Embrace the Fear and Take The Risk Anyway in Business and at Work

For a salesman who worked on 100% commission most of his career, my dad injected more of his own fear rather than encouragement of taking risk in the face of my own budding vocational interests. Given generational and gender factors (I was a girl, wife and mother-material, not career-material in his assessment), years later, I understand the limits of my father's assessment context. On top of those factors, Dad had always been an employee, albeit one paid on 100% commission. And the icing on the fear was that fact that his own dad had died when he was only 17 years old.

When I was twelve years old, I signed up with my mother's permission to sell household products from some long-forgotten mail-order company, while Dad was away on a business trip. I showed early indications of Dad's sales DNA and actually made 4 sales on our block in my first few days. When Dad came home from the business trip later that week, I proudly showed him my sales slips. He reviewed them like an IRS auditor, frowning. "You calculated the sales tax wrong," he said, pointing to the columns on one sales slip. "You're too young to do this. You need to return this money and send the sales kit back." I was surprised. "Why?" I replied. "I can just go back to each customer and fix the sales slip." Dad went into his Marine-sergeant mode. "No! This is not a discussion. I will not have you embarrassing me with your mistakes." I went back to my new customers, apologized for bothering them, and sent the kit back as I was told.

When I was 15 years old, I took a job for the summer as a counselor at a reputable sleep-away camp 15 miles from our house. In order to get the campers to bed at a reasonable hour, the camp did not observe daylight-savings time. I made the mistake of calling home at 10 PM one night from the camp director's office, as for us at camp it was only 9 PM. Dad was upset and concerned. "Why are you still up, working so late?" He demanded. I explained the artifice of not observing daylight-savings time. Dad did not buy it. "I'm coming to pick you up and take you home now," Dad decreed over the phone. I did not take his supervision this time. "No Dad, I'm staying here. I like it and they're not over-working me. Please don't embarrass me." My father paused, and I looked over at the camp director. "Could you please explain to my dad how we handle daylight-savings time?" The camp director smiled. "Of course," he said. He took the phone and spoke to my father for a few minutes (they had met when my parents dropped me off at camp earlier in the week), repeating the daylight-savings time explanation. The camp director handed the phone back to me. "You can stay," my father decreed, grudgingly.

When I graduated from the University at Albany, I did not return to the New York City / metropolitan area to look for a job. Instead, I took a part-time job with my senior-semester internship boss Bob, my home Assemblyman, and a part-time job at Macy's. "I don't understand why you just don't come home and get a real job in the city," my father groused on the phone. "Because I want a job as a writer, and it's cheaper to live in Albany than it is to live in New York City," I replied. "Don't worry Dad, I'll be fine." And I was. It took about 10 years, but Dad finally realized that we have real jobs up here in Albany, too.

In both my career and in my business, the risks I continue to take while embracing (and sometimes wrestling with) the natural / nurtured fear is the lotus I harvest from the mud of fear time after time -- it is a drive that I cannot deny. It continues to get better as time goes on and the more I practice and see the undeniable proof of the great results I produce. As my good friend and colleague Lisa Jordan maintains, when we come from a place of fear, the expression of our gifts and talents are limited, and no one benefits. But when we come from a place where fear takes a back seat to the wonderful creative potential of risk, even in the face of potential failure or embarrassment: that's where the potential of success is limitless.

This week, and going forward: I celebrate our collective courage (e.g.: taking action in the face of fear) and joy in the risks we take in both business and at work, in support of our mutual success.

Good Things Come to Those Who Network Well

My 11 year-old son Noah and I spent some quality time together today at The Great Escape in Lake George, New York, thanks to the free admission tickets, parking and lunch door prize I won from The Hudson River Community Credit Union, as a result of networking at the Rensselaer County Regional Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner Vendor Fair. Aside from the great door prize, one of the reasons I love the Rensselaer Chamber is the fact that it's a connection hothouse for small businesses like mine on the growth curve.

As we finished our lunch under The Great Escape North Grove Pavilion (declared "delicious" by Mr. Best the Younger) while sharing dining space with the Credit Union's employees and customers, Noah held up his hand in appreciation. "High-five on your power networking, Mom," he said, clearly pleased and proud of how my business networking had benefited him. We also stopped at The Hudson River Community Credit Union's booth at the Pavilion and thanked the Marketing Team for the door prize, and they rewarded us further by taking Noah's picture for their website.

Our Great Escape trip is a great metaphor for the rewards of networking well and how the success can cascade and ripple out like a stone skipped on the water of our SmAlbany economy to benefit many. Great networking:

• Creates new opportunities, experiences, connections, and customers for all involved in the networking contact;
• Is an ongoing, symbiotic process - it must be a two-way street to ensure both authenticity and results;
• Shines the reputations of all involved by the good will (in this case, the door prize) which invariably ignites success for all involved;
• Allows us networking mavens to creatively connect the dots to create new and successful customer opportunities / transactions. Like the Melanie Griffith character Tess McGill in Working Girl who put together Trask Industries and a radio station acquisition from reading articles in both Forbes and The New York Post ("Trask, radio; Trask, radio.");
• Can be long-cycle, short-cycle, direct or indirect: while we can't control where the act of networking will take us, the fact that we have taken action (and continue to take action) keeps our businesses, and therefore our economy, moving forward;
• Is fun, rewarding and ultimately profitable for all involved in the networking contact (in that order).

I consider networking at any vendor fair the opportunity to meet new customers, vendors and partners. The act of introducing myself, handing my business card to the company representative / owner manning / womanning the vendor booth is an act of marketing, connection and economic good will, especially considering that these vendors usually pay for the privilege of participating in any vendor fair and the very least I can do is stop and say hello. The door prizes I win are a symbol of my perpetual-motion marketing work. The people / business connections are priceless.

 Eleven years ago, when I was 7 months pregnant with Noah, I won five door prizes at a CRHRA Vendor Fair using the same philosophy. At this year's Rensselaer County Regional Chamber of Commerce Vendor Fair, the door prize from The Hudson River Community Credit Union was one of four door prizes that I won. I'm grateful for the generosity of all of these good vendor fair participants, and that I'm 60 pounds lighter 11 years later.

Come on in and join the fun: walk the next Vendor Fair with me. We need to spread the door-prize wealth around and more importantly: ignite our mutual success by continuing to make these critical and long-reaching business connections.

          

Joyful Recruiting Makes Happy Customers

Since my experience as a customer long precedes my experience as a Human Resources / Recruiting / Organizational Effectiveness Subject-Matter Expert (Yes, I remember my mother taking me for all-Saturday shopping sprees in my stroller, complete with a detachable pink strap harness equipped with a leash to give my mother the illusion of preventing me from making a break for it), it's my great experiences as a customer with exceptional employees that tell me which businesses are probably great places to work:

• The nurse anesthesiologist who sang The Beatles They Say It's Your Birthday to me as my son Noah was born via emergency c-section while keeping me well-numbed;
• The dining hall staff who kept us well-fed and well-served at Ferry Beach, Maine camp -- it was more like spa food than camp food;
• The consistently great service I receive from the staff of the Rensselaer County Regional Chamber of Commerce, who continue to build their success by in turn authentically supporting the success of my business and those of my fellow Chamber members.

This week's Washington Post article on how Zappo's workplace culture directly translates into their best-practice customer experience is yet another key data point that happy / engaged employees absolutely make happy customers.

Conversely, it has been my consistent experience that employees with a bad attitude provide me with bad customer service (customer service is one of those key business areas where you can't fake it until you make it), indicating either a bad hiring decision or even worse, that the employee is a microcosm of a bad workplace culture, which acts as a powerful disincentive to bring my repeat business to their company. Social media on smartphones make these type of experiences painfully contemporaneous on the interwebs and embarrassingly public, such as the tweets I read from a colleague who real-time was experiencing poor customer service at a local grocery store, complete with the sour-puss employee complaining about their corporate management team.

Which is why a great Recruiter -- joyful, full of energy, authentically conveying how happy they are to work for their employer -- is a critical customer service and reputational representative for any company striving for best-practice customer service. As the Executive Recruiter for my company at the time, for example: my extreme satisfaction in my own job was often the decision-point attracting candidates to join my company. Candidates heard the joy in my voice during phone-screens, and wanted some of it for themselves. My company was a great product to present, and I derive a great deal of professional joy to this day vocationally matchmaking great candidates to great companies.

If your Recruiter exposes your candidates / new hires to a negative customer service experience, such as:

• Lack of skill / experience, e.g. slow response times or rudeness to candidates;
• Subjecting your candidates to bureaucratic hoops and transactions;
• Conducting phone-screens and interviews like a grand-jury investigation;
• And worst of all: when the recruiter conveys their own dissatisfaction with their job or the company;

You may be not only conveying a negative impression of your company and your workplace via the key channel of your Recruiter(s), but also hemorrhaging dollars in lost customers, candidates and turnover (e.g., the average cost of entry-level employee turnover is currently running about $6,000 a pop).

Or: if your joyful Recruiter takes leave of your company for happier workplaces because your company has become too negative, and therefore too difficult, to present authentically as a great place for great employees to consider, it may be time to take a step back and reassess your workplace / human capital strategy and branding as it dovetails with your company / customer service branding.

Which is why joyful recruiting is critical for happy customers.

How authentically joyful is your Recruiter about your company branding, your workplace culture and their job? And, in turn: how happy are your customers?

How Email Address Typos Cost You Jobs and Business

At the beginning of my HR career back in the early '90s (which seems much more recent than 20 years ago), I had just received my WARN layoff notice from GE Aerospace (which no longer exists, sold off in pieces to its rivals General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin), giving me 60 days before my last day at GE Aerospace to find another job, inside or outside of GE.

There were two GE jobs available locally at my level and function, both at GE Plastics (which no longer exists either; sold off in pieces to SABIC and Momentive, respectively); one at the Selkirk location; and the other at the Waterford location. My site HR Manager and mentor, Tom, ensured that I was a candidate for both jobs.

I interviewed at Selkirk first. I liked the team and the work they were doing. When I returned to my office at GE Aerospace from the interview that day, I wanted to send each of them a thank-you note. Since I had introduced using PROFS email to distribute a now-crude electronic version of the weekly employee newsletter at my site (a precursor to Microsoft Outlook, which my dying business could not afford to purchase), I wanted to walk the talk of my innovation. So I sent each member of the interview team a thank-you note via PROFS, which was unheard of back then. Interview etiquette firmly dictated hand-written snail-mail thank-you notes.

The site Recruiter responded within the hour, informing me that they had hired an internal candidate and thanked me for interviewing for the position. I was annoyed. Clearly, they had already made their hiring decision before my interview, and I was interviewed to merely fulfill their EEO requirements. I shared my frustration with my immediate supervisor, Chuck. "Those who live by the sword, die by the sword," he grinned. "That's the risk you take with email communication." While I was eventually hired by the Waterford site - less then one week before the end of my WARN period - Chuck's observation always stuck with me, even to present day.

Now, I have performed my English-major rant in prior posts about typos in emails, which invariably cost job candidates and vendors both potential jobs and new customers. Recently, however, the typos have achieved a new level of failure through imprecision.

In the last month, I have received 3 emails with typos in the email address itself. So when I referred back to an email and clicked on the email signature to send a fresh email in response, the recipient never received my return email due to the typos in their email address and I received a mail delivery failure message from their email system. I helped the first one out because the guy fired great on all of the rest of his cylinders; he had transposed letters in his own name in his email address. I gave up on the other two email address typos: basically, it was too much work and too annoying to compensate for someone else's lack of attention to detail. If their prospecting emails caused this much work and aggravation: how would it be to work with them every day?

Wondering why you may not have heard back from that job application or that new customer prospect? Proof your email address, please. And everything else you send out in the email, while you're at it. It can only help support your success.

  

 

Be the Vendor (Not the Applicant) in the Job Interview (Sale!)

It's a point-of-view game-changer:  are you an applicant in a job interview, or a vendor?  I've witnessed the paradigm-shift as I've coached two talented professionals over the last month.  It's like watching the switch flip back to the authentic human capital offering.

Approaching a job interview as an applicant forces you into the frame of supplicant. Beggar. When you approach the interview in the sad context that the hiring authority is doing you a favor by talking to you, you're just another dancer in the Chorus Line, murmuring the meaningless mantra of "God, I hope I get it."  Oh, you'll get it all right.  Rejected, with that attitude.  You're starting out one-down from the hiring authority, in the supplicant's unmistakable veil of fear.  Fear of rejection; fear of not being able paying your bills, fear of (insert your worst fear).  In this fearful stance of the supplicant, the hiring authority has you at hello.  You're trapped, you're at their mercy and you did to yourself.  Don't get me wrong;  the "What Does He Want from Me, What Should I Try to Be" mantra is not necessarily the recipe for disaster:  supplicants are hired every day.  The hiring authorities who need that kind of control need that kind of applicant who surrenders their personal power for a paycheck.

It doesn't have to be that way.  You control this interview conversation more than you know.

This interesting switch dwells in all of us:  it's just a matter of being open to its possibility and creativity.   In coaching the First Professional, who had not been on an interview in several years and who with real anxiety asked me to put together a top-10 list of the toughest interview questions and answers to expect, I did something unexpected.  "Don't approach this as an applicant," I coached.  "If instead in this meeting you were the vendor providing these services on an outsourced basis for this customer, tell me why you're the vendor they should choose."  The Professional's fear evaporated, and the sparkle returned to their eyes:  the switch was turned on and they instantly empowered themselves.  They proceeded to knock my socks off with their proposal and their energetic self-possession.  They did the same with their new employer the next day.  They were head-and-shoulders above the other candidates in their expertise and self-confidence, who I'm sure were merely supplicants.

It's not just a matter of the supplicant answering the employer's questions correctly:  the real conversation is the subject-matter expert (SME) vendor meeting / exceeding the potential customer's needs.  And as my daddy taught me:  when the customer is doing most of the talking, and is selling you on them and their organization, the signs are positive that you can ask for the order (job), and close the sale.

I saw the switch turned on again today with the second Professional.  While their current employment situation is a bit sketchy due to economic forces, they have several potential "customers" interested in their services next.  The pressure is off, there's no veil of fear, they don't have just one potential customer.  As they engage in their initial customer conversation this week, they can be completely present, authentic and centered as the talented SME Vendor they are, exploring the potential possibilities together with the customer of working together, rather than stoop to some bizarre and hellish personal version of Quiz Show.

May the week ahead present innovative proposals and produce fruitful new partnerships for us all.

Can't Fill That Job? What is "The Help" Saying About You?

In the 1960's setting of the best-selling book and movie The Help, the reputation management channels were limited, but effective:

• In-person social networks that existed within the two distinct groups in the story:  the white (mostly) segregationist employers and the African-American domestic employees;
• Hard-copy newsletters;
• The telephone;
• And of course, the book, the-story-within-the-story, The Help.

Now as this movie trailer intimates (without giving too much away), the white segregationist Hilly clearly was not an employer-of-choice in Jackson, Mississippi:

As of September 2011, there are exponentially many more available reputation management channels available to talented candidates:  LinkedIn, Twitter and Google are merely the tip of the reputation management channel iceberg. 

And just as you as the CEO / Hiring Authority are using LinkedIn and other reputation management channels to perform research checks on just how talented / savvy your candidates are (or are not), they are performing the same reputation checks on:

• You as the CEO; 
• Your leadership team; 
• How you treat your customers; 
• How you conduct yourselves from a values standpoint;
• What the press says about you, good and bad;
• What your organization's long-range value proposition is;
• And most importantly, how you treat your employees.

Savvy candidates, among other methods, can do a simple search on LinkedIn to find your current employees in their own networks, virtual or in-person.  And they're performing reference checks on you. How do you and your organization hold up?  Do you know?

A sure sign to me as a recruiter that an organization is in trouble in any of the above areas is how many applications I receive from the current employees of an organization.  I can also confirm my concern by the rate of churn -- employee departures and new hires within a short period of time -- at a particular organization, also thanks to LinkedIn.  Is that the reputation you want to convey?

Hiring is beginning to pick up in certain markets, and SmAlbany is one of them.  The competition for talented candidates is beginning to splinter the good fishing of the candidate barrel that this last recession had created.

Having a hard time finding talented candidates to fill your positions?  Are you listening to the chatter about you and your organization currently buzzing along the multiple reputation management channels?  Are you coming across as Hilly, or as Skeeter?

Have U Prufed Yr LinkedIn Profile to Suport Yr Sucess??

Gentle readers:

I know, it's annoying.  The English Major is at it again.  I'm reading a lot of your LinkedIn profiles and finding typos / errors.

Frankly, this is much worse than finding these typos / errors in your job applications:  please read my advice to you on this front in my earlier post, Thank You Fer Teh Job Oppertunity.  As a recruiter and a hiring authority, the audience for your errors as a job applicant is just me, theoretically.  The advice, however, is universal to all of your reputation management, online or not.

On your LinkedIn profile:  well, it's the entire online community worldwide, viewing your handiwork (or lack thereof) real-time on their Droids, iPads, and related hardware.  It's like a picture posted of you with clumps of spinach in your teeth, in full view of your potential customers / employers.  Hopefully you already know that your LinkedIn profile, unless you've changed your LinkedIn settings, shows up in Google among other search engine results when a hiring authority / potential customer conducts a simple Google check on you. 

So potential decision-makers in Melbourne (and everywhere else) are chuckling ruefully at your lack of precision and attention to detail, and clicking on the next LinkedIn profile in their search results for a vendor, a consultant, a Ruby-On-Rails Developer, an Online Reputation Manager, or a Controller.

And sadly, not calling you for potential career and business opportunities.

Now, intentional misspellings have been used since advertising has existed.  One of my favorite local examples is the beloved ice cream joint, Kurver Kreme.

The LinkedIn examples I've seen recently are clearly not intentional; and in fact, are actually in (ouch) current LinkedIn profile headlines (censored to protect the careless):

• Business Developement Manager at xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx  (a U.S. profile, FYI)

• Marketing anager at xxxxxx xxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx

• Human Resoruce Manager at xxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx

• Here's a doozy - not just one but multiple misspellings at the top of this person's LinkedIn profile:

            HR Manger at xxxx xxxxxxxx

Xxxxxx xxxxxx  | Human Resources

328 connections

Current:

HR Manger at xxxx xxxxxxx

Past:

HR Buisness partner at xxxx xxxxxx

Manger at  xxxxxxx

                  Recruitment Manger at xxxx xxxxx

Now I know that after experiencing both an earthquake and a hurricane within the same week, we all need a little Christmas, right this very minute, with the serene visualization of a manger scene.  But please:  not in your LinkedIn profile, unintentionally!

By the way:  by entering misspelled words into the powerful LinkedIn search engine, I was able to generate a list of nearly one million LinkedIn users with potential misspellings in their LinkedIn profiles.  Yikes!

So, gentle readers:  get thee to Merriam-Webster Online and a trusted editing buddy and fix your LinkedIn profile typos, fast, to best support your online reputation as well your ongoing success.

When You're an Employee, You Only Have One Customer

Ever since my father took me to the office one Saturday morning at the age of 4, I wanted a job.  It dawned on me:  so that's where the quarters and dollars Daddy doled out to me came from.  Cool.  Sadly, I was not invited back, as my fascination / love of technology with buttons also began with that visit:  I destroyed a large electronic adding machine by pressing too many buttons at once.  It was exciting, especially when it started smoking and whining.  I gained the reputation from that toddler experience with the male members of my family of being unreliable around machinery, which was totally unfounded and unfair.  Ask my husband Joel:  I am End-User Support for our house and can resurrect even the most hopeless computer fiascoes, most of the time.

So while most of my contemporaries in high school were wringing their hands next to the phone waiting for a boy to call for a date (or not), I engaged in the exact same ritual with a potential employer.

I asked my father for advice, as he was (and still is) a whiz at getting jobs.   It's always the same advice, it just took several decades to sink in:  "If you make 30 calls, and you get one sale, you're doing great,"  he'd dictate.  "What does that mean, Dad?"  I asked, confused.  "I'm not selling anything, I'm not a salesman."  Dad smiled.  "Yes, you are:  you're selling yourself.  And you know how to do it, because you're my daughter. You're just not concentrating."  I still didn't get it, clearly befuddled.  Dad spelled it out for me.  "Don't focus on one company:  apply to as many companies as you can.  That way, you increase your chances of getting a job, and you don't drive yourself crazy waiting for one guy to call you back and hire you.  Don't put all of your eggs in one basket."

Communication gap bridged, I got it.  It involved a lot more work applying and interviewing at many other companies, but it sure beat the soul- and energy-sucking anxiety of sitting next to the phone waiting for a call from just one potential employer.

Recently, as I was in the middle of a career coaching session with a good colleague, I took my father's advice one step further.  The presenting challenge was how to best frame a proposal to their manager (Read:  Customer) on their next career step up the organizational ladder, with the accompanying increase in compensation.  I coached Good Colleague that the proposal should meet both their needs as well as the profitability needs of their organization.  "What if my manager rejects my proposal?"  Good Colleague asked.  "Well, then maybe you've outgrown the organization, and it's time to look outside the organization,"  I replied.  Good Colleague was dismayed.  "But I don't want to leave the organization, I love it there," they said.  Good Colleague, like Dad, is in Sales / Business Development.

I thought for a moment.  "If that's the case, then you only have one Customer.  And from a business development standpoint, we all know how dangerous it is to bank your success on one Customer."  Good Colleague nodded.  "You don't have to necessarily leave the organization right now:  but there's nothing wrong with reaching out to colleagues in your industry, to ask their advice and grow new and existing relationships,"  I continued.  "At minimum, you'll make some great connections and build your reputation if your current manager ends up accepting your proposal, and at maximum, you'll be prospecting for new potential Customers.  It might be a job; it might be a project; or it might be a business that you'll start and grow.  The Customer potential is only limited by your willingness to try."

How many Customers do you have?  And are you keeping those Customer relationships warm and mutually rewarding by meeting everyone's profitability and success needs?

Skin-in-the-Game Customer Service at the Skyport Restaurant in Scotia, NY

At least once a month, my husband Joel, my son Noah and I have lunch at the Skyport Restaurant on Freeman's Bridge Road in Scotia, NY after we attend Sunday services at The First Unitarian Society of Schenectady, where we have been members for several years.

It's the type of diner where my father, a career salesman, would buy me breakfast as a treat in Queens, NY when I was a little girl.  Good food at a reasonable price.  Run by blue-collar folks just like us.  Nothing fancy, but clean, satisfying and good.

Each time we arrive, we're greeted by an upbeat sprite of a waitress who is a cross between Cyndi Lauper and Joyce DeWitt from Three's Company.  She is the best waitress I've ever met in my life.  I feel like I'm welcomed into her home every time we eat there.

On our first visit, she brought Noah his hot chocolate in a special extra large cup with delightfully too much whipped cream and chocolate syrup flourished on top.  She had Noah at hello.  She calls us all honey and has a megawatt smile.  She's not a normal waitress:  she acts like she owns the place.  I've been wondering about her status for several months:  if she owns the place, why is she waiting on tables?

I found out why today.  My good friend Lisa and I both like the Skyport and decided to have our slightly overdue lunch there.  We sat for 2 hours catching up.

Our waitress approached us.  "Where are your boys today?"  she asked me.  "Amusing each other at home," I smiled back.  "Mine too," Lisa chimed in.  She looked at Lisa.  "Where do I know you from?"  she asked Lisa.  They wondered aloud together for a few minutes.  As they both caught their breath, I jumped in.  "You know, you're a great waitress.  You work like you own the place."  She beamed.  "Thank you, it really means a lot to me, I work really hard at it." 

Her name is Joanna. It turns out that her father has owned the restaurant for 52 years.  He's 91 years old and sits in the back, chopping the potatoes and onions up for the delicious home fries and the homemade corned beef hash.  Joanna's two sisters buzz around the kitchen and cook all the food.  A younger brother or nephew always brings our coffee and cleans the tables.  "Well, we love coming here and you're a big reason, thank you," I said.  Joanna beamed again and bustled to other customers.

Lisa and I closed the diner this afternoon, along with a couple from California, who stopped both Joanna and I.  "She's right, you are wonderful," he said to Joanna.  "Thanks!" Joanna beamed one last time.  We all wished each other a good week.

Now, I've worked with and for family businesses for a good part of my career that employ family members.  Sometimes it works, with all of the family members pulling their weight.  Sometimes it doesn't work. When family members don't pull their weight, it's painful.  Painful in that it's both morale- and soul-sucking.  Like working with no-show colleagues.  Everyone gets paid, but they don't work, you do.  Just because they're family, it doesn't always equate to having skin in the game of the family business.

And I'll submit that employers can't buy that kind of skin in the game:  e.g. mitigating an employee's base salary (and more often than not, their dignity) with the carrot-and-stick of the bonus-plan-of-the-month.  Skin in the game is the equity of partnership, either through blood, or through investment (financial or sweat), or optimally, both.

At Skyport, they not only have skin in the game:  they're all in the roles that play to their respective strengths which in turn support the success of their business.  Joanna is the customer service expert / fan in the family, so she waits on the customers.  And we customers love it.  Her skin in the game is that she does what she loves, partnering with her family to make their living and make us diner foodies happy. 

A customer service best practice, great company and a good brunch:  business, and life, is good.

Show Up and Be Successful

Wonderful stories this week from my talented network of how showing up at in-person events and meetings produced successful results:

• Recently Laid-Off Colleague #1 swallowed their discomfort in networking / prospecting and showed up at a professional breakfast meeting.  They consequently connected on two job leads and one consulting gig lead.  One of their leads was an email referral I had made for Laid-Off Colleague #1 the evening before to another network contact, who thanked me for the referral and reported a positive connection with Laid-Off Colleague #1 in a return email after the breakfast meeting.

• Dear Colleague from last week's post had a second meeting with their new customer; and Dear Colleague is looking at the prospect of an even larger project engagement.

• Recently Laid-Off Colleague #2 picked up not one but two job leads sitting at a dinner meeting, as we all playfully bantered at considering an impromptu auction comparing the compensation / benefits packages of the two hiring authorities at the table.

• CEO Colleague spoke at a lunch meeting recruiting talent for her firm; Dear Colleague and Coaching Colleague, in attendance, responded to her offer.  This one is more fun than usual:  I treasure all 3, and they connected on their own because they all showed up.  I forwarded Dear Colleague and Coaching Colleague's LinkedIn profiles to CEO Colleague, completing the networking circle.

• The Rensselaer County Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner at Franklin Plaza was an ingenuous myriad of activities designed to maximize the business interactions of the attendees with each other.   It was like Networking in Wonderland, with great food and great company.

• And last but not least:  the intimate cocktail hour networking event Connector Colleague holds every quarter.  Connector Colleague brokered several introductions for mutual business benefit, and I was honored to be included.

10 calls a day, 1 meeting a day:  my daddy's tried-and-true sales success formula.  Schedule your meetings for the next few weeks; turn off your computer; put on your best sales / interview suit; and show up for success.

 

Rennselaer County Chamber of Commerce

A Job Interview Transformed Into a Sale

A Dear Colleague of mine went on an employment interview last week, in response to a job posting for which they were imminently, if not a bit, over-qualified.

They are clearly the lead candidate for the advertised job.  While the salary rate is below what they made in their last position, it would be a logical career move, given the economy, to take the position and gain the resume' experience. 

And then something magical happened.  During the interview, the Decision-Maker identified three projects for which Dear Colleague was also imminently qualified, which were also a bit out of the scope of the advertised job but clearly a priority for the Decision-Maker. 

Dear Colleague, as a result of their recent experience in building a consulting / contract client base, was able to on the spot hear the needs of a potential Customer through the artifice of an employment interview.  Dear Colleague nimbly then asked some key intake questions to confirm the needs of the Employer-Turned-Potential-Customer.  Then, Dear Colleague proposed potential and viable solutions to the Decision-Maker in a consulting role.

Long story short:  Dear Colleague is putting together a project proposal for the Decision-Maker.  And Dear Colleague is still in the running for the advertised job, which for bureaucratic reasons, will take longer for Decision-Maker's organization to process than Dear Colleague's consulting project proposal.

The supplicant candidate transformed the discussion - and themselves - into a Vendor (read:  Entrepreneur) meeting the needs of the Customer; building the product (read: Dear Colleague's skills and abilities to meet / exceed the Decision-Maker's needs) just-in-time, on the spot; asking for the order; and closing the sale.

Supplicant transformed into Entrepreneur:  now that's an economic turnaround I can get behind.

How - and in what direction - will you transform your Decision-Maker meetings this week?

A LinkedIn Success Story: A Positioning Statement Produces a Customer and an Entrepreneur

I shared my LinkedIn SME (Subject Matter Expertise) experience, strength and hope with a group of budding entrepreneurs / LinkedIn novices a few weeks ago, paying forward the wealth Gerry Crispin first shared at a LinkedIn recruiting seminar I attended 7 years before, when LinkedIn was brand-new and beta, totally free and invitation-only.  Gerry offered to invite any of the seminar attendees to LinkedIn as his closing remark.  I was one of the few geeks who took Gerry up on his offer that day, and it was a gift indeed.   A few years later, in my role as Recruiting Leader for my organization, I was one of the first LinkedIn business customers, and I still treasure my LinkedIn polo shirt.

As I guided the group of entrepreneurs through some of the LinkedIn basics a few weeks ago, I emphasized the importance of their LinkedIn profile as both their business website and their online résumé, and I encouraged them to browse through examples of their colleagues' LinkedIn profiles to gather ideas to maximize and leverage their LinkedIn presence.

One of the entrepreneurs reported instant and great results a few weeks later.  He'd been on LinkedIn for months with minimal information on his profile.  In reality, he has an incredibly valuable background and highly sought-after skill set, and he was interested in starting a consulting practice but was just beginning the storming process of thrashing through how to consult after years as an employee SME.  After our LinkedIn in-service, he changed his profile headline -- a.k.a. the Positioning Statement that Guy Kawasaki so elegantly describes in his new jewel of a book, Enchantment -- to include the term Consultant.

The very next day, the Entrepreneur was contacted via LinkedIn by a Practitioner who typed in "Consultant" and the keyword for the Entrepreneur's SME expertise and found the Entrepreneur.  The Practitioner has an immediate and potentially ongoing project need.  Turns out the going rate for the Entrepreneur's expertise is $175 an hour.  Who knew?  I love it!

Now, you can read this experience a number of ways:   as a rudimentary exercise in LinkedIn Search Optimization; as happenstance; or, as being in the right place at the right time, using the right Positioning Statement.

What is your Positioning Statement? And is it searchable on LinkedIn and beyond?

Who is the Decision-Maker?

Shortly after Joel and I got married, his lemon-of-a-junker car finally gave up the ghost:  a bad referral from his family's Manchester, Vermont network. Since we lived in North Chatham, Columbia County, and we worked in diametrically opposite directions (me in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in the Berkshires, at General Electric Aerospace and Joel in Albany, New York, at Crossgates Mall, as Manager / Head Picture-Framer at Deck the Walls), a new car purchase became a priority for our family, as car-pooling was clearly not an option.

After some quick and thorough research courtesy of Consumer Reports, that year's Mitsubishi mini-SUV became our purchase goal, as it more than met our reliability and functional needs.  We journeyed from our rural rental house into the outskirts of the Brunswick section of Troy, NY and paid a visit to the dealer on Route 7.

We entered the dealership, and examined the floor model of our intended car purchase.  An older, stouter gentlemen with glasses, salt-and-pepper hair (tie-less and blazer-less, a good sign for Joel) made eye contact with us, put down his book and approached us.  That is, he made eye contact with me:  Joel purposely kept his Ray-Bans on, looking like a cross between Elwood Blues and the sax player from The Blues Brothers.  His contribution to our purchase negotiations:  the silent and vaguely forbidding bad cop.  Joel took a quick glance at the cover of the salesman's book:  it was an Arthur C. Clarke book.  "That's a good sign," Joel noted softly to me.

I nodded, still a bit wary. Buying a car was always a Women's Studies 101 field trip for me.  At best, it usually started out with an obnoxious elevator visual evaluation of me from the aloof sales guy, and then the standard "Where's your father / boyfriend / husband to help you with this?"

The salesman extended his hand to both of us.  "Hi folks, what can I do for you today?"  I pointed at the mini-SUV.  "We're interested in this model, for the right price." I replied.  "Great! Let's sit down," he said, gesturing to the two chairs in front of his desk.  We settled in the chairs.

The salesman looked at both of us, and then asked a brilliant question:  "Please let me know who will be signing the loan paperwork:  both of you, or one of you?  I'd like to direct my discussion to the person who will actually buy the car."  Joel and I grinned at each other, and then at the salesman:  he had us at hello.  "It's me,"  I replied.  "Great," the salesman replied, pulling out the paperwork.  "Let's get started."  We got a great price, and they even took the dead lemon as a trade-in, towing it to the dealership for us.  The Mitsubishi lasted 11 years, a great buy.

Do you know who the decision-maker is when you:

• Interview for a job? (Hint:  unless you're interviewing for a job in the Human Resources Department, it's not HR);
• Make an appointment with a new company as a potential sales prospect?
• Refer contacts in your network to potential business?
• Refer mentees in your network to potential employers?
• Network for potential business, contract and employment referrals?
• Get an appointment with a company without posted job openings but who you know needs your skills and experience as an employee badly enough to hire you virtually on the spot?
• Are the customer and need your vendor to resolve an issue that is not clearly dictated by established policy?

And if you don't know:  do you take the extra step and ask who the decision-maker is?

As was the experience of our sage car salesman:  identifying the decision-maker makes the difference between closing (or losing) the sale.

How many decision-makers are on your call / meeting list this week?

Keep Your Success Saw Sharp

Thanks to my regular attendance at Social Media Breakfast Tech Valley (SMBTV) since the summer of 2009, I have learned and implemented several new skills and initiatives:

• Setting up a blog site and writing a weekly blog post, exercising several skill and cognitive "muscles" in one fell swoop;  (I actually encouraged my friend Katie to follow her writing talent bliss and start her blog first - then, after watching her produce great work for a few months on her blog, I waded tentatively into the blogging pool and starting writing too);
• Setting up a website, Google Map and Facebook fan page for my husband Joel's custom-picture framing business, The Best Framing Company, which has generated new customers;
• Setting up an even better website for my dear friend and colleague John Crowe, promoting the great counseling work he does with male sexual abuse survivors and other trauma victims;
• Setting up a blog site for Joel's fiction writing and self-publishing;
• Linking (in a rudimentary fashion) the custom domains purchased for the above sites so they actually work;
• Complementing my LinkedIn SME (Subject Matter Expert) knowledge with related forays into Twitter and Facebook, and conducting workshops and one-on-one coaching thereof, particularly on LinkedIn;
• Experimenting with all three channels (LinkedIn, LinkedIn Groups, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) to broaden the audience of my blog conversations as well as innovate my recruiting and marketing projects;
• Engaging in Twitter conversations during presentations at relevant meetups like SMBTV (the endorsement to do so is as much fun and much more interactive than passing surreptitious notes in class).

And except for LinkedIn, I'm a SME-in-Training on the rest of the above.  Clearly, there are SMEs in the SMBTV crowd who know much more than I do.  However, I always benefit from my insatiable desire to learn about subjects that interest me and expand upon my strengths, and for that I'm very grateful.  It keeps me engaged mentally, emotionally and spiritually, and as a by-product, it continues to broaden my skill set and my marketability, in whatever I choose to pursue, whether it's my next project, customer or career-enriching job.

I also endeavor to read at least two new books a month, as well as take the opportunity to participate in formal training and work opportunities to focus on and codify other strengths, e.g. Mediation Training or Project Management for Professionals.

It is one of the habits that sticks with me from Covey's timeless standard, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: 

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

Sharpen the Saw means preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have--you. It means having a balanced program for self-renewal in the four areas of your life: physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual. Here are some examples of activities:

Physical:	Beneficial eating, exercising, and resting
Social/Emotional:	Making social and meaningful connections with others
Mental:	Learning, reading, writing, and teaching
Spiritual:	Spending time in nature, expanding spiritual self through meditation, music, art, prayer, or service

As you renew yourself in each of the four areas, you create growth and change in your life. Sharpen the Saw keeps you fresh so you can continue to practice the other six habits. You increase your capacity to produce and handle the challenges around you. Without this renewal, the body becomes weak, the mind mechanical, the emotions raw, the spirit insensitive, and the person selfish. Not a pretty picture, is it?

Feeling good doesn't just happen. Living a life in balance means taking the necessary time to renew yourself. It's all up to you. You can renew yourself through relaxation. Or you can totally burn yourself out by overdoing everything. You can pamper yourself mentally and spiritually. Or you can go through life oblivious to your well-being. You can experience vibrant energy. Or you can procrastinate and miss out on the benefits of good health and exercise. You can revitalize yourself and face a new day in peace and harmony. Or you can wake up in the morning full of apathy because your get-up-and-go has got-up-and-gone. Just remember that every day provides a new opportunity for renewal--a new opportunity to recharge yourself instead of hitting the wall. All it takes is the desire, knowledge, and skill. 

What opportunity will you take this week to Sharpen Your Success Saw?

How Full is Your Calendar Campaign?

I started working as a writer on political campaigns when I was a college senior.  In addition to writing promotional copy were the more mundane but necessary tasks of stuffing and labeling envelopes; cold-calling voters; and scheduling the candidate's events to ensure they were interacting with as many voters (read: decision-makers) as possible.

I remember poring over the morning newspaper on a daily basis with my supervisor Donna, searching for events for the candidate to attend which would expose them to the maximum number of voters.  Our job was to fill up the candidate's calendar every day, 7 days a week until Election Day.  "There's a pancake breakfast at the firehouse on Saturday, let's schedule the candidate for that event," Donna directed.  I stopped, pencil poised over the campaign calendar.  "Does the candidate know the folks at the firehouse?  Isn't that weird to just show up and start shaking hands with people you don't know?  What if the candidate tells us they don't want to do it?" I asked a bit anxiously.  Donna looked at me, arching an eyebrow.  "Weird or not, if the candidate can't do it, they shouldn't be running for office."

It was an expansion of the success practice my father instilled in me:  10 decision-maker prospect calls a day; at least one decision-maker prospect meeting a day.  Whether you're searching for jobs, customers or voters.  It's the same Zen practice.  Open up the newspaper, Business Review, Chamber of Commerce website, etc. and start filling in your calendar.  My particular angle on this best practice is to focus on decision-maker events where I can practice needs-based, win-win networking.  Another one of my colleagues combines donations and pro bono work to charity events near and dear to her heart with her networking:  another great win-win example.

If for some reason there's a dearth of decision-maker events on the calendar, I catch up with my Board of Directors. Or I sharpen the saw by attending events where I hone / expand my skills and horizons.  Or I stay home and catch up on my reading.  Unless you're running for political office, I certainly don't advocate the 7-day-a-week calendar practice.  It's a creative choice process, ripe with possibilities.

However you decide to plan your calendar campaign, one success statistic remains constant:  business owners / entrepreneurs must spend at least 50% of their time marketing for new business in order to sustain / grow their businesses.  A potential best practice is for all of us is to do the same, whether the marketing is internal to the organization (as an employee); or externally (job-seeker, networker, entrepreneur, business owner).  I love the implied potential of all of us working towards that growth goal.

How full is your calendar campaign this week?  And every week thereafter?

The Interview as Business Proposal: And the Product is You

The job market is starting to pick up, thankfully, and many of you have job interviews this week.  I'm thrilled for you:  break a leg.

Some of you are spending the evening with one eye on the Super Bowl and multi-tasking with Google and the very best intentions to find the ultimate answer to the ubiquitous (and uninspired) question, "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?"  Your navy suit, which will telegraph trust to your (hopefully) new employer, is pressed and ready on its hanger in the closet.  Your alarm is set. You've Google-Mapped the (new) employer's address. Your portfolio is stocked with multiple copies of your resume'.  You're drinking O'Doul's to ensure that you're bright-eyed in the morning.

A much smaller percentage of you are finalizing the proposal / presentation of how you're going to meet / exceed the business needs of your future employer (read:  customer).  You've done your homework and your metrics are crisp and to the point.  The customer is expecting a potential employee, and you will knock their socks off by exceeding their expectations as a potential strategic supplier, in-sourced or out-sourced.  You will present the product that you know the best:  you.  You will also conduct the same preparations that your competitor candidates are currently undertaking, e.g. the well-pressed suit, etc., but your unique selling proposition -- that puts you ahead of the pack -- is that you understand your meeting tomorrow is a sales presentation to meet the new customer's needs, not just an interview.  And if you've played your cards right, you're the only candidate, because you've made the right connections thanks to your network to reach the decision-maker before they've even thought of advertising their needs to the open market.

How do I know?  I've done it and won it myself.  Several times.

And you will, too.  Happy hunting; let us know how it goes.

Needs-Based Networking Supports Success

While I love networking on a number of levels (notwithstanding my irrepressible and lifelong curiosity to meet new people), networking at its best is discovering the sweet spot that meets the needs of both people (or organizations) engaged in the networking experience.

This is where my career experiential knowledge base starts to trope and intersect in new and interesting ways.

• Sales 101 (courtesy of my dad):  selling is not cramming your product mindlessly down your customers' and prospects' throats.  It is instead:
• Identifying the needs of your customer (or prospective employer); 
• And then, once their needs are known and documented, selling is meeting / exceeding the needs of your customer by providing your products and services in exchange for payment (and for those engaged in job search, your products and services are the relevant talent(s) and skills that meet / exceed the especial needs of your potential employer).  Which meets your needs, too.

•  Mediation 101 (courtesy of my mediation teachers and coaches):  The source of all human conflict is needs met and unmet.
• Mediation is hosting the conversation between parties in conflict;
• A critical step in mediating conflict resolution is helping the parties in conflict each identify their respective needs underlying the conflict;
• Once everyone's needs are identified and on the table, the chances are much greater that both parties in the conflict can come to a (often creative, heretofore unconsidered) resolution that meets the needs of all, on their own.

So:  instead of approaching networking as a reluctant supplicant (or worse yet, a noodge), first consider conducting a needs analysis / intake on those companies / individuals who interest you and with whom you'd like to conduct business.  What does the prospective customer (or employer) need to sustain and grow their business?  A great deal of this information is available via my girlfriend Google and LinkedIn, among other resources (including but not limited to your local business journal), and the rest can be gleaned via your network, which may well include current and former employees, customers and vendors of the executive / company / employer who interests you.

Once armed with that needs-analysis, are you able to meet / exceed their needs with your talent / goods / services?  If not, then be prepared to connect them with resources who can meet their needs, as their networking broker (or networking mediator, hosting the conversation); if you can't, then you are just a noodge.

Or, to borrow a concept from social media:  how can you provide useful information that is of service to your network and your prospective network, which in turn will continuously build and reinforce your reputation?

With that kind of preparation to meet the needs of all involved, how can you be anything but confident and constantly engaged as you continue to grow your network, your reputation, your business, your career and your ongoing success?  And, if you're wired anything like me, also have fun in the process?

Every Call is a Sales Call

I reached out to a few good colleagues recently networking for specialty candidates here in SmAlbany.  I called after 6 PM expecting to leave a voicemail and instead reached a live person whom I didn't recognize.

"Hi, is Gladys there?" I asked. (The name is changed due to the SmAlbany factor and to minimize reader distraction.)

"Sure, hang on a second," the deep and friendly voice said.  I listened to some generic on-hold music for about 30 seconds.  The voice returned, no longer friendly.  "Who are you and what do you want?"

Hmmm.  A bit abrupt, which surprised me for a minute.  "I'm Deb Best and I'm following up with Gladys networking for (specialty) candidates," I replied.

"Sorry," said the Deep Voice, not sorry at all.  "I thought you were a sales call.  We're in the middle of a sales meeting and she doesn't have time to talk to you. (Click.)"  He hung up on me.  Charming.  And ironic.

Later that week, coincidentally (and I don't believe in coincidences), I learned that Deep Voice was the CEO of Gladys' company by observing him asserting himself rather stridently in a meeting and watching him subsequently facilitated by the meeting moderator to let other meeting participants contribute equally.  

Deep Voice's company, by the way, relies heavily on its reputation, more than the average company, as part of its business model.

Which is why I continue to maintain to the point of proselytizing that every call is a sales call.

Internally and externally, you can't let current and potential customers see you sweat, literally and figuratively.  Because the downstream reputation impacts on sales are undeniable.

Seemingly unbeknown to Deep Voice, I am a potential customer connected to other potential and current customers.  In a market like SmAlbany, and in an economy that increasingly connects like SmAlbany outside of SmAlbany, why any customer-facing employee at any level would indulge themselves in anything less than Customer Delight to all company contacts internally and externally is beyond my understanding.

Interestingly, I don't need to understand.  I've been heavily trained and inculcated on intent vs. impact:  the intent doesn't matter, the impact means and drives everything. 

Customer Delight is the responsibility of every employee in the organization at every level.  It's vertical integration at its finest:  it's time to break down the organizational silos and desegregate our organizational roles and constructs and come to the joint conclusion that we're all sales and customer service associates regardless of our respective organizational levels and functions, particularly if we are to sustain and grow our respective organizations within our competitive markets.

A small but poignant example from earlier in my career:  I was conducting a phone-screen with a Chemical Engineer candidate, and as was my practice, I described our chemical manufacturing process from end to end.  I then asked the candidate a few questions about his experience with our particular manufacturing process; finally, I asked him if he had any questions.  "No questions," he said, "Just a comment.  I've never seen an HR person talk about the business like you just did.  I expected you to just tell me about the company benefits.  I'm impressed with your organization and your team, whether you decide to hire me or not."

Exactly.

How authentic are you, no matter what your functional role in your organization, in meeting / exceeding your customers' needs during and after customer-facing contacts?  Internally and externally? 

Every call is a sales call.

Everyone is a Customer: Make it Right

One of the most powerful professional tools that I've been granted in my career is the concept that everyone - employees, colleagues, customers (readers), managers, candidates, executives and shareholders:  is a customer.

Moreover, when coupled with the concept of Customer Delight, which is a much more powerful state than just plain old Customer Service, you stack the odds of creating a business culture and philosophy that meets and / or exceeds the needs of all both internally and externally.

When taken and implemented authentically together, those two concepts are a powerful force.  You engender loyalty, retention and repeat business, which in turn engenders reputation and new business / customers.

Walking the talk of "Everyone is a Customer" and "The Customer is Always Right"  is clearly hard work.

The best and most successful professionals and organizations are in a constant state of discovery to in effect mediate the agendas of all parties and constantly create new and innovative solutions that meet or exceed the needs of all the "customers" involved in any business transaction.

Some brief but notable examples:

• Wegman's
• Panera Bread (Great place to work, meet, eat - fresh food and free wireless - great service model!)
• Repeat Business Systems and their President, Dawn
• Lisa C., who handles HMO billing at CapitalCare Medical Group.

The deal-killer and consequently the career-killer is making the customers, internally and externally, wrong.  It's the misguided value system that dictates if you make the customer / colleague / employee / employer wrong, that it will help make you right, and consequently successful.   This behavior can manifest in the following brief but notable ways:

• Berating a colleague at a team meeting;
• Being an asshole to employees as a company leader;
• Southwest Airlines;
• The irate (and ubiquitously tiresome) Jet Blue employee and the equally rude passenger / customer who smacked him with her bag because she did not follow the rules (Whether we like it or not, rules are a necessity in our post-9/11 travel paradigm.  Vendors are also customers.)

If I make you wrong and myself right (or vice versa) in any given conflict or business transaction, someone always loses.

When we work together to create a solution that meets or exceeds the needs of both you and me, the possibilities of both joint and individual success are infinite.

Let's make it right for all of our customers:  present company included.

Go forth and prosper!

Networking is About What You Have to Give

I graduated from SUNY at Albany into perhaps the worst recession only second to the current one.  I was an English major (and a Women's Studies minor by accident -- I wanted to take Sign Language 101 but they canceled the course at the last minute, so I took Women's Studies 101 instead).

I wanted to write for a living and there were no jobs available, much less a job where I could follow my bliss.

During my senior semester, I had the good fortune to get accepted into the New York State Assembly Internship Program 3 days before the deadline.  My friend Portia, who was a Political Science major, encouraged me to apply because as she noted astutely, "The Legislature pays people to write."  She had me at hello.

I lucked out with my internship assignment as well.  The Program assigned me to the most liberal and curmudgeony member of the Assembly at the time (I feared briefly that my punishment for daring to be a Women's Studies minor would be an assignment working for a severely Conservative member), who also happened to be the Assemblyman from my home district. He owned one tie, a shiny yet stained polyester striped blue-and-gray number, that lived in his top desk drawer.  He wore it grudgingly to the Assembly Chamber like a noose to conform with the dress code.   He was brilliant, always ready for a good debate (or argument), anti-establishment, an avid birdwatcher and could conveniently give me a ride south on the weekends to see my family occasionally.  We would often pull over on the shoulder of the Thruway to get a closer look at a hawk with the binoculars he kept in his car. Whenever I see a hawk today, (He passed a number of years ago), I think fondly of him.

The internship required 20 hours of work a week in the Assemblyman's office; in return, I received 15 credits and a $100 a week stipend.   It was a great opportunity, even more than I knew at the time.

Shortly after I started the internship, the Assemblyman hired Nan to be his Staff Director.  Nan was a natural-born connector, a great writer, and a lot of fun:  to this day, she is one of the best managers I've ever had.  I loved working for her, and I loved the work we all did together.  Before I knew it, I was working 40 hours a week or more supporting the crazy hours of legislative session work, attending legislative receptions with Nan, meeting new people and having a great time.

As graduation neared and my internship was about to end, Nan asked me to work part-time through the end of the year (I also worked at Macy's part-time the rest of that year to approximate full-time work.)   Nan, before the era of email, cell phones and the web, worked her network and helped me get a full-time job for the upcoming Legislative Session in another Assemblyman's office. 

I was sad to leave Nan's employ, and touched at how she had championed me in a tough budget and economy with her network to get me a rare full-time Assembly Session job.  "How can I ever thank you?"  I asked her.

"By never saying 'no' when someone asks to network with you,"  she replied. "That will be thanks enough."

Nan created a calling with that request.  As one friend recently noted, I collect people.  I find people in general fascinating, and smart and talented people particularly engaging.  I love matching up the latter vocationally and in business.  Yes, I network and have a large network, both virtually and here in SmAlbany, because I'm a recruiter by trade and a saleswoman by DNA.

I have however experienced networking most authentically when I have something to give in the moment without expecting something in return.  Now, the laws of networking are not like the laws of physics:  for each "give,"  you do not necessarily receive an equal and opposite "get" from the person with whom you're networking.

Rather, it is approaching networking with a generosity of spirit:  you're planting seeds that someday may (or may not) bloom into opportunity, you just can't predict the timing or the likelihood of that germination.  When I offer my subject-matter expertise (SME) without solicitation and give away some of the crunchy nuggets that other potential business partners need when the moment presents itself, that's when I receive what I need, in the form of new clients, new jobs, new colleagues, new friends. And not necessarily from the person who receives my crunchy SME nuggets.

Interestingly enough, these SME nuggets planted in generosity of spirit also grow reputation:  another critical networking building block.

During this last ride to the Recession Rodeo, when I was in search of both a new job and new clients as part of discovering the next enriching chapter of my vocational journey, I revved up my usual power networking schedule and presentation.   As I coached my son Noah several weeks ago, my daddy always told me that if you make 30 calls and you got one "yes," you were doing great.

Daddy also set the bar high for prospecting:  at least 10 calls a day, at least 1 face-to-face meeting a day.  It's hard yet always satisfying work.

Sure, there are the occasional days when I prepare for a meeting feeling like a needy supplicant, wanting the person I'm scheduled to meet to be my Mommy and fix it all for me.  Feh.  I don't even want to meet with me on days like that. If I can't get going for myself, what useful purpose will I have for the decision-maker who made the time to meet with me?  I take a page from the 12-Step rooms:  I fake it 'til I make it.  That is:  I rely on what I know intellectually about what I have to give that nice decision-maker until my feelings catch up with the facts.  And on those very rare days when I can't get it together, I know I need a break and take the necessary rest.

I also know I'm in the networking zone when about 50% of the meetings end up being about the decision-maker's agenda, and not mine.

However, I'm happy to say, my networking has evolved along with my subject-matter expertise.  At the end of each phone call, each meeting, as part of offering my thanks, I also genuinely offer to be an ongoing resource to the person kind enough to have taken time to speak to me.  It happened spontaneously early on in the latest discovery process, and the reaction was worth everything.

After a jovial meeting where my decision-maker contact made amusing fun of the HR profession in general, in parting I said:  "If you ever need anything from me, even as a reality-check, please do not hesitate to contact me:  no charge."  From the look on his face, I could see that he was genuinely touched at my offer.  "So Deb:  if I have a weird HR situation, I can call you?"

Absolutely.  I'm here for you.


Happy Hunting:  Have a great week!