In his book 'The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People', Stephen Covey presents an approach to attaining personal goals by aligning oneself to principles that are universal and timeless.

Richard Gahagan, Co-founder of Adam, the international search and selection firm, describes how the same 'Seven Habits' can be applied to the development of 'Highly Effective' strategies for managing your career and transitioning jobs whether you are in transition phase or totally stable, and to develop long term strategies that rise above short term issues and current state of the economy.

This is designed to provoke thought to lift someone who may feel they are stuck in day-to-day thinking, into a less frustrated job seeker who can look at all relationships that will benefit on the journey from one role to the next, and possibly in life generally.

1) Be Proactive

Take responsibility for your choices and the subsequent consequences that follow, be proactive and work with an ethos of getting things done.

The best relationships you have in life are the ones which you spend time nurturing and maintaining. This applies to all personal and business partnerships you work to develop. Highly effective people manage their career by working hard to maintain these. The best HR Directors and Recruitment Managers will have effective strategies and existing relationships and will always try to avoid thinking in the short term. With this in mind candidates should think not in the short term but look at how relationships can be managed over a 1-3-5-10 year period. The board directors of today have planned their careers most effectively and the board directors of tomorrow will already have an active network. This will spread across all disciplines in the corporate world and include all supply partners that will help their career on the way. Choose your partners carefully, due diligence will tell you who is looking to help you and work with you in the long term and who is out for the "quick buck". In the recruitment industry we see a vast array of clients and candidates and there is no doubt the most effective are those who are planning their relationships for the long term.

Best examples people use to manage their career are personal confidants, HR specialists, CEO/C level contacts, recruitment partners, CV/career specialists and many more. These people should stand out as people you intend to work with and build a relationship with for the whole of your working life and possibly beyond.

Summary

• Think longer term and plan goals that have a longer term focus, make sure any short term goals are still working towards your long term objectives - this may be as simple as creating a list of potential future employers and researching what common factors their employees have.
• Build a personal network (recruitment companies, suppliers, trusted advisers, old bosses, future bosses, well networked contacts)
• Ask people what is going on currently in "their space" and find people who know what is going on in the space you are looking to develop
• Work out who you want to work for and what kind of role

 2: Focus on your short, medium and long term objective

Self-discover and clarify your deeply important character, values and life goals. Envision the idea, it is always better to try and foresee situations and predict outcomes and then think of worst case scenarios, will help come up with informed decisions.

Your search doesn't start by looking at your CV or staring at the office wall in despair (but we do sympathise with anyone doing either at present!). Start by looking at the result you seek to achieve when in "jobseeker" mode. Target role in mind, question the journey you are about to embark on, (i.e. match skills required if it isn't one you've done before or you are making a vast transition). The audience you seek will have certain drivers that you will need to be aligned with, if this isn't you or doesn't feel right don't do it.

Summary

• Self discover your values and drivers
• Examine goals that will align to these - challenge them (and ask others to)
• Set clear goals and objectives (short, medium and long term)

 3: Organisation, planning & prioritisation

So you have set some good objectives, now you are in the planning stages. Planning, prioritizing, and executing your tasks based on importance rather than urgency. Evaluating if your efforts exemplify your desired character values, propel you towards goals, and enrich the roles and relationships elaborated in Habit 2.

Summary

• Planning (timescales and specific measurable objectives)
• Prioritisation (question what is going to have key impact)
• Organisation (the simple things done well and on time may be key)

(The next three have to do with working with others)

 4: Think Partnerships and the "Win-Win"

Genuinely striving for mutually beneficial solutions or agreements in your relationships is vital. Understand and valuing the other person's key drivers will be essential at any stage of your search. If you have the right network and professional relationships this should be simpler, but still in many cases requires a conscious effort to understand the other person's push points.

Summary

• Understand and respect the other person's drivers
• Genuinely work with them long term
• Work out what "win-win" would look like and be transparent in working to it
• Be inclusive, if you have the right people around you, they will be more help the more they know about you

 5) Learn, gain knowledge and you will influence key decision makers

Using empathetic listening to be genuinely influenced by a person, which compels them to reciprocate the listening and take an open mind to being influenced by you. This creates an atmosphere of caring, respect, and positive problem solving. This can also avoid situations where the problem does not actually exist and it's just a matter of misunderstanding. It is always said that one should listen double to what we talk since we have 2 ears to listen and one mouth to talk.

Some people find the process of career transition and job seeking understandably stressful. You may encounter people you don't want to work with, you may find people intimidating. What is essential is that you build credible relationships at all stages of your career. This includes ex employers, current employer, recruitment partner, future employers and other key peer group who may be called upon for a reference. Treat those as you would like to be treated.

How are you going to have greatest positive impact on your career? How are you influencing all these key stakeholders? The best people I have come across get just as positive a vibe from people who worked with them 5 years ago as those working with them today.

Summary

• Listen actively  and learn from everyone in your network
• Understand how the key people in your network work and influence key stakeholders in your life and career
• Don't burn any bridges but build credible relationships and nurture them long term

6) Utilise your network, 2 (or more) heads are better than one!

Combining the strengths of people through positive teamwork, so as to achieve goals no one person could have done alone - everyone is a master of something and not everything.

Using other people's views can apply to all aspects of your career, the CV, the recruitment partners and employers, market insight. The best people don't stop working with others. They don't ditch their old team, bad mouth their old boss. Fostering and nurturing relationships along the way is key. Helping others before they have asked will create a positive energy that is bound to be reciprocated and your positive networking should yield benefits here.

Summary

• Building and developing your CV
• Choosing recruitment partners and how you use them
• how you manage your direct applications and feedback with clients

 7) Rejuvenate yourself and keep things fresh!

This is about staying current and managing to create a sustainable long-term effective lifestyle. This is constant improvement of one's self in order to be a better human being and to sharpen one's skills in order to achieve better results.

How many of us started a job search by adding a lengthy section about our current role to a CV, only to realise that the bottom part of the same document was written when you were many years younger or can now be radically improved?

The average job move is 3-5 years: a lot can change in the world in this length of time. Learning is key both in terms of your core skills, the way you present your CV, your view on the wider world and the quality of your business and personal network

Summary

• Keep things fresh, the CV, your approach, your knowledge
• Keep developing yourself
• Whether you are a fresh graduate or have 25 years experience, you will have competition so make sure your knowledge and sharpness is cutting edge
• Keep sane! If you are working hard on positive relationships and keeping your approach fresh, hopefully you can keep sane in what can often be a tough time searching for a new position.

More career advice is available on the Adam Website : Sales & Marketing Recruitment

Richard Gahagan / Co-Founder & Director / Copyright Adam Recruitment Ltd 2011

Credits: Stephen R Covey and the "7 Habits of Highly Effective people"

 

 

KEYWORDS:

sales, marketing, recruitment, candidate advice, CV tips, career advice, sales recruitment, IT recruitment, telecoms recruitment.

 

Copywright - www.weareadam.com