Never Eat Alone is a tremendous self-help book that is a must read for any career minded executive interested in knowing how to manage their career to much greater effect. There are some minor issues with the book, but the good outweighs the shortcomings by such a degree that I don’t even want to mention them for fear that they may detract from the brilliant points it does make.

In this high-speed world we live in, there is a clear need to market and brand ourselves in a manner that was unthinkable just a decade ago. The speed of change, the uncertainty of our times, and the precarious nature of jobs, make networking and contact management a crucial skill set.

Written in a fluid, easy to read style, this book provides solid advice. As often happens when a book is full of creative ideas, it can spur readers to think up original ideas of their own. And that makes this book even more powerful.

Have you read a book that you consider “must read”? If so, please let me know by replying to this post. If you do not see a reply box, please click on the title of this post and scroll to the bottom.

“Exceptional communication, leadership, and change management skills.” To a trained resume reviewer that line reads: yada-yada-yada.

Why?

People who read resumes for a living dismiss such comments, because they are subjective assertions made by the only person who has anything to gain from them. You!

How do I know if you have the expertise to make accurate assessments about the quality of such skills? Most people don’t have the acuity to make accurate assessments, which is why these comments are met with skepticism. As a result, it’s best to limit the use of “subjective” assertions.

The truth about assertions:

1. Subjective assertions are most powerful when used sparingly.
2. The most powerful assertions are those the readers make on their own.

So limit the use and instead provide information that leads the reviewer to come up with the very conclusions you want to make. Then you really have a powerful resume.

Example:

Imagine you’re a Vice President of Operations. In a resume you cite how you grew your operations team from 2,100 to 4,000 employees and started-up three new manufacturing facilities in five years. You instituted management training programs and teaming processes that drove decision making down to the level that the actual work is being done; rolled out quality improvement programs including six-sigma; developed a succession planning process that ensured capable replacements for each of the 11 Manager and Director positions within your organization, as well as a bonafide back-up for your own position; that of your four direct reports, three of them have been promoted to more senior positions in other parts of the company.

You go on to cite statistics showing a 25% reduction in turn-over and a 37% increase in job satisfaction among your work force. You additionally list key metrics that show how the operations have improved year over year for the past four years.

As an objective reader I can make many assertions based on these facts. They suggest you have excellent communication, leadership, and change management skills. (Sound familiar?) You also appear to be exceptionally quality oriented. Having me, the reader, come to these conclusions is more powerful than you telling me you have these great skills.

The secret of a great resume is that it leads the reader, on his or her own, to come up with the very assertions you would like to make. The best way to achieve this is to show, not tell. Use facts, not feelings.

When it comes to selling yourself on the job market, the idea of doing what everybody else is doing no longer makes sense. It’s the Lemming Approach: “I’m following everyone else, just in case they’re on to something.” They’re not. They’re heading off a cliff. But even if they were on the right track, you would never stand out in the crowd.

How do you get on the right track? Change your thinking.

To really improve your odds of landing the right job requires a fundamental shift in the way you think about your job search.

1. You are managing a career, not just looking for a job. It’s about a long-term perspective and realizing what you need in a job to be successful. You have to be focused on the experiences you need to gain and the personal & professional development opportunities you require to achieve your long-term goals.
2. You are looking for the “right” job. Merely landing a job is no longer a sign of success, it’s landing the “right” job that is emblematic of true success. Here is what you must ask in order to find the “right” job:

• Does it leverage your strengths?
• Does it provide necessary developmental opportunities?
• Does it stimulate you and provide happiness?
• Is it an environment and situation where you can succeed?
• Is it an environment that is compatible with your interests, values, motivations, and style of operating?

There is a better way to sell yourself than creating a facade. The more you realize how the standard job search approach uses a facade to sell a candidate it should become clear that this approach has no future and is counter-productive.

5 Steps to landing the perfect job:

1.) Develop self-awareness. Take the time to reflect and understand who you really are, in terms of your:

· Strengths and weaknesses.
· Values, motivations, and interests.
· The environments you thrive in.
· The personality styles you work with best.
· The operational dynamics that suit you best.

What you learn about yourself will give you greater clarity, confidence, and a strong sense of the kind of job that will suit you best. It’s amazing how clear your path appears when you develop self-awareness. Indecisiveness is often due to not having clear idea of who you really are and only a fuzzy idea of where you are headed in life.

2.) Be an equal. Parity creates clarity. Your ability to accurately evaluate a job is dependent on seeing yourself as an equal. You and the company are a partnership, representing two sides trying to determine if a particular situation is right for one another. Allow them to evaluate you and you evaluate them. The reason it’s so important to consider yourself an equal is that it allows you to remain objective and better able to critically evaluate a situation. When you feel inferior, it’s natural to defend yourself and try and prove yourself worthy. Instead of evaluating a position you’re focused on proving yourself worthy of a position that may not even be right.

3.) Be genuine. Being genuine is like a beacon. It draws the right jobs to you and repels the wrong ones. It’s much more effective than building a facade and trying to sell someone something you’re not. It will connect with the right job on many levels. The right job fits your personality, your style, your interests, and your values. Being genuine is also an effective way to create trust with other people. In our critical world, this ability to instill trust and confidence provides a very real competitive advantage over the many other candidates who are doing their best to act the part.

4.) Communicate who you are, what you believe, and what you know. If you ever suffer regret it should be that you didn’t effectively communicate who you really are and therefore the company was not able to evaluate the real you. Other than that, let the chips fall where they may. It’s about fit – and a fit happens naturally, not by putting on an act.

5.) No regrets. It’s about making sure the position you accept is right for you. It’s not about landing a job every time out. If the company decides it’s not right or you decide it’s not right is immaterial. Two perspectives are better than one. Use the company’s insight about its environment, challenges, and limitations and how they see you fitting in their organization as an added means of evaluating a job. You may think the job’s right for you, but if the company, knowing what it knows about their internal operation, doesn’t think it’s a fit…be grateful. Because they’re your partner in helping you determine if it’s a good fit or not. That’s exactly how a good search works.

Fierce Conversations is an exceptional self-help book on developing better communication skills. This book is written by Susan Scott, a Seattle based communications consultant who advises and counsels companies and their executives on how to vastly enhance their communication skills, thus leading to improved productivity, operational effectiveness, and overall human relationships.

This book is an easy, yet powerful read, that provides simple and effective tips that can noticeably improve the communication skills of anybody interested and willing to work on them.

Though a strong tool for enhancing personal communication skills, I think it’s most powerful in a business or corporate setting where there is a constant need to successfully interact with, influence, and lead diverse groups of people.

Unfortunately, the subject of communication skills is one that many people feel is important for others, but not themselves. Why? Most people erroneously consider themselves to already possess excellent communication skills. Do you want proof? How many resumes do you receive that mention “mediocre communication skills, but working to improve them.” I’m sure you’ve never seen that line before.

Nearly 85% of the resumes I receive claim excellent or even exceptional communication skills. We all realize that no where near 85% of the population possesses excellent communication skills, but most of us wrongly assume we’re in the small group that do possess such skills.

In terms of career development, improved leadership skills, and increased effectiveness dealing with other people, there is no single skill as important as how well we communicate.

Fierce Conversations offers great advice and many helpful tips and exercises. This is a great book for anyone interested in developing stronger communication skills and thereby enhancing, not only their leadership and mentoring skills, but their overall career as well.

Have you read a book that you consider “must read”? If so, please let me know by replying to this post. If you do not see a reply box, please click on the title of this post and scroll to the bottom.

By any stretch of the imagination, this classic book on spiritual enlightenment is not a business book, but it could be. Why? Because, it has the power to create clarity and focus about oneself and the world around us, including the business world. Perhaps there is no greater epiphany than truly understanding that all of our power rests in seizing the moment. The only power we have is in the moment, in the now, and the second a moment as has passed our ability to act in that instant is gone forever.

For most of us, the past and the future act as psychological chains that hamstring our life. We cannot change the past and we can not live in the future, we only have “now”, this instance, to act. The key is to make every moment count by living fully in the “now” and thereby creating a better past and preparing a better future.

The Power of Now is a fascinating, inspirational, and enlightening book that has the potential to change the way you live your life. But it’s not for everyone. While its lessons are powerful, to many people it may be too out-there. However, for those people who are able to connect with its message, it can be life altering.

Have you read a book that you consider must read? If so, please let me know by replying to this post. If you do not see a reply box, please click on the title of this post and scroll to the bottom.

The standard job search approach is similar to that of a used-car salesman. Polish your shoes, slick back your hair, and go out and tell them whatever you must to make the sale. But there’s a big difference between you and used-car salesmen? Used car salesmen sell products they don’t give a damn about. They just want it off the lot. You on the other hand are selling yourself. And with such a precious product, it matters to whom you sell yourself.

The standard job search approach was never meant to land the right job, just any job. It’s about doing what’s necessary to get yourself off the “job lot”. This approach relies on creating a facade that you believe makes you look stronger. Think again! In our hyper-critical, modern society, this no longer works.

As a society, we just don’t believe people anymore. We’ve heard it all before. Today such actions often achieve the opposite of what we intend. Instead of appearing stronger, we are creating doubt and suspicion about who we are. The only effective counter measure is to be “genuine”. Today it’s all about being “real”. Why? Because being genuine and real slices through cynicism and creates trust and believability.

How do I know if I’m using a “standard” job search approach?

See if you recognize any of these aspects in your own job search efforts:

1. HIDE AND EMBELLISH. Where you hide weaknesses and embellish good attributes.

2. ONE SIZE FITS ALL. Where you use canned answers to common interview questions. This is based on false belief that employers are looking for specific responses and you have to oblige them in order to land the job.

3. ACT THE PART. Where you focus on “acting” your best, not “being” best. It’s about how to act, how to dress, how firmly to shake hands, etc.

If you recognize any of these approaches as part of your job search effort, you’re pursuing a standard job search approach.

The standard job search approach fails on several fronts, but perhaps the most important one is that it’s not focused on the right fit nor on long-term success. It’s simply an effort to land any job you can. Long term success requires intermediate steps that string together essential experiences and developmental opportunities. To find and land such jobs requires a serious job evaluation, but it’s difficult to conduct such an evaluation when one is busy acting a part.

Beware! As the standard used-car sales approach becomes ever more ineffective, the pundits who advocate this technique will blame the competitive landscape and stress that the solution lies in polishing your act even more. This is a smoke screen. The real culprit is the approach itself. It’s time to separate your self from this approach. And in doing so, will lead to a more effective way to land the right job for you.

This is so important, because it’s the most desirable companies that are most critical of people who hide behind facades. As a result, the standard search approach fares best with less desirable companies that are less critical in recruiting employees. Is that the kind of company you want to work for? And how long will it be before even mediocre companies won’t go for this approach?

So if you realize your job search approach is like that of a used-car salesman, today’s the day to start doing something much more powerful – be “yourself”.