It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere?

The saying, “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” has been used among friends to give each other the Ok to have a drink before Five O’Clock. This blog will change your whole perception when you hear the words Five O’Clock. I just became a member of the Five O’Clock club which is headquartered in New York. They are The Thought Leaders in Career Management and Outplacement. I have joined this “club” to help with my marketing of my services. If you have ever worked with me, you know my strength is not marketing, but coaching my clients. I just need some assistance in getting the clients. The Five O’Clock club not only brings me clients, but also provides a coaching methodology that is easy to follow and implement when I am coaching someone on a career transition.

It will take a few weeks to get officially certified, but once that is done, I am free to use these new-found methods in my coaching practice. I look forward to being a member of this prestigious “club”.

Check it out www.fiveoclockclub.com

Jobless Recovery? That’s what they call it!

I just attended the Mayor’s Annual Economic Forecast in San Francisco on March 2. Both Mayors from Oakland (Jean Quan) and San Francisco (Ed Lee) presented. As a prelude to the Mayor’s speeches, Paul Single, a SVP at City National Asset Management gave his presentation on the economic recovery. I wanted to write this blog post to give my clients some quick statistical data and possibly enough information where they continue to work hard in their current job or while they are looking for that new-new job.

Paul Single mentioned the term Jobless Recovery which I thought to be an accurate statement. Did you know the official end of the recession was June 2009, according to the National Bureau of Economic research (NBER). The NBER is the official arbiter of when downturns begin and end. So lets put this into perspective for my readers and potential clients. The WSJ just released that unemployment just recently fell below 9%, the lowest since April 2009. Many of my clients would be jumping for joy to see such a drop. The other statistic that we need to analyze is the labor participation rate. That number has decreased almost 2% from 2008 to 64.2% which means 4.4 million people have basically stopped looking for work. If we “combine” the unemployment rate with the labor participation rate, the unemployment rate would be about 11.5%.

Why do they call it a jobless recovery? The economy is recovering when you look at more home sales and less foreclosures, flat inflation, and wage stabilization. However, the jobs are not being created fast enough for us to get out of the woods for the next few years. We would need 300,000 jobs per month for a whole year to make a dent in the 4.4 million.

What can you do if this is the situation? Of course you need to continue to work hard at your career. You need to be ready to make a move if you are not satisfied with your current situation. Get your resume ready and have a plan for what you want to do 3-5 years from now. You have to have a plan if you are going to be ready when REAL growth hist the economy.

How did you get this job in the first place?

If you have asked yourself this question or someone else asked you, then its time to take a hard look at why you are doing the job you are in. Some of my clients find themselves in a job and realise they are not using their strengths. Another way of saying this is they find themselves stuck in something they have been doing for a while and they just woke up and realised there was something wrong. Many times it is not anyone elses fault except for you. You and you alone, control your career plan. Everyone has a choice of waking up and going to work and enjoying it or waking up and just going to work putting your time in.

Take control of your career and make decisions that help you do things that are valuable and fit your strengths. Take a training class or get assigned to a major project to gain experience. Taking on a new project is the hardest and most risky, but possibly provide the most opportunity. If you do these types of things, no one will ever wonder how you got the job, but praise you for doing a good job. They will see through your work that you are happy and using your strengths to provide value back to your company and customers.

What’s in your career tool bag?

Having a tool bag in the business world is not unusual. Construction workers and carpenters have one, why not a business professional or executive? Business people usually have them on their PC, laptop, mobile device or on paper like an old fashion book. The key idea of having a tool bag is that it is portable from job to job. Just like the carpenter and construction worker, they move from site to site and show up with their years of experiences and tool bag. Now that the analogy is set, you want to know what to put in your tool bag.

Here is a list to get you started. 1- Resume that has been viewed and edited by a coach, friend or mentor. 2- Summary of your strengths and weaknesses. 3- List of major accomplishments. 4- Five Drivers for Success. 5- Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG). 6- List of people you can network with. 7- List of technical and business skills you own.

Now that your tool bag is ready, you can have the confidence to start looking for that next job in your career. Start now!

Corporate Pay Raises and Performance Reviews

In many corporations, it’s that time of year for employees to write their performance review and managers to communicate the pay raises and bonuses that you worked so hard for.

The hardest for an employe to do is write about their accomplishments and give them to their boss. Here is a technique I used when I was a senior executive and what I coach my clients on today.

To ease the pain, every 3 months, update your successes and performance objectives during the year. When it comes time to write them for the end of the year, you already have the first 3 quarters done.

When it’s time to talk about pay raises, bonuses, promotions, do it in a separate meeting. Try not to talk about your performance objectives and money in the same meeting. Sending your boss a summary of your performance objectives and successes ahead of the money discussion, will only help your case for a good raise.

Hello world!

Welcome to my Blog for On The Spot Coaching. Here you will find information on issues and ideas that professionals and executives have to address in the work place.