Category: Career in the Collaborative Age

A sure way to retain your employees

As knowledge and development is today a major part of the compensation package, then the one and only way to retain your employees is to give them more of: knowledge and development!

And you know what? That can be almost free if you take the time to develop them in the workplace.

Knowledge and development is part of the compensation package. If you don’t provide it you are not competitive and K.E.E.N. will leave. If you provide plenty of it you can pay less money.

And if you want to retain people, stop the stupid practice of the Industrial Age which was to cut all the training and development budgets as soon as the sea gets rough. Rather, increase it. Publicize that your company is a great place for development.

What’s more, if you leave people space for their own development the rewards to the organization will be plentiful and unexpected. The organization’s culture will be open and collaborative.

Today in the Fourth Revolution, giving more knowledge and personal development opportunities is the secret recipe to employees retention.

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Knowledge and development is part of your compensation package

What is your current compensation package?

I’m sure you’ll answer with a number, plus maybe some comments on social security and additional perks of monetary value.

Well that’s not what is the most important in your compensation package.

In your job, do you get to develop your knowledge? Do you get to develop your networks? Are you developing yourself by being stretched beyond your comfort zone in a safe environment?

That’s also part of the compensation package. The K.E.E.N. expects to be able to develop his knowledge, her value, to be challenged.

Actually in the Fourth Revolution, beyond a minimum salary, knowledge and personal development should probably be the majority of your compensation package.

Look at your situation. Is that the case? Will you ask an increase… in knowledge and development? Act now. That’s urgent. Do it.

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Talent is overrated

I just read a great book: Talent is overrated, by Geoff Colvin.

It explains where the greatest achievers find the source of their talent. And that’s not from some innate capability or just sheer hard work.

Geoff Colvin identifies the concept of deliberate practice as the key to sustained excellence. Deliberate practice is hard work, because it is still required to go through thousand of hours of practice. But it is more than that:

  • deliberate practice follows a program specifically designed to improve performance by working on what is difficult
  • deliberate practice is repeated a lot
  • feedback on the results is continuously available
  • it is demanding mentally and is not much fun

So it is not just the hours of practice that count. It is also how practice is focused on improvement, it requires feedback to be constantly available. It generally requires somebody else to design the practice program and give the feedback.

coaching in action
Even great sportspeople need a coach for deliberate practice

It is quite straightforward to understand this in the field of sports. What about the field of leadership in an organization? How often do you stretch yourself, repeat difficult actions, and do you get continuous feedback? Do you have a coach to design and force you through the process?

Yet without these elements, excellence will be impossible to reach.

Think about it. Design a deliberate practice program to become the best in what you want to do. That’s worth it.

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How to receive feedback the right way

Giving feedback is easy.

Giving feedback the right way, with the right tone so that it is not felt as an aggression and leads to constructive action is difficult.

Receiving feedback is very difficult emotionally.

So, make it simple. Look at the person who did the feedback in the eye, and say: “Thank you”. Smile (in particular if that was a harsh one). Period. Don’t justify yourself or be inconsiderate in promising something you’ll never do. Just say thank you. Smile.

That’s enough.

That’s very difficult.

That’s so important.

Because by doing that you’ll encourage further feedback. And thus improve your performance much quicker.

 

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How to give feedback the right way

A key process for giving feedback I learnt during my coaching classes. Simple, and so powerful. I use it all the time I want to give feedback.

  1. ask permission to give feedback, and obtain it (get a Yes)
  2. state your positive intent (I want to give you the feedback because I believe it impedes your growth, success, etc – and I care about you)
  3. deliver your feedback along the BOOST guidelines (Balanced, Observed, Owned, Specific, Timely) (make sure it is owned by you by using “I” – it is just your view)
  4. propose an improvement path (if you can’t propose a better solution, don’t feedback!)
  5. stop, shut up and listen actively to the person, let the silence be for a while if needed, be active and present.
  6. propose support if the person states that yes, he/she would like to improve.

Try it. You’ll see, it can get the most difficult feedback across nicely. Try it today.

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What’s a resume for?

The resume is an outdated concept.

It is at most, just one way to communicate one’s brand. Today it is just one way amongst many others.

resume scrutiny
resume scrutiny

Prospective employers will scrutinize your LinkedIn, Facebook and other Internet-based information. They will google you. The way you communicate your brand overall is more important than your resume.

But then, why do you want to be in a situation where employers scrutinize you? Where you put your bets in how the prospective employer slept last night?

You should already have marketed yourself in your social and professional network, so that they say: I have this problem, get me this guy, I know he knows what to do.

And then nobody should ask you for your resume.

That’s it: you’ll know you are successful in your personal branding when nobody will ask you for your resume any more.

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Get out of the personal commodity trap

In the Industrial Age, people were a commodity. They had a tag given by their diploma, were part of a category and were just inter-changeable.
That started changing with the emergence of the Knowledge Worker, one of the precursors of the Fourth Revolution. Still there were broad categories of Knowledge Workers.

the personal commodity trap
the commodity trap

Beyond the Fourth Revolution, the K.E.E.N will absolutely need to avoid becoming a commodity.

As the excellent illustration says – make sure not a lot of ordinary people understand what you are doing. Invent a fancy job title, an unexpected tag line to describe what you are doing.

Develop a unique personal brand. And market yourself.

Commodities are easily replaced. Commodities’ price gets down with competition from low cost countries.

Above all, don’t stay a commodity. Get out of the commodity trap. Start now to build your identity, your brand, and to market yourself.

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Bonus: how to market oneself in the Collaborative Age

Now that we’ve ascertained that personal marketing is necessary for the K.E.E.N. in the Collaborative Age, this great post from Mitch Joel about “Personal branding is not an option – it is the recipe to success” is a good place to start to know how to market oneself on the Internet.

Enjoy your first personal marketing steps!

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Not a lot of people know how to market themselves

Knowing how to market oneself is a great differentiator. It can mean orders of magnitude of differences in influence, revenue. It makes the difference between the competent-knowledgeable, and the successful achievers.

What prevents us from developing this important skill?

  • as we saw in the previous blog post, developing a personal unique brand is against Industrial Age mindset and is rejected by our social environment;
  • marketing oneself is scary, because it means standing up and getting rejected more often than accepted;
  • successful marketing involves developing an emotional connection with prospective buyers, and this is not something we have been educated to develop and enhance

    • Still, self-marketing it is a key skill that differentiates successful achievers in any field.

    How can we develop this skill? Beyond developing one’s brand, expose yourself! Find your unique selling proposition, stand up and start marketing it. Persist, get feedback, and you’ll get there.

    So, when do you start marketing yourself?

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    Developing a personal brand: a revolutionary idea – and so much needed!

    The Fourth Revolution is here. Today anybody living anywhere can develop a personal brand that will be visible over the entire Internet.

    Personal brand marketing
    Personal brand marketing

    This requires a good definition of one’s personal purpose and a persistent and consistent communication over many media.

    But it is necessary.

    And actually, it is key for the successful K.E.E.N. to develop such personal brand.

    The Industrial Age mindset is completely opposed to such idea: people were put in categories, by profession and diploma. They were considered interchangeable in the workplace. And any individual deviating from such classification was considered suspiciously, and he or she did not fit anymore in these categories.

    Today, more and more, exceptions to the Industrial Age categories are the rule. Although failing bureaucratic organizations will continue to resist the idea for a while, the future is that each individual will have a specific profile and a specific brand.
    And that’s needed because having a strong personal brand increases one’s value by being unique: possibly the unique response or profile to solve a particular issue.

    So, when do you start developing your personal brand on the Internet and in the world? It will take time. Start today.

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    What motivates the K.E.E.N.?

    There is a great video from Dan Pink about motivation: the surprising truth about what motivates us.

    It shows the incentive schemes of the Industrial Age corporation only work for mechanical skills. Once the task involves cognitive skill, rewards lead to lower performance!!

    What then does motivate the K.E.E.N, the Knowledge Enhancing Exchanging Networker of the Collaborative Age? According to Dan Pink, there are 3 main factors: Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose.

    • Autonomy like self-direction.
    • Mastery like getting better at something.
    • Purpose like getting up in the morning.
    purpose maximizer
    We are purpose maximizers

    According to Dan Pink, we are purpose maximizers, not just profit maximizers.
    So, when do you start maximizing your purpose?

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    Four keys to success in the Collaborative Age – the Fourth Revolution Manifesto part VII is online!!!

    Now that we have investigated in depth the Fourth Revolution and how it will change the world, we can now focus on what will make individuals successful. Find out four keys to personal success in the Collaborative world in part 7 of the Fourth Revolution Manifesto – now online.

    Cover of the Fourth Revolution manifesto part 7
    Cover of the Fourth Revolution manifesto part 7

    You can access the part VII of the Fourth Revolution Manifesto – FOUR keys to success in the Collaborative Age by clicking on the link. You can also read and share the document on Scribd – it has a great reader and can also be used as a backup if the above link does not work: the Fourth Revolution Manifesto – part 7 on Scribd .

    Don’t hesitate to comment and bring in suggestions in the comments to this blog post!

    Can’t wait to see the conclusion? Next week, in the final part of the Fourth Revolution Manifesto we’ll finally discuss your choice – and why you are important for the Fourth Revolution.

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