"Toot Your Own Horn", Self-Promotion is Necessary!

"Hey, I don't mind if I toot my own horn. Toot, toot!" - Alex P. Keaton, Family Ties

Did anyone besides me wonder what the crazy buzzing noise was at the recent World Cup soccer matches? Love 'em or loathe 'em, the blaring plastic trumpets, or "Vuvuzelas", are now a hallmark of the matches! They are tooting the virtues of soccer, and have created a brand for the sport, that's for sure.

So I'll ask you, how good are you at tooting your own horn? The answer better be, "Great, wonderful, fantastic", or you run the risk as a job seeker of missing out on an important part of self-promotion in the job market. I know, most of you will say you don't like to sing your own praises, but it's necessary so the recruiter, executive or networking partner will remember you. It doesn't have to come off as conceited, just self-assured.

"If you're humble, it's hard to toot your own horn. I understand that. But during times like now, with the recession as thick as it is, you must step outside your comfort zone and try things that might make you feel, well, just a bit uncomfortable - even though they shouldn't. " ~ Michelle Kabele, Marketing Professional

Here are a few points to remember about tooting your own horn:

• Determine what you have done exceptionally well over the last 5 years, and memorize in a way you can articulate, if asked.


• List the top 3 accomplishments you are most proud of, and be ready to concisely describe them in a short statement.


• Practice saying something great about yourself and your expertise. Do this with friends and family and ask their opinion of your presentation.


• Use numbers and statistics, which help your confidence to "brag" a bit about yourself.

BACTS FACT: “Recruiters will look at your Facebook, My Space, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social network sites during the recruitment process. Be sure you are portraying (and tooting) the right message!"

THAT'S IT: “There is a difference between conceit and confidence. Conceit is bragging about yourself. Confidence means you believe you can get the job done.”~ Johnny Unitas

A good read for you if you don’t find it easy to “self-promote” is BRAG, The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn, Without Blowing It, by Peggy Klause. It’s filled with suggestions on how to be effective with self-promotion.

It’s time to be your own “Vuvuzelas" and make some noise about yourself this week in the job market. Let employers know you are ready to work!

Jan

Just a reminder that I am starting to list more information on my Facebook page, Inland Management Group, about job seeking. You can become a "Fan" of my page at: http://facebook.com/#!/InlandManagementGroup

No One Ever Washes a Rental Car!

Nobody Ever Washes a Rental Car

Empowering Your Employees for Success!
Jan M. Smith
Inland Management Group

Do you? Or would you admit to tossing gum wrappers on the floor and leaving your lunch remains on the passenger seat?

Do you care for that rental car like you would your own? Most people don’t.
Why should they? It’s not theirs to worry about. This is the same issue with employees who work for you. What would make them take care of your place of business as if it were their own?

Ian MacGregor, of The Lobster Place in New York City coined the phrase “Nobody ever washes a rental car” years ago when he was trying to understand the essence of employee ownership and empowerment in the workplace. Like so many hospitality managers, he was tired of his employees treating their jobs with little motivation, pride, or ownership.

According to MacGregor, “In order to reduce turnover and develop long-term employees with special qualifications that only time and training can give them, work every day to ensure your employees are empowered and connected. We all know that empowered employees - those who have a sense of ownership over their working lives, often generated through such things like giving them authorization to make decisions- not only perform better but are less likely to leave or steal. That means real savings in the employment column.”

With costly recruiting and emerging Talent Wars, (employees jumping ship with or without another job lined up), business owners might consider hiring and developing “ownership mentality” in employees. It could be useful to ask a question in the interview, “So tell me, do you ever wash a rental car?” The candidate might stare blankly, with a look of, “That’s a crazy question,” or, you may get someone who says, “I take care of my rental car as if it’s my own”. That may be the one who gets hired!

It’s actually possible to promote and foster this type of mentality by allowing your employees to take ownership of their specific area of responsibility in your company. Allow your employees to have some independent decision authority with regard to resolving customer issues. Help employees own their work and take responsibility for their results. Encourage employees to take pride of ownership in their job and ask them for their ideas to streamline operations or to provide service levels.

Following are tips to help empower your service employees:
Adapted from Susan M. Heathfield, Principles of Empowerment

1. Demonstrate You Value People
Your regard for people shines through in all of your actions and words. Your facial expression, body language, and words express what you are thinking about the people who report to you. Your goal is to demonstrate your appreciation for each person's unique value. No matter how an employee is performing on their current task, your value for the employee as a human being should never falter and always be visible.

2. Share Leadership Vision
Help people feel that they are part of something bigger than themselves and their individual job. Do this by making sure they know and have access to the organization's overall mission, vision, and strategic plans.

3. Share Goals and Direction
Share the most important goals and direction for your group. Where possible, either make progress on goals measurable and observable, or ascertain that you have shared your picture of a positive outcome with the people responsible for accomplishing the results.

4. Trust People
Trust the intentions of people to do the right thing, make the right decision, and make choices that, while maybe not exactly what you would decide, still work.

5. Provide Information for Decision Making
Make certain that you have given people, or made sure that they have access to, all the information they need to make thoughtful decisions.

6. Delegate Authority and Impact Opportunities, Not Just More Work
Don't just delegate the drudge work; delegate some of the fun stuff, too. Delegate the important meetings, the committee memberships that influence product development and decision making, and the projects that people and customers notice. The employee will grow and develop new skills. Your plate will be less full so you can concentrate on contribution. Your reporting staff will gratefully shine - and so will you.

7. Provide Frequent Feedback
Provide frequent feedback so that people know how they are doing. Sometimes, the purpose of feedback is reward and recognition. People deserve your constructive feedback too, so they can continue to develop their knowledge and skills.

8. Solve Problems: Don't Pinpoint Problem People
When a problem occurs, ask what is wrong with the system that caused the people to fail, not what is wrong with the people.

9. Listen to Learn and Ask Questions to Provide Guidance
Provide a space in which people will communicate by listening to them and asking them questions. Guide by asking questions, not by telling grown up people what to do. People generally know the right answers if they have the opportunity to produce them. When an employee brings you a problem to solve, ask, "What do you think you should do to solve this problem?" Or, ask, "What action steps do you recommend?" Employees can demonstrate what they know and grow in the process.

10. Help Employees Feel Rewarded and Recognized for Empowered Behavior
When employees feel under-compensated, under-titled for the responsibilities they take on, under-noticed, under-praised, and under-appreciated, don’t expect results from employee empowerment. The basic needs of employees must feel met for employees to give you their discretionary energy, that extra effort that people voluntarily invest in work.

Empowering your employees might just work to get them to take care of your place of business as if it were their own!

Jan M. Smith is the Founder and Principal of Inland Management Group, a Human Resource Consultancy located in Temecula, specializing in the Hospitality and Entertainment industry. You can contact Jan at (951) 302-6483,

www.inlandmgtgroup.com, email at jsmith@inlandmgtgroup.com, or follow her on Twitter at Temecula_HR, and become a Fan on Facebook at: Inland Management Group

Change

CHANGE

"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly" - Richard Bach

As a job seeker today, you are in a sort of metamorphosis. You are all changing in ways you never asked for. But, like the butterfly, many of you have already transformed into something new and wonderful with your career decision and job attainment. For some, it’s the same type of work and for others; you have changed locations, industry, job titles. Like the butterfly, you are still beautiful no matter what you have ended up with, or if you are still unemployed.

Change isn’t all that easy for anyone, yet it is inevitable, just part of life. It’s often painful and mostly leads to a situation where you may even lose your old identity but at the same time it is rewarding and gives you wings and opens the door for something new.

The choice you have is between hanging on to the past and lamenting what's lost, or bracing for the road ahead and profiting from it. The decision is purely one's own and has to come from within!

“Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.”~ Carol Burnett

GOOD NEWS: There is so much help to be found online for job seekers. Don’t forget to join the BACTS LinkedIn group as I post new openings colleagues send to me and other important information for you, the job seeker. Additionally, I came across this article that will help you with a Cover Letter. http://michaelspiro.wordpress.com/

CONGRATULATIONS: To Cynthia A. who has recently accepted a position with the Guidance Center in Long Beach. She wrote: “I am happy to report that after almost a year of being unemployed (one year in July) I have received and accepted a job offer this morning. I realized that I had to expand my scope of thinking as to where I could and would work. Hard times call for extraordinary measures”.

BACTS FACT: “You will more than likely be asked in an interview, ‘What is your salary requirement’, make sure to know what your range is as well as your total benefit package expectation.”

THAT'S IT: “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy

May this week ahead be wonderful for all of you!
Jan

Perserverance!

Welcome to June!

"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all have confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained."- Madame Marie Curie

I try to share a quote with you each week, and when I find one that I think applies to your situation, I always look up the author if they are unknown, and always seem to learn something new! I'm inspired with this author, Marie Curie. She was the world’s most famous woman scientist and first female recipient of a Nobel Prize, and she didn't just achieve this once, but became the first and only woman to win a second Nobel Prize.

I think that each of us has something to offer this world, whether it's discovering the importance of radioactivity like Marie Curie, or contributing to this society in any given field. So many of you feel, after all of these months of unemployment, you do not have value...this couldn't be further from the truth. Here is the truth: You must believe in your own value, expertise, and talent, before any recruiter can.

Please, go online to http://www.simplyhired.com/ and look at the varied positions posted within the last 24 hours. New jobs are being listed each day. Look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself you are worth it, and you can do the job. Look over your resume, drop in a few "key words" and forward it on. Check out LinkedIn to see if you are connected to anyone in the company you are applying to, and if so, use that contact to streamline the recruiting process. If you are uncertain how to do this, contact me via email.

You are gifted for something-- go attain it!

GOOD NEWS: Don't forget about the job fairs coming up, Sheraton Park Hotel, 1855 South Harbor Blvd, Anaheim, 11:00am – 2:00pm. http://oc.localhires.com/job_fairs/view/1256/Orange+County+Job+Fair+June+8%2C+2010
North County Career Fair, Wednesday, Jun 9th , 10am - 3pm, Inland Career Center - Escondido Library Satellite, Escondido and the Inland Empire Job Fair, Monday, June 7th 11am -2 pm, Hilton Ontario Airport Hotel, 700 N. Haven Avenue , Ontario.

CONGRATULATIONS: To all of you who reported last week that you have interviews this week. Good luck and I hope to hear great things from you!


BACTS FACT: “It is as clear as day for a seasoned recruiter to pick up on the fact you lack confidence in the interview. Work hard to prepare your interview attitude to appear positive and interesting."

THAT'S IT: "They do not dwell in remorse over the past, nor do they brood over the future: they abide in the present: therefore they are radiant. " -Buddhist discourse

Just a reminder that I am starting to list more information about job seeking ideas on my Facebook page, Inland Management Group. You can become a "Fan" of my page at: http://facebook.com/#!/InlandManagementGroup

Here's to a confident June!
Jan

Celebrating Service!

"The purpose of human life is to serve and to show compassion and the will to help others." - Albert Schweitzer

Celebrating Memorial Day yesterday was a day of honoring those who have served our country. A big Thank You goes out to those who are either Military or their family members.

I also want to thank many of you who are serving each other by assisting at local charities, as well as those of you who are helping at the local EDD office, Experience Unlimited groups, and other job-seeker gatherings. You are on your journey to find work, and are experiencing many different twists in the road; potholes and all. One of the greatest things you can do is to serve each other during this time by sharing your own experiences with fellow job-seekers.

If you are aware of job openings, or news on a job fair, interview tips, or feedback you have received that would be useful for other job-seekers, make sure you find a way to communicate by means of social networking or in-person meetings.

Serve: "To be of use, to be favorable, opportune, or convenient, to be worthy of reliance or trust..." You can help each other grow in this experience of unemployed, by serving as a trusted advisor.

GOOD NEWS: For readers who are local to the Inland Empire area, don't forget about the 2 job fairs coming up soon: North County Career Fair, Wednesday, Jun 9th, 10am - 3pm, Inland Career Center - Escondido Library Satellite, Escondido and the Inland Empire Job Fair, Monday, June 7th 11am -2 pm, Hilton Ontario Airport Hotel, 700 N. Haven Avenue, Ontario

BACTS FACT: “The Recruiter will only take 30 seconds to review your resume, that's about 15 seconds per page...make sure your resume is precise, concise, free from typo's, grammatical, or formatting errors."

THAT'S IT: "Everyone can be great because everyone can serve." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Serve yourself and others well this week!

Jan

Jan M. Smith
Inland Management Group/Human Resource Consulting and Support to the Service Industry
(951) 302-6483
www.inlandmgtgroup.com
www.janmsmith.com
Twitter: @temecula_hr
Facebook: http://facebook.com/#!/InlandManagementGroup
LinkedIn: http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/janmsmith