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In the Spotlight: Barack Obama

Barack Obama is arguably the most recognizable figure in the world as he embarks on his journey as the 44^th president of the United States. Obama’s election as president has been well-documented as the first election of an African-American president in the US. Prior to being elected to president beginning in 2009, Obama served as the junior US Senator from the state of Illinois. The graduated of Columbia University and Harvard Law School held that position from 2004 until November 16, 2008.

Widely considered a president of the people, Obama’s background as a community organizer in his early days was also well-publicized in his run for presidency. Less talked about, though, was his work as a civil rights lawyer and college professor in Chicago. Along with his civil rights work, Obama taught Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago from 1992-2004. Obama served three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997-2004 before his run for US Senate.

There are many tremendous professional qualities that Obama demonstrates. First, Obama’s election as the first African-American president has helped give renewed hope to the idea that anyone can accomplish great things in the US if they have goals and work hard. Obama also set new standards in marketing in the new media age. Obama was actually named 2008 Advertiser of the Year by Advertising Age, and his so-called “marketing machine”, that used online and social media to reach many new and young voters, is credited for much of his success in building his campaign.

Obama also can credit his strong communications skills for his success and election. Much research among the most successful professionals suggests than communication skills are the number one key to success in most any profession. Obama’s charismatic charm and captivating speech helped him garner attention from previously apathetic voters. Communication skills can be developed and improved by anyone who wants to maximize their opportunities and potential.

The killer resume – key questions to address

The one overriding question any employer has when screening a resume is: Should I call this person for an interview? Keep in mind – Getting a call for an interview is the main goal of a resume. It is not to tell your life story or mention every great accomplishment you have ever achieved. The resume is a sales tool, you being the product, with a purpose of effectively representing your qualifications for the position you desire. Plus, it must be concise, as employers look at 120 resumes on average for each position filled in the US. The average resume is looked at for seven seconds.

In order to quickly answer the “big question”, employers usually look for a few answers to other important questions. Here are a few of the main questions a killer resume should address to help ensure a “Yes” response to the key question:

What have you done lately?

One of the main formatting issues with resumes is whether to use a chronological or functional style. The functional style emphasizes impacting positions and experiences while a chronological format lays out positions held, beginning with the most recent. Generally speaking, employers want to know what you have done lately as it is a good indication of your present capabilities. Thus, assuming you have been consistently employed, it is most often best to highlight selling points that maximize your most recent selling benefits.

Do you clearly meet the basic expectations of the position?

It is sad but true, because of the high number of resumes received for many positions, resume screeners are often looking for red flags or reasons to weed people out of the prospect pile. This means for you that one key of a good resume is avoid red flags and clearly demonstrate your basic qualifications for the position. Offering a summary of qualifications as the introduction section to a resume is often a great way to state in 2-3 sentences how your qualifications line up with the expectations of the position. This summary can then stand alone or give reason to the screener to keep reading. The killer cover letter should essentially carry forward with this summary of qualification.

What make you a leading candidate?

Getting a resume screener to consider this question usually relies on successful responses to the other questions mentioned. If you can intrigue the resume screener enough from the other features addressed that they skim through your experiences, you have already accomplished much. Now, you want to clearly show them, through accomplishment-driven selling points (measured if possible), who you are capable of performing the required tasks at a high level. If you do this, you are likely assured a phone call.

The importance of a good cover letter

Most job seekers by now understand the necessity of a resume while conducting a job search. However, many do not realize how important a cover letter is to the process. How important is it? Many human resources professionals say the cover letter can have as much, if not more impact on whether or not a candidate is granted a job interview.

A cover letter is a job candidate’s opening to present his best marketing and sales pitch. Sure, a resume is vital and outlines your qualifications. A cover letter, though, is your chance to sell yourself on the most vital characteristics desired by the company and the position you seek. In essence, it is your statement as to why you must be concerned as a possible best match for the position.

The problem for many is that if a job posting does not specifically state that a cover letter is requested, they do not send one. This is a big mistake. In fact, at times, this is a test or prescreening step by the employer. There are many stories of people who have been told they either received or did not receive an interview based on their submission, or lack thereof, a cover letter.

Even people who do submit cover letters when requested by employers often fail to understand the seriousness of this personal sales tool. Some throw together a quick, meaningless paragraph. This not only does not make use of the cover letter opportunity, but often leaves the resume without review.

An effective cover letter must answer key questions that an employer asks him or herself before considering inviting you for a job interview. These include: Why are you interested in the position? Why are you a good fit for the position? Why is this position right for you? Why is now a good time for you to move into this position?

How to get noticed at work

While some employees would prefer to work in isolation and pretend others do not know they are there, the more ambitious, growth-oriented employees realize they must be recognized by supervisors to have a chance to move up. Growth and mobility within one’s organization is often a motivating factor that drives employees to perform. Part of human nature is a desire for learning, growth, and opportunity. The best employees understand they must be noticed to have opportunity.

The key to selling oneself in a work setting is that same as selling a product in a business setting. Effective sales involves clearly demonstrate the benefits or gain your product provides to the potential customer. If a prospect clearly sees your product offers the best value proposition (bang for the buck), there is no reason they would not buy from you. In the same vein, you can sell yourself as a valuable employee by demonstrating skills and traits sought by employers that separate you from the crowd.

A basic rule of growth-drive organizations is that in order for employees to find opportunities to move up, people must be developed to take over new roles and responsibilities. Thus, supervisors, who also typically want to grow, are looking for people they can trust and rely on to perform. The more responsibility you as an employee can handle, the more able the supervisor is to delegate routine tasks so that they can in turn focus on higher order needs. This is the nature of the organization.

What then, can you as an employee do, to separate yourself from the crowd? The answer varies a bit, with factors including organizational mission and goals, nature of the work, and more. However, there are usually some common traits and skills desired by all organizations, regardless of goals and position. Here are a few behaviors that will make you stand out from the crowd:

1) Self-motivation – One of the most time consuming aspects of a leader’s job is to motivate employees to perform. Supervisors love employees that have personal discipline and drive and that do not need constant supervision and encouragement.

2) Initiative – There are employees that never seem to have anything to do and those that never seem to have enough to do. A supervisor’s best friend is an employee who always looks for ways to help rather than meeting the “minimum standards”.

3) Positive attitude – Sounds simple, but people like to work with and around people that provide positive morale for the work environment. Positive and hard-working employees inspire those around them to do more.

How to ask for informal feedback from supervisors and coworkers

In order to improve your effectiveness and satisfaction with your job, it is imperative that you feel comfortable approaching supervisors and coworkers regarding feedback on your performance. It is a mistake for any employee to wait to address communication and feedback at a formal evaluation process. Many companies offer periodic (often 6 months to one year) formal evaluations to assess employee performance and offer forward guidance. Employees should not view these appraisal meetings as the only and best time to seek feedback and support.

Appraisal meetings should include a goal setting process. Depending on the organization and the nature of the work, supervisors and employees may set goals for both the short-term and the long-term. These goals should provide vision and direction for the employee. Although employers often address goal setting with employees, individuals with growth aspirations should be proactive in setting personal and careers success goals to help guide their own work.

The key to motivation and success with goals is to evaluate progress toward them in an ongoing and informal fashion. Shorter-term goals should be used as a way to determine progress toward longer-term goals. This monitoring of progress helps: 1) Offer motivation and encouragement when progress builds toward longer-term goals and 2) Helps with correction and reshaping when work is getting off track.

The best supervisors realize the importance of ongoing, informal feedback for employees. However, supervisors are busy. As an employee, you can demonstrate your ambition, leadership, and self-discipline (all sought after traits) by approaching your supervisor to ask for feedback on progress toward your goals. For instance, if you one of your goals is to improve customer service performance, you might follow up with your supervisor periodically on your scores, response level, demonstrated behaviors, etc.

Another great source of informal feedback is coworkers. It can be very difficult for prideful employees to seek feedback from coworkers on job performance. However, more experienced or well-respected peers are often the best critics of your work. The key is to find trusted colleagues who will offer both honest and fair critiques. Employees need to realize growth comes from an open-minded learning attitude and an understanding of the value of communication for workplace success. In a recent survey of a sample of successful workers (those earning over $250,000 annually), respondents said communication skills were their number one key to success.

Goal setting for career success

Very rarely has a research study or case analysis been introduced that suggests that successful people are the ones that do not set goals or have a vision. Obviously, quite the opposite is true. Goal setting is generally ranked near the top of the list of skills or habits shared by the most successful and most accomplished people in any profession or walks of life.

What is it that makes goal setting effective? After all, goal setting does not force one to work smartly, create brilliantly, or service with care. It does, however provide the direction that helps people do all these things and more. People that take the time to write down and establish goals usually have a plan, and have ambition. There is a very common, but inspiring saying, “What the mind can conceive and believe the mind can achieve.”

Implementation is certainly required for goals to be realized. Most people agree this step is much harder than setting the goals. However, people that have no goals to begin with often find themselves floundering about, completing tasks or putting out fires as they come up. This usually leads to uncertainty of purpose, lack of motivation, and a loss of the esteem that builds from seeing goals come to fruition.

Goals are a precursor to confidence, if used effectively. There are two basic elements that make goals useful. The first is that goals must be achievable. Routinely setting goals that are virtually impossible is a setup for routine failure. Second, goals must be challenging. This means there should be a possibility that the goal will not be achieved without solid implementation and consistent effort.

A goal should force someone to work hard and take steps that lead to growth and success. Combined with the confidence that comes from goal realization, growth develops overtime through continued movement higher of the bar for accomplishment.

Get the job you want with an effective resume

While many job seekers now understand the relevance of a good resume to the process of getting a job, there is still some uncertainty as to what exactly makes a good resume. The first basic thing people need to understand about a resume’s purpose is that it has one – to get you an interview.

The resume is a sales tool designed to sell your qualifications impressively enough to make a desired employer want to interview you. Thus, it is crucial that the resume be a concise, but high impact document with quality selling points. It does not and should not be used to say everything about you as that can become overwhelming to employers who are already overwhelmed by the average 120 resumes they see for each position.

So what makes a resume effective at accomplishing this purpose of helping you get the job interview? There are limitless details and fine points that could be mentioned, but for our purposes, let’s focus on a couple key factors that help a resume sell, but that are often misunderstood by job prospects:

1) A resume can only be one page – Do not misunderstand the point here. Concise resumes are required. However, in today’s human resources environment, it is perfectly acceptable for experienced or senior level job applicants to have a resume that extends to two pages. Using two pages is only recommended when the content fills two pages completely, and when it is impacting enough to justify a second page. It is certainly better to offer one high impact resume page than two mediocre pages. Also, keep in mind that while you might have two good pages, a quick resume screen may only allow an employer to skim through the first page. Therefore, make the first page the most recent and the most beneficial.

2) Presentation does matter – This is an extremely important point that is widely undervalued by job applicants, and often in resume service providers. The aesthetic appeal of your resume, including proper use of margins, white space, line spacing, and more, can make the difference between an effective resume sell and a resume that gets tossed. If a busy executive is sorting through a pile of resumes, one that has used brute force to cram tons of content into one page might be too overwhelming at first glance to even justify a read. Do not let your resume get thrown out because it is scary to look at!