Responsible Careers

Careers Weekly Updates - Justmeans

2010-10-08T05:38:00.000-07:00

Career Advice from Jullien "PurposeFinder" Gordon - Mrim Boutla

Many of you read our responsible career section in hope to gain career advice on how to build a career that successfully blends financial return with social impact and environmental responsibility. Well rejoice, because today, you will be able to learn more about how to do exactly that by getting career advice from Jullien 'PurposeFinder' Gordon.

Jullien Gordon is an impressive 28-year old social entrepreneur who has turned his passion for helping others make informed career decision into a variety of business ventures. Originally from Oakland, CA, Jullien earned his BA from UCLA with Majors in Business Economics, and Education. Furthermore, in 2007, Jullien received two masters' degrees from Stanford University—his MBA and Masters in Education.

Post continues: http://www.justmeans.com/Career-Advice-from-Jullien-PurposeFinder-Gordon/33732.html

When You're Career Planning, Does the Idea of "Networking" Make You Cringe? - Ritika Puri

You've heard it from your mentors, college counselors, colleagues, friends, and family: when you're career planning, networking is the single-most career planning step that you can take. Especially in this economy, a personal connection can make or break a person's candidacy for a position. Even though it may seem unfair, it's human nature.

As employers and as people, we want to find someone who we would enjoy as colleagues in a professional environment. We're more likely to reach out to our social circles instead of strangers. Developing an awareness of this trend is one of the most important career planning steps that you can take.

Post continues: http://www.justmeans.com/When-You-re-Career-Planning-Does-Idea-of-Networking-Make-You-Cringe/33664.html

Social Intrapreneurship: Your Best Responsible Career Choice? - Mrim Boutla

Business as usual is unsustainable, and you are surely reading this blog because you want to learn more about career choices that will enable you to build a career that will allow you to do well while doing good. There are of course many ways to 'do well while doing good'. The vast majority of people in industrialized countries choose to do so by generating their income from business as usual positions, and use part of their income to make donations to causes they believe in. Others choose to donate their time and volunteer to contribute to a cause they believe in.

But that might not feel like it is enough to most of you. Indeed, many of you are driven by what Cheryl Dorsey and Lara Galinsky elegantly termed your 'Moment of Obligation'. While conducting research by interviewing 12 social entrepreneurs that won the prestigious Echoing Green Fellowship, they observed that many socio-eco innovators (SEIs) got started on their path to socio-eco innovation after facing their own 'Moment of Obligation'. That 'Moment of Obligation' generally comes from wanting to help a friend, patient or someone the SEI knows is experiencing something that the SEI feels is not 'right'. From that feeling, the SEI takes action to help that person.

Post continues: http://www.justmeans.com/Social-Intrapreneurship-Your-Best-Responsible-Career-Choice/33523.html

Career Planning for College Seniors: An Argument Against Using Grad School to Hide From the Job Market - Ritika Puri

As you read this article, many college seniors are in the beginning stages of career planning. This time of transition can be difficult, and the economic climate isn't helping already-tough circumstances. Regardless, it's important to stay positive because a good attitude will be your #1 best friend as you muddle through confusion, or options that may be too many or too few. A few months from now, many of you will be happily (or not-so-happily) employed in your first real-world jobs. Some of you will be in graduate school, and others will accept fellowships. Others will still be job hunting, while some may decide to take a break, volunteer, or travel. No matter where you end up, it's worth putting in a good try -- after all, your post-college future indoctrinates the rest of your life.

Post continues: http://www.justmeans.com/Career-Planning-for-College-Seniors-An-Argument-Against-Using-Grad-School-Hide-From-Job-Market/33493.html

Career Management: How to Ace Your Annual Review Meeting (Part 2 of 2)

2010-05-05T02:28:00.000-07:00

5 Tips on how to prepare, manage, and follow up after your annual performance review meeting.

For most professionals, an annual review is as pleasant as a root canal.However, your performance review can provide an amazing opportunity to review your career development plan. By using the 5 tips discussed below, you can turn this around and instead use the time of your annual review to have a constructive conversation with your boss about your achievements and your future goals.

In my previous post, I discussed three tips:

Tip#1: Review your projects and articulate your contributions
Tip#2: Make your department (and boss) look good
Tip#3: Send your list to your boss ahead of the meeting

Today, let’s focus on two more tips to help you make the most out of your performance review:

Tip#4: Design your career development plan for the next year

Based on the past year, you certainly have ideas about projects that might be of help to the department, or specific skill set or technology you would like to learn more about. Have a list of talking points ready to deliver about the past year, and your ideas for the coming year regarding your projects and your career development plan. For each idea you have, rank the risk factor in advance. Is this project a low hanging fruit that would probably get implemented anyway? Would this project be a major stretch for the department? Evaluate the chances of each idea, and rank them from easier to harder. During the meeting, start talking with your boss about an easier project (rank 1or 2), followed by a more challenging one (rank 6-7). This will enable you to test the waters while maximizing the occurrence of a consensus by the end of the meeting. Your goal is to show that you are a team player who is engaged and wants to contribute to the department.

Tip#5: Have multiple mini-reviews throughout the year

You might think that one review per year is more than enough, but each review does not need to be a meeting in person. Instead, send periodic emails. A good trigger for an email is completion of a project, or when a major milestone has been reached. Articulate what the value of the project was and what your contributions, as well as those from key team members, have been. These quick updates could also be about proposing several alternatives for next steps to your boss. Again make it easier on your boss by offering two or three alternatives on how to approach the next steps instead of asking how to proceed in general. This will enable your boss to ‘vote’ for one direction that you are prepared to take, instead of having your boss figure out what next steps are needed. These mini-reviews will also help you emerge as a professional that is open to coaching and is engaged in his/her career development.

What other strategies or tips do you have to make the most out of an annual performance review? I look forward to your comments!

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Career Management: How to Ace Your Annual Review Meeting

2010-04-23T03:37:00.000-07:00

Tips on how to prepare for your annual review meeting with your boss.

For most professionals, an annual review is as pleasant as a root canal. However, by using the 5 tips highlighted below, you can turn this around and instead use the time of your annual review to have a constructive conversation with your boss about your achievements and your future goals. This is especially important if you would like to develop key skills and knowledge that will help you emerge as a future CSR professional.

Tip#1: Review your projects and articulate your contributions

Your boss will talk at you if you let him/her. Like you, your boss has been asked to do more with less for the last 2 years, so chances are that your boss is not aware of all the projects you were involved in and of all the value you added to the department and the company. Instead of waiting for the annual review meeting, proactively construct your own agenda for the review meeting. Build a list of all the projects you were involved in. For each project, create three columns: the number of hours it took, the value you added to the project, and the results generated by the project for the team and for the organization. For example, if you volunteered to help the team with a new direct mail campaign, you can list that you proactively contributed 10 hours of your time (column 1), that your contributions included suggesting a new client segment to target based on your past experience on another similar project, helping with the design of 3 coupons, and contributing to the logistics of the direct mail campaign launch by distributing coupons through relevant local non-profits (column 2). Then list the results of your contribution to the direct mail campaign in column 3. These can include the % increase in coupon distribution or the % increase in responses as compared to the average the company usually get from similar direct mail campaign. Of course, if you have been involved in projects that had a social or environmental impact in your company, make sure to list these and indicate how much you learned and how interested you in these projects. This is the best way to plant a seed in your boss’ mind about your career development goals and project preferences.

Tip#2: Make your department (and boss) look good

Clearly show how your projects aligned with the company’s goals and values. Also show how your projects added value to enable your department and team to learn new things or approach challenges in innovative ways. We have all been asked to do more with less in the past two years. By showing that you thought about how you could do so as well will demonstrate your loyalty, as well as your abilities as a team player and a problem solver. I remember an administrative assistant, let’s call her Diane, who made an amazing contribution through a simple change. Diane was managing multiple projects across departments, and found it difficult to keep track of who was supposed to do what by when. She came across and attended a training program on a new online project management tool. She proposed that the teams she was working with use an online to coordinate each project separately. They could each work on the project from wherever they were, and could also send emails to one another about the project through the platform. She talked about it with her boss, who was skeptical but let her try. After an initial adaptation period, everyone was on board, and Diane was able to keep everyone on track more effectively, leading each team to decrease project completion time by 12%. Diane’s work became easier, as was that of her colleagues, and her boss. You can innovate and help your department in a number of ways. Think about your projects and how you can make them better. Then make sure to mention them during your written review and your actual review meeting. Projects that save paper, save energy or can be co-branded with local non-profits are great ways for you to gain experience and contacts within and beyond your company.

Tip#3: Send your list to your boss ahead of the meeting

In order for your performance to be fairly evaluated, send your list of accomplishments to your boss ahead of time (e.g. 4-5 business days before the meeting). As mentioned earlier, it is likely that your boss does not know all of the projects you contributed to. Set a positive tone by indicating that you look forward to your meeting with him/her. Your constructive approach will help your boss get a better sense of what you have accomplished and might help him/her realize how much you have done that he/she is unaware of. Also clearly highlight the projects that you participated in that had a positive social and/or environmental impact. This will help you establish yourself as an innovative team member that knows how to measure the social and environmental impacts of his/her projects. This will be remembered over time and might open doors for you in the future.

In the next post, I will add two more tips on how you can manage the review meeting itself, as well as on how to proactively build momentum from the meeting to emerge as an innovative team player. Your annual review is a unique opportunity for you to be recognized as an engaged team player with a clear career management plan.

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How Do You Make Informed Career Choices?

2010-04-21T12:23:00.000-07:00

Career choices depend on your definition of career success. Career success is personal, about more than money, and best defined by the legacy you want to build.

Making informed career choices are key to career success. While attending the Indiana University Entrepreneurship Connection Conference, I was fascinated by Mark Albion’s keynote address. By gathering information through hundreds of interviews and conversations he has had with MBAs and other business professionals over the past 30 years, Mark Albion has written seven books that outline frameworks and provide insightful stories to help students and professionals articulate their own career success definition, and secure opportunities that align with their definition of career success. In addition, Dr. Albion has co-founded seven social ventures to help students and professionals connect with like-minded professionals around the goal of using business skills and principles to alleviate our world’s suffering. The most recognized social venture that Dr. Albion co-created is Net Impact, a network of 15,000 MBA professionals and students that currently include over 279 chapters around the world.

The panel followed Dr. Albion’s address. The panel, moderated by Dr. Kuratko, included faculty (Siri Terjesen and Jeff McMullen) as well as Dr. Albion, and Susan Maupin, Marketing Director at Stonyfield Farm. Many of the attendees’ questions gravitated around a definition of career success. What is career success? What choices would be best to you to reach your career goals and achieve career success? From Mark’s keynote and the panel that followed, here are a few tips for you to best articulate your goals, and create a career development roadmap to pursue values-filled professional opportunities that align with your definition of career success:

Success is Personal – One of the most common ways for professionals to define their career (and life) success is to answer the question ‘how do you want to be remembered?’ By defining what you would like people to say about you went you are no longer there, you can really get at the essence of who you want to become. The definition of who you want to become then becomes the goal that you want to reach, and any career decisions you make along the way becomes a matter of deciding whether moving (or not moving) in a specific career direction would bring you closer to whom you want to become. The combination of reflection to refine your goals, and discipline to take steps to move towards your goals will help you fill the gap between who you are and who you want to become.
Is About More Than Money – Many cultures around the world have built a definition of success that centers on high salaries or working for a prestigious organization (e.g. you would rather work for Google than a startup nobody knows, or for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation than for a non-profit no one has heard of). When it comes to money, MORE is what we all want. Moving from a MORE approach to a JUST ENOUGH approach might enable you to really understand that money masks other needs you have, such as the need of being respected and valued. By highlighting what you want to be remembered for, you can take ownership of your career (and life) success definition, as well as free yourself from societal pressures. Of course you will need to generate enough revenue to meet your financial obligations. Sit down to create your balance sheet and objectively evaluate how much money you need to meet your obligations and have a little more for savings and fun.
Success is Learning from Others – When considering our career decisions, we might tend to believe that we are unique and have to learn on our own. Nothing is farther from the truth. Indeed, we can always find professionals that have had similar goals than ours. Learning from these professionals by reading about their work, or by connecting with them online or in person can tremendously help us learn about ways we can reach our career goals and get closer to whom we want to become. Fortunately, it is now easier than ever to identify these like-minded professionals. Through social and professional networks such Justmeans, Net Impact, lifeworth, or idealist.org, you can considerably accelerate your learning, and gather information faster about the good, the bad and the ugly that each career move is sure to bring your way. From this information, you can better assess your fit, and make a better decision in terms of whether your next career move would bring you closer (or not) to the legacy you want to build.

As you go through this process of defining what success means to you, remember that this definition will change in each of your life chapters. By having a direction to move towards while being open to the twists and turns that life is sure to send your way, you can take ownership of the process and make informed career decisions that will lead you to your own career success!

Photo Credit: stephwereley

Career Management Success for Socio-Eco Innovators

2010-04-07T03:52:00.000-07:00

Career management success emerges from level 5 leadership, discipline and a sustainable resource engine.

You might have heard before that career management is very similar to being the CEO or Me Inc. In fact, when managing your Me Inc, you will have to hold all the roles of the company, including CEO, head of marketing, head of operations, and head of organizational development to name a few. So how do you transition from good to a great at Me Inc? How do you achieve career management success?

Any Me Inc can tremendously benefit from operating by the principles outlined in Jim Collins’ “From Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t”. In this context, career management success will be based on (1) Level 5 Leadership (the leader remains humble, disciplined and ensures that decisions are best for the business), (2) bringing the right people on the bus and sitting them on the right seat in the bus, and (3) creating sustainable transformations through a long and arduous buildup hopefully followed by a breakthrough that will lead to sizeable financial rewards and organizational prestige.

However, socio-eco innovators (SEIs) might find the ‘Good to Great’ principles impossible to apply because they only focus on financial results. While running their Me Inc, SEIs are of course going to have to meet their financial responsibilities. But they will also want to measure their positive impact on people, and the planet. In addition, they do not see others as competitors, but as partners that can help them reach a common goal.

The good news is that Jim Collins also published a lesser-known monograph titled ‘Good to Great and the Social Sector’. Based on his conversations with mission-driven organization leaders, Mr. Collins revisited his principles and offered outstanding advice and frameworks that any SEI can use to manage their 3BL Me Inc. Here are some highlights:

Level 5 leadership: In contrast with executive leadership that works best in the private sector, legislative leadership and building consensus are critical to success in the social sector. Leadership is defined as ‘getting people to follow when they have the freedom not to’. This applies whether you are trying to change the way some things are done where you work, or whether you are in the process of convincing a recruiter that he/she cannot afford not to hire you.
Creating a culture of discipline: No matter what you decide to do, when it comes to the quality of your work, always go the extra mile and get the best possible results in your projects. You must demonstrate that you are pulling your weight and that you are at work to contribute to the best of your ability. This attitude will earn you the respect of your colleagues, peers in other organizations, and supervisors.
Building a sustainable resource engine: The goal of social sector organizations is to generate a sustainable resource engine that includes three elements – time, money, and brand. How much time will be volunteered to help your mission, how much money will sustain your operations and impact, and how much your brand equity will inspire change and in return contribute to sustain your resource engine? By assessing your resource engine, you can tremendously improve your ability to make decisions about how to invest your time, money and manage your brand to create sustainable value as a professional SEI.

In sum, when formulating your goals as an SEI, read the ‘Good to Great’ principles of Level 5 leadership, creating a culture of discipline, and building a sustainable resource engine. They are sure to help you achieve 3BL career management success!

Photo Credit: CIO Innervoice

Career planning across sectors: How can 3BL businesses attract the best values-based talent?

2010-03-30T09:33:00.000-07:00

How career planning programs and internal innovation attract and retain talent in 3BL businesses.

When it comes to career planning, many triple bottom line (3BL) businesses want to attract and retain the best values-driven talent available. A way to do this is to attract graduating seniors and young professionals that are committed to social and environmental responsibility. At the same time as 3BL businesses are implementing strategies to do so, college graduates and young professionals wonder whether their best career planning strategy to pursue socially and environmentally responsible job opportunities would be in the private, public or non-profit sector. The good news is that students and professionals have more opportunities now to align their values with their paycheck across sectors. Indeed, through stronger public-private partnerships, social entrepreneurs, and increased strategic corporate social responsibility efforts, boundaries across sectors are blurring. Does this mean that more students and professionals are going to pursue job opportunities in the private sector? Or will students and professionals gravitate towards the non-profit sector? Or will they want to be of building a more equitable and environmentally responsible society through Federal, State or Local government work? Let’s investigate the current trends for insights on these questions.

First, what are graduating seniors doing? The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) conducted a survey of graduating seniors across 750 schools. Based on the answers of 16,5000 graduating seniors, the report indicated that, compared with the graduating class before them, graduating seniors were less interested in pursuing jobs in the private sector. Instead, more college seniors were primarily focusing on finding jobs in the non-profit and in the government sectors after graduation. From this data, it seems that recent graduates are more attracted to jobs in the non-profit and government sectors.

However, interesting insights can be found among reports from the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network (YNPN). In their 2010 strategic report, they cited an internal survey that indicated that 45% of respondents stated that they were considering leaving the nonprofit sector for their next job. While many respondents cite low wages and burnout as main drivers of their intention to switch sectors, 70% of respondents indicated that the lack of clear career ladder was key in their intention to switch to the private sector. Furthermore, the report cited a survey from CommonGood Careers that converged to show that the perceived lack of career ladders within the nonprofit sector was a big barrier for young professionals to stay in the sector. These results indicate that young professionals find it easier to develop their career planning strategies in the private sector, where the visibility of career advancement trajectories is higher than in the non-profit sector.

I believe that these trends suggest that 3BL businesses are offered a unique opportunity to engage young and seasoned values-driven leaders from the nonprofit sector to their business. To attract and retain talent, 3BL businesses will have to integrate career planning and skill development programs into their DNA. Strong organizational development and succession planning will be key to retain values-driven professionals that want to work for a company they can believe in. In future posts, we will focus on organizational development and succession planning strategies that 3BL business can implement to become a magnet for professionals that want to do business - better.

Photo Credit: thinkgeek

How do you integrate a triple bottom line approach to your current traditional job?

2010-03-26T08:55:00.000-07:00

While reading “The 21st century corporation: Ceres roadmap for sustainability”, I felt both inspired and a bit daunted by the realization that there are still so many companies that either do not define their sustainability goals, track them, report them, or engage internal and external stakeholders in conversations around their sustainability goals. One of the roadmap key messages is clear: the purpose of all companies remains to maximize shareholder value. The roadmap attempts to provide ways by which companies can redefine the notion of ”value” as the integration of financial return, social impact and environmental responsibility.

For this to happen, I would argue that two enormous paradigm shifts are needed:

Public Policy: New standards of triple bottom line (3BL) reporting are to be created and implemented as a global standard for companies to operate by. A 2008 KPMG Survey of Sustainability Reporting (cited in the Ceres roadmap) showed that only 4% of the biggest 250 corporations integrate their sustainability goals and performance in their annual report. The encouraging data are that another 79% of these corporations do issue an annual sustainability report. Extensive changes in international business law are needed to embed 3BL measures in annual reports and, as a result, into the DNA of global and local companies. Based on the latest Copenhagen and Davos meetings, I don’t envision this happening in the near future.
Internal Company Changes: The best way to embed a 3BL into a company’s DNA is to instate new policies to measure employee performance (and compensation) based on 3BL results. Tying performance to 3BL goals should be implemented from the C-Suite down to all employees. This is most likely to happen in the 4% of the 250 corporations mentioned above. In addition, you can find such companies on our JustMeans company directory, as well as on the directories available on B-Corps, Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) and the Green America's National Green Pages.

However, these are a minority of companies. Many of you are currently wondering: ”If you are a socio-eco innovator currently working in a business unit in which triple bottom line approaches are not discussed, what can you do?”

My answer to this is “help your supervisor and colleagues understand how to make sustainability one of the main forces for innovation and long-term profitability”. The mark of a true leader is to effect change within what they can control. No matter whether you are an executive or a junior analyst, you can choose to walk the talk as a socio-eco innovator and positively contribute to change the definition of value for shareholders.

Easy to say, but how do you do that? Here is a roadmap that can help:

Leverage like-minded professionals within and beyond your company

If your company issues a sustainability report, look at the authors of the report. Leverage the acknowledgement section of the report as well as the company’s directory to find out who actually did the analyses for the report.
Do the same thing with the sustainability report issued by your direct competitors (leveraging the acknowledgment section as well as LinkedIn).
Connect with these like-minded professionals – Understand the frameworks they used for their analyses, and learn who provided them with the data they needed for their analyses. Ask about the current sustainability goals they are working on, and the trends they are seeing for the next couple of years.

These conversations and contacts will help you learn more about the methodology currently used by your company (and your competitors) to measure the socio-eco impacts of their projects. These conversations will also give you the methodology and vocabulary you need to articulate the benefits of 3BL over the single bottom line approach you have been using.

Apply your new knowledge to your own projects

Knowledge without action is useless. You need to have the courage to apply this knowledge to your projects in order to be the change you want to see. Try the following:

Leverage the web of people and resources that helped your contacts in their previous analyses.
Make a stellar business case for how integrating sustainability goals and measures into a specific project will help your supervisor and colleagues. To do so might require a bit more work – namely drafting two proposals
The first proposal will be the ‘business as usual’ proposal. It is designed to demonstrate that you are a great contributor who can generate results within the company’s current procedures and priorities.
The second proposal will be the ‘innovative 3BL’ proposal. In this proposal you will make your move and add a few (one or two) modifications that will lead to better 3BL while preserving the results that would have been generated through the ‘business as usual’ proposal. Make sure to also integrate how your competitive advantage will increase over your competitors based on the business intelligence you have gathered through your contacts at other firms. This innovative 3BL proposal will show your boss and colleagues that such measures can increase your competitive advantage without compromising your financial results. This second proposal will also show that such 3BL measures are currently readily available and that you can help them implement them within your business unit.

Bridging the gap between intention and action

I can hear you from here – Mrim, you are nuts, don’t you know how busy I am? For the last 2 years, I have been squeezed right and left, and feel lucky to still be employed! I don’t have time to draft even a first good proposal and you want me to draft two? Where am I going to find the time to connect with these like-minded professionals and learn more about these measures?

My answer: Goals we set are goals we get! As an emerging socio-eco innovator, you will have to be the change you want to see. Moving past inertia and business as usual and putting the time and energy to train yourself and to go the extra mile are part of the journey, as well as taking risks, and learning from the failures that are sure to pave your way to success!

To emerge as a leader in socio-eco innovator who knows how to take risks, you need to stay informed and show to your supervisor and colleagues that doing business as usual is actually hurting competitiveness. Go the extra mile, leverage new people and resources to present how achieving 3BL results will lead to long-term competitive advantage for your business. Beyond your own team, make sure to also let others know within your company (and among colleagues who work for your competitors) how much you have been enjoying developing these skills and knowledge, and how much value these could add to the business.

And remember: If you try this 4-5 times and your supervisor and colleagues turn you down each time, by then you will have plenty of contacts in other business units or among your competitors that can facilitate a switch towards a different role or a more innovative company where your newly developed skills and knowledge will be valued and rewarded.

As always, I am looking forward to reading your questions and comments!

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Best Year Ever for a Choosing A Career

2010-02-01T07:01:00.000-08:00

Knowing the importance of choosing a career and actually doing it are two different things. Each year at this time provides opportunities to go for our best year ever and to create a new career path. It’s the time to reevaluate, review and take actions towards your career.

At the turn of each year we have an opportunity to prepare ourselves for what is most important for us. As we explore choosing a careers we want to develop a clean slate by letting go of what didn’t work and preparing a success plan for the New Year. How many of you are already not keeping your New Year’s Resolutions? We aim to start out with lots of energy and momentum but then we loose steam because of various reasons, which I’ll explain below. This past week I offered a free teleclass on this topic. Please email me to receive the link to the call. Consider having access to your personalized step-by-step guide to Your Best Year Yet, and learn the key principles to develop yourself for success.

The first key in creating your ideal year is to be clear about what you want. Take the time to day dream and ponder your direction for 2010 and choosing a career. After you have clearly defined your goals and intentions for the year then you can go about imaging yourself accomplishing them. I find it crucial to delineate between holding and intention and setting a goal. You may have two people who want to attract their ideal career and are planning for it but one person goes about it by being creative and generous while another person chooses to be analytical and methodological. Both are important and useful but it’s the intention or context in which you hold HOW you accomplish your goal that will make it authentic and easier for you to attain.

The second key is to let go of 2009 and you’re past successes, in completions and failures. By allowing yourself the time to write down what you are proud of and happy for having accomplished you will gain confidence and momentum. When you choose a career you need to know what your strengths and failures have been. It’s important to note where your successes happened, lessons learned and areas to continue working with. By allowing yourself the time to do this you enter into the New Year with a clean slate. When beginning fresh in a New Year you have an expanded view in which to create yourself. For those interested in a Year End Acknowledgement exercise please email me and I will send it to you.

As you explore releasing the previous year and acknowledge your successes you need to ponder a theme and focus for the New Year or new phase in your life. This helps people keep a level head and make time for only what is most important. With all of the demands on our attention and time we need specific filters and focuses to eliminate the overwhelm and disconnection. Your focus might be something like, Grace & Ease, Light, Camera, Action, or Go Girl!, or a quote from a superhero. Whatever works to keep you focused and in your game and engaged.

The third key to generating a powerful New Year and choosing a career is beginning with who you are and your personal philosophy. Explore who you are and what your life is about. Ask people how they perceive you, explore how folks respond to you. What is it that you spend most of your time thinking and talking about? I find it also important to accept your limitations and identify what makes you unique. How would someone remember you or want to work with you? If you are not in the habit of being 100% truthful or authentic I recommend you shift and do that more. Be in communication with people and allow yourself permission to be grateful for what you do have. Think about what you really have to do, and really want to do. I find it important as well to explore and be clear about the type of lifestyle and personal enjoyment you require. You can build and attract your new career to fit and match with and what you want your life to be about. Is it traveling internationally, working from home, and raising children, adopting, writing your book, running a marathon, or doing more research. Explore who you are, what you want your life to be about and then identify skills and career paths to fulfill that.

Overwhelm: A Career Signifier

2010-01-03T21:55:00.000-08:00

Being efficient relies on noting times when you step into and remain overwhelmed and what you do to get out of it. The overall aspect of taking on too much and not having an exit strategy can create a cycle of feeling tracked and overwhelmed.

As you become more skilled and busier in your work the likelihood of becoming overwhelmed and distracted becomes more prevalent. Being overwhelmed is when you have more to do or process than what you perceive you have time for. The challenge with overwhelm is that it costs businesses millions of dollars each year with employees not being productive, efficient and on top of things.

It impacts the work place because employees are not given the specific tools and strategizes to change their attitude and perspective. In this blog I will go into detail about specific techniques I coach clients on that you may find helpful.

There are specific tips I am going to share with you. In additional I have a unique model I have developed that you can apply to any situation to get out of overwhelm. Please email me to get your copy.

Here are some suggestions I recommend. The first is to say no to certain activities and conversations that don’t support your goals. It’s honorable to say no in your life so you can make space for what is most important. In partnership with saying no is always opening to understanding and knowing your limits. As we live longer our body changes and our life energy reserves shifts, which impacts our limits and our capacities. By knowing this you save yourself time and energy. I recommend you take brakes every 1.5 hours or so and take notice of your natural rhythms. Are you more likely to be an early morning person or a late night person? Track your most productive and energetic times and use that time to do the most demanding and meaningful work. I also encourage you to play with how you do tasks by experimenting with your use of time and task management.

Specifically after you know your natural rhythms you can relax into the moment and let your past and future melt away. To reduce and begin to eliminate overwhelm it’s important to look at what is essential in your life and career and do what gives you the most reward and out put. As you choose to release relationships, activities, volunteer projects, clients, career directions, to dos in general that have drained you then you create more energy to dedicate to what is important for you. In previous blogs I have mentioned the 80/20 rule where we receive most of our enjoyment and success from 20% of what we do. By reducing what you choose to take on, remain involved with and focus on you can reduce the amount of work and projects down to a manageable amount that you can work with. From there I suggest you systemize and automate as much as you can of what you have taken on into daily rituals and systems that allow you to create a way to focus on completing things verses remaining on a treadmill of busyness.

And finally the most practical and sometimes the most profound are the items that relate to increasing your health and vitality such as mediating, exercise, eating food that works for you well, getting enough sleep, and spending time alone without stimulus such as TV, computers, conversations and work.

Overwhelm is a state of mind that you can change with your attitude and the actions you take.

Creating a Positive Professional Image Part II

2009-12-28T06:50:00.000-08:00

Being specific about how you present yourself contributes to your success. Being a polished professional allows you to focus on others and be confident that your verbal and non-verbal messages are in alignment.

Being the best professional requires being relaxed. When you are at ease and present you are aware of your surroundings, interested in others and taking care of you. As you interact with people by creating and working from a simple congruent professional image whether by email, phone or in person allows a more lasting result. People want to hire and do business with someone they trust and like. One of the fastest ways to develop trust is to create and maintain a confident and consistent image that others understand and can relate with.

In this two-part blog this being the second, we will focus on two key areas of your professional image. One of which is the physical mannerism and the second is in your speaking. Both of these teamed up together will produce the most comprehensive and effect professional results. You have up to 7 seconds to make an impression. As people connect with you and form correct opinions of you the less work and effort it takes to enhance your career focus.

I recommend you slow down your movements and be more deliberate with how you choose to walk, speak, process information, respond, and otherwise put movement into your life. As you slow things down you are able to make a more focused point and get your message across more clearly. When we are deliberate focusing on our message, and our desired outcome while engaging with the other person we are more likely to be successful. We tend to operate at such an accelerated rate that we loose our focus and effectiveness. To make an impression you want to slow things down for your audience so they can receive and follow you.

In partnership with slowing things down I encourage you to simplify your gestures. If you have a tendency to move around shifting your weight, using your hands and doing large gestures I recommend you make them more simple and less of them. Use the space in front of you from your neck to your belly and from your left to your right side, about the size of a large poster board as your template and don't expand too far from that. You want people to see you. Since most peopleÕs reference point is about the size of a computer or a TV screen their scope of visual input is limited. When using gestures and your body in a space larger than what people are accustomed to you may loose a good deal of your communication and message.

When speaking or moving beyond that natural frame your audience will not be able to see or absorb what you are saying. Establishing and projecting a business image requires understanding your audience and their learning style of receiving information.

In partnership with our visual movements and presentation how we say things is equally important. The percentage of impact we have with how we say something is nearly 37% of our total communication. Much more than the actual words which only accounts for 7%. The remaining amounts come from our non-verbal gestures. So with this in mind, it's important to own and speak with power. One very effective way to do that is to drop your pitch at the end of a sentence or thought. That way the listener hears what you are saying much more clearly and with more convention and confidence. Our natural inclination is to believe and give credence to someone who speaks with power, conviction, slowly and with a firm low pitch. People who do this naturally in professions are clergy, police officers, news anchors, and politicians. All of these professions in particular are ones with perceived authority and power. By lowering your voice you gain creditability and increase your presence.

As you lower your tone and use less gestures it is also important to say each word at the end of your sentence as a way to bridge with your listener and to slow down our speaking in such as way as to bring your message across. By imaging the end of your sentence and the end of a word you are more likely to pronounce your words and be heard.

The goal in your professional image enhancement is to be seen as an expert, to be received fully and to leverage this towards greater career success.

Creating a Positive Professional Image Part I

2009-12-28T06:43:00.000-08:00

Knowing the specifics about presenting yourself in a positive way contributes to your success. Being a polished professional allows you to focus on others and be confident that your verbal and non-verbal messages are in alignment.

Your professional image is something that will contribute to your career path and success. People form opinions about us in the first 5-7 seconds of meeting. Sometimes those impressions are permanent and may be difficult to erase and change. By coordinating your professional image with your goals you will generate a positive image that will facilitate your career path and bring you many opportunities. Sometimes you do not know what people are thinking about you but will react to you and provide something to you simply on how you present yourself.

The more you practice these techniques the easier they become. I find it helpful to choose one of the items below per week and focus in on it until it feels comfortable and brings you results. If you take on too many changes at one time it makes it challenging to track your progress and see results.

Your head is a key feature in your body and in maintaining professional presence. It comprises all of your senses and has the main feature your eyes! By being present and direct with people through eye contact and focus you develop relationships that bring results. To make contact itÕs important to maintain a neural head position. This means that your head rests easily on your neck and shoulders and doesnÕt move too much or bobbles. You want people to focus with you and not be distracted.

As your head falls into place then you begin to stop moving around and shifting your weight and being hard to engage with. It is important to stand tall, with both feet planted on the ground. This gives you strength, confidence and allows you to engage with people in ways that bring results and rapport. Your body carriage and your visual presence makes a huge difference in how you are received and taken seriously. Check your posture to see that your shoulders aren't slumping in front of you and that your spine is aligned with your hips.

When you stand tall and are present you command confidence and attention. When these aspects are present you naturally listen and hear people. By taking time to hear people and be present with them allows you to find areas of commonality and engagement. A successful professional has incredible control over their presence and focus contributing to how they think. Be a person who generates a thoughtful presence by creating the time to really get to know and understanding people.

Here is an exercise for today to work with. The first step is to focus your attention on how you walk into a room. Specifically place your awareness on how your feet hit the floor, whether its heel or toes first, are you confident, hesitant, etc? How erect is your posture is, is your head in line with your shoulders, do you have your hands at your side naturally? and what are you choosing to look at? The more you keep your gaze at eye level and looking into peopleÕs eyes or their third eye (space between the eyebrows) or slightly above the heads of people you are more likely to be energized and confident.

In our Part II blog I will speak about slowing down, simplify your movements, and speaking.

Fool vs. Jerk: Whom Would You Hire?

2009-12-14T22:05:00.000-08:00

Are you aware of the #1 key quality for being hired as a successful employee? A professional even though they may be a fool is teachable but feedback to a jerk is wasted.

How do you gauge your fool or jerk factor? Look around your work environment and watch how people respond and react to you. As I shared in previous blogs manage your reputation and your first 90 days on the job.

A big part of managing your location is to focus on being efficiency and examining what activities, people, tasks, use most of your time and bring you the most results. When we explore our lives we receive 80% of our success and enjoyment and balance from 20% of what we do. What that means is that we are most effective in 2-3 days worth of work instead of the elongated 5-6 work week days. By being a fool you can navigate within and during your workweek. In creating balance between work and life you need to consider consolidating your actions and focuses during your workweek so that you experience results and can spend the remainder of your time in your personal life.

One step is to limit what you do into a shorten work time and reduce the amount of time you do work so you are more efficient. The Law of Parkinson's says that something will either swell in perceived importance and complexity in relation to the amount of time you give it. As your goal is to create more balance you need to identify boundaries that contain your work into a predetermined amount so you have energy and space for life. Be ruthless about what meetings you schedule, what activities you place on your to-do list and what goals you set for yourself. Examine at this time of year with a critical eye the placing of your importance on reduced stress, and expanded focus on what is important. Strive for balance between personal and professional actions and aim to invest yourself in the 20% of your life that brings you the most results and enjoyment.

An employer is looking for someone who can both do his or her job and operate as a team player. Being efficient and getting your job done allows you to bond and build team with your co-workers. A foolish person is negative until better indoctrinated into a company culture and makes simple and yet endearing mistakes. A jerk on the other hand has a tendency to be a bother by being difficult to work with and challenging to engage with.

As a fool you can learn the above referenced career skill because of who you are. A jerk thinks that they are better than the blogs, the books and the mentoring around and available to them. An employer would much prefer a fool than someone who is a jerk. Take care not be seen as efficient and a fool willing to learn and do better.

Work Life balance

2009-12-13T21:59:00.000-08:00

Being your best in the workplace means being effective in both your personal and your professional arenas. Work-life balance is a tangible and accomplishable activity. We all explore what balance is and how to achieve it as you do in your life and work.

It's important to choose to make this a priority. Some people are addicted to the busyness of being busy and non-effective. Choose to have fun and balance your personal life with your work. Once you do this you begin to see new behaviors and actions bring you greater success and expansion. The foundation of any new skill and result is to make it a priority and redesign your life to accommodate your new focus.

You can do it. Believe you in your innate ability to create enjoyment and balance between all areas of your life. What I find that is the #1 obstacle to this is that we tend to compartmentalize our lives to such a degree that we don't see how things overlap or contribute to one another. I recommend you look for the flow and commonality between work and personal life. When we generate separation it takes energy and time to stop one activity and move to the next. Ive had people loose 45 minutes worth of valuable work time due to having to switch gears and think about something totally unrelated and out of their focus at that time. See how your work and your personal life serve one another and go about being more efficient in all areas and spend less time trying for perfect balance.

I recommend that you create a list of specific items that you appreciation about your work and your personal life on a daily basis and make time to enhance and bring more of that into your life. A list is imperative because the mind will forget and trick you into believing that there is nothing that you appreciate. Aiming for balance and ease takes discipline and focus.

In addition to this I suggest you make a separate list of specific actions about 10-20 that you can do to increase your appreciation and enjoyment of life. Each day you need at least one thing you are energized by and look forward to. I suggest you have one from your work life and one from your personal life. If they can be the same that would be excellent. You want to begin exploring the connection and flow between these two areas of your life, and aim for seamless transition and effectiveness.

Work-life balance is a simple process of shifting your focus from separate spheres and moving it from a tetter totter with work on one end and life on the other end to a more balanced perspective with the fulcrum (middle part) being those actions, thoughts and beliefs which link the two sections together. The balance is generated in the overarching connection and appreciation of you and your life. Next week I will speak to efficiency and preparation for a New Year!

Intentional Time Part Two of Two

2009-11-30T00:03:00.000-08:00

In this second in a series we will cover the specific examples of ways to work with intention and focus to have time be your ally and partner. Time is a valuable commodity as it relates to identifying and securing your responsible job.

As I shared before, time is malleable and under our direction. The best way to change our perception about time is to set intentions that contribute to our success and moves us forward not works against us. Most people you meet think of time as finite and bound by beliefs and thoughts.

What I propose is a series of experiments and opportunities to explore time from a new dimension and perspective based on your updated beliefs. Our beliefs can change in two ways. The first is by updating what we believe through new behaviors and evidence. The second way our beliefs can change is through changing our actions and our behaviors. By doing this we can update our beliefs to accommodate the new evidence. Regardless of which direction you take you become your own best evaluative source.

The first of which is the utilization of each day by remaining focused on a key question or intention. I call this the Open Ended Inquiry. By beginning each morning with a focus or an opened ended question you begin to give context and possibility to each and everything that happens to you and around you. As you work, research; engage in life things come to your awareness which bring answers to your career choices. By bringing your 100% attention to your life you engage both your conscious and unconscious minds. I recommend you choose a career question that relates to what your requirements and needs are and hold that question for one week and see what types of resources, conversations, and answers come your way. The next step is that you need to write down your insights and your awareness into a career journal.

The second Intentional Time exercise is to hold an open-ended question with the intention of a question, name or action to reveal itself to you during your sleep and in dreams. This way it comes much more clearly and directly without the input from your negative mind or inner critic. The time during sleep is both a regenerative and remunerating time and it’s also the time to plant seeds for growth and expansion. Most leaders and those who accomplish much in the world engage their subconscious minds during sleep, during exercise, and while meditation. Use these tools by aligning with proven techniques throughout the centuries for various purposes.

These tools have been used for centuries in various countries and in many different traditions. Experiment with them yourself and working with them for your career management will provide stability, and inspiration.

Time is All Around, And Intentional

2009-11-23T04:47:00.001-08:00

Factoring in time as both a linear and circular concept will facilitate more rapid results for your career path. Looking with new eyes and a new focus will accelerate your time line.

Time isn’t a neat path moving with one thing directly in front of another. Time instead is more circular moving both forwards, backwards, and on top of itself. As you begin to layer and multi leverage you begin to see the inter connectness and relational perspective between what you do and who you meet. The point is that you become clearer about your direction and are able to save time.

Many cultures think of time as a snap shot or picture frame one still after another. With this type of linear belief you imagine doing only one thing at a time. This is valid and useful, as most people believe and understand this. What can occur with this perspective however is that you may wait for one thing to happen before you can do another, or you may only focus on one thing at a time.

What I recommend is that you introduce the concept of Intentional Time™ , a concept I have coined and am creating an entire series of TeleSeminars and reports about. It’s the process of allowing more things to occupy a specific space of time by setting your mind and your intention to allow for it. This perspective views time as a layering affect not a snap shot.

When you set an intention you accomplish what you are doing plus have a question answered, be introduced to someone or a resource, or be inspired. You are able to multi task and leverage time.

Intentional Time ™ is a tool to use in your career search. In expecting your time to be layered and in service to more than one objective or goal at a time creates synergy and sustainable results. It also provides a simple way to integrate cause and effect. When you are looking for responsible work there are many tools and resources you employ. I’ve spoken about many of them in my blogs: communication, introducing yourself, networking, values, leveraging, interviewing and writing an excellent resume. This process of partnering with time is a contextual tool that brings greater success and richness to the other tools I have introduced.

In my next blog Intentional Time ™ II, I’ll speak to specific exercises in how to use this. Let me know a specific goal you are working with and I’ll coach you.

Focus For Career Results

2009-11-04T01:30:00.000-08:00

Equating what you want with where you place your focus is very important to produce results. By working in harmony with your natural strengths and momentum you effortlessly allow opportunities to come your way.

The secret tool for those looking for a responsible career is to gain focus and direct yourself towards your goals. Most of us are so scattered trying to do everything that we loose sight of what is most important and valuable to us. The job opportunities are everywhere and when we identify our goal and set ourselves to accomplish it we do. Let’s talk about how to focus yourself, gain momentum and produce results.

When we are looking for employment we tend to begin with the attitude of “I’ll take whatever I can get, or it’s hard out there and just get me something.” The challenge with that attitude is that you scatter your focus and come from a place of scarcity instead of possibility. The easiest way to move from that former to the later is to focus on what you desire. The first concrete step to moving closer to your desires is to focus on them and generate a plan to make them happen.

Another key step is to remove all distractions and conflicting desires to your career goals. These show up as negative comments or discouragement by others, opinions masquerading as facts, and personal self negating behaviors. When you aim for your responsible career whether in medical, or administrative fields or as an internship, with determination and focus you see results.

I recommend that you reduce the amount of directions, or career possibilities that you have into a manageable size of 2-4 at the most. Then as you systematically research and do informational interviews you narrow the field down to 2. By doing this you create a pulling situation that brings opportunities, resources, and people your way. Less is more.

In the coming week I encourage you place your attention on a clearly defined focus and choose two specific action steps to take to move you closer to your ideal career. Note what begins to happen and individual linkages and confirmation that come your way. Please comment for all of us to learn.

Negotiate Your Salary

2009-11-04T01:25:00.001-08:00

Negotiating is a skill that completes your professional package. Being able to convey your thoughts to another and generate a successful outcome demonstrates many benefits to an employer. Learn more about the specifics required to be a success.

Once you have your job offer then it’s important to move forward into the phase of negotiating and claiming your compensation packet. I want to remind us that there are many ways how to define your value and build a win/win expectation. In negotiating the first step is to gain career advise from others about the industry standard for your position. You need a realistic and present time value statement for the position you are aiming for. Once this is established you can move forward with exploring your bottom line negotiating points and your career needs.

Negotiating is a conversation of asking for what is needed, listening to what the other person has to offer, and seeing how things can fit for each party. Both people want to feel like they got a good deal and the long end of the stick. In allowing for this it is important to initiate a discussion on behalf of your career goals by taking into account your compensation packet as one venue for establishing value. In this global age there are many aspects to being competitive and beneficial to an employer. One important key is in the value that you bring to them not only in your cost savings in relation to salary but also based on return on investment. As you establish the dollar value of what you bring to the table and the benefit you provide they can more easily pay you what you request. This is accomplished by speaking and demonstrating your past successes and by mentioning your ideas for their business goals. To be engaged in an effective negotiating conversation requires establishing up front the value of what you offer and what they need and confirming that there is a strong match.

Negotiating is a process of dialoguing with another person by selling in what you have to offer and placing a financial dollar amount attached to it. In negotiating it’s important to begin with what your key points are and what you are willing to move on and change and what are your basic bottom line non-negotiable items. By having both in mind you know where you begin and where to end. As you engage with the person you are drawing them into a conversation with you that is rich with needs, requests, and bottom lines. How you negotiate will also demonstrate the type of professional you are and set the tone and foundation for your work. Do it with respect, intention, and partnership. This provides getting your needs met and developing a foundation of colleague to colleague offering.

Negotiation is both a mind-set and a skill. Both of which are career requirements to move you and your goals forward. It is a way to contextualize what you are doing and to interact with another person to produce a successful result. It also takes skill and tact to bring various requests together and to keep the conversation moving forward. At the end of the day, negotiating is about building rapport and generating a working relationship that brings lasting results.

Avoid Burnout

2009-10-22T03:51:00.000-07:00

Avoid the career staller of overwhelm and burnout by keeping yourself at top performance and focusing on your objective and career goal. Learn specific tips to stay focused and motivated.

When looking for work or changing a career field or focus there can be a great deal of stress. It is important to pace yourself as if for a marathon instead of thinking of a sprint. Once you understand the long-term perspective of investing in yourself, and building a network you see where to invest your time and energy and where you don’t.

As you avoid burnout one important factor is to remain focused on what is most important to you and your career search. When we feel burnt out or tired we need to stop what we are doing, and give ourselves space and time to relax and refocus on something other than work related. Allow yourself to set priorities and keep to them by making a list of actions for each month and then breaking them down into weekly and daily actions.

As you build your creditability and your network it’s also important to create balance between your job and work search and your personal life. Each day is important to have at least one thing you look forward to that is unrelated to an area that is weaker or an area of concern, such as your job search. My recommendation is to stay focused and engaged in a specific time frame with office hours and days of the week that you work and schedule in time to do activities that are energizing and enjoyable for you.

It’s important to keep your own personal list of techniques and tips for keeping you engaged and happy with life. When you personalize the resources you are more likely to do something on a regular basis. Part of reducing overwhelm and burnout is to be realistic and to remember that it’s the long view that allows you to succeed.

Become aware of your triggers. Notice what gets you stressed out and distracted from the necessary actions at hand. Do your best to identify and have an understanding of whether it’s because of not eating, not getting enough sleep, negative self talk, money challenges, etc. Identify what it is and find ways to take care of it.

Imagine a result with a specific goal. Create it alive for you with dream boards, writing it down daily, speaking about it and doing something each day towards your career goal.

Make it a priority to finish what you start. Go into things knowing that you will complete it and keep your agreements. A big part of success and ease is staying focused and on track and being a person who keeps their word.

The two final pieces to avoid burnout and overwhelm is to break things down into smaller pieces by chunking them into hourly or weekly goals and allowing yourself time to finish them. When we look too large on the horizon we loose out and we scare ourselves and create additional stress. Finally the last tip is Take ACTION and do something. It’s better to be in motion and doing an action that brings you closer to your goal than to go from a stuck, stopped or place of contraction.

Think for a moment of a time when you created effortlessly and easily and things just seem to happen. More than likely you were doing the above mentioned items along with what your personal strategies. Please share one of your tips with our readers.

Informational Interviews: providing you with clues to Succeed!

2009-10-20T22:44:00.000-07:00

Learn specific career research tools and organize your network to support you in accelerating your ability to move into your next career position.

A tremendous way to find out more in a field is doing an informational interview. This is when you network to find people working at the company, in the industry or with people you want to work with. By asking a series of questions and engaging with them you expand your network of people who know you and increase your capacity to learn about the industry.

One main advantage is that you gather a great deal of information in an organized and efficient manner contributing to your ability to make decisions and save many hours and wasted money. People do informational interviews to learn firsthand about a particular type of work or organization. It also helps to develop contacts which can lead to introductions and access to jobs in the hidden job market.

How do you identify who to contact and how to find them? The best people to contact are individuals who are further ahead on the career path and can operate as a mentor. They have insider information and understand the importance of contributing to others. You may wonder where to find these people. When I coach clients I recommend they start with who they know already. Ask people in person, by phone and by email who they might know in a certain industry, field, or at a company that you want to learn more about. I also suggest you use resources like LikedIn and Facebook to identify people you currently know who may know these people.

An easy way to begin the conversation is by telling the person, that you are in the process of making some decisions about your career and want to learn from them. You are not looking for a job but are in an information gathering process. The outcome is informative in nature moving you closer to your career goals. I find a very effective question to pose is something like “Here is what I have done and what I have accomplished.” What ideas or suggestions might you have for career direction or opportunities that I might want to pursue?”

This process of inquiry is a sure sound way to search for careers or confirm a new career path. Each interview you do provides information that moves you closer to your goal. It is also a tremendous way to expand your network of people who know you, and your accomplishments and your career aspirations. The outcome is an increase of the quality and quantity of people who could assist you.

A few sample questions you might find helpful to ask would be, “What skills or characteristics do you feel contribute to the success in this industry? “What is the most important thing that someone planning to enter this career should know?”

If you would like a more comprehensive list of informational interview questions and a more detailed report please email me below.

Please share with our readers a personal success story you have from an interview you were on recently and any decisions or next steps you took because of it.

Organizing for Success: Career Skills for accelerated results

2009-10-05T03:18:00.000-07:00

Searching for and allowing socially responsible jobs to come your way takes patience, daily discipline and organization to make this happen successfully. Being organized is a skill one learns with practice. With the increase of speed and flow of information in the worldwide connections, it becomes increasingly imperative to organize a structure that allows you to enhance your career skills.

As you grow and change so do your systems for career search and on-the- job needs. Guiding a person to a solution with renewed growth and vigor requires an individual approach using proven techniques. Here are some of the most universal and applicable concepts from which I share and work with my career candidates and clients.

Look at your vision and your long-term goal for a socially responsible career. One major career management tool is to be organized and this is a function of necessity and need. Your needs are generated by your goals and your activities. By breaking down your goal into smaller manageable tasks you are able to accomplish them. One important initial step is to evaluate your workspace: is it inspiring for you to go into? Can you find everything you need in less than 2 minutes, are all of your equipment and tools at your disposal? The second key item is to create a master task list. This is a place to record all of the projects you are working on, the companies you are aiming to get in front of, and your individual actions items for your career research. When things are written down you are more likely to accomplish them. The third organizational tip for finding a career and being efficient is to create scheduled office hours each day. When doing this you also group tasks into 4-5 major categories and give attention to each which moves you forward, and provides structure and momentum.

What is important in organizing your career development strategy is to sort and categorize information to benefit you and your goals. Many people feel the effect of email and social media sites, and follow up with career leads, and networking in general which leads to overwhelm thus producing inefficiency. What is important is finding ways to sort through and touch email, phone calls, mail, and interactions with people one time only. You want to decide am I to do this now, delegate it to another person, file it or schedule to do at a future time. By deciding the first time something comes to your attention you are being both efficient and effective.

A final career skill is about tracking when you are at your best and scheduling specific tasks during that time. As we clarify our goals, and group tasks together and then schedule those tasks during times when we have energy to accomplish results we can then see progress. Evaluation and feedback from yourself and others about your organizational practices is a crucial mechanism to assist you. Finding a socially responsible career and moving forward with your life long career goals require persistence, organization, and connection with global communities.

Bridging Your Contribution: internships & volunteering to research careers in a global age

2009-10-05T03:09:00.000-07:00

Internships provide an opportunity to represent you, expand your skills and career portfolio and learn new things. It also allows you to be seen as a viable candidate for a business career that you may not otherwise be qualified for. Internships and volunteering is especially helpful if you are aiming to move from one industry to another, shift from local to national or international work or have been removed from and out of the work force for a while. Employers are looking for ways to evaluate candidates and choose the best person for the position. The challenge you encounter in traditional paper based career mechanisms (resume, cover letter, portfolios) is that your accomplishments and results can only tell part of the story. It doesn’t provide the comprehensive perspective that working with someone does. A thorough and direct approach to marketing yourself is in real time, by doing work that is similar or complimentary to what you are aiming for and the best way to demonstrate that is by work experience. An internship can bridge a gap from your past jobs and careers to your goal of doing socially responsible work. The benefit is to work along side people and learn on the job skills. Demonstrating your professional skills by solving and producing results with others is a tangible, useful and expected way to receive recognition and move closer to your career goals.

There are many reasons to consider creating or applying for an internship. One key reason is that it provides for you a place to apply and demonstrate yourself. You’ll be able to ask questions, demonstrate your skills, network and build professional relationships with people who can contribute to and add to your success. By doing this new path opens to gain references, and add specific accomplishments in the field you are moving towards. In this international world and with the tools available to us you can work from your home or apartment in one country and contribute to and be an intern for a company 3,000 miles away. A global trend, which has emerged, is the outsourcing and delegation of work to off site locations all around the world in many different time zones, allowing for a virtual, 24 hour we never sleep business. This mind set can provide a springboard for you to benefit as a career candidate gaining valuable work experience

For those in a career change you may need the opportunity to bridge your former job responsibilities and tasks to your new expanded goals. In this case being able to work along side people further along and towards where you want to be will be helpful. The transition from one career path to another will be made easier by being able to conduct informational interviews, be part of a team as an intern and build your career portfolio and increase your confidence Additionally, you also provide a valuable service to the organization because you come to work on specific projects and assist the work load of a company or department. Internships when set up with the intention of a win/win for all parties produces a successful and powerful way to bridge your career path into socially responsible careers.

Will Green Jobs Wipe Out Existing Jobs in Other Sectors?

2009-09-15T06:01:00.000-07:00

Will the ‘green job’ explosion in the US wipe out job opportunities in other sectors? Currently, this is the hottest question being posed by critics who feel that the creation of green jobs related to environmental concerns and reduction of waste and pollution are not only costly but they are also replacing jobs in other sectors.

While the government seems to be enthusiastic about the potential of clean energy sector in creation of jobs, some critics are of view that green jobs will cost the US economy. If they are to be believed, each green job created in Spain has wiped out 2.2 existing jobs in other sectors. In the report 7 Myths About Green Jobs published by economist Roger Meiners, outlay of green jobs is said to be taking resources from different sectors, increasing the cost of energy and making companies move their production facilities to low cost nations. Industry experts have predicted that 1.2 million people will lose their jobs if a third of generation is displaced from coal. With the government encouraging public investment in the green technology sector, taxpayers will end up paying more for government debts and businesses will find it difficult to raise money due to sudden government borrowings.

The revolution of socially responsible jobs is all set to turn into a billion dollar industry, generate millions of jobs and sustain the environment but at what cost? The benefits of going green can’t be denied but is job loss in other sectors really being ignored in the process of building a green economy?

Green Economy Community Jobs

2009-09-11T03:18:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama’s economic stimulus program emphasizes the creation of green jobs and thanks to the constant funding; better opportunities are emerging in sectors like electrical work, engineering and construction. It is notable that the green job market niche is growing bigger than ever at a time when layoffs are sweeping the nation and unemployment rate is on a high. The concept of a green economy is more than just the creation of better consumer choices and business opportunities. It is also promising the generation of quality jobs that can support the development of low-income communities.

Responsible career opportunities are making more room for jobs despite the fluctuations in the economy. The emphasis on renewable energy sector is not only controlling the effects of climate change but also creating high wage jobs for communities that never benefitted from the economic development strategies. Compared to the use of fossil fuels, electricity generation through renewable energy sources has created thousands of jobs in the last few years.

America can take advantage of the growing concern in the concept of a green economy. Cities need to embrace a clean energy future so that quality green jobs can be generated in the urban as well as rural communities. City governments can negotiate with their utilities over clean energy practices and use more innovative strategies to advance this goal on a global level.

Promoting Responsible Careers with Green Colleges

2009-09-11T03:15:00.000-07:00

In response to the surging interest in socially responsible careers, colleges and universities in the United States are offering more sustainability degrees. Few years back when a college touted its commitment to go green it mostly referred to the use of organic food in cafeterias, energy saving dorms and reduction in CO2 emission. But now the ‘green’ has also entered the classrooms.

27 programs based on sustainability were launched by universities in 2007. This was a huge leap from only 3 such courses that were launched in 2005. Can this be regarded a welcoming change? Industry experts are of view that today’s youth is becoming interested in practice more than theory. University of Calgary has students groups addressing sustainability issues under sustainability programs. Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability is being regarded as a future model for promoting sustainability education.

Green degrees are motivating and inspiring students to initiate good work. Many grads are leaving the campus with socially responsible job prospects in mind. Green universities and colleges are driven to offer such courses due to the market forces as well as growing concern over environment among students. Whatever the reason may be, the constructive efforts being made by several educational institutions in promoting green and sustainable careers cannot be denied.

Are You Looking for a Green-Collar Job?

2009-09-08T06:50:00.000-07:00

What connects Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama? Well, it’s their love for green-collar jobs. While Clinton is planning on creating millions of green jobs from her energy plan, Barack Obama will be spending 150 billion dollars for creating 5 million green jobs over 10 years. The concept of responsible careers is gaining popularity in developed as well as developing countries. In India, inefficient biomass cooking stoves will be replaced with advanced ones in nine million households. This initiative aims to generate 150,000 jobs. In Bangladesh, local youth and women are being trained as repair and maintenance specialists and certified solar technicians. This project is said to create over 100,000 jobs.

Socially responsible careers are helping people translate their sustainability interests into a promising career. If you feel strongly about issues like climate change, lack of safe drinking water and food, social justice, energy conservation or declining environmental health, green jobs can help you make a difference.

Jobs in various sectors have been affected adversely due to climate change. Sectors that consume large amount of natural resources and energy are likely to see a decline in jobs. This calls for more sustainable jobs and opportunities to place America on the path to a safer and cleaner future.