Fundamental No-No’s of Personal Branding

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What’s in a name? It seems this question will continue to be debated as the era of ‘personal branding’ only just begins. Global self help guru’s may spout ‘brand YOU’ nonsense verbatim, a more ego centric culture than we need, with a sense of entitlement we are not , well, entitled to quite frankly.

In essence ‘personal branding’ is an important topic. There are so many more outlets for us to communicate, and all very much in public. Speaking and acting behinf closed doors is one thing, spouting off in public (or more likely, online) isn’t quite as easily retracted.

The key to preserving ‘Brand You’ is achingly simple. Despite aforementioned self help speak, or business management ‘ese’ or even those nauseating ‘social media experts’ who think they invented communication, nothing has changed from the days of snail mail and landlines. Only now, the problem lies within our new found ‘celebrity status’ as bloggers, citizen journalists, twitterers or shamefaced facebook exhibitionists and camera addicts.

Don’t do anything online (or off) that would offend your boss, your mum, your priest or compromise your job, your company or your family. It can be tempting, because there are so many opportunities. It’s really easy to ‘make a name’ for yourself these days – but you need to make sure it’s for the right resaons.

It’s important to enhance your personal brand value, not wreck it.

Here’s what NOT to do:

Lets pretend…

Tips For An Executive Panel Interview

In my mind, the executive panel interview can be the most nerve-wracking, and with the most potential for disaster. There are too many pairs of eyes on you and too many ego’s to massage and appetites to sate at such meetings.

Unfortunately for us mortals, these are a very popular way of interviewing at an executive level when a company is recruiting for advanced positions (or are just feeling mean). It’s all pretty daunting and it is advisable to accommodate the whole panel rather than just focusing on one or two people, no matter how important they are.

When you are asked a question directly by one person, it’s important to answer that person directly. You also have to be mindful of the others on the panel, and how your answers will be interpreted by them.

So far so complicated.

It’s a definite advantage of the panel interview that it saves you time. You are meeting everyone at once rather than going through numerous time consuming one to ones. It saves the company time and money also.

If you have done your homework, you will know who, amongst the throng are the ‘important people’. There is likely to be your potential manager, a potential colleague and even those higher up.

Read More of Tips For An Executive Panel Interview

Mature Job Seekers’ Survival Tactics

Job seeking is never a breeze. It requires effort, energy, determination, and right now, sheer bloody-mindedness. It’s difficult enough trying to find your first job without previous experience. But what if lack of experience isn’t your problem? You probably have too much experience in fact.

A scarier option is the fact that it has been literally years since you had to search for, apply and interview for a new position. If you have been at the same organisation or company for a large chunk of your career, you will be out of your comfort zone with your new job seeker status.

You will be up against those younger and more energetic. They may be more internet savvy also – and this is a skill that helps enormously in modern day recruitment. You might be feeling a little bit rusty, but there is good news if you are a mature job seeker.

The experience and knowledge in a 100k job you carry FAR outweighs the exuberant energy of youth. The more experienced or ‘specialist’ you are, the shallower the job pool admittedly, but you just need to limber up and put in the practice.

Employers are recognising the value if the mature worker more and more, you might just want to hone those survival tactics to see you through

What you can do

You need to recognise, know and accept where your talents and skills lie. These have ‘market value’ If you can weigh up how much this is ‘worth’ to a new organisation, you will be able to clearly spell it out on your applications or in interviews. In the current market, experience and knowledge is vital to help companies who may be struggling through tougher times. Don’t forget that all skills are transferable.

Motivate Your Staff

Mr. Motivator

We don’t need to tell you about the advantages of motivating your staff. As directors and CEO’s, you’ll no doubt have seen enough presentations, memo’s and articles to run your own team building workshops as a sideline. It’s always good in theory too. Sitting in on sessions from motivational speakers, great activities that are well thought out, and you all leave buzzing – making big promises to yourself that staff morale, under your jurisdiction, will soar.

Back down to earth with a bump, you realise that work life gets in the work, If you are successful, then you are too busy doing what you get paid for to consider the emotional well being of the workforce. And, if you are not doing so well, maybe you are busy with the logistics of building up the business or even letting staff go.

Either way, there has probably never been a more important time to motivate your team. Forget about expensive outdoor type team building activities or other costly ‘experiential learning experiences’ (little bit of industry-ese there). If there is one thing a global financial crisis teaches all, from the CEO to the mail room, is the value of people rather than pounds. Every penny counts, true, so we need to watch spend and instead invest on ROI. And it doesn’t have to cost. What is the point in any of these exercises, whoever pays, if it makes no difference to company morale?

Your staff needs to feel loved and appreciative. Touchy feely nonsense it may sound like, but it’s all about the personal touch. Nobody wants to see upper management flashing the cash on corporate entertainment or such like. It’s meaningless if the senior staff can barely manage a nod good morning in the lift on a regular day.

So the good news is, your corporate wallets are safe, but you DO have to invest the time and effort into motivating your staff during a downturn.

Banking Jobs – Sector Update for Dubai & Middle East

The whole profit of the issuance of money has provided the capital of the great banking business as it exists today. – Frederick Soddy

When it was announced only last week that financial newswire Bloomberg were to double their Dubai workforce to 90 it set me thinking. Was this a strategic, simply geographical decision, or , in fact does it mean that there must be more to report on. More financial news means more finances, right?

Well, it remains to be seen, and as someone with first hand knowledge of the current Dubai banking jobs sector, pickings are not exactly ripe out there for the third quarter of 2009. Any body out there looking for a financial career change in Dubai or the Middle East is definitely going to have to work harder than they would have had to have previously.

Most global banks have retrenched or made staff redundant over the past 6 months with very few exceptions. Many of these roles, usually, within sales, had become superfluous as the credit tap was turned off. Wealth Management departments have also suffered as investors have turned more cautious during current economic woes.

As reported by ArabianBusiness.com this week; ‘The UAE economy may be in for a “pleasant shock” in 2010’ said Marios Maratheftis, regional head of research at Standard Chartered Bank ,

“To be honest I was much more nervous this time last year than I am now,” he said.

CEO & Director Jobs – Outlook for Dubai & UAE

The best CEOs in our research display tremendous ambition for their company combined with the stoic will to do whatever it takes, no matter how brutal (within the bounds of the company’s core values), to make the company great. Yet at the same time they display a remarkable humility about themselves, ascribing much of their own success to luck, discipline and preparation rather than personal genius. – Jim Collins

If you operate at a senior or Director Level within the Dubai and UAE business sphere, the prospect of finding another director or CEO job, if you are looking for a career change is a tricky option.

Senior executives in global organisations are finding themselves displaced as Middle East sectors restructure whole departments with some senior roles being consolidated with others.

It’s a given fact that the talent pool at director and senior executive level is shallower, just by the law of averages, but that also means that there are fewer jobs to go around. When there are then fewer jobs to go around, in lean economic times that talent pool becomes rather crowded.

It’s not all doom and gloom though, we are told. Thousands of employees in Dubai lost their jobs over the past year as companies trimmed their payrolls in the wake of the financial crisis, but there are signs that hiring is starting to pick up again. However, experts remain cautious about predicting when, if ever, there will be a return to the hiring levels that existed in the emirate prior to the downturn.

The Power of LinkedIn Networking

For any professional out there who knows their way around the cyber ether, it seems the world has gone social media crazy. You probably spend much of your working week catching your employees on Facebook and Twittering away, if you haven’t had the sense to put a corporate ban on the ultimate timewasters.

But it’s not all a waste of time, trust me it’s not. For all you networking cynics out there who claim it’s only for teenagers, bored housewives and , well, sad men, think again. There is one Social Media Site you need to know about.

If you’re not LinkedIn, you’re pretty much locked out. Linkedin.Com is a powerful networking tool for professionals. Harness the power of a network of connections you build and help yourself to industry tips, news, career opportunities and so much more.

Network It

The clichéd phrase ‘It’s not what you know, it’s WHO you know’ is as old and overused as the day is long. But it’s clichéd for a reason. No man is an island, to coin another oft used maxim, and whatever our experience or skill set, we need others to help us along the way.

But it needn’t be a case of a human ladder with a huge dose of nepotism. Think of others as a support network, not dissimilar to what you might have in your personal life. Very few of us could live without a network of family and friends out of work hours. Your career should be no different.

The benefits of a professional network are huge. In the 21st century it’s important to cultivate a close, likeminded group of individuals to whom we can turn for a myriad of uses, and return the favour.

The CEO Leadership

CEO Leadership

It’s not easy at the top…

This article, Three rules for brand-new CEOs, intimates that life at CEO level may not be all rosy. It’s a given that the higher the salary or fatter the package, the nearer the buck stop is, until ultimately, you are the carrier of a multi million dollar weight on your shoulders. As an incoming CEO, it’s pretty obvious you would have pretty big shoes to fill, right? It’s a given also, like anyone following the path of an executive career, that your followers would have an ‘adjustment’ period, to the new ways and personalities of the new boss.

So, if a new CEO announcement should draw kudos rather than derision – how does it work here in the Middle East? It’s a fact that many senior management positions in local organisations are not acquired via work experience, and length of CV. Even if you come to the role with years of loyal service and the esteem of your colleagues, the transition can be fraught.

Love The Career, Love The Money

It’s all about the money…

Do you work for love?

Now I’m sure some people do, but human nature dictates that for most of us, the monthly paycheck can’t come soon enough.

In all seriousness though, I wouldn’t like to think that too many of us were slaves to the salary alone. By its very definition ‘work’ isn’t something that’s meant to be a hobby or what we’d choose to do as a hobby. Still, there has to be some element of enjoyment in your daily grind, an inkling of career related satisfaction at least?

As the economy shrinks, more and more people are looking for better paying jobs and seeking out opportunities within niche markets where they can find them.