My article on US Yahoo home page

A few years back, I wrote an article that seemed to resonate with people. The title was Stop Undermining yourself at work. Delighted to find out yesterday that this article was featured yesterday on the US Yahoo home page. Pretty cool. If you’ve stopped by as a result of that article, welcome. Glad to have you here. 

6 Articles on the Holidays and Career Reflection and Planning

Over the years, I have posted some thoughts and ideas on managing the holiday experience, some of which has been published on Monster.com and other career / job related sites. 

Thinking it might be of use to highlight them as a collection, here they are for your reading pleasure. If you find yourself with the intent and / or time to do some career management / planning during the remainder of the holiday season, these articles may provide some guidance or inspiration. 

Reaching back all the way to 2005 (yes, I was blogging then), an intro to my Career Development During the Holiday Series, followed by something I called the Social Phase, then the Reflective Phase and finally the New Beginnings Phase. 

And of course, some thoughts about achieving Holiday Balance in a very busy and demanding period of time, as well as some personal reflections on achieving a state of clarity and rejuvenation from time off work. 

I hope you find these articles of value to you. 

Rebuilding my voice

I imagine that singers, actors and writers have experiences that cause their “voice” to dampen. Or they simply go through phases where they aren’t ready or able to produce their art.

I’ve definitely gone through that phase. In fact, you, dear reader, might notice that while this blog started way back in 2005, there has been very little activity for a long time. 

It is time to change that. Or putting it another way, my voice is back, and I have a lot to say, relative to helping you make a living, and on some other topics as well. 

But please don’t think that I haven’t been in the game. 

In July of 2009, I took BoldCareer from a full-time to part-time endeavour and accepted the role of Director, Graduate Career Services UBC’s Sauder School of Business, a Top 100 global business school.

Which means that on a daily basis, I am running a coaching team, designing career-related e-learning and workshop programs / content, and interfacing with a set of highly intelligent and demanding customers called MBAs. And it is good fun. 

But things are percolating on this site/blog and I am excited to start delivering some cool things to you over the coming weeks / months. 

So, if you are new to the site, I welcome you and hope that you will follow me via email subscription, or the various social methods you can see on the toolbar at the bottom of the browser. And for returning visitors, thanks so much for staying in touch. Your loyalty and interest are greatly appreciated. 

So, here we go!

Site Journey to Wordpress and Back Again

If you visited the site over the last 2 weeks, you may have notice a very different looking site and a few blog posts updating on a migration to Worpress from the Squarespace platform. Having tinkered and tried things out on Wordpress (which is a fine platform), I have decided to come back to Squarespace. 

Wordpress is a fine platform, and I have a couple of mini-site ideas up my sleeve that I may use it for, but in the end, it felt like far too much tinkering and tooling when I have a fantastic platform here at Squarespace. Yes, there is a fee here, and Wordpress is free, but the upcoming changes I want to make seemed to be more directly accessible via my current site than the rebuilt of an entirely new one. 

So, my apologies for the messiness and the confusion (if you even noticed).

Happy Saturday to you. 

Inviting to Connect on LinkedIn? Give Context. Please.

Here are some familiar words for users of LinkedIn.com…

I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn. 

Nine times out of ten, the LinkedIn connection invitations I receive come with the default text above. Granted, it is the fastest way of sending invitations. And when you and I know each other well, perhaps no more is needed. 

For everyone else - loose connections, a person I met once long ago, or strangers, it will not do. 

Give me some context, please. Why would you like to connect? What can I expect from our connection? 

There are two really important reasons to give some context. The first is obvious. You will increase the likelihood that I, or whomever you hope to connect with, will say yes. Here are some ideas for how to handle it: 

You may recall that we met last week at the ______ Conference during the break-out session. I enjoyed our conversation about ______. I thought it would be a good idea to follow-up with a LinkedIn connection so that we can stay in touch periodically. 

We haven’t met, but I wanted to introduce myself because I am fan of your brand and have done similar work in the industry. 

I am a long-time reader of your blog, and have commented on a couple of posts. I would love to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.

These are reasonable asks and will increase the likelihood that I say yes.  

The second reason is more subtle but powerful. What I have experienced when I invite or accept a new LinkedIn connection is that after the “transaction,” there is silence. Nothing happens.

Isn’t there a space to trigger something? Certainly, we may not want to trigger an action in each case, but it could be a wonderful opportunity and excuse to make some sort of follow-up happen. 

Let’s connect our networks so that we can help each other. Are you available next week for lunch to talk about some specific ideas? 

Is there anyone in my network that you’d like an introduction to?

I was thinking about you today because I met someone who I think would be an interesting contact for you. Let’s connect and I will make an introduction. 

I would like to connect you to my professional network. And specifically, I was wondering whether you’d be able to introduce me to X. We work in the same industry and know some of the same people. I was hoping to make a connection as I am exploring opportunities in this field. May I forward a connection request to you? 

Of course, this isn’t just about using LinkedIn well. There is a subtle art to developing and managing a professional network. How we ask is an important part of being a successful networker. 

If you have suggestions to add or don’t agree, chime in on the blog. It would be great to hear from you.