Gizza Job (tips on getting a senior role)
Boys from the Blackstuff*
The very phrase, being the age I am, reminds me bleakly and tragically of the breakdown of a man in the Thatcherite period, and the grinding down of a community. But it also shows a charm, a resilience, and human spirit in the face of extreme loss and adversity. And this is what is key for senior people who are looking for a role, or find themselves out of a role in today’s climate.
I am not suggesting in any way shape or form that we have entered the Thatcher period of discontent that I lived in and witnessed back in the 80's. But we have a taste of it now sadly with the current economic and political climate.
I am senior and need a job
Going back to our fictional character Yosser Hughes, we need to become survivors and rely upon ourselves, our instincts, and control what is within our hands, not outside, whilst having a clear handle on our mental well being. Senior people are dynamic, intelligent, driven, and problem solvers, relishing challenges. I do not suggest they will crumble as Yosser sadly does; times are different.
Key failings of senior people
Key failings of senior people is a) sitting on their achievements, b) waiting on others to contact them, c) having an helicopter view on things. d) not shouting about themselves, e) a habit of delegation which ties into point b, and lastly f) only using traditional means of networking.
I’ll address each point accordingly.
Please use the 2 A’s to make change.
A - be aware of a defect. Awareness of an issue is key.
A - accept the defect. You need to accept the defect. Don’t ignore it.
A - action the defect. Do something.
a) YOU cannot dine out on past glory or achievements. I am not being facetious here as senior people have obviously achieved. This is more applicable when in a current role, i.e. you can show current work. When unemployed you cannot dine out again on what has past as you are in an isolated situation. Merely reciting achievements and victories does not place you in the present. So you need to explain to a prospective employer what your plan is, and what their plan could be with your help; of how they can achieve their commercial objectives, and personal objectives. Businesses are people with wants and needs - don’t forget this. It is about peer to peer connection. Stating the obvious I may be, but it is surprising how many people regurgitate past glories.
b) senior people for the most part have an ego, head in the clouds, and are used to people coming to them. Senior people have to realise that when looking for a job or unemployed does not warrant the phone ringing or an influx of e-mails, or social media messaging. You have to come out of the ivory tower, be humble, ask for help, and take it.
c) senior people and experienced ones take a macro view of things from what they have learnt in business, delegating the micro to others. You now have to deep dive and go micro. In layman’s terms roll the sleeves up, job hunt yourself, do not rely on recruiters solely, including me.
d) in most cases senior people let other people talk about themselves. Now is the time to shout loudly about yourself, and read below on this.
e) the art of delegation is important in a senior role otherwise you cannot survive. But delegation can be a dangerous thing with a career as a senior person. Your past ambition, drive, action, may have left you, as are likely job hunting and interview skills. Relying on others has to be reliance on self (compare to point b earlier.)
f) and finally is using old behaviours, especially in the area of networking. A word that amuses me and replaces the time honoured phrase of making friends. At senior level “friend” making occurs at events, meetings and the like - these are outside organised activities . We have to shift to personal activity now, and more on that below. (Get up and make new friends, as old friends cannot be relied on to act, tell the truth of you and your situation, and take you and your attributes for granted. There is familial and friendship complacency.)
Gizza Job and Yosser Hughes - don’t lament over your career
When having been in a senior role you can sort of find yourself at a lose end if unemployed or in need of looking for a job. Especially when hitting the 40’s and wondering “is this what it is all about?” A vague sense of being lost can grip you, not to mention wondering what’s next and what to do.
Get a routine (look after your mental wellbeing.) You undoubtably have one and it will need adjusting to make time for job seeking. Include work on your role hunting each day, though not a huge amount of time. In this case a little bit at a time works as it keeps spirits up, and fits in with your schedule. I suggest an hour a day if serious about getting a new role within three months. HelpGuide.org has a really useful article on job loss and unemployment, which can also be used when looking for a job or garden leave. Have a look at this useful Mind article that includes links to self-care.
Plan, plan, plan. But don’t plan too much. A role should not be viewed in isolation. Where does this role fit within your goals in life, or as I prefer your dreams? Where do you want to be. This is what I mean about planning - plan your life and time with loved ones, not purely a role as it is merely a means to an end. Set goals/dreams, plan around them, stick to them and action them. Simple - we all remember SMART. Have a look at Businessballs for help on personal development, goal setting.
Self. Invest in your self and make changes. You are likely to be an old dog that has to learn a few new tricks. Be honest in this situation; you have to be as you now have a great opportunity to instigate much needed and wanted changes. If you have time on your hands maybe consider a course, new learning, time with the family, or time out. It is very easy to research what to do on a sabbatical. There is some really useful information on the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personal Development) website on taking a sabbatical.
Ego. As humans we all have one of these, and ambitious achievers more than most… ahem. We have to come down a peg and ask for help. And ask for help with humility. Do not be afraid to talk to friends, families, and contacts. It is vital that you do talk to people, even if you think you are eating humble pie. May be worth reading an article on senior leadership and ego by Jeff Wolf of Wolf Management Consultants LLC.
Relying on others, delegation.
It is normal when in a senior role of responsibility to delegate or rely on others, cross reference to ego! We assume as senior people that stuff gets done and that is where we can become unstuck. Recruiters (to use a generic covering HR across to agencies etc.) can say one thing and do another, and this can include doing nothing… Sadly the world is full of busy people, and people who are also under pressure to hit targets. And if time is needed on you as a candidate you may find yourself at the bottom of the pile, or even worse palmed off. So now is the time to work on a new business - your business - and become the CEO of Me Limited and apply the same rules as you apply in work. Set targets and work to them, and this will involve encouraging people, setting them targets, motivating them, setting reporting metrics. Don’t just sit there resting on your “look what I’ve done to date” laurels expecting someone who does not know the in’s and out’s of Me Limited to act on your behalf without a friendly kick up the arse. There is some really interesting reading on Recruitment.com as to current trends and recruitment.
Shouting out, making friends, self
I wanted to dwell more on these areas as I feel they need specific attention.
At the end of the day the only individual who can do the best for Me Limited is YOU. Yes you. So how do we achieve that?
Be kind to yourself and remember that you are good at what you do, that you are a good person, that you have a wealth of experience and you can harness this.
Shout out about yourself where you can. You may need to keep things quiet if confidentiality is required. But you can shout out to those you can trust. Shout out about who you are, what you are, and what you want in life and of how that can help others. This means you need to turn a mirror on yourself and be honest with a SWOT analysis. Here is a useful article on Business News Daily that also talks about planning after SWOT.
What does shouting out do? It raises self esteem, it shows you are doing something, it sends a message out that you are active and in market. It forces action as you have committed, and lends itself to your attitude and behaviour as a senior leader, i.e. making a statement and committing to it. It become a challenge and we like challenges. It starts a ball rolling mentally with you and with other people.
Which people? Friends, family, trusted business associates. I use trusted as in the advertising, marketing, media business there are some poorly and thus unscrupulous people who would use an intention to move when in a role as ammunition. So please be cautious, and ask people to make introductions where they discover an opportunity. That way you are in control and all can be anonymous. You can set people an approach they should take on your behalf.
With friends, everyone who is a stranger is yet to become a friend. Therefore a contact yet to be discovered. Talk to people, but you can be a little bit more discerning and group all your contacts into manageable groups, for example let us take business contacts. You could score them as Strong, Medium, and Weak. Strong you contact face to face, Medium via phone, and Weak via e-mail. You can decide how to contact and think of the approach, level of detail, and what you want to achieve. Importantly in people relationships ask how you can help the other person. Don’t be selfish. Yet don’t hesitate to call in that favour or ask for help. As a general rule of thumb senior people help senior people as the have an affinity with each other even if initially strangers.
Shouting out can be public if you can be. This means contacting and making use of people you know in trade organisations, events, publishing, social or business groups. Face to face is always useful in chatting to people but it is time consuming. That said ask if you can speak at events, write business articles and contribute to publications. Announce some volunteer work, or what you are up to. After all it is news. Do you know any friends in PR who can help you out? Think, think, think.
Knowing Me, Knowing You?
Have a look at my personal website that reveals more about me; its located at www.petercobley.com, and you are also reading my business website. I have a physical and corporeal presence, but I also have a online or incorporeal presence. Might not be a website, could be LinkedIn, could be Facebook, Instagram, an article I’ve written that appears in search engine results.
Point is we all now have a personal footprint that we both control and can utilise; since we are now in the era of “Me Media” and this is something that we need to be aware of. It is an exciting time being able to tell your story under your control. Yes, your control, since you do not need to submit copy, or let someone else write the copy. We shift from “Them Media” to “Me Media”.
So, some tips and do’s and don’ts
Sadly people are very busy today and frankly it is an age of too much content - as a business person, take your LinkedIn feed for example - and people really don’t have time or cannot be arsed to read stuff. We know also with mobile and laptops that content is consumed in a <1-2 second eye scan (at the most) and this has to be taken into account when talking to people online.
So if no one cannot be arsed to read content, then why the f**k am I writing this?
Answer: if you create content you play a numbers game. The more you have the more likelihood of your being seen and that content being engaged with.
Answer: You need to create a social and non-social media footprint across the web. Social is straightforward (Facebook across to LinkedIn) and non-social is creating a website, a blog, or a bio(for example seem the free and excellent Squarespace BIO.) Non-social also includes your content on 3rd party websites, for example where you write an article for a publisher, an exhibition, an organisation.
You can add to this content, you can tailor your message, you can say what you wish. And the vast majority of this content is free. But PLEASE do PLAN. This is a personal marketing exercise, so please do not throw any old rubbish up, and keep person separate to professional. Consider what it is you want to say when positioning yourself to others when in a role, or not, and looking for approaches, or when people read your content after engaging with you.
All this is your elevator pitch, your expanded CV, your mission statement, your business card.
Answer: SERPS. Search engine search results. All of the content gets crawled and indexed into search engines. People use search engines. People can find you via search engines, people can find your content, and what it stands for, what you want, who you are - AND you can control (optimise) this.
Answer: WHAT’S - a very, very useful acronym. Used as a sales tool but do apply it to yourself when writing, submitting, and selling yourself via content. This bit is important when we come back to actually how long people spend looking at content. Define your audience, target them, use a lose methodology such as this.
What am I selling? Me.
How do I sell me? What do I want to say, and therefore what are my dreams?
What area am selling to? Targeting audiences.
To who am I selling to? Decide on who to chat to by degrees of contact. So, so important in order to obtain results. “Friends, friends of friends, friends am I yet to make.)
What are my special feature? SWOT.
Track what happens. The amount of people who run successful businesses or have done live by metrics and management information. Same rules apply. If you know what’s happening you can make changes and tweak. You can pipeline and take further action. Don’t forget the basics.
There is plenty of information on the web as to building a profile, or a website, using social media, engaging with publishers, exhibitions, of how to network, and of what tools you can use In fact there is a lot out there. Have a look. Or get in touch with me and ask!
HAPPY HUNTING.
*Boys from the Blackstuff
The serial was written by Liverpudlian playwright Alan Bleasdale, as a sequel to a television play titled The Black Stuff. The British Film Institute described it as a "seminal drama series... a warm, humorous but ultimately tragic look at the way economics affect ordinary people… TV's most complete dramatic response to the Thatcher era and as a lament to the end of a male, working class British culture."[1] Wikipedia.
