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Create Good Karma and Expect Nothing in Return

November 24, 2015 by Marc Miller 2 Comments

Good Karma

Two times this week, I created some good karma and never asked for anything in return. I thought the week of the US Thanksgiving holiday would be a good time to discuss the value of creating good karma without thought of how it might affect you personally.

Coffee Shop

I regularly work in a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf coffee shop in Austin, Texas, where I live. The baristas take very good care of me. I get to know all of the kids who work there.

I call them kids because I am old enough to be their father!

I was there working on my computer last week, and a middle aged woman behind me exhaled an exasperated sigh. I turned around and told her I felt the same way, which made her smile.

Her scheduling program was giving her fits. She was searching the product’s knowledge base for a solution but getting nowhere. I think most of us have been in her shoes.

We got into a discussion of what she was working on. She was thinking of starting a business.

I asked her if she had developed a business plan. Her response was no.

I offered numerous suggestions on how to get free help in developing her business. I even offered to introduce her to a contact at one of the Texas State Small Business Developer Centers. I gave her a few other links to resources.

Then, I went back to work.

Two days later, I was sitting at the same table in the coffee shop. The woman I had helped tapped me on the shoulder and handed me a gift card. She wanted to buy me a cup of coffee. She said, “You saved me thousands of dollars with those few suggestions.”

Boy, did that make my day. The gift card had enough credit to buy not one cup of coffee but three. (Well, I do drink a small black coffee…which means I am a pretty cheap coffee drinker.)

I created some good karma and, as a result, I received a quick, small reward in the coffee. The real reward, however, was in knowing that I had truly helped her.

Creating More Good Karma

I know multiple representatives from Frannet and Entrepreneur Source who are franchising brokers. Scott Kidd, my central Texas Entrepreneur Source contact, asked me if I would talk to one his newly minted franchise owners. I said sure.

I have had a number of clients who should be working for themselves, but are not true entrepreneurs.

I met Corbett at the same Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. We talked for about an hour. (I have lived in Austin since 1978, when the city had less the 250,000 people. The Austin area metro population now exceeds 1 million.) I pointed him to about a dozen resources and networking groups that would help him get launched. I did not expect anything in return.

Corbett asked how he could help me. I told him that, if he wanted to, he could refer someone who needs my services, but that I just wanted the information I gave him to be of some value.

What was the cost to me? About an hour of my time. Trying to help him in some way be successful created good karma. That is what is important in these kinds of relationships.

I suspect I will be seeing Corbett around. Will it benefit me? Maybe or maybe not.

The Ripple Effect

My good friend Steve Harper wrote a book few years ago titled The Ripple Effect: Maximizing the Power of Relationships for Life & Business (Second Edition). His premise is that, when you do something good for someone else, it is like a drop of water entering a whole pool.

A ripple is created.

The ripple goes out and sometimes never comes back.

Sometimes it returns quickly.

Sometimes it returns in the distant future.

However, it will usually return when you least expect it.

When you create good karma, you never know when it will benefit you. When something good happens, it is usually when you least expect it.

Have you created some good karma lately? Comment below what you did to create good karma.

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Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

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Are You a Giver, Taker, or Matcher?

June 8, 2015 by Marc Miller Leave a Comment

Giver, Taker, or Matcher

Are you a giver, taker, or matcher? Think about it!

This is my second blog post based on the book Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success by Adam Grant.

My last post, Weak Ties versus Strong Ties in your Job Search, came directly from this book.

Givers

Adam Grant wrote:

In the workplace, givers are a relatively rare breed. They tilt reciprocity in the other direction, preferring to give more than they get. Whereas takers tend to be self-focused, evaluating what other people can offer them, givers are other-focused, paying more attention to what other people need from them. These preferences aren’t about money: givers and takers aren’t distinguished by how much they donate to charity or the compensation that they command from their employers. Rather, givers and takers differ in their attitudes and actions toward other people. If you’re a taker, you help others strategically, when the benefits to you outweigh the personal costs. If you’re a giver, you might use a different cost-benefit analysis: you help whenever the benefits to others exceed the personal costs. Alternatively, you might not think about the personal costs at all, helping others without expecting anything in return. If you’re a giver at work, you simply strive to be generous in sharing your time, energy, knowledge, skills, ideas, and connections with other people who can benefit from them.

Hmm…do you know some givers?

Takers

Adam Grant wrote:

Takers have a distinctive signature: they like to get more than they give. They tilt reciprocity in their own favor, putting their own interests ahead of others’ needs. Takers believe that the world is a competitive, dog-eat-dog place. They feel that to succeed, they need to be better than others. To prove their competence, they self-promote and make sure they get plenty of credit for their efforts. Garden-variety takers aren’t cruel or cutthroat; they’re just cautious and self-protective.

Matchers

Adam Grant wrote:

We become matchers, striving to preserve an equal balance of giving and getting. Matchers operate on the principle of fairness: when they help others, they protect themselves by seeking reciprocity. If you’re matcher, you believe in tit for tat, and your relationships are governed by even exchanges.

Matchers are the most common in our workplace. If I help you, you will help me. If you help me, I will help you. Tit for tat.

The lines between these styles are not hard and fast. You have probably worked with all three.

Networking and Givers, Takers, or Matchers

One of the easiest places to spot differences is at a networking event.

Takers are those who will readily go from person to person handing out their business cards and asking for yours. You get a LinkedIn connection request that evening, even though you barely talked with them. For them, it is a numbers game.

The differences between Givers and Matchers can be subtle. They are the ones who engage in the art of conversation. They want to learn more about you. A giver will usually end the conversation with the question, “How can I help you?”

Think about the people you work with. What reciprocity model do they use?

Are you a giver, taker, or matcher?

Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

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Weak Ties versus Strong Ties in your Job Search

May 6, 2015 by Marc Miller 1 Comment

Weak Ties versus Strong Ties

Weak ties—or weak connections—in your network are more valuable than strong ties!

WHAT?

Weak ties are those people who you do not know well…those people with whom you only have a casual relationship.

Wait a minute. Everyone has been telling you that you need to network and develop deep relationships to help in your job search. That is still true.

Why would weak ties be more valuable that strong ties?

This concept comes from a section in the book Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success by Adam Grant. Look for a couple of more posts based on this book.

Adam writes:

Strong ties are our close friends and colleagues, the people we really trust. Weak ties are our acquaintances, the people we know casually. Testing the common assumption that we get the most help from our strong ties, Stanford sociologist Mark Granvotter, surveyed people in professional, technical and managerial professions who recently changed jobs. Nearly 17 percent heard about the job from a strong tie. Their friends and trusted colleagues gave them plenty of leads.

By surprisingly people were significantly more likely to benefit from weak ties. Almost 28 percent heard about the job from a weak tie. Strong ties provide bonds, but weak ties served as bridges: they provide more efficient access to new information. Our strong ties tend to travel in the same social circles and know about the same opportunities as we do. Weak ties are more likely to open up access to a different network, facilitating the discovery of original leads.

Here’s the wrinkle: it’s tough to ask weak ties for help.

The premise is that weak ties know about people and opportunities that your strong ties do not.

Asking for Advice

Most of us are not comfortable asking weak ties for help. Heck…I am a guy and I do not like asking for help from anyone!

The magic word is to ask for advice.

When you ask for advice, you will rarely be turned down. If they do turn you down, they are a jerk and you do not want to talk with them anyway.

When you ask for advice from a weak tie, it is a compliment.

I might sound like:

Can you give me some advice on how to get hired at your company?

Can you give me some advice on who I need to talk to at your company to get a xyz job?

Can you give me some advice on how to best hear of new opportunities at your company?

You are not asking for a job! You are just asking for a little bit of advice.

This fits nicely into the asking for A-I-R—Advice, Insights, and Recommendations.

If you can become comfortable reaching out to weak ties, your network will expand greatly…and so do your opportunities.

Have your weak ties been more valuable than strong ties?

Tell us about it!

Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

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

When you subscribe to this blog you get full access to Career Pivot’s Whitepaper Library

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Check out my book which is available on Amazon.com!

Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for Baby Boomers

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

Check out the BoomerJobTips Page for the latest curated content relating to baby boomers or join us on the BoomerJobTips LinkedIn Group

Are Networking Events Obsolete?

December 8, 2014 by Marc Miller 1 Comment

Are Networking Events Obsolete?

You heard me right when I asked if networking events are obsolete.

I think networking events are highly inefficient. I took several years off in my career to teach high school math, and then I spent a year in the non-profit sector. During that year, I attended a lot of networking events, usually twice a week. I developed my style on how to meet people, start a conversation, and more specifically, how to find out what we have in common. I became good at it!

After each event, I would pull out my business cards and start scheduling time to meet people. Real networking occurs afterwards when you meet people one on one and develop a relationship.

Was that an effective method of networking? In general, NO!

I would meet a lot of people, but was I meeting the people I needed to meet? Most of the time, the answer was no.

It was a shotgun approach. A lot of the people I most needed to meet did not attend these events.

What is Replacing Networking Events?

In today’s world of social media, it is fairly easy for me to research a company and develop a list of individuals that I need to meet to accomplish my goals. Also in the case of managing my career, who might be able to hire me.

I can use LinkedIn Advanced Search to find companies that have staff in my city. Notice, I did not say they had an office or facility in my city. So many companies have remote employees, and they may not have an physical presence. You can locate companies using LinkedIn Advanced using the following steps:

Search in a radius of 50 miles from either your home zip code or where you want to work
Search either using a specific keyword or job title
Sift through the list of profiles that meet the search criteria to find current companies
Go to each company LinkedIn profile
Click on the See All link to see how you are connected
Enter your current city to filter the list

You now have a list of individuals who work for the target company who are also located in your city. What you will discover is that there may be a lot of employees of a business in your city that does not have an office or facility.

This can be tedious, but if you keep searching and sorting through profiles you will be amazed by what you find.

Are networking events obsolete? I do not think so.

I now attend networking events to maintain key relationships. I attend far fewer than before, and I am very strategic in the events I attend.

I attend a Metropolitan Breakfast Club every single Wednesday morning. I have a few key meetups I attend, typically once a month. All of these are to reinforce relationships, meet a a few key individuals, and get my social fix.

I now network strategically using social media and by meeting key individuals one on one. This is far more efficient!

This post is part of a weekly series on the Personal Branding Blog.

You can read the original post on the Personal Branding Blog.

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

When you subscribe to this blog you get full access to Career Pivot’s Whitepaper Library

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Check out my book which is available on Amazon.com!

Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for Baby Boomers

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You can also download my latest white paper “The Multi-Generational Workplace – Making Generational Diversity Work“

Check out the BoomerJobTips Page for the latest curated content relating to baby boomers or join us on the BoomerJobTips LinkedIn Group

Conferences and Your Career

November 12, 2014 by Marc Miller Leave a Comment

Conferences and Your Career

I recently had a client receive free passes to a coveted industry conference. She was not sure how to prepare to get most out of the day.

Business Cards

You should always have business cards. There are two different kinds; personal and business. Which do you take?

Depends on who is paying and our objectives for attending the conference. If the company is paying and you intend to stay at your current company for the time being, always give out your company business card. If you are quietly looking for something new, then give out your company business card. Only use the personal business card when you are not worried about anyone at your current employer finding out that your are looking or you are out of work.

Attendee Lists

Many smaller niche conferences will give you a list of attendees. You can also contact the organizer ahead of time and ask them if they would be willing to give you the names of attendees.

The plan should be to scour the attendee list for key people that work for companies on your target list. A good goal is to plan to meet at least one person from each company on your target list. You want a list of individuals that you can on the look out for on the day of the conference.

Conference Agenda

Review the agenda and determine which conference speakers you would like to meet. Prepare several salient questions that you could ask the speaker that will demonstrate your knowledge of the topic. Be prepared to ask for A-I-R (Advice, Insights and Recommends).

Day of Event

Arrive early and plan your day. Pick the sessions you plan to attend with an eye for topics where key people that work for companies on your target list might be attending.

This is kind of like being a teenager again. When you wanted to meet a certain girl you would hang out where you thought she would be. Same thing here. Where will the people you want to meet be hanging out?

Make sure your name tag is easy to read and placed on the right shoulder. I like to attach it to my collar on the right side of my body.

If there is a speaker that is of particular importance to your career, arrive early for the session and sit in the front row. Do not sit in the back row!!

If possible, introduce yourself to the speaker before the session and give them a business card. Be careful to not interfere with their session preparations. When the session is complete, you can approach the speaker with the salient questions you previously prepared.

Take notes on business cards on where and when you met each person.

Lunch and Breaks

Career Pivot Sponsor for the Month of November 2014

Do not eat lunch with people you know. Seek out tables where key people that work for companies on your target list might be sitting. At worse case, randomly pick a place to sit. You never know who might sit down next to you!

Post Conference

The day after the conference, sort through all of the business cards and select key individuals that you need to follow up with. If possible, send them a handwritten thank you note and insert your business card in the envelope. Yes, this is old school but when they receive it, they will open it and you business card is no longer just another card in the stack but it is right in front of them on their desk!

Send LinkedIn connection requests to everyone you met, and schedule follow up meetings with key individuals.

Conferences are a great way to make initial contact with key individuals who can help you with your career.

Real networking does not happen at conferences but the real networking comes afterwards in the follow up meetings.

This post is part of a weekly series on the Personal Branding Blog.

You can read the original post on the Personal Branding Blog.

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Please check out this months sponsor III Financial

and their guest post

Why Save For Retirement If You Don’t Plan On Retiring

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

When you subscribe to this blog you get full access to Career Pivot’s Whitepaper Library

————————————————

Check out my book which is available on Amazon.com!

Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for Baby Boomers

————————————————

You can also download my latest white paper “Strategic Networking – A Career Pivot White Paper“

Check out the BoomerJobTips Page for the latest curated content relating to baby boomers or join us on the BoomerJobTips LinkedIn Group

Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Create Good Karma and Expect Nothing in Return

Good Karma

Coffee Shop

Creating More Good Karma

The Ripple Effect

Are You a Giver, Taker, or Matcher?

Giver, Taker, or Matcher

Givers

Takers

Matchers

Networking and Givers, Takers, or Matchers

Weak Ties versus Strong Ties in your Job Search

Weak Ties versus Strong Ties

Why would weak ties be more valuable that strong ties?

Asking for Advice

Are Networking Events Obsolete?

Are Networking Events Obsolete?

What is Replacing Networking Events?

Conferences and Your Career

Conferences and Your Career

Business Cards

Attendee Lists

Conference Agenda

Day of Event

Lunch and Breaks

Post Conference

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