Toward the end, a new study came out today that reinforces this positive spirit.  It is based on a nice random probability sample of Americans by StrategyOne, which suggests that most working Americans have good bosses.  In this survey, over 80% of respondents reported that they felt respected by their bosses and that their bosses respect their work.  There was evidence that some people out there fear their bosses, as 26% feared being fired by their bosses if they took a day off from work.   On the whole, however, this survey paints a picture of people who are generally satisfied with their work, bosses, and companies -- although I given all that, I found it strange that 56% would be at least somewhat interested in leaving for a job with the same compensation elsewhere. Perhaps that was explained in part by the general job insecurity out there, which you see in this survey as well, with 44% reporting that they have had their pay cut in the last couple years and 46% reporting being concerned about losing their jobs. 

To return to my main point, however, I think it is important -- as Labor Day weekend in the U.S. is starting -- to take some pride in the quality of most of the 20 million or so bosses in our country (estimates run as high 38 million bosses), and to remember that while work can be a source of dissatisfaction and distress, and bad bosses do suck, that most of the 90% of us in the workforce who have bosses are satisfied with these immediate superiors and, more important than that, feel respected by them.  I would also add that, equally heartening, is that most bosses I know are not only competent, most devote considerable energy to getting better at their jobs.  As I said at the outset, I wrote Good Boss, Bad Boss in hopes it would be of some help to all the hard working bosses out there strive to keep honing their difficult craft.

In the spirit of the ARSE -- and once again with some great coaching from Guy-- I have developed the BRASS, the Boss Reality Assessment Survey System (I know it is dumb spelled out, in fact if you have a better idea, let me know... one suggestion that I kind of liked was "Bob's Roughly Accurate Superior Survey").  The 20 items on the BRASS draw on major themes from Good Boss, Bad Boss, which are used to rate your boss on items including:

Is so pushy and overbearing that it drives us nuts

Lacks confidence in his or her ability to lead others

Doesn't have our backs, won't go to bat for us, and doesn't protect us from the idiocy that rains down from on high

Leaves me feeling drained and de-energized after even a short conversation.

Is a chronic credit hog.

The higher the score, the worse your boss.  If your boss is really bad, if he or she scores "true" on 15 or more items like these, then you have the misfortune of working for a certified brasshole. And if your boss scores below five, my advice is that you better treat him or her right, because one like that is hard to find! 

When I was choosing my major I figured I should major in something that would help me land a job.

I was pretty short-sighted and didn’t quite understand what that meant but I figured there were some majors that either didn’t get jobs or that got very low-paying jobs.

I ultimately chose to get a degree in business with an emphasis in Computer Information Systems.  The only other alternative I seriously considered was an emphasis in accounting, but I had ZERO intention of going that route.

Armed with my BA in CIS I was ready to meet the professional world.  Of course, I had an education complex so I eventually got my MBA also, and was sure I was on the path to serious job security!!

I would look at other majors, namely humanities, and think “good luck, but seriously, didn’t you realize you were putting yourself at a disadvantage?”

Yes, short-sighted, I know.  I realize different, now, but back then that’s what I thought.

Okay, that’s a long intro for such a short point… I recently came across an awesome, amazing blog for humanities majors. This is written by Scott Sprenger, the Associate Dean at BYU, and is called Humanities+ (or, Humanities Plus).  Here’s the description on what the PLUS means:

Humanities+
To provide ideas and resources for bridging the traditional humanities major to the professional work world.

Which is different if you put the PLUS before Humanities, like this:

+Humanities
To provide students in business, social science, engineering, pre-law, etc., with reasons and strategies for enriching vocational training with skills provided by the Humanities.

Summing it up:

Whether it’s H+ or +H, the Humanities should play an important role in everybody’s education.

I LOVE that… very clever, very thoughtful. Beyond that, though, I’ve skimmed through a number of Scott’s posts and they are very high-value for a Humanities type.

Go check it out – and Scott, excellent job!

I think it’s intriguing to learn about what recruiters talk, and learn, about.  Understanding what they are paying money for and what they are trying to incorporate into their business can help you understand how to better position yourself, whether you are in an active or passive job search.

Here’s parts of an agenda (full agenda here) from a recruiter conference… do you see a consistent theme?  Browse through these and then I’ll make a conclusion at the end of the post:

Kristin Graham, VP Global Recruiting & Engagement, Expedia is going to talk about the new candidate… how the talent pool has changed since the recession.  This sounds really, really interesting.  She’ll talk about how to maintain credibility with different generations (including the high-tech high-touch candidates).

Stephen A. Lowisz, President and Chief Executive Officer of Qualigence will talk about a role the recruiter plays in helping the hiring manager realize what they want vs. what they can get. Interesting role I never really thought about.

Eric Winegardner, Vice President, Client Adoption, Monster.com and Marie Artim, Assistant VP of Recruiting, Enterprise Rent-A-Car will talk about the power of social media.

Shally Steckerl, EVP Arbita and Founder of JobMachine will talk about “key social media sourcing initiatives for 2010 and beyond.”

Rusty Rueff, Glassdoor.com Board Director will talk about the employment brand: Your employment brand is transparent! Yes, Really!” I hope he helps these people understand that when they treat candidates with disrespect that has a negative impact on the company.

Simon Conroy, CEO, Madgex will do a presentation called “Social Media Dreams and Digitally-enabled Fantasies.”

Traci Scovel, Sr. Program Manager, Genentech and Kasey Sixt, VP of Branding, CKR Interactive will give a presentation on getting started with social media by committing 15 minutes a day.

Gautam Godhwani, CEO and Co-Founder Simply Hired will talk about how to “prepare for the future of job search.” I bet he’ll talk a lot about Twitter and Facebook (it’s in the description).

Social Media is over 1/2 of the agenda!

This is what recruiters are scrambling to learn!

Where are you in your personal social media strategy?  Are you “there?”  Do you have a plan?  Will these recruiters FIND YOU?

When they find you, will they be impressed and think that perhaps you are the exact person they were looking for?

Or… is it all just crickets? (that is, you aren’t there, you don’t exist)

Whether you are in a serious job search now, planning for one in the next couple of years, wanting to get promotions at your work or have your own business, I think it is time to SERIOUSLY figure out what your social marketing strategy means.

I have been using Twitter since it launched a few years ago, but have participated more actively within the past 12 months. For much of that time I have tweeted at the username @printedproof. This user name was a mirror to my printing resources website at the time. Originally, the only reason I joined Twitter was to promote my articles and make some money from affiliate programs. This all changed as soon as I begun to witness the true power of this popular social networking tool.

As many of you know, Twitter is much more than simply a place to plug your posts, market for money, or blog for business. Twitter is a networking, connecting, and interacting online powerhouse. Don’t get me wrong, it’s OK to promote your projects on Twitter, I would say it’s even required for online success. However, if you truly plan on sharing everything about your personal life as well as run your blog or business on Twitter, I recommend having multiple Twitter accounts.

Let’s go back to my personal example: @printedproof has transformed from a targeted business execution to a place for me to just, well… be me. Since taking twitter flight years ago I have built hundreds if not thousands of mini-relationships. Some of these new connections I am proud to call dear friends and have chatted with on a very personal level. Many of these relationships share interests with me but do not necessarily share interest in my business.

My printing resources website has since taken a back seat to new projects. These new projects have taken new lives of their own with individual twitter profiles. In order to dedicate and target all updates and messages to the loyal followers of those new projects, I keep these profiles separate. Sure, I share some tweets on my personal account, as do I share great things from many of my friends on twitter. But bottom line, when a new user follows my profile on twitter, they bring with them a predetermined expectation of what they will read from my tweets. These expectations are built from important facts found in my bio, link, background, and updates. It’s important to use these things I have created to give my followers the correct impression of this particular twitter account and then deliver it.

One thing to remember on twitter is that people follow profiles because they share interest with that particular person, business, brand, or website. Followers want updates that are of interest to them. As a business owner, my goal is to provide the content that my viewers and customers require.

So relax, it’s OK to run multiple twitter profiles to meet those expectations. Do not lack the “personable” with your professional accounts; just be sure to deliver the updates that you promised.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



It’s OK to Have Multiple Twitter Accounts

There’s a discussion I think we need to have that I haven’t seen elsewhere.

I’ve been thinking about this for the last year or so, as the job market has gotten worse.

The pink elephant seems to be those who are discriminated against for their age – specifically, the older worker (we can talk about age discrimination for younger workers in a separate post).

Let’s assume a couple of things:

1. The economy, and the job market, are in the crapper.  Regardless of what strategies and tactics you employ, some of you just won’t find a job. Period.
2. Older people (what’s the age cutoff?  40?  50?  60?  Or is it a matter of wrinkles and gray(ing) hair?) are passed over for jobs for various reasons.

Put these two together and it can be beyond discouraging.

Yesterday I read a really interesting post titled Silicon Valley’s Dark Secret: It’s All About Age. Of course we knew some of this stuff (or all of it), and it’s not limited to Silicon Valley.  But the post puts certain things into perspective.

The author, Vivek Wadhwa, ends with this:

Finally, I don’t know of any university, including the ones I teach at, that tells its engineering students what to expect in the long term or how to manage their technical careers. Perhaps it is time to let students know what lies ahead.

Interesting… does this mean that what you think your career will look like is what it really will look like?

Maybe, the older we get, the more our career changes?

It’s not that you are getting put out to pasture (excuse the phrase but I know many older, discriminated-against wannabe-employees feel that way), but maybe your role and value prop is simply different.

Maybe you are chasing after the wrong job, wrong level, wrong company.

What are the options… one I’ve heard is “I don’t have to work anymore… I’m trying to figure out if I want to.”  What a nice place to be.  Not many have that option.

What are other options?

Freelancing/consulting seems fun but it is definitely not without stress or problems.

Starting a company is a viable option but, again, not without stress or problems (who’s ready to spend 15 hours a day on a new business??).

Seriously… what are real options for older workers who are not finding any success in finding a job, I mean making ends meet, I mean figuring out where any income will come from??

1. REALLY listens to what you say, doesn't just pretend.

2. Is careful to give you as much -- or even more -- credit than you deserve.

3. Sticks-up for you behind your back.

4.  Takes care not to embarrass you.

5.  Apologizes sincerely and completely when he or she does something that upsets or hurts you.

6. Goes out of his or her way to make it easier for you to mesh the challenges in your personal life with your job.

7. Is respectful of your time.

8. Takes time to learn your quirks and idiosyncrasies -- and accommodates them within in reason.

9. Goes the extra mile to make sure that you succeed at your job and keep developing skills.

10. Doesn't bullshit you about your weaknesses or screw-ups -- tells you the truth.

This is just first draft.  What should I add?  What should I remove?  Do you have any stories along these lines?   I look forward to your comments and I will revise and extend the list after hearing your ideas and comments.

But there is very little advice on HOW to be yourself.

1. Don’t be boring.

On the way to our board meeting today, it was me, and Ryan Paugh, and Ryan Healy, in a car, running late. Ryan Healy told me not to write about him on the blog anymore, but I think only because I used to write about him like he was my little brother or something. At this point, Ryan Healy is COO of the company, so I think I can write about him because really, how can I undermine him when I’m agreeing to report to him?

So I’m riding in the car with Ryan and Ryan and I finished my needlepoint and I didn’t have  anything left to occupy my hands during the board meeting. I know that as a board member, and the majority shareholder in the company, I’m supposed to be enthralled at these meetings, but honestly I find them largely very slow and repetitive. (I know I am not the only one who feels this way because another board member went to the bathroom and when he came back and found out that we waited for him, he was disappointed.)

Anyway, I was in the car with them and I was panicking that I didn’t have anything to do in the board meeting except listen to the board meeting. Then I said, “I think I’ll pop a Xanax.”

And no one said anything. Ryan and Ryan are largely bored with my antics.

But when I’m anxious I’m chatty, and they had already said no to playing the license plate game. So I said, just to make casual conversation, “What do you guys think would go well with Xanax, because I don’t think this is working. And pharmaceuticals have been such a disappointment to me.”

Ryan Healy said, ‘You sure are a late-bloomer to this. By the time you’re going to board meetings you’re supposed to be done with this stuff.”

In fact, I am enthralled with mixing pharmaceuticals off-label. I am also enthralled with trying new things, learning what I’m like with new things so I know who I am.

But it gets old. Not knowing who I am. And anyway, it’s boring for other people when you don’t know who you are. I know that because when I was dating the twenty-five-year-old with the perfect butt and long, thick, curly hair, he had no idea who he was and it got boring, very boring very fast.

(Links about boringness: People do not want to know all of you. Some of you is interesting, some of you is boring. This is why confessional blog posts mostly stink. And it’s why you need to omit most of your life from your resume.)

2. Try a range of tools to express who you are.

I like to think that I know myself well enough to present a consistent and insightful portrait of myself. And when Eva, from Songza, emailed me to see if I’d put together a playlist that they could use on their music streaming site, I said sure. (By the way, if you want to get me to do something, make it fun. People ask for posts all the time, but few people ask for playlists.)

So I start doing my playlist and I think: People judge other people by their playlists. (Which is why Ramones t-shirts outsell Ramones albums ten to one.)  I want people to think I’m fun and edgy and self-confident.

(Ad for my company: It think about this issue a lot because my company, Brazen Careerist, is basically a tool to let people know who you are by showing your ideas and potential. The tools on the site encourage you to display your best self in a professional, online setting. And every time I pitch my company, I end up telling people that you can’t show your true self if the tool you’re using is wrong for who you are.)

3. Understand how people perceive what you put out there.

I picked Moby and TruSkool for edge. I picked Beastie Boys and Arrested Development because I read that people who like hip-hop tend to have high self-esteem. And I picked Fergie for fun. I think when people say she’s for girls, they mean that she makes guys think of girls dancing while they watch.  Then I picked Lilly Allen, Regina Specktor to say that I didn’t feel too much like an old-school Gen X-er. I picked Kings of Leon because Lilly and Regina are both girls.

It turns out that I would have done fine just picking out all Miles Davis, which would have probably been my instinct, but I thought it would be boring and pedantic (which is almost redundant but mildly nuanced instead, I think). It would have been just fine because people have positive impressions of people who like jazz.

This is surprising to me because people do not have positive judgments toward blog posts that are like jazz—complicated and difficult. In fact, my editor will probably slash this whole paragraph because it is off topic and difficult to read and jazz is not writing and so what if my brain runs like an Ornette Coleman composition?

When I sent my song list to Eva I asked her to analyze me. I said, “I bet you read song lists like I read resumes, so can you tell me what you see?”

She said she usually doesn’t see such a wide a range of songs on one list.

On a resume, lack of focus is bad. And in a life, doing many different things at once is bad. And in fact, I’m a stickler for focus because I love knowing one thing well, so it’s counter-intuitive to me that I would have such an eclectic list. In fact, it’s the result of me being scared to just be who I am and accept that I’ll be judged for it.

But P.S. Here's the playlist I made at Songza. And here's my favorite Miles Davis CD.

Over at HBR online today, one of the articles they are featuring is my piece on The Boss as Human Shield.  One point the article makes, and that I emphasize in Good Boss, Bad Boss , is that your job as a boss isn't just to protect employees from other idiots -- it is also to protect them your own idiocy.  At or near the top of the list are bad meetings, too many meetings, and meetings that run too long.  The picture above of a boring meeting made me laugh and and made me think.  If the people at the meetings you run look like that, you might want to think about having fewer meetings and changing how the are done (see the example here and here of an all-hands meeting at Timbuk2 that our students at the d.school helped fix.. there were people sleeping at the meeting too before it was changed).

Certainly, meetings are sometimes necessary, but are often ran badly.  What do you do to hold just the right number of meetings and to run them effectively? 

This is precisely what myTwittshirt is intended to: with this web service you can create custom t-shirts that embed a QR-code (similar to a bar code, used by smartphones and the like) pointing to your Twitter home page. Scanning the QR-code will redirect to the wearer’s Twitter account!

Will you wear your Twitter too?

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Never Go Out Without Your Twitter: Wear It!