May 20th, 2010
Much of the coaching work I’ve done has focused on the ability to sell, negotiate and behave assertively. All of these business situations require excellent questioning skills. Somehow though, the ability to question (and of course listen well) hardly ever gets a mention. Almost every basic business situation requires these skills. Consider ..
1) How you can be effective in meetings
2) The need to work with colleagues to solve problems
3) Business development - finding and building relationships with clients
4) Managing team members to ensure they perform well
Let’s not go on about how or why questioning does not get enough good press! We’ll take a deeper look at this and hopefully that will help you to think about how to improve your skills. There is a saying in life and business that “if you don’t ask, you don’t get”. I’ve seen that in action many times. Those people that ask the question put themselves in the situation to get the answer (whether you’re talking about a salary increase or an opportunity to work on an interesting project).
The second thing is the ability to ask a good question. Very few people are able to string 2 good questions together. Open questions (those starting with how, why, if etc) are great to get people to open up and therefore the information that you need. To be a good questioner, you will need to learn to choose your questions well so that they elicit the info that you want or need.
The third thing I find is that many people will ask a question, receive an answer and then move on to the next question. Essentially what they’re doing is ignoring the answer and information because they’ve already made up their mind what to ask next! So what happens is that they may ask a sequence of good questions but they never get below the surface. Good questioning is about learning to get below the first level of information and to force the other person to really think about their answer. Good “second level” questions are “why do you say that” or “what makes you feel that way”. These kinds of questions are invaluable in helping to really get to understand where the other person is coming from.
So the next time you find yourself working in a team, focus on asking good questions and probing the answers you get. You’ll find yourself armed with loads of useful information that you might not have received otherwise.
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May 20th, 2010
Mine was rubbish! - After some psychometric tests my suggested career choice was zookeeper- which sounds very nice but was miles apart from the careers that I was interested in. 
We are currently doing some research to see how yours was. The survey only has 4 short questions and you will be entered in a free prize draw for some free career coaching! (which should rectify any poor advice you received at school) Click here to take the survey.
This links in with our range of resources available for teachers that will give students the skills they need for success. The range of video lessons available have been created with experts in industry and education and are available online. If you would like to find out more about these contact us info@mytalentplace.co.uk
So if you received poor school careers advice or alternatively if you received any fantastic advice - tell us about it?!
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May 5th, 2010
One of the things that many job seekers don’t consider is the environment they’re going into. Sure, when times are tough, we tend to be less choosy. Ideally though, we want to have a good feel for the way in which our future employer operates. I’m not talking about your individual boss, I’m talking about the “culture” of the company - how things get done in that environment.
There are lots of ways of describing a company’s culture - here are just a few. Some companies are entrepreneurial. So the culture will be about getting results, doing everything now (if not yesterday), the sales team will be the kings as they’re generating new business and quality is not on the radar. Customers will often be disappointed with the service received. Others are traditional environments. These organisations have been around for a long time and pride themselves on that. When you walk into reception for an interview, you’re greeted by a bronze of the founder. Here, the hierarchy is sacrosanct, meetings are tedious and filling your forms in correctly is important. Others tend to adopt a culture based on what they do. So many engineering companies will have very functional (not flash) offices. Technical skills and mathematical ability are more important than how you dress and present and expertise is highly valued. Others are party environments. The advertising industry and similar such as events management and hospitality firms are known for the late hours and partying. There’s always the wine to be drunk that the customers didn’t get to! Then there’s the business in which one person provides strong leadership and everyone follows (often blindly). I know of one banking business in which the CEO used to wear Micky Mouse ties. Strangely, his top team started to do the same! Strong leadership is not always the best thing though.
So, if you’re ever in the fortunate position of having more than one choice, think carefully and research the cultures of the companies offering you a job. You might find that one of them is a great fit and the other is not - even though the jobs themselves may be very similar.
Tags: culture
Posted in Career Counselling, Student Career Advice | 12 Comments »
May 5th, 2010
I have just read a blog post by Scott Adams, writer of the Dilbert comic strip. He suggests that to have
Piecing together your skills for business
more than the average career success you have to be the best at a specific thing, or in the top 25% at 2 or more things (with the latter being far easier to achieve). So… his ability as a comedian and his ability to draw along with his extensive knowledge of the office environment enabled his success in making comic strips.
Following on from Grant’s post on ‘What it takes to be Excellent’ which suggests that it takes 10,000 hours to be world class in any area, I wonder how long it takes to make the top 25%? My guess is often a lot less, and depending on your natural ability you may already be there! What is important is to be able to identify these strengths and to work on any that need boosting.
But is it really that simple? I would suggest that the biggest challenge is perhaps not that of becoming the top 25% in different things, but it’s finding a way to utilize these strengths. Having a strong sense of business, the ability to network and ask for advice are key to being able to achieve this.
So… what are your 3 strengths?
Please also reply to others to suggest how they can use their strengths to help them become successful!
Tags: careers advice, identifying your skills, personal development
Posted in Student Career Advice, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
April 27th, 2010
If you haven’t read any Malcolm Gladwell (Tipping Point & Blink), I suggest you do. One of Gladwell’s mantra’s is that anyone wanting to become really successful or world class in their chosen career or profession needs to invest 10000 hours in developing the insights and knowledge required (that’s ten thousand for any of you questioning the number of zero’s). If you work 220 days a year, 8 hours a day, that’s a little over 5 years. He feels that for most people, the investment is closer to 10 years.
Apparently the Beatles notched up 10000 hours playing in Hamburg as they refined their sound and expertise. Bill Gates had early access to a computer and spent a similar period programming. When I first heard the 10000 hours rule, my first reaction was that this sounds like a seriously big amount of time. Let’s think about it though. Any Doctor who moves on to being a consultant will be in that ballpark. Any graduate having completed a tough degree, graduate training and then focusing on a specialised area for 5 - 7 years is in that ballpark. To me, the 10000 hours themselves are not really the issue. What Gladwell is saying is that in order to be world class in anything, you have to specialise and to be completely focused. 
I have heard of Chief Executives having hiring strategies that focus on hiring anyone who has achieved world class skills in an area. In the UK, typically the approach to hiring is that you’re allowed to do the things you did last year. If you’re an auditor, you will only be considered for auditing positions. So, the above approach is radical. What it says is that if you’re been an international sportsman/woman, you would be in the running for an executive position because you have proven you possess the dedication and focus to achieve excellence.
I don’t like either approach. Only being considered for jobs that you have direct experience in is ludicrous. I knew nothing about software before getting involved in starting ExecuTRACK in the UK and that was a great success. Similarly, taking on an individual into an executive position merely due to the fact that they’ve been a concert pianist also seems crazy.
To me, the 10000 rule seems a minimum criterion to achieve excellence. There are plenty of people who have invested this kind of time who are not world class. There’s still talent, motivation and innovation that make up the remainder of the recipe for excellence.
Tags: Excellence
Posted in Student Career Advice | 4 Comments »
April 21st, 2010
I grew up in an environment in which business wasn’t discussed at home. I didn’t know what a cheque was until I was 20! Even then, it’s taken me ages to get a feel for what business is really about - at times because it hasn’t always been my priority. I marvel at the ability of some of the business partners or colleagues I’ve worked with to be able to read a business situation and to identify clearly whether there is an opportunity or not. There’s no doubt that those people with a commercial feel have a clear advantage in the business world and are likely to get the promotions, understand better what they and their businesses are about and ultimately make more money and enjoy it. 
So, what is “being commercial”. Allow me to suggest a few things:
- It’s about being able to see the core of a business issue - the ability to cut through the waffle and understand the cause of a problem, or the factors influencing a situation.
- It’s about focusing on the right things and staying focused on them rather than being distracted.
- It’s also about knowing what services or products will make money (and why) and which will not do well and why. So being commercial is not about gambling, although there will be risk involved at times, it’s about reducing your risk in decisions by understanding the business environment better than others.
- Being commercial doesn’t necessarily mean you will start your own business. Once thing is for sure though, if you find that the management in the company employing you is not commercial, there’s a good chance you will leave and start your own business.
- Being commercial is not about having a superior education. In fact, often the reverse will be true. You don’t need a degree to know what will and won’t work in a business context. You may need the degree to get the job in the first place though!
- Finally, being commercial requires the ability to make tough decision. There’s no room for sentiment in a successful business.
With so much buying and selling activity online, the basics will be in place for many youngsters at a much earlier age than in the past. So that’s good news. For those of you wanting to differentiate yourself in an interview, there’s no better way to do that than by demonstrating your commercial skills (unless you’re looking for a job with the European Union or United Nations)!
Tags: Being Commercial
Posted in Student Career Advice | 4 Comments »
April 16th, 2010
I’m sure many of you have read about writing down 101 goals that you want to achieve in life. I never thought I would be an advocate of it (the thought of sitting down and writing this out seemed pretty cringe worthy and pointless to me) - however, my cousin who has been staying with me made us sit down and do it… and it actually started to make sense! You need to think about what is important to you and identify your goals in order to achieve them. What if your goals change? - was my natural reaction. Well, let them - they will, review your goals every year and allow for this. The most important ones tend not to.
So… thinking of 101 goals is quite a lot to get your head around. There will be some that come to you instantly but after that you’ll really have to start thinking about it! One way to tackle it is to think of different categories; travel; food; finance; work etc. Or you could try thinking chronologically – what you are likely to do and when? A third way would be to try and list them in order of importance, some might seem essential to you and some are just a nice to have.
I thought about not only what I would like to have achieved if I was looking back at my life, and in the process also identified the things that weren’t as important to me. For example, I know that I like adventure and would like to complete some major challenges, but for me the nature of these weren’t as important as the process. When I was younger I thought one day I would row across the Atlantic, but I actually don’t think it would matter if it was that or cycling across the US or climbing Kilimanjaro, it would be the process rather than the outcome that matters to me.
When considering these aims it highlights how important identifying your motivations are when it comes to deciding your career. You need to understand what is important to you in order to identify a career that suits you and enables you to achieve your life aims. This global perspective can be invaluable when making career decisions.
Finally, I would suggest that you put some on there that will challenge you! It doesn’t matter if you don’t achieve them – the list will remind you to try!
Tags: career development, careers advice, life goals, personal development, setting goals
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
April 13th, 2010
Sad git that I am, I’ve been thinking (again) about what leads to career success. Many of the friends and associates I meet in business have similar broad capabilities. In fact, I would say that there is more than 1 situation in which I can think of a friend who isn’t particularly bright who has done extremely well in their career and achieved more than other friends with a lot more grey matter. Obviously there are a host of issues at play here. One of the biggies though is judgement. 
I’ve come to the conclusion that judgement and commercial skills together form the basis of career success. We’ll leave the commercial skills out of this post but will explore those later. So at what point in our careers do we have to make judgements and what impact do these have?
Well the first major point is in deciding what we study. Fortunately, the UK education system is not hugely prescriptive in that you can study philosohpy and still become an accountant. What we don’t want to do though, is study in a certain area and realise later that it was the wrong area for whatever reason.
The second major decision point is in which career to start in. Economic realities might mean that we accept something that we have no intention of staying in long term and that’s fine. A poor decision at this point though can mean that we accumulate 5 years of experience in an area that we don’t want to be in and are essentially going to be unhappy and unstimulated in. That’s not a good place to be. If your gut tells you you’ve made the wrong decision, act immediately. Don’t live with it.
The third major decision for many of us is about deciding to build our career within one organisation or to look actively for promotion opportunities in other companies. This is a tough one and there are no clear rules here. My suggestion though is that, assuming you’re challenged and learning in your current role, stay put for a few years and then start looking to move. This guideline assumes that you want to build a corporate rather than an entrepreneurial career. If you want to open your own business it may make more sense to experience a variety of relevant working environments early on. Sometimes job hopping works, but it will generally catch up with you. You can’t pretend to be something that you aren’t for too long. I’ve know a lot of people who have hung in and been solid performers. They often get the slots that the ambitious guys who left would have got.
I find that a lot of people make career decisions hoping that they will work out rather than having taken the time to really think them through. If you can show good judgement at the right times in your career, you’ll be at a real advantage.
Tags: Judgement
Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »
April 6th, 2010
Back when Pontius was a pupil pilot, becoming a pilot was every second boy’s dream. Thinking back, I reckon it had something to do with the emergence of the 747, the moon landing and a general perception that flying is exciting and exotic. Going on holiday with mum and dad to places that were previously unreachable and seeing the crew in their uniforms just reinforced the perception. Of course, in those days the air hostesses were hot and almost certainly selected for their looks first and service ability second. If you believe the Virgin ads, they still select on this basis! Pilots got to stay in these wonderful hotels in exotic destinations and the resulting parties were legendary. Sounds pretty cool huh, and then Leonard di Caprio comes along and proves it! 
So why pee on some kid’s battery now? Well, life has changed. Flying is now a commodity. The pay and conditions for pilots now reflect that. Although still a relatively well paid career, many pilots now complain about stagnant salaries and reduced benefits. Low cost carriers fly more intensively, so there’s less time to party and you’re likely to be staying in a motel rather than anything with a few stars. Also, when you peel back the wrapping and have a hard look, flying is up there with Dentistry on the boredom scale. Essentially, pilots are highly trained bright individuals who drive a bus. OK, the bus is 30000 feet up and the risk factor is higher, but flying now is so automated that its boring. Of course, the skills will hopefully come in handy in an emergency - those of us travelling in the back certainly hope so. Oh and as the trolley dollies are now doing it as a career, the nubility factor is also declining. Bummer all round.
Even the military options has to some extent, had its wings clipped (bad pun). These days there’s probably more demand for gamers to fly drones than real planes. So, we’ve moved from Maverick single handedly beating the communists and having to endure 8 g’s in the process to gamers flying model airplanes with a Starbucks in one hand. Walking into a bar and delivering that as your pickup line isn’t going to have quite the same impact.
Any silver lining? Perhaps becoming a space pilot, although the vacancies will be very limited and probably only open to experienced flyboys. If the treatment Ryanair gives its passengers (note the word customer is not used), is anything like the staff are treated, then I suggest you consider immersing yourself in a vat of acid as a decent alternative.
Tags: Pilot
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April 3rd, 2010
One thing that has often puzzled me is how different vocations or careers are seen so differently in different cultures. One of the most obvious of these is waiting in restaurants. Growing up in South Africa, certainly no one that I knew would have considered waiting as a career option. At the time though, there wasn’t any real “food culture” in the country. I don’t think the UK is that different. How many UK students leaving school soon are focused on becoming a great waiter? Think of the last time you were served in any kind of restaurant - from McDonalds to Gordon Ramsay’s. How many of the people who served you had British accents? My guess is not very many. So what’s going on here? Is waiting something that other people do? 
I think the answer has a lot to do with the importance that food plays in a culture. If you’ve only ever eaten chicken nuggets and burgers in your childhood and never set foot in a decent restaurant, it’s really difficult to conceive of a career in which you work with and serve food. It’s different in many other countries in Europe. Many kids will have experienced good food and service in restaurants. Even the smallest village in France will have one or two really good restaurants. The more of a food culture there is in a society, the more likely it is that youngsters will consider related careers as being worthwhile and meaningful.
In Italy, France, Switzerland and others, students will work their butts off to get into hotel schools and similar in order to prepare for a career in hospitality. These careers tend to be quite specialised and structured. The route to becoming a head chef in a top restaurant is both structured and arduous. There are some exceptions in which talented individuals (Heston Blumenthal) have bypassed this, but these are rare. There’s a similar structure in place for becoming a maitre d’hotel.
There’s no doubt that the UK has started to develop more of a food culture. Whether this has permeated to teenagers yet is another story. It will be obvious when the change occurs - you’ll be served by someone born in this country!
Tags: societal influence
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