Blogs

I have been doing a series of workshops for the Marketing Institute of Ireland who have asked me to sum it all up in a brief piece of video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2HUUTT3BLk&sns=fb

I hope you find it useful. 

    I am re-reading this book for a second time - and it needs it. Written in a fairly breathless and colourful style Linchpin offers some useful insights to anybody trying to make sense of their careers in the current turbulent situation.
Two useful ideas: 

1. Check out the chapter on the Resistance - or the functioning of the amygdala brain - that reptile portion of the brain in our head which resists change and which holds us back in so many ways. Best chapter in the book.

2. A combination of a high  level of both passion and critical thinking in our lives helps make us Linchpins - (people who are vital to the success of the organisation we belong to) . Low passion and low levels of critical thinking render us cynical and powerless.

In the words of Sam Beckett: "I could go on..." but I leave that pleasure to you.

Fad and fashions are terrible tyrants!

For the last two years I have been bombarded by so-called internet gurus and marketeers urging a complete immersion in the Facebook and Twitter thing. My experience with most social media in business to date has been, frankly, disappointing.  Firstly, in my experience, the type of people who are interested in serious personal and professional development are too busy to Facebook and Twitter being involved in serious jobs, careers and commitments. Secondly,  my own analysis of my client base reveals that people find us through personal recommendations from previous clients and not through the social media.  Thirdly, Facebook and Twitter seem better to suited to issues about  lifestyle, image, fashion, trends and quick comment.  Useful if you want to know what's going on but less useful if you are struggling with who you really are and where you are going. A recent (2011) Irish study showed that three in four CEOs were not happy with the level of justication offered in return for investments by professional marketeers who recommended social media in businesses. Put more simply most felt they were being offered a pig in a poke!

A real philosophical concern I have with social media is that on-line you can pretend to be who you want and project a false image of yourself. Making real connections with people is about trust and sharing the human experience. I have yet to hear somebody claim that social networking on the Net shows people at their best - yet my day to day-to-day contact with clients, families and friends shows me the richness and diversity of the human condition. Another worry I have about social media is the people they exclude - those who don't have access, computer skills or those with special needs. By the way has anybody tried to relate the amount of time sifting through all this trivial content to the actual tangible results? This thought was triggered by a course participant who said to me recently that he didn't know where all the time went when he went on-line but wasn't sure what he had achieved by doing so.

Where social media help is in Linked-In which is useful in finding and getting in contact with key professionals - and there is plenty of proof for that.

What is needed is a dose of really critical thinking on this one.  Frequently when I ask how effective social media are in promoting business I am not given meaningful statistics but am usually quoted some exceptional case that is supposed to be applicable to all other situations. I have been accused of being a dinosaur: that's no problem for me - dinosaurs ruled the earth for a very long time! Another point made to me recently is that the You Tube generation have to get the message in two minutes or they are not interested. I am not sure that someone whose attention span is that short is going to be that successful in their careers and their lives. Some  of the problems we have to deal with can take a lifetime to grapple with and understand. 

A better alternative to the Tweet or the Facebook thing is to call in person or phone - whether you are connecting, networking or looking for a job. Offer your heart and your humanity. You'll be amazed at the richness of the experience.

MBAs: further degrees, anyone?

It's the time of the year when people start thinking about courses for the autumn. In a recession the standard advice is to take on a course of study - acquire more qualifications to make you more employable. It is worth questioning this idea really critically. Before you lay out your hard-earned cash on that course check the market; is your qualification in demand or otherwise? Check the course, check the college and make sure to talk to a few alumni to get the inside story on how good the course was and the employment history of graduates. In the words of one authority on the subject - remember a degree is not a meal ticket it is merely a licence to fish!

Good luck in your studies.

Click here to see our new video of Lorraine answering questions using the ideas contained in our book Interview-Wise. Her answers should give you ideas about how content and structure - and about keeping it concise. Be yourself - and use your own content and experience to give your interview professional impact.

Coming Soon:

Your Guide to Networking and Interviewing - on Video available from this site. We have just finished shooting and editing some short video clips to help you develop the skills for effective networking and interviewing. Watch this space.

My book Interview-wise is now outselling Career Detection by a healthy margin indicating that in-depth interview preparation is a major pre-occupation with job-seekers out there. You can sample the book on http://www.managementbriefs.com