Team building is not an easy process for a startup. As one of the creators of WhyHire.me, I sometimes get so caught up in my own ambition of creating my vision that I fail to take a moment to recognize the tremendous weight and responsibility of asking others to join me on this journey. I have already made the decision to risk everything to see this idea become something successful; for my team (current and future), I am asking them to risk a lot to join our startup. Everyone that knows me well and has worked with me, understands that I will do absolutely everything in my power to make sure as a company we always march forward –- together.

As a leader, I’m subservient as much as I am controlling. My team understands that we have a plan that is well-thought-through, and does not rely on luck (i.e. low probability events), nor hope — but execution. At my very core, I believe in order to succeed, we need to build an incredibly tight unit. There will be times where I will need to ask each and every person on my team to make sacrifices, whether it be extra time at work as opposed to time at home, or helping out a team member whose code was accidentally causing SQL injection attacks or even asking my team to build something over from scratch because we need to change direction, or as they say in startup lingo – pivot.

The degree to which my team is willing to respond to decisions absolutely affects our ability to succeed perhaps more than any other factor in a startup. If my team is going to follow me into battle, then as a leader, I must serve them well. The Canadian Army abides by the military doctrine, “mission, team, self”. In a startup, I like to think it’s the same.

Steve Jobs calls himself a recruiter. I used to think that was weird, but more and more I am realizing that team is the only key to success and the reality is, great people want to work at a winner. I know I do.

If you’re in a startup or even, a member of a great team, I want to hear from you! “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.” – Michael Jordan

I have had the opportunity to interview several great companies and smart HR practioners and it started to become very clear that success does not necessarily come to those with the highest IQ, nor to those who went to the best schools, nor even those who chose the most in demand specialty at that time. Rather, lifelong drive and determination have been more influential in predicting professional success.  Unless you are working on something you love, it is hard to find the discipline to exhibit drive and determination with consistent conviction.

Calvin Coolidge, said “Nothing in the world can take place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

Many people, when making career plans, ask themselves what they are good at. However, as Coolidge pointed out, talents (or skills or strengths) are not the key issue, even if they are relevant.  Rather, what is important is what inspires persistence and determination – in other words, what do you care about.  Don’t worry about what you’re good at. If something turns you on, you’ll be good enough. If it doesn’t, you won’t.

Your strengths are irrelevant: What you like and enjoy doing is critical! Success, in my humble opinion, comes from doing what you enjoy – at least that’s what I believe. If you don’t enjoy it, how can it be called success?
Do you agree? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

One topic that came up, as it often does, is the power of TED videos.  As part of the WhyHire.me training process, I ask students to find a TED video that inspires them and either falls in line with their interests, passions or area of study.  My students have found the most amazing content that has inspired both them and me.  It’s because of TED videos my Computer Science students shared in blog posts that I’m now continuing my learning in the area of gaming theory and engagement models.

The TED videos are an amazing resource to tap into at all stages of our careers.  They are short at only 20 minutes, highlight the thinking of brilliant minds all over the world on topics of interest to anyone, and there is a never ending supply because they are the by-product of on-going events.  Above everything else, they are inspiring.  They get you thinking, asking questions, and pulling new thoughts into your consciousness.

I recommended that everyone invite TED to be part of their life long learning.  That’s my idea worth spreading.

A few of my favorites:

• Sir Ken – Schools Kill Creativity
• Simon Sinek – How great leaders inspire action
• Jane McGonigal:  Gaming can make a better world
• Cameron Herold:  Let’s raise kids to be entrepreneurs

Let’s first start with groups.  We put students in groups to complete projects but we don’t always give them the skills and guidance to become an effective team.  A group is a collection of people with no real structure or plan.  The hope is that people are placed into a group, some guidelines are provided and with those guidelines we expects teams to form.

Now, if only building teams was that simple.  There are so many levels of team development including looking at personalities, roles, objectives, a charter for engagement and the project management that’s required to deliver a final project.  In many cases, I have noticed that my student teams will slice up duties based on skills, time and personality type.  This process creates a disjointed project where in most cases one or maybe two people pick up the ball and take responsibility for the majority of the work.

The missing piece is often collaboration.  Collaboration means that the group is involved in the thinking not just a task.  It’s the sharing of facts, viewpoints and experience that provides for the richness of collaboration.  I may come to the table with a good idea but it’s my collaborators that will help me develop an even better idea, approach, or product.

This process of collaboration takes time and effort.  After all, you are building relationships. Trust has to be built and respect has to be earned.

I’ve been lucky enough to work on a few collaborative projects over the last few months both inside Algonquin College and outside as an entrepreneur.  One of my most recent projects is working with Sue Murphy of Jester Creative,  Shawn MacDonell of Creativision, and Ian Graham of The Code Factory on a seminar series.  Together, we are offering collaborative seminars for entrepreneurs and wanna-be entrepreneurs in Ottawa.  Sue provides a wonderful outline of the seminar on her blog SuzeMuse.  We believe that by combining our expertise, we can offer a broader array of knowledge and a more valuable learning experience for entrepreneurs.  If you are interested in joining us for an evening of collaboration and learning, you can register on The Code Factory website.

With our Night @ the Code Factory events, we want to bring people together so they can start building trust and respect and in turn start to collaborate on their business ideas and goals.  I will be looking at new ways to integrate collaboration into the classroom next year also.  As the world becomes more open, the best ideas will rise to the top.  Collaboration will become a necessary skill for all entrepreneurs.

When I say values, I’m not talking about “honesty”, “integrity” or any of that standard stuff. I’m talking about what is the key reason or the key thing that drives and motivates you.

Part of the attraction toward a job or career is the satisfaction that comes from it.  Research has indicated that the most satisfaction we get from a job is associated with the degree to which our personal values match those of the other employees that you work with.  Both people and organizations have values and they need to be shared values.

Are your values real, meaningful, and sustainable? How do you think about your values?
When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier.

“What Color is Your Parachute” is considered by many as the most popular job-hunting guide. With well over 10 million copies sold, in 20 different languages, it’s certainly hard to argue its global success.  The book, by itself, does not cover everything you need to know about getting a job but it does provide readers with some useful employer hiring insight.

Finding a job today presents many unique challenges that did not exist even five years ago.  Job seekers should no longer rely exclusively on traditional ways to find work (i.e., sending out resumes and waiting for a response), but to utilize some of the more successful and proactive strategies.  Job seekers that rely exclusively on job boards to post their resume and then wait for their employer of choice to call them about an open position, will likely have a low success rate in finding a job.

One of the best diagrams in the book, illustrates how employers prefer to find job candidates (see image below).

I would argue that this is probably one of the most important things every job seeker should clearly understand.  You will notice 6 different layers to the funnel. When going from the top to the bottom, this is how employers prefer filling vacancies. When going from the bottom to the top, this is how job hunters prefer being found, and unfortunately, how most job seekers today search for employment.

With web innovation, social media growth and employers constantly looking to hire the ‘best’ talent for their needs, the traditional way people look for jobs (i.e. job boards) will eventually be replaced by new and innovative companies looking to disrupt the traditional model.  LinkedIn is one example, where users can get proof driven recommendations from their peers.

At WhyHire.me, we are focused on creating a proof driven platform that helps students with limited work experience showcase their initiative, demonstrate progress and help employers pre-qualify talented candidates, so they will have talent in the pipeline when those positions become available.  For example, if you’re a programmer, we’ll let you showcase your program and source code; if your goal is to be a counselor, you can share your volunteer work, and/or a relevant case study; etc.  Hiring the right candidate is about establishing trust, early and often, and the web will continue to transform this process.

Interested in connecting? Follow me on twitter @robsaric

Hundreds of millions of the best-educated, most qualified job candidates are becoming members of social networking sites like LinkedIn, Doostang, Ryze, and Facebook.  Increasingly, smart recruiters & hiring managers are joining these sites too to connect with these individuals and cultivate lasting relationships.

Why do social networking sites attract desirable candidates?

One reason could be that high-achieving professionals are more drawn to networking, and that strong networks have contributed to their professional success. Also, these individuals tend to be savvier and more selective about where they work.They are more likely to periodically reevaluate their careers and seek out or at least be open to new opportunities for career advancement.

Resumes Are Not Organic

In the past, one big problem with job boards and resume submission was resumes would become outdated, sometimes making it difficult to even get in touch with a candidate. Because social network profiles are self-maintained, organic documents, they tend to be more accurate and up to date with a candidate’s most current experience, qualifications, availability, and contact information. Additional features of social network profiles, such as showing who you know in common, testimonials from colleagues, and profile search capability, makes the recruiter’s job easier.These features provide valuable additional insights that allow recruiters to qualify candidates earlier in the cycle and not have to waste their time or the candidates’ time when there is not a good fit.

Social Recruiting Will Be Transformational

Because there is a limited supply of good jobs, the ratio of jobs to job seekers is typically low. In contrast, there are far more product advertisements and sales pitches than interested buyers. Recruiting is also far more personal. Accepting a new job is a major life decision. Few goods and services can be classified with the same level of importance. Together, this means that interpersonal rapport between recruiters and candidates is even more important than in sales, and that online social networking tools have the potential to be even more transformational.  Job seekers should realize that their online  presence is another data point during the hiring process and can be a crucial differentiator in evaluating a candidate, depending on the position.

Referrals Still King

It is estimated that half of all jobs are obtained through referrals.   Whether it‘s networking at a professional event, extending relationships with contacts you made online or even asking an old college roommate to refer you to their boss — finding a job has always contained a social element. And in today’s information age, social real-time interaction is becoming the norm. People spend 22 percent of all online time interacting through blogs and social networks. Services like Facebook (+500 million users) and Twitter (+145 million users) dominate the web space, and LinkedIn boasts over 75 million profession­als worldwide.

Job Search, Still a Disjointed Process

Despite the overwhelming presence of online social networking, the social aspect of job search remains a primarily offline process. Those who do leverage their connections for a job must engage in a disjointed process: asking around for contacts, calling friends of friends, schedul­ing in-person meetings, cold-calling hiring managers … even emails must be composed manually.  I’m confident that this reactive process will improve with new web tools that will intelligently connect job seekers with employers.

Social job search will look to bring our professional and social connections into the same plane as job listings, this is already happening on LinkedIn. When a relevant opportunity is discovered, a job seeker is able to see if any of their connections work at that company, or can otherwise offer help in obtaining the desired job.

The Shift is Happening

The offline social aspect of job search will continue to converge with online social networking.  This fundamental shift will be most widely adopted by the “Generation Y” audience.  This future generation of job seekers will expect a process that is transparent, social, personal, mobile and efficient.  To best prepare for these new job seekers, it is critical that employers understand the directions in which job search is evolving. The digital synthesis of personal profiles, social and professional networks, and online recruiting tools for employers will allow jobseekers to proactively stage their presence online and better position themselves as qualified candidates.

If all you’re using Twitter to do is build a base of followers to whom you can eventually send your resume, then you’re doing it all wrong. Of course, in a simple information-sharing situation, the follow agreements make sense, as you can quickly increase your contacts in a short amount of time. But what does it do for your personal relationships ‘in real life’? Not much, if at all. And this could harm your job search.

Those who try to boost followers by following the golden rule of Twitter sometimes miss out on creating stronger connections within the Twitter community. And if that’s the case, then how can adding those users to your roster of followers and following help your own cause, be that finding a job or marketing your services? It’s fairly easy to catch a spam Twitter account, or even a Twitter account that does little but promote its user. These sorts of accounts can increase your followers, but they also associate you with a part of Twitter that is a bit useless and clunky.

The trick, then, to better managing your contacts in Twitter is to carefully consider follow requests and the recommended users to follow list. If someone follows you, you are in no way obligated to follow them back. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check them out. You should definitely visit their profile to get to know what they do. That way, you can evaluate them as a worthwhile follower, or block them if they seem like a spam account, and you can also look at their history to see if you’d like to follow them in the future, thus building your own brand.

Twitter users should understand that the Twitter platform is just like any other online tool, and as such, there is a degree of separation from real life that needs to be accounted for. In real life, for example, you treat someone politely who greets you at a party. You don’t follow them home afterwards! Likewise, if someone follows you online, you’re more than welcome to @ them in a Tweet to thank them for the follow, but you don’t need to return the favor. Should they choose to drop you shortly afterwards, it’s no big deal. It probably wasn’t a worthwhile connection to begin with.

Similarly, you’ll have users that you follow who don’t follow you back. Evaluate how that makes you feel. If you’re not worried by that, then you truly understand how Twitter works, and you understand its uses and limitations. But if you feel offended that another user won’t follow you back when you follow them, then maybe you should step back and reevaluate your brand, and how your brand operates online. The most important thing to keep in mind is that if someone doesn’t follow you, that actually gives you an opportunity to think of how you could convince them to follow you. And you do that by connecting with them personally.

This guest post is contributed by Kate Willson, who writes on the topics of best online colleges.  She welcomes your comments at her email katewillson2 at gmail.com.

He drew a very clear analogy that resonated with me. Way back in the late 19th century, visionary teachers and school administrators had to convince people of the need to make space and develop curriculum for shop class and home economics. Why? These two disciplines were deemed essential skills for tomorrow’s graduates.

Today, the same could be said for digital media citizenship.

This week, I participated in a panel discussion about the impact of social media on the high school experience. From my perspective as a parent, I do advocate the notion that parents should get in the game (click the link to see my presentation). One can assume that kids that grow up on the web get it. I checked my son’s Facebook settings and noting he was sharing everything with everyone, despite our family guidelines. He thought he had the settings nailed – not so. He has also needed to learn the lesson that you are what you post on the Internet.

Recent events have also highlighted just how tragic cyber-bullying has become. Over the past few weeks, I have noted people calling for more education or perhaps digital media citizenship courses for our tweens, teens and up and coming graduates. At this local meeting, parents were asking, “what is the high school doing to teach our kids”? Our local high school touches on social media across a handful of courses. I would imagine school board officials are taking a broader look at this now or soon. Perhaps we will see high school credit courses offering digital media citizenship? It would be a great way to mentor more up and coming leaders.

At the post-secondary level, we are seeing the career success agenda wrap social media/digital media citizenship into select classes and programs. From our viewpoint, it is something that needs to be weaved into entire programs from the day a student arrives. Check out David Johnson’s perspective on professionalism. As the Dean of the School of Business at Centennial College, it starts on day 1.