New York Magazine has an excellent feature this week profiling a number of New Yorkers who have lost their jobs in the past few months. The profiles range from a 40-year-old IT director at a financial services firm, to an actress who’s found that commercial work has dried up, to Citigroup’s head of diversity (I guess lofty ideas like a diverse work force go by the wayside when you’re a bank on federal welfare) to an online editor at the New York Sun, which set on Sept. 30.

The subjects talk a lot about the loss of self-esteem and motivation that comes with losing your job. One subject says, “Recruiters call about new positions, but it’s always the same old story. They say you are a great fit, and then you don’t hear from them for days. Nothing pans out. I feel helpless, like a failure. It’s your manhood, you know? I’m the only provider at home.” From another: “My girlfriend goes to job one and job two every day; if only I had so much to pack into a day. I’ll contemplate shaving and getting dressed to go scope out a host position at a bistro, but then I’ll really like that I still have my plaid boxers on and I’ll tell myself I could always go tomorrow.” And another: “My family likes to joke about ‘my vacation.’ ‘How’s the vacation going?’ Not really funny. I fell asleep for 30 minutes the other day and wished it could be like some Rip van Winkle thing, except instead of waking up 30 years later, I’d wake up and have a new job.”

The outlook isn’t bleak for all of them. Some are looking forward to reinventing themselves. Others are glad to be out of a job they really didn’t like anyway.

Something they (and you) might want to take a look at is an organization I’m part of called The Five O’Clock Club, which provides coaching for job seekers (both those who have lost their jobs and others who are looking for new jobs). There’s a real science to job-seeking and most people don’t have a clue how to approach it properly. Knowing the right way can mean the difference between a three-month search or one lasting four or five times as long. The Club offers group and one-on-one coaching and has a system that is very specific, time-tested–and it works. I’d be happy to tell you more. Feel free to get in touch with me at mitch(at)e2ecoaching.com.

Tags: Five O'Clock Club, job search, recruiting

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Here’s a comment from a colleague that sums up what many people are feeling these days:

Will the career I have chosen be around and will I be able to move with the times? I am in the business-to-business publishing sector. I have to make choices about expanding my knowledge base, keeping current on all aspects of the publishing industry and making sure my age does not become a hindrance. Interviewers need to see my value as a skilled manager.

This person is in the print end of the B2B publishing business and is expert on moving newsprint around the world and getting magazines published and delivered. She knows the technology involved cold, as well as the suppliers and the entire value chain. But she asks a good question: so what? Are the skills relevant to the future economy?

Let’s be conservative and say no. There is no reversal in the movement from print publishing to Internet, particularly for technology subjects. So being a star in this field is being a shooting star. In a few years or less, no one will need to worry about the printing plants, post offices, planes, trains and automobiles moving the proverbial dead trees around.

But the knowledge of someone who has been doing that for 30 years can be turned into something very valuable. If I were coaching this person, I’d ask her to consider these suggestions:

1. Make a list of every influential business contact you have around the world.
2. Make contact with the people on the list with whom you have the best relationships and ask them some questions to find out what they feel about the short- and medium-term future. What are their companies doing to re-tool for the next 1-3 years? How are they personally preparing in their respective roles?  And most importantly, what products and services will they need in the future that they do not currently have or know where to find?
3. Map out the B2B information value-chain from producer to consumer, creating two views: where it is today and where it will be in three years. (They may include different players, there could be massive attrition and consolidation and the roles that companies have played traditionally may change, so be creative.) Where are you on the spectrum? Where is your company?  Where would you like to be?
4. Make a bet in the next three months on where the next three years are going and adjust your career strategy accordingly. You may need more education and different kinds of relationships to become an expert in a new aspect of the value chain.
5. The age factor: My colleague is in her fifties and is worried about age discrimination. There is no short answer to dealing with this one because it is all a state of mind. If you feel your best days are behind you, who am I to argue? Think long and hard about what you control and maximize it. And ignore what you don’t control.

Tags: age discrimination, B2B Publishing

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Here’s an interesting challenge faced by one of my entrepreneur clients who’s a senior executive in a financial services firm:

I never expected the competition between myself and the people I work side by side with in the office.  Coming to terms with this and making it less of an issue, including fostering cooperation, has been a challenge.

It’s amazing what happens when resources become scarce and business is under pressure–people becoming competitive, even when they’re on the same team! Come to think of it, this can be true when business is fantastic, too. When I was publisher of a tech magazine in the early ’90s, I would travel around to our offices around the country. At one of them, reps from other magazines in the company kept shredders in their offices to keep “competitive” reps from getting too close to the good info. And there was one office where I was denied copies of the other publication’s Monday paper because they thought I wanted to steal their advertisers! This was at a time when we were more or less sitting back and taking orders and watching business grow exponentially without having to do much work.

So back to my client. How do you foster cooperation among co-workers? It’s a huge question and fits into a category of Emotional Intelligence skills–one in particular: emotional management of others. The skill involves the ability to reduce conflict, inspire productivity and cooperation, and therefore accelerate group performance by positively influencing the moods and emotions of others.

How can you do that in the situation above? Some ideas:

1. Talk about it. This is the opposite of the natural impulse to avoid. One by one, or in a group, talk about why there is competition among members of the group, what effect it is having on the work environment, and what can be done about it. And whatever you do, if you have a problem with a particular person, don’t go around that person, all passive-aggressivey. Sit down and say what you have to say to them personally. Then don’t take their reaction personally. Their response–good or bad–is not about you, it’s about them.
2. Be generous. Do things for, and say things to, co-workers that show you care about them. If you hate them and wish they’d get fired, don’t bother with this strategy. But if there’s a kind and generous spirit inside you, let other people see it. Show that you can rise above the fray and not be sucked into letting your  worst instincts take over.
3. Bake: Is there anything better than when someone brings brownies to the office? C’mon. There is nothing better than that. So go bake something and make friends. Bring cold milk, too.
4. Go bowling. Or to the zoo, the movies, whatever–go somewhere together as a group and do something every now and then. If you socialize with people it’s much harder to do stuff that hurts them.
5. Go volunteering. Combine extra-workplace activities with social good works. Help Habitat build a house. Donate services together at a soup kitchen. Do something that gets everyone to realize how petty they are being at times.
6. Get people focused on the real competition: The bad guys are outside, not inside. Have everyone contribute to a competitive analysis in which each person gives a profile of a competitor and a strategy for dealing with the threat they represent.

What’s your idea to beat the internal competition problem?

Tags: competitive analysis, emotional intelligence, volunteerism

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More from the trove of replies I received from my newsletter readers about their challenges with entrepreneurship:

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Recently, I was updating my contact database and asked my newsletter recipients to answer a question along with giving me their mailing info. The question was, “What is the biggest challenge you faced when making (or thinking about) the transition from being an executive to being an entrepreneur?”

I got a whole bunch of interesting answers. Several related to how to monetize one’s skill.

The biggest challenge when making the transition from executive to entrepreneur was conquering the financial negotiations that come along with consulting and being able to attach a monetary value to a service. I know there is documentation out there that women have trouble asking for raises etc. and I assume it may have stemmed from that. Thankfully, I have smart confidants/friends and one in particular  who said “What is the worst that can happen – the client will say no or give you a number they are more comfortable with. Ask for what you think you deserve.” And in my 7 years of consulting, no clients have ever balked at my fees or my contract.

This is a useful lesson on many levels.

1. It’s natural for new entrepreneurs to undervalue what they charge for services.  So many people charge based on their costs and not the value of what they provide. I have coached many people who doubled or tripled their income once they understood the intrinsic value of their service to their customers. Thinking of what the client’s outcomes are–in terms of the time they can afford to devote to seeking out a reliable service provider, the savings they can achieve by using you, the revenue they will be able to generate based on what your skill allows them to do–will help you feel confident in charging a price that properly and lucratively compensates you.

2. The idea of “what’s the worst that can happen” is so important. How many times have you negotiated with yourself, rather than letting your client do that work? Rather than just crossing the negotiating bridge when you reach it, many people have an internal conversation with themselves in which their price goes down a bunch before the client ever gets the opening offer. You can’t negotiate up once the client says yes. And it’s perfectly fine to negotiate down if and when necessary.

3. If no one pushes back on price now and then, you may not be charging enough. An old boss of mine in the magazine advertising business used to insist we raise our rates each year up to “the groaning point”–the level at which the customer groans, grunts, screams, or otherwise let’s you know you’ve hit the limit. Not bad advice.

How do you know if you are charging enough? Tips and tricks welcomed.

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