Author: Jennifer Colosimo, Chief Learning Officer at FranklinCovey

Follow Jennifer on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jencolosimo

Previously, during my undergraduate degree, I was a salesperson in the Juniors department at a big department store.  I had a full-time job with a full-time school schedule and was living away from home for the first time.  I was tired.  When traffic slowed down one night, I laid down on the sale table, covered myself with $9.00 dollar t-shirts, and fell asleep.  Until the screams of an unwitting customer looking for a t-shirt woke me up.  My manager lectured me, but gave me a second chance.  But it impacted the trust I had with my manager and my colleagues.  I was no longer on the “high potential” list to become a manager.  I was watched closely, which was embarrassing. 

We’ve all had setbacks, whether we made a mistake, or we made a stand, or something happened we had absolutely no control over.  The point is:  what do you do next?  Does the situation begin to stand for who you are, what you can contribute, your outlook on life?  Or do you learn something, make amends as best you can, and move on.  Resilience is a key character trait for a great career. 

Author: Jennifer Colosimo, Chief Learning Officer at FranklinCovey

Follow Jennifer on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jencolosimo

The purpose of a resume is to obtain an interview, to start a conversation with the employer. Your cover letter is your opportunity to begin that conversation.  To say, “Hi, here’s why you should talk with me.” 

The worst thing you can do is write a “one size fits all” cover letter.  Just like your resume, you need to target your cover letter to the specific needs and values of the prospective employer.  Ideally, your cover letter is a one-page proposal to fill an important business need at your target employer.  This will require you to research your target employer—on the web, by asking if anyone knows anyone who works there, by reading blogs that mention the employer.  Your cover letter should include four things:

1. Start by summing up the problem or opportunity your target employer faces and describe how you plan to help solve it. Use numbers that are meaningful to the organization.
2. Give evidence that you can solve the problem and, if applicable, that you have solved one like it in the past.  That evidence could include work and educational accomplishments—facts that would lead your prospect to conclude you’re right for the challenge.
3. Provide contact information.
4.  Request a meeting.

What tips have you used when writing cover letters? I would love to hear from you.

Author: Jennifer Colosimo, Chief Learning Officer at FranklinCovey

You can also follow Jennifer on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jencolosimo

Q:  I struggle to find ways to add value to my contacts/network/village.  What are some other ways to build the Emotional Bank Account?

A:  I see my village as three circles, each one a bit smaller than the other with different levels of EBA deposits required for each.  The largest circle is the network to which I contribute in a largely electronic fashion.  The middle-sized circle are colleagues or friends that I have met face-to-face and probably talk to occasionally or meet for lunch.  The smallest circle are my most trusted friends, family, and colleagues.  Each circle of the village requires different activities.  I contribute to my large social network by posting and answering questions and passing on information that will be useful to an individual or group of people.  Just today, on the Organizational Change Practitioners group on LinkedIn I responded to a request for a change activity for large groups.  It started a conversation with Hanna, the woman who posted the question.  I also contributed to a conversation on the Sales Executive Council Peer Roundtable regarding the Inside Sales function.  By contributing to the small number of groups I belong to, I build relationships and build my reputation without investing more than 30 minutes/week. 

For the middle sized circle, I receive weekly updates regarding changes to my LinkedIn contacts and send congratulatory e-mails regarding promotions or updates.  I make a point to e-mail the individual with a funny story, a quick update, or some news that applies to their career or organization at least a few times a year. My birthday was last week and I received a lot of e-cards and quick e-mails from people who must have received an update from a social networking site.  I also send hand written thank you notes.

The inner circle receives the most investment of time because I do all of the above plus ask for and provide mentoring, act as a professional sounding board, set aside time for conversations and lunch or dinner when I’m in the same city and even work on projects to assist them with their great careers.  It sounds like a lot, but I know that I don’t invest more than  2 hours/week in networking.  And it provides a tremendous payoff—emotionally as well as career-wise.  To quote the Beatles, “The love you take is equal to the love you make.” (in building your network/village).

What have you found helpful as you build emotional bank accounts with your networks? I would love to hear from you.

Author: Jennifer Colosimo, Chief Learning Officer at FranklinCovey

You can also follow Jennifer on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jencolosimo

With the national unemployment rate in double digits and talk about layoffs and the economic crisis dominating newscasts and dinner tables everywhere, it’s no secret that today’s employees and job-seekers are more stressed, discouraged, and drained than ever.

To help people find work and career fulfillment in these tough economic times, Stephen Covey, author of the best-seller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and Jennifer Colosimo, chief learning officer at FranklinCovey, have launched the Great Career iPhone application, which was developed in partnership by FranklinCovey and Signal Patterns based on their new book Great Work, Great Career.

Get the Great Career iPhone application at iTunes at: http://bit.ly/GreatCareer

The Great Career iPhone app can be used in conjunction with the content in Stephen Covey and Jennifer Colosimo’s book or independently. Its specific activities and functionality include:

• Know Your Strengths – Research-based assessments help users to discover personality, strengths and career interests

• Define Your Contribution – A contribution statement builder helps users specifically define how they can match their strengths, talents and passions to an opportunity that matters to an employer.

• Build Your Village – A unique network-building and -nurturing tool; enables users to take specific actions and track them to build and maintain their most important career relationships

• Find Resources – Helps users identify “hidden resources” that can assist them to overcome specific challenges, or take advantage of promising opportunities, in building their career

• Action Center – Tracks, prioritizes and accomplishes all the necessary tasks to build and maintain a great career

• Ask an Expert – Allows users to submit questions to Stephen Covey and Jennifer Colosimo as well as get answers to frequently asked career questions.

Get the Great Career iPhone application at iTunes http://bit.ly/GreatCareer

Click here to get the Great Work, Great Career book.

Some of the really interesting questions that keep popping up regarding Great Work, Great Career are related to challenges:  unemployment; socioeconomic challenges including poverty and education levels, race, gender, age; you name it, I’ve been asked about how GWGC addresses challenges.  There is a great quote that says, “When you see a man on top of a mountain, you can be sure he wasn’t dropped there.”  And, in effect, people who ask the “challenges” questions are saying, “Right, but some people were helicoptered to the ledge just below the top and some started out in the swamp 100 miles west of the base of the mountain.  Some people have an easier hike.”

 I agree.

And then I ask, “Based on all of your unique challenges, what are you going to do right now to become who you want to be and doing what you want to do?”  This question does not ask you to stick your head in the ground and ignore your challenges.  You must acknowledge them and, in some cases, accept them.  Then make a choice to focus on the things you can influence, not on the things that you cannot.  If you are not self-sufficient, take a job that pays your bills. 

While you contribute your best at that job, uncover your talents and passions, look for problems in the workplace to which you can apply those strengths, and if you need additional training or education to pursue your great contribution, work toward it gradually. 

How many people do you know that started in the swamp only to reach the pinnacle of the mountain after years of work? 

Yes, there is luck at play.  And luck favors the prepared.

Author: Jennifer Colosimo, Chief Learning Officer at FranklinCovey

You can also follow Jennifer on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jencolosimo

This book re-inspired me and reignited my passion for what I do. I tell people I love my job but after reading this and going through the exercises I have come to realize that I really do LOVE my job. I have my dream job working and plus I work best people in the world. Well of course you do, you might say. You work at FranklinCovey where the people are highly effective, right?

Well I’ll be totally transparent here; we don’t always walk the talk. We try but we don’t always succeed. While reading this book I have come to realize now that we don’t walk the talk because of me. If I had lived by my Contribution Statement (which I have now created by examining my talents, passions, and skills) and if I were a trim tab, I could change the corporate culture. Really, I could make a difference.  I could be the singular irreplaceable one uniquely qualified to make that kind of difference. And even if others didn’t see or feel the shift, I would and I would know and my paradigms are my reality.

The book is divided into 3 parts: Conscience, Cause and Building a Village, each section includes exercises.

The Conscience exercise was a difficult pill to for me to swallow. They ask the question:  What is your real responsibility to your organization, to your customers and co-workers?

Well…

To my organization I applied a revenue number.

To my customers I applied the responsibility of creating and offering quality products and services that would help them further their mission by improving their lives.

And to my co-workers, my responsibility is to cheer them on, to offer solutions, to give my creative energies.

Wow! This was an eye opening moment for me. My moral compass and conscience told me that I had been a cynic, set up some roadblocks, and withheld my best ideas because of a scarcity mentality.

In this exercise I created a Contribution Statement for myself that applies my talents and passions to course correcting my attitude.  My goal is to be a trim tab.

So take a minute and share, what is your real responsibility to your organization, to your customers and co-workers?

We would love to hear from you.

Click here to join me for my next post, where I will discuss the more about my experince reading Great Work, Great Career.

 Author:  Annie Oswald

A:  A “brand” is being known for something.  You might be known in your organization or to a small group in your industry, or more broadly, to the websphere.  As you know from a product focus, the most important thing to strive for in a product brand is trust in the brand.  I believe the same is true for personal brand.  There are many reasons this concept of personal branding has grown in importance.  In the knowledge age, I can’t rely on your job title to tell me what problems you can solve, you have to tell me or build a reputation (brand).  In order to gain any mindshare, you must be able to succinctly represent yourself because the rate of information has accelerated.  Also, while face-to-face networking will never go away, I would suggest social networking gains in importance every year and without the nonverbal cues from face-to-face, who you are needs to be very clear on the web or your network will get confused.

Of course, individual brand is an independent concept.  It is what “I” am known for.  And I am suggested that your brand is in NO WAY a manipulative spin on who you are.  It is, instead, communicating who you are.  It does no good to your career if you have deep technical skills and have led projects resulting in cost savings and increases in employee loyalty if no one knows about it.  In the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Dr. Covey explains how interdependence is a choice only independent people can make.  This is really important:  Only by knowing myself—my talents, passions, and vision—and by taking responsibility for my choices regardless of the difficulty of the situation—only then am I capable of building win-win relationships and collaborating to resolve difficult challenges.  The confidence in self, my deeply rooted worth, allows me to be open and curious on the surface of my life.  I don’t have to be right all the time because my self-worth isn’t tied to being right or “winning.”  I’m much more curious, knowing that I don’t know everything about anything. 

If you get stuck in independence and don’t progress to interdependence, you might be effective in building a career, but you won’t be highly effective.

How do you use social networking to grow your personal brand?

What steps have you take to progress to interdependence?

We would love to hear from you.

Author: Jennifer Colosimo, Chief Learning Officer at FranklinCovey

HOW do you create a great career for yourself? Can you have a great career and still have a great life at the same time, keeping the things you love – family, friends, work, and play – all in balance? 

The answer is YES – look forward to Stephen R. Covey’s new book Great Work Great Career scheduled for release on November 15, 2009. More info coming soon.