Adding Value To Yourself

What you bring to the interview table as a manager is your potential and your value adding potential for your possible future employer.  Here are a few tried and true ways that say "I have what you need" on your CV.

1. Higher Education.
2. Proven Results.
3. Affiliations and Memberships.
4. Conference attendance.

Which of these have you completed/proven/attended in the past 24 months?

The Crucial Skill for Tomorrow's Leaders

The Crucial Skill for Tomorrow's Leaders

By clicking on the link above you will be transported to the HBR website where you can watch an interesting little video on what being a leader in the future will look like (according to some of todays leaders).

I enjoyed it - thats why I have linked this post to it.  You  enjoy it too.

(Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tsevis/2313082920/)

Quote of the Week - JFK

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."

"Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth."

"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names."

John F. Kennedy.

Educational Management

We are preparing to undergo a new style audit that the Ministry of Education (New Zealand) have put in place for all educators that teach post Secondary school.

The main emphasis and thrust behind this audit is the ability to reflect.  In the traditional system of auditing  the paperwork was checked and we try to laud how good we are while simultaneously hide anything we aren't good at.

Under the new system the evaluators want to see

• How well do we understand what we do - that is teach,
• How we do know how we are doing,
• How are we improving.

I think these questions are really self audit questions that every manager and employee should ask themselves about their position within the company and in their relationship with the customer.

I have captured the three main reflection questions in a different way.  Try answering these questions and see what answers you get -

1. What do you do to help our students learn/customers spend/ clients succeed?
2. How do you know how well it works?  What are the results?  What evidence do you have?
3. What are you doing to improve it?

(Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/venndiagram/4445273071/)

The Future

(Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nathaninsandiego/3760056027/)

Don't Leave Your Job - Here's Why

This 'Management Tip of the Day" from Harvard sums up my present feelings absolutely.

MARCH 24, 2010, 3 Reasons You Shouldn't Leave Your Job

You may be unhappy, fed up, and ready to bolt from your job. Instead of running out the door, take a deep breath and consider these three reasons to stay where you are — at least for now:

1. Relationships matter more than money. You may think you can find a job that will pay you more, but you will be leaving behind a wealth of relationships. When weighing your options, don't forget the value of the network you have now.

2. It's less urgent than you think. Job seekers who are desperate to get out of a job tend to do less research about potential employers. Strategically plan your next career move instead of running away.

3. You're likely overestimating yourself. Research shows that most job seekers overestimate their skills and prospects. Before you leave, take the time to do a realistic assessment of what you have to offer.

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This is one area that I battle with quite a bit.  Whenever things aren't going quite right, the politics are too much to handle or I just get sick of the BS my first inclination is to look elsewhere for employment opportunites.  That is the subjective view.

But when I sit back and take stock objectively of where I am at as far as career development and the opportunities afforded to me -  I am actually in an excellent place of work right now.  Am I thinking of leaving - no, probably not.  I think I'll just wait and see what comes along.

Life Lessons - To Do List

The choice is yours.

"How we spend our days is of course - how we spend our lives" Annie Dillard.

(Thanks to Daphnee Maree for posting the graphic.)

Success - Defined

What is success and how can you measure it? This really short 3 and a half minute presentation will give you some fantastic ideas.

Watch the video - you'll experience the greatest impact within the shortest 3 and a half minutes of your life.

2010 Management Goals

Here are the top three resolutions I have for 2010 as far as my management goes -

1. Compliance: (a) the act or process of complying to a desire, demand, proposal, or regimen to coercion, (b) conformity in fulfilling official requirements.


2. Excellence: (a) the quality of being excellent, (b) an excellent or valuable quality.


3. Teamwork: cooperative work done by a team (especially when it is effective).

These are the three key section headings for 2010. My aim now is to break down these headings into specific sections and goals that are SMART.

• Specific;
• Manageable;
• Ambitious;
• Realistic;
• Time measurable.

Watch this space for ongoing updates!

Scenarios for Strategy and Planning

"The tales we tell are just as important as the facts and figures we learn. Stories help us try on different possibilities to see how they fit!" (Brian Fies).

Having the ability and making the time to glimpse the future is an important part of the managers role. Here's how you can get started -

1. Imagine the future. Get wild! What does the future look like to you? How will you know when you have crossed your finish line?


2. Think backwards. What steps were taken that created the end picture. How did you get to the end result and who did you need to get there. What money was required? Did you need venture capital? How many employees will you need along the way?


3. Create practicable steps that you can implement today. Start with the smallest steps and then move on from there.


4. Keep reflecting and keep updating the end picture and stay flexible enough to get there.

Creating a vision for people to work towards is one part of management. Working out what steps are required to get there separates the dreamer from the visionary.

Trends - Predict them before they happen.

There are a few keys to winning and remaining sustainable. Here are a few generic ones -

1. Predict what's around the corner.


2. Plan to change to match what's coming.


3. Pass on your knowledge to others.

What will 2010 bring? Read the newspapers in 2009 for a decent place to start thinking about it.

Also try this article by David Armano who outlines what he thinks will be the six big social media trends in 2010.

In life as well as business, you have a few options -

• Ignore the trends and hope they will go away,


• Follow the trends and keep on playing catch up

OR

• Create your own trends!

The choice and the power is yours.

Career Crisis?

A crisis can be caused by factors that are either internal (such as personal) or external (redundancy or environmental changes).

In order to respond to crises you need to determine what the major causes are and where they originate from.

Internal crisis may need you to - speak to a life coach, take annual leave, reflect and review where you are at - then decide on your next course of action.

External crisis - generally you do not have any control over external factors. However you do have control over your actions and reactions to different situations.

Crises are not always negatives and can force us into having to confront ideas, behaviors and patterns that we did not know existed before the crisis. It is how we act and react that will determine the outcomes from a crisis.

In this presentation from TED, Alain De Botton asks us to restructure our view of events that are happening to us - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtSE4rglxbY

MBA or NBA?

What to do in 2010?

• Complete my studies with Waikato Uni and complete the MBA program
• Or - knuckle down and get into the NBA instead?

It is important for us that Vanessa finishes her degree to allow her career promotions and a university qualification. I'm fine with that. However, it will may mean that I have to go into limbo for a year.

The other part of my conundrum is - will doing an MBA get me anywhere in my current organisation? I wonder about the value of an MBA if there is going to be no value at the end of it.

So even if I get an MBA will that mean I have a clearer line through to second tier management? I highly doubt it. Am I capable of operating at that level? Absolutely.

One of the dangers of staying within an organisation is being labelled and boxed in by other peoples perceptions.

When I was doing my chef training I distinctly remember Chef saying - "Trainee chefs should only stay in 1 job (kitchen) for 6 months, and older chefs no more than 2 years".

There is some value in that statement. The great chef Mossimo also said

"Once you know everything about your job, quit and get a new one".

Here are a few points on what I believe are the "Crucial elements of employee engagement" -

• Employees must be dependable and appear to be stable in a role is an important element of career advancement;
• Also important is the employees ability to grow,
• Their ability to know there is a purpose is what they do,
• They must be being adequately challenged,
• And they must be rewarded for their efforts at work - both internal job performance and external personal development.

Where to from here? Career

In 4 weeks time I will have finished my post graduate diploma. What does that mean?

I still do not have any technical expertise in one area or another but then that is how I have always been.

My current job - like any job - has it's ups and downs but overall I'd give it an 8 out of 10.

So what happens next? When I started the role I gave myself a two year time span, and those two years are nearly up.

What happens next? I'm not really fussed. There are a huge number of positive changes taking place in the Forestry School, but I feel like I am sitting on the outside looking in and not really affecting any change.

Change is the thing I enjoy making more than anything else in life.

I thought about Google for a job - but they are only in Auckland and aren't hiring at the moment.

Accounting Technician? Probably not. That would be better for a new graduate rather than a weathered old soul like myself!

Anyway, we shall wait and see. Tomorrow is another day filled with possibilities.