Your Transition Specialist

Don’t Give Up on December 2011!

Josephine Hanan — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:09:51 +0000

Are you “in it to win it” or are you ready to give up on your goals for 2011?

As we near the end of the year, you may be thinking to yourself that you haven’t accomplished everything you’ve wanted to. Maybe you don’t have a career that you love. Maybe you don’t have the business that you want. Maybe you aren’t getting known as the leader in your heart.

Yet, please remember that it is NEVER too late to turn your situation around, and get the clarity, coaching, and resources that you need to succeed. It’s not over until You — and no one but YOU — says it is! And quite frankly, the year isn’t over yet… and neither is today! You have 27 days to do more than you might have thought possible.

Please use this email as a wake up call, and end this year powerfully. Don’t give up on December 2011! Your time is too valuable. Proactively moving toward your goals will give you the competitive edge over everyone else … who is arbitrarily waiting until January to start playing big.

Learn from the wisdom of Sir Winston Churchill, who said:

“NEVER, Never, Never Give Up!”

Here’s one of shortest and the most powerful stories I’ve ever read… It happens to be a poster in my office, which I read every time I feel like giving up on my dreams:

“After retiring a second time as England’s Prime Minister, Winston Churchill addressed the graduating class at Oxford University. Grabbing the lectern with both hands he paused, looked straight at the audience in his unique, Churchillian way, for a full thirty seconds, then said, ‘Never, never, never give up!’ Pausing, he repeated with even greater emphasis, ‘Never, never, never give up!’ Sir Winston continued looking at his audience for a few more seconds, then sat down, having delivered, undoubtedly, the shortest major address in history.”

Since so many people have asked me where to buy the poster, I did some online research, and you can buy it from The Positive Edge’s website: http://thepositiveedge.com/gallery/Never.html

Action Steps
Here are three steps, which would have made Sir Winston Churchill think you were actually listening to him:

1) Ask yourself: “What am I not willing to give up on for 2011?”

2) Specifically, write down what you are committed to completing in the next 27 days!

3) Take at least 1 action step per day for the next 27 days, and above all else, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP!

Feel free to let me know how I can assist you with ending 2011 with power and pride!

To your career and leadership success!
Jos

Career and Leadership Coach

Josephine Hanan: Career Transition Specialist

Josephine consults with driven professionals -- across industries – to achieve career success. If you want more than just “another job”, she can help you create a strategic vision for your career, market yourself as the best, move up the career ladder, and leave a leadership legacy. Josephine has her Master’s degree in Human Resources and is an author, public speaker, and trainer.

You Have What It Takes to Play BIG!

Josephine Hanan — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 19:33:42 +0000

Antony Jay put it best when he said, “You can judge a leader by the size of problems he tackles – people always pick a problem their own size, and ignore or leave to others the bigger or smaller ones.”

The question then becomes … what size of a leader are you? Are you someone who plays small, or are you someone who goes after what you’re capable of? The great news is that you can grow into the leader who’s in your heart just by deciding to challenge yourself.

Here’s one tip which will give you the competitive edge as a leader:

Be Confident that You Have What It Takes to Play BIG

Some people think that producing results is what will make them confident. Unfortunately, this is backward thinking. Great leaders understand that it is confidence that produces great results; for without it, no one would be eager to follow the direction their leader was leading them in. Specifically, great leaders are confident in their ability to make decisions, but even more importantly, they are confident in their ability to keep the project on task when things don’t go their way.

Being a great leader starts by realizing that You, Personally, Don’t Have all the Answers… and you don’t need them! Why? Because you can get the answers. That’s why you have a team, and if you don’t have one…you create one.

Ask for help when you need it and leverage the strengths of thepeople around you. In the process of figuring out how to make things work through others’ support, you’ll grow into someone who can tackle even bigger challenges!

Action Steps
Take a minute and answer the following question: What does tackling a BIGGER problem mean to you? Specifically, what would you do that you aren’t currently doing or haven’t been willing to take ownership for? Furthermore, what BIG thing would you want to get known for?

This could be something at work, something related to making a difference in the world, something about a hobby you have, something related to having great relationships… or something else.

Then, commit to stepping outside of your comfort zone and going for it TODAY. Taking this action will transform you into a bigger person and a better leader!

As always, feel free to let me know if you have any questions.

To your career and leadership success!
Jos

Career and Leadership Coach

Josephine Hanan: Career Transition Specialist

What Reputation are You Giving to Others?

Josephine Hanan — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 22:44:51 +0000

Lady Bird Johnson once said, “Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them.”

However, this statement is NOT JUST TRUE of Children. It’s true of EVERYONE. What you believe about other people has a profound effect on what they have the potential to live up to, and this is whether they are your family, your employees, your networking partners, your customers or anyone else.

Give People the Reputation You Want Them to Live Up To

Think about it… How would you act differently in these two scenarios?

1) If you had a boss who expected little of you and thought that at best, you had the capacity to make copies and enter data

2) If you had a boss who said to you that he could see you in his position in the future, and he was relying on your brilliance to have your team exceed their goals

In which scenario do you think you’d perform better? In which scenario do you think you’d spend the extra time to go above and beyond?

It’s a NO Brainer, right? You’d most likely perform better for a boss who saw you for your potential, as opposed to a boss who only saw you for what you are today or for your limitations.

The point here is NOT to quit your job, because you just realized your boss is a jerk, but rather, to use these extremely powerful principle to become a MASTER at Helping Others Realize and Exceed their Potential.

Action Steps
Be the BOSS… Be the Power Partner… Be the Spouse…You would want to have. Believe in people more than they may believe in themselves. Drive other people to greatness by assuming the best in them and setting them up to Succeed.

Not everyone has parents who did this for them, and you may be the 1st person who really saw them for what they’re capable of. This is a BIG DEAL!!!! YOU have the potential to bring out the best in people. Use this power not only for your advantage, but for theirs. At the end of the day, business is about helping people, and it starts by helping the people who are helping you to succeed.

Specifically, think of at least 1 person you can talk to TODAY about what you see in them!

As always, feel free to let me know if you have any questions. I want to hear how it goes, and let me know if you need coaching on how to talk to people about their greatness! This tip in itself might be the key to taking your career and business to the next level!

To your career and leadership success!
Jos

Josephine Hanan: Career Transition Specialist

What’s Important to the People You Care About?

Josephine Hanan — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 23:37:15 +0000

Theodore Roosevelt put it best when he said: ”No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

Showing people that you care is critical whether you are trying to get new customers, empower your team, get a new job, or strengthen personal relationships. The question then becomes: Are you spending more time telling people what you know, or are you spending more time getting to know people?

Here’s one way to stand out from the crowd and get on people’s good side:

Know What’s Important to People
One of the biggest ways you can show people that you care is by demonstrating that you remember what they said and are in tune with what’s of interest and importance to them.

This may sound good, but let’s get real. Do you really know what’s most important to the people you’re trying to “get on the good side” of? Take a minute and write down the names of 5 people you most want to influence this week (Yes, they can be in your personal or professional life). Now ask yourself: On a scale of 1-10, how much do you really know about what this person cares about NOW (as opposed to what they might have cared about years or months ago)? Specifically, what do you know about them? What don’t you know about them? Based on what they’ve already told you, what would you like to know more about?

Action Steps:

For the people you’ve rated 7 or below, ask yourself: “How do I get to know this person better?” Then, write down specific questions you can ask them this week, or specific things they’ve mentioned in the past, which you’d like more information about. If you’re noticing a pattern in which you don’t know much about anyone, then, what you need to work on this week is your active listening skills. The next time you talk to someone, pretend you are an investigative reporter and “get the story” on the person. In order to do this you have to be actively listening to what they’re saying, as opposed to concentrating on your response to what they’re saying. Get them to keep talking by saying such things as “tell me more” and asking questions about “what happened, where it happened, when it happened, why it happened, how it happened, and who was there when it happened.” Then, at the end of the conversation, ask yourself: What is the main thing I discovered? This will help you focus on what was most important and retain what you learned, so you can bring it up in subsequent conversations.

For the people you’ve rated an 8 or above, the question changes from “How do I get to know them” to “How do I show them that I care?” One of the best ways to show you care is by following up with them on something they had previously mentioned RECENTLY. Maybe it’s their daughter’s b-day, their golf tournament, their parking situation, or a cause they care about. Please keep in mind that what you’re following-up with them about may have absolutely NOTHING to do with getting whatever you want from them. Instead, the whole point is following-up with them to build a relationship and show them that you care about what’s important to them. If you notice that it’s difficult for you to talk about things unreleated to what you want, that’s a great thing to notice! When you’re uncomfortable, you’re growing, so keep it up. Think about it this way: What’s more important: You feeling comfortable or you building and sustaining a great relationship with this person? Choose wisely:)

As always, Feel free to let me know how it goes.

To your career and leadership success!
Jos

Josephine Hanan: Career Transition Specialist

Create Your Perfect Network!

Josephine Hanan — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 20:15:39 +0000

Yesterday, I was at a networking event, and I was discussing “Your Competitive Edge” tips with Person X. They said to me: “Jos, the tips sound great, but I’m curious as to who is reading them. Who is in your community?”

Amazingly, this was the first time that anyone has ever asked me this question! I thought it was such an important question that I would share my answer with everyone on my distribution list.

So, who else is reading what you’re reading every week? Who else is part of the Your Transition Specialist Community?

The Answer is: Only High Achievers!
After telling Person X that this was a very deep question… and Person X telling me that they were “Just trying to make small talk…” (grin)

I realized that although the community is comprised of leaders across industries, there are some commonalities shared by everyone. Specifically, you are part of a community of professionals who are:

Growth Seekers: They aren’t willing to settle for what’s in front of them, but rather, they are always looking for ways to improve themselves and the people around them. They are people who answer “8″ or above on their commitment to continually growing themselves on the coaching questionnaire
Coachable: They realize that although they have great knowledge, skills and abilities, they still may be missing something or failing to ask the question that might make the biggest difference. They are open to “trying out” new ideas, so they can reach and exceed their next level of excellence
Leaders: Whether they have the official title or not yet, the people in this community are influencing the direction of everything they’re part of. They are people who are looked up to by their family, team, business, and community. They are people who stand for something that matters.
Going Places: The people in this community are people whose names will undoubtedly be in all the “who’s who” type of books locally, nationally, and even internationally in the next 5 years. These are people with laser focus, big “why’s”, fierce determination, and loving hearts. They are the people you want to get to know, and more importantly, they are the people who you want to be known by!

Action Steps:
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that in order for you to have the biggest “competitive edge,” it’s going to take more than just reading these tips. It’s going to take you being introduced to a community of high achievers, who can help you win at your goals and vice-versa. This would be a network like no other. It would be a network of people who would mutually support each other over the long-run…. not just with their immediate needs, but throughout their career!

The reality, though, is that I don’t have all the answers on creating this! It’s your community, so the action step is finding out what you want, so we can create the strongest network possible for you.

If you have any ideas about how Your Transition Specialist community can best support you and your long-term goals, please send me an email: josephinehanan@YourTransitionSpecialist.com
This is your chance to be creative and to be on the ground floor of creating something that can be your secret to fast and sustained success. I would love to hear your ideas on creating the community you’d be most proud to be in!

To your career and leadership success!
Jos

Josephine Hanan: Career Transition Specialist

Plan to Have FUN!

Josephine Hanan — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 17:33:14 +0000

When I was coming home from my honeymoon, I looked at my husband, Scott, and said, “So, what’s next?”
Scott said, “Are you crazy? We’re still paying off the wedding” … lol… and don’t worry; the marriage didn’t end there.
Instead, Scott and I had a great conversation about setting an ambitious 5-year goal of traveling around Europe. We talked for hours about how we always wanted something BIG to look forward to and something worth working hard toward!
For the past 5 years we’ve been saving up, and we just went on our trip and had the time of our lives.

Now we’re planning for our 10 year anniversary trip!

After talking to many people, what I realized is that we are not in the norm. Many people say that they have thought about traveling, but they never set a specific goal or put a stake in the ground and went for it!

Here’s one tip which will help you make sure you do more than just work your life away:
Set Long-Term Goals that Excite You!
It doesn’t matter where you are in the life right now. You can find a way to accomplish your big goals, but first, you need to identify what those goals are, so you can put the right plan in place.
Action Steps:
Answer the following question: What is something you would really like to do in the next 5 years? This could be related to traveling, a hobby, making a difference, or something else. This will be the thing that will give you the “kick in the pants” you need to keep moving forward in the short-term… even when it’s not easy or you don’t feel like it.

Write down your answer and place it somewhere you can see it on a daily basis. Then, work backgrounds and create a plan to get there one step at a time. Always remember: It’s small things over time that add up to big results, so even if you aren’t moving as quickly as you’d like to… if you are making movement, have faith that you will ultimately end up where you want to go.

Feel free to share what your 5 year goal is! I’d love to hear it.

To your career and leadership success!
Jos

Josephine Hanan: Career Transition Specialist

Putting the “M-E” in TEAM

Josephine Hanan — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 08:00:41 +0000

When I used to be the captain of a competitive figure skating team as a kid, my coach used to always tell us that “There is No ‘I’ in Team.” She said it so many times, it used to drive me crazy, and I always wanted to respond… “but there is a ‘m-e’ in team” (grin)!

Thinking back on what my coach used to say, I still think she could have come up with a less generic phrase to make her point. With that said, she had a really important point that has stuck with me until today! My coach wasn’t just talking about ice skating; she was talking about business and life. If you want to get ahead, it’s about putting your needs aside at times for the sake of the team, and yes, sometimes that meant keeping my mouth shut … even when “I” wanted to say something that would have been so funny.

The reality is that adults are no different than kids… we still have the same temptations as kids, and we still struggle with knowing where to draw the line between our needs as a leader and the needs of our team. The question then becomes: How do we take the ‘I” out of team, and foster a collaborative environment that helps everyone win?

Here’s one tip which will help you skate your way to success:
Create Teams that Want to Work With You, Not Just For You

Being the best business leader you can be means being ready to work with a team …. whether you are currently leading one or not. In fact, it’s great to have these type of leadership principles in your head when you are first forming a team or leading a new team, so that you can quickly take your team to the next level.

Great leaders create a collaborative environment in which they are not just directing their team, but they are also part of it. They realize that they don’t have all of the best answers, so they consciously avoid “going it alone”. Rather, they leverage all the strengths of their teammates to strategically succeed. In the process, they create teams that want to “work with them”, as opposed to just “work for them”. Teams that feel like their leader is truly their partner are more likely to ask their leader to be their sounding board, and in the process, they come up with better ideas than either the leader or the team member(s) could produce alone. As Tony Goldwyn explained, “As an actor, I always found that to be the most freeing thing, when the director would collaborate with you, so that together you’d come up with something exponentially better.”

Action Steps:
Think about how you can create the most collaborative environment for your current or future team. What would make your team want to work with you, as opposed to just work for you?

If you have any questions, feel free to let me know.

To your career and leadership success!
Jos

Career Transition Specialist and Leadership Coach

Josephine Hanan: Career Transition Specialist

Assess Your Career and Personal Values

Josephine Hanan — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 08:00:56 +0000

Brian Tracy, of my favorite business gurus, once said “When you achieve complete congruence between your values and your goals, like a hand in a glove, you feel strong, happy, healthy, and fully integrated as a person. You develop a kind of courage that makes you completely unafraid to make decisions and take action. Your whole life improves when you begin living your life by the values that you most admire.”

Great business leaders are clear on their mission, vision and values. They know what they stand for – which makes other people want to stand by them — and they are the epitome of those values. Great leaders go out of their way to make their values non-negotiable for achieving their vision of success. Specifically, they define what is and isn’t acceptable on the road to reaching their goals.

The question then becomes, when is the last time you took a good look at your values and how they are affecting the results you are — or aren’t — getting?

Here’s one tip, which will help you get crystal clear on your values, so you can stand out as a Value-Driven Business Leader.

Assess What Values Will be Instrumental to Your Success

Before you take any value assessments, let me address two common concerns:

1) Some of you may be saying, “but Jos, I already have good values.” What’s important to understand is that there is a difference between having good values and being “values-driven.” The difference is that having “good values” is often a reactive approach, whereby you choose to be “good” in face of different circumstances that challenge you and your integrity. On the other hand, being “values-driven” is a proactive approach to designing whatever you’re doing around your values and keeping your values at the forefront of your mind. When you role model being “values-driven,” you set a higher standard for what it means to always come from what’s of most importance and not settle for mediocrity in face of circumstance.

2) The other most common concern sounds something like: “I already assessed my values years ago.” In such cases, I recommend that you re-assess where you are in your life and if your values have the same order of importance as they did years ago. First, you need to find your list. Then ask yourself: What values need to be added, and what values do I need to spend more time bringing to the forefront of my mind?

Here are some value assessments, which will help you define your career and personal values:

Career Values:
– Work Belief’s Inventory from Alternative Futures: http://www.alternativefutures.com/WBI_test.cfm
– Values Sort Cards from Stewart, Cooper & Coon, Inc.: http://www.stewartcoopercoon.com/jobsearch/career-values/

Personal Values:
– http://www.getsynergized.com/values.htm
Action Steps:
Take 5 minutes to answer the following questions after taking the assessment(s):

What 3-5 values are most important to you? In other words, what values you do you want to live by as a leader in the business world?
What values are you NOT willing to sacrifice for anything? Why? Keep this in front of you AT ALL TIMES!
How will being “values-driven” directly affect how you are being a role model to other people?

If you have any questions, feel free to let me know.

To your career and leadership success!
Jos

Career Transition Specialist and Leadership Coach

Josephine Hanan: Career Transition Specialist

Have You Asked a Caring Question?

Josephine Hanan — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 08:00:16 +0000

Theodore Roosevelt once said, “No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

Although it’s not in your job description to care about the lives of others, it is certainly in your interest – and the interest of your business — to do so. This is true whether you’re working with customers, strategic partners, or a team of employees.

Think about it… what difference has it made when someone took the extra time to show they care about you, as a person, as opposed to just the work you were doing for them or what you were buying from them?

It’s the difference between short-term gain and long-term benefit! The more you show you care, the more people will want to work with you and for you. What a cost-effective retention and relationship building strategy!

The question then becomes: How do you show you care? Here’s one tip which will give you the competitive edge:

Ask “How Everything Going” in a New Way

When most people ask, “How is everything going,” they don’t even wait to hear they actual answer. “How is everything going?” functions more as a synonym for “hi” than a question stemming from genuine interest in the other person.

Next time, you ask someone, “How is everything going,” pause and listen intently to the person’s answer. If they give you the same-old “Good,” ask them a follow-up question to indicate that you truly want to hear more.

Don’t stop there. Recondition the person to your new level of caring. . . Keep up the habit of asking them what’s going on for them in a way that shows you really want to know. Also, show them you heard them, by later asking more questions about what they told you. You’ll be amazed by how much more they’ll reveal to you over time and how this one act in itself will enrich your relationship!

Action Steps:
Write down the names of 3 people you want to show you care. These can be people in either your personal or professional life. Then, feel free to let me know how it goes.

If you have any questions, I’m always here for you.

To your career and leadership success!
Jos

Career Transition Specialist and Leadership Coach

Josephine Hanan: Career Transition Specialist

Are You a Talker or a Doer?

Josephine Hanan — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 04:52:16 +0000

Thomas Sowell, an American economist and political commentator, once said, “Talkers are usually more articulate than doers, since talk is their specialty.”

In all honesty, are you more of a talker or a doer?

If you are trying to articulately justify why you’re “Not a Talker”… guess what? You’re a talker (grin), and there’s nothing wrong with it. You just have to know your tendency and when it will or won’t work to your advantage.

My belief is that doers can learn from talkers and vice-versa; here’s how:

What To Learn from Doers: How to Have Your Words Lead to Action

Although great business leaders have admirable vocabularies, they realize that stellar communication is not about talking to their audience but rather, about connecting with their audience, so they are motivated to take action. Great leaders put themselves in their audience’s shoes and are constantly asking themselves what would make their audience want to take action.

They also pinpoint the biggest obstacles to their audience taking action and proactively build addressing those concerns into their speech. In addition, they directly ask their audience for their candid feedback, so they know what they’re up against.

Overall, great leaders frame their speech around the main action they want their audience to take; they spend the majority of their talk on explaining the importance of this action, what the action will look like, and being specific about how it will affect their audience.

What To Learn from Talkers: How to Use Powerful Analogies

Get in the practice of aligning your message with your audience. One way to do this is by using analogies that appeal to your audience AND most vividly get your point across.

For example, if you are speaking to a roomful of sports enthusiasts about goal setting, you might talk about how they can “hit their numbers out of the park” or how they must “keep their eye on the ball.”

Action Steps:
Take a minute and write down who you will be talking to this week. Then, answer the following questions:
1) Put yourself in your audience’s shoes. What will most move your audience to action? Why would they want to do what you’re suggesting?
2) How can you talk to them in a way that most appeals to them and in which they could most relate to?
3) Can you find a way to use an analogy that not only relates to the task at hand but also shows that you know something about them and what they’re interested in?

To your career and leadership success!
Jos

Career Transition Specialist and Leadership Coach