Better Corporate Life

A blog promoting a better corporate life.

Hey True Blue !

January 29th, 2010 by richscot No comments »

My uncle, Robert Cardan Hammond, was buried today at age 62. He was a man of a different era, more of a knockabout type from the ’20’s and 30’s. He worked on fishing trawlers, down in mines, knew the bush like the natives and built skyscrapers. This song by John Williamson is the perfect match for Uncle Robert.

TRUE BLUE

Words and Music by John Williamson

Hey True Blue, don’t say you’ve gone
Say you’ve knocked off for a smoko
And you’ll be back later on
Hey True Blue, Hey True Blue

Give it to me straight
Face to face
Are you really disappearing,
Just another dying race,
Hey True Blue.

True Blue, is it me and you?
Is it Mum and Dad, is it a cockatoo?
Is it standing by your mate
When he’s in a fight?
Or will she be right?

True Blue, I’m asking you…
Hey True Blue, can you bear the load?
Will you tie it up with wire,
Just to keep the show on the road?
Hey True Blue, Hey True Blue, now be Fair Dinkum

Is your heart still there?
If they sell us out like sponge cake
Do you really care?
Hey True Blue.

True Blue, is it me and you?
Is it Mum and Dad, is it a cockatoo?
Is it standing by your mate
When she’s in a fight?
Or will she be right?
True Blue, I’m asking you…

True Blue, is it me and you?
Is it Mum and Dad, is it a cockatoo?
Is it standing by your mate
When he’s in a fight?
Or will she be right?
True Blue … True Blue.

True Blue
Steadfast loyal Australian who displays the Aussie ideals of a fair go for all, mateship, having a go, and solving problems.

Smoko
To ‘knock off for a smoko’ is to have a break for a coffee, tea or cigarette.

Fair Dinkum
Virtually the same as True Blue – honest, reliable, trustworthy, dinki-di; someone who has embraced the Aussie attitudes to everything, especially mateship. ‘Are you fair dinkum?’ means ‘are you telling the truth?’

Thank you for allowing me to post my tribute….

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Posted in Simple Pleasures, family

Tags: Attitude

Social Media Luddite? How to create a social media presence

January 26th, 2010 by richscot No comments »

Feeling like you have been left behind in having a social media presence? Not sure why you should have one? Don’t know where to start?

When considering a personal social media presence for the corporate world you need to think about what you want to achieve:

Promote yourself &/or your company?
Connect with colleagues, business partners, clients and like minded people?
Find and Create new contacts?

I personally use social media in a work context for the following reasons:

to connect with people via social media rather than store business cards – stay connected even if I move jobs.
to research people and companies
to be a part of industry groups and join in on conversations
to introduce people or be introduced to new business contacts

Social media can seem very overwhelming to many and the answer I hear from colleagues is that they ‘don’t have time to keep up’. In all honesty I probably spend 30mins a fortnight if that on keeping details up to date.

Is there a simple place to start? Yes, I think if you are new you only need concern yourself with one site – linkedin (www.linkedin.com). I discovered this site around 6 years ago and have used it ever since as my primary corporate networking vehicle. I also use Plaxo (www.plaxo.com) and some others but to a lesser extent.

Linkedin is free to join at a basic level (that’s all I am) and you update your profile and create connections with colleagues, partners and clients. You can then search for industry groups, peer groups, school and even your own company – there are more than 300,000 groups.

You can read the following two articles which cover why linkedin is being used by so many around the world.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/15/linkedin-career-networking-intelligent-technology-connections.html

http://windmillnetworking.com/2009/08/26/what-is-linkedin-and-why-should-you-join/

So you have taken your first step! That wasn’t so hard? Write to me and let me know how you use social media for your corporate life. Thanks.

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Posted in CV, Career Planning, Connecting, Job Hunting, Partner, Re-Connect, Resume, marketing yourself, networking, self promotion, your network

Tags: Linkedin Plaxo Social Media

Welcome to the Tweenies or Happy New Year

January 7th, 2010 by richscot No comments »

On new years day I thought out loud, “ so if that was the noughties, what are we now ? The Teens ?”, my brother correctly went on to say, “ No, this is the tweenies!”.

A Tweenie being, for those of you whom aren’t aware, a pre-teen aged between 10 to 13 years. So, upon that basis – Welcome to the Tweenies!

Another thing common to New Years Day is the discussion around you’re ‘ New Year’s Resolutions ‘ – gee, the whole concept is so noughties….

Anyway, I thought to myself – I don’t have any. Should I? I feel a little weird not having any? – I went on to summarise what my current personal objectives were and shaped them into reasonable and realistic New Year’s Resolutions :

1)   Get fit before my tropical holiday in February
2)   Start guitar lessons (one year after I got my guitar)
3)   Continue my Masters Degree with Credit Average
4)   Buy some Golf Clubs and get some lessons
5)   Start house renovations

But I have many more than this – should they be so self focused ? What about my family? Supporting good causes ?

Frankly, I think New Year’s Resolutions are pretty dumb. Whilst it is good to have some broad ideas about what you would like to do – if you are going create a plan for your year then I think it is worthwhile to go through a more complete process.

My wife introduced me to the 5-Year Plan process that she used a number of years ago. I won’t go through it in huge detail now but the idea is that you:

a)   Create a 5 year plan committing to a single line of direction (not this or that)
b)   Include components like Career, Finances, Family, Spirituality, Health, Fitness and Friends
c)   Make statements on each for each year over the next 5 years

You can create this with a close friend and then you review it together regularly to keep each other on track. There are heaps of sites on the internet that refer to different approaches.

I met a woman once whom told me she wrote a 10-year plan but didn’t look at it for 10 years. It wasn’t until she was moving that she found it and decided to read through – she realised that she had achieved every single goal except the final “10. Move to live by the seaside “ – where was she moving to? The beach. She said the mere fact of writing it down is psychologically very powerful – I believe her.

Good luck with your New Years Resolution or your 5 Year Plan. Happy New Year!

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Posted in Career Planning, Connecting, Partner, Re-Connect, Reduce Stress, Simple Pleasures, Surfing, Work Life Balance, Working Hours, advice, career plan, exercise, family, gym, relationships, skill gaps, your priority

Tags: 10 Year Plan 5 Year Plan Holiday New Years Resolutions Tweenie

How to get a Fast Start for 2010

December 28th, 2009 by richscot No comments »

Do you normally take January to get your head into gear and start to plan in February so that by March you are ready to rock and roll ? The problem is you realise that you’ve now lost two months and if you are chasing objectives, targets and deadlines you could be stressed out and in trouble with the boss.

I am certainly guilty of this scenario and have paid the price over and over again which can take you the remainder of the year to recover.

So if you want to stop creating stress in your life and stop chasing your tail then you have the choice to fast start your year. How do I do that I hear you say?

Define your objectives for the year

•   Personal business commitments
•   Targets & deadlines
•   Other measurements
•   Development goals

Don’t know what they are or haven’t been told ? Not a good excuse – they will likely be like last year so use them as a base and add 10% to any targets.

Do research on your field via internet

Use search engines like yahoo!, google and bing to research what are the expected trends for your market or business area for the prevailing year. Think about what the claims versus what you know – if it sounds logical then include it in your plans.

Note: your marketing department may have done this for you already!

Create a Fast Start Plan

Create a 30/60/90 Day plan which incorporates all the things within your objectives and allows you to get started straight away and build up to a solid first 3 months.

e.g. First 30 Days:
1.   Break up Full Year Target into Monthly Goals
2.   Analyse Top 20 Clients for potential business
3.   Define Gap between Top 20 and Full Year Target
4.   Call all Top 20 Clients for ‘ New Year Call ‘

In all likelihood this will put you way beyond your peers whom are still drinking coffee and talking about ‘how they can’t believe it’s the new year‘ or ‘I can’t believe my holiday is over!’.

If you choose to show your manager your plan – don’t be surprised if they ask you to present this to your team or peers. This is a good opportunity for ‘self promotion’ if it presents itself. Doing this in a humble way will make people aspire to copy you and not think you’re sucking up to the boss.

How is your head for 2010? Need a Fast Start? Write to me and let me know! …and please rate the article as you go below : )

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Posted in Fast Start, Working Hours, self promotion

Tags: 2010 Fast Start self promotion Stress

Season’s Greetings

December 22nd, 2009 by richscot No comments »

I love Christmas, always have – you may love the holiday or the break – but the season gives us the great opportunity for several things:

i)   reconnect with our families and loved ones
ii)   take a breather & rest
iii)   watch sport
iv)   go on holidays
v)   focus on our spiritual selves

This Christmas is much more special than maybe any I have ever had – this is because it is my first Christmas as a father. This is a whole new journey now for my wife and I. We are really thinking about the kind of Christmas we want to create for our son. What family traditions to we want to make part of our family experience. How can we make it special and significant?

This year we bought our first ever ‘real’ Christmas Tree. It looks amazing. Whilst my son is too young to appreciate it we invited the neighbour’s kids to come over and help us decorate. We had Dean Martin crooning in the background – it was great.

This year is also the first Christmas in 10 years that I am taking off. Being in sales I normally need to work right through – but not this year.

Let me take this opportunity to wish you all the very best these holidays and a hearty ‘Season’s Greetings ‘.

Thank you for sticking with my blog during 2009 and I wish each of you a wonderful start to 2010.

Regards,

Richard

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Posted in Connecting, Partner, Re-Connect, Work Life Balance, Working Hours, family, relationships, your priority

Why taking a holiday will keep you sane and your family happy

December 16th, 2009 by richscot No comments »

If there was a fan club for taking holidays then I could be voted the #1 fan. People are often amazed at how often I go away – for me it is never enough. Maybe I love travel so much because I use to work for a major airline ? I don’t think so – I love holidays and I need holidays because it keeps me happy.

I have never been able to understand why people make these proud pronouncements like ‘I haven’t taken a holiday in 5 years!’ No wonder they look like an old potato and are stressed out.

You see better qualified people than me will tell you that taking a holiday is critical for a number of things :

Dealing with stress
Overcoming anxiety
Allowing your mind & body to rest
Overcoming illness
Reconnecting with loved ones

What do I mean by holiday? I mean time away from your everyday responsibilities and resting. I don’t mean being on a manic tour schedule and racing from place to place. I believe there are two types of holiday, there a) flop on the beach and b) being a tourist. It is fun to be a tourist but you really need some down time.

Can you have a holiday at home? I say ‘not really’. Why? Because I have tried successive times to holiday at home including putting money aside to do things, making a schedule to eat out and go to the movies. The problem is that your everyday home chores are still there. People still call you. Your friends and family still drop over unannounced.

So to distill things down here – I am saying you need a ‘flop on the beach’ holiday maybe once a year to let you mind wander and recoup so that you can bounce back and be a happy individual.

With the Christmas holidays approaching my wife and I were looking at going somewhere but it is too expensive so we have booked a tropical holiday in February for half the price.

So I am all set for my holiday – how about you ? Write me and let me know and please see the following articles supporting my vote for a holiday.

Health benefits of taking a vacation
http://ezinearticles.com/?Health-Benefits-of-Taking-a-Vacation&id=1193870

Health benefits of rest
http://psychology.suite101.com/article.cfm/health_benefits_of_rest

p.s. you don’t need to go to an island, down by the river, lake, mountain cabin or in the forest – whatever gives you downtime : )

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Posted in Connecting, Partner, Re-Connect, Simple Pleasures, Smell the Roses, Work Life Balance, Working Hours, family, relationships

Tags: Anxiety Holiday Rest Stress Vacation

Acing Your End of Year Review

December 10th, 2009 by richscot No comments »

Have you ever been surprised by your End of Year Review result with your manager? That may be fine if it’s better than you expected but it certainly can be deflating if it doesn’t meet your expectations.

Should we blame our manager for a disappointing review result? Maybe partially but we have an equal responsibility in the process – although many people don’t realise this. If we are ‘passengers’ in the process then I can pretty much assure you that a ‘surprise’ is guaranteed.

Further, if we aren’t engaged with our End of Year Review then this means we aren’t taking it seriously. Depending on whom you work for then the outcome of the End of Year may mean different things, for example:

a)   Pay Increase
b)   Promotions
c)   New Roles
d)   Career Development Support

So if your End of Year Review is so important then what are the steps we can take as an individual to ensure that we are not a passenger and are fully engaged to maximise to best outcome for you:

i) Be involved in the design and development of your objectives as they are being set for the year. Challenge inappropriate items or ask how they will be measured. Ensure you recommend the measures that you want to see – make sure they are ‘measurable’.

ii) Ensure you have a mid year review with your manager. This gives you the ability to ‘check in’ on how you are being perceived by your manager and provides you an opportunity to define areas for improvement. Review all of your objectives and make notes.

iii) In October (or Two to Three Months Out) arrange another meeting with your manager and check how you are performing against the areas for improvement.

iv) Two Weeks before your End of Year Review – Take the time to review all of your objectives and write down your answers for each including examples, achievements, KPI measures and other feedback such as emails.

v) The Review – Send your consolidated feedback to your manager in advance so that when you sit down for the meeting they have all the information and there are no gaps. During the meeting take the opportunity to make notes on feedback and if there are areas for improvement ask your manager for their support to address these (like maybe going on a course or short term project).

This approach will dramatically change the outcome of your End of Year Review and will ensure you have the best possible chance of the best rating and therefore benefit from the flow on results such as pay, promotion etc.

Are you a passenger in your End of Year Review process? What are you doing to change? Write to me and let me know and please rate this article. Thanks.

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Posted in Career Planning, marketing yourself

Tags: Career New Roles Power Promotion

Finding Inspiration

November 26th, 2009 by richscot 6 comments »

It’s the end of the year and you are tired. You have been drudging through one of the toughest times in modern history. You sit back and look out the window and spend some time reflecting. You realise you want to feel inspired, it’s missing and you want to Find Inspiration.

I don’t know that I have the answer for how you will Find Inspiration but I think I know some places where we can look :

Read

Read an authorised Biography from someone you find inspiring – Winston Churchill was one of the most amazing people and Richard Branson’s ‘ Losing My Virginity ‘ is on my bookshelf waiting for the Christmas Holiday Break.

Read a self-help or Futurist book like Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘ The Tipping Point ‘ or ‘ The Outliers ‘ or one of the many others like the famous ‘ Good to Great ‘ by Jim Collins.

Watch

Find a movie or documentary that you love or have heard about and find inspiring. Maybe it is something that will hype you up like ‘ Wall Street ‘ or overcome diversity by ‘ Seabiscut ‘

Surf

Jump onto ‘YouTube ‘ and surf some people or situations you find inspiring. Recently I watched a video between Bill Gates and his Dad talking about each other and growing up. It was very cool.

Meet

Go and catch up with someone who you have found inspiring. Go and meet them or book into a seminar or talk they are giving. It could be your Grandmother ?

DO IT !

If someone asks you to do something … DO IT ! For instance, if the kids asked for you to go and help them ride their bike, go to the park, come to their school … DO IT ! if someone asks you out to a restaurant, to go to the movies … DO IT ! they want you there, and in turn they will inspire you. (thanks..Brett)

Start

Start a course pursuing a passion that you have put off for years. Get inspired by learning, creating, building. Do something about it today, don’t let not feeling inspired drag you down. Spring into the Christmas Break and inspire others.

More Reading on Inspiration:

8 Methods of Finding Inspiration
http://learnthis.ca/2009/02/8-methods-to-find-inspiration/

Finding Inspiration in a Snap
http://www.goodcompany.com.au/good_stories/good_stories_archive/finding_inspiration_in_a_snap

Do you feel uninspired ? What are you doing to over this feel ? Please write to me and Rate this article. Thanks,

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Posted in Connecting, Impatient, advice, family, success, your network

Tags: Inspiration Passion

Having a bad year? How to re-birth for 2010

November 20th, 2009 by richscot 2 comments »

I don’t know many people that wouldn’t look at 2009 as a tough year. For many people it has been one of the worst in the last 5 or so years. Having a bad year can make us feel agitated, de-motivated and maybe a little depressed – we may want to get away, maybe new job or new even new company because that will make it feel better (we think!)

I remember my first bad year in sales, I wasn’t alone so it was market based but I felt like the whole world was caving in – I wanted to run away from the situations and feelings that I was facing. My confidence had dropped and I really questioned myself as to whether I was capable of “doing this“ any more.

I can’t recall where my epiphany came from but I came to realise a few things:

I wasn’t alone
Who am I to think that “ every year will be a great year “ – it’s impossible, business moves in cycles – one in four should be bad
My approach I was following in doing my job was still effective and it was the market that sucked
I really like my company and my job
There was a path out of the wilderness

To help me survive I made sure I had some peers that I could “dump on” so I could get things off my chest. This is great because you don’t have to carry the burden around. I also started to ask for more feedback from people, this helped me to know I was well regarded and doing a good job. Finally I created a plan to recover my sales – it was mission impossible but I literally had a miracle happen on the 16th December that year that delivered $5m in sales and took me to 103% – this miracle came from work I had done in February that year and hadn’t paid off until now.

So my advice to you if you are in the wilderness is as follows:

Realise you are not alone
Check in and see if your feedback is still the same – I bet it is.
Realise everyone is having a bad year
Think about your job and company – do you still fundamentally like your company and your job – if you don’t like your job than get a new one.
Create a plan to see out 2009 – pray for a miracle
Create a plan for 2010 – take a day off and put it together

What are the lessons here? Changing career, job or company for the wrong reason can have major ramifications on your future. Realise it is the environment and not you that is weighing you down. Do something about it!

Have you had an awful 2009? How do you feel? What are you going to do? Write to me and let me know and please rate this article! Thanks

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Posted in Career Planning, advice, your network

Tags: Bad Year Career Future

Preparing for Your Future Career

November 13th, 2009 by richscot No comments »

Did you finish High School, College or University
and think “I am done with study” ?

Depending upon where you do your research you will see references like ‘The Top 10 jobs of tomorrow don’t exist today‘ and 75% of future jobs will require Post Secondary education. So what does that mean for us in protecting or preparing for future steps in our careers ?

My father (born 1938) and his generation didn’t keep their skills current and found themselves forced to retire much younger than planned. Having observed this I am always working towards gaining new skills. Right now I am completing a Masters in Applied Finance. I am doing this because after 10 years of studying business management I couldn’t handle repeating it by doing an MBA and I also received independent advice that Finance qualifications are a good way to differentiate yourself.

Beyond doing my Masters I am always looking for short courses which maybe either internal or external to my company – I have a personal goal to complete one course of significance per year.

In my opinion, if we wish to keep driving our career forward, to remain attractive as employees for future roles and promotions then we need to keep developing our skills.

If we look into the future there is one thing that is pretty certain – the Baby Boomers (born 1946-64) retiring is going to create an explosion in demand for the retiree market. The other thing about the Baby Boomers is that they have money. The wealthiest people in society are aged 55 to 65 – this is because the generally own their house and have retirement savings. What will this mean for jobs ?

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics produces a handbook which examines occupations into the future, the current issue is looking out to 2016. They currently forsee the Top 6 jobs by growth percentage are :
1. Network & Communications Analyst
2. Personal & Home Care
3. Home Health Aides
4. Computer Software Engineer
5. Vetinary Technologist
6. Financial Advisor
They forsee the Top 6 demand for jobs by number as :
1. Nurse
2. Retail Sales
3. Customer Service Rep
4. Food Preparation
5. Office Clerk
6. Personal Home Care

So whether you are in the middle of your career and thinking ahead for the next 20 years or are at the beginning and thinking about the next 40 years give some thought to the skills you need to acquire.