As we enter the final 30 days or so of 2016, your thoughts may turn to the new year, fresh perspectives, new ambitions, and goals. Your professional online presence should be one of those areas that you take a moment to review and ensure you are set for 2017. For many of you, your digital impression is gathered by others from your LinkedIn profile first. As we still await the new… Read More »3 End of Year Actions for Your LinkedIn Profile
Image Fast Company Magazine August 1997
Next year will see the 20-year anniversary of the Fast Company magazine article “The Brand Called You” by Tom Peters. This was two years before his book series, which included “Brand You 50” were published. Most recognize the article as the ‘birth’ of personal branding or at the least the first time that the concept of having a personal brand appeared on the business radar. When you Google “Brand Called You” the article still appears at the top of the rankings. Read the article here
Many people still minimize the power of personal branding and some label it as egotistical and ridiculous. The criticism is legitimate towards those who have likened branding yourself to branding a bar of chocolate. In fact, the intention is to show the contrast between a person and a corporation when it comes to branding.
It probably took ten years after that article, for the notion of owning your personal brand to be embraced as an accepted way of managing your career, business, and even life. Celebrity branding has exploded with constant exposure and an unquenchable thirst for more. This leaves many people feeling inadequate unless they too garner the same visibility. Sadly credibility can sometimes take a back seat.
Social media has been both a blessing and curse and can be blamed for some of the hype, expectation, and disdain that personal branding attracts. But fault can also lie at the feet of the ‘gurus’ and experts who tell you to “Fake it until you make it” or encourage you to turn your social media streams into a one-way flow of personally branding me, me, me that should never be turned off.
When it comes to personal branding the one question I always get is
Read More »The One Question I Always Get on Personal Branding
The Inukshuk is a symbol that has always resonated with me – “A guide for the right direction”. Sometimes one of the hardest parts of the work in defining your personal brand is identifying your purpose. Mother Theresa was a great example of someone with a purpose- to help the poor in Calcutta. Another is Guy Laliberte, the founder of Cirque du Soleil, with his dream of providing water to… Read More »Does Your Personal Brand Have a Purpose?
Last week I mentioned that there are a lot of changes happening with LinkedIn and several people asked what news I could share. This is a link to the replay of LinkedIn’s press announcement about 3 weeks ago. The news that will probably impact you the most, is that the look and feel of your profile and the features associated with your account will be changing, in some cases quite… Read More »Changes Are Coming to LinkedIn…………Watch this space!
By the end of the day, one of the candidates may well be looking back to today as one of their best days at work, at least so far. Of course, the work for the successful President of the United States is only just beginning, some future days maybe best days and some may be the worst, it’s not an easy job for sure. The best and worst seems to be how many of you look at your own jobs and careers.
Presenteeism, time spent at the workplace while not productively engaged in work, is the new absenteeism
The conclusion of a 2015 Canadian study, The True Picture of Workplace Absenteeism, with 1,300 people including just over 1,000 employees, found that 80 percent of respondents self-reported experience with presenteeism. 81 percent indicated that they had gone into work while they could not perform as well as they would have liked.
The reasons for doing so included physical sickness (47 percent), stress or anxiety (40 percent) and workplace issues and/or problems with co-workers or managers (22 percent). Depression was specified as the cause by 15 percent of respondents.
A quick Google search of #BestWorkDay uncovers plenty of top 10 lists on ways to ensure you have your best days at work. The common advice to these problems seems to fall into two camps.
Read More »Will Today be Trump or Clinton’s Best Day at Work?
There are a lot of changes happening with LinkedIn right now, and more to come, so watch this space! The latest new feature to roll out in the US, Canada, and the UK is a salary calculator called LinkedIn Salary. “Earlier this year, LinkedIn emailed members asking them to anonymously disclose their salaries”, said Ryan Sandler, a product manager. “In exchange, they were given insight into what peers in their fields are… Read More »Can LinkedIn Tell You What Your Salary Should Be?
Many believe that the endorsements, given by others, of your skills on your profile, are next to worthless. Following several acquisitions of companies in the artificial intelligence (A.I.) space, LinkedIn has been incorporating some of the technology into upgrades of its platform. This includes looking to make the endorsements of skills more relevant to those viewing your profile. We all appreciate the value of a solid recommendation from a colleague or client.… Read More »Are Skills Endorsements on LinkedIn Really Worth Anything?
A big source of revenue for LinkedIn is it’s recruiter focused accounts. Naturally (as in the ad above) they want to make the platform attractive to recruiters. But not all candidates are public about their job searching intentions because they fear their boss may find out. Now LinkedIn has introduced a feature that you can turn on or off which privately advises recruiters that you are open to new opportunities.… Read More »Don’t Make the Mistake of Telling Your Boss Your Are Looking for a New Job
Last week I had an anniversary related to one of the collaboration projects I am involved in. It is listed on my LinkedIn profile. When this happens all of my 1st connections are told either on their home page under ‘Ways to stay in touch’, or now in their messages area it welcomes you with the ‘Hi Paul. Some ideas for conversations’ LinkedIn makes it very easy for these connections… Read More »Congratulating Me on LinkedIn is a Mistake
“A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.” – Bob Dylan
The Fall is a busy time for everyone. Many companies view the last 4 months of the year as an opportunity to spend the years budgets, or individuals look to make that all important career move, ready to start the new year in a new opportunity.
Recruiters are also very active, between now and the end of the year can make or break their commissions or bonus, and for some those payments can be significant. Unfortunately that can sometimes mean they lose sight of what is best for the candidate.
A word to the wise when you get that next headhunters call!!
I am reminded about a certain recruiter who I think only ever worked for one client and therefore when he was contacting people to talk about a great new opportunity he could really only have one ‘sales pitch’.
One September he called a friend of mine who had, to that point, a successful career in sales in consumer goods and proceeded to tell him that industry was dying, no future, consolidation was happening everywhere – to an extent it was true. He went on to say Now if you want to get in to a growth industry do I have the opportunity for you – I’m thinking of you and I’m thinking – aluminum extrusions, was how he described it – we knew it was double glazing!
Three years later, again in September, my friend, who had by then switched to the medical industry, had a call one evening from the same recruiter – his opening line after finding out what my friend was doing was “That’s a dying industry, lots of consolidation – now if you want to get in to a growth industry do I have the opportunity for you – I’m thinking of you and I’m thinking – aluminum extrusions……..!!!!!!”
You should not be leaving your next career move to the whims of anyone else, it’s up to you to own the definition of who you are.
Here are 5 ways to ensure you have better control of your career;
Read More »Don’t Leave Your Personal Brand to Chance – 5 Tips for Success