This is our take on Personal Brand and how you advertise what you are all about to the world.

Emotional Intelligence a pair of words that generate powerful  responses from the whole spectrum of managers and employees ranging from ‘what is it?’ to ‘yes but can they do the job’ and lots of opinion in between. I am a big fan of the use of EI exploration in particular in coaching, staff development and in some instances as part of a recruitment process.

Since 1985 when the splendidly named Wayne Pain introduced the term in his doctoral dissertation the interest in and amount written about EI has gone through the roof. Focusing on and testing something other than pure intelligence (IQ) or learned or innate skills has opened up a whole new field of personal development and management development which I am fascinated by.

The splendid broad brush stroke definition from Jo Maddocks of Cheltenham based JCA Limited gets you interested immediately   “EI is the practice of thinking about feeling and feeling about thinking when choosing what to do.” How wonderful is that! We are talking about actually taking the time and trouble to consider feelings in your decision making process; how you feel, how others might feel and what the consequences of your decision might be for yourself and others....

What intrigues me is the tension that this might create in a world where profit and compliance are kings; doing things to make money and to adhere to the current industry rules are part of what the business world is today but what introducing EI into the mix does is put the human element, the interactions and relationships that glue together organisations and define brand and working environment,  back on the agenda.

The film As Good As Its Gets  has a profoundly touching moment when Jack Nicholson (Melvin Udall) tells Helen Hunt  (Carol Connelly) ‘You make me want to be a better man’ and that for me sums up how EI can work. Excusing boorish, aggressive and damaging behaviour because of the need for results, the consequence of pressure or that it is ‘just the way he/she is’; is for me a pretty mediaeval way of going about managing and understanding people interactions.

I am not commercially naive, I have been running my own company for 6 years; and I do genuinely feel that managers that have an awareness of their EI profile and who are conscious of what they need to do better and who are trying to be ‘better people’ will ultimately get more from the relationships and staff resource than those who just use metrics and consequences. But it can be a tough pitch to deaf ears...

The balance between Regard For Self and Regard For Others is a central theme in EI exploration and achieving a conscious attempt to balance and understand the two is central to moving forwards. What is great about EI is that unlike IQ which is broadly fixed after a certain age is that with thought and a conscious awareness it is something you can work on, develop and improve and that is powerful stuff.

As a tool in career coaching, management and leadership development, EI has been and continues for me to be a window into another sort of conversation and awareness that reconnects people with what perhaps we have gradually forgotten about which is that people can be fantastically generous, warm and understanding to each other and when that happens teams work better.

The commonly seen comments in Exit Interview answers or maybe in interview answers to the question ‘why are you looking to change jobs’ often orientate towards relationships with colleagues / managers, the way organisations treat people and the sense of not feeling valued. Under performance, dissatisfaction and turnover all cost money, so for even in the most bottom line orientated business / industry it really is worth looking at EI as a positive tool for change.

The people element of manager / leader / staff relationships still remains key and I am sure EI awareness is the bridge to help us to reconnect with how being a ‘better’ person can often have positive business consequences and make life so much more enjoyable even under pressure.     

Paul Goring

BPS Level B+ / ETUC

AGR / MIPR

Managing Director - Consortio   

Is it the word employability, the current economic crisis (and related supposed graduate job shortages) or the fact that you simply just have tonnes of uni work to do; that is stopping you from engaging with the internal and external opportunities available to boost your employability skills and career knowledge? Or let’s be honest are you just putting it off because it all feels a bit too real and a scary just now?

The big news is that all of the above are completely understandable; I'm not sure about the word employability either but I do know that the concept really works and makes a big difference. I know the world outside Uni looks bleak on the job front but it isn't that bad, there are jobs out there for the right well prepared candidates, and I know that getting the best grade you can is really important to you and it should be but at the complete exclusion of preparing for your career future? And yes it may seem a bit much to take on sorting the rest of your life out - its a big issue - but it does not have to be that dramatic.

A workshop here, networking event there and even just making a new career related contact every month or so is actually a low volume high quality way to move things forwards. Rest assured that one momentous event or piece of fortune probably won’t shape the rest of your career for you but a series of shrewd, incremental and measured exposures to the ‘important stuff’ will.

Its simply about carefully managing your priorities and making the most of every opportunity that comes your way because whether it is apathy or lack of engagement is irrelevant - you just need to make sure they are not talking about you!

Paul Goring

@consortiorec

         

It is easy to ask 'how great was I' when you have achieved something - that is the kind of feedback that we all love and can cope with comfortably. The problem is and this will not be a surprise to you, the most important feedback that you ever hear is actually when you have failed to achieve something that you wanted to achieve.

So you have created a brilliant CV because you have read my blogs about personal brand and your CV being your marketing flier and worked on it. Fantastic! The problem is that the interview you tried so hard and worked so long to get has resulted in them declining your application. They have given you some 'feedback' although it is pretty brief and useless because it reads 'there was simply another candidate who performed better than you did / was more suitable for the role / had more relevant experience' - so what next?

Well thanks to the fear that seems to purvey many HR Departments that all feedback will lead to a tribunal that is likely to be the best you get when you ask for it the first time. It is no good to you and leaves you standing still. You need a bit more than a standard wording in a standard letter. So do not be afraid to ask for it. This does not mean creating a problem for the employer but just asking them very clearly what you need to work on to be successful next time.

If you have the reflective learning and self-appraisal habit already then you will have made notes after the interview to describe how you felt you performed, what questions you answered well and which need work and how you think the recruiter rated your performance. So why not ask them specific questions like 'I felt that I came across as being very nervous and under confident, is that something that the interviewers report mentioned?' They might try to deny you detail at first but by being specific, constructive and polite you can make progress, especially if you make it clear to them that you felt you had been fairly treated and that you are asking for feedback to just help you to perform better next time!

I have a good example from a few years back when I was a Recruitment Manager in industry; a young man who had received a decline letter with respect to his application to be a Sales Advisor rang up my team seeking further feedback. Sadly our feedback policy was also to say little and summarise the result as I have done above saying it was either experience or someone else out performing him. But he was not content with that, he felt he had performed well and argued that if he was never told how or where he fell short that he would repeat his errors next time. Quite rightly he persisted and found out my e-mail address and connected. I called him and he was so passionate about getting his performance right, so clearly disappointed that he had not got the job with us and so polite and professional despite his emotional state that I listened, talked to him and decided to meet him as I had not been involved in the initial recruitment process.

Well the bottom-line is that I was very frank with him, he did not get the job because someone else with the proven track record, industry experience and industry qualifications did. In terms of his performance it was good and the only feedback remark from the report that he might be able to use was that he needed to slow down and be a bit more measured in his communication style.  I recommended him for another position within the company, he was managing within 3 years and has gone on to have a very successful career.  All because he asked and the fact that he asked and manner with which he asked told me a lot about him.

Feedback is a used and abused; it was corrupted in the 80's and 90's when very earnest looking managers fresh from their training course on staff development and motivation used it during meetings where everyone felt awkward and no discernible progress occurred. But now it is crucial to help all of us in developing and understand how the world experiences us. Asking for it is brave especially in a recruitment scenario because it might feel like saying 'I know I have failed but can you tell me in a bit more detail why I failed' but really it is simply that you are saying 'I am honest with myself, I want to improve and by giving me honest and constructive feedback you can help me to do that.'

Feedback and reflection are the fundamentals to you being able to evolve, learn and grow. To nail an interview you need to understand your past failures and do something about them. So don't let people off the hook if they don't want to help you - insist that they give you something that you can work on and take it on the chin!

Paul Goring 

Returning to work after any sort of break be it parenthood, studying, illness, sabbatical or unemployment is not easy and sure we all have doubts about how we will make the transistion and whether we will be able to find and keep the kind of job that we want.

These doubts are perfectly natural and understandable but ultimately they are a burden and they need to be understood, managed and controlled for you to move forwards.

So where do you start?

Well I think Step One must be to make sure that you are ready.  Being ready is not just about wanting to get back into work or indeed needed to; being ready is about the preparation you need to go through to ensure that you are going to be confident and successful and this bit is about you and no-one else.

Have you reviewed your CV or have you got one from three years ago that ‘will do’? Well for starters it won’t do and by ignoring your CV, which is the most crucial key to opening career doors, then you are already putting yourself at a disadvantage compared to other candidates that do understand its power and are working hard to use it.

So why don’t you want to tackle the CV issue? Are you concerned about the gap, worried that the job you are looking for now does not sit well with the work you did in the past, anxious that your technology skills have not kept pace with the market or are you simply unsure what a CV should look like in 2013?

All are easily answered and managed. Your CV is your flier advertising the brand of you and you can read more detail about this in earlier blogs I have written but let’s focus here on you being comfortable with the gap and not allowing it to be an unexplained black hole in your career development or something that you are somehow not able to explain or indeed celebrate.

Developing more knowledge and skills, becoming a parent, overcoming illness or doing something different for a while are all part of who you are and being comfortable in including that time in your CV and explaining it to potential employers is key to you being ready to get out there and get a job that you want. So get started. Think about the positives; what you have learned about yourself and how you have grown and celebrate them.   

 
Step Two

Once you are comfortable that you don’t need to excuse yourself about your recent work history and that it can be integrated with your past career history and your personal brand then you can start looking outwards.

Are your skills sufficient for what you want to do? Is the job market healthy in the areas you want to work, are you being realistic? Setting yourself up for more disappointment by not researching carefully and being honest about what you can do and what you want to do can be a big mistake. 

All of the confidence that you have built up and the energy that you have to invest might be wasted on making many applications for roles that just don’t suit you or which might not exist. Knowing the market is key and that takes time on line and talking to experts to achieve.

Step Three     

Getting out there!  Now that you know that you have a researched and achievable job target and you have a CV that you are proud of you need to sign up to on-line job sites,–post your CV and let people find you as well as finding them through recruitment agencies, job sites and adverts for vacancies.

Dressing the part and feeling the part are both key to you being successful. That personal brand and confidence that I talked about needs to be expressed physically as well as in your mind and employers respond to confident body language and candidates that speak with confidence and purpose and even if you don’t feel it sometimes you need to ‘fake it to make it.’

We can help with all of these stages if you need us but more important than that is your own self-belief and positivity because good things happen to candidates who know themselves and the market and get out there and make things happen.

Returning to work can be a fresh opportunity to reinvent and re energise your career; so good luck with it and let us know if some one to one coaching or a place on our career boot camp days would help !      

It might feel weird to think about yourself as a brand but it is just about understanding what makes you unique and about developing an awareness of how the rest of the world experiences you.
 
A big pool of graduate talent competing for fewer jobs means that a 2:1 is no longer the passport to your dream job. Getting the edge involves understanding what recruiters look for (beyond the academic) and matching your
brand USP’s to the job by clearly demonstrating them in your CV and then talking about them lucidly at interview.
 
Where do you start? How about conducting a personal brand review; simply list your work, sporting and life experiences. What skills have you learned? What did you learn about yourself? Now link your findings to the
competencies that employers look for.  
  
Now find words that you want others to associate with your brand. Do you use them in your CV; are you always authentically those things? Make sure they are not on the boring list of CV words like passionate, focused and good team player that everyone uses! 
 
Understanding your unique brand takes time and effort but will get you results! But you need to start now!!

Paul Goring