4 Tools for Turning Decisions into Actions

Four tools for turning decisions into action

I find that the most successful people have tools and systems for turning their decisions into actions.  The things I decided to do in life are not nearly as important as the things I actually do.  Deciding to get exercise, learn a new skill, get a better job, start a new business, and so on through New Year’s resolutions, frequent or occasional inspirations, or anything else that seems appealing yet may be fleeting without something bringing forth the action to complete the vision.

Have a partner or a team.  The Internet has isolated so many of us that we lack the benefit of having other people who start the day at the same time, end the day at the same time, and share processes and ideas to keep the project moving.

Google, IDEO, Apple, Campbell, Exxon Mobil, and nearly every other business use business teams to carry out their goals.

I have read criticisms of teams or, rather, committees, for the ways that joint efforts can throw projects off track.  As I read these criticisms, I find is that the problem is not in the team concept but the team selection and structure.

Start with a team manager who can bring leadership, direction, motivation, energy and focus to the team.  Add team members with different, complimentary skills and experience.  For example, if you are creating a financial planning team, the team leader might be from the finance department, but the members might be from a variety of departments who can add ability and creativity to the team.

In many cases, the team leader report to a director of teams who is not a member of any team, but is the person who appoints members to the teams, and directs the teams through the team leaders.  The head of marketing or sales or any other department might supervise the team leaders for innovation, product development, insights, labeling, advertising, branding.

Teams come together in meetings.  Scheduling meeting to afford the greatest use of the skills of each employee is critical.  A demand planner might take part in team meetings for finance, sales, marketing, and logistics.

A head football coach might be a good example of a team director.  The head coach has team leaders who manage the development and success of specialty teams in modern football:  quarterback coach, special teams coach, linebacker coach, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, offensive line coach, secondary coach, strength coach, defensive line coach, and coaches with special skills in working with kickers for punting, kickoffs, on-sides kicks, and field goals.

On a small-scale, your team might just be you and your partner.  In a family business, the team might be two sisters or a mother and daughter in a garage, a kitchen, or in the case of a new household product, even the bathtub, where they create the vision, draw up the plan, develop the financing, and maybe even create the products right where they will use the product.

Gordon LeBoeuf, the person who trained me recruit, owned one of the top four executive search firms in the nation and owned the Carter/Bryant  (named after Amon Carter and Bear Bryant) employment agency in Houston.  Prior to recruiting, LeBoeuf had played professional football and had worked as a national marketing manager for Pfizer Pharmaceutical.

His advice was that I needed two things:  (1) someone to work with and (2) a place to go to work.

Develop outside sources.  Reading and listening to motivational and inspirational speakers that talk about my own goals is very helpful.  Reading, watching videos, or listening to speakers who have been successful at achieving their goal creates the motivation and provides the instruction for getting the job done.

Find a quiet place and a quiet time.  I have found times when I have become so absorbed in reaching my goals that I failed to recognize that I was too tired to be effective.  Failing to act was not tripping me up.  Stopping to rest was tripping me up.  Walking away from my desk and sitting somewhere else, some place quiet and restful, can bring tremendous energy and clarity.

Act motivated.  Acting motivated can bring real motivation, enthusiasm, and energy.  I have found that simply performing the actions of being happy, motivated, and full of energy can result in my being happy, motivated, and full of energy.

  1. Smiling, even when I am alone
  2. Clapping my hands or snapping my fingers with or without a crowd or music
  3. Saying “thank you,” especially to myself
  4. Singing, especially when I am alone
  5. Giving compliments, even to myself: “You did a great job!”

What does a Job Title Mean to Your Career?

What does a Job Title Mean to Your Career?  From time to time, I have worked with applicants who have received an offer for a job that had a lower title than the title they had in their current position.

Their current title may have been vice president and the title of their new role may have been director or manager.  More often than not, titles are set inside a company and tied to pay grades.  The connection of the title to pay grade can eliminate arbitrary title assignments.

Companies are sometimes leery of hiring people with titles that are larger than the title of the job for which they are hiring.  The risk in hiring a person for a lesser role is that the person could become dissatisfied and attracted to yet another company where the role and the compensation may be greater.

The networking value of titles:  There are companies that assign inflated titles to their sales people as a way to open doors at large companies.  I had lunch with the chairman of a marketing services company who told me that he had a new sales person who blamed his not being able to get appointments on his title.  Since the chairman had other people who were successful despite their titles, he considered the title issue to be an excuse for not succeeding.

However, the sales person was persistent and completed his first sale by convincing the chairman to go along with the title change.  The role of the sales person did not change, but this sales person became a vice president in title when contacting clients.  He also became a very successful sales person and made a lot of money for that company.

The personal value of titles:  To many people, titles hold personal value.  Their title is tied to their self-esteem.  On LinkedIn, I saw an interesting article in which the author said that job titles are not important.  The author made a number of good points about the value of performance and contribution to the success of a company being more important than the titles employees held.  Ironically, the author of the article listed his own title as a “C” level officer alongside his name in his LinkedIn profile.  His points about the value of contributions to a company are well taken.  However, he failed to see the importance that titles mean to a person’s identify and self-esteem, even in his own.

The marketability of titles:  When I read a resume and see that a person has titles that appear to represent demotions, I will closely examine the resume to see which direction a person’s career has taken.  Titles may not always reflect an accurate statement of responsibility.  I find that my clients will handle resumes the same way.

Many applicants are aware of the effect that titles can have on a person’s marketability.  I placed a woman who was working for a visual imaging company into a similar role at a home appliance company.  Her title at the visual imaging company was director of marketing.  If she took the job at the home appliance company, she would hold the title of brand manager.

The issue troubled her.  The responsibilities of the jobs were the same at both companies.  She dug in her heels over title before signing the offer.

The president of the hiring company offered this compromise.  On her business card, she could put whatever title she wanted, but that her title if she accepted the job was brand manager.  She accepted the job.

The hollow ring of meaningless titles:  I know recruiters, consultants, and other people who work for themselves and put the title president on their card.  Some companies give the title of vice president of sales to every sales person in the company.  There is the risk of losing credibility with clients when titles do not accurately reflect the function of the position person holding that title.

I recruited for a number of years for one of the best small growth companies in the United States.  This company brought in a consultant named Santo Laquatra to help them establish an effective recruiting program as well as refine titles and job descriptions for different roles in the company.  The titles that this company uses align approximately one notch above the title of most contacts the sales team will have as clients.  For example, directors at this company sell to people who hold the title of manager the client companies.

This approach has worked well for this start-up company in getting appointments with their clients and creates a greater impact when top-to-top meetings take place between this company and their clients.

Job titles in job descriptions:  One reason for having solid job descriptions for every role in a company is that job descriptions enable managers to ensure that each a function is being performed.  In choosing titles for

I placed an analytically brilliant and creative retail marketing and planning manager with a company that had posted the job opening the title of “Director.”  The offer letter contained the title of “Manager.”

The applicant balked at signing the offer over the change in job title.  He was a manager in his role at this current company, and the title and the responsibility were the reasons for which he had applied for the job.

The company was a small rapidly growing start-up.  Job functions were being created and defined as the company grew.  During the interview process with this applicant, the hiring company had begun to see the role differently and had redefined the role from the role in the job description.

One of the stated goals of this company was to hire the most skilled and accomplished people possible.  Their efforts to hold to that goal were in part the reason that the current title of the applicant made them redefine functions and change the title of the position.

Now they found themselves trying to hold to the goal of hiring people who were skilled at or above pay grade and not lose an applicant who had what they were seeking for the role.

In further discussions with the applicant, the executive team saw that they had in reality stumbled upon a person with much more ability than required for a manager role and more potential than perhaps any other manager or even perhaps any other director in the company.  They rewrote the offer letter to place the applicant in the role and with the title of the original job.  The applicant accepted and signed the new letter.

Another interesting part of this particular process is that the applicant received an attractive counter offer from his current company.  He told the hiring company about the counter offer and said that he had rejected the counter offer and given his current company a letter of resignation that stated that the last day he would be available to work for them.

By this time, the hiring company had become very committed to ensuring that this person came to work for them.  They added a sign-on bonus to be paid on the first day of employment.

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Should You Discuss Your Income?

Should you be prepared to discuss your income?  My answer as a veteran headhunter is that you should discuss your income only if you want to get an interview.

I have placed 100’s of applicants with dozens of companies. I never referred an applicant for an interview without first knowing that person’s income.

What are you really keeping to yourself?  At one time this advice may have had some basis for negotiation purposes, but today there are plenty of websites that have nailed compensation for every possible position in every possible location.  Right here on JayWren.com, I provide employers and job seekers with a free salary custom search feature built on a database of compensation sites.

For nearly every job seeker, discussing income is private matter.  Many employers have a company policy that instructs their employees never to discuss their income with anyone inside or outside the company.  These are solid, meaningful, valuable policies that benefit the company and benefit the employees.

However, if you intend to leave your current employer, you will need to work with hiring managers and perhaps with headhunters who will need to know your compensation.  Many of these hiring managers work for companies that have policies that require applicants to provide a truthful statement of their income.

Why burn bridges?  The interview process can be costly to recruiters and to hiring companies.  If you make $150,000 a year and you require $300,000 to accept a job, put that information out there before you have your first interview. If you plan on running a lot of people through an expensive, time-consuming process to spring a fantastic compensation negotiation on them at the finish, you are more likely going to burn a bridge than double your income.

You can double your income.  I have placed people in positions where these people have doubled their income.  Small growth companies often offer large performance-based and stock-connected compensation packages.  I have helped a lot of people pay off their home early.  The way to go about doubling your income is to work with a recruiter who has the connections that will enable you to accomplish your financial goals.  The best way to help that recruiter is to start by telling the recruiter where you are financially and where you want to go.

The people to whom you discuss your income needs to be people you know you can trust to keep that information to themselves except when you have given them explicit direction to discuss the information with a specific employer or explicit circumstances.

If a hiring manager or headhunter calls you and you have no interest in making a job change but would like to begin to develop a relationship so that you can have people to contact for future needs, you are smart to avoid a discussion of income. These people have no need to know your income until you get serious about making a job change.

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Become the Solution

I heard Ed Land, who founded Polaroid Corporation, speak on the role of the inventor.  Land stated that it was his job to imagine things before they happened.  His approach began with identifying a need and creating a way to meet that need.  Ed Land provided solutions.  On the day he spoke, he said that he had hired plenty of highly educated scientists, ” PhD’s   in white smocks.”  He went on to say that the real inventing still took place in his lab where he was known to hole up for weeks at a time as he personally conducted research to create new products and improve old ones.  His first inventions were inexpensive, commercially practical filters that allowed light to pass and eliminate glare.   Today, polarizers are common in camera filters, mirrors, windows, especially windows in commercial and military transportation.  If you ever wear a pair of sunglasses with polarized lenses, you will become aware of how common polarizers have become.  Looking through the polarized filtration of a lens and then through the polarized filtration of a window or a mirror that contains polarized filtration creates a tinted pattern in your field of vision.

If you are a company, a hiring manager, or a job seeker, you will find that your efforts to identify, communicate, and achieve your objectives are easier and more successful if you see yourself as providing solution to existing needs.

The way to measure great companies is how well they deliver on their business plan.  The way to measure great hiring managers is the success of the people they bring to a company.  The way to measure great hires is the success those people bring to a company.

I remember that a staffing manager at the E&J Gallo Winery said that the only way his career could progress was to excel at finding and getting great people hired for the Winery. He had to become the solution for the Winery’s hiring needs.
Become the solution.

“The World’s Most Noble Headhunter”

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How To Hire the Best People

How To Hire The Best People

I had a partner who would tell clients that when they made a job offer they were halfway to making a hire.  Finding and interviewing great people is only the beginning process in hiring great people.  Working with those people through the interview process to the point of accepting an offer can play as big a role in hiring great people.

Some companies emphasize the performance of employees in the first 90 days of employment.  Hiring companies should place equal emphasis on the performance of hiring managers in conducting orientation and training after a company has made a huge investment in attracting and hiring great people.   I once placed a very talented applicant with a San Francisco company.   When the new hire showed up for work, the head of his department at the new company was on vacation.

The person managing the orientation for the new applicant unfortunately had one foot out the door in leaving the hiring company and made a mess of the orientation.  The new hire lasted three days.  He resigned and returned to work for his former employer.

Applicants do need to prepare for interviews.   I have worked with a lot of hiring managers who decline to go ahead with applicants who do not come to the first interview with enough knowledge of the hiring company to have a good idea whether the company is a place where they would like to work.

The best companies and the best hiring managers assume an equal responsibility in learning about an applicant before the person walks through the door. Without looking back at the applicants’ resume, the best hiring managers will know where the person went to college, the person’s collegiate record, where the person has worked, as well as the person’s career progress and accomplishments.  The best hiring managers will have a list of questions for information that he hiring manager cannot know by simply reading an applicant’s resume.

I have had hiring managers tell me that they did not believe that they should sell an applicant on a position or a company.  This point is excellent.  The role of the hiring manager is not to sell the applicant on the company, but to do the best job possible in representing the hiring company by preparing for the interview and being 100% percent focused on the applicant during the interview.

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13 Action Steps to Getting Promoted or Getting Hired

13 Action Steps to Getting Promoted or Getting Hired

Below are thirteen powerful steps to help you be successful in your current job or to make career move.

Step into action:

  1. Offer to help each person you contact.  Building a professional network begins with helping other people.
  2. Become a research wizard.  It is no longer necessary to drive to a library to get information on companies, job openings, and compensation.  Simply entering the information into a search engine will give you nearly all the information you need to know to find your next job.
  3. Work your network by making a list of every possible contact you have ever made in business and contact these people for ideas and opportunities.
  4. Ask for referrals of every person you contact.  Build the most powerful personal and professional database possible.
  5. Lay out your goals as specifically as you can, but be aware that the more flexible you are in terms of money, location, and responsibility the more opportunities you will have available to you.
  6. You should get to know two recruiters you trust.  Contingency recruiter or retained recruiter?  In practice, how a recruiter is compensated is not nearly as important as what contacts he may have.  Typically, retained recruiters are conducting searches where the salary is above $250,000 and involve “C” level managers.   See <a “=”” title=”Working with Recruiters: The Different Types and What They Do” href=”http://www.jaywren.com/headhunters-and-big-diamond-rings/”>Working with Recruiters: The Different Types and What They Do.
  7. Be organized.  Make a list daily of your contacts, what you discussed what action you have taken and what action needs to be taken.
  8. Use some type of contact management system.  Gmail and Google Calendar are great tools that are free. Smartphones offer apps.  Windows Outlook has an integrated contact management systems.  There are others.
  9. Become an expert on what is in the job market for your benefit and the benefit of the people in your network.  Read the want ads in the local newspaper, national publications, and especially trade journals,.  Track these open positions on a spreadsheet.  You may not need the information when you started the day, but you may before you finish it.
  10. Before approaching a company directly for any purpose, research it thoroughly.  How is it structured:  Marketing, sales, operations, finance, administrative?  Public or private ownership?  Do you have a referral to get your foot in the door or who may even work against you.  Who are the key managers in your skill or business area.
  11. Prepare for an interview the same way you would prepare for a major sales call, business review, or planning session where you are the key presenter.
  12. Follow up with your contacts you have made.  An email that says I know I have neglected to stay in touch and not returned your calls but I need your help now may not serve you very well.
  13. Without your contact people can not respond quickly and can not put you into their contact management system.  Put this information every piece of correspondence.
    • Your Name
    • Your City, State, Zip
    • Your phone number
    • Your email address

    Remember as stated above, offer you help every person you contact. A professional contact begins with helping other people.

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