In part one we want to rev you up for action! But first, let's get you in your power zone with a reminder of who you are: You're a top executive. You keep your company and teams moving forward – and if there's an intractable problem, you figure it out, or you build a team that can solve it.
Today's new paradigm in job search is no different. It's just in unfamiliar territory: you need a great team and/or a good guide with new directions. So here's your guide: Your five-power-play pursuit strategy for job search and career-building in a 2.0+ world:
- Become the CEO of company YOU
- Brand to land
- Get social
- Write tight
- Diversify for high ROI
Power play #1: Become the CEO of Company YOU
You know how to be a CEO or other top executive, but do you know how to care for your career with the passion and zeal with which you lead your company?
Surveys tell us that most executives spend less than 5% of their time doing any form of career management (imagine what would happen to your company if you gave just 5% of your time to leading it!). Is it any wonder that when they need (or want) to change positions they are woefully underprepared?
Imagine what it is like launching a "speed to market " campaign for a new product or service that's become vital to your company's financial health and market share – a product that your competitors are also launching. You'd put everything at your disposal into making that mission-critical launch successful and your teams would be on the job 24X7 to make it happen.
Wouldn't it be great to have a crystal ball and predict when a speed-to-market launch would be necessary? To be prepped and ready to roll out when the time is just right? No one has a crystal ball for when they'll need to go "speed-to-market" for a job, but career preparedness is certainly achievable, even when working the intense hours of a CEO or other executive.
Make YOU priority #1
You wouldn't run your company without a plan and a team, and your career deserves no less. The CEO of Company YOU understands, and commits to, the concept that he or she is a priority equal to his or her current job or desired position.
Decisions on spending time, effort, and resources need to become "helpful, valuable, critical" priority choices, just as they do at work. In job search, as at work, "critical" trumps "valuable" and both trump "helpful" (except while keeping your personal life in balance so you don't burn out and burn bridges!).
Your network is your CEO currency
Your most critical activity as CEO of your career is networking – on-line and off-line. Strategic, enjoyable, symbiotic relationships are career-building currency. You want a bank account flush with networking cash that you can comfortably spend. Starting a job search without that currency requires network begging – and begging is not an attractive quality in an executive. You know how you feel when relative strangers ask you for a job or favors. Don't be the needy executive that people try to avoid!
Be speed-to-market for your career
If you've neglected your career in favor of running your company, you're not alone. And that's good news for you – you can be sure that most executives will continue to ignore most of their career management.
That means people like you, who stop ignoring their careers; who plan ahead for speed-to-market job search; who invest time, effort, and career resources; will have a strong competitive edge.
And isn't that what you want in your business and in your career? Preparedness? Differentiation? Value? Attention? Go for it! Be the CEO of Company You!
Next month: Part two of our five-part series: Power-play # 2 – Brand-to-Land
© Copyright, 2010, Deb Dib. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
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About this author: Deb Dib, Job-Hunt's Executive Job Search Expert, has been a careers-industry professional since 1989. For the last few years, Deb has focused on coaching CEO's and other C-suite executives in finding their next opportunities. Deb is the founder of Executive Power Brand, and co-author of best-selling Twitter Job Search Guide, Find Your Ideal Job and Build Your Career in Just 15 Minutes a Day (March 2010, JIST). Connect with Deb at her website at www.executivepowerbrand.com, on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/debdib, on Twitter at @CEOcoach, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DebDib, and via email at info at executivepowerbrand.com, or at 631-475-8513.
