Happy Holidays!

Whatever holidays you celebrate,
I hope they are wonderful, and that you
take some time to renew your energy,
and have some fun.    

Christmas has always been a really
special time for me and my family,
and we had a great time.

We are now off to the UK to visit
my husband’s family, and to attend
a 3-day New Year’s party in the Lake District with good friends.

Thank you again for all your interest, ideas and support this yea!  Please stay in touch.

To YOU, and to Peace and Prosperity in the New Year.

If you are interested…

Here are some of the great things that have happened at Azzarello Group this year thanks to you!

•  The end of 2008 marks Azzarello Group’s second year of business success. Thank You.
•  The rate of new membership signups has grown by an order of magnitude –really cool.
• Hundreds of people have gone through the Career/Leadership workshops – This has been great – I love working with really smart people.
• Business has taken me to several countries in Europe and Asia – I always feel lucky to get a chance to work with people across the world.  I learn so much.
• Your business with Azzarello Group has fueled charitable donations to:

           Heifer International

           Habitat for Humanity in New Orleans

           Monterey County Food Bank

If you are not familiar with Heifer International, they are a fantastic organization.

They are  60+ year old global non-profit
organization that provides livestock, training,
and community development to families i
n need.  Their gifts provide high quality food
and the means to earn a living. 

Azzarello Group in its first two years, thanks to clients, has donated several water buffalos, heifers, goats, llamas, flocks of birds, rabbits, honey bee hives, plus two Gift Ark’s (They don’t offer a Partridge in a Pear Tree!)
 

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It’s ugly out there…And I want to help.

So I have decided to make
membership FREE for you into 2009.

Career Insurance & Opportunities

Membership topics next year will help you:

• Build and preserve your value to your company
• Strengthen your Personal Brand value, and
• Grow your opportunity base for your business and career.

Members get access to:

• Monthly Webinars
• Monthly live coaching time with me
• Podcasts of the monthly member calls
• Transcripts of the member calls and live discussion sessions
• Articles and more.

If you are not already a member you can join here for free.

THINGS YOU CAN DO RIGHT AWAY

1. Browse the Archive

Is there anything you missed this year?

2. Download Podcasts

All the member webinars are available as podcasts.

Here’s what the membership topics were this year: Download away!

Authentic Networking                 Making Room
Investing in Strengths                 Your Personal Brand
Ruthless Priorities                       What really matters to You
Building Your Credibility             Leading vs. Managing
Networking vs. Politics               Making time & Energy
Managing Your Boss

3. Tell your friends

One of my favorite comments I got from a member was that Azzarello Group is my secret place I go to get tips how to operate.  I share the site with my friends, but not my peers. 

If you know someone who would benefit from having another career advantage in their toolkit, (who you are willing to share the secret with!) please forward this to them, and encourage them to look around and join.   Membership will be free to them as well. 

And I’d really appreciate the referral.

4. Sign up for January’s webinar on Increasing Your Value. 

I am very excited about this one, as we will be joined by Jack Mollen, EVP or HR for EMC on the topic of Increasing Your Value to your Company, sharing an “insiders view” of how companies are assessing their workforce and what you can do.

You can register for this webinar now, right here.

5. Give me feedback

I want to make membership even more valuable.

If you have any thoughts, questions, or topics you would like to see covered next year, please leave your comments below or email me. 

One of my personal brand values is “useful” so I am always striving to make the topics as relevant and useful as possible:

• What have you valued the most? 
• What would you like to see next? 
• Have I annoyed you?

The “Group” in Azzarello Group

As we conclude 2008, it’s hard not to think about the big challenges we face next year, personally and professionally, in this remarkably ugly economy.  But there are bright spots to be found and things you can do to stack the deck in your favor. 

I look forward to working with you, sharing my experience and insights, and connecting you with other really smart people who I admire and learn from, as well as each other.

I hope Azzarello Group membership gives you a place to go when you have real questions, and a significant advantage as you build your career!

Thank you to our long time members!
If you’re not already a member, you can join for free here.

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Many of you have raised the question –

How come there are so many highly successful assholes?

Well…(sigh),  clearly, being an asshole does not prevent you from being successful — we can all name at least a few. 

And as you know, I believe that you will be most successful and most powerful if you are being yourself.   So if who you authentically are is a brilliant asshole, it would probably not serve you as well to try and be artificially nice to people. 

The next question is:

Can you be successful and be nice too?

Yes.

I know there are a lot of people out there who aspire to big success and are hoping that you can achieve it, and also be a good person who you are proud of along the way.

It boils down to this: You can’t create big success alone. 

You must win the support and loyalty of people along the way.

Choice 1: If you do it by building and earning trust, treating people like humans, creating good working environments with clear priorities, managing performance, developing people, and being generous with feedback and appreciation, you will create a motivated and loyal workforce.

Choice 2: If you treat people like crap, you still need their motivation and loyalty, so you’ll need to BUY it.

Virtually all of the successful leaders I have encountered who treat people badly — from their executives to the barista at the coffee house — and take no care whatsoever to create a positive working environment — have purchased the loyalty and motivation of their team by paying noticeably more than you can get elsewhere. 

This can work.  This does work. 

OK – reality check – in this economic environment where people are becoming more and more glad to have a job at all, more assholes will be “getting away with it”, without necessarily paying more. 

But loyalty and motivation still suffer a big blow.  As soon as things turn around, when people can find a different job for the same pay — one where they are not getting tortured, they will move on. 

And if things don’t turn around quickly, the highest performers who can always find a job, will unlikely be retained with more money, because there is no more money.

When the money runs out, you are out of moves.

If instead you have built a foundation of trust and sensible working environment, with fair pay (rewarding the stars, and managing out the low performers) people will stick with you through good times and bad. 

And you definitely can achieve big success over time.

Personal note:

Very early in my career,  I was concerned that you really did have to be a nasty person to get ahead.  Maybe even lie, cheat and steal to do it.   But I had the good fortune of finding a role model and a mentor who was not only an inspiring and hugely successful business leader, but who was a good and caring person with high integrity too.

It really defined the core of my own personal leadership strategy which is based on the premise that growing successful businesses come from growing, successful people.

This may not make me a multi-billionaire, but that’s OK with me. 

The best part of my own career and any success I achieved was when I could help people along the way achieve more than they dreamed, and the many friendships that have come out of it. 

Related Resources:

Leading vs. Managing Podcast
Investing in Strengths Podcast

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Other recent posts:

10 things to Give your Network
Don’t Be Boring
Better with Less
Does your Work-at-Home Policy Work?
Retaining Top People in this Ugly Economy

Many people worry that spending time networking is being “Political” which they are philosophically against, or that it’s a selfish activity to “get” things from other people.

The Networking Paradox:

• You need a network that can help you
• Networking is about Giving not Taking

Highly successful people are successful because they get a lot of help, not because they are too good to need it.   Their network is ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice, whenever they need it – and they call upon it regularly.

But then how is Networking about Giving? 

• You Build your network by Giving
• You Use your network by Taking

 The trick:

• GIVE when you don’t need anything
• TAKE LESS than you GIVE - always

10 Things you can Give your Network:

1. Hello, news:  Just say hello or update people when something interesting happens.  Be the one to stay in touch. You are not asking for anything.  You like to hear from people, so do they.

2.  Remember things: Listen. Keep details about them in your contact database. Did your son get his black belt? Did you buy the Aston Martin?  How is your daughter doing in NY?  It feels good when someone remembers your details.

3. Offer to help: What is your challenge right now? How I can help you? 

4. Positive feedback:  I was really impressed with [that article, that talk, something you did]… it really made a difference to me.  Thank you.  How often do you get positive feedback? 

5. Say Thank You.  I can’t tell you how many people I only hear from when they need a reference, and then after I let them know I did it, I never hear from them again.  Saying thank you is a big deal in your network.  Thank people a lot and often.

6. Follow up: When you ask someone in your network for something and they give it (like a reference, advice, an introduction) let them know what happened.  Did you get the job? Did the idea work?  Most people don’t do this. I do all kinds of things people request of me, and never hear back about what happened.  When I do, it is the exception, and I am thrilled.

7. Make an introduction: Be astute about helpful introductions you can make.  You have then given two people a valuable gift without asking for anything in return.

8. A point of interest or enjoyment: If you remember what is important to people and what they like, it gives you an opportunity to point them to great stuff that you run across.  Food also works!

9. Photos:  Photos of things you saw and did, you, your family.  You always look at them, don’t you?  It is a real personal touch.   But make sure to either send a link or resize them.  Don’t email 8MB photos.

10. Video Mail: Video mail is an excellent way to make a contact as well.  People really appreciate it.  And it seems like a much bigger deal than it actually is!  Some free services here: www.eyejot.com and www.tokbox.com.

Schedule time to do it:

Schedule a block of time each week or month to reach out to your network. 

Think about how many emails you could send in 30 minutes.  Think about how many 1 minute video mails you could send in 1 hour.  Put 2 people in your calendar each month that you want to call to personally catch up with. 

You will find if you do these things, you will have an army of people who want to help you, and it won’t feel political or like you are being selfish.

Related Articles:

The Power of Weak Connections
Who has the best Ideas?
Authentic Networking

More Resources:

Attend this month’s Member Call on Networking vs. Politics

Download the Authentic Networking Podcast 

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I almost hired a guy sight unseen once who had on his resume “wheelchair rugby champion”. 
He was also very talented  – but that’s not what impressed me initially, or most.

I have interviewed hundreds of people for executive and senior management positions.  Virtually all of the people were qualified –
more than half of them were boring.

Now, more than ever – it’s time to stand out. 

One mistake people make is to present themselves as a “package of skills”. 
This is shooting yourself in the foot.  It’s dull. 
It’s unimpressive.  It positions you badly.
It bores the interviewer to death!

Boring: I have a lot of experience leading complex projects and programs. I always deliver on time. 

Sticky: I am very competitive, always have been.   So I make sure the goal is not only clearly defined, but looming large, to motivate the team to cross that finish line, because I am so driven to win. A great example of this is a funny story about when I was racing Italian motorcycles…

Boring: I have led service organizations for technology companies for 15 years.  I have experience in software and hardware.

Sticky: I have an unusual combination of strengths. I am both highly analytical AND hugely action oriented. I can analyze a lot of information quickly, but then I’m driven to ACT – not get more data.  This has always been true about me.  An interesting example: in college, I created and ran a children’s marine science competition…

Boring: I have exceeded quota for 17 quarters in a row.

Sticky:  I have a strong sense of empathy and I’m kind of obsessive about maximizing success in any situation.  Customers love me because it’s always clear that I am creating and fighting for exactly what they need.   As a result I have been able to make my numbers consistently in good times and bad.

Don’t skip the weird stuff!

I know a sales manager who had a former career directing theater.  I know an engineering manager who is an award winning chef!  Everyone that interviews them knows it too.

It’s as important to be memorable, as it is to make a good impression in the first place.  Is that the one who does competitive origami? gets you more far more traction than, is that the one who said they are good at delivering products on time?

The higher the position, the less the work skills matter, and the more it matters who you are as a human, what your values are, what your natural strengths are, how you lead, and how you choose and develop people. 

Sure you need to cover the skills to get the interview, but to win the job –

                 You need to convey WHY you are good at what you do.

By discussing your core strengths and values you show people what they are going to get when they get YOU; it shows in a more concrete way, why they can be confident that you will be successful.  

Really think about why you are good at what you do.  What makes you different?  What are the things that are always true about you, how you work, and why you are successful?

This is your interview gold.

More Resources:

If you want some help builiding your story, attend a Career Workshop.

Another angle on this:  Seth Godin wrote some advice here for marketing job seekers, but but it’s a great article for anyone interviewing.

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