Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom

For Gen X, The Pressure's On

Perry Marshall is in the compression zone.  So are my husband and I.   So are most of our friends.

When I read Marshall’s blog post, Shout Out to the 30-Something Street Fightin Man, I thought a lot of you might be in the compression zone too.  According to Marshall, here’s what that phase of life involves:

Kid #3 just arrived.  Kid #2 is still in diapers and kid #1 is barely out of diapers.  The day starts when one of ‘em starts screaming at 3:45am and the sweet honey-dew of sleep is OVER.  Momma either stays at home, which means money is impossibly scarce, or momma goes to work and puts the kids in daycare, which means money is… impossibly scarce.  Everybody’s emotional tank is on “E” for Empty.

Dad works 1 1/2 jobs and he’s the “Go-To-Guy” in both of them.  His ‘superiors’ regard him as a promising young lad who has a lot of potential and a lot of heart, if only his daring adventures would pay off.  One morning he calls in late because a spat about loading the dishwasher all wrong turned into World War 3, and if we don’t sit down and talk this out right now, Momma’s probably gonna move in with her parents.

Deep in his heart he craves, yearns for, thirsts for… Respect.  From… somebody. Anybody.  “I wish SOMEBODY would listen to me. I wish ONE of these projects would come through as promised.  I wish ONE of these resumes I’m sending out would get an answer from a real manager instead of a form letter.”

When he was in the midst of the compression zone, a friend of Marshall’s told him:  “If you get through this and keep pressing forward, you’re gonna get to a next stage that’s a whole lot better.  It’s the harvest season of your life.  It’s when things really do start paying off.”

Is there really a light at the end of the tunnel?  More at Intuit's Fast Track blog.

5 Work Habits to Break Today

Okay, it's honesty time.  I do some of these - what about you?

Being 10 minutes late for everything

You may run late in all aspects of your life, or maybe you just do it at work because you’ve over-scheduled your time.  Either way, stop being the person who’s always holding things up.  Being punctual will endear you to your colleagues and protect you in case your manager happens to be a clock-watcher.

Spending too much time on personal stuff

We’ve all been there.  Things are a little slow at the office, so the work hours between 10AM-12PM are spent shopping on Amazon, checking Facebook, and reading gossip sites.  As much as you can, strive to curb this behavior.  If you need something to do, volunteer to help a colleague or invest in your professional development.

Complaining

The business world isn’t always an easy place to be, but whining about negative circumstances or annoying people only makes your situation worse.  Try to be the solution-oriented person on your team who is always looking for ways to turn a bad scenario into a more positive one.

For a few more bad habits to watch out for, have a look at Intuit's Fast Track blog.

In the Workplace, Appearance Still Counts for A Lot

In June of 2012, the University of Virginia announced the resignation of its president, Teresa Sullivan.  Faculty members received an e-mail indicating that the dismissal was due to a “philosophical difference of opinion” with the institution’s governing board.  Sullivan had been with the university just two years, and in the opinion of some, had been let go for little or no reason.

College presidents are chief executives too

In the New York Times Magazine, Sullivan’s allies suggested that she didn’t fit the governing board’s image of a chief executive.  Sullivan’s fashion sense, which was typically academic, had apparently offended the higher-ups.  During Sullivan’s performance review, she received comments that her dress was too informal. “I don’t know what the unprofessional dress was,” Sullivan told the Times. “I do live here at the university, so when I’m working out or doing something else here, people will see me.”

Would the same criticism be given to a man? Here what I think over at Intuit's Fast Track blog.

Are You Promotion Material?

According to a study from the Center for Talent Innovation, 268 senior executives cited executive presence, or being perceived as leadership material, as an essential component to getting ahead.  In fact, executive presence accounted for, on average, 25 percent of what it takes to get promoted.  Co-sponsored by Marie Claire, the research initiative was led by my colleague Sylvia Hewlett, who often studies the barriers faced by women in achieving workplace equality.

Executive presence: the two magic words

Apparently, the desire for work/life balance and other oft-cited female challenges are not actually the reasons so few women make it to the C suite.  The principal factor women are neglecting is executive presence.  The majority of female executives don’t understand it and don’t know how to display it effectively.

According to the study, the three areas that comprise executive presence are:

• Gravitas:  The ability to project confidence, poise under pressure, and decisiveness.  Sixty-seven percent of senior executives surveyed cited gravitas as the core characteristic of executive presence.
• Communication: includes excellent speaking skills, assertiveness, and the ability to read an audience or situation.  Twenty-eight percent of surveyed executives felt that good communication telegraphs that you’re leadership material.
• Appearance:  While how you look and dress does affect your executive presence, it’s not nearly as critical as the first two factors.  Only 5 percent of the executives thought appearance was the #1 consideration in the decision to promote.

In addition to having a strong executive presence, sounding educated is essential if you want to ascend to the next level.  Nearly sixty percent of executives felt that unprofessional, uninformed speech detracts from executive presence.

Check out the full post on Intuit's Fast Track blog for more on how to learn executive presence.

Advice for Those Struggling to Stay Motivated

Over at Intuit's Fast Track blog, we received the following reader question:

Here’s the question, with our experts’ responses below:

Do you have any tips for concentration or productivity in the office? I’m more than a year into my first full-time position in marketing, and I’m either experiencing burnout or a newfound case of ADD. My company is small, and sometimes I get to the office and am alone for several hours of the day. I seem to get sucked into checking blogs, wanting to sleep, texting friends, thinking about coffee breaks, etc. I put off my work, thinking that I’ll tackle it later that night, but when I get home, I am so exhausted that I barely move from the couch.

When I do have a deadline, I am able to meet it, but it’s not because I work ahead – more like I rush until the end. The work my company does is very meaningful, but I just stopped caring recently and don’t know what to do. I want to be successful, productive and energized but it seems my mind and body are fighting against me. How do you stay motivated?

Here's my answer:

Although you ask about productivity, I’m going to focus your last statement on motivation because I believe this is the crux of your issue.  Getting motivated isn’t easy in today’s professional world, which is stressful and chaotic even in organizations with meaningful missions.  However, the good news is that your own level of motivation is in your control, and you have the power to change it.

The lowest hanging fruit here is to read (or re-read) a few of the great business classics – I recommend Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People/How to Stop Worrying and Start Living and Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – and posting some of your favorite inspirational quotes in your cube or office. Share the concepts that resonate with you most with others, and you’ll be surprised how much easier it is to believe in them yourself.

Sign up for any personal development or leadership courses your company offers, and stay busy so you don’t have time to sit around and think about your lack of motivation, or waste time, which just makes you feel worse.  If you haven’t already done a self-assessment or thought carefully about what you really want out of work and how you can get it, now’s the time.  Once you formulate a big picture, don’t let it out of your mind.  Do something every week, like mastering a new skill or taking on a new project, that brings you one step closer to your overall career goal, and celebrate your little successes along the way.

There will still be days when you just can’t get it together.  When that happens, be patient and wait for the mood to pass. Pretend it’s your first day of a new job, and imagine approaching every task with confidence, eagerness, and enthusiasm. You can do the same thing by imagining that this is the best day of your working life.  When you get home from work, you are still full of energy because you have accomplished so much and touched so many people.  Keeping these types of thoughts at the forefront will help you battle the malaise that inevitably creeps into everyday life.

For more great tips from the other experts, check out the full post.

What No One Tells You About Getting Raises

According to Tribe HR’s  Pay Raise Index, women received more pay raises than men during 2012, but men earned larger pay raises. TribeHR analyzed salary and workplace recognition (“kudos”) data from 20,000 employees at 2,200 small to medium-sized companies between Q1-Q3 2012, and found that, 7.4 percent of women received raises while only 6.2 percent of men received raises.

Overall, the Index reported that average salary increase for employees at small and medium-sized businesses grew by almost 11 percent between Q1 and Q3 2012. The size of the average salary raise grew from 8 percent in Q1, to 13 percent in Q2, but then dropped to 11 percent in Q3.

Peer Recognition: An Under-the-Radar Influencer

More interestingly, however, the study also examined the correlation between salary increases and employees who had received documented recognition for a job well done. It found that 85 percent of documented recognition was given by peers, and that employees who received recognition from peers were two to three times more likely to earn a pay raise.

So it’s recognition from peers rather than recognition from managers that matters most.  Go figure.  In any case, it has always been important to purposefully raise the visibility of your terrific contributions within the organization.  But given this new information, it’s now essential.  If you want a raise this year or next, it’s up to you to document as much positive feedback from your peers as possible.

How do you do this?  Find out more over at Intuit's Fast Track blog.

The Solution for People Who Suck at Sales

Some of you know that I’ve been spending the last year honing my sales strategies, and boy has it been tough.

See, I’m not in a situation where I’ve traditionally had to sell.  My first book, They Don’t Teach Corporate in College, was released to great media attention and sales while I still had a full time job.  If someone read the book and came to me asking if I could speak at their event or consult for their organization, that was gravy.  I already had money, and I didn’t need them.

Then, however, I left the stable job and started my own business.  At first things were okay, because I was still getting a lot of inbound inquiries.  Incredibly, I still had enough to keep me busy through the first two years of the recession.  But in early 2011, something shifted.  My pipeline dried up, and I suddenly had to go out and proactively interest potential clients in my offerings.

I got turned down a lot.  I’m still getting turned down a lot.   It’s nothing personal.  I’m just “not in the budget.”  I’ve thought long and hard about why this is the case, and I’ve concluded that even though my services solve a critical workplace problem (brain drain caused by Boomer retirement, retention of skilled younger employees), my prospects don’t yet view this problem as a priority.

According to Eric Slife of SalesGravy.com, the primary reason prospects reject sales proposals is that an offering is not tied to their Critical Success Factors (CSFs), or things that keep the business afloat.  In a down economy especially, companies will do what they have to to protect their CSFs, and everything else will fall by the wayside.

We are all salespeople to some degree.  Even if you’re not selling a product to an outsider, chances are you still have to sell an idea to an internal constituency or a promotion to your boss.  Given that, I thought it would be helpful to share some of Slife’s tips for mapping your offering to a CSF and increasing its priority:

Change the perception of your offering

Too many salespeople are still selling value added benefits and opportunities.  Unfortunately, that’s not what’s making people pull the trigger on decisions now. Your prospects are focused on lost sales, lost profits, and surviving.  In other words, fear is their number one motivator.  You need to position your product or service in such a way that brings some peace of mind to your prospect’s worried state.

Head over to Intuit's Fast Track blog for lots more!

Turn Your Temp Job Into Full Time Gold

When most people think of temp work, they picture young professionals with no or very recent college diplomas working a series of low-level administrative jobs.

I’ve recently learned that this perception is very outdated.  In New York City recently, I sat down with Rebecca Cenni, CEO of Atrium Staffing, to talk about how the new kind of temporary worker is actually a mid-level professional who takes on a short-term consulting assignment in order to bolster her portfolio and fill in the employment gap while looking for a full-time job.

According to Rebecca, large and small organizations are increasingly turning to temporary workers as a way to mitigate the risk of hiring full-time employees in what is still considered a down economy.  By working with what Rebecca calls an “applicant-centric” staffing agency, professionals at all levels can assess the market and their individual options.

For many, those options might include a 2 week-3 month short-term assignment at an established company that might be more difficult to break into as a full-timer.  During the stint, their benefits would be paid by the staffing agency.

The question I’m sure you’re asking, though, involves how you can turn a temporary assignment into a full-time and more stable job. 

Understand what you’re getting into

Unlike full-time employees, you will initially lack context regarding how you are expected to perform and why.  To combat this, research the company ahead of your assignment and ask your staffing counselor or recruiter to tell you about how to get along in this particular culture.

Check out the full post on Intuit's Fast Track blog for more from Rebecca.

Could You Work From Anywhere?

Many of us are growing increasingly accustomed to doing our work from anywhere, anytime.  It’s a skill we will certainly need in the years to come.  But since I am working in London as we speak, I’ve been researching what it means to be truly location independent.  To that end, blogger Sean Ogle has provided some excellent suggestions for being as safe and productive as you can while working overseas.

Suggestion 1: Reliable VPN

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, and the primary purpose is to allow you to allow you to securely connect to a network remotely.  A VPN can allow you to hide your actual identity or location.  Many countries block certain sites completely, so the only way to access them is when connected to a VPN.  A VPN can also make you look like you’re in the country, which can come in handy if you need location-specific search results, for instance.  Sean recommends Express VPN.

For more recommendations, check out the full post on Intuit's Fast Track blog.

How to Avoid Self-Destructing on Foreign Soil

On April 20, 2010, the oil rigger Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, causing the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.  After the explosion killed or injured 28 workers and released 4.9 million barrels of crude oil, the gushing wellhead was finally capped. British Petroleum (BP), the multi-billion dollar oil and gas company, was indisputably responsible.

Instead of expressing true remorse and compassion for the disaster, then CEO Tony Hayward committed a series of cultural gaffes that enraged U.S. citizens and lawmakers. For instance, well before the Gulf crisis was resolved, Hayward proclaimed that he “wanted his life back.” Then, as efforts to plug the leak continued feverishly in the U.S., he casually took in a sailing race with his son off the Isle of Wight in the UK.

Hayward’s American Disconnect

This behavior was consistent with Hayward’s work/life balance philosophy.  He once said publicly that he didn’t work weekends and took all of his holidays no matter what.  What the British Hayward failed to realize was that most Americans don’t necessarily agree with this point of view. It is the American way to take responsibility for one’s mistakes and do everything you can to remedy a bad situation. Until the problem is solved, free time does not exist. Since Americans were affected most when Deepwater Horizon exploded, many wanted to see Tony Hayward on a boat participating in the clean-up.

Although much of his business is conducted in the U.S., Hayward did not demonstrate strong global competence. His lack of understanding regarding how the crisis would be received in the U.S. led to a backward slide of goodwill and a plunging stock price for BP. That summer, it would also cost him his job.

To find out how you can avoid a Tony Hayward-like PR catastrophe, read my advice over at the AMEX Open Forum.