each got five minutes to present and five minutes to answer questions. Yes, the stakes are high. The merciless crowd picks the best pitch and awards them the highly coveted, “recycled and rebranded” trophy.
First up tonight was iBE.net. They provide an enterprise cloud software solution for small and medium sized businesses that works across devices.
Then, Geekrowd pitched their “platform as a service.” They are a jSON api for developers who want to build social apps and tools.
The final pitch came from Sproute. They provide a B2B2C white label digital concierge for travelers. Currently, they are working on a new name and prepping for launch.
The main event was a speech from entrepreneur and writer, Lewis Schiff. His focus tonight was the major points from his recent book, Business Brilliant. Outlining his simple four point LEAP strategy on how Ultra High Net Worth players get wealthy and stay wealthy, Lewis spoke with conviction and drew on hard data to back up his findings.
1 LEARN Discover the few things you are exceptionally good at that will make you money. Focus almost solely on those skills.
2 EARN Make money doing what you do best. Move up the ladder from being a player to being the proprietor. A job will make you money. A business can make you very rich.
3 ASSISTANCE Develop your network. Know the people who will bring you business and opportunities. Choose wisely and surround yourself with a few truly great people.
4 PERSISTENCE Fail, fail, fail…and learn from failure. Don’t give up and keep going. Stay focused. Have faith in failure.
Finally, the moment we had all been waiting for. Which startup would bask in the glory of the NJ Tech Meetup’s blessing? The audience voted by phone and the real-time results yielded a winner….Sproute. And the crowd went wild!
This is a can’t-miss meetup. Come join us on August 2nd with Scott Heiferman, founder of Meetup or September 16th with Michele Brown, CEO of the NJ Economic Development Authority. It would be great to see you there.
My home office this week!
Most of my town is without power, phones or wifi. The amazing people along the few blocks that do have power provided free coffee, powerstrips and wifi. People are pretty amazing and I’ve had the opportunity to meet so many neighbors. A lot of wreckage, but a lot of positive action. Go Hoboken!
Believe in the product, then believe in the vision
Every day many of us find inspiration in the words and ideas of Seth Godin, Gaping Void, Guy Kawasaki and many others. Great minds make it sound so easy. With a little confidence, a strong vision and some connections you will be drowning in VC money and prepping for the big payday. Your product, company or service will change lives and your customers will follow you anywhere. If only it were that simple.
Vision is a powerful thing. It’s alluring, seductive and captivating. We attribute great vision to the leaders and builders who have created amazing things. Working with people who truly possess vision and can deliver on big dreams is a thrilling experience. But few really have the gift of vision and even fewer can execute on it.
Yes, we don’t all get to follow our bliss or do what we love. We can’t all change the world. Our bliss needs to be something people want and will pay for or our bliss won’t pay the bills. We need to be the best at doing what we love or someone else will get to do it. I don’t mean to discount the power of vision, but dreams without a great product won’t cut it in the real world.
I have worked for true visionaries who built amazing companies and incredible products. Through foresight, tenacity, force of will and luck, they were able to deliver on their promises. This success demanded a willingness to disrupt, transform, iterate and invest time, money and resources.
But I’ve also worked with a company whose leader had an incredible vision for where he wanted to take the organization. It was bold and daring. He wanted to create a best in category product that seemed revolutionary. I was hooked. Sign me up and let’s make it happen!
However, there was already a clear, well-resourced leader in the category. Plus, there was little willingness to devote the time, creativity and resources crucial to challenging the leader. You can insist to your staff at a conference table that your product is the best all you want, but until you are willing to execute on your dream you’ve got nothing but an empty vision and a crappy product.
In the end people don’t buy vision, they buy awesome products, they use remarkable services and they love extraordinary companies. Vision may add marketing power and strength to the brand, but it’s all about the end results. Deliver on your vision and your customers will reward you. If not, they will go somewhere else. What do you think?
Stick Your Head in the Fountain
My kids and I have a finely developed routine when we visit the doctor. Doctor appointment. Pet store. Chipotle. Cookies. It has been scientifically tested and approved over the last several years by our sub-committee of three.
A few weeks back we went in for annual physicals. Despite some pre-doctor trepidation concerning the possibility of shots (possibly fueled by dad), my two offspring were well behaved and looking forward to our post-appointment ritual. Both kids were determined by the pediatrician to be tall, skinny and healthy. Plus, there would be no shots this year.
We hastened on our way to the pet store to begin the no-shots celebration. Since I can remember we have visited the puppies in the window of a Sixth Avenue shop. Horror of horrors! The shop is closed and the puppies are gone. This threw our schedule off balance and our well-knit team began to unravel.
What started as sniping and teasing in Chipotle had become guerrilla warfare as we headed east on 8th Street to Insomnia Cookies. My son and daughter had turned against one another and both angry words and threats of violence passed between them.
With frowns and cookies we wandered into Washington Square Park. Our usually blissful meandering afternoon in the city had become a nasty forced march. By the fountain I sat down to negotiate a peace between the warring parties. The 90 degree plus heat and humidity wasn’t helping. One faction was sulking, while the other was exercising his vocabulary of borderline curse words.
Then something happened. The little one stuck her toes in the water. The older one kicked off his Crocs and stepped right in as well. Despite signs declaring the fountain off limits a few other kids had dared defy the law and were cooling their heels as well. Leave it to my kids to up the stakes and dash into the jets, soaking their clothes and encouraging cheers from the dozens around the edge of the water. Several other kids dashed in. I feebly protested, but the huge grins on my kids’ faces and the ensuing free-for-all silenced my inner hall monitor.
Shortly the recent enemies emerged from the mayhem they instigated, dripping, laughing and best friends once again.
My kids provide me with great lessons sometimes. It’s my job to teach them right from wrong, but they show me that occasionally you have to break the rules and be a kid to really enjoy life.
Lately when I get off the PATH train in Hoboken on a hot day I almost always head straight to Pier A Park and wet my face and head in the cold spray of the fountain. Yes, my shirt (and sometimes my bag, pants and shoes) gets wet and all the adults stare at the guy soaking his head in the water, but the joy, freedom and refreshment make it all worthwhile.
Go ahead. Stick your head in the fountain.
My Desperate Quest For Power
I burst into the coffee shop with two goals in mind. Power and coffee. Power, first, then coffee, then wi-fi if I am lucky. I scan the walls, peek under tables, look behind chairs. Other patrons eye me suspiciously. There it is! An outlet. I grab one of the two phone jacks always in my bag. Inserting one end into my phone, I plug the other into the outlet. A momentary pause, then the familiar buzz from my phone indicating that electricity is now surging into its depleted battery.
Give me 10 minutes and I feel a little more comfortable. 20 or 30 and I am close to full power. After an hour it is definitely 100%.
It’s amazing how a guy who didn’t even have a home phone in college could be so completely lost without his phone. And that phone requires power. When the the battery percentage drops to 80 it makes me nervous. 50% makes me down downright edgy. At 30% I’m in a panic. Must. Find. Power.
I spend most my days in the city going from meeting to meeting, appointment to appointment. Like most consultants, freelancers and/or job seekers. the one thing that I don’t always have is a place to charge my phone and laptop. Even more than wi-fi, my primary requirement is a free source of power. I know the coffee shops, restaurants and libraries that offer power, wi-fi and a clean place to sit. I check Foursquare tips and keep a list of the best spots all around town. Throw in some good coffee and tasty snacks and you’ve got my dedicated business. I will come back again and again and schedule meetings there with friends and spend money because these are the places that offer a great customer experience.
If you are a consultant, freelancer or job seeker, what are some tips for getting your job done on the go?
Institutional Knowledge is a Liability
Every company has a set of explicit and implicit rules and practices on how things get done within the organization. It often takes weeks or months or even years on a job to acquire and accumulate this institutional knowledge. Often the more you know the more you can thrive and accomplish on the job. Thus, institutional knowledge has an exaggerated value placed on it.
I would argue that institutional knowledge becomes the death of innovation.
You bring skills, passion and change to a new job. You learn the system and gain in effectiveness as your tenure increases. For a period of time you hit a peak of productivity and innovation.
However, at a certain point on a job the crushing weight of your institutional knowledge cripples your ability to grow and change. You shift from “this is how we do it” to “this is how we’ve always done it.” At that moment you begin looking backward and not forward, effectively becoming an impediment to progress. Unless your job grows or changes dramatically it is almost impossible to avoid this yoke of stagnation.
How long is too long on a job? How do you prevent institutional knowledge from strangling innovation and progress? I would love to know your thoughts.
You’re Fired! Seven Steps to Survive Unemployment
Fired. Downsized. Laid off. Restructured. Not sure what else the kids are calling it these days, but it happens to everyone at some point in their career. It happened to me and I found seven steps that have made the transition easier and (almost) enjoyable.
1 Don’t take it personally
This is the toughest step. You will probably need to focus on acceptance on a daily basis at first. It may have been politics, performance, economics, or something else, but the reason you no longer have a job is irrelevant. You are now unemployed. Yes, you will grapple with anger, shame, fear, denial and sadness. This emotional cycle is crippling. Let it go. It isn’t good or bad. It just is. The sooner you remove the emotion, the sooner you will free yourself to take on the next challenge.
2 Be Prepared
Update your resume. Complete your LinkedIn profile. Get business cards. Sharpen your job pitch. Treat your search like a job. If your former employer took back your technology, get a new phone, laptop, iPad, blackberry or whatever works for you. Your new workspace will likely be the local coffee shop, so make sure you have what you need to function as a mobile office.
3 Call/write/contact everyone you know
If you are not a natural networker this is hard. Think of it as an opportunity to reconnect with old friends and coworkers. Go through your address book and reach out to everyone. Those first emails and phone calls are painful. Set a goal every day and stick to it. Write 5 emails. Make 5 phone calls. It is a numbers game and the more contacts you make the more opportunities you will uncover. Plus, you won’t find a job online. You will likely find it through your extended network. Your contacts are one of your biggest assets.
4 Don’t take it personally, Part 2
You will get blown off by a lot of people. Job search can be a daily beatdown of unanswered emails, unreturned phone calls and cancelled meetings. Yes, even your friends and colleagues will ignore you. Your timeline isn’t the world’s timeline. Don’t get discouraged. Don’t give up. Keep reaching out. Follow up. Ignore the bad and focus on the good. The best part of this process is discovering how amazing some people are. You will be touched by their kindness and make some great new friends along the way.
5 Get Up. Get Dressed. Get Out
Do not stay at home. Staying home is a giant time suck, plus you will wind up talking to yourself. Get up and out. Dress like you are going to work. Create a rhythm and a daily routine. Your time is yours, but use it wisely. This is your new job until you find a job.
6 Keep learning
Take classes. Sharpen your skills. Go to conferences. There are tons of great free webinars and online classes. Keep up on what’s happening in your business. Work your social media profiles. Job search is a full-time job and consider this on the job training. Try to get a little smarter every day.
7 Enjoy the Time
This is tough too, but critical to the process. The anxiety and uncertainty of unemployment hinders the ability to appreciate the gift of not working. Yes, it is a gift. You will find another job and you will work long days and get caught up in the challenges, stresses, demands and politics of that job. So enjoy this time to reevaluate, reinvent and recharge your life and career. Take time to enjoy every day. Go for walks. Hit some museums. Spend extra time with your family. Do the things you never had time for when you were working.
I hope these help anyone who is looking for work and I would love to hear your ideas on surviving job loss and unemployment.
worldonshuffle 