Continental Search & Outplacement, Inc.

Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives

Dan — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:15:38 +0000

By Dan Simmons

You’ve probably heard of a book titled The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People by Steven R. Covey. As I got to thinking, I thought, what about a blog on “The Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives”? Leadership is a hard thing to teach. I recently sent an email to my clients about the need for self-evaluation of all leaders within an organization. While it drew an interesting correlation between the Godfather and balance of leadership, it spoke the truth.

In 2004, Dartmouth College professor Sydney Finkelstein published the book Why Smart Executives Fail. During the research he conducted for the book, he discovered that executives working at companies that became complete failures all shared seven habits. Finkelstein aptly named these habits (as you might have already guessed) “The Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives.” In the interest of brevity, I’ve simply listed them below.

Habit #1—They see themselves and their companies as dominating their environment.

Habit #2—They identify so completely with the company that there is no clear boundary between their personal interests and their corporation’s interests.

Habit #3—They think they have all the answers.

Habit #4—They ruthlessly eliminate anyone who isn’t completely behind them.

Habit #5—They are consummate spokespersons, obsessed with the company image.

Habit #6—They underestimate obstacles.

Habit #7—They stubbornly rely on what worked for them in the past.

For more information, check out Sydney Finkelstein’s blog

As a manager or team leader, how do you stack up in regards to these habits? Do you practice them at all . . . or maybe just a little? Do you see them in others? If so, work now to eliminate these habits—wherever they exist—before they lead your company down the wrong path.

How to Leverage Your Performance Review

Dan — Tue, 08 May 2012 11:00:30 +0000

Welcome to the third part of our blog series. In the first part of the series, we addressed the question of what you’re worth in today’s market. In the second part, we discussed what to do if you discover that you’re underpaid.

Now it’s time to learn how to leverage your annual performance review. Let me start with a very interesting story.

When I was recruiting for CVS, I would go through the company’s paper filing cabinets, which dated back to 1976. On Wednesday nights, I’d call people who were in the files. One night, I reached Paul C., who was working at Kmart at the time, but wanted to make a career change. Paul interviewed for a position at CVS and was perfect for it. However, he was looking to earn $37K per year as opposed to $34K, which is what the company was offering. It just so happened that he had kept all of his employment reviews for the previous seven years at home. I asked him to compile everything he had and I presented it to the company that was interested in hiring him. Long story short: Paul was hired at a salary of $37K and was eventually promoted twice. When the company closed five years later in 1998, he went to work at Wal-Mart as a store manager at a salary of $100K per year!

Your employee evaluation isn’t just an introduction to your raise or an excuse as to why you haven’t received one. Get a copy of your performance reviews, and then leverage them when you’re looking for a new opportunity. How do you get them and what do you do when you have them?

Follow the steps below:

Contact the Human Resources department and say, “There were suggestions on my performance review that I’d like to take a look at. Can you send me a copy so I can improve and accomplish those things? I wasn’t given one.”
Use your review as a leveraging tool to secure the most money and compensation, both internally and externally.
When it’s time for your next review, have the previous one in front of you. You’ve just created a much stronger negotiating point.

Start looking at your performance reviews in a different light . . . and start leveraging them for maximum effect on your current employment and the future of your career.

Now you know what you’re worth, what to do if you’re underpaid, and what to do with your annual performance evaluation and review.

Still need help? Looking for someone to actively recruit for you or find you your dream job? Connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter. I’d be happy to help!

5 Strategies for Building Resilience Professionally

Dan — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:00:58 +0000

(By Dan Simmons)

Let’s be honest—you can’t eliminate stress from your personal or professional life. It’s going to exist, in one form or another, whether good stress or bad stress. Most people don’t think of stress ever being a good thing, but there are many things in life that can still add elements of stress to our every day routine. Good stress could be a promotion that comes with more responsibilities attached to it.

Since we can’t shy away these things in life, it would be wise to formulate a plan for dealing with that stress and transforming it from a negative into a potential positive. How do you do that? By managing it effectively through the practice of certain techniques and building resilience, you can learn to better handle situations as they come and prepare for certain stresses, versus just reacting to them.

Below are five strategies you can use to manage stress and build resilience in your professional life. All of them are geared—at least in part—with one objective in mind: to create balance. Stress often becomes a major problem when a huge imbalance exists. By eliminating or preventing that imbalance, you’re better able to cope with stress and build resiliency.

Make discernable progress—Do something every day that helps you move forward. Track your progress somehow, if that impacts your outlook in a positive fashion.

Take action steps—This strategy is intertwined with the one above. To move forward, you must take action, and you have to do so every day. That’s the only way to initiate progress.

Shape a healthy perspective—You need confidence, a positive attitude, and a long-term outlook. Continue to cultivate these attributes on a daily basis. No problem is too big to overcome.

Maintain an “even keel”—Nothing is ever as bad as it seems, and nothing is ever as good as it seems. Bring a balanced and measured approach to every situation. Sometimes being “even keel” means taking time for yourself from work and balancing your home and professional life priorities.

Invest in human interaction—Connect with other people, both personally and professionally. The camaraderie and social networking will re-charge your batteries, and other people may provide additional tips for success.

You’ll be surprised at how resilient you’ll become (and feel) after practicing these strategies for just a short amount of time. You’ll be a more efficient leader and better at managing your expectations of situations that you simply cannot control. It’s a mindset, not an end goal. You can even enlist the help of an accountability partner or mentor to help you accomplish your goals. Because a little bit of resiliency . . . can go a long way.

Employee Satisfaction: Giving Your Employees the Attention They Need!

Dan — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 11:00:21 +0000

In today’s business environment, the overriding mantra is often, “Do more with less!” This pertains to resources, materials, and even employees. Unfortunately, it’s human nature to not pay enough attention to your best employees and top performers. Why is that?

Your top performers are self-motivated go-getters who need no prompting or anybody looking over their shoulder.

This gives managers more flexibility and more freedom to tackle other issues. However, while it makes sense to leave top performers be and let them do their jobs, that philosophy can be harmful if taken too far. Employee satisfaction is a very important part of your job as a manager. It can make or break your team and could lead to you losing or keeping your best employees!

Here’s a reality check: If superstar employees don’t believe that they’re growing in their current position and working toward something bigger and better, then they’re going to think about leaving. That’s why you absolutely need to know what their professional needs and career goals are.

This may sound a bit simplistic, but the best way to do this is by asking them. You shouldn’t subject them to an intensive, intimidating interrogation, though. Instead, fully engage them and make them feel comfortable enough to broach topics they might not bring up themselves. In other words, give them the attention they crave and ask the questions that will ultimately help to retain them as employees:

Ask what their expectations are for their employment with the company. This type of open-ended question may prompt a response you didn’t expect, but that’s information you need to know.

Ask what their career goals and objectives are.

Ask what the company can do to help them accomplish their goals.

Based upon their answers, formulate a game plan for achieving their objectives while still working for your company. Also plan to meet on a consistent basis going forward to gauge their progress and set additional goals. Star employees think about their career ambitions all the time. It’s in their nature. So if that’s the case, it makes sense to give the proper amount of attention to their plans for the future.

If you don’t, then you increase the chances that your company won’t be involved in those plans.

What To Do If You’re Underpaid – 6 Strategic Career Steps

Lisa — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:00:16 +0000

Just like a balanced financial portfolio, you should have both stocks and bonds to ensure growth and stability in regards to your career portfolio. In other words, you should look both internally and externally when evaluating your career.

The correlation is as follows:

BONDS—Talk with a recruiter within your current company and ask about career advancement opportunities.

STOCKS—This is a more aggressive approach, which entails looking outside the company for advancement opportunities.

So, once you’ve ascertained that you’re being underpaid, your top priority should be to prevent your wages from stagnating even further. This is the prime time for building and developing your career, and you’ll want to cast as wide a net as possible.

The logical place to start is within your existing network (bonds), but you’ll also want to explore external options (stocks). Below are six strategies for accomplishing both:

Identify colleagues and key players at your current employer and let them know that you want to be on the radar for openings.

Have an informal chat with an internal recruiter and express your desire to climb up the company ladder.

Don’t turn away outside entries.

Look at what you’ve contributed to the company (i.e., your internal accomplishments), and then review that when it comes time to ask for a raise.

Have a talk with your immediate supervisor and find out how they see your career progressing. Ask, “What should I do to make the most of my career with this company?” Listen intently, evaluate your options, and leverage information. You’ve either been told how to get more value from your present situation . . . or you’ve been told that it’s time to go.

Line up your references, your online identity, and a recruiter. Then have a long talk with your family about the direction of your career.

Daniel C. Simmons is a Certified Personnel Consultant who has been recruiting since 1991. Dan has won over twenty awards in the last decade with the Top Echelon Network, America’s leading placement network including Placer of the Year in 2009 & 2010.

Frequently Dan also is a recruiter trainer and has been featured at various Top Echelon Conventions and online as a speaker for various webinars. He has also been published in The Fordyce Letter the recruiting industry’s #1 magazine.

Are You Looking For a Job? Contact Dan Today!

What Are You Worth in Today’s Market?

Dan — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:33:28 +0000

If you follow the Dow Jones, you’ll notice that stocks—and by extension, the job market—are hot right now. However, regardless of your financial assets at the moment, your career is the most important stock you own.

This begs the question: What are you worth in today’s market?

A general principle for financial success in the stock market is to buy low and sell high. When that rule of thumb is applied to your career, it means that you should stay put in a poor job market and be open to making a move during a hot market. Just as you evaluate your stock portfolio, you should also be evaluating your career. Is this the right time for you to make a change? Are you getting the most value from your work? Are you selling your time to the highest bidder?

When you evaluate stocks, that evaluation involves comparing factors such as the price-per-earnings ratio and the dividend payout. You can complete a similar evaluation of your career by comparing your job to others in your field.

There are a few tools you can use in your quest to find answers:

Conduct online research regarding what jobs are paying within your geographic market and industry. You can do this by visiting job posting aggregators Indeed and SimplyHired, as well as other applicable niche sites.

Online salary surveys (such as www.payscale.com and www.salary.com) offer a wealth of information, right at your fingertips.

Recruiters within your niche, whether it’s industry or discipline or even geographic niche, often have this information, too. Contact them with your questions.

By comparing your compensation to current market rates, you’ll have a better idea of what you’re worth and whether it’s time to put yourself on the market or pat yourself on the back.

Are You Looking For a Job? Contact Dan Today!

What’s Your Plan? Making Passive Candidates, Exceptional Employees

Dan — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:00:23 +0000

You know the old adage: if you don’t plan to do something . . . there’s a good chance you’re not going to do it. That can be applied to anything, including hiring exceptional candidates to join your company. If you don’t have a specific plan in place to hire these types of candidates, chances are that you won’t hire them. Instead, you’ll hire candidates that are less than exceptional.

In our previous blog post, we discussed the importance of making sure that your company’s process for finding, recruiting, assessing, and hiring passive candidates isn’t the same as the process for active job seekers.

Now that you’ve established your process for hiring passive candidates (and that it’s different than your process for active job seekers), it’s time to address the importance of having a workforce plan for implementing that process for the purpose of hiring exceptional people.

When it comes to your workforce plan for implementing your hiring process, here are some important points to keep in mind:

All the critical positions that need to be filled should be identified . . . and there should be criteria used to determine which ones are “critical” and which ones are not.
All critical positions should be filled within six months, at the most.
Everybody involved in the hiring process should be aware of everybody else in the process, and they should also know other people’s specific role in the process.
Make sure that the person or people who are constructing the workforce plan and implementing the hiring process are committed to and excited about both.

That last point is especially crucial. Finding and hiring exceptional candidates is never easy, and it might be more difficult in today’s environment.

If one of those people is you—or if you’re the one leading these people—it falls on your shoulders to make sure that the plan and the process produce the types of exceptional candidates and superstar employees that it should.

So . . . what is your workforce plan for making passive candidates, exceptional employees?

Is Your Company Looking for Great Candidates? Contact Dan Today!

An 11-Letter Word for Building Your Professional Online Identity

Dan — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 10:00:36 +0000

In my last couple of blog posts, I addressed the subject of properly building an online identity. Specifically, I drew a correlation between your online identity and The Matrix movie series and discussed the link that exists between your professional online identity and your personal brand.

Early Adopters vs. The Competition

Are you an early adopter? This marketing term that defines a group of individuals that are willing to jump in also applies to job seekers. They’re the people that are shouting from the pool “Come on in, the water’s fine!” Are you on Facebook, LinkedIn, online job boards? Are you staying connected to people that have the same interests as you? (Example: A Dairy Nutritionist should be connected to people on Twitter with interests in : Dairy, Cows, Animal nutrition, animal science, etc.)

I’m guessing these thoughts running through your mind:

An online identity, who needs it? People can find me easily. Just look up my name.
I have business cards and an email account…does that qualify for an online identity?
Facebook is for highschool and college students, I won’t find a job there.
LinkedIn is okay, it’s more business minded, but I don’t have the time to learn it.

The truth is, there’s one big reason why you should be carefully constructing and maintaining your professional online identity.

OPPORTUNITY!

Right now, not many candidates subscribe to building an online identity as a feasible way to promote themselves. In fact, by some estimates, only 10% to 20% of professionals are taking the time to build their online identity.

Why Should You be the First?

Didn’t your mother ever tell you, “The early bird gets the worm?” At some point in the near future everybody will be building a comprehensive online identity. The job market is headed in the direction. After all, the Internet isn’t going away anytime soon. The competition in the job market has been fierce over the past couple of years. There’s reason to believe that level of competition will remain, no matter how much the economy recovers and grows.

Building your online identity is all about opportunity. It doesn’t matter whether you’re an active job seeker or a passive candidate, everybody likes to have options and everybody likes opportunities. In the past, builiding your network was done solely offline and through lunch meetings. Bring online, gives you the extra boost to be the first to propose that lunch meeting, possible even meet new contacts you wouldn’t have met any other way due to geographical or network restrictions. Now, the world is at your fingertips, but you have to put yourself out there, professionally and appropriately.

If you’re an active job seeker, you’re looking for new opportunities on an almost daily basis. You welcome them, and a complete and impressive online identity can increase the chances that you’ll find such opportunities.

If you’re a passive candidate, you’re not actively looking for new opportunities, at least not in a way that consumes a large amount of your time. However, you wouldn’t mind if people came to you with new and exciting opportunities for career advancement. Once again, an online identity can create more of those opportunities.

So remember—you can’t take advantage of an opportunity for advancement if that opportunity doesn’t exist. Building and maintaining an online identity that brands you in the best fashion possible gives you a competitive edge over other candidates and a head start in your quest for a more fulfilling and satisfying career journey.

Audit Your Process for Hiring Passive Candidates

Dan — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 11:00:32 +0000

(By Dan Simmons)

In our previous blog post, we discussed the “new math” of the marketplace. According to that “new math,” there are roughly as many superstar candidates in your industry right now as when the recession started. That means those superstars might be theoretically more difficult to find—especially if they’re passive—since they’re far outnumbered by active job seekers, who are much more aggressive in their pursuit of your open position. Are you ready to audit your hiring processes for hiring those passive candidates?

Your Passive Candidates Should be Treated Differently

Hiring managers may find that the majority of their time is devoted to dealing with active job seekers—their applications, their interest, and their resumes. Because of this, it’s all too easy to fall into the habit of treating every candidate like an active job seeker. There are distinct differences between a passive candidate and an active job seeker—their motivation, their approach, how they’ll respond during the recruiting and hiring process, etc. These differences are often easy to forget at the beginning of the process, but they should not be forgotten.

Two things to remember:

By and large, superstars are more likely to be passive candidates than active job seekers.
Treating passive superstar candidates like they’re active job seekers will turn them off, thereby ensuring that they don’t give your company serious consideration.

The Audit

It’s imperative that you closely examine your process for finding, recruiting, assessing, and hiring passive candidates. Lou Adler also provides a great overview he likes to call the “10 Commandments of Recruiting Passive Candidates.” Click here for a quick read.

Ask yourself the following questions:

Is this process different than the process you have for active job seekers?
If it is different, how is it different? If it’s not that different, what changes should you make to rectify the situation?
If you were a passive superstar candidate, what would you think about the process? Would it entice you to want to work for your company?

Passive candidates need to be convinced that working for your company is the best move they can make. Will your hiring process convince them of that? If not, you should address this issue immediately . . . before these candidates are wooed by your competition.

Need Assistance Recruiting Passive Candidates? Contact Dan Today!

Where Will You Be? Meet us at MANC – The Mid-Atlantic Nutrition Conference

Dan — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 12:00:07 +0000

That event is the Mid-Atlantic Nutrition Conference, or MANC. The MANC is celebrating its 10th year of existence in 2012, and this year’s event is scheduled for Wednesday, March 28, and Thursday, March 29, at the Crowne Plaza Baltimore in Timonium, Md.

Below is the official description of the MANC:

“The Mid-Atlantic Nutrition Conference (formerly the Maryland Nutrition Conference) is recognized as a premier educational event for the animal nutrition industry. Local, national, and international nutritionists share new, innovative, and practical research being conducted at universities, in industry, and at government institutions. Regulatory issues and future opportunities are discussed. The program is focused on poultry, dairy, and equine nutrition.”

The slogan for this year’s conference is “Feeding for the Future.” On the first day (March 28) there will be a General Session and Technical Symposium during the day and then a reception in the evening. The following day (March 29) will be filled with Concurrent Programs and Poster Sessions, as well as Vendor Breaks, and of course, lunch. As a bonus, attendees will qualify for American Registry of Professional Animal Scientists (ARPAS) credits.

Those attending the MANC will include students, professional nutritionists, consultants, government officials, university scientists, allied industry personnel, farmers, and ranchers. Also at the event will be our own Dan Simmons, who’s a regular attendee of the Mid-Atlantic Nutrition Conference.

The deadline for registering for the MANC is Wednesday, March 14. The cost to attend the two-day conference is $100. However, one-day registration for Thursday, March 29, is available for $75. (Anybody signing up after March 14 will be subject to late registration fees.)

Click here for complete information regarding the 2012 Mid-Atlantic Nutrition Conference, including how to register.

Don’t forget Dan!

Email him before the conference at dan@consearch.com to let him know you’ll be in attendance. He’s looking forward to seeing you there!

(If you have information regarding other industry events, email the details of those events to matt@animalsciencemonitor.com.)