How clear are you on why you work so hard and whether you are earning the recognition you deserve?  Our Clarity Program helps Executives answer this question in three to four sessions.

By Mark Steinke, Executive Business Coach

According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, “Those who are unemployed are feeling anxious and stressed as they search for work in a struggling market.  The pressure to find and keep a job, in addition to everyday work-related stress, can take a toll on mental health.”

Nothing can be more tolling on a person than being unemployed, experiencing stress, panic about finding that next job to pay the bills, make you feel important and make the “world” right again.

This feeling of Desperation is very common among job seekers be they men or women, technical or professional, entry level or executives.  It is this last group, the executives, we work with at The Barrett Group to assist them in finding that next level of employment.

You see, stress during the job search process brings up a significant amount of Desperation, panic, poor judgment and reactions.  Studies conducted by “A team of researchers led by the psychologists and neuroscientists Prof. Markus Heinrichs and Dr. Bernadette von Dawans at the University of Freiburg, Germany, examined in a study how men react in stressful situations – such as job searching.”

Let me clarify that this study focused on men only.  women's reaction to stress has been studied and the results according to Heinrichs and Von Dawans is:  “that women show an alternate "tend-and-befriend" response to stress -- in other words, a protective ("tend") and friendship-offering ("befriend") reaction.”  Whereas “men, in contrast, were still assumed to become aggressive under stress.”

The study goes on to say that “"Apparently men also show social approach behavior as a direct consequence of stress.  With this study, the research team experimentally investigated male social behavior under stress for the first time. The results are published in the journal Psychological Science.”

So with executives (men / women) experience stress in job searching and both genders are moving toward a “tend & friendship – offering”, their minds are focused on obtaining guidance, assistance and coaching in finding that next job.  A wise, lower-stress decision.

The Barrett Group offers executives the opportunity to reduce their stress even more with a solution that expedites the next career option for these executives.  For more information check out our website:  https://www.careerchange.com/ 

Becoming a truly great executive through Personal Leadership

By Mark Steinke, Executive Business Coach

To be a great leader, you must first master the art of Personal Leadership.  This is the first of four topics on how to increase, develop and demonstrate your Personal Leadership so you and your business skyrockets to the heights you deserve!

It all Starts with YOU!  How you handle stress is critical to your personal success and business success.  You see it is not the issue you are facing that is causing your stress.  It is YOUR reaction to that issue that is causing your stress.  Let that sink in for a minute…..

Leadership requires consistent high performance coupled with a calm, clear mind and the ability to maintain a high degree of objectivity toward yourself and your business.  Stress is rampant.  An important step toward becoming an authentic leader, then, is to learn to successfully and gracefully manage the inevitable stress that will come your way.  Let’s look at the sources of stress:

Worry

According to Don Joseph Goewey, author of the book, “The end of Stress, four steps to rewire your brain”  states “85% of what people worry about never happened and with the 15 percent that did happen, 79 percent of subjects discovered either they could handle the difficulty better than expected, or the difficulty taught them a lesson worth learning. This means that 97 percent of what you worry over is not much more than a fearful mind punishing you with exaggerations and misperceptions.”

A simple four step process can help you dealing with your stress:

• Clearly define your worry in writing

• Determine the worst thing that could happen if this worry comes true

• Having defined the worst result, resolve to accept it

• Set about doing your best to ensure this worry will not occur now that you have a clear mind

Lack of Meaning

When stress arrives, typically our minds go to what is going on with my life... Why is this happening to me?  This resonates if one does not have a clearly defined meaning and purpose.  You see when you are confident and know what you are and why you are, then mapping this worry against it allows you to define it, determine an antidote and vanquish your worry.

The “Incomplete Action”

A job or task not done or an employee of yours not doing what they should correctly for a client can be a source of enormous stress.  It is time to employ the four steps in the worry section so you show self-discipline and keep a clear mind.  Do not let not completing tasks or doing the tasks “incorrectly” drive your stress.  Coach, teach and show Personal Leadership.

Fear of Failure

Some of us allow a fear of failure to cause us stress.  Fear is a great emotion.  It is powerful, can be very healthy if we take it as a motivator to focus, concentrate, remove distractions,  and act in a way that we know we can.  Whatever the results of your proactive actions, they very probably better for you than the paralyzing result of no action or action motivated by fear.  Affirm to yourself that you can do what needs to be done, do it, and then adjust based on the outcome.

Fear of Rejection

The need for approval to some is so strong that fear of rejection is scary.  As a leader sometimes you need to be on the island by yourself.  That is not a bad thing.  It is a temporary state until the team, clients, and/or partners start to understand.  When they do, they will slowly move over to your island.  Stay in the belief that rejection is not permanent and worst case only temporary.

Denial

Probably the biggest stress source to overcome is denial.  Refusing to acknowledge and face unpleasant reality is a sign of weakness.  Do not let embarrassment, loss of face or even pain be the driver for you or anyone else to deny what is or could be happening.  Victory over this starts with acknowledgement!

Anger

The most powerful and damaging emotion is anger.  This negative emotion destroys relationships and cultures in companies.  Anger comes from within.  Henry David Thoreau, a noted poet, wrote:  “No one can make you feel bad unless you let them.”  You cannot control the people and circumstances in your life.  You can only control how you respond to them.  When your anger flares up, put a trigger in your head that will remind you to stop, pause, think and resolve without anger.  This is very hard... but very important.

In all honestly, the issue making you angry most likely is NOT a 911, end-of-the-world issue.  Put it in perspective.

Personal Leadership is the most important skill you need to develop, and demonstrate in your business.  Over the next few articles we will identify the other three behaviors to develop so you can show your truly great Leadership.

Sarah: A Success Story

A Success Story of a Barrett Group Executive Client we are calling Sarah.

Sarah was in a desperate situation: her company had decided to relocate from Nashville to Tallahassee. All three of her children were in high school and her husband owned his own company locally, so relocating was out of the question. She had a great job as Vice President of Marketing, but now, after 22 years, she was in unfamiliar and scary territory of the unemployed.

When she engaged The Barrett Group, she was beside herself because her job search was going nowhere. Once The Barrett team engaged with her to set her up with the modern ways of attacking both the published and unpublished Job markets, her job Search activity really started to pick up. 

When her first interview came, she was fully coached and ready. She was getting steady calls from recruiters, and offers came.  She worked with her Barrett Coach to devise a winning negotiation strategy with these offers. 

Desperate no more, she loves her new job and is making a good deal more money with the new company!

Let the Barrett Group tell you how you can experience the same level of success as Sarah.

Preparing for your job interview...

...make it a two-way interview

The modern day interview has evolved tremendously from what it used to be. Gone are the days of sitting on the other side of an imposing interviewer sitting behind a huge desk with a significantly-raised chair. Nowadays, candidates are interviewing the companies just as much as they themselves are being interviewed. And why not?

The hiring process is a two way street. Both sides need to be engaged in the process and be equally excited to work with the other. Next time you find yourself interviewing for a new position, be sure you make it a two-way interview.

Here are forty questions to help you figure out if the company will be right for you.

 Questions about the position

You want to understand exactly what will be expected of you and whether or not this aligns with your skills and ambitions. Be sure to have a full understanding of the position and your role in it before leaving your interview.

1) Why is this position open?

2) Is this an existing or newly created position?

3) If someone was in this position before me, why did he or she leave?

4) Beyond what I see in the job description, what will make someone successful in this role?

5) When coming into this position, what are the top 3 things the new employee must do?

6) How will you measure the success of someone in this role?

7) What keeps you awake at night? How can this role help you to sleep better?

Continues...

Career Change Lessons

The vast majority (around 80%) of our clients each year are unhappily employed, the rest are out of work for one reason or another. 

Most clients are looking to leave their current job... but many are looking for relief in their current situation: the boss from hell; political negativities; uncertainty resulting from a merger or acquisition; glass ceiling with zero room for advancement; lack of raises beyond cost of living adjustments; feeling under utilized or undervalued; looking to telecommute when it is not the norm; and various unstainable challenges with no relief in sight. 

Those who are out of work, feel quite alone in their search. They may feel embarrassed due to their situation and lack of financial contribution to their families. Many are sitting home applying to endless jobs on the internet and getting nowhere. They reach to 3rd party recruiters who treat them terribly or feel totally ignored. 

About 25% of our clients achieve success by doing a better job of dealing with third party recruiters and job postings. 

The truth is that recruiters get pounded every day with dozens of job seekers (yes dozens) who want to take them out for coffee or expect them to spend their time helping them to find a job.  Those job seekers mistakenly think it is the recruiter’s job to place them. As many TBG employees are former recruiters or executives who have hired recruiters in the past to fill open positions. This allows us to expertly coach our clients on how to motivate a recruiter to work set up interviews on your behalf.  

Many individuals spend hours applying to job postings. Not only is it frustrating, but is ineffective. We know how to make sure your application is read by an actual human being and not just a computer. We know how to customize each resume and cover letter so the system or person in charge of screening applications will be highly motivated to speak with each and every client. We help our clients to build a library of different resume and cover letter versions so that the reader will perceive each client as deserving of an interview. 

Some 25% of our clients achieve success by leveraging their reputation to gain advocacy, political referrals and nomination for unpublished opportunities through their LinkedIn social networks. 

Most new clients have LinkedIn profile, but severely lack understanding on how to tap into the unpublished market via LinkedIn. Most new clients also spend the majority of their time on LinkedIn’s job board. They fail to realize that 90% of the hiring on LinkedIn is done covertly by people who leverage their reputation and people looking to hire them do not post jobs, they search for individuals with the background and skills they need. Every year we have dozens of client who land the perfect job due to the learnings we provide. It is amazing

Another 25% of our clients achieve success because we help them to grow their network with very little effort on their part. 

We know our clients are busy so we identify send introductions to individuals working at specific companies in targeted geographic areas and industries. We do all the work: We research and identify the individuals, author the introductions, print, sign and process introductions. We pay for postage, we send a confidential packet to each approved recipient. We coach our clients on the nuances of how to make a 2 minute phone call to inquire about the recipients interest in networking or employment. Even the busiest person has time for a short phone call.