Does Your Personal Brand Come with a Guarantee?

Back when I first started my career, I used to work for a boss who was repulsed by the idea of guarantees. [And of course, I like guarantees. :-)]

So when he would put forth some requirement or program that we were to pass on to our staff or our customers, I would ask him, "is that a guarantee" or "what is the guarantee" that goes along with this new thing?

Now, I know what you might be thinking, but honestly I didn't "just" do it to bug him (which of course it did). I asked because those of us who had to communicate with the staff or customers were going to be asked that. People want to know what you are committing to, especially when you are rolling out something to them. In other words, what's your end of the deal? Can they rely on you and for what?

But nonetheless, whenever I asked this type of question, for whatever reason, it bugged him. I suspect it was because he didn't want to be held responsible for making one, or for making one he couldn't keep, but he would always respond with:

"In life, there are no guarantees."

Umm, no, I'm pretty sure there are. But apparently no one had ever told him that!

A lot of people are like my old boss....afraid to make guarantees. This is especially true when it comes to their approach to career management and ultimately advancement.

They want the company and the recruiter and the network contact to take action...to be persuaded and convinced...but they don't want to back up all of their personal branding that they worked so hard to craft with any kind of guarantee.

"Don't make promises you can't keep."

We've all heard this old axiom over and over again, and it's true. It's not wise to promise something you can't deliver, but that in and of itself does not make promises something to avoid! (I'm pretty sure my spouse wants me to make and keep promises; it's called a commitment.)

I'm really convinced that one reason many professionals struggle in their career advancement is because of an unwillingness to make a guarantee. As a result, leadership isn't quite certain of them even when the work history is good and the results are there.

Let's face it...we all like some level of guarantee, and employers are no different.

Now, I'm not suggesting you "wed" yourself to the job or that you go overboard and promise the moon, but you should back up all your talk with both examples (work history) and integrity (what is your guarantee). After all, that really is what a guarantee is...integrity.

And integrity is more than just being nice and showing up for work with a good attitude. Oh, and not stealing things. :-) Integrity is a firm adherence to a moral code. In other words, we know what you stand for and when you say "yes" it means "yes".

Here's where it gets tricky. And you might be thinking it too...

Employers don't always make good on their promises....even when you make good on yours.

TRUE. Very true. But we're talking about YOUR career advancement, keeping that goal in mind, not about the unfair world we live in. If you stop being willing to offer up the integrity with the work history, you ultimately lose the most. Future employers aren't going to be understanding about your fear of commitment or unwillingness to guarantee your work.

They're going to want to be sure of you.

And this gets tougher as we get more experienced (aka older) because we've lived through all the false promises and broken guarantees. We are gun shy, and we'd like the company to be the one making the guarantees, not us. But if you think of your professional career as its own business with you as the product, then you realize that all businesses must stand by their integrity and back it up with some kind of guarantee. If they don't, even with the best product in the world, they struggle to make the sale. The trust factor isn't there, and all the data to back up their claims won't clinch it for them.

So what is your guarantee?

When you are putting together your elevator pitch or looking at your "personal brand," what are you willing to stake your reputation on? Will you put it in writing?

For me and my team, it is that we guarantee that we will make technical career advancement simple in a complicated job search world. From your tech resume to your promotion/consulting portfolio to your recruiter engagement to your ongoing career management, we make each complicated step simple and pain-free. Your Technical Career Advancement: Transformed.

What guarantee can you make?

If Work Culture Matters, Then Why Can't We All Just Get Along?

If you've been following my posts for any length of time, you have probably noticed that I have been approaching the subject of workplace culture from just about every side over the past several months. The main reason is because HR and career strategists have been touting it as the #1 issue or trend for 2014. It's all the buzz.

[Plus, every time I bring up workplace culture, I get in a bit of trouble for some reason. So, like the little kid that I still am, I keep doing it. :-)]

BUT there is a very good reason why I do: Client after client after client tells me the same thing. Culture matters, matters, matters to them, but the more companies keep talking about it and implementing "new" programs, the more unhappy they generally seem to be. They sometimes even like the new concepts...more flex time, open forums, brainstorming sessions, less silos, etc. But even with that, they still don't seem all that happy.

So, obviously, then, something isn't working.

I have two very unscientific theories for why I think this is, but they are based on lots of experience listening to working professionals and discussing career advancement with them:

1. Employees expect "good" culture to be given to them.

2. Companies think they can do what no other civilization has done before them: successfully define and enforce their idea of "good" culture in a way that doesn't ultimately lead to revolt.

Listen. It's wonderful that everyone wants a great working environment, a place where all are valued and respected. But that is where the consensus generally ends because everyone's perception of what that is and how that should realistically play out is shaped differently...and it is very difficult to bring that into one harmonious reality!

For most people, culture is external...something out there that they must interact in.

So they care about it. They want the atmosphere at work to be right. They want to like what they do and where they do it. Therefore, they pressure their companies to make the environment better. They see greener pastures all around. They're convinced if the company would just do something to get it right, they would be more productive and stay longer.

Generally speaking, I think we can all relate with this feeling. BUT at the same time, basically, we are saying that the conditions around us must be just right or we can't/won't perform to our best. Hmmm.

The trouble is, of course, that there are 50-100-500-1000 people around us in the office that all feel exactly the same way, but they don't agree on what those perfect conditions should be like. They just know it is someone else's responsibility to fix it....or....

So off goes corporate...doing what corporate does...taking polls, implementing programs, forming committees, plastering mantras, conducting workshops, training evangelists...anything it can think of to create "good" culture...again, whatever that is exactly.

Back in my corporate leadership days, we were inundated with calls to improve our culture and respect our "brand," in particular, for recruiting purposes. And that was before social media!

I mean, you have to admit that companies have poured more energy and resources into defining culture and branding in the last several years than ever before...and yet the polls show more people are leaving jobs because of culture than ever before (of course, companies have laid more people off than perhaps ever before too).

In the technical world especially, the more companies try, the more techies run the other way. And everyone is left scratching their heads.  

Why can't we all just get along?

The truth is, well, we just can't. We try. We do our best. But we can't. Conflict happens. (Think about it, if we could, we'd have much better marriages and family relations...all things that matter more than work, right?)

And although we might follow the Golden Rule, not everyone else follows it in return. Or maybe they think they do even if we think they don't! It's a rabbit hole that can tie leadership up in never-ending circular arguments. (I remember a previous manager of mine who was sent off to "be nice" seminars for 2 weeks. She came back transformed in such an inauthentic way that we were literally begging for her to go back to her true not-so-nice self!)

Sure there are magical moments of collaboration, unity, respect...all great things...where we start to think we just might have landed some "good" culture...until the wind changes direction and people do what people do: change jobs.

Truthfully, the best innovations, as history bears out, usually come out of the harshest conditions...necessity and all. But we aren't really willing to endure that. Or we are as long as people aren't involved. :-)

Listen. Workplace culture matters...much in the same way it matters to us whether people like us.

We can say that we don't care about that, but of course we do. Life tends to be easier when people like us.

But not everyone does like us. And at some point, we have to accept it or at least figure out what we are willing to accept.

The last thing we would ever want, however, is for someone to "make" them like us or to "make" us like them. When that happens, you can be sure a revolution is just around the corner.

TECHIE Careers. Transformed.

 

I have to admit that it's pretty amazing to be in a business that gets to play a part in transformation.

Even more exciting is to get to do that with professionals who either work in technical fields as support or are techies supporting other operations because, essentially, transformation is the business they are in, creating/enhancing processes to improve functionality and efficiency. (In other words, nothing is ever the same after they get their hands on it!)

Career opportunities transform lives.

I was thinking about this other day when my client, John, called to tell me that he had taken a job offer for a Product Engineer position that was moving him and his family 600 miles from his current location. He was so excited, not just because the offer was a good one, but also because where they are moving, his kids are going to be in a better school district and closer to extended family, something they had wanted for a long time.

Another client, Sara, after going back for her MBA, finally realized her dream of making it to the CIO level at a midsize company she has had her eye on for a while.

It is calls like these that make me see just how impactful a career can be. But all too often, I hear people looking at the concept of a career as a burden.

In todays' market, well-meaning people love to talk about work-life balance, and in doing so, they often do their best to either downplay or demonize work as something trivial or anti-family. And certainly there is some basis for that. We all can most likely think of times when work has hindered or hurt our personal relationships or caused us too much stress.  

But to trivialize our careers ignores the transformative aspect of them...whether that is for good or for bad.

For just as our careers can be a hindrance to our personal lives, and attitudes, they also can be a major blessing to them. Stability, satisfaction, opportunity, self-fulfillment, monetary gain, influence...these can all result in a positive way from our careers and spill into our personal lives.

In other words, bad experiences don't make careers in and of themselves bad. Nor do they make ambition bad. They just make for, well, bad experiences.

After listening and interacting with technical professional after technical professional, there is no doubt in my mind that careers transform our outlook, our life path, our decisions. So they do matter...very much. And not just for sustenance and something to do.

Furthermore, in today's world, careers are even more valuable as job searches are tougher and more complex and the market is a global stage. Therefore, they should be something that is nurtured and taken care of, not something that is trivialized and downplayed or, perhaps even worse, ignored.

As my client Ahmed recently stated, "going through this process has made me realize that there are many more doors open than I realized. I thought I was destined to be lost out on the job search sea, just hoping for a rescue. Now I see that my career can be something I can manage and look forward to. It's made me a much happier person."  

Now, I'd say that's transformation!

Healthcare IT Infrastructure Director (in OH) Candidate Profile

IT Operations/Infrastructure Leader combines 15 years of network engineering with MBA/ITIL Certification:

• Designing innovative IT solutions using LEAN process improvement that better enable business operations
• Driving cost savings using technology
• Helping lead the business through strategic transformation
• Leading the integration of HIS, PACS, and other core technologies
• Coordinating the transition to a virtualized infrastructure environment

 

Want to know more?

For the full resume or in an introduction to the client highlighted here, contact Stephen at Stephen@ittechexec.com directly.

Top 3 Tech Talent Profiles

Here at ITtechExec, we are privileged to work with some of the best tech talent in the world. As our company has expanded more and more into a global marketplace, we've had a chance to appreciate the level of skill that is really out there. Today, we want to highlight 3 of our top technical professionals and share their profiles.

1. Software/Systems Engineering Manager (currently in IL) with 20 Years of Application Engineering & Solution Design Experience:

• Drives quality and expedites release at lower cost for solution development & delivery
• Hands-on Technical Team Leader
• International & Multi-Cultural Resource Management Background (U.S., Europe, Asia)
• Expertise in Project Management and Development Practices: MDE, Agile, RUP
• Specializing in Coding Practices: Expert in UML and Automated Code Generation
• MS Degree in Computer Science

2. Astronautical Systems Engineering Leader (currently in CA) with Composite Materials Solutions | Project Management | Research & Testing Background:

• PhD, Astronautical Engineering
• Master of Science (MS), Astronautical Engineering
• Aerospace engineer in charge of systems architecture and integration
• Champion of project management, research, and technical advisory activities related to the structural durability of composite materials exposed to extreme and severe conditions

3. Product Management Engineer (currently in WI) Serving as Developer Advocate with 20+ years of Product Design and Management Experience:

• Specialist in enterprise cloud/SaaS solutions and virtualization assessment projects.
• Recognized for creating intuitive and effective API demos and product learning systems.
• Authored award-winning articles and served as editor of a network computing publication.
• Served as technology marketing lead to produce content and strategy.
• Designed and implemented IT strategy and systems development for large-scale company with more than 30 subsidiaries.

 

Want to know more?

For the full resume or in an introduction to the talent highlighted here, contact Stephen at Stephen@ittechexec.com directly.

In Leadership, Actions Should Speak Louder Than Words

It's interesting. I spend a lot of time listening to and reading the latest on workplace trends. Some people might think that I only focus on job search issues, but in reality, my firms ITtechExec and NoddlePlace work with professionals at all stages in the career management life cycle; specifically, we also spend a lot of time helping people prepare for internal promotions and advancement at their current engagements.  

Therefore, to best do that, we look at the value companies place on their leadership and the expectations they have for them.

 (I have to admit that I also have an odd fascination with the number of HR and organization strategists out there that espouse leadership styles and even conduct management trainings when they have never been operational leaders themselves.)

For sure, there is a plethora of information out there on the concept of corporate leadership. In fact, I would go so far as to say that there is a cultural obsession over the word "leader". (I guess that tells us how desperate we are for good ones.) It is not uncommon to come across infographics like the one here from NEC.EDU that dissect leadership into its finer points.

And for the most part, the advice is sensible, albeit surface level. (For instance, we can easily all nod our heads that a good leader "cultivates strategic thinking and innovation" but it's the application that gets murky. Exactly what does that look like? And can it be turned into a formula to follow?)

 In my mind, having once served as a corporate "leader" with ~130 direct reports, companies rarely promote and cultivate true leaders (which is why there is so much analysis on organizational leadership out there; if they were good at it, they wouldn't need so much of it). One reason is because the way companies hire and promote rarely lines up with what they say they want. Politics, necessity, poor discernment, bad leaders promoting more bad leaders, etc. all come into play.  

Then, after poor decisions have been made, they backtrack to try to turn all of these bad/mediocre/worn-out leaders into good ones. And they do that by using a lot of words.

Seminars, seminars, seminars. Buzzwords, buzzwords, buzzwords. Culture, culture, culture. Soft skills, soft skills, soft skills. The poorly defined mantras are repeated over and over again by the true devotees until they become almost meaningless...if they even had much meaning to begin with.  

Why? Because actions speak louder than words.

And not just from the company as a whole but from the "leaders" themselves.

So the more you mass produce leadership-speak, often the less positive the results you get. I've yet to meet an effective leader who sits around talking much about leadership; instead he or she is thinking about ways to "operate" more effectively, i.e., to execute. In other words, less talk and more action!

Therefore, although we all like to talk about what makes a good leader; in reality, what we really want is to observe one. And my guess is when you finally do, he or she will be anything but formulaic or fit nicely into an HR training seminar.

Information Systems Architect (in NC) Candidate Profile

Information Systems Engineer with 30+ years of IT design and development experience:

• Lead teams of advanced systems engineers to research, develop, and support high-priority projects for several U.S. government agencies
• Advise the federal government on standards-based business process lifecycle
• M.S. degree from the University of Illinois
• Active DOD Secret clearance

 

Want to know more?

For the full resume or in an introduction to the client highlighted here, contact Stephen at Stephen@ittechexec.com directly.