A Great Resume Will Not Get You The Job

It might get you the interview. That is all you really want from a resume. It just needs to move you to the next step. Good resumes help you move smoothly through the hiring system. Bad ones make the hiring gatekeepers job easy. They can quickly sort through their yes, no and maybe pile. The key to having a solid workhorse of a resume resides in your observation and updating skills.

Consider maintaining a working resume document on your desktop. Anytime something happens that may have significance in your career, record it. For example, did you chair a task team that eventually resulted in overhauling the pay system and saving a consultant fee? Write a one sentence description with dates time and key results expressed in numbers or percentages. You can decide later based on the job your are submitting your resume for whether or not to include each piece of information.

The details you record will be invaluable when you need to update your resume. Capturing the major accomplishments are easy, but make sure you also keep a record of the small things you do like training the new person, etc. You may be able to tie several small accomplishment together and write a resume bullet point that has a bigger impact.

Keeping this record will also serve as a confidence booster for the days when things are not going according to plan or when you get caught in a down economy and the job market starts destabilizing. Keep your resume updated - just in case.

What's Next

I enjoy the Google Alert function http://www.google.com/alerts "What's Next" is one of my favorite alerts. You might be surprised how many people like to write about their next step or ponder it.

It is common to get links to blogs and sites from my 'what's next' alert reporting on subjects like the state of the economy or politics, but just as often the feeds will on subjects like "I fixed the carburetor leak now what do I do next"?

These alerts often start me thinking about how much of our life revolves around process. Step one, step two and so on. My creative friends balk at this description, but even when their process is not linear, they still seem to have a process for getting to what is next for them, it just looks a little more artistic.

Sometimes thinking through what might be next is sort of scary because what may rise to the top of your list may be something that hints at a significant change causing you to begin the process of calculating risk/reward.

It can be helpful to remember that you don't have to act on what you discover. Sometimes just knowing what you need to do next can be enough for a while and having that inside knowledge may start you down the path of making incremental changes in the direction you are considering. That way the risk/reward balance stays small, manageable and in balance.

Part II: Build It Right to Lead Right

Creating the right environment and leadership is a piece of cake. To do this, you must know what you want before you ask even one of your employees to do anything for you. This is harder than it sounds. Before you randomly hand out assignments, think about why you need that task done and what done looks like.

It can be tempting to give employees work because it feeds our need to feel productive and to see everyone busy. If this sounds familiar - stop yourself. The first step to creating the right environment is to project where you want your department, business, division or organization to be in one year and five years. Once you have this picture nailed down, work backwards to see how you would get there and what each step looks like. Then, make leadership/management decisions using these goals and steps as your tuning fork.

Not only will your decisions come easier and make more sense to you and your employees, but you will also have the confidence and creditability to move forward each and make progress toward reaching your goals. Once you put this system in place, consistently follow it and provide true resources for your people so they can easily follow the plan too.

True resources are more than just the right computer or a new desk. Employees need to clearly know and understand the exact goals and how each employee is expected to contribute. To be heard by your employees you will need to know what they need to be successful. It is important to remind yourself that your employees are not a 'mini-me'. Each person brings their own special mix of knowledge and skills and most especially how they work best the day they sign on to your team.

When you can demonstrate a high level of consistency, honesty, creditability and caring leadership you will find that you may feel like you are on autopilot because leading can become that easy.

If this seems like a lot of work, it may help to remember that even if you are the best 'A' team player and superstar you will not be as strong and effective as an entire team pulling together toward the same goal. If you want your leadership to be effective, try building an environment where people want to follow you.

Leading and Following: Part 1

If you want to lead create an environment where people want to follow. It seems so simple and yet I think good leadership takes a full-on committment to do it right.

Just because people are in a leadership position that is not an indication that they want to lead. They may take the position for money, status or to get to their next career step. All of those reasons may be valid, but they are very different than wanting to lead people.

Your people will know if your motivation is less than true and act accordingly. If leading is not something you place a high value on, then following will not be something they place a high value on.

In the next post, I am going to talk about creating an environment where people want to follow.

Kitchen Ecosystem

My kitchen has undergone a dramatic flair change. It has gone from all one color and matching cabinets to bold, bright unmatched, but harmonious colors and cabinets that have been turned into furniture with unmatched drawer pulls. I like the way it is turning out so much that I have stopped planning what to do next until I can see the effect each small change has. Take today, for example, I am waiting until we finish painting a cabinet federal blue with milk paint before I decide what we need to do to the old cabinet that now sits beside my new blue cabinet.

Why is any of this important? Careers and business work like this too. Once I change a part of the system (kitchen in this case) I need to stand back and look at the whole picture before I know which part needs to be changed next or even if a part needs to be changed.

A business or career functions that way too. If you plan to make all the changes wholesale and in one felt swoop then you will miss a key learning point. What effect did the change have? Once you know that, you have great data to either reverse the change or do more of it or even maybe like Goldilocks you find the change you made is just right and you don't need to make any more changes.

Trust your gut and make changes in a way that makes sense to you and to what you are trying to accomplish. Of course you do need a vision to be able to do this, but that is going to be for another blog post.

The Third Age Bliss

My last post was about working with people who believe they can change their life. They may feel fear about change, but it doesn't stop them. I find that I am drawn to the Third Age. I don’t think there is an official definition, but a common description is someone who has gone through the first stage of getting settled and making choices about marriage, kids, etc. and are close to or have moved through their second stage of career advancement or business success and are now approaching the their Third Age or what may sound more like "I want to do something meaningful now."

In the Third Age you feel like you have earned the right to do what you love which may or may not include work. You can do what you love without getting paid for it, but mmmm, it seems so much nicer or maybe it's just more efficient if you create a situation where you do work you love and get paid for it.

Usually, there is an element of giving back embedded in this stage. It might be about volunteering, but it also could be about sharing what you know. It seems like the Third Age hits somewhere in the age range of 37-60. The range is fairly wide because of the non-linear choices we make that shape and structure our life. Some of us start very early and have a linear track through our career and some start their timelines later and finish later and some may just skip around and get there in their own way.

I think everyone gets here sooner or later. What you do once you get here determines whether or not you think you have wasted your life or you have perfectly built the foundation to embrace your life. Just like most parts of life, it all depends on what you want.

I have had clients that had full, careers by their late 30's and were ready and financially able to create a whole new career path or venture into their first entrepreneurial adventure and clients who reached their early 50's and were too young to retire, but not willing to keep doing what they had been doing and wanted to go in a completely new direction.

There is something about doing work you love and making money at it that seems perfectly suited to the Third Age. Maybe it is because you finally get that you don't have to do everything perfectly or maybe it's because you feel like you earned the right to try things new things and if you get tired of them, quit if you want to. What a fun way to live.

People Who Believe They Can Change Their Life

I like working with people who believe they can change their life. There are two critical ingredients: accepting that it will be work and believing you can do it. These are both essential ingredients to making a successful change.

If you wait until you have certainty your timing may be off enough to make you miss seeing the small sliver of light that is blinking opportunity. Too many times we let ourselves get worn down believing that others and events rule our lives.

The ones who succeed come to understand that only they can create their perfect life. No one can give it to them; no one can take it from them. It exists like a piece of art, born entirely from the mind of the creator - yours.