June 4, 2010

Don’t Let This Be the Reason You Fail to Get the Job!

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What’s the final deal clincher that persuades the decision maker to employ you over someone else? Give this thought before working on your application process.

I’m going to share some popular business/sales and marketing advice with you that I think is conjecture, or just plain wrong, and then ask you to apply it to your own job application process:

If I hear this terribly over-used example in business books one more time, I’m going to scream:

“When you buy a drill, you’re not really buying a drill…you’re actually buying a hole”.

I’ve heard this so many times over the last 10 years, I feel I’m going loopy. And it’s not just because people mindlessly repeat it (because at first sight it seems an excitingly fresh perspective on sales and marketing, and what benefits really are.)  But it’s because it’s actually not true.

I like it for the fact that it shifts your thinking a little beyond the actual features of your product, service, or personal brand, but the reason it’s not true, is I’ve seen the fellas down my local hardware store buying drills!  Believe me, they’re NOT buying ‘holes’. They’re not even thinking about the holes.  Once in the shop, when their money is ready and it’s near to decision time, they’re thinking about the shiny new power drill they’re looking at.  They’re thinking about how it might perform, how it looks, and how it feels.  And they’re experiencing how it makes themselves feel.  And how it makes them feel like they’ve got a gun, and that they are, for one brief moment in their life, a little bit like James Bond, perhaps. They probably have the urge to point it at another customer and say, ‘bang!’ but they control themselves. They’re also enjoying the atmosphere of the hardware store too, where they feel instant calm pass over them, no screaming kids, just themselves and some sort of connection in the air between themselves and other shoppers. Like they’re all on a similar mission, living their role. It’s an experience. But when they’re in front of the drills, they’re not thinking about holes.

There’s an important lesson here on how to get ahead of others during the job application/interview process! The drill/hole example kind of tells people to stop thinking about the features, and look at the benefits. The people who read too much without thinking chant ‘people buy benefits not features!’  But actually, a lot of people out there buy features too, and don’t even consider or care about some of the benefits these features provide. Some people just want features. Yes, there’s the functional aspect to what they’re buying, but a lot of people like the flashy wow-factor of what they’re buying too. They like the thing that makes the product or service unique, beyond it’s primary functions.  The thing that you can’t always put into words. The feeling that the style creates within them. Some people aren’t buying a hole, they’re buying a drill. And they want a flashy shiny powerful looking one too that makes them feel big, strong and clever.

If you really want to take the ‘hole’ example further, you could argue that some people are buying ‘peace and quiet’ from their partners who keep nagging them to put some shelves up. But when they have a choice between the different drills in the shop, their mind shifts from ‘buying peace and quiet’ to ‘buying the drill that feels right for me’. Emotions take over, and the final decision is made.

So in your own work or career, demonstrate the ‘hole’ that you create through your work by proving that you can do the job, but get the edge over your competitors at decision time too by making yourself like that cool, shiny, exciting drill. The one that feels right to the buyer. When two applicants side by side can both do the job, it’s the one who makes the better impression through their appearance, personality, intelligence and questions and answers who clinches the deal.

Posted via email from Mark’s posterous

May 31, 2010

How to Effectively Deal with Change

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It’s coming your way! Change is everywhere in your life and work right now, sometimes it will hit you head on and bowl you over, and other times opportunities for you to change things will keep popping up, tempting you.

But will you change? Will you embrace the change, or even proactively encourage and force the change?

Or will you resist the change and try to maintain a feeling of safety trying to keep things as they are?

Of course it depends on the change in question.  Right now I’m talking about the biggest most current change in your life that you’re going through, or at least thinking about going through. The one that’s perhaps long overdue. The one that keeps sneaking up on you, tapping you on the shoulder and reminding you that something’s not quite right, and that change is on the horizon.

So what are you going to do?

Since change is going to occur anyway sooner or later (whether you like it or not)…

“Nothing is permanent but change” – Heraclitus

…are you going to be the victim of that change, and respond to it when it comes (perhaps when you’re lower on resources), or are you going to proactively change, steering things under your own terms in the direction you want?  Are you going to make changes before you have to?

The main reason most people don’t want to change (when they feel they perhaps should) is fear. They feel comfortable in what they know. They know the deal. But they fear what they don’t yet know or understand.

So what’s the remedy? Learn about it. Learn about the thing you don’t understand so that you get a better idea of it. The more you learn about it, and study it, and ask questions and talk to people who know about it, the more you understand it and the less you have to be fearful of. It begins to click. And so the more likely you are to embrace that change or even drive it forwards on your own terms.

Despite reading this, many people will continue to fear the change they feel they should make, because they won’t make the effort to learn about new possibilities. I don’t know, maybe they’re too busy or something. Too busy reacting to things because of a decision or two they made way back. These people will stay put, until they are forced to change, and forced down a particular path.

So there it is, decide if you’re going to change, or whether you’ll leave yourself open to being changed, and if fear is your main hurdle, learn all about how things would or could be after the change. Learn about it until you’re clear. You’ll probably reach that tipping point where you’re ready.

If it’s a career change you’re thinking of, this may be just what you need.


Here are 3 more quotes about why you should embrace both learning and change:

“In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists” – Eric Hoffer

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change” – Clarence Darrow

“In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy” – J. Paul Getty


My advice, learn how to learn fast (helps address fear and change) and proactively change under your own terms, in the direction you want. You do know which way you want to go don’t you? If not, try this.

May 28, 2010

Become Instantly Better at Educating Others

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Do you work in sales? Yes you do. Do you educate others in your work or life? Your colleagues? Your kids? Then you’re definitely in sales.

Educating others is largely a sales challenge.

They don’t teach you sales skills at school, but they should.

They don’t teach people sales skills outside of the sales department in organisations, but they should.

And they don’t usually teach teachers, trainers and educators sales skills, which is why learning is often so ineffective, but they really really should.

Selling is the doorway to adding value, helping others, persuading for a win:win, getting agreement, getting alignment, enhancing engagement and leadership, and making progress faster, more easily or more enjoyably.  Selling is about changing mindsets. It’s about provoking thought and challenging ideas. It’s about re-directing someone’s actions and co-operation for the better of everyone involved. It all starts with the sale.  If the sale isn’t made, the rest doesn’t follow.  That’s potentially a lot of time, money and effort down the drain.  This definitely applies to learning.


Organisations, and educators, listen up:  If you want to educate people better, you need to

STOP thinking ‘here’s what you need to learn, now sit down and swallow it’, and

START thinking, ‘how can I help you really WANT to learn this?’

Once you’ve addressed that well and the learners are hungry for the benefits, you may even be able to step back and put your feet up, whilst the learner rushes off to learn in their time, in their style, with whoever they want, enjoying themselves as they go – the way learning should be done.

For more on smarter approaches to learning, contact me and ask how I can help your organisation learn and perform more effectively.  I’ll be glad to help.

May 26, 2010

How Mind Mapping Software Can Decrease Your Productivity

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Businesspeople exchanging card, world map in background, close-up

Attention Mind Mappers!

First, Why You Really Should Mind Map

I’ve loved mind mapping for years.  Mind mapping has improved the quality of my thinking and learning, helped me generate thousands of ideas, helped me plan for my business, my work and personal life as well as saved me time and effort in many areas.  I’ve adapted mind mapping to help me in so many situations…but there’s a huge problem, particularly with mind mapping software…

You Can’t See the Wood for the Trees

It’s expansive.  There are no limits to what you add to your map – the screen keeps scrolling on and on.  It’s designed to not break your thought flow. Its very strength is also a potential weakness. This open ended platform for thinking is great for generating ideas, but it doesn’t get you to close any loops.  It doesn’t force you into making any decisions, which puts a halt to your actions and results.  A major mind map idea generating session can also leave you slightly overwhelmed and unfocused when you look over what you’ve done.  And some high value ideas can get lost in all the ‘noise’ of your mind map.


Increase the Quality of Your Ideas and Focus

Mind Mapping software helps you generate quantity of ideas, not necessarily quality.  That’s fine, because to get great ideas you usually need lots of ideas as a starting point.  The quality may come later. But I had an idea myself on how you can force better quality and more focus from your mind maps, and turn your best ideas into action more easily.

Some time back I started transferring my electronic mind maps on to half a sheet of A4 paper.  The physical limits to your paper force you to make decisions on what you include.  It forces you to increase the quality of your thinking and communication, be it choice of words or pictures.  It forces you to think about the important stuff and communicate it concisely! It’s handy of course to keep your writing standard size for this to work.  If you shrink your writing, you don’t benefit from the physical limits, so you’re probably shrinking the quality of your thinking too.

Take it Further Still

You can enhance your focus and quality of thinking even further.  Consider reproducing your mind map on the back of a business card.  What would you include and exclude?  Keep your writing standard size.  This really sharpens your thinking.  You get down to the main important points, and force yourself to make decisions. You gain focus.  Things become clearer.  It kind of tells you what you should be getting on with next.

Some people may already have control of their focus and ideas when mind mapping.  They may naturally manage their mind maps towards making decisions and taking actions.  But I’ll bet most people who use mind mapping software have lots of ideas, thoughts, resources and snippets of information that they’ve overlooked and that get buried in their maps, all because they haven’t forced themselves to make decisions to bring them to the surface and act on them.  I know I’ve been guilty of this, but I’ve really benefit over recent months where I’ve forced myself to make more focused decisions on what I think, learn, focus on, and on what I’ll turn into action, and in particular how I word my ideas.


The Missing Final Step

Plug my business card idea on as the missing final step to your current electronic mind mapping approach and let me know what it does for you.

May 21, 2010

How to Avoid the Job Search Struggle

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a road sign saying career change ahead

Here’s the common long way to do your job search: (afterward, I’ll show you the fast way)

1. start sighing, and begin your job search (sighing every so often to spur you on)

2. find and read tarted-up job spec ads designed to promise you a wonderful career doing wonderful things with wonderful people (ensure you don’t think about your long future ahead at all – instead picture yourself working in that role for just one day in the near future, nod your head, and follow their application instructions)

3. jump through the hoops they lay out for you, with your tongue out and panting if you like, make sure your hope is turned up to maximum

4. tart your own CV/resume up to match the big promises they made on the exciting job ad.  Create a new ‘you’ that makes the real you feel slightly inadequate and uneasy – ask your mate who works in a different field to check it, for some reason.  Spelling or something.  Get ready for him to say “yeah it’s fine”.  Thank him for his role in your bright future

5. realise you don’t understand cover letters properly.  Google to find a lame article that states the obvious and doesn’t really help you any further.  Make sure the article is off one of those vague ‘how to’ sites, because that’s where everyone else goes

6. wait to be accepted for interview.  Know full well that you really should keep job hunting, but instead decide to relax a little in case you get the offer on what you’re waiting for.  You don’t want to waste your efforts after all

7. fail to get the offer.  Get a bit annoyed at them for judging you like they have.  They probably didn’t even read your resume properly, idiots.  Tell your mates that the competition is high for this sort of thing.  Ensure you don’t even consider the limitations to how you come across once your colourful personality has been drained of it’s colour and you’ve been squashed into black ink on white paper, like everyone else

8. repeat steps 1 to 7 quite a few times

9. get an interview offer from one company and start getting nervous because you’ll have to pretend in person that you’re the star you wrote about in your resume. Check your resume again to remind yourself how you must act when you meet them

10. attend interview and act your way through it.  Whatever happens, don’t think about the 4 grey walls you’re working hard to secure a position between for the foreseeable future.  Ensure you do wonder what the people who work there are like, but don’t ask to meet any of them in case you look nosey

11. fail this interview, and a few others, go back to step 1 and repeat until you get accepted by one eventually

12.  discover to your astonishment months down the line that this isn’t what you thought life was all about.  Wonder why your life has come to this.  Come up with some reasons why your colleagues are annoying.  Tell your friends all about it

13.  get caught crying, but pretend it’s something in your eye so that your work friends don’t laugh at you


Or, you could go about your ‘job search’ this way:

1.  starting with a clean slate, identify your perfect career. Know exactly what it is – you can find your perfect career using my e-course

2.  identify who you most want to work for, and what you could do for them, whether they’re employing people or not right now. Research them thoroughly using contacts, the media and relevant websites.  Find out what’s ahead for them, what challenges they may be up against, what their competitors are up to,  and where you could probably add value. Note this

3.  know that because you’re aligned perfectly to do this sort of work and provide this sort of value to this sort of company (because you’ve planned thoroughly and arrived at this conclusion) then securing employment with them is going to be much easier than it would be applying for any other position anywhere else, and certainly much easier than the conventional job search process.  You’re a round peg in a round hole

4.  use Linkedin or similar social networking sites to locate a decision maker who’s as close as possible to your desired role and who might connect you to this company.  Learn about them as best you can.  Then start working for them right now, from home if you can.  Huh?  Come up with some plans, ideas, or improvements to something related to this person or the organisation, if you can.  Provide them with some relevant value somehow.  Demonstrate what you could do for them, just as a taster.  You love doing this anyway, so enjoy yourself.  Now’s also a good time to gather any comments or testimonials from other people who you’ve done similar work for.  Anything to back up your case

5.  contact them and share what you’ve been working on with them, and your testimonials if you have any.  Offer to work for them for free for 1 or 2 weeks.  This is less time than you’ll likely spend on your conventional job search, and it’s more enjoyable and productive too.  Tell them it’s your perfect career, and tell them why you’ve singled them out as being the best company to work for (and why you chose them over their competitors).  Tell them (or show them) that you’re practically born to work for them, and ask to work either for them directly or for one of their direct reports, for free, for 1-2 weeks

6.  Polish yourself up, make a plan to knock their socks off, get plenty of feedback and over-deliver to them for 2 weeks (loving every minute of it because it’s your ideal career).  Give yourself some good reasons to feel proud.  Ask to meet the decision maker for lunch at least once a week.  Ask questions, and seek problems that your boss and colleagues suffer from that you could solve.  Make as much impact as you can and as many contacts as you can whilst working there. Be very nice to everyone.  You’ll do this almost automatically because you’re so passionate about what you do.  Passion like that can’t help but shine through.  Don’t forget to tell them that you’re really keen to work for them full time and ask how you might go about getting full time employment there

7.  Get the good work you’ve done noticed by the decision maker somehow.  Try to work out a plan or job role that you could take on moving ahead with this company.  Have the conversation with the decision maker to work out next steps, and ask for more contacts

From that strong position, you’ll most likely find that you land a job in your perfect company in your perfect career in much much less time than you would have spent doing a conventional job search.

If not, you’ll have the experience to build upon by repeating the process with another company.  If the decision maker turns you down for now, they’ll almost certainly write you a glowing appraisal and give you further contacts to help you along your way.  But only if you ask for this.

Almost everything about this process makes more sense than doing the conventional job search which is tiring, and hit and miss.  You’re playing a different game this way – a game that you can win.  You’ll increase your chances, get in a stronger position, and you’ll get your ladder up against the right wall.  All you then have to do is climb it.

The Great Career Escape will help you find and get in to your ideal career and provide you with plenty more ideas like this to help you create a highly rewarding living.

May 19, 2010

Get Stuff Done

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flying bee

Here’s a great way to get stuff done.  Do what you feel like doing when you feel like doing it – but ensure you’re knocking things off your ‘important’ list.  I’m a big fan of this approach to working.  Time Management expert Mark Forster knows how to get stuff done and has turned this approach into a set of systems he calls ‘Autofocus’.  You can check them out here. They won’t suit everyone, but you can always adapt them to suit.  Start by using them to get stuff done at the weekend for example.

I’ve used a similar approach over the last couple of years.  I determine what has to be done and what I really want to get done that day.  I list them.  I swallow the frogs first (great tip here).  Then I use ‘autofocus’ to get the rest done when I feel ready to do them.  It’s an interesting way to keep up your energy and motivation.  Give it a go.

P.S. You should enjoy your working day more using this approach as well as become more productive.  If you consistently don’t feel like doing anything on your ‘important’ list then you’re probably in the wrong job. You might want to think about finding a career in which you’ll nearly always feel like doing something from your ‘important’ list. You can help yourself here or join the Facebook page here.

May 17, 2010

Email or Phone?

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Businessperson using phone with at sign and world map and fiber optic cable behind them

This discussion is a bit old now, but something I read got me thinking again.  I’m writing this post to simplify the solution.  This ‘successful’ (I think that term should always be in inverted commas) CEO claims he does everything by email as it’s more effective than using the phone, plus it creates a written record.

I prefer to use email often as you can keep the message on track, you’re not interrupting anyone and you can send your message without waiting for their immediate attention.  They can then read it at a convenient time.  But this is all very passive.  It’s not so good if the person you’re communicating with isn’t much of a reader, doesn’t pay attention to detail in your note, is unlikely to type back, is on the road all the time without email access, or is someone you need to develop rapport with first before asking for action.

So do you call then?  It’s certainly more active.  Doesn’t mean it’s more effective though.  If I’m working on something that’s likely to be more important than my ringing phone, unless I need a break I ignore the phone.  I’m not ignoring the person, I’m ignoring their demand for my immediate attention.  My answer phone takes their call and I can get back when it suits, just like I do with email.

So which is best?  It depends on the nature of the communication, your job role (the types of calls and emails you receive and their importance), who’s involved and the timing.

My simplified easy-to-apply advice for which is best:

Know the outcome you want and then get to know the other person as fast as possible.  Starting by knowing the nature of their job, make an educated guess as to which method they’d respond best to that will get your desired outcome.  If you’re wrong, it doesn’t matter, you’ll soon learn and you’ll know for next time.

Does anyone have any other thoughts on which works best?

May 14, 2010

How I Became Addicted to Eating Frogs

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Man Holding a Toad

One of the best things I ever did was become addicted to eating frogs. No, it’s not from my years dining out when living in Belgium, it’s ‘productivity speak’ for ‘getting the biggest, ugliest, hardest thing of the day done first’.

I learned the idea of eating the frog first thing in the morning from Brian Tracy’s book, ‘Eat That Frog‘, which is all about productivity.  He explained that often the task we really don’t want to do – the thing we’re resisting the most, is often the thing that will make us the most progress in our work. The frog, is the important thing, that MUST get done today. Most people habitually put it off until the pain gets really high and they have to do it (often when they’re out of energy and their performance levels are are low). Or, it just doesn’t get done and they miss a deadline.

I start my day identifying the frog by asking myself, ‘if I could only get one thing done today that would make most impact on my work and customers, what would it be?‘  That’s my frog, and that’s what I’m addicted to getting on with in the morning, first thing, until it’s done.

I guess I became addicted because of the feelings of progress it brings.  When you’re done, and you tick it off, you feel great. You almost feel like you could take the rest of the day off, well earned. It’s become a habit of mine to get up and eat the frog, almost every day. I’d recommend you schedule to identify your frog Monday morning, and immediately get on with it until it’s done.  See how it makes you feel, and what it brings you. Sometimes it puts you right in the zone where you’re ready to identify your next frog and eat that too.  It can become addictive.  Do it for a day, then schedule to do the same the next day, and the next, until you get addicted to this great rewarding productivity habit.



May 13, 2010

How to Create Better Quality Teachers (For Yourself, Your Organisation and Your Kids)

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Graduating Teacher Holding Eyeglasses and Chalk

I’ve met a lot of teachers over the years who want to get out of teaching.  Why?

I’ve also met and worked with lots of people over the years who consider teaching for one reason above all else: because it’s great for the holidays.  What?  What about the longer working part?  And the effect it has on your personal life?

Of course, you’re sending your kids along (or at least you probably will be) to spend much of their time with people who either don’t want to be there, or who only want to be there because they can’t wait until school’s out.  (This might ring alarm bells in your own work too).  That’s an awful lot of people who don’t really want to be there teaching your kids.  I don’t know about you, but it scares me.  I don’t want someone helping to grow, develop and teach my children, when their heart isn’t in it.  Because when their heart isn’t in it, then their performance, energy and results aren’t in it either.  The impact on your child’s learning, results and life, is huge.

For the record, I’ve also met a handful of teachers over the years who are in their ideal career, working not for the holidays, but for their passion and enjoyment for teaching and helping integrate children into the real world.  These people are the bridge to accelerating learning.  These people are driven to make it work.  They really care about their pupils and seem to put the needs of their pupils before their own.  And they tend to be remembered by their pupils. You may remember some of yours and you may even have the urge to get hold of them if you could, to thank them.  They made impact and they made learning enjoyable and powerful too.  A couple of my teachers stood out like that.  A couple, out of about 50.

Please note, I don’t blame teachers at all and I’m not having a go at teachers.  Because what’s going on here is going on in your field too.  My advice to teachers though who don’t really love their work is to get out and find and get into something that really makes you bounce out of bed in the morning and give it everything.  Something you’re driven to get better and better at and something that puts you in the best position to really help others doing what you do best.  My advice to everyone else (especially if you have kids) is to help teachers you know who are considering a career change to see it through.  They might be very pleased to hear of www.thegreatcareerescape.com.  Getting in to their ideal career will make them happier more productive people, and it will make way for teachers who were born to teach well.  They are out there, possibly working in the wrong job.  Think of the number of children’s lives this will positively influence over time.

And while you’re at it, consider how and where this is going on in your own industry too.  Perhaps some strategic repositioning will positively change your life and the lives of your customers?

May 10, 2010

Your Packaging and Presentation

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Gothic couple

It does matter.  Especially when you want people to co-operate with you.  And people do instantaneously judge you on how you look and come across, even if they say they don’t.  They judge your look relative to what role you’re supposed to be playing, or what you’re claiming to be able to do for them.  And most people behave differently in front of different looking people.  We’re all at it, and we can’t help it.  Even if we agree ‘you can’t judge a book by it’s cover’ we still do it.  And we do it for products we buy too.  The packaging and presentation give signals to us about the product and it’s quality, and ultimately make us feel a certain way.

I try my best not to judge people when I first meet them.  But try as I might, my subconscious still decides a few things about them and what’s important to them, and how likely they are to co-operate with me.  Of course, I might be completely wrong, but regardless my mind still guesses.  Can’t help it.

When I took my broken Mac in to a computer repair shop and got served by a young guy with rings and studs all over his face, I have to admit I wasn’t sure about the professionalism of their service.  The look of their customer facing employees certainly wasn’t important to them.  As for how good a job they’d do with my Mac, I wasn’t sure, as nothing yet gave me the signals I was looking for.  If there was a repair shop next door, I may have checked them out for signs of professionalism and credibility.

My point is, it’s true you can’t always judge people correctly, but we still judge nevertheless and our judgment influences our behaviour and decisions which impact the person we’re judging.  Others do the same to us.  It’s easier to get people to co-operate with you when your packaging supports what you want them to do for you (eg when you want them to offer you a job). And if you insist that your packaging should remain as it is, and it’s not in line with your work, then perhaps you’re in the wrong line of work?  The only exceptions I know of are when people have already built a reputation for doing excellent work.  Sometimes they have earned the right to dress how they want because enough people know they’re good enough.  But if you’re not in that position, then definitely give your packaging some thought.

I believe your packaging has a direct effect on your performance, how people perceive you, quality of relationships and co-operation from others, and your overall results. It’s a major part of your personal marketing. Decide what you want, how you would rather people judge or perceive you, and then create your message through your packaging.

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