Direct Your Career - The Professional Guide to a Better Career

What do you know about your employees?

May 18, 2012

Charley Charley, a new retiree-greeter at Wal-Mart, just couldn’t seem to get to work on time. Every day he was 5, 10, 15 minutes late. But he was a good worker, really tidy, clean-shaven, sharp minded and a real credit to the company; obviously demonstrating their “Older Person Friendly” policies. One day the boss called him into the office for a talk. “Charley, I have to tell you, I like your work ethic, you do a bang up job. But, being late so often is quite bothersome.” “I know boss, and I am working on it.” ”Well good, you are a team player. That’s what I like to hear. It’s odd though your coming in late. I know you’re retired from the Armed Forces. So, what did they say if you came in late back then?” ‘‘They said, ‘Good morning, Admiral, can I get you coffee, sir?”’ What do you know about your employees? Some of them have skills and talents that are far beyond what you see of them day in and day out. The Problem Several years ago, I had an opening for a computer programmer. One of the computer operators approached me with an

Project Manager in Arabic means Chosen

May 17, 2012

Wait, I was mistaken. Mustafa, from the Lion King means Chosen in Arabic. But, I too think that Project Managers are chosen by God to do what they do. Yes, some project managers believe they are God, but most do not. I remember when Whoopi Goldberg, who played Shenzi, The Hyena said “Mustafa, tell me about it. I just hear that name and I shudder.” Tell me you don’t feel that way when your project manager, say his name is Russell, stops by to get an update…yes, you shudder. Well, maybe a child of a lessor god…. Project Managers have a very challenging job. They first and foremost are required to create a project plan. Easy, right? Well, not so much. A project plan is a detailed list of all tasks, a starting date, ending date, calculation of time needed to get the task done, and yes, your name. The key ingredient to that recipe is of course, your name. No one wants to give dates. They want to say things like “Do you want it right, or do you want it on time?” All together now Project Managers ” WE WANT BOTH!!!” Project Managers are probably the most powerful

What is a BA, and why do I need them?

May 16, 2012

Recently, a colleague asked me a question. He asked “What is a BA, and why do we need so many? What do they do?” I am always surprised that people ask me questions like that. Then, I stop being intellectually arrogant, and realize I just know “stuff” and just answered him. A BA is short for Business Analyst. A BA wears many hats in an organization. If they are correctly used, they can be the most important part of a well run IT organization. Let me give you a brief history of the BA. Rock on dude! I started in IT back in the 80′s. AC/DC, Anthrax, Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and KISS were the bands of the day. Big hair and make-up on guys was ok, and politically we were moving from Jimmy Carter and onto Ronald Reagan. In the early days of IT, we programmers did it all. We were even more interesting than the Dos XX guy. Once a user requested a project, the programmer would meet with them, gather the business requirements, turn them into technical requirements, create a project plan of sorts, and then start programming. We ran

7 Business Terms You Need to Know

May 15, 2012

Mentoring is a nearly dead art. Gone are the days when a veteran employee or manager will take the time to take someone under his wing and show them the ropes. There are many reasons why, but I think the fact that people change jobs, careers, and companies way more often today than they ever did in the pre-1980′s “Greed is good” period of Gordon Gekko in a major factor. For that reason, I have found that many young people are less prepared for the real world and have little opportunity to learn things that people of my generation learned from seasoned professionals. For that reason, I am taking some time to define some terms that I continually see people misunderstand or misuse. #1 – Draw Against Commission Many companies will hire commissioned sales people that may not receive a commission check for many months after starting their new job. If the position is highly commissioned, meaning the bulk 2of their paycheck is from commissions, the company will loan money to the new salesman that is to be paid back from future commission checks. This keeps the new salesman’s cash flow steady while he builds up his business and starts

The Devil You Know

May 14, 2012

As many of you know, I feel that most people in management have no right to be there. People are drawn into management for a number of reasons – everything from a desire to have more power to just wanting an office. But sometimes, even under the worst conditions, the boss you have, as bad as he is, may just be be better than the one that comes next. The Boss from Hell? Many years ago, I worked for a horrible boss. I have written about him here many times. He smelled, was profane, was marginally competent, and was just a really bad guy. The management team would do almost everything it could to marginalize his negative impact by planning our staff meetings with him ahead time. We would coach each other about what not to talk about so as to prevent an accidental blood bath. One day one of my colleagues started railing about what a bad boss he was. He really hated him. He kept saying “when will someone take action and get rid of him?” He was really angry and just wanted justice. I smiled and said “Larry, Dave is the devil we know. He is a

Annual Performance Reviews

May 13, 2012

In my opinion, one of the biggest wastes of management time are annual performance reviews. I know, I know that is heresy. “Mike, isn’t it true we need let our staff know where they stand? Where they can improve?” you ask. Yes, every single day. Each and every day your direct reports should know where they stand. Reviews are an institutionalized exercise to overcome bad management. You know, the guys that never get involved in what is happening and stay in their offices. I do these reviews, because it is part and parcel of the bonus or merit raise process, but they are a waste of time, encourage fear, and cause people to leave companies because the marginally competent managers gave them an unfair, low rating. No, I think reviews are ridiculous, but I do them. Click here to Subscribe to Direct your career! by Email What do you think? Visit http://www.directyourcareer.com often for FREE offers!

Should you get an MBA?

May 12, 2012

Many of my career clients often ask me if they should go back to school for an MBA. Most of the time they are asking as a result of some negative experience they just suffered. It usually comes while they are looking for a job and aren’t getting offers, or even interviews. Generally, my answer is no, don’t go back. Why would I discourage someone from getting more education when the conventional wisdom might say otherwise. Well, it is because you must examine your motives whenever you do anything. If you are going back to school because you feel the additional knowledge will make you a better employee, then yes, you should go. But, if you are using it to add a pedigree to your resume, then forget it. The MBA might get you in the door and could possibly get you to the finals, but your work experience and the chemistry you create with the hiring authority is what will get you hired. Sorry, your credits aren’t any good here I am not a big fan of the industry of higher education. College is a business. The business of college is to collect tuition, turn out graduates, and recruit

Do you know where the greatest treasures in the world are buried?

May 11, 2012

I heard a guy ask once “Do you know where the greatest treasures in the world are buried?”They are not buried in the diamond mines of Africa.They are not buried in the oil fields of the middle east.They are not buried on sunken treasure ships deep in the Atlantic. No, they are buried in the billions of graves all over the world, along with the books that were never written, the businesses that were never started, the athletes that never reached for the stars, relationships that were never fulfilled, and many more unfulfilled dreams because the people buried there took their dreams with them to their graves, afraid to fail. We are each blessed with so many talents that come standard with who you are. The irony is that most us don’t know what that talent is because it is something so natural and easy for us to do that it just doesn’t “can’t” be a talent.Talents are obvious, right?I used to listen to people sing and think “oh, I would love to be able to do that.”I used to see beautiful art and think “oh, I could never do that. I don’t have that talent.”I never thought I had

Persistence – Don’t leave before the miracle happens

May 10, 2012

I learned the hard way that the primary key to success is not talent. It isn’t brains, looks, or education. It isn’t any of the things that you are taught growing up. No, the key to success at any level is persistence. To succeed, one needs to continually strive to get what they want. And when I say continually strive, I don’t mean work harder, etc., I mean picking yourself up when knocked down and continuing the fight until you get what it is you want and to expect and learn from your failures. Some people call it suit up and show up. When I was a freshman in high school in 1776, I played soccer on the school’s soccer team. I didn’t go out for soccer because of some deep love of the game. No, as an American I played soccer because I knew it would force me to get into excellent physical condition for my first sport love, basketball. Even then I understood my own shortcomings and knew that if I didn’t have someone or something driving me to workout, I would not have been in good enough shape for basketball. Before each practice, our soccer coach made

Career advisors (aka In-flight Consultants)

May 9, 2012

I have had far too much experience in my career with people who believe everything that they see and hear is fact, before actually doing any research to find out the truth. I have had bosses, co-workers, subordinates, and friends who will declare something as fact when the facts are actually in opposition to their point. I will give some examples of someone’s perception being their reality. Some years ago there was a new fad in toys called pogs. It was a game where you would try to flip disk shaped pieces of plastic into a cup. Our CEO at the time came back to the office and said he had a conversation with a 16 year old kid on a flight who told him that pogs were the next big thing. A 16 year old kid? Our CEO then ordered the toy buyer to go out and corner the market on pogs. He directed him to buy millions of dollars of the stupid little game. The buyer argued that we should test the product before buying that many, but the CEO over-ruled him and forced him to move ahead. Well, I’m sure by now you have guessed the end

Seven things that have been replaced in the last 20 years

May 8, 2012

Just for fun, I put together the following list of common items that you will be hard pressed to ever see again, but were incredibly common just 20 years ago. 1) Phone Booth Once common on every street corner, airport, and hotel lobby, you will be hard pressed to find one. They were so important to society, that Superman originally used phone booths to change out of his street clothes as Clark Kent and into his Superman costume. 2) Floppy Disks When I first came into business, there were 7 inch, 5.25 inch and finally 3.5 inch disks that would fit inside your computer that would be where you backed up your data. You can put a box of floppies on one flash drive today. 3) Slide Rules Believe it or not, every engineer and engineering student had a slide rule in his brief case. It was a manual device that was used to do complex mathematical calculations. It cost as much as $100 in 1990 and was replaced by a free calculator. 4) Video Cassette Recorder (VCR) Ah yes, the VCR. You cannot go to a yard sale today and not find someone trying to sell you a $500

The Best Management Personalities

May 7, 2012

As I have studied careers, business, and management over the years, I have come up with four personality types of leadership. The first is positive, the next two are neutral to negative, and the fourth is a disaster. The first management personality type is the manager who wanted to be the boss, and once there, likes being the boss. This personality type is normally very qualified for the job. They have a comfort level around their employees and around their peers. This is a very effective manager. The second and more neutral personality is one that wanted to be the boss, but once their hates it. They campaigned or pursued the job for much of their career, and in fact may have spent many years preparing for it. But, once there, for some reason they found that they really dislike or hate the job. Maybe they don’t like the politics. Maybe they don’t like dealing with or directing people, maybe they were very good at the job they had, but found management was not what they thought. This manager is effective, but not great. The third management personality is also neutral to negative. This boss who doesn’t want to be

Persistence – Don’t leave before the miracle happens

May 6, 2012

Get ready for that interview!

May 6, 2012

So, you’ve spent hours and hours searching job boards for openings. You contacted all of your friends, joined social sites like LinkedIn, and expanded your network. You’ve tweaked your resume to the point that you are really happy with it. And you’ve sent it out more than a dozen times. All that hard has work paid off and you’ve finally received a call back. They want you to come in for an interview. Yikes! Are you ready? Preparation You have 72 hours to prepare for your interview. I guess its too late to lose ten pounds, or work on your tan, huh? Too late to get that MBA or latest certification I suppose. But, all is not lost because there are many things you can do that your competition is not doing, and I will tell you what that is. What to wear First, you need to decide what you are going to wear. No matter what the dress code is of the company to which you are applying, you must dress in business attire. For men, that means you need a conservative dress shirt, a tie, and a suit or sports coat/blazer. Make sure all of your clothes fit

Career and Management

What do you know about your employees?

Project Manager in Arabic means Chosen

What is a BA, and why do I need them?

7 Business Terms You Need to Know

The Devil You Know

Annual Performance Reviews

Should you get an MBA?

Do you know where the greatest treasures in the world are buried?

Persistence – Don’t leave before the miracle happens

Career advisors (aka In-flight Consultants)

Seven things that have been replaced in the last 20 years

The Best Management Personalities

Persistence – Don’t leave before the miracle happens

Get ready for that interview!

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