The Corporate Ferris Wheel

The world is a gigantic Ferris wheel. You heard that before? Here’s what I mean, if you’re on top of the world and decide to throw a paper ball (to use a subtle example) at the person diametrically below you remember that when the wheel turns the person you threw the ball at can return your gesture (but they might prefer an object different from your paper ball).

Next time you think about your career remember the “Gigantic Corporate Ferris Wheel.”

It’s not about being friends with everyone or “sucking up” to ensure that everyone “loves” you—for one thing you will never reach this level of consensus.

The thing is that your actions, accomplishments, and deeds have the “Gigantic Corporate Ferris Wheel” effect and you shouldn’t ignore them. You might think that the world is huge and that nobody will remember what you did when changing jobs or industry.

But this is an illusion! More than globalized, the business world today is connected and allows for fast checking very easily. I usually receive resumes that don’t match the information included in the professional’s LinkedIn account, or Facebook or even a quick search on Google (have you already searched your name on Google?). It’s not difficult to find out who your co-workers, assistants, or bosses were at a certain point in your career. And it’s also easy to find out that those professionals are in your contact network, in a platform such as LinkedIn. And sometimes we even know them, which makes it easier to check references.

So here are some tips in order to make the best of your ride in the “Gigantic Corporate Ferris Wheel,”

1)    NEVER LIE. Not in your resume, interview, size or authorship of projects you managed or participated. It may work in the short term. ONLY in the short term;
2)    When resigning from a job, always value the “don’t burn your bridges” adage. Finish your last projects at the company and don’t just cross your arms and “coast”!!
3)    Value your word and commitment. For instance, accepting a job offer which involved a lot of work and time from a company’s top management and then changing your mind might have serious consequences for you;
4)    Harming other professionals in order to get advantages in the short term leaves a mark in the career of those professionals and might have repercussions for you in future;
5)    This may sound funny, but don’t “create” characters to increase or aggrandize your experience or professional accomplishments.

As Profeta Gentileza[1] used to say, “Kindness Generates Kindness.” Believe me, this works for everything in life. Even your career.

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[1] Translator’s Note: José Datrino, better known as Profeta Gentileza, “Profet Kindness,” was a sort of preacher in the Rio de Janeiro urban landscape who became famous in the 80’s for inscribing his peculiar writings on the columns that supported an overpass in the city. He would walk around wearing a long white gown and long beard. His preaching and writings were about love, kindness, and respect for humans and nature. He has been immortalized in songs, such as this one by Marisa Monte, Gentileza, with English subtitles (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Tfbw6818Ls)

 

BOSSES: MYTHS AND REALITIES

This week I’ve asked my Twitter followers to help me write this post about bosses. By the way, thank you to all of you who participated! What you’ll find below are some reflections about everything we discussed online together. Myths and realities about this much-talked-about character: THE BOSS.

1) Most of the time your boss sees everything you see (right and wrong things), but since their understanding of the issues tends to be broader their actions are different from yours. Here’s an analogy to make it clearer. When we’re teenagers we have ideas with which we think we can move mountains. When we grow up we realize those ideas were silly. Why? Because when we grow up we are able to perceive the consequence of our actions in the mid and long term more broadly, something we couldn’t do as teenagers. It’s the same thing with your boss. Believe me!

2) Being a boss generally includes working harder and being responsible for EVERYTHING that goes right or wrong. That’s why they mobilize people toward reaching a goal. And mobilizing is NOT easy at all. If you become a boss and don’t know how to mobilize people; you can give orders but if the result doesn’t come you’ll probably think, “Why have I become a boss?”

3) Being a boss means making more money. But it’s also about doing more (not necessarily more hours, but doing more for sure). Being a boss is making more money but it’s also about paying a higher price. If you’re not sure what I mean, check this post.

4) If you have children, maybe you recognize the feeling that children don’t come with instruction manual and that sometimes you don’t know how to make the right decision. Being a boss is similar. People who report to you don’t come with instruction manuals and—contrary to your children—generally have no family ties to you—which not always makes things easier.

5) If you want to open your own business so that you get rid of the boss, beware. At the end of each month you’ll have a payroll to take care of, taxes, suppliers to negotiate, clients to please, and none of them have any employee relationship with you. They resemble more like bosses. You can expect them to hold you accountable.

What matters is that ALL OF US HAVE BOSSES. The figure of the boss may take the form of your clients or even the government to which business people owe taxes and several types of responses.

The absence of someone to respond to doesn’t exist. And the bigger your “power” as a boss, the more complex your decisions and the more people you owe answers to regarding your attitudes.

One of the most powerful men in the world is US president Barack Obama. Do you really believe he can do anything he wants without consulting anyone?

Maybe he’s the guy with the largest number of “bosses,” to whom he needs to render accounts of EVERYTHING he does and says.

So, do you still want to be a boss?

GOOD LUCK!

I’m unemployed. Now what?

First of all you need to know that although being fired or unemployed is not pleasant it’s a very common thing. What I mean by that is that being unemployed happens to the best professionals and the brightest careers.

So DON’T FREAK OUT and think you’re incompetent or spend time blaming others or looking for mistakes that you might not be sure were even made. Act!

Below are some of the most common doubts at the moment and how I address each one of them:

1)   How should I talk about my exit from the company in an interview?
Being truthful about it, that’s the only way. Also because some of the references you provided might put you in a tight spot later if the information you shared wasn’t true.

2)    What’s the most assertive and successful way to seek new placement?
Always remember this rule. There are no fixed rules or universal truths when it comes to careers. When unemployed many professionals prefer to hide this truth out of shame or because they think it will somehow demean them professionally. But this is a mistake!! Your next job will come through a headhunter, linked in, recommendations, friends, relatives, neighbors, etc. That’s why it’s important to let as many channels as possible know that you’re looking for a new job.

3)    What’s the average time a good professional remains unemployed?
Remember the rule I mentioned above? There isn’t a right answer. For those who were used to a crazy corporate schedule being unemployed for 1 or 2 months might feel like 1 year. So calm down and focus your energy on actions that might generate results and not on being worried.

4)    How long can I be unemployed before it becomes an issue?
There’s no universal truth about that either. The important thing to remember is that the longer you remain unemployed the more detailed you’ll have to be when they ask you, “What have you been doing during this career transition?” Some women might have chosen to stay home until their baby turned one year old; others might have tried to open their own business and realized they prefer the corporate world. And there’s nothing wrong with that. For sure these professionals have learned a lot and such lessons should be shared with headhunters at the time of the interview.

5)    I had no job offers for a while. Now, all of a sudden, I’ve been offered 3 at the same time. How am I going to decide?
This is not unusual. When you start looking for a job you develop several contacts, and they all tend to have a similar response time. That’s when offers come up simultaneously. To help you decide, think about what you really want in your next professional opportunity.

Being unemployed even when the market is hot doesn’t mean that you’re less qualified than other employed professionals. There’re many variables involved with being fired, not only competence.

And being employed doesn’t mean that someone has a secure job at a large company either! Brazil is experiencing excellent growth in several industries and there’re many opportunities. Take advantage of this moment and GOOD LUCK!!

When is the right time to seek something new?

Is this the right time to change jobs? Or yet, does it make sense to change your career at this point in time?

So, how do we know when the right time to seek something new is?

In a previous post I had addressed the issue of how long one should stay with the same company (read here).

But sometimes the issue is more complex than that. It might be something that impacts your professional life, but it doesn’t exclusively have to. For example, it might involve following your spouse to another country; or yet giving up a corporate career to become self-employed or open your own business. Such decisions are much more complicated than changing companies.So, how do we know when the right time is? The answer seems obvious, but it came to me when I watched for the second time the play “The Immoral Soul” (with Clarice Niskier) last week.

In the play Clarice says that we should leave behind the narrow path in search of a wider space. She also states, “In certain moments of our lives we face situations that cause us to feel physical or moral discomfort. These spaces that have become narrow—which have helped us evolve and grow—become stifling and limiting.”

And this is very well represented by this Biblical story:

Sometimes we think there’s no way out and ahead of us there’s only the vastness of the insurmountable sea.
Regardless of your religious belief the analogy that sometimes we have to cross a sea in search of a wider space seems to make sense. And like Clarice Niskier says in the play, if we show courage and determination in doing it the universe will conspire in our favor.

And all of us have already overcome a vastness of water from a narrow path toward the wider space, from the womb to the world. And I don’t believe this is an easy thing; all newborns come out crying a lot!

So, when is the right to seek something new? When the place you’re at becomes a narrow space and you’re ready to be born again.

GOOD LUCK!

How to build a successful career

Many executives I talk to ask me, “What do successful professionals you interview have in common?”

Despite always answering that when it comes to someone’s career there’s no right or wrong, or success formulas, there’s is something I think successful professionals have in common.

If competence is a combination of Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes (KSA) part of the answer lies in this concept. The philosopher Ralph Emerson once said, “Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying.”

And I truly believe in what Emerson was saying. In essence your career success depends on your attitudes, but it’s also built upon how your attitudes are perceived by others.

And it’s no use thinking, “I don’t care about what others think of me,” or yet, “I’m not here to make friends but to do my job,” because your most important personal marketing is actually done by others, and in this sense it’s possible to say that perception equals reality.

Having a successful career is closely related to how others assess you, so each work day and each step you take in your career is a chapter you write about it, which others will read and tell as stories.

You can’t dissociate one from the other. Your career will be what you make of it. There’s no use blaming it on your boss or company; it’s in your hands.

Yes, I know your company is not perfect, that your boss isn’t nice, that your team is difficult, that nobody sees the world like you do, and that sometimes it REALLY feels impossible, but as Michael Jackson used to sing, it’s about “...starting with the man in the mirror...”

GOOD LUCK!!

Overcoming hurdles

Some things in our lives can’t be changed and, sometimes, not even chosen: family, neighbors, friends, school teachers, experiences in general. And all these elements make up our life stories and define who we are.

It sounds poetic and even a bit cliché, but in fact all of those experiences make our talent unique.

Most people don’t know themselves enough to the point of not making use or even exploring their talents (or potentials). Many professionals condemn their past or even their life stories for considering them unworthy of a promising future. Some of the reasons include the fact that they didn’t go to an Ivy League school or even that they don’t speak English fluently. That’s precisely where the danger lies.

Simply “conforming” to the “established” professional model will not make you different. There are obviously prerequisites that need to be fulfilled, but I’m talking about differentiation.

And difference can only be perceived when it comes from our essence. Have you watched the animated flick Rio?

Rio – directed by the Brazilian Carlos Saldanha – is already a box office hit in 2011 in the US and in Brazil. And why is that?

According to many critics (the animated film was well evaluated by 72% of Rotten Tomatoes’ critics) the flick has something unique that could only have been provided by a Brazilian who actually knows Rio de Janeiro, its culture, specificities and the carioca spirit extremely well portrayed in the cartoon. Of course the latest 3D technology adds to the show, which has been a huge hit among audiences around the world.

You want to know why Saldanha was so successful in this flick? Because he didn’t, in any moment, choose to “hide” the fact that he’s Brazilian. He understands our “way of doing things” and knows the beauty of his home town Rio like nobody else. Saldanha moved to New York because he wanted to work with the best in computer graphics. With a good educational background but difficult career start, he boosted his career and has shown an enormous amount of talent (which can be seen in many other successful animated films).

But his real triumph came when he made use of his difference to create something unique which translates universally: overcoming hurdles.

A Brazilian director who overcame hurdles in New York, and a blue macaw who overcame the shortcomings of not knowing how to fly.

What about you? What is your unique talent that has been framed by your experiences? What are you waiting for to overcome your hurdles?

What the best executives are made of?

It’s nothing new that the market lacks professionals with high levels of qualifications and that discussions on the role of education in a country’s development abound.
Nobody will deny that one of a country’s sustainable growth pillars is quality education. However, how do we explain when very well educated professionals with extensive experience can’t be placed in new jobs?

How about recent M.A. and Ph.D. graduates who find it hard to get rehired? So what’s this story about lack of qualified professionals all about?

Maybe the big issue is that when the market says it can’t find skilled professionals it’s not about technical or academic qualifications (especially when we’re talking about managing or executive roles). Currently, there’s a lack of professionals in the market who possess competencies solely and exclusively learned from applying what they’ve learned in quality academic education.

To put it in simple terms, check out the movie clip below:

“Slumdog Millionaire” tells the story of a boy who grows up in an Indian slum and wins a television game show by giving the right answers to general knowledge questions based on his own life story. In sum, his entire life, his entire story provides him with the right answers.

Drawing a parallel here, this is how excellent executives get made. They’re those who learn from their daily experiences and consider everything as a learning opportunity. Of course we can’t ignore the relevance of academic education, but what corporations actually look for are the answers that practice has taught professionals.

When you look at it this way, your professional experiences (good and bad), when well used, may help you win “one million rubies” and make you successful.

Taking professional experiences and turning them into learning moments require a lot of resilience, emotional intelligence, empathy, patience, humility, and hard work. This type of competence is hardly learned in grad school.

And success—in my experience—might even be fortuitous, but luck usually finds those who are well prepared.

So, take a chance. The greater the risk, the higher the return. And know that everyone is afraid of making mistakes. After all, is there anyone out there who truly believes they’re ready for life?

GOOD LUCK!!

What kind of professional appeals to the market and headhunters after all?

Most professionals I talk to ask me if there is a formula to boost their careers.

Is it better to go for an M.B.A. or an M.A.? Is it better to go to grad school or invest the money in improving one’s English? Is it better to have Spanish as a second language or go for Chinese? Should I really go for another undergraduate degree and take advantage of some booming industry?

Know this: the success formula does exist but it’s unique for each individual. What does draw attention of headhunters and what the market values in professionals is their ability to deliver results for the organization.

And in the job selection processes people are looking for evidence that the professional can generate such results.

Based on that, the decision to whether study Spanish or Chinese, for instance, will depend on which language will help you produce more results. The same goes for an MBA. Getting the degree and then adding it to your resume will not improve your employability in and of itself. What will make you more valuable in the market is learning from the MBA how to improve your ability to deliver results. If that happens, then yes, your value in the market will go up.

That’s why the formula for success is unique. Some professionals seek improvement with graduate courses, others in expatriate experiences. Some learn better on their own, others with a mentor who can teach them every step of the way.

That’s why you should ideally decide on your professional future—even if it’s not perfectly outlined and defined—, find out what are the things you need to do in order to get there and draw a development plan in order to learn those things.

It sounds simple, but it’s not. I believe the biggest difficulty lies in knowing who you are. That’s why there isn’t such a thing as the career of the future or the professional success secret. If a professional is excellent with numbers and likes to work in the financial market early on, it’s no use migrating to a technical career in the oil and gas industry only because this is a hot market today and offers good future opportunities. They’ll probably not do well and will not take advantage of the market boom.
It’s simple. If it’s not “you’re thing” and you don’t like what you do, you won’t enjoy this success even if the market is hot.

Therefore, studying Chinese can be an excellent bet in a growing market, but if delivering results in your area has nothing to do with the use of this language studying it will be more of a cultural investment than a professional one.

You may even ask yourself if everything in the world revolves around results. This is what I’ll tell you, “YES.” But I don’t only mean professional ones.

Results may include sales increase, employee retention, fame, credibility, profitability, geographic presence, image, or even other results which don’t mean anything to some people, but to others are priceless. Which results do you want to achieve?

GOOD LUCK!!

What are you going to be when you grow up?

Remember when they used to ask that question when we were kids? Do you still remember your answer? Remember why you wanted to follow that profession?

Probably most of us didn’t exactly become that we imagined when we were kids but many have been able to fulfill their professional dream. When I say “dream” I’m referring to the original motivation behind the profession we “picked” when we were children—some wanted to help people, hence they wanted to become doctors; others wanted to help animals, hence they aspired to be vets. There were even those who dreamed of being rich and wanted to work in a bank.

As they grew up many professionals discovered that they could fulfill their professional “dreams” even without following the idealized childhood profession, and that different roads lead to the same sense of fulfillment.

The most important thing is to fulfill that dream. Consultant’s BS? Self-help talk? It might even be, but the most fulfilled professionals are usually those boosting best performance and standing out in their fields. If that isn’t enough to convince you, there’s also a mathematical equation to consider. We spend most of our time at work, so nothing more logical than working with something that gives us satisfaction.

I said satisfaction. And satisfaction doesn’t mean that the work is easy; that it’s necessarily the one that pays the best, or has fewer hours. It’s as if each phase in our professional trajectory were a chapter of a major story that you’ll title career a few years later. And satisfaction happens when this story is awesome and you’re proud of it (and sometimes inspires other people!!).

How are you drafting your chapters? Have you taken a moment to think about this?

And claiming that it’s too late and that you’ve done everything wrong in the past won’t cut it! If you need to change remember that the most important thing is the direction of the change and not how fast you do it (Edson Marques).

When you think about a profession don’t get stuck to the idea that you’ll necessarily work for a company, from Monday thru Friday, in a secure job with a boss to report to. Not that this is bad, it’s just that it’s not the only path. Humans have never experienced so many simultaneous changes and so many new needs than in the current globalized world. It sounds like cliché, but if we take a moment we’ll realize that "the world is upside down and no one has noticed it."

Take a chance!! There’re tons of opportunities in the new world being formed.

GOOD LUCK!!

What’s does a successful career mean?

Dictionary.com defines career as “a course, especially a swift one” or “speed, especially full speed” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/career).

It seems that the definition is very close to what all of us constantly hear, i.e., in order to be successful one has to work hard, keep oneself updated, and if one doesn’t do it fast one might fail since the course of success is narrow. Right?

Right. But I also like to interpret this “full speed” and high competitiveness differently: your biggest “competitor” for the highest place in the success podium is yourself.

The reason for this is that a successful career is something relative and you’re responsible for developing its conception.

Being the CEO of a company, for instance, can represent success. But are you sure you want to be the CEO of your company? Or do you only want the “good” part of being a CEO (high pay, visibility, power, etc …)?

Think about it. Everything in life has a price, even you! (check out this post).

Having a successful career is hard work because you always have to give up some things for others. But if this is really what you want here’s a tip.

Before anything else, develop your conception of successful career. The idea is to come up with a spreadsheet that includes all the elements about your successful career: salary, decision power, hours, pressure, family time, your health (remember, you only have one), how much you like what you do, and how much you like the industry you work in, the possibilities of growing in the business, etc…

You can assign a value to each element which should all total 100. Then you can grade each item based on your current job or professional activity. Multiply the grades by the values you assigned and compare the scores.

This may help you think if you really want to change jobs or work in a different industry.

You may even ask, “Is this spreadsheet the solution to my problems?” Of course, not. To think about your career only based on a spreadsheet is to oversimplify a very important part of your life.

But the exercise of going through the values you assign to each one of the things that impact your career may be a great opportunity to find out what a successful career means according to your conception of it.

If you’re far away from your goal you can now start to create your path to success, which doesn’t necessarily mean working more and making more money (but may also be!!).

You can even be surprised and find out that actually you do have a career that’s more successful than those of many professionals you used to covet!

GOOD LUCK!!

Online Career

Few weeks ago I started an online discussion about the allowed use (or not) of Facebook in the workplace. A lot of people participated and the discussions posted were very interesting to say the least.

Regardless of Facebook, workers are not always allowed to use their social networks at work under the allegation that their inappropriate use can negatively impact employees’ focus and productivity.

I personally don’t agree with that. I myself have profiles on Linked In, Twitter, Plaxo, and Facebook, in addition to videoclips on Youtube. My productivity is not affected because of that. Quite the contrary, I believe it’s even higher (the entire discussion about the use of Facebook was conducted through a set of interconnected social networks!!).

On the other hand one must also consider that the improper use of social networks might lead to the loss of productivity and focus in the workplace. It might, but not necessarily.
Let’s use a knife as an analogy. You might consider it to be a weapon, even an object whose use should be forbidden. However, through correct use a knife is an essential tool in several activities. So one way to look at it might be that it’s about how we use each tool we’re provided with.

And this was also addressed in the discussion about Facebook use in the workplace: common sense.  But once again I’d like to point out my reservation about this. Common sense doesn’t exist. It’s part of each one’s individual framework and it’s extremely bound by cultural, religious issues; and varies depending on the context.

So how can one allow the use of social networks in the workplace without losing productivity and focus in the results to be delivered? Simple answer. By being focused on management!

It might sound like an easy answer, as if management were the answer for everything. But the truth is that it generally is!

Managers should pay closer attention to the results of their teams and how they produce them. Following the process of result generation and the impact of such process in motivating employees is a responsibility of managers.

For that reason prohibiting people to use Facebook (or any other social network) is not an action suitable to companies that plan on making the utmost use of the potentials offered by the current world. What businesses should be doing is training managers capable of guiding their teams toward maximizing the use of social networks to their own benefits, and training globally connected employees to exchange information, generate content and value online. Of course there are professions in which the use of social networks as work tool is less obvious. But perhaps social networks are today what the world wide web represented a few years back, which was only seen as useful in the academic environment. And does anyone see themselves living without the internet today?

Certainly, accommodating these new tools in the workplace (and why not in schools as well?) will still generate a lot of attrition and adjustment, which is natural.

But it’s already a reality; everyone’s is connected. Even without knowing for sure how social networks can actually help ONLINE is already my middle name and yours.  Isn’t it?

I want a career change. Now what?

You may have come to the conclusion that you’re in the wrong career; that your talent is being wasted in your current business or job and that if you make the right move you’ll be much happier than you are today. Does that sound crazy? I don’t think so. And chances are that you’re probably right.

I really believe that deep down people know what their talents or skills are. The problem is that most of the time we are not able translate such talent into a career.

And for that reason changing careers is not a simple thing and can be considered a high risk process. The chances of you falling flat on your face might be high, and probably you might have to take not one but MANY steps back. Are you willing to do it? If so, here are some tips that might come in handy.

The first thing to do is to find out if this new profession that appeals so much to you is really and exactly what you think it is, because no profession in the world is a bed of roses all the time. So try to find out all details about the career you want to embrace. Try talking to professionals in the area; understand how they manage their careers and what are the profession’s difficulties and benefits.

If you already have professional experience, before applying for a degree in the profession you seek, search for information online, blogs, read specialized literature such as magazines or other publications in the field. The reason is because a degree is usually expensive and time-consuming. Besides, academic programs tend to focus on theoretical and technical concepts and this might discourage you from changing careers.

Another important thing is that—most of the time—you might be able to use something from your current or previous profession in your new adventure. Knowledge is never too much; it’s always adaptable.

After that, if you still think that the profession you chose is really what you want, prepare for the change. So, the second thing to do is to prepare to make the transition, which may include some financial planning. That’s right, saving some money, and maybe lowering your standard of living. You don’t expect to make the same amount of money you make today in your already established profession when transitioning to a new career, do you? And this is a success factor, because starting anew without any savings may throw your career change dream out the window.

The third thing to do is to build experience in the area. Initially you might have to work weekends and hours in addition to your current job. You may also have to work as an intern with an experienced professional in the area you want to embrace, helping them and building knowledge in exchange.

Also try to engage with the professionals in your new activity. This way you’ll discover “short cuts” to make your career change transition smoother.

There are several triumphant stories of professionals who have followed this path successfully—lawyers who have become teachers, pilots who are now top executives in major companies, nutritionists who have become musicians, and even more unusual stories such as those by some of the cast members of Cirque du Soleil.

The most important thing is that you don’t want to feel sad or anxious on Sunday nights because you have to go back to work on Monday.

GOOD LUCK!!!

Everyone has a price

This sentence can sound harsh sometimes, right? And there are even those who state with conviction that they “aren’t for sale.”

However, I believe that all of us indeed have a price. When I say price in the professional context I’m referring to the conditions and premises we take into account when we accept or not the offers we come across in our professional lives.

The more or less open we are to such conditions and premises define the “price” each one of us has.

Price doesn’t necessarily have to be financial. Many professionals come to me saying that they would accept less in order to be able to spend more time with their families. Others don’t mind working more than 12 hours and even on weekends for a higher compensation. These are examples of “prices” that professionals can determine for themselves.

All of us have a price. However, not all professionals know that. And for not knowing that, they are open to negotiations or accept proposals without “calculating” all the implications that will result from such decision.

Higher hierarchical positions, promises of accelerated growth or even differentiated compensation packages are reasons that can drive us to consider a new job “without even blinking.”

But many times a decision made without blinking can end up costing a lot.

The reason behind this is that our "price” is also composed of things that are not financial. You can even think that a salary 3 times bigger than yours would help you buy happiness. But if in order to receive such salary you had to do something that made you unhappy, then this extra amount is actually paying for your unhappiness. Like an exchange. And thus the higher salary becomes nothing but a currency in exchange for your unhappiness.

No business can buy you happiness with money, only unhappiness. If you’re in a job you don’t like but you stay because they pay you well, the company is actually paying for your unhappiness. And the unhappier we are at a job the more we tend to think we make little money. Because happiness costs a lot.
The high “price" of happiness includes many other things that are not necessarily financial, think about that. And each one has their own.

What about you? What’s your price?

From innovation to success

Doing something original or new can set you apart from others; win you praise and a feeling of success achieved.

I use the word feeling because this might be the only thing that you will experience if you’re not prepared for the trial phase which your original idea goes through in order to become successful.

This is doesn’t mean I don’t want people to be successful. This is what happens naturally when success is what you seek from innovation.

When your idea/innovation is appreciated for the first time its success among a small audience—the first people who understood the innovation and praised you for it—might give you a false perception that you’re ready to present it to the Large Audience. Be careful, this is the first major risk.
If you were complimented in a small environment such as a small business, or even inside a department, you’ll have to consider some adaptations before taking it further to a larger setting.

And when making changes you run a second major risk—of losing the initial originality and eureka moment which led you to your first success.

If you have an original or innovative idea you should be ready for criticism when presenting it—be it at the company, college or your community. And the larger the audience the harsher and more diverse the criticisms will be.

To be successful when implementing an original/innovative idea, consider the following process:

1) Learn and maintain the essence of your idea. When considering further changes the essence should not vanish and lose its proposed innovation;
2) Make tons of mistakes—as long as they’re new mistakes. This is part of the creative and improvement process.
3) Consider the largest and most diverse number of opinions when testing the application of your idea, in a way mirroring the existing variety among the population targeted by your conception;
4) Resilience should be a major consideration. Introducing new ways of doing things always makes other people feel uncomfortable and anxious. You should always be ready to face them.

Even after following all different sorts of guidance and surrounding yourself by the best experts you’ll fail. Not always, but many times. Daring and innovating has a price. Ask yourself—before you set out—if you’re really willing to pay for it.

And if you are, you might achieve great success. There are countless examples of innovative professionals who have been through tough times even before reaping the rewards of their boldness and innovation. Even the famous Eike Batista has failed a few times (an off-road car manufacturing plant, a cosmetic company, an express shipping business...) before becoming a reference in the business world.

If you have an idea that you think is promising, go ahead! Apply it! Be it in your area, the company you work for, or even in your own business—have you considered opening your own business? No matter how old you are or what you’ve done in the past. Paraphrasing the late Chico Xavier* , although no one can go back and make a new beginning, anyone can start now and create a new ending.

*Chico Xavier (April 2, 1910 - June 30, 2002) was a popular medium in Brazil's Spiritism movement who wrote 412 books, ostensibly using a process known as "psychography.” His work helped to establish Kardecist Spiritism as one of the religions professed in Brazil (see more)

Learning how to be led is as important as knowing how to lead

Leadership is almost an overused term in the world of Human Resources. There are leadership development programs, future leader trainings, innate leadership discussions, etc.

But leadership concepts taught in academia are not always easy to apply in a globalized world and increasingly frequent matrix structures. The more senior the role you occupy in a company the more people you need to report to directly or indirectly. In plain English, as your leadership role increases so does the number of “bosses” you accumulate.

There are regional reports, practice reports, business unit reports, product-based reports, and many more.

In such contexts sometimes we lead and sometimes we are led. But we’re not led by only one boss but many leaders simultaneously. And in order to navigate through this new professional scenario one must know how to be led.

Knowing how to be led has nothing to do with being submissive or obeying orders. It’s about knowing how to meet guidelines and perform as an important link in the chain, not allowing it to break because you believe in the ideal designed by leadership.

This has nothing to do with submission, but loyalty. Knowing how to be led is about learning from your leader’s right decisions. But more importantly, it’s about showing solidarity and support when witnessing your leader’s mistakes (and this will invariably happen because leaders are human too). This is also a lesson for those being led.

Strong leadership is indeed a key factor in building high performance teams. However, it’s important to also highlight that good leaders prefer to work with professionals who can be their “right arm” and strong pillars to support their leadership vision.

In the new economy and business scenario we currently live in it’s essential for a professional to know how to become one of the pillars that support these diverse visions, which are simply parts of a comprehensive business plan.

Does this sound complicate? Actually, it really is! But knowing how to be led in this new context will determine a professional’s success in the new economy.

GOOD LUCK!!

There’s nothing more unequal than treating everyone equally

I’ve recently given an interview to a Brazilian news portal about Brazil’s current scenario of attracting foreign labor and how this is impacting relations inside companies.

As I was being interviewed by reporter Roberta Gonçalves I started reflecting upon the fact that different nationality is only one of the factors that add to the increasing diversity of the Brazilian marketplace, which is becoming more and more globalized.

Much is said about diversity and the benefits it brings to corporations, but little is mentioned about the difficulty in working in very diverse settings, in which what is “obvious” or “logical” for some is not always understood the same way by everyone, and with that comes the risk of misunderstandings (at times very serious ones).

And this is particularly difficult for professionals whose responsibilities also include management. The more diverse the team the more difficult it is to manage it.

For those who like challenges the good news is that I believe diversity in work teams will only increase!! Regardless of management models and rules that exist or might be developed I believe that in order to do a good job with very diverse professionals one needs to treat them differently in order to ensure equal treatment.

What does this mean? It means that if you treat everyone exactly the same you won’t be fair or ensure equal treatment. Consequently you’ll be creating an unexciting environment.

Of course there will always be rules and results that should be followed and delivered equally by everyone, but sometimes it’s possible to be flexible in the way you deliver such results.

A simple example is offering a flexible schedule a couple of days during the week to a professional who needs it. They might be attending an evening graduate course, or have to take their children in for treatment, or it might even be a religious issue. You can be sure that such “flexibilization” will bring satisfaction to the professional and the will in them to deliver the expected results.

Finding the right level of “flexibilization” is not an easy task and might cause doubts and create so many exceptions that the original rules might end up being placed second or even forgotten.

This is a risk! But nobody has ever said that management is simple, let alone easy.

Knowing how to manage diversity—whatever it may be—is a challenge, but also a great opportunity to deliver above-average results. Diverse teams—when managed well —are complementary, cover a wider range of competencies, and are more competitive. Not to mention that they’re a trend (or already a reality?).



Good luck!

How long should I work for the same company?

A few decades ago the idea of working for the same company for a long period of time—sometimes your entire professional life—was commonly seen as good. The idea was that companies were responsible for people’s professional careers.

This has changed. We now know that when it comes to our career we should manage it in a way that we maximize the results as we move forward.

So far no problem, right? Well, sort of. I think this “responsibility” of taking care of one’s career without anyone’s “support” has caused so much anxiety in some professionals that we’re now seeing a generation of “job-hoppers” with chopped resumes and periods of 1 to 2 years on average with each company. And this is not good either.

So what would the ideal length of time?

As far as I’m concerned, discussing only how long a person stays in the same job is as absurd as saying that a movie is good or bad based on its length. When someone recommends you an awesome movie do you ask how long it is? There are great movies that are longer than 4 hours and amazing short 16-minute films. What really matters? What drives you to recommend the movie? Obviously it’s what the movie adds to your life, the message it conveys and how it impacts viewers.

I guess we can borrow the same analogy for careers. There are 10-year careers with the same company that includes several very well managed 1-to-2-year projects while there are other professionals who work for the same company for 18 years with great success.

The important thing is to look at the complete career cycle in each job one has had. A complete career cycle means one has gathered major lessons from each stage. Simply put, I’d say that a complete cycle goes through 3 stages:

1) Initial success, or "Beginner’s Luck ";

2) Cycle of ordeals, or "Pitiful Cycle ";

3) Evidence of success (when you finally find your way around and show what you’re capable of)

Then you’ve completed the entire cycle!!

You don’t have to exit a company after each complete cycle, but leaving in the middle of it is not a nice thing.

And how do we know in which stage of the cycle we’re at? It’s not very easy, I’ll admit, but here’s a tip. When considering a new professional opportunity, think about what’s actually making you stay or not in your current job.

If the reason is the seemingly endless difficulties, remember that you might be going through the "Pitiful Cycle". If you think the execution of your plan seems impossible you might be going through the last stage of the cycle, which is about showing what you’re really capable of achieving.

Such reflection is worth going through because it takes away the immediacy and emotion out of your decision process. By thinking it through you’ll discover your drivers and the “answers” that you’re searching for your career. And of course, there’s always an ideal job for EVERY kind of profile in the market.

The ideal length of time for someone to remain with the same company is the one in which you’ll experience continuous development, achieve your goals, and more importantly, be happy at work. If it happens in 1 or 16 years it’ll depend on each one’s career cycle.

Good luck!

Best job in the world

I’ve recently read an article that said that people who try to juggle work and pleasure are naive and live in la-la land. The article also said that work was synonymous with effort, dedication, and commitment (I agree with that), but that it wasn’t easy or pleasurable, after all it was work!

Then I remembered the TV ad below:

In the ad’s fun allusion we see a job that requires effort, dedication, and commitment, but one that can still be the “best job in the world” to many people.

The best job in the world does exist, but what we need to understand is that the best job in the world for some is not the same for others.

This may sound obvious but people tend to choose “the best job in the world” only by looking superficially for a profession and taking on responsibilities that are not always realistic (the ad’s masseur himself says that he sometimes wishes he had another job).

Many times I hear questions such as, “What’s the profession of the moment?,” “Which profession will guarantee a good future for me and my family?,” “Which area will make me a successful professional?,” “Which profession will guarantee the best quality of life?"

Do you want to know what my answer to all of them is? The best job in the world is the one in which you have fun. That’s right, in which you have fun! I’m not romanticizing, it’s true. Contrary to the article I mentioned above, for me work must be pleasurable and pleasant. That doesn’t mean that working doesn’t require effort, dedication, and commitment.

By the way, professionals who generally claim to be happy in their professions are those who show more effort, dedication, and commitment. But this is not a negative burden, precisely because it’s pleasurable.

What will guarantee professional pleasure is different from person to person, but it’s important that we identity what makes us happy, and in which profession we’ll find such fulfillment.

And remember, this doesn’t have to happen only in the corporate world or in “traditional” professions. That’s why there’s no profession of the future or the right successful career. If you look hard you’ll find “the best job in the world” in companies, on TV, at fashion runways, the circus, and many other places.

The Headhunter’s Radar

This is the English version of the Headhunter’s Radar blog, which is hosted in the website of Brazilian magazine “Você S.A."

This first post attempts explain two things. One of them is the reason for “another” blog and what you’re going to find in here in terms of information. The second is the rationale behind the translation of the original Brazilian Portuguese blog into English.

Let’s tackle the first one. Some time ago I was curious about searching for the number of interviews, HR events, luncheons and breakfasts with executives, and visits to clients I had participated in the Michael Page system.

My idea was to measure the amount of information I had had access to in this type of interaction with executives in the market. The number was very interesting, but that was not the most important thing. What really mattered was to be able—somehow—to gather all this type content and “give back” to the market a “synthesis” of everything I hear, discuss, and learn in my daily interactions with the business world.

So that’s how the blog idea started. In addition to that, someone’s career is an asset that very few people know how to handle properly. Everybody wants to take care of their health and invest small fortunes in gyms and balanced meals, which is very important. Likewise, taking care of your career deserves the same attention.

Our professional careers are the instrument that will provide us with not only financial peace of mind but also well being since we spend most of our time working. You’ll find in here everything that might be under the Headhunter’s Radar: discussions about career trends, HR practices, business recruiting changes, what makes people change their jobs, and other issues that will come up, including those arising from your participation and comments.

The second reason—regarding the blog’s English translation. It’s simple: discourse and practice. I always tell executives I talk to that we need to be constantly connected not only to the local market but also the global one (even I only had my blog in Portuguese!!). As of now this is different!

The most important thing is that this blog will show that apart from everything one might think CEOs, vice presidents, directors, managers, and other top-leadership professions are also “children just like you*” and this blog may help you find out “what you’re going to be when you grow up.**”

*Translator’s Note: The original Portuguese phrase is quoted from a Brazilian song by Legião Urbana titled “Pais e Filhos”. Among other things, the song cautions against blaming your parents for everything, and says that one has to remember that they are “crianças como você,” “children just like you.”

**Translator’s note: ibid.