Blog
Are You Using Your Assets to Get Americans Back to Work?
Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s contributions to the business of work discourse are usually very good, but the March 1, 2010 post on the Harvard Business Review site (www.hbr.org) was exceptionally relevant and inspiring. Her title was “Getting Americans Back to Work.”
Small and Do-able Ideas
Great, you’re thinking, lots of people are writing about that topic with big ideas and plenty of criticism to go around. Not Professor Kanter, her ideas are small and do-able, and instead of criticism, helpful observation and positive, applicable ideas. Granted, she still doesn’t share how someone without an income can make it while they work to find work, but I at least appreciate the attitude!
Advice for the Jobless Middle Manager
Here’s Kanter’s advice for the well-educated manager whose job has disappeared and is no longer even counted in the unemployment statistics because they’ve given up.
“What do I tell these jobless professionals who are holding their lives together with duct tape? I can say: Hang in there. Don’t give up hope. Develop a big idea to use later. Start your venture. Volunteer at a community organization. Find partners. Think internationally. Befriend immigrants with ties to an emerging market. Restore your sense of purpose. Remember what truly matters”
In the meantime, I think that there is other good advice out there for those in the well-educated middle:
- Now is a time to try that thing you never thought you would try. What do you have to lose?
- Focus on some other aspects of your life. Are you using this down time to exercise, eat right, learn a new skill, language, or perspective?
- Remember when you dreamed of working a shorter week or part-time? What were you going to do with those hours? Can you do that now while you keep working your “job” of finding a job?
- Take advantage of what your community has to offer – use the library, visit local sites, go to a park, find a new local diner, get to know the world that is right around you that you’ve never had time to experience before.
- Meet people – reach outside your first circle to your second or third. Have a cup of coffee and broaden that network. It may be more and more tangential to your job search, but sometimes the innovative idea is on the periphery, not in the core.
Asset Maps for Middlers
And another idea for “middlers” — I don’t mean those related to Bette, but those in the middle of their job transition and maybe even tired enough to be approaching things now in a bit of a middling way — draw your “asset map.” You’ve probably already thought about the assets you are bringing to your job search, but what about the assets you have to offer to others?
Kanter mentions small ideas that collectively could build jobs. She’s calling for a movement of small ideas based on all our assets – what do you have that you can offer to the solution of job growth in America? “Imaginative small actions could aggregate to bigger impact. Underutilized office space can become an incubator for others starting a business. Shared work and living spaces are becoming more common for recent graduates working on new ventures; communities should encourage and facilitate this. Those with international business ties can encourage business partners to invest in the U.S.; good people and cost-reducing incentives are available now.”
I like Kanter’s small ideas and I hope more individuals and organizations will embrace them. Wouldn’t it be great if we could see a movement across the United States, a movement of both workers and the organizations who hire them? I am hoping that organizations — companies, foundations, associations, universities, government, nonprofits — will get creative and think about different ways to do things. It would be a wonderful thing to see a boom of creativity and diversity in how we do things – our work, our products, our services, our decision-making, our politics, our day-to-day lives and our perspectives. Thanks Professor Kanter.
Yes! You may use this article by Barbara Demarest in your company newsletter, blog or website as long as you add the following bio box:
Barbara Demarest (www.barbarademarest.com) received her MBA from the Babcock School of Management at Wake Forest University and her BA from Duke University. After 20 years at the Center for Creative Leadership, Barbara launched a strategy consulting practice focusing on people leading change in associations, foundations, universities, nonprofits and knowledge businesses. You can find Barbara’s executive coaching profile on www.thecoachingassociation.com.
7 Deadly Marketing Mistakes
Whether you are marketing yourself, a product, or a business, Guest Author, Jessica Swanson, offers some good advice for you next marketing effort.
7 Deadly Marketing Mistakes from Guest Author: Jessica Swanson
****
Jessica Swanson, “The Shoestring Marketer,” has helped entrepreneurs, all over the world, explode their businesses using cutting-edge, proven and completely FREE internet marketing strategies. To receive your FREE Marketing Kit, which has helped thousands of entrepreneurs, just like you, learn the exact techniques for marketing their businesses for NO-COST, visit: http://www.ShoestringMarketingKit.com
Does Your Career Reinvention Include Solo Consulting?
If your career reinvention includes solo consulting, you may find this helpful from the February 8, 2010 Wall St. Journal:
How to Succeed in the Age of Going Solo
- Think long term - given economic forecasts and the shifting employment contract, today’s freelancers and consultants may be on their own for quite some time. Those who approach their time as a profession that needs cultvation and investment as opposed to “something on the side,” are often more successful.
- Offer expertise that is too expensive or used too infrequently for a single company to hire a full-time permanent employee to do. The article mentions examples such as technical skills, launching a new accounting software program or a temporary graphic-design project.
- Retain and enhance your skills by attending workshops and training courses. And when you can, be the teacher and lead a course so that you stay focused and up to date.
- Network – both the noun and the verb. Every consultant needs to be out meeting new people and cultivating a wide range of relationships. In addition, it helps to be part of a network of consultants who together can share resources and opportunities.
- Professional Work space – make sure you have a place where you can control the noise and meet with clients. Some people also like to have access to space outside their homes because they miss having an office to go to and colleagues to work with.
- Have a clarity of purpose – developing a mission statement and an understanding of what work you will do or will not do is important in building credibility and a long term stream of business.
Worst Practices in Management and Leadership
Author and Consultant David Noer Takes a Look at Worst Practices
David Noer, author of Healing the Wounds and an organizational change expert I worked with at the Center for Creative Leadership, is working on a new concept — WORST practices instead of BEST practices. I love this idea. Below is his request for information. I have lots of ideas for him…BUT the catch is that you have to have examples that can be fact checked…hmm, that may take some thought. In the mean time, here’s the message from David in case you have something to offer for his work.
I’m doing preliminary research for a paper or an article– which could become a book – on “Worst Practices” in management and leadership. There has been a lot written on best practices, but no so much on worst case examples. Specifically I’m looking for examples in areas such as succession planning, selection, strategy, handling downsizing, mergers, marketing, product development, and ethics. I’m looking for specific examples that can be fact checked as well as general trends. I’d be willing to give credit – if desired – when and if anything gets published, to those who gave me examples. You can reply publicly or, if you wish privately at www.davidnoer.com Thanks for your ideas and help.
And I can’t wait to see what David comes up with from his research!
*****
Barbara Demarest Executive Coaching, Seminars & Keynotes Idea Catalyst, Strategic Adviser, and Freelance Chief Operating Officer
Feb. 2010 Job Postings
Job Postings – New Category of Blog Posts on BarbaraDemarest.com
When I hear about job postings, I will put them up on this site and you can search the Blog Postings under the Resources category for the sub-category called “Job Postings” to see anything I have found. I will title them with the month so that you know how fresh they are.
Here are a few jobs in North Carolina that I have heard about recently:
- Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, NC) - Senior Web Designer
- Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, NC) – Associate Director, Marketing & Communications
- Agency Account Director/New Business Development Consultant psoting with Paladin, a Marketing, Creative & Communications recruiting firm. This is a CONTRACT position in Charlotte, NC. See their website at www.paladinstaff.com for more about their services as a recruiting firm and contact norma@paladinstaffing.com if you are interested in this position.
Good luck with your job searches!
