Social media plays an increasingly important role in your life and career success.  The other day, I saw a great post on how to make effective use of social media in a job search by Ross Simmonds in the Corn on the Job blog.

Ross provides some great common sense career advice in this post.  Check out what he has to say…

First, figure out what industry you’re looking to break into and how you can do it. Are you looking to get into Politics? If so, you’re going to be interested in finding any politicians on social media and follow them on Twitter or connect with them on LinkedIn. If you’re looking to break into the corporate world of management and business, LinkedIn is a great way to search various organizations to identify key decision-makers who can help open the door to your new career.

From there track down these key people on Twitter or LinkedIn and offer an innocent and polite introduction to yourself – While you’re at it, ask them something that will allow them to share their knowledge upon you. The fact that you’re engaging with them on a deeper level than simply asking for a job will help you develop an authentic relationship. By doing this, you may have started what could be a long-term professional relationship. This is a great approach for any young person looking to find a mentor in a specific industry.

This advice has helped get many of my friends and colleagues where they are today – believe it or not. Social media gives us an opportunity to connect and most importantly increase our visibility to a group we would only meet at a white-tie event. That said, once you have identified people who are doing what you want to do or are in the businesses you want to work for don’t harass them. Keep an eye on what they are doing and focus on developing an authentic relationship with them one day (or tweet) at a time.

When someone Googles your name what is the first thing to show up? Is it a random person in a random country? Is it a humiliating image of you on Facebook? Or is it simply a list of random links with no personal relevance? None of these are the best answers. The best answer is one that ensures that when someone searches you on Google, they find exactly what you want them to find. More and more are recruiters doing background checks by searching our names online (usually on Facebook). If you’re able to control your image effectively online you will find it easier to control your fate in the job hunt.

That final piece about taking charge and managing your professional image is an important one. If you’re looking to break into a professional field, you’re going to want to present yourself on social media in a professional manner. That’s right, you need to recognize that school is over and it’s time to start building and developing a personal brand that you can be proud of. Yes, that means having a head shot on LinkedIn and not a picture of you and your friends’ on a beach or doing shots before a big night on the town!

Remember, setting up a LinkedIn account and connecting with key individuals will not guarantee you a job. To do that, you are going to have to put in the time and understand the art of the hustle. Although digital channels have changed everything, the power of meeting someone face to face is still a necessity. Thus, I encourage you to take your professional conversations from being behind the screen of a laptop to being face to face in a coffee shop or even their office. Trust me, there’s nothing better than being able to put a face to the pixels.

I like what Ross has to say here.  There are two points I’d like to emphasize.  The first is in the next to last paragraph – manage your personal image.  Pay attention to how you come across on line.  Google yourself and take a hard, critical look at what you find.  Ask yourself, “Would I hire this person?”  If the answer is no, start building a more professional image on line.  Ross’ professional headshot suggestion is a good place to start.

In the final paragraph Ross makes another great career success point – social media is great for meeting people, but they don’t substitute for face to face conversation.  Once you make a contact do everything you can to connect in person.  If meeting in person is impossible because of distance, try connecting via the telephone.  As Alex Mandossian points out, the human voice is still the best tool at your disposal for building the relationships that help you create the life and career success you want and deserve.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  A solid professional image goes a long way in helping you land your dream job.  Follow the career advice in Tweet 67 in my career success book Success Tweets.  “Demonstrate self-respect.  Be impeccable in your presentation of self – in person and on line.”  In this post I shared some great career advice from Ross Simmonds on how to use social media to present yourself as a competent professional.  But remember, while social media is great for initiating relationships, noting takes the place of face to face communication for enhancing them.

That’s the career advice I found in Ross Simmonds’ thoughts on using social media to land a job.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, I suggest that you check out my career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: Have you seen my membership site, My Corporate Climb?  It’s devoted to helping people just like you create career success inside large corporations.  You can find out about it by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

I saw an article in the United Airlines in flight mag “Hemispheres” the other day.  It made a great common sense point about the importance of lifelong learning and career success…

“The benefits of a lifelong education are incalculable, both for individuals and for the companies for which they work.  As the world become smaller and competition fiercer, the upside to continued education will grow exponentially.”

I agree.  Tweet 81 in my career success book Success Tweets says, “Learn faster than the world changes.  In a world that never stops changing, you can never stop learning and growing.”

Lifelong learning is a key to success.  In today’s fast-paced world, if you don’t keep learning, you’re not standing still, you’re falling behind.  One of my favorite quotes from Gandhi nails it when it comes to lifelong learning…

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow.  Learn as if you were to live forever.”

He’s right.  None of us should ever quit learning.  I have a thirst for knowledge and do my best to quench it through learning.  I try to learn something new every day.  Sometimes my learning is trivial, sometimes it is profound.  Regardless, I keep on learning.

On days when I feel as if I haven’t learned anything, I turn to a little book that I have called, Live and Learn and Pass It On.  The subtitle is, “People ages 5 to 95 share what they’ve discovered about life, love, and other good stuff.”  I usually find something in there that satisfies.

Here are a few of the learnings in the book that have helped me…

I’ve learned that if you wait until all conditions are perfect before you act, you’ll never act.

I’ve learned that if you want to get promoted, you must do things that get you noticed.

I’ve learned that 90% of what happens in my life is positive and only about 10% is negative.  If I want to be happy I just need to focus on the 90%.

These are little life learnings that I find helpful.

All of the people I know who are committed to lifelong learning have several traits in common.  They all…

…Are humble.  They admit what they don’t know.  This is the first step in learning what they need to know.

…Question the status quo.  They realize that because something is right today, it may not be right tomorrow.  They know that doing things “the way we’ve always done them” is not good reasoning.

…Are intellectually curious.  They truly want to learn and find learning fun, interesting and stimulating.  They see life as a journey in which they are constantly learning.

…Are willing to try new stuff.  They experiment and see what works.  When things work, they use them.

…Are not afraid to fail.  They see failure as an opportunity to learn.  Just as they incorporate what works into their repertoire, they use failures as stepping stones to other experiments.

…Are tolerant of ambiguity.  Learning creates ambiguity.  These people are willing to let go of past ways of doing things in order to come up with new ways of doing things in the future.  The gap between the past and future can make for an uncomfortable present.

…Focus on staying ahead of the pack.  They are early adopters – of new technology and new ways of thinking.  They realize that knowledge has a short half-life today.  They keep learning to stay ahead.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people are outstanding performers.  Outstanding performers remain outstanding performers by becoming lifelong learners.  They continually expand their knowledge in order to get out in front of the pack and stay there.  They follow the career advice in Tweet 82 in Success Tweets.  “Learn faster than the world changes.  In a world that never stops changing, you can never stop learning and growing.”  Begin your lifelong learning journey by focusing on your strengths and working to improve them every day.  Building on your strengths is easier than overcoming your weaknesses.  When you build on your strengths you can make incremental improvements.  However, if you have a glaring gap in your skills, address it now.  Don’t wait to take necessary quantum leaps.  What do you need to learn to create the life and career success you want and deserve?  How do you plan on learning it?  Remember what Ben Franklin had to say, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

That’s my career advice on lifelong learning.  What do you think?  Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, I suggest that you check out my career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: Have you seen my membership site, My Corporate Climb?  It’s devoted to helping people just like you create career success inside large corporations.  You can find out about it by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

The ability to create positive personal impact is an important life and the career success key.  I devote an entire section of my latest book Climbing the Corporate Ladder to it.  You need to do three things to create positive personal impact: 1) Create and nurture your unique personal brand; 2) be impeccable in your presentation of self – in person and on line; and 3) know and follow the basic rules of business etiquette.

I subscribe to Ann Marie Sabath’s newsletter in which she provides an etiquette tip every month.    Ann Marie is the founder and CEO of At Ease Inc., a business protocol and etiquette company.  She’s been in business since 1987  — one year before I started my speaking, writing and career coaching business.  Check her out at http://www.ateaseinc.com.  This month’s tip was about conversation skills – another key career success competency.  Check it out…

“When you are in conversation with others, do you learn more about them or do you more about yourself?

“Some people go in to monologue mode without realizing it when talking to others.  What they not realize, however, is that people would see them as much more interesting if they were only more interested in others.

“Savvy conversationalists ask more about others than they share about themselves.  They wait for those around them to ask for their opinions rather than volunteering information.  These master conversationalists know that less is more when talking.  They position what they have to say by posing a question about the topic they would like to discuss to ensure equal exchange.”

I devote several tweets in my career success book, Success Tweets to conversation skills.  Tweet 107 echoes Ann Marie’s advice on conversations.  “Become an excellent conversationalist by listening more than speaking.  Pay attention to what other people say; respond appropriately.”  Tweet 109 says, “Use the 2/3 – 1/3 rule.  Listen two things of the time; speak one third of the time.  Focus your complete attention on the other person.”

In other posts I’ve pointed out that asking good questions is an important way to become known as a great conversationalist.  But to take full advantage of the questions you ask, you need to really listen to the answers and respond appropriately.

Here are my top seven tips for becoming a good listener – and conversationalist.

1. Look the other person in the eye when he or she is speaking.  This demonstrates that you are engaged with him or her.
2. Listen to understand what the other person is saying – not to plan your rebuttal.
3. Listen really hard when the other person begins by saying something with which you don’t agree.
4. Know the words that trigger your emotions.  Don’t get distracted by them.
5. Be patient.  Some people take longer than others to make their point.  Don’t interrupt.
6. Ask clarification questions when you don’t understand.
7. Repeat what you have heard the other person say – to make sure you got it right, and to show him or her that you were listening.

If you use these seven tips in conversation, you will become known as a great conversationalist and a dynamic communicator.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people are good conversationalists.  To become a good conversationalist, follow the career advice in Tweets 107 and 109 in Success Tweets.  “Become an excellent conversationalist by listening more than speaking.  Pay attention to what other people say; respond appropriately.”  (Tweet 107) “Use the 2/3 – 1/3 rule.  Listen two things of the time; speak one third of the time.  Focus your complete attention on the other person.”  (Tweet 109)  Learn to listen well.  Listening, like a lot of career success advice, is just common sense.  Show the other person you are engaged.  Focus on understanding, not on rebutting points with which you don’t agree.  Don’t get distracted by words that trigger your emotions.  Ask clarification questions to ensure you understand what is being said.  Repeat what you’ve heard.  Most of all, get in the habit of listening more than speaking.

That’s my career advice on conversation skills.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, I suggest that you check out my career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: Have you seen my membership site, My Corporate Climb?  It’s devoted to helping people just like you create career success inside large corporations.  You can find out about it by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

Strong, lasting, mutually beneficial relationships are one of the keys to life and career success that I discuss in a couple of my career advice books: Climbing the Corporate Ladder and Success Tweets.  Successful people build strong relationships with the important people in their lives.  Resentment is a relationship killer.

Joseph Bernard, a good friend and talented blogger recently did a great blog post “How to Stop Resentment From Killing Your Relationships.”  Joseph is an abunadance type of guy.  He allows me to repost his blogs.  You need to read this post.  It’s the very best advice on dealing with resentments that I’ve ever seen…

Have you ever stuffed a feeling just to keep things okay in your relationship? The answer is YES. If you deny you have, we need to talk because you are either a saint and I can sit at your feet and learn or (I am betting on this second one) you need to get help identifying what you feel.

 Resentment is a secondary emotion generated by unexpressed feelings. The more you deny, ignore, or push down your feelings the more resentment you gather in your body.

Example: Let’s say you are angry over something that happened. Maybe you feel ignored or someone has hurt you with their words. If you sit on those feelings and don’t express your anger, where do those feelings go? They go into an energetic holding pattern and become tension in your body. The emotional cost of unexpressed feelings is that you become resentful.

Think of emotions as energy-in-motion. Once they are denied or ignored the energy is blocked like putting a brick in a very small stream. The aliveness in your body is impeded like that blocked stream. These bricks of resentment cause you to close down and become numb.

Warning: blocked emotions can be very destructive to your health and well-being. They also can have a very negative affect on your sense of self and your connection to others.

Imagine each stuffed feeling adds another brick that further blocks the inner flow of your aliveness. Soon you have enough bricks to build a wall. You begin to wall yourself off from those around you. This wall of resentment not only blocks you but it blocks the flow outward. This constricted flow is particularly noticeable because it closes your heart to giving and receiving love.

After a period of time you become aware that you don’t feel much towards those you love and you might wonder, what happened? You have built a wall of resentments (unexpressed feelings) and now you might even blame them for not feeling love anymore. Even positive feelings not expressed can become part of your interior construction site.

Other ways you can add bricks of resentment might include work situations, friends who frustrate you, other family members, the relentless judging of the mind towards those who think differently than you, and even from watching the news or reading articles that make you mad. The habit of stuffing emotions seems to grow exponentially.

Once the wall is fully constructed, your primary relationship is often in real trouble. You don’t feel love, at some level you blame them and before long the relationship’s hopes and dreams come crashing down. Unfortunately the wall of resentment doesn’t also fall apart. In addition your ability to feel love towards everyone is compromised.

There is hope however. You can approach this from several directions and start to experience positive changes rather quickly. The hopeful approaches include: having a healthy expression of your feelings; tearing down your wall of resentment; and bringing healing to your relationship(s).

Here’s the plan:

The Healthy Expression of Feelings – The best place to begin is to become aware of what you are feeling. Simply acknowledging your feelings and doing your best to be accepting of all of them is a great way to allow emotions to flow right through you. This recognition and release of emotions is very healthy.

Sometimes you will find yourself trying to deny or ignore your feelings. Simply be aware that you are doing that and tune back inward and feel what you are feeling. This allows the energy of emotions to keep you feeling alive.

Removing the Wall – This deconstruction project is important and can be done in ways that are very beneficial:

Get physical. Exercise can be a very useful way to release old pent up emotions. Going for a walk at the end of the day, you can imagine letting go of any stagnant feelings by allowing them to flow into the ground you walk on.

You can also write in a journal the feelings you need to release.

Finally and most powerfully, you can become mindful of your thoughts and realize your thoughts create all your feelings. This approach removes all blame and instead says, “I am responsible for all I feel.” “I am feeling this because I thought that”. “Let me change my thinking and thereby change how I feel.” The key here is, you realize that your thoughts about what someone said or did are the true cause of what you feel inside. Your feelings are not caused by what they actually did. Post the following note somewhere you can review it daily – No one can make you feeling anything. All you feel comes from what you think.

Bring Healing To Your Relationships That Matter

Begin this conversation with a humble apology about being unaware of your feelings and what you are doing to change that. When you own your mistakes and make a commitment to be open and compassionate with those you love — work with, walls can come tumbling down.

Ask that together you can work on the healthy acknowledgement and expression of emotions. This can include: you saying how you feel and you owning your reactions/thoughts that generated how you feel. You can even say things like, “I need a few minutes to shift my thinking. – I am caught up in my reactive mind and am working right now on letting that go. – I      have a big charge of emotions and I need to go for a walk.”

The important thing to avoid is blaming. Remembering you are the sole creator of what you feel inside.

When someone is really bugging you, acknowledge that “bugging” is  caused by your thoughts not by them. An excellent question to ask yourself in times of reactivity to others is, “How is that like me?” Translation – what they are doing is bugging you because they are acting in some way that you judge about yourself as not okay.

Lastly love is a powerful healing force if we get out of our own way.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  Relationships are an important key to your life and career success.  Resentment is a relationship killer.  In this post, Joseph Bernard shows you how to deal with resentments that may be killing important relationships.  In my opinion, the most important bit of career advice that Joseph shares is simple common sense.  “The important thing to avoid is blaming. Remember that you are the sole creator of what you feel inside.”  Take personal responsibility for your feelings and you’ll be on your way to building the strong relationships that will help you create the career success you deserve.

That’s the career advice I found in Joseph Bernard’s ideas on dealing with resentment.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, I suggest that you check out my career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: Have you seen my membership site, My Corporate Climb?  It’s devoted to helping people just like you create career success inside large corporations.  You can find out about it by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

Craig Wilson is a columnist for USA Today.  Last week his column was called “Advice to Graduates: Get Away While You Can.”  He tells his story.  After he graduated from college, he took a job with a small newspaper – and then abruptly resigned in a couple of months.  He then spent a year traveling the world.  He says this was the best thing he has ever done.  He ended the column with by saying “Now get out of here!  Scram! Vamoose!”

I had a similar experience.  When I graduated from college in 1972 I became a VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) Volunteer.  It was kind of like being in the Peace Corps, only I worked for a community organization in North Philadelphia.  This was a great experience for me, and it helped me find the right career for me – helping others succeed.

Before I spent a year of service, I had an internship at a TV station (I was a broadcast journalism major.)  As luck would have it, I had an opportunity to stay with that station as reporter.  However, I had committed to VISTA, and so I turned down that job.  Good thing I did.  I was not cut out for TV news.  I was meant to do something different.

My parents were pretty upset with me.  They said things like, “We spent all that money to send you to college, and you’re working for free!”  Craig Wilson’s parents took the same tone with him when he left his newspaper job to travel.

There is some career advice in all of this.  Tweet 7 in my career success book Success Tweets says, “Figure out what you really want to do .  Work you love will make it easier to create the life and career success you want and deserve.  Tweet 8 says, “Don’t focus just on making money.  If you do, you’ll be asking too little of yourself.  Focus on how you can be useful in this world.”

I loved the 1972 movie, Cabaret (I can’t believe it was that long ago).  If you haven’t seen Cabaret, rent the DVD.  It’s a funny and sad movie at the same time.  I bring up Cabaret here because one of the dance routines in it popped into my mind when I typed Tweet 8 just now.  It features Joel Grey and Liza Minnelli and is called “Money Makes the World Go ‘Round.”

Yes, money does make the world go ‘round.  We all need money.  It is difficult to live with little or no money.  But I suggest that choosing a career solely on the basis of the money you can make is not a good idea.  John D. Rockefeller, once the richest man in the USA, said, “If your only goal is to become rich, you’ll never achieve it.”

This is great common sense career success advice.  Your goals in life should be more than just making money.  Your goals should spring from your purpose in life, your passion.  This isn’t to say that you should choose a career in which you can make little or no money.  Choose your life’s work based on what you love to do, and you’ll find a way to make money.  The old saying, “Do what you love, and the money will follow,” is true.  Taking a little time after you graduate can help you figure out your passion.

Michelle Schubnel makes an interesting point.  She says you are rich if you are…

R Rewarded

I Inspired

C Confident

H Happy

I think this is a great way to think about making money and being useful in this world.  You are rich when you are: rewarded for your contributions; inspired by what you do; confident as a professional; and happy with the way you spend your time.  Let’s talk about each of these.

Rewarded – We all deserve to be appropriately compensated for the work we do and the value we bring to others.  This means that you shouldn’t feel bad about making money, only that making money shouldn’t be your sole goal in life.  Some might say that the current financial crisis is the result of some people who valued making money at the expense of others.  Do your job, get good at it and the money will follow.

Inspired – You can find inspiration in the work you do every day.  If you’re a realtor like my niece, Morgan, you can be inspired when you help a person or a couple find the home of their dreams.  If you’re a pharmaceutical sales rep, you can be inspired by the fact that you’re helping doctors understand how the medicines your company makes can save lives.  My dad was a steel worker for 37 years.  He found inspiration in the buildings and bridges he helped build.  I find inspiration every time someone leaves a comment on this blog or tells me that one of my tweets made a difference in their life.

Confident – Doing something you love, doing it well and being useful in this world will build your confidence.  Your confidence grows as your skill level grows and you begin to make bigger contributions at work and in the world.  A world of confident people would be a wonderful place to live.  Confident people see the world from a win-win perspective.

Happy – When are you happiest?  I’m willing to bet it’s when you accomplish something – or help someone else accomplish something – not when you get your pay check.  When you do something you love every day you can’t help but be happy.  I am happiest when I finish a book.  Writing a book takes a lot of time and effort.  And, I’m a perfectionist.  I want to make sure my books are the best I can make them, so I put in a lot of time and effort making sure they’re just right.  And, you know what?  I’m really happy when I first hold a copy of one of my books in my hand.  At that moment, I know the work was worth it.  I’m happy when I help others succeed too.  I love the moments when I can see the light go on in one of my career success coach client’s eyes.  I love it when I help other people get it.

We’re coming up on Mother’s Day.  My mom passed away a few years ago.  She was one for schmaltzy cards.  I’m not.  But several years ago, she sent me a card on my birthday.  I cut out the message and taped it to my printer.  I look at it several times a day…

“That man is a success who is happy with himself and gives happiness to others; who makes the world a better place simply by being a part of it.”

My mother believed this about me.  I do my best to live up to it every day.

Let’s get back to Craig Wilson’s advice to new grads.  He took a year off to travel and returned committed to his work in journalism.  I spent a year doing service and ended up moving in a completely new career direction – one that has helped me lead a R.I.C.H. life.  A year seems like a long time when you are 22 or 23.  Actually, it is a long time — almost 5% of your life.  However, now that I’m 62, one year seems like a very small part of my life – and it is, 1.6% if my math is right.  So take some time for yourself – travel, spend a year doing service.  Use this time to get really clear on what you want out of life.  Then go for it.

I know that you might be saying, “But I have student loans.”  If you do service, oftentimes you can defer payment on those loans for the time you are helping others.  And, you can stretch out the payment time on your loans.  I spent a lot of time in school – I have a Masters and Doctorate.  I finally paid off my student loans when I was 45.  I might have paid them off one year sooner had I not done my year of service, but so what?

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people have a mighty purpose.  They really like what they do.  They see money as the byproduct of their work – not as their sole reason for working.  Successful people know that being rich doesn’t mean you have tons and tons of money.  They know that being rich means that you are: Rewarded for your contributions; Inspired by what you do; Confident in your skills, and Happy with the way you spend your days.  So if you’re a young grad, chill.  Take some time for yourself, do something personally meaningful – and then jump into your career with both feet.

That’s my career advice on taking time for yourself prior to beginning your career.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for taking the time to read my daily musings on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, I suggest that you check out my career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: Have you seen my membership site, My Corporate Climb?  It’s devoted to helping people just like you create career success inside large corporations.  You can find out about it by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

Here’s another career success guest post.  This one if from Dan Robey, author of The Power of Personal Habits.  Check it out….

The Importance of Visualization By Dan Robey

Positive Visualization can change your life in ways you could never have imagined.

It can be summarized in this one statement; “We were created in the image of our creator, therefore we are creators.”

Think about this statement very carefully.

Everything that you, or anyone else has done since the beginning of time, began first with a thought.

Look at the buildings in your city, your home, your car, every manmade object began its life as a thought in someone’s mind.

A successful life is no different than a building, it begins with a thought.

If you look back at the careers of successful people, you will find that almost every one of them first visualized who they wanted to be…long before they actually achieved their success.

Stop everything you are doing right now and think about what you want to accomplish in your life in 2012 and beyond.

Maybe you want a new career, or you want to be fit and trim and in great shape, perhaps you want to start a new business, or buy that dream house you always wanted.

Forget about the global recession, if your dreams and goals are big enough, and if you have enough faith you can be successful no matter what the economy is doing.

Make a list on paper right now of the things you want to accomplish this year.  Make it a habit to read this list to yourself every day and visualize that you have already reached the goals in your list.

Create a detailed movie in your mind of the new you that you want to see in your future.

Be very detailed, if your goal was a new home, picture yourself walking into that new home, picture every detail, the color, the style of home, imagine the kitchen in great detail.

If your goal was a new career or promotion, picture yourself in that new office, believe it with all your heart as if it were already true.

No matter what your goals are, visualize them every day.

You will find that one day, your visualization will become a reality!

Don’t ask me how it works…just know that it works.  Believe me…I have experienced it in my own life!

I like what Dan has to say.  Tweet 12 in my career advice book Success Tweets says, “Visualization is powerful.  The more vivid the image you have of your career success, the more likely you are to succeed.”

What is your career success dream?  Have you visualized it?  Have you created a vivid mental image of it?

I suggest that you take some time for yourself.  Ask and answer these three questions:

• Where do I want to be in my career 10, 20 and 30 years from now?
• What will my life and career look like and feel like when I’m there?
• What will my life and career be like?

Ask and answer these and any other questions that will help you develop a clear, vivid mental image of your career success.  This is not day-dreaming.  It is real work.  You are designing your future in your mind.

Keep this mental picture of your career success with you as you go about your day-to-day business.  Every once in a while, ask yourself if what you did that day brought you any closer to your mental image of career success.  If the answer is no, make sure that you take at least one act the very next day to move closer to your vivid mental image of your career success.  In this way, you’ll be keeping your dream alive – and moving toward your goal.

The common sense career coach success point here is simple.  Successful people define what success means to them.  Then they develop a compelling and clear mental image of their success.  They heed Den Robey’s advice as well as the career advice in Tweet 12 in my career success book Success Tweets: “Visualization is powerful.  The more vivid the image you have of your success, the more likely you are to succeed.”  They use their vivid mental image to help keep their dreams alive and to keep moving forward to what they want in their lives and careers.  Creating a vivid mental image of your success is not day-dreaming.  It’s real work – it’s the work of designing your future, so you can take the steps necessary to create it.

That’s the career advice I found in Dan Robey’s thoughts on visualization.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily thoughts on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, I suggest that you check out my career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: Have you seen my membership site, My Corporate Climb?  It’s devoted to helping people just like you create career success inside large corporations.  You can find out about it by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

Lots of folks have been asking to do guest posts on this career advice blog lately.  Here’s one by Melissa Crossman of Colorado Technical University.  It focuses on the career success benefits of building and maintaining long term relationships.

Relationships are important to your life and career success.  I devote an entire section of my latest career advice book Climbing the Corporate Ladder and 20 tweets in Success Tweets to them.  Here is what Melissa has to say….

Business Benefits of Long-Term Relationships — Melissa Crossman

Relationships are extremely important in building a career – especially in a world connected by social networks. Recent college graduates tend to think of networking as something you do once in order to meet someone who will give you a job.  Students and even professionals don’t realize that networking can and should occur anywhere and is not a “you help me” situation.

For freelancers and small business owners, networking is a lifelong aspiration. New connections keep independent workers afloat. Job hunters should adapt the freelance state of mind, meeting as many people as possible and maintaining those relationships over the long term. Below are three strategies for creating and sustaining long-term business relationships.

Use Social Networking

LinkedIn offers the unique opportunity to have recommendations from former employers, co-workers and subordinates visible and openly available. While it’s always a good idea to be a good worker, the role of online networking means making a good impression is vital. Even supervisors from short term internships or contract jobs may be willing to provide an introduction to a contact or a glowing review. Don’t be shy; after an appropriate amount of time “friend” co-workers, classmates, and those you meet at events in your field. It’s almost no commitment on either end, and a little maintenance of your social media platform may open the doors for advice or even a tip on a job opening in the future. Almost no one will mind a single, considerate message asking about possibilities.

Leave Your Comfort Zone

Go to the office holiday party, but also consider checking out something you wouldn’t normally attend. Long-term networking means widening your net and meeting people a little outside of your field. Are you in publishing? Go to an advertiser’s event. Attend a charity function in your area to meet local business owners who may benefit from an unexpected partnership.

You have something to offer, something you may not even be aware of; so build relationships with everyone from the barista you see every morning to the business-man at the gym. Most importantly, don’t be closed-minded when meeting new people.

Help (and Make) a Friend

As an editor, designer, or any kind of professional, you’ll often encounter friends who could use your services. Though it may seem counterintuitive to work for free when you can’t find someone to pay you, these kind of favors can pay back dividends when job hunting. You’ve basically expanded your network to include all of your friend’s contacts by creating a contact who knows your skills and personality firsthand.  Furthermore, by accepting projects you are enhancing your portfolio which will be crucial when someone important wants to see it. The flip side of this principle is to make networking primarily social. People can sense desperation, and someone who is trying to work an angle comes off as a user. Instead, think of networking events as a social gathering, but also in terms of how you can help the other person. By understanding someone’s personal and professional life, you make them more comfortable and may find an opportunity to help — or be helped.

Job hunters hate the old adage, “It’s not what you know: it’s who you know.” But increasingly in the current economic climate, an in with the company can make all the difference in the world. Think of making contacts as an ongoing part of your career health. Your work as a networker is never finished, but over time you’ll be more comfortable meeting people and checking in periodically, which makes you a better interviewee, a more enjoyable coworker, and ultimately, more hire-able than your solitary counterparts.

I like Melissa’s last paragraph.  Yesterday I saw a quote from Bo Bennett, auhor of Year to Success: “A referral is the key to the door of resistance.”  You get referrals by building solid, long term, mutually beneficial relationships with others.  It’s easy to build relationships if you remember the career advice in Tweet 129 in Success Tweets: “There is no quid pro quo in effective relationships.  Do for others without being asked or waiting for them to do for you.”

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  Successful people build and nurture strong relationships with the important people in their lives.  Giving with no expectation of return is a great way to begin building relationships.  Don’t think quid pro quo when it comes to building relationships.  Don’t wait for someone else to make the first move.  Be willing to go first.  Put yourself out there and do what you can for others.  You’ll be demonstrating your relationship-building skills and your interpersonal competence.  Take the first step today.  Find someone for whom you can do something – then do it.  You’ll be surprised at what you might get from a selfless act.

That’s the career advice I found in Melissa Crossman’s ideas on relationship building.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, I appreciate you taking the time to read my daily musings on life and career success.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, I suggest that you check out my career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: Have you seen my membership site, My Corporate Climb?  It’s devoted to helping people just like you create career success inside large corporations.  You can find out about it by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

I was a book giver on World Book Night this year.  I got a little publicity out of it.  The Denver post did both a print and on line article about the event and my participation.  You can see it at http://blogs.denverpost.com/artmosphere/

I gave away a great book, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.  I liked The Book Thief so much, I searched for Markus Zusak on Amazon.com and downloaded another one of his books, The Messenger, to my Kindle.  Toward the end of The Messenger, I found some inspiration for today’s career advice post.

The protagonist in The Messenger is guy named Ed.  He’s a 19 year old slacker.  He drives a cab because he doesn’t know what else to do.  One day, he unwittingly foils a bank robbery.  He gets his name in the paper for his efforts.  Then he starts getting playing cards in the mail.

These cards contain cryptic messages he must decode.  After he decodes the messages, it becomes clear to him that he is being asked to do something.  He completes all 12 of the tasks he is given – with some difficulty.  At the end of the book, he comes to a realization…

“If a guy like you can stand up and do what you did, then maybe everyone can.  Maybe everyone can live beyond what they’re capable of.”

 In other words, the tasks were put before him to help him rise above himself – to be more than a 19 year old slacker cab driver.  The last line of the book is “I wasn’t the messenger.  I was the message.”  And the message is that we all can accomplish great things — if we believe in ourselves and work hard.

When we meet Ed at the beginning of the novel he has no self-confidence and no prospects.  By the end, he is still driving cab but he realizes he can do more – if he believes in himself and works hard.

Self-confidence is an important key to your career success.  I devote an entire section of my latest career advice book Climbing the Corporate Ladder to it.  It merits 20 tweets in another of my career advice books, Success Tweets.

If you want to become self-confident, you need to do three things.  First, become an optimist.  Learn from and then forget yesterday’s mistakes.  Focus on tomorrow’s achievements.  Second, face your fears and take action.  Action cures fear.  Procrastination and inaction compound it.  Failure is rarely fatal.  Do something, anything that will move you closer to achieving your goals.  Third, surround yourself with positive people.  Build a network of supportive friends.  Jettison the negative people in your life.  Fourth, find a mentor to help build your confidence and guide you along the way.  Fifth, mentor others.  It is never too early to share what you know.  Mentoring others will build your self-confidence.

When you couple self-confidence with a willingness to work hard and take personal responsibility for your life and career success.  If you want to succeed, you must take personal responsibility for your success.  Only you can make you a success.  You need to be willing to do the things necessary to succeed.  This is one of the lessons in The Messenger.  Second, you must set high goals – and then do whatever it takes to achieve them.  Third, stuff happens: as you go through life you will encounter many problems and setbacks.  You need to react positively to the negative stuff and move forward toward your goals.

I live in Denver; the weather here is very changeable.  On December 21, 2009, the first day of winter, we had 60-degree weather.  That night, the weather announcer on TV reminded us that we had snow on the last day of summer.

This got me thinking about the unpredictability of life.  As I frequently say, as you go through life, stuff will happen – good stuff, bad stuff, happy stuff, sad stuff, encouraging stuff, and frustrating stuff.  However, it’s not that stuff that happens that’s important, it’s how you react to it.  You can’t control the people and events in your life.  You can control how you react to the people and events in your life.

I choose to react positively to the people and events in my life – especially the bad stuff, sad stuff and frustrating stuff that happens to me.  And I urge you to do the same if you want to create the successful life and career that you want and deserve.

I know this isn’t always easy.  In fact, it’s seldom easy.  But the harder you find it to react positively to negative people and events, the more important it is for you to do so.  Don’t blame people or circumstances when things go wrong.  Instead, choose to learn the lesson behind every lesson and successful relationship or event.

When you look for the lesson behind problems, setbacks and failures, you are taking responsibility for your life and career.  Find the lessons in the bad stuff that happens and then do something to put those lessons to work.  Edison said that he never failed when it came to figuring out how to make a light bulb: he just found 10,000 ways that didn’t work.  Adopt his optimistic spirit.  Commit to taking responsibility for yourself, your life and your career.  Put yourself in the driver’s seat.  Don’t let events and people stop you from achieving your goals.  Be persistent.

As I write this, I’m reminded of the famous quote on persistence by Calvin Coolidge…

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.  Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.  Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.  Education will not; the world is full of educated failures.  Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  If you want to create the life and career success you deserve, you need to build your self-confidence and commit to taking personal responsibility for your life and career.  Only you can make you a success.  You have to take personal responsibility for creating the successful life and career you want and deserve.  Persistence is the mark of people who are committed to taking personal responsibility for their lives and careers.  Persistent people keep going, even in – no especially in – the face of difficulties and problems.  Promise yourself that you will commit to taking personal responsibility for your life and career.  Be persistent.  Become your own message..

That’s the career advice I found in Makus Zusak’s book The Messenger.   What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily musings on life and on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, I suggest that you check out my career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: Have you seen my membership site, My Corporate Climb?  It’s devoted to helping people just like you create career success inside large corporations.  You can find out about it by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

Here’s a newsflash.  I saw an article in USA Today this week entitled “Facebook Can’t Replace Face-to-Face Conversation.”  That’s a no brainer.  If you want to build the strong relationships that will lead to your life and career success, you need to spend time with people getting to know them.  That’s why face-to-face conversation is so important.

The USA Today article did make a good point…

“Face-to-face conversations tend to be more positive, and more likely to be perceived as credible in comparison with on line…the richest social gold mine is literally right under our noses: in the word-of-mouth conversations that happen in our kitchens and living rooms, next to the office water cooler, and on the sidelines of youth sporting events.  These are the places where we actually live our lives.”

Tweet 127 in my career advice book Success Tweets says, “Become an excellent conversationalist by listening more than speaking.  Pay attention to what other people say; respond appropriately.”

Dynamic communication skills are one of the success factors I discuss in my new book Climbing the Corporate Ladder.  Face-to-face conversation skills, along with clear writing and presentation skills, are necessary for your career success.

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines the word “dynamic” as, “Marked by continuous and productive activity.”  In many ways, this is a good definition for an effective conversation.  In a conversation, two types of activities occur simultaneously: speaking and listening.  In good conversations, both of these are continuous and productive.  In plain English, when you’re in a conversation, if you’re not speaking and providing information, you need to be listening and receiving it.

In other posts I’ve pointed out that asking good questions is an important way to become known as a great conversationalist.  But to take full advantage of the questions you ask, you need to really listen to the answers and respond appropriately.

Here are my top seven tips for becoming a good listener – and conversationalist.

1. Look the other person in the eye when he or she is speaking.  This demonstrates that you are engaged with him or her.

2. Listen to understand what the other person is saying – not to plan your rebuttal.

3. Listen really hard when the other person begins by saying something with which you don’t agree.

4. Know the words that trigger your emotions.  Don’t get distracted by them.

5. Be patient.  Some people take longer than others to make their point.  Don’t interrupt.

6. Ask clarification questions when you don’t understand.

7. Repeat what you have heard the other person say – to make sure you got it right, and to show him or her that you were listening.

If you use these seven tips in conversation, you will become known as a great conversationalist and a dynamic communicator.  You will also be on the road to creating the life and career success you want and deserve.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people are competent.  Dynamic communication is an important key success competency.  If you want to become a dynamic communicator, you have to become a good conversationalist.  To become a good conversationalist, follow the career advice in Tweet 107 in Success Tweets.  “Become an excellent conversationalist by listening more than speaking.  Pay attention to what other people say; respond appropriately.”  Learn to listen well.  Listening, like a lot of career success advice, is just common sense.  Show the other person you are engaged.  Focus on understanding, not on rebutting points with which you don’t agree.  Don’t get distracted by words that trigger your emotions.  Ask clarification questions to ensure you understand what is being said.  Repeat what you’ve heard.  Most of all, get in the habit of listening more than speaking.

That’s my common sense career advice on becoming a great conversationalist.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for taking the time to read my daily musings on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, I suggest that you check out my career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: Have you seen my membership site, My Corporate Climb?  It’s devoted to helping people just like you create career success inside large corporations.  You can find out about it by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

This is another in my posts on life and career success lessons learned on the rugby pitch.

Today’s lesson is “kill the ball”.  No, not literally.  You kill the ball by falling on it as it is bouncing around on the ground.  A rugby ball is shaped like a fat American football.  It bounces in some pretty peculiar ways.  It is not easy to pick up while you are running.

Some players want to pick up a rugby ball while they are running – not very easy to do.  Others kick at a bouncing ball – an activity commonly known as “flyhacking”.  Flyhacking is not a smart move because it is difficult to direct the ball where you want it to go.

Therefore, coaches always tell their players to “kill the ball” when it is bouncing around the open field.  You kill the ball by falling on it, gathering it to yourself, and then standing up with it.  In rugby, it is a delay of game penalty to fall on the ball and just lay there.  You have to make an effort to get up.

When you kill the ball you benefit your side because you secure it and allow your teammates to align themselves to begin an offensive possession.  Possession and field position are very important in rugby.

There is one small problem with falling on the ball as it is bouncing.  Other players (your teammates and the other team) are likely to be flyhacking.  When a few people converge on the ball and one falls on it and the others flyhack, the person falling on the ball might get kicked – in the head, ribs, legs, or those places we call  “our privates”.  Getting kicked hurts.  I know from first hand knowledge.

It takes physical courage to do the right thing and fall on the ball in a rugby match.

Let’s take this example out of rugby and into the career success realm.   A bouncing rugby ball is like a work or life situation that is out of control.  It is unpredictable, and can escalate into a crisis quickly.  When faced with a situation that is getting out of control, most people want to take action – to do something.

The only problem with this is that the actions we take in crises are often not well thought out.  They are like flyhacking at a rugby ball.  We are doing something, but we might be doing something that makes the situation worse.  We are trying to pick up a bouncing rugby ball while we are running at full speed.

Flyhacking or attempting to pick up a bouncing rugby ball while you are running is not a good idea.  You are likely to drop it.  In rugby, the ball can be passed only backwards or laterally.  That means that a ball that you drop in front of you is a minor infraction of the rules.  When this happens, the referee signals for a defensive scrum.  Your chances of winning a defensive scrum (one that happens after you have dropped a ball) are less than 25%.  So, while you did something – attempting to pick up a bouncing ball – your actions are likely to result in your team losing possession.  So, while you think you are doing something positive and proactive, so you actually doing something negative

The smart thing to do in a crisis at work is to slow down.  Take a minute, decide what to do, then act on your plan.  This is very similar to falling on the ball in rugby.  When you fall on the ball and secure possession, you give everyone on your side the opportunity to ready themselves to move forward.  When you stop for a minute in a crisis, you give yourself and your colleagues an opportunity to rationally consider your alternatives, choose the best one and then put it into play.

That’s why in rugby, business and life, it’s always a good idea to kill the ball.  Killing the ball leads to your career success.  Don’t just react to crises.  Take a minute to understand the situation, decide what you’re going to do, and then do it.

It takes courage to do this – especially if you’re a leader.  Others expect you to DO SOMETHING!  However, by fighting your impulse to immediately jump into action, you will have a much better chance of making a good decision on how to proceed.

Think about it.  It’s only common sense.

The common sense career success coach here is simple. Crises arise in rugby matches and at work.  The best way to deal with crises and ensure your career success is to slow down, get everything under control and then proceed to address the crisis.  In rugby this is known as killing the ball.  Killing the ball takes courage.  But this type of courage generally pays off – in winning rugby games and in the career success game.

That’s my career advice on slowing down when you’re faced with a crisis.  What do you think?  Please share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, I suggest that you check out my career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: Have you seen my membership site, My Corporate Climb?  It’s devoted to helping people just like you create career success inside large corporations.  You can find out about it by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.