“Being Strategic: Plan for Success, Out-think Your Competitors, Stay Ahead of Change” by Erika Andersen (St. Martin’s Griffin, $15.99).
Andersen defines strategy as “consistently making those core directional choices that will best move you toward your hoped-for future.” The key words: hoped-for-future. Vision begets ideas which spawn plans.
“Define your challenge” — macro and micro. Llewellyn, the 13th century Welch prince used as an everyman metaphor throughout the book, wants to build a castle to defend his turf and protect his people. He poses big-picture, “How can we …” questions to his nobles and advisors. The answers lead to more questions that take the project from 10,000 feet to ground level. Answers at the micro do three things:
• Help gauge timeline;
• Provide budget insight;
• Minimize unintended consequences.
What’s next? “Clarify what is.” And what isn’t. SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis helps identify where you are and some apparent obstacles. One of the key questions: Do you have the right people? In Llewellyn’s case, farmers and soldiers aren’t architects, stonecutters and builders. If you don’t have the right people, it will take more time and money — and the end product may not be quite what was envisioned.
“Envision what’s the hope.” Combine your what’s-next challenge with what-is reality. Get supporters onboard so the vision becomes collective — and so does the effort required to make it real.
“Face what’s in the way.” Watch your self-talk. Your interior commentator is always on. You have to measure what it says against reality, lest enthusiasm and emotion dictate action. Also, even though you anticipated finding trolls under bridges and prepared contingency plans, things never go quite as planned on a new venture. Learn to adapt.
“Determine what’s the path.” Select your core directional choice(s). Develop tactics that support it. Execute; pay attention to tactical results; tweak and follow through; move forward.
As Llewellyn builds his castle on the hill, you can build yours, too.
“Cracking the Hidden Job Market” by Donald Asher (Ten Speed Press, $14.99).
I’d bet everyone knows someone who got hired because he/she was recommended by a friend, relative, colleague, etc. All those new hires found their way into the “hidden job market” — the market that finds candidates by word of mouth. The market rolls into action as soon as there’s a new job posting. Employees begin thinking of friends and relatives who have the qualifications and hand-deliver résumés to the hiring manager.
Why does the hidden market account for well over 50 percent of new hires (over 70 percent for management and executive positions)? A hiring manager has two choices:
Hire someone who was recommended, which makes the hiring decision more confident and shortens the hiring process;
Take a great deal of time sifting through hundreds of résumés (According to recent studies, 25 percent of which contain lies.) and interviewing a number of applicants, checking references, etc.
The message to job seekers: You’d better talk to strangers — and lots of them. Your connection has to get you a handshake with a hiring manager. It doesn’t matter if your connection is “an ex-husband’s tennis buddy’s dog walker’s accountant.” I put in that quote because the hiring connection seldom comes on the first level of contact. Business-to-business networking shows that buying decisions are made as far down as the sixth level of contact. It’s the same in the hidden job market.
Networking involves the “law of large numbers.” The more people with whom you talk, the faster the network connects with a hiring manager. Asher points out connection sources most of us have and shows how to manage 100 contacts.
Networking opens the door to the hidden job market.
Jim Pawlak is a nationally syndicated book reviewer.
