Career Goddess

Work Less and Do More: Goals and Focus Are Keys

Time crunch rules for most of us. Now that summer vacations have ended and Labor Day is behind us, we are back into the regular swing of things. That often means feeling overwhelmed by too much to do in too little time. And that in turn can lead to stress, anxiety, physical ailments, and a quality of life that leaves a lot to be desired.

Yes, it can seem like this is the inevitable treadmill of life and time management is a pie-in-the-sky dream…but wait!

Stever Robbins’ new book, Get-It-Done Guy’s 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More, promises to help us deal with the time crunch gremlin. The book’s content hinges on two keys: knowing what you want out (goals) and living on purpose so your actions are in sync with your goals (focus). Sounds simple, but it is so easy to get distracted and buried by details, most of which are inconsequential in terms of the big picture. Stever calls this getting “hijacked into nonsense-land”!

So, if you are serious about stopping the silly, time-gobbling nonsense and getting more of what you want out of your career, business, and life, Stever Robbins’ 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More could be just the place to start. His 9 steps, as discussed in the book and his numerous podcasts, include:

1. Live and work on purpose
2. Step procrastinating
3. Conquer your technology
4. Cultivate focus
5. Stay organized
6. Don’t waste time
7. Optimize!
8. Build stronger relationships
9. Leverage!

Here is a video of Stever Robbins in action, explaining the difference between outcome goals and process goals and why it matters to understand each type.

 

 

Using Twitter and Branded Communications to Find a Job

With Recruiting via Social Networks on the rise, why are you conducting an old-fashioned job search? You can either be at the front of the find-a-job-via-social-media movement, or you can be left behind by the throngs of successful candidates who have embraced new technology tools, such as Twitter, and landed a job faster and easier than they ever thought possible.

Twitter use for sourcing candidates by employers and recruiters is at 42% according to the 2009 Jobvite Social Recruitment Survey. Yet, very few job seekers venture into the Twitter stream where they can be highly visible and build productive networking relationships.

If Twitter seems like a far-fetched job search strategy to you, you may want to listen to Deb Dib and Susan Whitcomb, co-authors (with Chandlee Bryan) of The Twitter Job Search Guide. Join William Arruda as he interviews these guest experts for the Reach Personal Branding Interview Series on August 12, 2010 at noon EDT. You will learn:

• How Twitter can be effective for job search and career development
• Critical do’s and don’ts for using Twitter
• Why Twitter’s 140-character rule is sparking next-generation branded communications
• How personal branding and Twitter are integrated
• Why the Branded Value Proposition (BVP) is the core of branded communications

UPDATE: RECORDED AUDIO available at http://bit.ly/dobt1F

Personal Branding: Trends and Power Tips for Your Success

Personal branding has come a long way since Tom Peters first wrote “The Brand Called You” for Fast Company magazine’s August 31, 1997 issue. While personal branding’s visibility and credibility has grown slowly and steadily over the past 12-plus years, there is no denying it has now become a mainstream topic. Just Google the term “personal branding” (in quotation marks) and you will find more than 891,000 results!

The Reach Personal Branding Interview on July 15, 2010 at noon ET addresses upcoming trends in personal branding, as well as key suggestions to make the most of your personal brand. Mitch Joel, author of Six Pixels of Separation, and William Arruda, a pioneer in personal branding and founder of Reach Personal Branding, will explore:

• The intersection of digital marketing, social media, and entrepreneurship,
• Opportunities in the new personal branding trends,
• The importance of personal branding - now more than ever,
• Effective methods to promote your brand,
• Best ideas for brand visibility, and
• Getting attention in a crowded online world.

Named Canada’s Most Influential Male in Social Media and one of the top 100 online marketers in the world, Mitch Joel is President of Twist Image, an award-winning Digital Marketing and Communications agency and the Twist Image blog. His business focuses on helping people define their personal and corporate brands.

UPDATE: Audio recording of the Mitch Joel interview with William Arruda

What Is Your Personal Brand Story?

Whether you are a job seeker, entrepreneur / small business owner, employed professional, student, consultant, author, or retired, you have a brand story. That story goes to the heart of who you really are and what makes you unique. It can clarify your values and passions, or speak to your goals and dreams. If written well, it can also attract the attention of your target audience (employers, hiring managers, clients, or book buyers, for example) and persuade them to do hire/promote/buy YOU!

Discovering your personal brand and communicating it in a compelling and clear manner to those who matter is not easy. Until now that is…

My international friend and Reach Certified Personal Branding Strategist colleague Bernadette Martin of Visibility Branding has just released her new book Storytelling about Your Brand Online and Offline. This book is a must-read if you want to:

• Understand the difference between a Bio and a Resume
• Develop branded, storytelling content for your Bio and Resume
• Integrate video storytelling and/or interview storytelling into your repertoire
• Internationalize or digitalize your brand story
• Create a Career Personal Brand Tool Kit
• Avoid verbal graffiti
• Master the use of Ice-Breaker storytelling
• Jazz up your Elevator Pitch with a brand story
• Morph your existing Resume into a Bio, and more.

When Bernadette first contacted me to be one of the 15 thought leaders interviewed for her book, I knew she was on to something big. Stories have always been a universal means of connecting with others. But, did you know that neuro research indicates that “our brains are wired to process information as stories” and stories make us more memorable?

In addition, stories allow us to connect to others on a more powerful level than just the intellect; they can evoke emotion. A well-known tenet in sales is that people “buy” based on emotion and justify their decision with logic!

My section of the book - Story Building around Assessment Results – focuses on the use of career assessments for uncovering the building blocks of your personal brand and brand story. Your personal brand must be authentic to who you are, and not a concocted “marketing slogan”. By using objective career assessments in combination with more informal, feedback assessments, such as the 360Reach Personal Branding assessment, you can feel confident that your brand story is true and real.

In Faris Yakob’s post on GapingVoid, he said, “eventually, you need to start being you, and then – you need to get really good at it.” That is so true, and I would also add: “get really good at communicating your brand message to others.”

Change Leadership Is Changing

The evolution of change management is inevitable. The traditional top-down silo model of leading change in companies came about in a pre-2.0 world. Now, with the advent of flat organizational structure, rampant social networking, and the ever-present push for transparency, expectations and engagement have changed. Consequently, getting change right is not so easy. The best ideas can get stalled or stymied by lack of involvement and commitment from the very people who are tasked with implementing those ideas.

In the June 2010 Reach Personal Branding Interview, guest expert Seth Kahan, author of Getting Change Right: How Leaders Transform Organizations from the Inside Out will discuss the new face of change leadership with William Arruda. Learn about Seth’s new model of leadership communication and how to:

• Create rapid, widespread engagement
• Communicate so people get it and spread it
• Energize your most valuable players
• Understand the territory of change
• Accelerate change through performance communities
• Generate dramatic surges in progress
• Break through logjams, and
• Attain WorkLifeSuccess in the midst of change.

Seth Kahan has been recognized as a visionary and thought leader in change leadership, and writes the expert blog Leading Change for Fast Company. For a glimpse into Seth’s ideas, check out this book excerpt Getting Change Right Project Planning.

You are invited to join us on this live call on Thursday, June 10, 2010 at noon Eastern. There will be some time for questions and answers at the end of the interview.

Update: Seth Kahan audio recording of June 2010 Reach Personal Branding interview with William Arruda featured on PersonalBranding.TV

Why and How to Lead Your Boss at Work

Leading from the middle in an organization and managing up sounds a bit like a contortion act, right? But leadership guru John Baldoni makes learning about leading from among your colleagues and team, rather than leading from in front of them, easy to master.

His new book Lead Your Boss: What That Means and Why It Matters is the subject of the March 2010 Reach Personal Branding Interview Series on Thursday, March 11 at noon EST. In this phone interview with William Arruda, founder of Reach Personal Branding, John will reveal how to:

• think strategically so you and your team can be more innovative and effective,
• work together in a win-win scenario by following the 3Cs,
• turn influence into leadership through persuasive communications,
• challenge assumptions without challenging people,
• lessen and even eliminate resistance to change, and
• increase your resiliency by turning setbacks into comebacks.

John’s highly successful books have focused on leadership, management, and communications, and include Lead by Example and Great Communications Secrets for Great Leaders. His “Leadership at Work” column for Harvard Business Publishing is syndicated by Bloomberg.com and contains gems of  leadership wisdom. His practical advice, such as “How to Encourage Small Innovations” and “How to Face Your Critics” goes to the heart of what hands-on leadership is all about.

If you want to be more creative at work and think and act like a boss, without stealing the boss’s spotlight, listen in as John challenges us to learn the subtle art of managing up. There will be time for questions and answers at the end of the interview. It will also be recorded if you cannot make the live call. Check back later for the link to the audio recording.

UPDATE: Audio recording of John Baldoni interview

posted by Susan Guarneri

What Is a Tribe and Why Build One?

If you have not heard the buzz about tribes yet, here is your chance to find out why they are important to the growth of your emerging or small business. In addition, job seekers and those employed can make use of this information to create a strong network for job search and career development purposes.

The Reach Personal Branding February 2010 Interview features a discussion between William Arruda and Pam Slim, an expert on entrepreneurship and author of Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur. On Thursday, February 18 at noon EST (New York Time) she will share how to:

1. Choose the best kind of clients and customers
2. Build a strong network of peer mentors who will give you feedback
3. Make connections with your favorite industry superstars without feeling like a teenage fan boy or fan girl.

Escape from Cubicle Nation was named the Best Small Business/Entrepreneur Book of 2009 by 800CEORead and Editor’s Choice and Reader’s Choice for Best Small Business Books in 2009 by Small Business Trends.

Pam Slim is an experienced entrepreneur, coach, and writer and is a frequently quoted on entrepreneurship in major media publications such as The Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek. Her blog, Escape from Cubicle Nation, consistently attains top ranking for career and marketing blogs.

No need to register for this expert interview. Get the description of the interview, PDF handout, and dial-in information at the link for the Reach Personal Branding Interview Series. To participate in the live call, dial in early as space is limited. The call will be recorded and archived; it will also be emailed to subscribers of the **com’plimentary** Reach Personal Branding newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter by going to www.reachpersonalbranding.com

UPDATE: Audio recording of the Pam Slim interview available now.

The 3 Motivation Keys

"Drive: the surprising truth about what motivates us", the newest book by Dan Pink, is a winner! It explains how intrinsic motivators beat extrinsic motivators, like rewards and punishments, for the more difficult cognitive tasks and jobs that are the core of what the new world of work and business are about.

What are the 3 most important intrinsic motivators?

Autonomy is our need for independent action and control over tasks, time, place, and team. One example is ROWE, the results-only work environment.

Mastery is our need to show we are "masters" of something that matters to us. The example he uses is comparing Encarta to Wikipedia (open source movement and community sharing).

Purpose is our need to matter in the larger scheme of things. Achieving your highest fulfillment does not have to be incompatible with making a living.

Watch this 18-minute Dan Pink TED video as he makes a case for autonomy, mastery, and purpose in boosting productivity, innovation, and motivation on the job.

Good-bye traditional "carrots and sticks" as employee motivators and hello to the new world-of-work!