The Executive Coach

If you where a brand, what would you be?

Brands communicate what type of product or service experience to expect. In an ever complex and fast moving world, brands can provide us with familiarity and comfort. When successful brands deliver on a brand promise, we know what to expect.

What does your brand say about you? What attributes, values, norms and preferences define your brand? Our leaders and recruiters need to have a familiarity and comfort with people that we surround ourselves with.

If your brand promise does not define who you are, you need to rebrand yourself. If you are trying to undergo a career transition, you need to rebrand yourself. If you are hoping to move into a new industry or a new geographical area you need to rebrand yourself.

Great brands generate emotions by painting visual, auditory and sensatory images. Successful brands build expectations and consistently positive experiences. The best brands tend to stand out from a crowded marketplace and are sought after for their strong connections to their consumers.

Putting It Into Action
Brands use slogans, sound bites and visuals to be memorable and communicate their sustainable competitive advantages.

Within the next few weeks, come up with a 3-8 second slogan that communicates your brand. Who are you? What value can you bring to the marketplace? What is your brand promise? Is your package (image) consistent with your brand promise? Combine your brand promise and your slogan to come up your 30 second radio commercial and 2-3 minute image. What you say about you and how you present it, creates expectations. Delivering on expectations wins customers. Consistently delivering on expectations and delighting customers builds loyalty.

With you along the path towards success,
Joseph

Did you know that the greatest impediment to becoming great is being good?

In his global blockbuster Good to Great, Jim Collins makes the hypothesis that the greatest barrier to becoming great in your business is being good.

I think the same holds true for your career. Being good at what you do, prevents you from making a fundamental leap frog to being great because:

1) Success is equated to a validation of the past and present.
2) We are too focused on current customers and challenges.
3) We are too focused on current sector and not redefining what business you are in or should be in.
4) Too focused on managerial obsessions of cost cutting and efficiency improvements.
5) Our organizations and reward systems reward short term goal attainment and incremental improvements.
6) We strive to mitigate risk or are risk averse by nature.
7) There is comfort and an illusion of security in sticking to what we know.

Restructuring your career or business will help you close the performance gap. You should instead plan for a renewal, taking advantage of new opportunities.

Putting It Into Action:

In general, professionals who make drastic and revolutionary changes in their career directions failed to invest in small but progressive evolutionary moves towards new careers.

Find a sustainable way to make money in the present to support and prepare a career or business transformation for the future. In business, our cash cows fund our research projects and exploratory products and services. For your career, you may want to join a Board, volunteer, join a professional association, attend a conference or work on a project or consult in the area that you think you want to gravitate towards.

With you along the path towards success,
Joseph

Do you want to stay current and add flexibility in your career?

If you want to ensure a long career where you hold the options, you must continuously exercise and grow your brain. Both your left side (logic) of your brain and your right side (creative) must be exposed to new situations, new approaches, and new viewpoints.

Every day you should read the business and another section of a major national newspaper such as The Globe and Mail or Wall Street Journal. Every week you should read at least one business and one other trade magazine. Every year you should attend several seminars, workshops and events that extend your knowledge and allow you to share best practices. Every two years, you should attend at least one multi day professional conference or training session in your field or industry that teaches you new skills. Every five years, you should complete a professional degree, designation, certification or diploma.

I am not trying to sound ‘preachy’, I just see first hand the positive affect that continuous learning has on our careers. Your mind is amazing and if you have the passion to learn, you will learn. Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Enterprises, is dyslexic and ADD, yet he taught himself how to fly and runs a phenomenally successful, multi-faceted global business.

Putting It Into Action:
By the end of this month, research continuous learning options at local colleges, universities and community centers. Look for ways to learn in class, on-line and also at your own pace; we all have preferred ways of learning, find out your most effective format. Ensure that most of your development enhances your right side of the brain, improving your creativity, context, interpersonal and empathy skills. By the end of next month, put together a two and five year plan with specific details and dates and hold yourself or appoint someone close to you accountable for making sure you stay on your plan. Next, make sure you champion continuous learning in your team and organization.

With you along the path towards success,
Joseph

Have you heard the latest ‘killer’ interview question?

Have you ever been totally at a loss of words when someone asks you a difficult question during an interview or business meeting? C’mon admit it, it has happened to the best of us.

There are countless books and internet sources providing tips for interviews, tips for negotiations and tips for answering tough questions. This barrage of information has caused interviewers to be more creative with their questioning.

The latest one that I heard is, “Are you lucky?” Answer negatively and you will come across as the blaming type, not able to take responsibility for your actions. Answer positively and you signal that you are empathetic, have perspective, have high emotional intelligence and would work well in a team.

Putting It Into Action:
Practice your answer to “Are you lucky?” and record your answer on video. Research additional tough questions on websites like Vault.com and practice your answers. Strive to be positive, creative, empathetic and focused in your answers.

With you along the path towards success,
Joseph

Do you want to bullet-proof your career?

Think of the left "analytical" side of your brain as the hardware of your computer.

It is no surprise that IBM and other large companies equally focus on the margin-rich software applications and solutions side. This latter part resides in the right side of your brain.

The new required right side brain skills are:
1) Designer – literate in design or artwork and ability to inspire this in the organization
2) Storyteller – paints vivid pictures delivered with emotional impact
3) Symphony Leader – sees the big picture and knows how to combine the required elements for maximum performance
4) Empathetic Leader – feels, sees and encourages emotions and understands their importance in the workplace
5) Humanist – returns the workplace to playfulness, laughter and social time
6) Meaning Architect – builds meaning into what is done at work not just accumulation of wealth and bringing what you care about at home into the workplace so that goals can be congruent.

These six skills will bullet-proof your career because they cannot be outsourced. They add great value to the organization by helping them attract, retain and get the most from their human capital.

Putting It Into Action:
You will likely not be able to exceed in all six areas right now. Chose two or three that you are strongest in and put together a date-specific action plan to play this role in your organization. Encourage your entire team to follow. Tell other teams what you are doing to encourage them to add their own right side brain skill sets.

With you on the path to success,
Joseph

The developed world’s wealth has tripled in the last five years, yet we are not happier. Why is this?

Daniel Pink’s latest book, A Whole New World, states that we are in a Significance Economy, where emotion, design, and ability to customize rule over function. Our standards of living have increased on all measures, yet we are not happier. We are not more fulfilled. We are liberated by our prosperity but not satisfied by it.

The implications for you and your career are huge. In the consumer marketplace, we are all in constant search for meaning and satisfaction and our demand for this is quite inelastic – we will invest our additional time and money for fulfillment, to make a difference. Products such as the Ipod, Mac Computer and Toyota Prius come to mind. In the career marketplace, we are all looking for more meaning, more significance, and more opportunities to leave a legacy and make an impact through our work.

Putting It Into Action:
Look at your products and services. How can you give your customers the ability to customize the look and application of your products and services so that they can add significance to their lives?

Looking at your workplace, ask yourself and your staff which charities, projects and events would add meaning to their lives and make them more productive and satisfied at work. As a leader, look for ways for your team to obtain greater work life balance, greater congruence between personal and corporate values, and greater recognition for their contributions to society.

With you along the path towards success,
Joseph

Have you ever conducted a SWOT Analysis to help you set your corporate strategy?

The good news is a SWOT Analysis on yourself and your potential future employers/divisions/functions can be the key to career success and satisfaction.

Here is how it works. Reflect on your relevant and sustainable transferable skills or Strengths (S). This is your internal analysis; don’t worry about your Weaknesses. Next identify the five most likely employers/divisions/functions that you might work for in the future. Once this is done, conduct an external analysis of their Opportunities (O) and Threats (T). Finally, do a complete mapping of how your Strengths match up to their Opportunities and Threats. You might notice that I have left out your Weaknesses (W). Identify what they are, but do NOT work on them, find others who can perform what you are not good at with ease.

You can then determine whether you have sufficient strengths to make a difference in any of those first five options. If you see career potential, you will have insight into writing resumes or cover letters or having conversations and interviewing for some of your options.

Putting It Into Action:
By the end of the week, identify five different options for your career. Conduct primary and secondary research on each of the career options, focusing on their market opportunities and possible external threats. By the end of next month, have your strengths matched to each opportunity and threat. Determine which options you will pursue. Put together an Action Plan with milestones and target dates. These suggestions are applicable for both positions within and outside of your organization.

With you along the path towards success,
Joseph

Do you want to fast track your career to the C Suite?

Recently, I wrote about one of my senior clients who got passed up for the CEO position. He is now building his track record that should lead him to the C Suite.

C Level positions are few and far between. When C Level positions do open up in your organization or in other organizations, you need to be a natural ‘fit’ for the position, hence the track record. Along with the track record, if you have been following my previous blogs, you will know that I am always encouraging you to expand your network and visibility outside of your department, division, company, industry or country.

Currently, my research and hundreds of interviews reveal that the ten best career stepping stones to help get you to the C Suite are to take the lead in:
1. Helping your organization expand globally (bonus points for BRICK – Brazil, Russia, India, China or S. Korea)
2. Supply chain (cost reduction, efficiency improvements and resource securing)
3. Global strategic alliances
4. Sustainability, Governance and Ethics
5. A merger, acquisition or major change initiative
6. Bold new initiatives with the potential to completely change the way that business is currently done
7. Beacon for top talent (recruit, retain and develop the stars)
8. Risk management (financial, reputation, liability, etc.)
9. Financial stewardship (SOX, Basil, etc.)
10. Any project that contributes the largest share of revenues

Putting It Into Action:
Pick one of the areas mentioned above and put together a strategic plan with weekly targets to ensure that you get to take a leadership role sooner rather than later. After you obtain a comfort level with the new role, report what you are doing, how you are doing and what the impact is to the organization to the most senior members of the executive team or any Board Members that you may know.

With you along the path towards success,
Joseph

Do you want to fast track your career to the C Suite?

Recently I wrote about one of my senior clients who got passed up for a CEO position. He spent a month upset at the organization, then upset at the world and then upset at himself. While reflection is healthy, you need to get over your setbacks much quicker. My client admitted to himself, and to me as his coach, that he had to begin to build his track record and profile that would lead him to the C Suite.

You need to communicate your successes and signal your intentions regularly.
When presenting to an audience you would:
-Tell them what you will talk about
-Present what your are taking about
-Summarize and remind them what you have told them about.
Why would your campaign to be the next leader be any different?

Putting It Into Action:
Take the initiative, take on more responsibility and lead projects that have a strategic imperative for your organization. Look for opportunities to play a lead role in a high profile project such as an acquisition or a global expansion. Report what you are doing, how you are doing and what the impact is to the organization to the most senior members of the executive team or any Board Members that you may know.

With you along the path towards success,
Joseph

Do you want to fast track your career to the ‘C’ Suite?

The key to your success can be BRICK. Brick is an acronym for: Brazil, Russia, India, China and (South) Korea. These five countries make up the largest, wealthiest, quickest emerging and growing economies in the world. These five countries are beginning to change the fundamental dynamics around how your business and every business will compete for resources such as raw materials, talent and customers.

For decades the largest multinational corporations have had formal programs of assigning their high potential senior leaders into overseas placements in the interests of broadening their skills and perspectives. Whether or not your firm has such a program, it is imperative that your organization’s future executives have experience working in or working with the BRICK countries. Performing on the world stage, will signal to your leaders that you should be given a leading role.

Putting It Into Action:
Become very familiar with any products, projects or divisions that rely heavily on any of the BRICK countries. Lead projects that involve one or all of the BRICK countries. Travel to or be appointed for a short-term project in any of the BRICK countries. Research, attend conferences and conduct information interviews with anyone who has experience with one of the five countries.

With you along the path towards success,
Joseph

Have you heard the saying, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail?”

Recently I wrote about setting resolutions or plans more than once a year. To get going with this, start with your goals for this year. Your goals will the help determine your plan. Your annual plan should be specific enough to provide you with a focus and direction, but not so structured that it doesn’t allow you some flexibility.

Once your annual plan has been determined, move to setting quarterly plans, then break that down into monthly targets and plans. Monthly targets can then have attainable weekly action plans.

Your overall goal should be to become fully aware of what you are good at, what you enjoy and what you can contribute to employers or customers. To help you determine your strategic strengths, ask yourself the following questions:
-What do I enjoy doing?
-What do people say I have a real knack for?
-What skills, tools, contacts do I have that are difficult to duplicate in the marketplace?

Putting It Into Action:
Come up with the answer to these two questions:
-How do I add value for my customers, bosses and co-workers?
-How can I get adequately rewarded for the above?

With you along the path towards success,
Joseph