While we all have some hope that this will change one day, corporate history provides sufficient evidence to contrary.  Prior to the 1980’s, layoffs were considered a sign of struggling organizations.  As times got better, these employees were recalled.  Then, in the 1990’s, there was a break from these historical trends as highly profitable organizations continued mass layoffs which were usually initiated by reengineering and restructuring activities.  Today, primary causes of layoffs and downsizing initiatives incorporate just about everything.  Some examples include rapid technological change, increased international competition, changing customer demands, regulatory changes, regional economic downturns, and poor company leadership.

As an individual employee, you shouldn’t feel like your career is top secret, not to be shared with anyone else.  In fact, it should be just the opposite.  Just imagine watching TV with no commercials.  How strange would it be if companies weren’t shoving their products in your face all time?  In less than a minute, they are filling your mind up with their product’s functions, capabilities and advantages.  Now, consider what work would be like if you were creating situations where you could be communicating your skills, knowledge and abilities.  You could even capture a few celebrity endorsements to build more interest in yourself.  This is where you can use your friends and colleagues to help create a little hype about you.  They could verbally promote you to the company’s informal trust, advice and communication networks which permeate the entire company.  Then, as managers got themselves in certain situations and needed someone to solve the problem, the first person that would come to their mind would be you. 

So why wait until you pull the cord to verify your chute will work?  Use networking, friends and colleagues to help you build your career and develop a feasible strategy.  By using others to help you pack your chute, you reduce the risk of it failing when the cord is pulled. 

2. Failing to manage risk.  There’s no doubt that our actions have consequences.  As many companies have been learning lately, consequences may take some time to come to fruition but they will come.  So, what motivates organizational leaders to manage risk?  The driver for this behavior (hedge or speculate) is in how they assess the amount of personal career risk they must manage.   These are private actions, not visible to anyone else.  Organizations are full of managers with high and low career concerns.  Those with low career concern feel comfortable in their position and don’t feel pressure to speculate or hedge in the management of risk.  The only time they will hedge is after poor performance.  Managers with high career concerns, common early in their career, must work to produce really good results to convince shareholders and outsiders of their quality, they are likely to engage in speculation.  Now imagine companies are led by managers who are feeling considerable pressure to perform.  They worry about their job security (high career concern).  Naturally, these managers will begin to speculate more; that is, engage in riskier behavior.  Too much of this can result in disastrous results, as the most recent wave of failures have shown us. 

Maintaining a healthy balance between hedging and speculating is difficult, especially under the current circumstances where organizations are seeking to reduce cost of operations to keep the ship from sinking.  Companies are likely to begin to reduce the size of the workforce.  This will push you to focus heavily on managing your career risk.  To reduce your risk, focus on three areas:  primary investment (your main job), volunteer investment, and lifelong learning investment.  With regards to your primary investment, your reputation, or brand, has a major impact on your future.  If you have a good reputation, you don’t have to do very much.  However, if you feel your reputation indicates less than par performance, you may consider hedging to avoid further defamation.  For your volunteer investment, you can offset previous risky moves to improve your position by volunteering, especially if a “shake-up” is expected in the near future.  You should take a proactive role in the change and become part of it.  Try to get on the assessment team or even just support one of the members of the team.  Lastly, don’t forget your lifelong learning investment.  You should always invest time and energy in training, workshops, degrees, mentorship, etc.     

3.  Withdrawing too much from the trust account.  As many of the recently failed organizations have learned, taking too much risk can result in a loss of trust among those around them.  As they bought and sold securities, people began to lose trust in the stated value of those mortgaged-backed securities.  Eventually, the complete lack of trust left the securities with little to no value.  Your career works just the same.  Similar to the “Emotional Bank Accounts” Stephen Covey introduced in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, we all have trust accounts that we make deposits and withdrawals.  Once company leadership takes a risk and their goals aren’t achieved, they make a withdrawal from the trust account.   Withdrawals and deposits aren’t equal.  It takes a lot more effort to build trust than it does to lose it.  In your career, taking a lot of risk can grow trust faster but failing to capitalize on the risk could result in losing it just as fast.  Keeping a high balance on your trust account is critical in today’s dynamic corporate world. 

Building trust isn’t easy and requires consistent behavior.  To improve your trust in relationship, you should:
• Focus on being responsive to others and following through on commitment
• Use facts and data rather than your reputation
• Admit mistakes, fix them and move on
• Gather feedback and act on it
• Be trustworthy….ensure confidentiality when others ask for it.

These three lessons are vital to surviving corporate dynamics.  Failing to heed these could land you, just like many of the recently failed company employees, in another organization. 

Roadblock #9: It’s more and more difficult to 'shine'

Sometimes no matter how hard we try to get a little recognition for our efforts, we just can’t seem to raise even one single eyebrow.

Is it because nobody saw it? 

Could it be everyone felt it wasn’t much of an accomplishment? 

Or perhaps they are just jealous?

Most likely you’ll never find out the reason why….but there are some steps you can take to create a little more buzz about yourself.

1. Create a marketing plan.  Many of us want exposure but fail to plan it.  This is critical because you need to control what gets communicated about you.  Ideally, you would want to advertise the skills upper management would like to see. 

2. Build a marketing team.  It’s really hard to advertise yourself.  Talking about yourself only comes across as arrogant.  However, when others talk about you, it comes off as legitimate. 

3. Implement your plan.  Use the team to help you accomplish your marketing plan. They can also help you identify the best methods to get the word out on you.

4. Measure your progress.  Just like most marketing techniques, your methods will only do so much for your career mobility.  The best way to improve your results is to measure how well your methods work.  Then improve them.  You may have to try several things but people respond better when they are hit by techniques coming from many different angles.

Marketing yourself through others is a great way to improve the impressions others have of you.  Of course, the impressions won’t form correctly if your actions conflict with what your team is saying.  In other words, it’s hard to reinvent yourself completely this way but you can improve what people think of you.

The real key to this method is that most people are busy in the workplace.  Companies have reduced headcount so much that everyone is heavily tasked.  Managers don’t have time to follow their employees around to verify what they do on a daily basis.  Typically, they will form opinions from what they hear from others or read in emails (assuming you copy them on the emails).  Companies are not only geographically dispersed, managers are growing more separated from their workforce.

Motivation….this is a good question.  Normally, I might suggest your try to understand what your intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factors are?  However, most people don’t really do that specifically.  If you have time, you may read on the web and try to define these factors.  Then plan your work to ensure they are in it.  

I do think it may be easier to look at Fredrick Herzberg’s theory and ask a few questions to relate it to your situation in hopes of turning something up.  His theory describes a few motivating factors.  They are: achievement, recognition, growth and interest.  Let’s look at these one at a time.

Achievement:  Do you get a sense of accomplishment from the tasks you do?  Do you gain a sense of pride in finishing your tasks?  Do you feel any positive emotions when you complete a task?  If not, your work may not have any personal value to you.  This could definitely cause you to burnout.  Seek a few tasks that are really interesting to you.  Careful though, you may find you spend more of your time on the interesting tasks than the others.  Everyone has those boring tasks that must be done to stay hired.  Just try to mix in a few that are really interesting to you.  Make work a little more fun….strange concept, huh?

Recognition:  Do you feel rewarded for completing your work?  Do others recognize the completion of your tasks (either management, peers, team members, etc.)? Seek out a task or two that carries with it a little exposure or recognition.  Celebrate your victory, no matter how small it may be.  This goes a long way in keeping you motivated. 

Growth:  Do your tasks lead to growth and advancement?  Does your work build on your skills?  Unfortunately, many jobs and managers don’t encompass tasks that greatly improve your skills or allow your abilities to expand outside of the normal requirements.  You may have to do this yourself.  Maybe you should consider tackling bigger projects that challenge you more.  You can gain a real sense of self by pushing yourself to juggle bigger balls rather than by trying to juggle more balls.

Interest:  Do you find yourself working more one some tasks than others?  Do the tasks you do mean anything to you personally?  If you weren’t paid to do the tasks you do, would you consider doing them anyhow?  Work must provide value to us if we are to grow from doing it.  If your work isn’t interesting anymore, you may be experiencing Content Plateauing.  You can get around this by gaining work that is interesting to you.  Maybe something outside of your expertise where you’re forced to learn something totally new.

Lastly, surround yourself with individuals that are as driven and motivated as you are.  I’ve created a team that supports me in my career endeavors.  I call it a “Blitz” team.  They are highly motivated and driven just like me.  When I’m down and burnout, they aren’t. They help me back up and keep me going.  I’ll be posting information about my blitz team on www.blitztheladder.com so you can see how it works.  Stay Tuned!

Overcoming FEAR takes work.  Two kinds of it actually: net and team. 

Just the phrase “Fear of the Unknown” seems to be a little confusing.  Why do we respond with fear to an unknown situation?  Is this the appropriate response?  The problem is that we don’t know the proper response.  So, we naturally protect ourselves and treat the situation as a threat. 

Responding with fear is a conditioned response.  When we get ourselves in situations where we don’t have enough information to determine what we should feel, we condition ourselves to respond with fear. 

So, how do we break this trend?  One way is to get more information.  In any situation you get in, there is probably someone else who has been in that situation and has experience with it.  This is the source of your information.

Network.  No matter what situation I get in, I connect with others who  have ‘been there and done that.’  I ask them to share their experiences, including what worked, what didn’t, how they felt, and what they learned.  All of this information helps me form a clearer picture of what to expect.  This way, I don’t let my mind fill in the gaps with information that may be inaccurate and result in a fear that convinces me not to take chances.  Chances that could make me more successful in things I do.

When I was writing my first book, I didn’t know anyone who had done it before.  I knew very little of the process.  The questions I had were overwhelming.  There were so many questions I didn’t know where to begin. So I just wrote down the biggest ones.  Then, I went online and found the contact information for other authors.  I emailed or called them and asked my questions.   The more I did this, the easier it got.  Why?  I was making the unfamiliar, familiar.  That’s what it takes.  Now, I have a lot of connections to authors and no fear of the process.

Teamwork.  Finding people who will share their experiences is a good approach to eradicating fear.  However, there are times I want a quick answer to my questions and networking to find that someone who can provide the solution may take longer than I want.  To overcome the latency in finding answers, I created a team of people similar to myself.  We are all driven to succeed, motivated to try and eager to learn.  We share our thoughts and dreams.  Then, we help each other bring those dreams out of the darkness and into reality. 

When I face a new situation, I refer to my team members who share their thoughts and feelings on the situation.  Even if they haven’t experienced a similar situation, they provide additional insight.  My fear of the situation can only drive me from my experiences.  Since my team isn't experiencing this fear,  they are a little more open-minded and are able to provide a more realistic assessment.  Again, this fills in the gaps in my mind, releasing me of the fear of what I don’t know, because now I have a better idea of what to expect.

Eradicating fear can be done by simply informing yourself.  If you don’t have the information, find those twho do.  Filling the gaps in your mind will provide you enough information to create the correct response, which is, you don’t need to fear anything.

Remember, erase fear with work.  Network and teamwork are great solutions.

In the last post, we presented the results of our survey that defined many ROADBLOCKS to our career success.   Now we will start a series of posts that will provide the information you need to overcome each ROADBLOCK.

Here’s the first post in the series.

ROADBLOCKS:  Establish and Focus on Your Goals

Why define goals? 

Have you ever shopped at the grocery store when you forgot your shopping list at home?  You couldn’t remember everything you needed so you had to leave knowing you didn’t get it all.  Maybe you felt a little disappointed.  Depending on what you forgot, you may have had to make a second ‘unplanned’ trip. 

Two important points here.  The first is that you created more work for yourself by forgetting what you needed.  The second is that depending on what activity you’re engaged in, you may only get one opportunity.  If the previous example was your only opportunity, such as making the most of a networking opportunity with executives, you missed it. 

You have a great resource that can overcome these obstacles; that is, your subconscious.  However, to set it on its journey to find you success, you need to tell it where you want to go.   

                                                                  

The subconscious.  It’s where you keep long-term memories that affect your behavior, such as fear.  It is also the source of your creativity and intuition.  It has the ability to make sense out of environmental cues and patterns that our conscious mind isn’t aware of.  Your subconscious has a great deal of mental ability.  If you’ve ever solved a problem in your sleep, you’ve had a glimpse at what it can do.  But there’s much more to it. 

By defining your goals, or building your roadmap to success, you give you subconscious everything it needs to guide you on the path.  You just need to take a little conscious thought and put it on paper.  Read it out loud to yourself to engage your whole brain and engrave into your subconscious.  Then you go about your normal daily routines.  You don’t have to actively think about opportunities because your subconscious will do that for you. 

Things change and so will your plans, if you want them to. You just need to keep track of your needs and desires to make sure your goals coincide with them. 

Defining major goals.  As previously mentioned, you should focus on your needs and desires.  Write them down.  Then, define ways to meet them.  Think broadly.  Maybe you want to be a business owner, actor, or a doctor.  You should define goals that can be measured, tracked and achieved.  A certain amount of reality is important here.  If you want to be a millionaire, realize that may require great sacrifice or risk.  If you know you won’t do it, then don’t set plans for it. 

Defining the path.  With each goal in mind, think of ways to get to each goal.  With these definitions, you should include more clarity by identifying activities that can be engaged to get you closer to the result you want; that is, your goal.  Some goals may require many activities.  Identify them the best you can but realize that your subconscious may later identify a better way to get there.  Writing something down now gives your mind a starting point to begin its creative thought.  Remaining open minded provides your subconscious the real estate it needs to be truly creative.

Defining the timeline.   After you have activities listed, try to put an amount of time down to achieve it.  Pick a date on the calendar.  This will serve to motivate you to complete it.  Please note this requires discipline.  I wrote my first book in 3 years.  I can’t tell you how many times I stopped and started again.  Many times I struggled to figure out where I left off and what my trail of thought was at the time I last worked on it.  However, I was determined to finish it and I did.  Push yourself to complete the activities. 

Celebrate.  Once you complete an activity, celebrate it.  Too many times we try similar things looking for different results.  This disappointment forces us to create the belief that engaging in the activity is pointless and will be fruitless.  Celebrating your successes keeps you upbeat and motivated to continue.  You won’t achieve your goals without disappointments but you don’t have to let them keep you from getting there.

Focus.  As I learned with my book, focus is difficult.  I’m married with 3 small kids so I didn’t have to create an excuse to not work on the book.  Excuses were everywhere.  So, I chose to share my career map with my closest friends and family.  I used them to keep me on track and schedule.  You see, I didn’t won’t to be seen as a slacker or disappoint my closest friends. They motivated me to continue.  I encouraged them to praise me when I did well and chastise me when I did poorly.  Open yourself up to those around you.  You’ll be surprised to find that many will help you achieve your goals.  Just show passion and drive for your goals.  People respond well to it.

Publishers Note: Volume 1 Issue 4 ends the first full volume of Personal Branding Magazine. As personal branding becomes the differentiator for career development, many new channels have opened up and the internet is a recruiting stomping ground for all those who leverage it’s power. Between hiring candidates websites, and even job aggregators, the times have changed and we must be ready. Human resources is rapidly evolving by branding their companies as the employer of choice and there is a sudden war for talent, despite an economic recession in the United States. In this issue, we interview all the thought leaders who are entering the online recruiting and branding space, as well as take a closer look as to how networking plays a role in bridging recruiters with interested applicants. Only the strongest employers and candidates will survive. By reading this issue, you will have the knowledge needed in order to confront the recruitment process and be victorious…Dan Schawbel, Publisher, Personal Branding Magazine

As I discuss in my book, Blitz the Ladder, Personal branding is an important aspect of your career that we all must manage and it has a huge impact on how we are perceived. The magazine takes a look at each of those areas, and gives thoughts and ideas on how we can best use personal branding in those arenas. This issue’s focus on recruitment really brings home the point that how we brand ourselves in one area can spill over and effect our chances at being hired in another area.

Click here to get the free sample issue.

The full issue will be available here as of May 1, 2008.
(An annual subscription costs $12.95 for 4 issues, and 50% of the proceeds benefit the American Cancer Society)

Never Climb Alone,
Todd

Readers will learn why many people don’t achieve the very things they say they want. Capista gives clear-cut examples of what it takes to succeed beyond what most people can ever imagine.

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You hear it everyday on the news.  Over and over, we’re told that all indicators are trending towards a recession.  Some of them certainly are.  We know unemployment is climbing, oil prices are at record levels and the housing market is certainly in pain.  Inflation is at its highest point in 18 years.  If you’re employed, this just means that life will get more expensive.  If you’re unemployed or in an occupation that may get you there during a recession, it’s time for new strategy.

Let’s take a look at two things: recession proof jobs and recession proof career strategy.

Recession Proof Jobs.  Rather than waste your time reading a lot of text, here’s a list of jobs/industries that are usually safe in a recession.  While no industry is completely immune, these are safer than most.

• Healthcare
• Clean Technology
• Information Technology
• Sales
• Marketing
• Federal Government

If you’re unemployed or seeking a change, you may want to get into one of these industries before the recession.  Afterwards, it’s…..well, you know….impossible.

Recession Proof Career Strategy.  If you have a good job and don’t want to change it but are a little worried about the impact of a recession, here’s a technique that will ensure you aren’t on the top of the ‘hit’ list. 

The approach described here is called the Blitz Approach.  It is a team-based method for managing perception.  Most experts will tell you that you don’t need to make drastic changes in how you do your work during a recession.  Experts suggest you continue to meet and exceed expectations.  This is where the Blitz Approach has ‘real’ power.

1. This method works at any time and should be implemented as early as possible.  The steps to the approach are 1) define the career strategy/image you want to convey, 2) build a team of supporters such as co-workers, and 3) build and implement a plan to market your value to the company.  Remember, being average doesn’t necessarily ensure your job safety.  Bragging about your abilities can be irritating but consider what could happen when several people are telling others how good you are.  With so many people saying it, it must be true.  Of course, you’ll be expected to support your team as well.
2. In defining your career strategy or image you want managers to see, it’s important to exhibit value beyond what someone in your position would normally show.  Your managers must think that you are irreplaceable.  Convincing them by yourself is difficult but using others to sing your praises is far more effective and believable.  If you want to be seen as a great team player, then that’s what your team tells everyone.  Naturally, you’ll need to be aware of what they are saying and make sure your actions are in congruence with it.
3. To build a team, you’ll want to select what you may regard as high performers.  These individuals are usually safe in almost all markets.  They are talented, respected and often well-connected.  All of these factors are important to your survival.   You will share your desired image with your team and they will help you mange the implementation of it.  Your team will help you identify the best people in the company to influence.  Make sure you know whether to create a new perception or change an old one.  Your team members can find out what these individuals think of you, then you can figure out what you need to do to create a positive image of yourself.  You’ll also want to tap into the company’s informal networks (or the grapevines).  There are typically 3 of them: advice, communication and trust.  Tap into all of them.  These networks move info faster than email! So make sure you’re using them to send your messages.

If you’re interested in this method, the book will be out soon.  It’s called “Blitz the Ladder.”  I’ll also be posting more on the book’s website and blog.  Stay tuned for more tips.

blitztheladder.com

Here's an example that will explain it.  I was once asked to write articles about a particular type of government contract; more specifically, how companies should manage them. I've managed programs and contracts for years but I didn't have direct experience with this type of contract.  I didn't know a lot about it.  I couldn't tell you what the risks were, how you made money on it and so on.  I was almost completely ignorant on the subject.  So, I searched the web to learn what I could in hopes that it would be sufficient to educate me.  However, it wasn't until I ran into an expert on this type of contract that I became more enlightened.  Then, this individual referred me to more experts.  While they all had an expertise in different areas of these contracts, it gave me enough pieces of the puzzle to complete a good understanding.  That was all I needed. 

So, what does it mean? It means that it's almost impossible to find individuals with enough experience to clearly define the steps you need to take to accomplish your tasks.  Your career is no different.  I'm not saying that the advice others are giving doesn't have its uses.  The problem often becomes that we use all of the advice within the same perspective; that is, our own.

As in the example above, you can really grasp the whole picture of your situation by yourself.  If you can't backup enough to clearly see the big picture, setting new goals won't get you the desired results.  Look at the questions below for better insight into a most useful method that you can test yourself! 

If you're considering reestablishing your goals for this year, I've got a few questions for you to think about before you begin.

1.  Did you achieve your goals last year?

2.  Are you searching for new ways to achieve these same goals?

3.  Do these goals live in the land of impossibility?

If you answered YES, then you should consider a team-based approach to your career.  Before I try to sell you on the idea, you should try this little test first.  Let me know how well it works for you.

A Simple Test:  Decide on a characteristic or skill you would like a manager to know you have.  Then, have two or three of your friends communicate to this manager that you have this characteristic/skill.  Have them convey this at different times so as to not draw attention to your test (such as every other day).  After this is done, seek an opportunity to verify that he has received the messages.

To help, here's a test tried before.  An engineer, we'll call him Tom, wanted to be seen as a Microsoft Excel guru.  He enlisted 3 friends from outside his department to go to his manager to ask if someone on his team could help with an Excel spreadsheet.  They mentioned to the manager that Tom was really good at it and asked if he could be allowed to help.  Each person asked the manager one day apart.  One week later, Tom asked his manager for help on a spreadsheet he was putting together for him.  Tom's manager replied "Why are you asking me, you're the expert!"  

Simple example but it identifies a great power.  Imagine using this across and up your organization. 

Post your results and we'll setup another simple test.

Never Climb Alone,

Todd 

John Kimberly, professor at the Wharton School of Business has released the new book "The Soul of the Corporation: How to manage the identity of your company."  In this book, John, along with co-author Hamid Bouchikhi, discuss the power of identity and how it must be managed to ensure success.  This is one of the main principles behind the "Blitz Approach" to career success. 

To put the problem of identity into perspective, the book looks at McDonald's, an old American favorite, and it's market share in France.  McDonald's is the largest franchise in France.  It is run by French people, serving French people with supplies that are purchased from French companies.  Yet, the French still insist that America is degrading French society.  How can this be? They run McDonald's.

In order to understand why the French feel this way, it's pertinent to understand what McDonald's identity is based on.  The identity of the company can be based on their brand, mission, components, content, audience, means, or a combination of all of them.  At the lowest level, McDonald's in France is definitely French.  However, the brand of McDonald's is driven by its origin and original audience; that is, the United States.  So, if McDonald's plans to overturn this identity issue in France, they must present the image of McDonald's at its lowest level, which is to say that it serves the French with food prepared by the French purchased from the French.

Now, consider your company and career.  What is your identity? What do managers see when they look at you?  What do your peers see?  What would someone who doesn't even know you see?  These are tough questions to answer if you are tackling your career all by yourself.  Would a manager really tell you that you don't conduct yourself in a professional manner, dress appropriately for a higher level position, and so on.  Most likely, getting real feedback about yourself directly from others won't happen.  This is one huge benefit of using the Blitz Approach to your career. 

Your Blitz team will help you understand your individual I-Dimension, or Performance Concept (PC) in the Blitz Approach.  The members of your team will help you form this concept of yourself as others see it.  Remember, to get where you want to go, you first need to know where you are!  Your team members will help define you from several perspectives:

1.  Top-Down View - this is what those above you see.  

2.   Plane View - this is what your peers see. 

3.   Isometric View - this is what someone on the outside would see. 

The team gathers information in a strategic manner through social interaction with managers, peers, outsiders and those in the key position of the trust, advice and communication networks. Each view provides vital information that defines who you are.  This information is combined to create an image of you.  This is your clay to mold in the form you need to be more successful.  Don't worry if you aren't an artist.  Your team will help you create the proper image. 

If you want to move up, you must sell yourself.  You are not selling what you see because that may not be what others want.  You must sell what people are willing to buy.  You and your team will use this Performance Concept to always ensure you are performing at the top of the game (or that others always perceive you are).  It's a way of making sure you are always marketable and something that management will want to have.

As with any identity, it must be managed.  Your PC map developed by your team will bedocumented and written down so you always have a reference, rather than a vague idea of what people think of you.  This image will change as the organization changes and new people come on board.  If you want to be a big star, you'll need an image consultant.  This is not a problem since you'll have a team of image consultants looking out for you.

There's no quicker way to reduce your career mobility in your organization than to engage in serious debate with peers or management, even if they are 'irrational.' Why not? You never know who is in their social network. So, the best choice is to completely avoid the discussion until they have a little less emotion. Not everyone's irrational behavior is purely irrational.

However, if you can't avoid it and have to argue with one of those irrational types, you can use the advice provided by Malhotra and Bazerman in their book Negotiation Genius: How to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Brilliant Results at the Bargaining Table and Beyond. They suggest a few reasons why someone may appear irrational in their argument.

Uninformed. We're not talking about those who argue for the sake of argument. This is a situation where they may not have enough information to support their argument but feel they are "pushed in a corner" or simply a case where they have incorrect information.

Solution: Take time to review all of the facts of the situation. This should provide an opportunity for any misinformation to surface. Once the ignorance is brought to light, it can be corrected and bring a proper resolution to the debate. The facts also have a tendency to remove emotion from the situation, further enhancing our abilities to think logically.

Hidden Constraints. Have you ever wondered why some organizations allow their star performers to be hired by competitors? Why wouldn't a company want to keep one of its best workers? Simply put, limits or constraints. Companies set caps for salaries on certain positions or are constrained by HR policies. Either way, unseen obstacles support their actions but appear to be quite confusing from those of us on the outside.

Solution: Don't assume everything is black and white. Business is usually done in shades of gray. Once you understand all of the facts, try to highlight barriers to the solutions. Helping others analyze their constraints to find ways around them is the best way to reduce the discussion from debate to discovery.

Hidden Interests. This is not to imply that others may have ulterior motives, it is simply the notion that they are driven by things you may not have identified. Consider a manager that receives a small bonus of $1500 in a private ceremony for performing well on his program. However, the reward seemed to do little to motivate him. He really desired a little public recognition from his peers since he never had received any. Then, when he had finally accomplished it, managers kept it a secret.

Solution: Never assume you know people interests. Take a genuine interest in their argument and find out why they feel what they do. It becomes much easier to reach a compromise when you know where they are coming from. Remember, it is highly unlikely that irrational behavior is driven by nothing. If you want to be a good negotiator, you have to be able to learn about those hidden factors that drive behavior. Once you learn it, it's much easier to get where you want to go.

The greatest key to your career success is managing perception.  If we do a good job of managing how others see us, we can gain sufficient power from those perceptions.  This power can aid in gaining opportunity. 

Here's an example:  I know an engineer who worked for a high tech R&D company that focused on creating the latest processes for manufacturing semiconductors.  He learned the easiest way to get on projects that were investigating the newest technologies.  Once he heard of a particular process being investigated, he would do a quick search in the library and download several technical papers on the subject.  He would read them and even sometimes call the authors to discuss their results.  He made himself an expert on those few papers.  The real trick came when he would discuss this subject with managers who were interested in it but didn't know much about it.  He could spout off endless tidbits on it. As far as management was concerned, he was an expert on it.  When it came time for the new project to begin, who do you think they wanted on it?  That's right, he got himself on all of the major, high profile projects just by managing perception.  I know what you're thinking now....but what if he fails?  This was new technology.  Nobody really knows if its possible.  He couldn't cause it to fail alone so he was never blamed if it did.  Even if you don't have this luxury, you'll have the support of your Blitz team.  Failure ceases to become an option.  Now imagine how this could work if you had a team of people promoting you!!

Managing perception can provide you significant power.  Many experts call this perceived relative power.  Kathleen McGinn, Harvard Professor of Business Administration, defines it in terms of negotiations in her article, "What Perceived Power Brings to Negotiations."  She says it has two components. First, it is a perception about how much power each of the two parties has in the negotiation.  In other words, it is not based on anything tangible.  So if you're not necessarily the best at a particular skill but your team communicates that you are the best (as they help make you better), then you are! Second, perceived relative power is also relative.  If I percieve you as being a more powerful negotiator, then I will feel less powerful and vice versa.  The point here is that you never won't be overpowered by others in a negotiation (and your career definitely is a negotiation).

By utilizing a Blitz team, as I describe in my upcoming book, "Blitz the Ladder," you can easily impact the first component Kathleen discusses; that is, what others perceive.  Maybe you want to be seen as a powerful negotiator or a technical expert.  Your team can help you achieve this by influencing how others think of you.  Of course, Kathleen offers us a little advice in that you should be careful to not use too much perceived power when in negotiations.  It's important to maintain a balance between both parties so that no one party feels overpowered, resulting in an unwillingness to be open-minded and cooperative.  So, just remember to keep things on an equal playing field!

Managing perception is an extremely powerful tool and is quickly becoming vital to success, much more so than degrees, working long hours or achieving great accomplishments.  That's why the academic experts are jumping on board with it.  Get ahead of the game by learning about it. 

Developing a compelling personal brand image still remains essential to winning and keeping management’s faith.  Since the massive downsizing wave that swept the 1990’s, management has begun to suffer the same pains as the blue collar workers.  Everyone is overworked and unable to focus entirely on any one thing.  Professional development in the corporation has transformed into personal development.  In other words, management doesn’t have time to help you develop your career.  Sure, they’ll take a few minutes to help you jot down your goals but it won’t go much further than that.  Employees don’t get the kind of attention nowadays that helps develop careers.  The best way to promote yourself is to promote your brand.

Personal brand value should be managed by focusing on the creation of your manager equity.  Too many times employees focus on creating value for themselves.  They engage in activities that they think will increase their value to the organization.  Maybe they work longer hours per week or learn new skills to increase their productivity.  These types of performance are valuable in that they give your manager less to worry about. However, they don’t do a great deal to increase your equity.  Technology has already ushered in an improvement in productivity and unfortunately longer work hours.  Everyone is getting better at these so you want necessarily be distancing yourself from the competition by improving them.  Building manager equity will require a change in mindset.  Your actions should not seek to make you look better but make the managers look better.  Here are a few questions you should consider in developing the manager equity mindset:

•  Do your decisions on what to work on take into consideration what you need or what your manager needs?

•  Do your efforts focus on key managers and building their loyalty and trust in your abilities?

•  Do you focus on resolving some of their problems?

•  Do you identify the skills that managers seem to appreciate most? Do you focus on improving them to be your equity?

•  Do you change your efforts to cater to each manager in hopes of maximizing their satisfaction?

Managing your brand equity not only requires an ability to modify it but to also measure it.  Gauging how others value you and your contributions is always difficult since most managers will avoid be brutally honest about what they think you contribute to the company.  This can be avoided by using your friends and trusted colleagues to probe your managers for what they really think.  Use their feedback to adjust your strategy.  For example, if your assessment team identifies that managers are disappointed in your ability to lead projects, take a look at your history and understand why they feel that way.  Then, improve it.

It’s important to remember that brand equity is subjective.  Not only will different managers value your brand differently, the same efforts that improve your equity with one manager may have little effect on another.  Your efforts can increase or decrease it.  Therefore, it becomes critical to understand what drives each manager’s equity.  Awareness is one essential element in how they develop equity and the easiest to manage. 

Lastly, don’t try to influence their perception of you alone.  The most reliable information managers use to learn about you is the advice from others.  Tooting your own horn is good but endorsements from others can carry a lot more weight and serves to validate your abilities.  Luckily, the same team you use to learn how well you are developing your equity can also sing your praises and improve your brand equity at the same time.