Land the Job You Love: Types of Phone Calls to Make

This continues our series describing what you can do to get great jobs and salaries

Ryan had been looking for a job for more than 18 months. He focused on sending resumes by email and completing online applications. We helped him implement our 10 calls a day and 10 meetings a week approach. The number of solid job interviews increased from 1-2 a month to 4-6 a week within four weeks. He felt good about his interviews but always came in 2nd or 3rd. We worked on reconnecting more effectively after interviews. He had a great job paying 6 figures within 3 weeks.

Four Kinds of Phone Calls

You may think that you only make phone calls to set appointments to interview for advertised job openings. However, several reasons exist and define different types of phone calls. This list includes just a few:

• Information phone calls to determine goals, trends, projects, work environment, etc.
• Word of mouth phone calls to test the pulse of what is happening and discover opportunities
• Referral phone calls to obtain the names of other people you can talk to (although you should include the question “Who else would you recommend I talk to?” in every phone call)
• Direct phone calls to “cold call” companies that you cannot find networks or friends
• Appointment phone calls to schedule information meetings with sources of information or to schedule interviews to impress hiring authorities
• Thank you phone calls to express appreciation to someone who gave you information, referrals, or who met with you the week(s) before
• Reconnecting phone calls to give hiring authorities another reason to hire you

How Many of Each Per Week

You should call 10 people a day. The exact number of each type of phone call will change depending on the results of the previous week’s activities. We offer the following list for your consideration:

• 10+ thank you and reconnecting phone calls based on your meetings
• 20 information and word of mouth phone calls
• 10 referral phone calls
• 10 appointment phone calls

Friday we explore the different reasons to schedule 10 meetings a week

Sources of Money 4: Back to College Cash for Non-Traditional Students

On Tuesdays we review a source of financial aid available to help you pay for college

Jayne, in her early 40’s, had to go back to college when her husband left her. They had married young and had the first of their four children within 18 months. Jayne had dropped out of college to raise their children. Her husband’s salary provided nicely for the family, so she had stayed home with the children. Now, with four children ranging from 12-22 she faced going back to school with almost no money to pay for it. She attended one of our workshops, worked with the coaches, and with a community program for single mothers. She obtained enough scholarships and grants to pay tuition, books, fees, and partial housing for all four years in a nursing program.

Good Resource for Adults Returning to College

Back to College (wwwback2college.com) bills itself as “an all-in-one resource for the adult returning to college.” They provide a dazzling, almost overwhelming, amount of information and helps for adults. This web site, offered by WD Communications, offers much more than scholarship searches. They include:

• Ask the Experts and FAQ on all subjects relating to going back to college
• Scholarships for Re-entry students: Grants and Retraining Assistance for Adults Returning to College is a $39.95 downloadable (PDF) “Guide for adult students”
• Their free newsletter “provides news, features, and resource updates (including information on financial aid and new degree programs) each month.”
• Search engine to find a degree program that is right for you
• Advice on choosing what you want to do in your career
• Forums that allow you to connect with other adults returning to college
• Links to sources of discounted textbooks
• Excellent list of books about returning to college later in life

Cautions About Back to College

Be aware of a few challenges when using the site

• The home page is so busy with offers that you may have difficulty discerning ads from legitimate content
• Limited free listings for financial aid (they want you to buy the book)

Thursday we outline some of the questions asked on scholarship applications

Land the Job You Love: How to Use Gathered Information

This continues our series describing what you can do to get a great job and salary

Carl worked for the same company for 17 years. When an out-of-state company purchased his employer and moved all the jobs to another state, Carl decided to leave the company rather than move. He found a new job within 6 months, but did not like the company. He lost the job within 18 months. He lost three more jobs in 4 years. Either he left or was asked to leave. He wanted a job just like the one he had for 17 years. He never explored whether he would like the job before accepting one.

Compare Information to What You Want in the Job

Make a list of what you want on the job. Gather information about those issues. For example, discover the:

• Percent of the time you will perform certain tasks or use certain skills on the job
• Projects you can help them achieve, or problems you can help them resolve
• Metrics used to measure—and reward—performance, effectiveness & efficiency
• Teams you will work on: size, personalities, cohesiveness, and collaborative nature
• Corporate culture, written and unwritten rules, after hour activities and expectations

Compare what you want with the information you gather about what they want.

Use Information to Impress Decision Makers

Introduce yourself to the decision maker, and answer questions in interviews, using the information you gather to focus on their needs. Consider the following example telephone conversation:

• “Mr. Hamilton, Paul and Jane on your staff told me that you want to increase sales by $20 million dollars over the next 2 years by improving your market share in Latin America. Is that correct?”
• “Paul and Jane recommended I call you because they know that I helped open 22 sales offices in 9 Latin American countries. These offices generated an additional $4.3 million in sales. Is that the kind of increases you want? When can we meet to discuss how I can help you achieve your sales goal?”

Wednesday we outline different kinds of phone calls you can make to 10 people a day

Land the Job You Love: Talk to Close Friends & Family

This continues our series outlining actions that will help you get the job you love

Linda graduated with a degree in accounting. She worked two internships between her sophomore and junior year, and between her junior and senior year. She experienced difficulty getting interviews. She hesitated asking her father or family members for help. She didn’t know what to say other than”Can you help me get a job?” We coached her to create questions to ask family members. All of the companies her relatives worked for had accounting departments (What company doesn’t?) She found a job 2 weeks later from information provided by a family member.

Why We Hesitate to Talk to Family and Friends

You may resist talking to family members about looking for a job for several reasons:

• Ashamed that you have to look for a job
• Feel awkward “hitting them up for a job”
• Don’t know what to say
• Don’t perceive that they work in the field you do
• Already asked them for help once, don’t know what to say the second time

Questions You Can Ask Family and Friends

You can to ask family and friends questions that will not irritate them. For example:

• Questions about where they work
  • “How many people are in the YY division?”
  • “What are the key projects and goals at work?”
  • “What do you like about your company?”
  • “What are your biggest frustrations at the company?”
  • “Who else would you suggest I talk to?”
• Questions about specific companies or situations
  • You can ask the same questions that you asked about where they work except preface them with
  • “What can you tell me about YY company?”
  • “What experience have you had with YY company?”
  • “Do you know anyone at the YY company?”
  • “Do you know any one who does business or buys from the YY company?”
• Questions about industry trends
  • “What do you see happening in the YY industry?”
  • “What improvements do you see coming?”
  • “What problems or challenges do you see coming?”
  • “What else should I ask?”

Monday we highlight what to do with the information you gather from your network

Caveat Emptor or Buyer Beware 3: Careful with Promotions & Contests

Saturdays we share tips or cautions to facilitate getting scholarships or avoid problems

Promotions Masquerade as Scholarships

I repeat what I’ve said earlier. Most of the scholarship search engines we will share with you do not cost you anything. They receive their funding from banner ads, selling emails, and other sources. Their biggest source of income, however, has become promotions, contests, and surveys.

Promotions appear on your lists of results for many search engines. They typically announce their intent to promote a specific product or service. Frequently, the search engine itself sponsors the contest. You need to read the fine print to determine how safe the promotion is. For example, I copied this phrase from one particular promotion “If you express interest in particular schools or affiliates, College Prowler Inc. may sell or transfer your personal information to those schools or affiliates accordingly.”

Of course, the search engines put a positive spin. Fastweb.com, for example, states

“While it seems that the overachievers eventually get cash from somewhere — be it their school or an independent scholarship donor — the “B” and “C” students are often overlooked.

That’s why promotional scholarships are more important than ever. Let’s face it, promotional awards may not challenge your intellect like writing an essay, but contests like FastWeb’s Why I Deserve a Scholarship video contest, Create Your Own Scholarship and Scholarship BootCamp can still earn you valuable cash for school. Most don’t have strict terms or require essays and there are lots of them out there.”

You read the warnings and fine print. You decide.

 

Legitimate and Illegitimate Contests

Contests are a closely related cousin to the promotional scholarships. Some contests legitimately create situations for you to compete against others based on the skills of the applicant. For example,

• Film contests for the student that produces and submits the best video based on a theme
• Piano contests for the person who submits the best tape or live piano performance

Illegitimate contests will ask you to do something or submit something that enters you in a drawing.

Tuesday we will review the scholarship search engine www.backtoschool.com

Land the Job You Love: How to Identify 10 People to Call

This continues our series describing what you can do to get a great job and salary

I taught nursing students how to find a job during the last semester of their bachelor’s program. During the class, I asked them to make a list of people they could talk to about job possibilities. I asked them to prioritize their list indicating people who A) worked for companies that could hire them, B) knew people who worked for companies that could hire them, and C) who knew lots of people. Most would list 7-8 B’s out of 75 people on the list. I concluded the exercise by highlighting that they were saying that only 7-8 people on their list knew a doctor.

Where to Identify People You Could Call

First, do not limit the people you call to those who know of current openings. You want to gather information and identify needs that you can solve. Second, do not eliminate people just because you don’t know what to say. Third, remember that 35% of all jobs are found through word-of-mouth. These phone calls help you tap into that word-of-mouth network. Contacting companies directly accounts for 31% of jobs. (Statistics provided by JIST Works) You can find people through a variety of sources. For example search through your

• Address book whether it’s in Outlook or a spiral bound notebook in a drawer
• Contacts on your smart phone and email list
• Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and others
• Lists of companies with contact names (www.careeronestop.com or others)
• Association web sites that list company members (www.SHRM.org, www.PRSA.org)
• Alumni association contacts or network (www.alumni.usc.edu)
• Job boards (www.Indeed.com, www.Monster.com, www.ratracerebellion.com)

Reasons You May Discount Some People

You may not call your uncle, cousin, family, or friends because you don’t know what to say to them when you call. You don’t want to offend, irritate, or annoy them. You know they don’t work for a company or have an open job you can fill. So you don’t call them. So, you ignore them.

Friday we will discuss what to say and ask when you call close relatives for help

Land the Job You Love: Fight Isolation—Talk to People!

This continues our series outlining concept to help you land the job you love

Nancy lost her job 8 months ago. She worked hard to find a job. Unfortunately, she spent 8 hours a day on the computer looking up job postings, sending emails, and tinkering with her resume. She rarely talked to anyone by phone, Skype, or in person. Continued computer work depressed her as did the lack of personal contact. She kept working to get a job, but her despair robbed her conviction. She attended a job search workshop and learned to call 10 people a day and schedule 10 meetings a week. Her attitude improved. She regained hope. She found a great job within 3 weeks.

Isolation and Finding a Job

Consider how traditional job seeking activities isolate you. You spend the majority of your time sitting in front of a computer

• Searching job boards and want ads
• Completing online job applications
• Tinkering with your resume and cover letters
• Sending email with resumes attached
• Checking your emails for response to the ones you sent
• Talking to 1-2 people a week
• Interviewing maybe 2 people a month

You perform most of those activities alone—isolated. Continued isolation, coupled with frequent rejection, brings despair and low self-esteem.

Talking to People Lifts Your Spirits

We encourage you to call 10 people a day if you are looking for a job and schedule 10 meetings a week. Remember, the 10 people do not need to have a current job opening.

People will energize your job search. Talking to people stimulates your thinking. Especially if you discuss something better than “I’m looking for work. Do you know of any job openings?” Instead, you may consider talking to people about:

• Their projects, goals, and challenges
• New software releases, bugs, and fixes
• Economic and industry trends
• Company’s growth and decline
• Ask them if they have information you are seeking about a company
• Ask them if they can recommend other people you can talk to
• Thank them for information or referrals they shared

Wednesday we explore how to identify 10 people to talk to each day

Land the Job You Love: Avoid Ineffective Actions

This continues our posts describing how to land the job you love faster with better pay

Darrin had spent 18 months looking for a job. He spent 6-8 hours a day at his computer looking for job postings and fiddling with his resume. He emailed 1,965 resumes in that time, a little over 100 a month. He never had an interview in the 18 months. Most of the resumes received no response. The few hundred that responded politely thanked him for applying, but expressed no interest. So, he would edit his resume again. Finally, he took a job search workshop that focused on calling people rather than emailing resumes. He started telephoning 10 people a day. He scheduled 10 meetings a week. He had a great job offer in 3 weeks.

Making a Phone Call Terrifies Job Seekers

I’ve helped people find jobs since 1976. They included teens looking for their first job to retired professionals looking to make retirement more interesting. The salaries ranged from minimum wage to $250,000 with a $60K signing bonus and a million dollar annual performance bonus.

The majority resisted our teaching to call 10 people a day and schedule 10 meetings/interviews a week. I don’t understand why, but, the thought of telephoning someone terrifies them. Too many job seekers will do almost anything to avoid opening their cell phone.

Tactics People Use to Avoid Telephoning Someone

Many job seekers work hard to find a job—in the beginning. They refine their resume, send off emails, and scout the job boards. After a few weeks, they despair because they get poor results. Soon, they spend 1-2 hours a day looking for work.

They employ a variety of tactics to avoid phone calls. They include:

• Writing and rewriting their resume for months
• Editing cover letters and standard emails until they “are perfect”
• Sending emails to jobs they found on the Internet
• Looking at job boards for good job postings
• Taking care of children
• Completing projects and making repairs around the house

Monday we outline how to trade the isolation of a job search for talking to people

Land the Job You Love: Doubt or Self-Confidence

This continues our tips to land the job you love faster and with better pay

Pablo managed 200 properties for a US company in Latin America. He ensured preventative maintenance on equipment and custodial care of buildings. He coordinated the purchase of millions of dollars worth of property and construction of new stores. He came to the US legally and in his 50’s received a master’s degree. With all of these accomplishments, he doubted himself and his worth as an employee. That doubt drove him to look for low paying jobs. As a result, he could not find a job. Once he regained his self-confidence, he landed the job he loves,  in three weeks.

Constant Rejection Develops Self-Doubt

Looking for a job can demoralize you. You offer yourself to an employer, which makes you feel quite vulnerable. You describe the skills and abilities you think will impress them. Perhaps they invite you to interview with them. Perhaps they send a nicely worded rejection. Perhaps they never respond. Two out of the three responses hurt.

If your phone call goes very well, you get to interview for the job. Once again, you try to demonstrate your worth to the company. Yet, you may still get rejected. Rejection after rejection attacks your self-confidence. Continued rejection breaks your spirit. Soon, you doubt your worth and your skills. You believe you deserve the rejections. You quit trying or worse accept a job significantly lower than you should.

Replacing Doubt with Self-Confidence

You must regain your self-confidence in order to successfully complete your job search and gain the caliber of job you deserve. I propose the following actions:

• Stop spending the majority of your time in isolation by yourself
• Stop spending your time sending emails and resumes
• Attend professional or trade association meetings and talk shop, not job search
• Talk to 10 people a day to gather information, set appointments with hiring authorities, or follow-up on meetings and interviews
• Meet 10 people a week to gather information and impress hiring authorities

Friday we analyze ineffective activities job seekers use to delay doing what works

Land the Job You Love: Got a Job During the Workshop

This provides another insight about how to find a better paying job faster

Rosa attended The Career Workshop offered at a faith-based employment service. The first day of the 2-day workshop taught her how to convince employers to hire her.  The second day, workshop participants were told to visit two potential employers before returning to the 10:30 start time. Rosa returned at 10:40 and excitedly reported that one of the two companies she contacted offered her a job. She negotiated the exact salary she wanted.

Benefits of Attending Job Search Workshops

A lot of people reject the invitation to attend job search workshops because they want to get a job quickly. They mistakenly assume that they will waste time at the workshop. They fail to recognize that time spent improving their skills, or as Stephen R. Covey said Sharpening the Saw, saves time.

Attending a job search workshop improves your ability to find employment faster and with better pay. Good workshops not only teach principles but practice skills needed to find a job. These include how to:

• Find advertised and unadvertised job leads
• Network effectively with family, friends, and former colleagues
• Obtain referrals of people you can talk to from current contacts
• Gather information about the goals, projects, and culture of potential employers
• Say the right things in phone calls so that employers will let you into their offices
• Open and close interviews to make good first and last impressions
• Answer or ask interview questions impressively to make employers want to hire you
• Follow-up effectively after interviews so that companies want second interviews
• Negotiate salary, benefits, and other perks

Some workshops videotape participants’ interviews and give feedback to help them improve.

How to Find Workshops in Your Area

Some workshops are free. Others cost. You can find job search workshops through:

• Your state Department of Workforce Services or Job Service
• LDS Employment Resource Services (see www.LDSJobs.org)
• Catholic Charities
• Public libraries
• Local community colleges
• Google “job search workshop” and the name of your city

Wednesday we will analyze the impact of doubt and belief on finding a job

Enhance the Success of New Year’s Goals 7: Synergy

This concludes our series on how to transform New Year’s Resolutions into successful goals

My GoalsWork or mastermind team meets on the 2nd Wednesday of each month from 4:30-6:00pm. Our team includes four business owners. We follow the agenda outlined below. Each of us have increased our income, our satisfaction, and our sense of accomplishment. One of us expanded a portion of the business with the potential to eclipse the rest of the business combined. He rekindled a dwindling enthusiasm. Another member survived the tough decision to close two retail locations who would never regain the profits of the past. Another member wrote and published 5 books.

Words of Walt on Synergy

Walt Disney believed in the synergy of teams to make magic. He said

• “I use the whole plant for ideas. If the janitor has a good idea, I’d use it”
• “I feel there is no door which, with the kind of talent we have in our organization (team), could not be opened.”
• “Togetherness, for me, means teamwork”
• “Everything here at Disneyland and the studio is a team effort.”

Agenda for Successful Teams

GoalsWork Teams pool the abilities of all the members into a synergy that exceeds the sum of their capabilities. No member may sacrifice their goals because they consider someone else’s deserve more merit.

Each member of the team must commit to

• Set goals and act to achieve them
• Sincerely acknowledge the ability and right of all members—including themselves—to succeed
• Respect and support all the other members of the team. 

The agenda is simple. Each member of the team:

• States the goal they are working on
• Reports on the action they outlined in the last meeting
• Asks for ideas and brainstorming on a challenge inhibiting success or new ideas
• Outlines 2-4 actions they plan on taking before the next meeting.

Regular synergy through GoalsWork Teams will ensure your success. New Year’s resolutions become goals you achieve . So, be very careful which goals you set, for you will achieve them.

Monday we begin a series outlining the 10x2=Hired model to find a better paying job quickly

Enhance the Success of New Year’s Goals 6: Limitations

This continues our series on turning New Year’s resolutions into goals and success

Joan decided to be a writer at 11. Her parents repeatedly said “You can’t do that!”. So, she worked for an advertising agency as scheduler—not copywriter. Eleven years  later she quit her job to write. She worked as a freelance production assistant on commercials 13 hours a month and moved rent-free into her parents cabin.

Every 3 months she called her coach and cried “I can’t do this!” The coached enquired how much she had written, how much money she earned doing commercials, and invited her to meet. She reported how many stories she wrote, that she had earned more money than at the agency, and chose not to meet.

Two years later, she finished writing, moved back into town, and worked for the same agency—writing copy. She had written 120 short stories and 2 books. She achieved her goal. She happily continues to write advertising copy. She never published, because her goal was writing not publishing.

3 Types of Limitations

You will encounter both intended and unwanted limitations. I suggest 3 categories:

• Intended limitations define your scope. For example, a goal to go on a Disney Cruise in the Caribbean intentionally limits you to a desired company and geography.
  • Intended limitations are good, make sure you include them
• Real limitations include lack of time, money, skills, disabilities, or other limitations.
  • Planning eliminates real limitations: working on the Disney Cruise to eliminate the cost, or taking online courses gains new skills.
• Windmills (illogical limitations) appear real but are not. Joan’s windmill came from her parents brainwashing her “You can’t do that”. She encountered the windmill every 3 months even though she was doing it quite successfully.
  • Windmills require illogical solutions because they are illogical. Joan had to remember that 1) she was writing and 2) she was earning enough money. She did not eliminate the windmill. She bypassed it every 3 months.

Coaches and your GoalsWork Team help you handle all three types of limitations.

Friday we will describe how GoalsWork (or Mastermind) teams ensure your success

Enhance the Success of Your New Year’s Goals 5: Act

This continues our series on how the GoalsWork Model will help you improve your career

Jennifer worked as secretary to a plant manager. She possessed a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management. She worked for the same company for six years: four while she got her degree and two since graduation. She informed management she earned her degree and waited for a promotion. None came.

She saw an opportunity to provide better human resource services, currently the responsibility of an overworked controller. She offered to help with a headquarters requested compensation comparison. She reached out to former classmates working in human resource. She submitted an excellent analysis. She started posting job ads and screening job applicants. She helped the control by distributing performance appraisal forms, training supervisors, processing completed forms,  and coordinating with headquarters HR to allocate salary increases. She regularly reported success to the plant manager, controller, and headquarters HR.

In fifteen months, the company promoted Jennifer to human resource generalist reporting to the controller. Within two years, they promoted Jennifer to human resource manager.

Words from Walt on Action

Walt Disney frequently commented on working and taking action. I don’t have space to list many:

• “People often ask me if I know the secret of success and if I could tell others how to make their dreams come true. My answer is, you do it by working”
• “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”
• “Get a good idea, and stay with it. Dog it, and work at it until it’s done, and done right.”

The “A” in GoalsWork=Act

Jennifer had to act to get the promotion. You may learn from her actions. She

• Waited for a promotion and nothing happened
• Identified a need that she would enjoy filling
• Offered to help the controller—in addition to fulfilling her current responsibilities
• Focused on 2-4 things she could do and still keep the plant manager satisfied
• Reached out to others to mentor and help her

Follow this example to act on your goals.

Wednesday we examine how to solve the three kinds of limitations to your goal

Enhance the Success of Your New Year’s Goals 4: Others

This continues our series on how the GoalsWork model can help you improve your career

Susan set a goal to become a director of a major nonprofit organization that helped eliminate need and suffering in 150+ countries. She knew that she could not accomplish this without help from others. She identifies several mentors both within the organization and out. She built and maintained an excellent network of contacts and sought their advice and help. She also studied books, articles, and blogs about successful and failed charitable and humanitarian efforts. Listening to all of these other people and implementing their good advice—while learning from their failures—helped her achieve her goal. She now heads a global humanitarian effort in 150+ countries.

Words from Walt about How Others Help

Walt Disney accredited his success to working with others. He said:

• “You can dream, create, design, and build the most wonderful place in the world…but it requires people to make the dream a reality”
• “I don’t pose as an authority on anything at all, I follow the opinions of the ordinary people I meet, and I take pride in the close-knit teamwork with my organization.”
• “Everything here at Disneyland and the studio is a team effort”
• “I feel there is no door which, with the kind of talent we have in our organization, could not be opened”

Identifying the Elusive “Others”

You may think others will not help you. Would you be willing to help someone you like achieve their goal? If so, why doubt they will? Not everyone will help you, especially if they are competing for the same goal. You will find enough willing to help if you look.

I suggest you look in the following places:

• Books, articles, or blogs written by people who already achieved your goal
• Facebook friends or LinkedIn connections
• Mentors, networks, and associates within and outside your organization
• Professional associations, trade unions, seminars, or conferences
• Online user groups for common problems, software, or goals
• Successful goal-minded friends and family
• Websites like www.ChangeAnything.com

Monday we will analyze how 2-4 actions a month enhance success of your goal

Sources of Money for College You Do Not Have to Pay Back

I will share a variety of sources for money over the course of this blog

A father approached me after a meeting. He told me that he and two of his daughters had attended a scholarship workshop four years before. One daughter was a freshman in college, the other a sophomore in high school. He told me that the older would graduate that year and the younger one had just started college. He then gleefully reported that the only money he had to send any of them for college, since the workshop, had been in their Christmas cards as presents.

Various Sources to Find Money for College

You can find money to pay for college from hundreds of places. Each Tuesday, I will spotlight a different source. For now, I would like to lay a framework to help you categorize the sources I will share.

You may get several kinds of money to pay for college:

• Grants
  • Basic grants usually award money based on the economic need of the student and their family
  • Research grants provide funds to study academic areas of interest to the sponsors
• Scholarships typically reward someone for achievements, merit, membership, ethnic background, personality traits or other subject criteria
• Loans (direct, indirect, guaranteed or unguaranteed) give money with an expectation that the student or family will pay it back
• Educational Reimbursements involve employers reimbursing employees, after course completion and based on grades received, a portion of the tuition for courses they feel will make the student a better employee.
• Student Work Program reimburses colleges for tuition, housing, or more based on the student working at the school for what they receive
• Savings of the student themselves of family members possibly using a 529 student savings plan
• Working your way through college, while increasingly unpopular by both students and colleges, provides money for college and a resume of experience upon graduation
• Miscellaneous other financial aid including

 Where to Find Money

• Internet search engines
• School guidance counselors
• Books and other publications
• Community organizations

Saturday we will caution you about deceptive traps that appear to offer financial aid

Enhance the Success of Your New Year’s Goals 3: Goals

This continues our series on how the GoalsWork model will help you improve your career

Warren’s career languished. He’d been in the same job, doing the same thing, for 8 years. He kept waiting for management to notice his potential and move him into a better job.

Then, he learned about the GoalsWork model. He realized that he had never decided where he wanted to go. So, he set a SMART goal. He wrote “Work at the corporate headquarters, at pay grade XX, in the XX division, within four years.”

He began to visualize himself, in detail, in that job. Following the GoalsWork model, he achieved his goal six months early.

Words from Walt

You probably notice that I quote a lot from Walt Disney. I admire him as a dreamer who made his dreams a reality. As the song from the Carousel of Progress at Disney World proclaims

“Man has a dream—and that’s the start. He follows his dream with mind and heart. And soon it becomes a reality. It’s a dream come true for you and me.”

He declared “If we can dream it. We can build it.”

Walt also set very specific goals that were relevant to his motto “The inclination of my life—the motto, you might call it—has been to do things and make things which will give pleasure to people in new and amusing ways.”

Set SMART Goals

I like setting SMART goals. I didn’t create it, but I encourage you to set them. SMART goals are:

• Specific: You will achieve your goals the more clearly you can visualize them. Outline in specific terms what you want to achieve
• Measurable: Include a measurement in your goal to measure if you achieved it
• Achievable: While you want to stretch yourself, set goals you can realistically achieve
• Relevant: Ensure your goal takes you where you want to go, doing what you want to do, & being what you want to be
• Time-bound: Include a deadline for the goal. Keep working toward the deadline

Friday we explore how others help you achieve goals—especially others who did them already