Unemployment Potential?

Unemployment potential?

First and most important step is to commit to focus on the controllables, not the uncontrollables. Yes it is more challenging to get a job but certainly not impossible.

Your focus must be on taking action that will move you closer to recruitment day.

So what can you do?

Initially let me tell you the question that most people can’t answer with any great conviction at an interview -

“Why do you want the job?”

Most people pause and have to think of an appropriate answer to this question – I expect nothing less than an immediate outpouring of excitement and information that proves to me beyond all reasonable doubt that yes this is the job for you.

Remember if you don’t really want that job in the current environment we have plenty of people who probably do

With this in mind it may be useful to take this timeout to reflect on what you really want?

What occupations satisfy your interest and values?

If the job reflects something that is very important to you or you are very passionate and interested in this area you start to become a very marketable potential employee. If on the other hand although you will be tempted,you will find going for any old job will probably be as difficult as going for the one you want.
Note going for a lower level job in a company which could offer you a career path to your dream job is a good choice if that is all that is available at that time. Get in the door and wow them. It is easier to get up the scale than get in the door.

When you have zoomed in on your area of interest start building a compelling selling message both online on offline.

Online is where there are now many, many opportunities to build your personal brand.
Lateral thinkers have got jobs through their involvement in such sites as Twitter. This microblogging site allows you to post 140 chars at a time on what you are doing at that time.

What you can do and what I have done is to post relevant industry news specific to your area of expertise or indeed highlight information on whats required of the modern employee and so. This can give potential employers an insight into your thinking and style. Also Twitter allows you to follow people – obviously follow those organisations and people who you would like to work with in the future if they follow back you can send them through direct messages ref employment aspirations and so on.

Twitter gives access to a lot of decision makers that just may get excited about your personal brand. Seize the opportunity to impress.

Another obvious strategy but less immediate is to develop your connections on Facebook, Linked in and so on.

Be very careful with your online brand – one jobseeker who had just landed a job with one of the big software companies decided to go online and share the following dilemma with her Twitter following “ just got a job offer with ….. will the fat pay cheque ease the pain of a boring job?” One of the companies reps were online and reported it to HR – job offer rescinded!!

Offline of course it is important that you develop a winning CV that engages the interviewer.
I personally prefer the following layout : Personality Profile – Working Achievements – Educational Achievements – Sports, Interests and Hobbies – Personal Details. Maximum length 2 pages
Remember we are operating in an attention deficit society!

Finally you need to move from the instant gratification paradigm to perseverance.

As a child you realised that every failure was bringing you closer to success that should be your mentality. I would also think you should look at becoming an expert in your field – research suggests that three hours a day for ten years will bring you expert status and all its rewards.

Don’t worry you wont have to wait for a job that long. Believe and control the uncontrollables!

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Business Strategy right now!

The right focus
Most importantly focus on the controllables, not the uncontrollables. We all know we are in challenging times.
So here are the two choices; you sit on our hands and stew in a pool of self pity, or take action which at minimum will set you up for when the market turns, or maybe just maybe, take advantage of any existing opportunities in the marketplace.

Get creative:

More than ever you need to leverage the creative resources that are at your fingertips to gain competitive edge in the marketplace.

Where are these resources?
1. Your employees. In a modern company, each employee should have to contribute one idea a month on how things can be improved or any other ideas that cross their consciousness. Remember they are your front line staff and are likely to have better and more relevant ideas than you could imagine.
2. Local rentacrowd. With a minimum of fuzz, I believe that in each area a creative rentacrowd could be assembled – this could be used as a resource for existing companies and also with the right facilitation, as a means of generating sustainable ideas for the community. The panel could be drawn from a cross section of the local population.
3. If you really want to tap into that creative spark, visit your local high school or secondary school and brainstorm existing and potential ideas. You will be pleasantly surprised by the outcome. Remember the older we get, the more we suppress our creative juices – Beth and Land’s highlighted that fact in their landmark study so tap into some childish wisdom!

Develop website presence:

Probably an even bigger catastrophe is coming down the line for small businesses who haven’t embraced the new means of communication – what? Generation Y’s populating the market. This generation has been brought up on google and first step in all research/buying projects is turn on the computer! If small businesses don’t move from having a website to developing a presence through SEO, Social Networking etc, they will be out of business.

“Exceptionalise” your service.

The fact is that most people are better off at the moment due to lower cost of living etc – however these people have chose to save, not spend their hard earned income. Your goal must be to provide them with something they just cannot refuse. In this context, I believe you should work to exceptionalise your service. Mirroring past research done in Columbia University where it showed that 88% of Breakthrough companies were the result of exceptional execution of an ordinary idea, not new innovations; companies should break down their service into all the contact points with the customer. Then proceed to set standards for each – finally aim to go beyond the normal standards to provide exceptional service.

Finally times like this are a great time for self reflection – a review of your motivations for being in business. Interestingly Stanford Business School Advisory Committee highlighted self awareness as the most important quality that any leader should develop. The more you journey towards self awareness, the more you will start to realise that you have what it takes to transcend the current circumstances, and find progress in pain. Seize the journey.

Find out why so many have recruited him as a keynote speaker in Europe, Asia and the US.

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New thinking

Congratulations to my colleague Liam Horan on his new approach to generating new ideas to help move “Ireland Inc” to the next level.

His new concept “Drill Down Day” will take place in Galway, Ireland on April 02.

Participants can expect to:
- meet possible new customers (attendance will be circa 40 people)
- get feedback/new ideas for your own business
- meet like-minded people who are trying to fight this recession head-on

Attendance is free of charge, and by invitation only.

For more information email Liam.Horan@slinuatraining.com

Find out why so many have recruited him as a keynote speaker in Europe, Asia and the US.

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Motivational Irish?

Yesterday we celebrated our National Holiday, “St Patricks Day,” normally a day the world turns green – even the waterfall outside the White House!
So the question is – can we learn anything from the Irish?
Surprisingly I believe so, particularly in the communication field!

1. Learn to laugh and develop your sense of humour.
The Irish are known for their sense of humour. Humour and fun is a great rapport tool and fantastic in negotiations with one big if! If you are funny! We have all had to share airtime with the “Comedian” who just isnt funny – more a deal breaker than maker! Of course having fun is gresat for your general wellbeing. Even if you laughed at your watch for one minute a day, you can flood your nervous system with the pleasure chemical endorphins.
The question is do we take ourselves too seriously?

2. Build rapport effortlessly.
It is rare the Irishman that cant relate to others with a minimum of difficulty. Interpersonal Intelligence, the ability to relate to others is the one of the most highly paid intelligence in the world far exceeding linguistic intelligence in its effect on your bottom line.

3. Learn how to storytell!
Communicating in an attention deficit society is a major challenge. One way to transcend same is to tell stories. Stories have the ability to bypass a persons conscious filtering system and hit the spot as it were! Years ago in old Ireland the norm was for people to sit around the fire and exchange stories.

Being Irish and a motivational speaker challenges me to transfer the content using lots of stories and fun exercises that can transfer the key messages

Find out why so many have recruited him as a keynote speaker in Europe, Asia and the US.

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Values – your motivational compass

If you had seventy two hours to live, how would you spend your final hours?
Would you go to the office? Spend the time with your family? What would be your strategy?

When you experienced emotional highs or lows in the past, what values were being satisfied or violated?

Are your goals a reflection of your values?

Overall values are an essential and critical part of who you are. Over the last few weeks my own values were challenged – to me it was the most serious of attacks and one I had to defend with every atom of my body. I realised that the analogy of the house was very appropriate in this instance. People could knock down the walls and the building but the values, the foundation could not be demolished. I found that I was willing to really travel through the dark night of the soul to uphold my values of honesty, integrity and passion.
Now imagine in your own instance that your goals/dreams are a reflection of your values.
You will never have to worry about your motivation levels in the context of striving to achieve the dream.

A wonderful exercise for you to complete is to highlight your own personal values hierarchy – it will give you a great insight into who you are. An additional angle to this exercise is to find out off your customers what your key values are – they can provide you with unedited and potentially more accurate information on this subject. For close to two decades I have been working as a motivational speaker, in that time I genuinely believe this exercise was one of the most illuminating that I completed.
Enjoy.

Find out why so many have recruited him as a keynote speaker in Europe, Asia and the US.

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