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Your Ideal Team at Work. Can You Define It?

May 21, 2013 by Miller MarcAdmin Leave a Comment

Your Ideal Team

Can You define Your Ideal Team at Work?

You know, the group of people where everyone gets along. Well, maybe that is not what you are looking for.

I just had a conversation with a gentleman where he left his last two jobs because of his team.

Job #1 - He was a contractor and was told to do his job. He was not privy to information that the rest of the team had. He felt like an outsider. He is very social and having people around him was very crucial. He left when a better opportunity came up.

Job #2 - He moved to another company where he was to institute structure and change where there had never been any. He was to manage a team of sales people through this process. He totally misread the situation, and he quickly became the “bad guy”. He was let go after six months on the job.

Now he is looking for a new job.

(More: Why do you want to leave? Is it your team?)

We had the discussion about what his ideal team looked like. In this case, his team was absolutely critical to his success and more importantly happiness.

I learned years ago how important my team was to me.

I left a position at IBM in the mid 1990′s where I worked with a superb team. I left because I was bored and took a position as a consultant for IBM. I was on a year long project where new consultants would cycle in and out every few weeks. These people were either unhappily married, or unhappily single, or unhappily divorced. Do you get the picture? They were not a fun group of people to be around.

They were smart and talented. They all had miserable personal lives because of the constant travel. WOW! I missed my team from my old job.

I like a team of talented people, where there is little hierarchy, and everyone is focused on what is best for the team.

I once worked with a woman who really liked to have a team that had varied skills, and there was a certain amount of competitive drive between them.

Reflect back on when you worked on a great team.

What were the characteristics of that group?

Maybe your best team was one that you never saw! If you like to work alone that maybe that was the right mix.

This is part of step 2 in the Cure for Career Insanity. Determining what you really want in your next job, which includes getting the team you want!

What does your ideal team look like?

Does this sound interesting?

I will be blogging a few times a month on these five steps of the Cure for Career Insanity and will be offering free webinars throughout the summer. If you are interested please register for updates on the Cure for Career Insanity.

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Check out my new book!

Available on Amazon.com

Available at Barnes and Noble

You can also download my whitepaper “Don’t Retire Even If you Can and What to do Instead – A Baby Boomer Manifesto”

Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Baby Boomer Portfolio Career – A Real Example

May 19, 2013 by Miller MarcAdmin Leave a Comment

Baby Boomer Portfolio Career

I have been doing a lot of research on Baby Boomer Portfolio Career choices.

I found Jill C. Williams who commented on this blog last month. Jill has had a long and successful career in Human Resources.

In 2009, when she had several clients either downsize or move operations she started the process of creating Silver, Sexy and Stong. This is not one business but three.

Lil Old Lady Jock – This is Wellness Coaching and Personal Training
Spunk Rocks – What is Spunk Rocks!? An approach to life that allows for flow and movement while reminding you not to lose what is valuable. You can participate in a one-day workshop or a weekend retreat. Whichever your choice; Spunk Rocks! is a great way to unleash the potential of your current life and write your next chapter!
RWL – Success – This is a program open to those who are facing the new life challenges and opportunities that come with the decision to undergo rapid weight loss via a surgical program or medically supervised fast.

Jill is a post-operative obesity surgery success story herself, and will share not only expert advice; she has been 330 lbs (1998- with diagnosed high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes and Sleep apnea) and is now a stable 135 lbs (with no medical issues)!

Silver, Sexy and Stong was formally launched in April of 2013. Make sure and check out her website!!

Jill still is working in the HR industry and spends about a quarter of her time there. The rest of her time is now spent on building her business. She has downsized her lifestyle to make this transition. This allows her time to follow her passion.

Jill is creating a Baby Boomer Portfolio Career.

The great recession has forced a lot of us out of our comfort zones and gotten us to re-evaluate what is important in our lives.

I have been talking with Steve Preston, a British career professional, who has a program called How Colourful Is Your Umbrella. I will be reviewing that program and his book Winning Through Redundancy – Six steps to navigate your way to a brighter future which should be availbable in the US in the coming months.

Are you creating a Baby Boomer Portfolio Career? I would be interested in talking with you.

Do you know of anyone who is created a Baby Boomer Portfolio Career? Please send them my way.

Are you ready for a Baby Boomer Portfolio Career?

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Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons below?

Check out my new book!

Available on Amazon.com

Available at Barnes and Noble

You can also download my whitepaper “Don’t Retire Even If you Can and What to do Instead – A Baby Boomer Manifesto”

Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Filed Under: Baby Boomer, Portfolio Career Tagged With: baby boomer, portfolio career

BoomerJobTips Update- Curated Career Content for May 12

May 18, 2013 by Miller MarcAdmin Leave a Comment

Summary Sunday is now BoomerJobTips Update!

BoomerJobTips.com has been acquired by Career Pivot and will now be a central point to get current career information for the Baby Boomer Generation!

BoomerJobTips Most Popular

Job Search

12 (Snarky) Questions That I Really Want to Ask the Hiring Manager

Social Media

Networking

The Rise Of The Superconnector

Job Search

Career

Finance

Career Pivot

Another way to look at the same links from BoomerJobTips.

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Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons below?

Check out my new book!

Available on Amazon.com

Available at Barnes and Noble

You can also download my whitepaper “Don’t Retire Even If you Can and What to do Instead – A Baby Boomer Manifesto”

Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Filed Under: Summary Sunday Tagged With: Summary

Do you feel valued at work?

May 14, 2013 by Miller MarcAdmin Leave a Comment

Well, do you feel valued at work?

#2 reason for leaving a job is you do not feel valued!

Most people want some kind of reward for doing good work. That reward can come in many forms:

The job’s mission or outcome
Pay increase/Bonus check
Public Recognition and Award
Pat on the back and thanks from management
Pat on the back and thanks from your peers
Pat on the back and thanks from your customer

When I wrote about this previously I never included the first item – The job’s mission or outcome. I have since discovered this is really key to people in the military and non-profit work. Believing in the mission and having a successful outcome far outweighs anything else.

I have done my own personal reflection, and I have found I have felt most valued when I have gotten compliments from my customers and then my peers.

What about you? What do you need?

Have you told anyone about the kind of rewards that make you feel valued? When you have found yourself not valued, did you ever ask for what you wanted?

Are you a stealth competitor. These are mostly women who are very nice people. They perform in the work place for the common good. They are very good team players. However, DANG IT, they want to be rewarded for GOOD WORK! If you are you might want to read Knowing Your Value: Women, Money, and Getting What You’re Worth by Mika Brzezinski. I actually had a female client give me this book and insisted I give to most of my female clients!

Do you demonstrate this characteristic. When you interview for a new job, you could specifically ask about the reward structure, evaluation process, and the competitiveness in the workplace. You will want to ask because we do not know about your need for rewards by their pleasant demeanor.

When interviewing for a position, you need to know the kind of reward you need, and then ASK FOR IT!

I know several individuals who really needed the feedback from their boss and they were not getting it. One of these individuals just simply asked her boss -

How an I doing?

The boss responded great!

She asked – Can you tell me that more often?

Boss replied – Sure!

It was that simple. Just ask for what you want. You have to know what you want first.

This is part of step 2 in the Cure for Career Insanity. Determining what you really want in your next job, which includes getting the rewards you want!

What makes you feel valued? We are all different!

Does this sound interesting?

Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons below?

Check out my new book!

Available on Amazon.com

Available at Barnes and Noble

You can also download my whitepaper “Don’t Retire Even If you Can and What to do Instead – A Baby Boomer Manifesto”

Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Filed Under: Career Insanity Tagged With: Career Insanity, feel valued

10 Websites every baby boomer should know but probably doesn’t

May 12, 2013 by Miller MarcAdmin 3 Comments

10 Websites every baby boomer should know

There is a set of websites every baby boomer should know to manage your career, and I am writing this post to expose you to them.

Some of these might surprise you. Let’s get started.

General

Employee Benefit Research Institute – The mission of the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) is to contribute to, to encourage, and to enhance the development of sound employee benefit programs and sound public policy through objective research and education. There is a ton of great data about retirement. They do a variety of surveys related to baby boomers ability to retire.

PBS Next Avenue – This PBS’s website dedicated to the baby boomer generation. Articles cover a full spectrum of issues and come from a variety of sources. Career Pivot contributed an article in February.

Harvard Business Review Blog – I have become a big fan of HBR. They follow a variety of trends that you must keep on top of for your career.

Let’s cover some recruiting websites every baby boomer should know.

Recruiting

ERE.net – ERE is a central gathering point for the recruiting industry. You will find lots of useful information on careers but more importantly trends in employment.

Recruiting Blogs – Recruiting Blogs is a central place where recruiters can blog on topics of their choice. There are over 14,000 recruiting blogs on this site. This is a great place to gain insight into what recruiters are thinking.

The Undercover Recruiter – The Undercover Recruiter is the #1 recruitment and career blog in the UK & Europe. Another great place to follow industry trends.

Recruiter.com – One of the largest websites for the recruiting industry. This link will take you to the Career Advice section of the website.

I believe every baby boomer should track trends in the recruiting industry.

Let’s cover some different websites every baby boomer should know.

Social

Social-Hire - This is a new and innovative career site around the new way to find a job. I particularly want to point you to the career advice section.

Linked Into Business Blog – This is a LinkedIn blog for business written by my good friend Viveka von Rosen. Viv runs the Tuesday evening Tweetchat called LinkedIn Chat. If you want to stay on top of changes in LinkedIn this is the place.

This one will surprise you!

Heidi Cohen – Heidi Cohen’s blog provides marketing related insights grounded in digital and direct marketing. Served with a creative twist, Heidi includes practical tips based on her extensive experience that readers can apply to their marketing. You need to understand online marketing tactics to market your own career!

Did I miss any websites every baby boomer should know?

Bonus

BoomerJobTips.com - Okay I am being a bit self serving. I recently acquired the BoomerJobTips.com domain which was listed in the top career sites in 2012. The previous owner took down the website for personal reasons. My plan is to make BoomerJobTips.com the premiere career information website for baby boomers and keep it pitch free. Content is curated from around the Internet and posted through out the day.

Did I miss any websites every baby boomer should know?

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Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons below?

Check out my new book!

Available on Amazon.com

Available at Barnes and Noble

You can also download my whitepaper “Don’t Retire Even If you Can and What to do Instead – A Baby Boomer Manifesto”

Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Filed Under: Baby Boomer, Career Tagged With: baby boomer, career

BoomerJobTips Update- Curated Career Content for May 5

May 11, 2013 by Miller MarcAdmin Leave a Comment

Summary Sunday is now BoomerJobTips Update!

BoomerJobTips.com has been acquired by Career Pivot and will now be a central point to get current career information for the Baby Boomer Generation!

BoomerJobTips Most Popular

Job Search

8 Ways to Work Successfully with Recruiters

Career Management

Social Media

5 Important LinkedIn Settings You May Have Missed

Workplace

Baby Boomers

Career Pivot

Another way to look at the same links from BoomerJobTips.

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Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons below?

Check out my new book!

Available on Amazon.com

Available at Barnes and Noble

You can also download my whitepaper “Don’t Retire Even If you Can and What to do Instead – A Baby Boomer Manifesto”

Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Filed Under: BoomerJobTips, Summary Sunday Tagged With: BoomerJobTips, Summary

What makes a good boss for you?

May 7, 2013 by Miller MarcAdmin 5 Comments

What makes a good boss for you?

Notice I did not ask what makes a good boss. This is very individualistic.

My post last week I asked Your Boss Sucks! Why and What are going to do next time?

I asked you to get very clear on what you did not like about your current boss.

Now I want you to get real clear on what you want.

I have clients who want and very much need someone who is very collegial or almost a peer.

I have other clients who very much want someone who is in control.

What I find most common is the desire to have a boss who is politically astute and gives my client complete control to do what needs to get done. It is what I call, Get out my way and let me do the job Syndrome.

My favorite boss was Theresa who managed the IBM AIX Briefing Center in Austin. She was phenomenally good at hiring superstars and then leaving them alone to do their jobs. If anything went wrong or there was a political conflict she was right there to back us up. She was not technical competent to make technical decisions and left those to her team. Best manager I have ever had.

I have often run into young engineers who thought their boss had to be a better engineer than them. I would tell them that is simply not true. Some of my best bosses in my technical career were technically incompetent. They were great managers of technical people. It is a different skill set.

I ran into the same thing in schools. Teachers thought principals needed to have extensive and successful classroom experience. Boy is that so not true. It takes a totally different personality makeup to be a successful principal than a successful teacher.

What makes a good boss for you?

What characteristics do you value in your boss? Who has been your best boss and what made them so good?

How do you ensure during the interview process that you get the boss you want?

You have to ask the right questions!

Ask the hiring manager about their management style. Ask everyone else you interview with about the hiring manager’s management style. Did you get consistent answers?

If you have a panel interview ask the hiring manager to describe their management style, but I want you to pay attention to the body language of everyone else on the panel. Did they start to squirm?

Think back to when you were happy at work and you had a boss you really liked.

What were their characteristics that made them a really good boss?

This is part of step 2 in the Cure for Career Insanity. Determining what you really want in your next job, which includes getting a good boss!

Does this sound interesting?

Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons below?

Check out my new book!

Available on Amazon.com

Available at Barnes and Noble

You can also download my whitepaper “Don’t Retire Even If you Can and What to do Instead – A Baby Boomer Manifesto”

Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Filed Under: Career Insanity Tagged With: boss, Career Insanity, good boss

Over 60? Have you thought of a portfolio career?

May 5, 2013 by Miller MarcAdmin 2 Comments

Have you thought of a portfolio career?

If you are over 60 and will have to work well past the normal retirement age of 65, you might well consider a portfolio career.

I am currently reading the most popular book on the topic – And What Do You Do?: 10 Steps to Creating a Portfolio Career by Barrie Hopson and Katie Ledger.

They describe four types of careers:

Single-track career – This is what we were raised to do in the 20th century. Select a career path and stay with it until you retire.
Serial career – This is I have largely done. I have moved from career to career throughout my lifetime. I am on my seventh career. This is highly unusual for baby boomers but will be very common for our kids!
Lifestyle career – You know a mother who is raising kids and holds a part-time job. Maybe you know someone who is taking care of a family member but runs a small business on the side.
Portfolio career – This is a career that is all about cash flow and less about a paycheck. You develop a variety of streams of income that might include: consulting, teaching workshops, running an online business, multi-level marketing (Some are actually quite good! I could hear you snickering! I am not involved in any though.),buying and selling products on eBay, buying and selling real estate, having multiple part-time jobs,….

Who is suited for a portfolio career?

And What Do You Do?: 10 Steps to Creating a Portfolio Career by Barrie Hopson and Katie Ledger has a questionnaire. I highly recommend you take the questionnaire.

The authors say people who are best suited for a portfolio career are:

“self-starters, excellent time managers who organize their lives well, believe they’re largely in control of their own destiny, don’t like to be bossed about, have a huge need for independence, are high energy, prepared to market themselves and actually enjoy connecting. They like change and variety are not frightened to take risks, cope well with stress and pressure, feel positive about themselves, quite like having deadlines, love to learn, are not purely driven by money and are not over-anxious if they have insufficient funds at some times. They are also, assertive, can multi-task, live with ambiguity and often blend their work and free time.”

As you can imagine perfectionists need not apply!

You may not be all of these but you might need to surround yourself with people who can fill the holes. For example, if you are not good at marketing yourself then partner or trade with someone who can.

Does this sound interesting? I will continue to blog on this topic in the coming weeks.

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Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons below?

Check out my new book!

Available on Amazon.com

Available at Barnes and Noble

You can also download my whitepaper “Don’t Retire Even If you Can and What to do Instead – A Baby Boomer Manifesto”

Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Filed Under: Portfolio Career Tagged With: baby boomer, career, Over 60, portfolio career

BoomerJobTips Update- Curated Career Content for April 28

May 4, 2013 by Miller MarcAdmin Leave a Comment

Summary Sunday is now BoomerJobTips Update!

BoomerJobTips.com has been acquired by Career Pivot and will now be a central point to get current career information for the Baby Boomer Generation!

Look for a formal announcement in the next few days.

Baby Boomers

Your Political Playbook for Social Security and Medicare

Industry Trends

Career

Job Search

Career Pivot

Another way to look at the same links from BoomerJobTips.

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Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons below?

Check out my new book!

Available on Amazon.com

Available at Barnes and Noble

You can also download my whitepaper “Don’t Retire Even If you Can and What to do Instead – A Baby Boomer Manifesto”

Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Filed Under: BoomerJobTips, Summary Sunday Tagged With: BoomerJobTips, Summary

Your Boss Sucks! Why and What are going to do next time?

April 30, 2013 by Miller MarcAdmin Leave a Comment

Your Boss Sucks

You say your boss sucks. How the heck did you get into this position and what are you going to do so it does not happen again?

I have written about this topic before, but it is worth repeating, the number 1 reason people change jobs is —- the boss!

It seems in this recession, the worst behavior has become more common by managers. We have articles like:

MSNBC – “How to handle a bad boss (without killing them)“
Forbes Magazine – “5 Ways to Spot a Bad Boss in an Interview“
US News Money – “10 Signs you have a bad boss“

Then there was the movie “Horrible Bosses” which explores three horrible bosses.

So your boss sucks! Why does he or she suck?

I want you to get real clear on what your manager does to make your life miserable.

Is he or she a micro-manager? One common theme I am finding with my clients who are very experienced professionals is they want a manager to support them, but to get the heck out of their way so that they can get the job done.

Is your boss a wimp? Does he or she just keep dumping work on you that comes from above. Usually, this means you are over worked.

Is your boss upwardly focused? Does your manager focus on looking good for their boss but does nothing for career advancement for their people?

Is your boss abusive? Does your manager take advantage of people by verbally or emotional abusing them?

So what is it that makes your boss so bad to work for? Why does your boss suck?

You should be able to come up with a short list. The reason we are doing this so that we can come back to this later and work a list of what you do want in a boss.

This is part of step 1 in the Cure for Career Insanity.

Does this sound interesting?

Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons below?

Check out my new book!

Available on Amazon.com

Available at Barnes and Noble

You can also download my whitepaper “Don’t Retire Even If you Can and What to do Instead – A Baby Boomer Manifesto”

Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Filed Under: Career Insanity Tagged With: boss, Career Insanity

Your Ideal Team

Baby Boomer Portfolio Career

Summary Sunday is now BoomerJobTips Update!

BoomerJobTips Most Popular

Job Search

Social Media

Networking

Job Search

Career

Finance

Career Pivot

Well, do you feel valued at work?

10 Websites every baby boomer should know

General

Recruiting

Social

Bonus

Summary Sunday is now BoomerJobTips Update!

BoomerJobTips Most Popular

Job Search

Career Management

Social Media

Workplace

Baby Boomers

Career Pivot

What makes a good boss for you?

How do you ensure during the interview process that you get the boss you want?

Have you thought of a portfolio career?

Who is suited for a portfolio career?

Summary Sunday is now BoomerJobTips Update!

Most Popular

Baby Boomers

Industry Trends

Career

Job Search

Career Pivot

Your Boss Sucks

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