My Career Weekly
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
Nothing truly motivates me more than talking with someone who is working on what they love. It really is infectious. But many people approach their career planning as an analytical exercise about which markets are growing and which professions are in demand. I know that was my approach when I first moved to Ottawa roughly 4 years ago. While this is relevant data, I believe that career planning is not primarily an analytical task. In predicting professional success, enthusiam and passion (and the hard work they inspire) count for much more than extra piece of ability.
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.
I recently spoke at the College Association for Language and Literacy (CALL) Conference at Algonquin College on the subject of personal branding and career marketing. We talked about many issues related to getting students career ready and the production of resumes and online profiles to assist with their career marketing.
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.
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Over the years, I have been privy to various discussions on the subject of groups, teams, leadership and most recently, collaboration.
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.
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If you think about your own life, your values form the cornerstones for all that you do, think, believe, and accomplish. Your values dictate your actions whether you are aware of it or not.
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.
Listen, I usually don’t get frustrated when I read posts, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, however, after reading this article on TLNT.com, I needed to add a few points about social recruiting. Laurie Ruettimann noted in her article that the HR community shouldn’t use the web during the recruiting process because “social media search is neither a reliable nor valid way to judge character, integrity, or competency.” We are now in the Information Age, your digital footprint is as much of a representation of you as your resume is. Today, if you’re a smart job candidate, you want to extend your presence online. HR people aren’t robots and the web is, and will continue to be fair game for hiring due diligence.
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.
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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. Click to continue
A tremendous champion of WhyHire.me is Lyle Wetsch at Memorial University in Newfoundland. Lyle is a strong advocate of personal branding and using the web for effective communications and marketing. We got to talking the other day about our respective challenges in the classroom and evangelizing the notion that young, adolescent and post-secondary students today need guidance, education and mentoring when it comes to using the Internet safely, appropriately and professionally. Click to continue
