Friday, September 05, 2008
In a recent tip I gave advice to those facing the challenge of a job search in a down market. How about those who have a job but may be nervous about keeping it? People often tell me they know they're doing a great job, but they're not sure their bosses or other higher-ups do. Well then, it's time to show them with a little proactive PR! Remember, personal branding isn't about telling people how great you are. It's about reaching out to others in ways that show what you care about and believe in.
With that in mind, I turned to Stephen Viscusi's Bulletproof Your Job: 4 Simple Strategies to Ride Out the Rough Times and Come Out On Top at Work, an entire book on how to make your personal brand at work unassailable.
Here's my list of just a few favorites pulled directly from the book.
Five Tips to Bulletproof Your Job Today
1. Introduce Yourself: "You don't need to get your name on a billboard to make yourself known to a company bigwig. You just need three things: say your name, assert your connection to her, and share your personal pitch... Follow up with an e-mail or handwritten note, reminding him of your brief meeting and saying how much you enjoyed it."
2. Volunteer to Lead: "Offering to take the lead shows you have a stomach for risk, the capacity to learn, and the desire for accomplishment that others might not possess."
3. Be Positive: "In short, positive people are easy to work with and negative people are not. And smart positive people are among the most valuable in the workplace.... You can choose to be positive - and to set off the whole chain of positive influence - simply by indentifying your current worldview and habits and making conscious positive adjustments... All you have to do is smile."
4. Be A Mentor: "...step up and offer a bit of support that will help newbies feel a connection that will make them want to stay in the game and get with the program... It allows you to plant seeds of influence and support throughout your company and your industry that will grow and become more valuable to you over time... You just need to know the ropes of your workplace and have some experience that would be helpful to someone else... Keep things informal, meet regularly, keep it professional, and keep up the connection."
5. Improve Your Networking Skills: "Job survival and advancement are about always having a substantial list of professional acquaintances... The most influential and useful are usually those who work in and around your field, but it's not at all unusual for an outsider to be the most effective person in your network... For every person you collect into your network because she may be helpful to you, you should count on being called onto be a resource for her, too."
Warmest,
Keith
# posted by Daniel (Danny) : 4:17 p.m.
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Here are a few quotes of inspiration and some food for thought about work and life ... CARPE DIEM (seize the day)
"Networking is more than meeting the right people. It's about connecting with their purpose and helping them achieve their goals. It's about connectin them with their success."
Craig Elias: Canada's Mr. Networking
"So you ask “what can I do to build confidence in myself”? Start by discovering who you are (your Personal Brand), which will allow you to understand what you need to do in order to gain this confidence you seek. Once discovered, it is all about repetition, through telling yourself that you are unique and “you have nothing to lose.” Saying this will help you be more outgoing, which translates into confidence."
Dan Schawbel
"Our subconscious minds have no sense of humor, play no jokes and cannot tell the difference between reality and an imagined thought or image. What we continually think about
eventually will manifest in our lives. Unfortunately most of us are completely unaware of this fact and we do not monitor our thoughts with the care needed so that we can
create in our lives the results we say we want. Since the great majority of people do not feel worthy and deserving of abundant good fortune, radiant good health and total
success in all areas of their lives that overriding thought pattern controls the results people get. The first order of business of anyone who wants to enjoy success in all areas
of his or her life is to take charge of the internal dialogue they have and only think, say and behave in manner consistent with the results they truly desire. - Sidney Madwed
"You cannot escape the results of your thoughts. Whatever your present environment may be, you will fall, remain or rise with your thoughts, your vision, your ideal. You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration." - James Lane Allen
"In football you always get judged on your last game. Whoever you are, or how amazing you are, it's the last game that everyone has seen." - Thierry Henry
"80% of the stuff you get you are never going to need again. 20% you do need, and you need to prioritize its importance."
Julie Mahan
"It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project." - Napoleon Hill
"The only thing that doesn't change is change itself." - Heraclitus (You can't step into the same river twice, the old Greek said, because the water keeps moving. - If you're clinging to your old reliable tools, you're not just standing still, you're actually moving backwards from the point of view of those who are moving on with the river of technological change.)
"The secret of man's success resides in his insight into the moods of people, and his tact in dealing with them." - J. G. Holland
"To put distance between you and your competition, you must become more VALUABLE... not just more PRODUCTIVE."
E. R. Haas
"When one door closes another door opens; but we do often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us." - Alexander Graham Bell
"Successful people are not necessary smarter than anyone else, they are simply more effective."
Ross Mackay
"You'll never achieve real success unless you like what you're doing."
Dale Carnegie
