Who Do You Go To?

Last month we talked about career derailers and this month is dedicated to advancing your career by aligning your relationships with your goals. Whether you are building a work team, a network of trusted advisors and / or selecting mentors it’s essential that you choose wisely. Ironically, a friend, advisor and customer (all the same person) invited me to a luncheon last month that tied into this topic. The key note was a Wall Street veteran Carla Harris, one of the most successful and respected women in business today. Carla shared her strategies for thriving in the workplace at the Women’s Fund of Omaha’s 11th Annual Fall Luncheon.

I’m honored to pass on my interpretation of Carla’s “pearls of wisdom”.

My Love/Hate Relationship with Texting

I have a love/hate relationship with texting. I can’t deny the fact that it’s super convenient to quickly send or reply to a text without having to actually call someone. I mean, let’s be honest — sometimes we just don’t feel like talking on the phone!

Professionally, texting has totally changed the way we are partnering with our clients and candidates. And for me, this is where the love/hate relationship comes to play. As I mentioned, I love the convenience of being able to connect with a hiring manager or candidate via text when I know this is the only readily available avenue through which we can communicate during an otherwise hectic work day.

Win Your Next Interview

Are you ready to win the interview? You might find yourself interviewing with the owner or founder of the organization you want to work for, and, as we learned in my last post, if you position yourself in the wrong light you could blow the interview and lose your shot at a dream job. This time we are going to explore how the entrepreneur sees things in order to prepare you for the interview.

There are three major things you need to know about the entrepreneur to win in an interview.

Look for Empathy in Your Future Leaders

Almost every organization I work with is trying to hire better leaders than the ones they have right now. I say almost every one, because they all say that they do, but some act in completely opposite ways. The battlefield for acquiring true leaders is ferocious as we head into the back half of the Gen X era leading this country. Here is the problem I see. Again, every company wants better leaders, but most can’t understand what a leader even is. That is why there are so few transcendent organizations, and elite levels of success are so hard to come by. We often get seduced by sexy dollar signs when trying to define leadership. I can say this forthcoming statement with 100% conviction. The very best organizations I work with do not try to train people into leaders. They identify leaders, and help develop them into greater leaders.

Career Derailers

What’s a career derailer? Imagine or remember your first promotion. First, you got the team leader role, then a better title and a raise. Then on to department manager — you are on top of the world — then something happens. Questions are asked about whether you can think strategically, whether you have what it takes. That fast track career has stalled, or worse yet, fallen off the tracks – a career derailed.

Aureus Group Recognizes Employee of the Year

Celebrating with professionals from each of the staffing divisions within C&A Industries, Inc., Aureus Group was thrilled to recognize the accomplishments of our 2011 Employee of the Year, Jacque C. at our Annual Awards Dinner on Thursday, September 15.

Be the CEO of Your Career

Your organization’s success depends upon its people and effectively utilizing human capital. Aligning competencies, culture, and direction is everyone’s responsibility.

Last week I facilitated a workshop titled, “Be the CEO of Your Career”. The audience was predominately senior level developers who are navigating through the expert career ladder versus the management career ladder. It’s my belief that all technical professionals, including accounting / finance, IT / IS, sales, marketing, HR, etc. are confronted with the technical versus management dilemma. How do you know which is right for you?

Tips for Dealing with Work Jerks

In my last blog spot, I examined the criteria Robert Sutton outlines in his book, The No Asshole Rule, which helps one identify certifiable a-holes in the workplace. We’ve all dealt with them before and there’s a strong likelihood we’ll cross paths with more of them in the future, as much as it pains me to admit. If only the workplace jerk was a species on the verge of extinction….

Job Seekers: Stop Working So Hard!

I had someone apply for 15 of our job openings the other day. Fifteen! And all the job openings called for completely different skill requirements. Before even opening this person’s resume I’m thinking: What a waste of my time. Just seeing those 15 messages in my inbox, I was completely turned off. I didn’t even want to look at his resume, but I did. Sure enough, this was not a candidate I could market or present to any of my job openings. His resume bared no resemblance to any of my postings. What was he thinking?

Interviewing Pitfalls, Part 1: Handling Tough Questions About Your Past

The old adage of “you are what you are” is really very true. What happens in the past is written into history in ink and cannot be erased. We remember fondly the great times, and tend to flush away the painful memories. There is nothing wrong with that necessarily, it’s just that, a first interview is typically a screening out process, and certain questions are posed in order to aid this process. Answering technical questions is likely going to be the easy part of an interview. It’s the stuff about our imperfect selves that is really hard answer for most of us. Here are some common landmines to step around.