How Important Is “Fit” When Looking For or Changing Jobs?

Posted May 17th, 2012 in Career Development, Strategy & Culture | No Comments »

Is it a good cultural fitImagine that you’ve been offered two different positions and you have to decide which one you want. Or perhaps you’re already in a good job, but something that seems to be a better opportunity comes up in another company.

This was the situation with a financial services professional client. She could stay in her present position, relocate to another business unit or take an overseas assignment with an international business.

Having options is great: What a wonderful confidence booster! However, there’s also a lot of pressure trying to decide which option is best.

One of the most important factors, according to Harvard Business Review Blog, is that “culture matters”. It’s not uncommon for people to enter a company or business unit without understanding the culture and come away disappointed. Some places will excite you. They’ll stimulate your success and growth. Others will be stressful. They may lead you to quit before you’ve accomplished much.

When considering a new position or new company be sure to investigate the culture – how they operate before making the leap. So try to discover before, during and after the interviews:

  • What do they say is important (customer service, teamwork, innovation, etc.) and do they walk the talk?
  • What’s more critical- getting in on time or getting the work done no matter how long it takes?
  • Are decisions made unilaterally, by whoever shouts the loudest or by consensus?
  • What behaviors are rewarded and which ones may get you in the dog house?
  • Do they value teamwork over the lone ranger or the other way around?
  • What groups or functions or people have the most clout?

How Do I Discover This?

Do your due diligence by networking, social media and talking to people who can give you insight into the workings of the organization - some in the company, some who have left the company and even competitors and vendors. It’s important to speak with folks who aren’t involved in your recruiting process.

As an external business coach, it’s very important for me to have an accurate picture of the situation I’m walking into. Here are two examples how I’ve discovered what’s going on.

In one company it was with a friendly receptionist whom I got to know while waiting to go into meetings. We traded vacation plans and other experiences. At another, it was with a shift foreman giving me a tour of several facilities at the plant. I learned things that headquarters was not aware of. In most organizations, the front line knows quite a bit about what’s going well and what’s not.

Decision Time

Once you have some understanding of how the potential employer operates, you’ll need to consider how well that matches your goals, your values, your style and other things that are important to you. Realize that you won’t have a complete picture but it’s better to have some knowledge than to go into a new situation blind.

Yes it takes time to dig in and find these contacts and to get the good, bad and ugly information out on the table. But by accepting a position that is not a good fit and only realizing it 4-6 months later is time and opportunity lost for you and the company.

Smart Moves Tip:

Many times one gets caught up in the title and the pay that the position brings and how that looks on a resume. The down fall is you may lose sight of your personal and professional goals as well as what brings you career satisfaction. Though compensation, benefits, titles are important and should be weighed out in the decision process, culture has to be as important for long term success.

What are some of your culture stories? Did you discover before or after you took the position that it was a good fit? A bad fit? Share with other readers.

What YOU do today will directly influence your career in 3, 5 or 10 years.
Don’t Gamble With Your Future! Build, jump start or advance your career with the Career Success System and Career Power Coaching. Download free Career E-Book.

Copyright © 2012 Marcia Zidle - the Actualizer – career strategist and leadership coach.

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Fast Track Leadership: Are You Future Savvy?

Posted May 10th, 2012 in Change Management, Leadership Development, Strategy & Culture | No Comments »

building the mind of the futureWhat key quality differentiates high-potential leaders from ordinary contributors?

It’s the ability to be forward-looking, identifying and most importantly understanding, the challenges facing the organization today as well as tomorrow. Don’t be a modern-day Rip Van Winkle waking up to a world you no longer recognize.

Did you know that the ability to be future savvy escalates with each managerial level?

Front-line supervisors are expected to anticipate events about three months ahead. Mid-level managers have time lines for more complex projects and need to look three to five years into the future. Those in the executive suites must focus on goals that are often 10+ years away.

While achieving great results with people to get the work done on time, on budget and on target is one way to build your credibility as a manager, it’s not enough for promotion to higher levels of responsibility and leadership. To take that next step, you must expand your ability to think and act strategically – to get out of business as usual thinking.

How Far Can You See?

Do you look beyond what’s in front of you – especially when daily tasks take up so much time and energy? How do you become future savvy and still handle day-to-day challenges? Here are five ways to develop this vital capability which then becomes a huge advantage for your success.

1. Get out of your functional tunnel.
Stop seeing the world through your engineering glasses, or your marketing glasses, or your accounting glasses. You need to put on the company glasses. Familiarize yourself with all the various areas to understand how they affect one another. Have coffee or lunch with these managers to find out about issues facing their group both short and long term. Think how can I use this information to create more value for my department and company?

2. Increase your business savvy.
Browse news websites, join and participate in LinkedIn industry groups as well as read related publications to learn how other businesses operate and what strategies they use to increase their competitive advantage. What’s working – what’s not? What can you bring back and adapt?

3. Know the sandbox your company plays in.
Research it’s major competitors. Create a detailed profile of each and share it with your team to spot potential opportunities and threats. Then bring this to your manager or senior leadership with specific ideas on how to capitalize on this information. How might this information affect your company’s  health in the future? Will it be on life support or running a marathon?

4. Establish a future committee.
It could be within your team or with other managers. Collect ideas, articles, information and resources about trends  affecting the company right now and in the future. The World Future Society recommends examination of six distinct business trends categories: Demographics, economics, government, environment, society, technology. Bring the committee or team together once a quarter to stimulate innovative and strategic thinking.

5. Engage in what-if thinking.
Before moving forward to implement a new program, product or service, consider, these questions: If we do this, how will our competitors respond? What will our customers think and do – applaud us or leave us? What impact will this have on our suppliers and distributors? Innovative thinking is definitely beneficial but it also has to be tempered with reality testing. Be aware of the unintended consequences of your decisions.

Smart Moves Tip:

When asked, “How come you are always where the puck is?” Wayne Gretsky, the well known hockey player, answered: “I’m not where the puck is, but where the puck is going to be.”

No one and no business, however successful you are today, can afford to be short-term-oriented in a global, changing marketplace. You  must be future savvy! Where is the future going to be for you and your business? Are you ready to plan for it?

Do you know what YOU do today will directly influence your business and leadership in 3, 5 or 10 years?
Don’t Gamble With Your Future! Take Action Now! Let’s Talk! 

Copyright © 2012 Marcia Zidle - The Actualizer: Business Strategist and Leadership Coach.

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Shake The Idea Tree to Provide Winning Service

Posted May 8th, 2012 in Business Management, Customer Relationship Management, Performance & Skill Boosters, Success & Blooper Stories | No Comments »

Great ideas are like apples; to get them you have to shake the tree and search for the best ones. In times of rapid change and heightened competition, businesses need their front line and support staff to find those great ideas to solve service problems before they grow into monster customer satisfaction headaches.

Here are three strategies I’ve used to shake the idea tree and help people think “out of the box” on how to better serve their clients – their customers – their guests.

 1. Get the juices flowing.
When a group meets to problem solve, it is helpful to begin with a fun activity that starts the participants thinking in new directions and generating innovative solutions.

 Example: An agency, moving into a new facility, would require changes in staff’s roles and responsibilities. A team building retreat was scheduled before the move to deal with the upcoming changes and to get everone on board. Here was one of the activities: Three different groups – working with newsprint / markers / post it notes, stickers, ribbons, etc. – created three distinct pictures of what it would be like working in the brand new building. They then moved into how to make their creations into reality.

2. Turn problems inside out.
A good way to come up with solutions to problems is to look at them from a perspective that you never considered before.

 Example: A community bank wanted to increase its market share. At a staff meeting, the president asked, “What can we do to make our customers angry?” Someone suggested closing down credit lines without informing customers, causing checks to bounce. What they realized is that one of the bank’s greatest assets is the perception of total reliability. They then focused on ways to ensure that reliability in every customer transaction.

 3. Act like a visitor not a native.
Visitors are natural sightseers who look at things with open eyes and ask many questions. Tap that curiosity to observe operational bottlenecks and missed opportunities to satisfy your customers.

Example: 25 managers of a skiing resort were divided into 6 teams. Once a week for a month, each team would spend half day in different areas of resort operations. They were told to act like a visitor not a native. They were to observe everything and ask as many dumb questions as possible about things they didn’t understand For example, why do you arrange supplies in that order or why do you put that yellow garnish on a dish? In a follow-up meeting, hundred of naive questions resulted in dozens of new ideas. One idea, a change in ticket sales procedures, saved thousand of dollars. Other ideas lead to improved guest services.

 Smart Moves Tip:

Good Ideas are the engine of progress. They improve people’s lives. They build successful businesses. Without the ability to generate good ideas and effectively apply them, businesses flounder, stagnate and eventually disappear. The antidote is innovation – constantly growing, developing and creating new ways of working, serving and leading. Also see The 3″P’s of Customer Delight and Why Don’t They Put Down Their Bags.

Take a look at The Customer Experience. Marcia designs innovative and interactive programs to tap into the brainpower of work groups, project teams, departments, board of directors and senior leadership to develop better, faster, smarter ways to working and providing service excellence throughout the organization. Find out how it can work for you.

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