Career Conversations – Feeling Stuck?

Do you believe…  “My job is secure because [fill in the blank].”   “I’m stuck because I have no marketable skills.”  “My boss is looking out for me.” “I can ride a few more years before I retire.” Whether you have two or twenty years of work experience, YOU are the person who cares most aboutContinue reading “Career Conversations – Feeling Stuck?”

Coasting Through Your Career?

Do you have more days at work when you are bored than engaged?  Are you counting the days until the next big thing will be over?  What have you done to jump-start your career lately? Check your career map. Oh, you don’t have one?  What happened to that plan you drafted, the professional development planContinue reading “Coasting Through Your Career?”

Do You Deserve a Raise?

Last October I posted Ask for a Raise the Right Way  with good tips and infographic.  You absolutely must do your homework to effectively leverage your value to your employer.  Start with your accomplishments – the stand out things you did this year.  But go further. Update your inventory of the  knowledge and skills youContinue reading “Do You Deserve a Raise?”

You just had a Career Conversation

Were you paying attention? Not all career conversations are directly about you and getting ahead.  Getting personal feedback is great, but it is only one aspect of career conversations. Career Conversations come from many sources, not just bosses and mentors. They may be hiding in meetings and other conversations. If you just had a hallwayContinue reading “You just had a Career Conversation”

Career Conversations, part 4 – Raise Your Hand

One of the most effective career conversation you can have is asking to do something for your boss. When my boss was sharing some of the company’s plans for re-structuring, we could see that there was a big piece missing (aka “opportunity”) in managing the transition. Turf protection was high and we knew that gettingContinue reading “Career Conversations, part 4 – Raise Your Hand”

What’s Your Professional Development Strategy?

The most frequent responses I get to this question is #1 Strategy: keep getting a paycheck and hope to get promoted;#2 Strategy for Free Agents: Keep current contract(s) or get new clients. I consider these non-strategies. Too many people approach learning something work-related as a task they have to do to keep their jobs orContinue reading “What’s Your Professional Development Strategy?”

Strategies for Extended Unemployment

What are they thinking?! Why are companies shunning people who have been out of work six months or more? Unemployment biases stem from employers desire to avoid making hiring mistakes. This avoidance leads to making assumptions that may or may not be based in fact. Four assumptions I’ve heard are: “If others don’t hire you,Continue reading “Strategies for Extended Unemployment”

How do I Become an Expert?

Organizations depend on people who have “deep smarts”—business-critical expertise, built up through years of experience, which helps them make wise, swift decisions about both strategy and tactics. These mavens may be technical wizards, risk managers, top salespeople or operations troubleshooters, but they are all the “go-to” people for a given type of knowledge in theirContinue reading “How do I Become an Expert?”

A Crystal Ball – Skills for Now and the Future

A research report from Apollo Research Institute gives us a crystal ball for looking towards 2020.  “Future Work Skills 2020” I like the way this report takes the major global trends and matches them with the skills workers need to thrive now and going forward. Its very useful for  the many people needing to re-skill,Continue reading “A Crystal Ball – Skills for Now and the Future”

“Future-Proof” Employee

In IBM’s report from interviewing over 1700 CEOs around the world three main themes emerged for the most successful organizations. At the highest level, none are news to us. But going deeper there are some critical nuggets worth exploring. I’m focusing on “Build future-proof employees.” Because emerging capabilities are hard to define, hiring and equippingContinue reading ““Future-Proof” Employee”