Prospering When Your Many Predecessors Have Failed

Add to Onlywire

Prospering When Your Many Predecessors Have Failed
Posted by Teena Rose, President of Resume to Referral, an Executive Resume Writing Service

It is perhaps one of the most challenging and exciting executive jobs to hold--filling a position where others have failed. How do you go about succeeding where your predecessors have failed? By applying some common sense, using effective communication techniques, and learning from past mistakes--both theirs and your own.

Avoid Past Mistakes
Your predecessors failed in one or more areas, yet the CEO and the Board expects you to follow in similar footsteps. How do you handle this situation? It can be difficult to contradict the views of senior management; however, your job is to create the turnaround situation that others before you were unable accomplish. If previous methods proved ineffective, yet are the company norm, you need to assert yourself as the expert.

There is more than one way to contradict expectations, but all require tact. If you have been hired to perform a turnaround, a gentle reminder of this may be all you need to do. Senior management chose you following an executive search or through an executive recruiter for a reason. Defer to your executive resume, past accomplishments, and turnaround record. Change is difficult, even when current practices aren't working. People are more comfortable with known factors, and this includes CEOs and Board members. The known may be losing money, but it is familiar. Understand that resistance to change is simple human behavior.

Use research to assert your position. If you come from previous turnaround situations, use examples from similar circumstances. Provide numbers for senior management that are presented simply and easy to understand. When the information is in black and white, it is easier to accept. Offer a variety of scenarios forecasting different outcomes, including those that did not succeed in the past. You can make your case much more effectively when you have concrete information to back it up.

Show You're on the Team
As the new kid on the block, others may view you as a threat, regardless of the accuracy of this. Make the effort to get to know your new colleagues and demonstrate how you fit in. People are more comfortable and trusting with others who are like them. If you are able to show that you are not there simply to shake things up, but are genuinely interested in creating meaningful change, you will find cooperation rather than resistance. Your CEO and Board are not an exception to this rule.

When you enter an executive job where people before you have failed, the others may see this as a reflection on themselves. What CEO may not feel a twinge of failure when choosing a string of poor leaders? As you seek to make change, it is at times necessary to do so gently, as one of the team, and without passing judgments. Be patient as you work to gain the trust of your colleagues and decide which changes you need to do now and which you can implement gradually. You're here for the long haul. Make this known.

Determine What's Best for the Company
As the expert, it's your responsibility to determine what is best for the company, even if this goes against the opinions of senior management. While some changes should be done gradually, others need to be avoided completely or undertaken in a more effective way. When you find yourself in a situation where you must disagree with top executives, make your case as best you can, understanding that your suggestions may not be accepted.

Again, solid research is key. If you don't have the numbers to support your position, there's no point bringing it up in the first place. However, if you have the strategy and the numbers, move forward and utilize effective communication techniques to present your case.

Remember that everyone takes his or her opinions seriously, so do not state that the other way of doing business is wrong (you may end up doing it that way, and you'll need the support of your team members). Acknowledge everyone's opinion as valid before showing why you believe your way of doing things is better. Demonstrate why this method is best for the company and how each person has a stake in the outcome. When people can relate to change on a personal level, they are much more likely to cooperate. Show how your method will benefit all involved and the company as a whole. Put the information into perspective. Use examples. Show the numbers.

Finally, learn from your own mistakes as well. When presenting a new way of doing things, for example, communicate your own failings in the past, particularly if they are the same or similar to how your predecessors did things. When your new colleagues see that you are not infallible and that you have made and learned from your own failures, they will be much more inclined to trust and believe you. One easy way to explain that a plan is not best for the company is to use personal examples of how you found a better solution to the problem in the past.


The bottom line is building trust. As the turnaround person in a new executive job, you must earn the trust of your colleagues, from the Board to the CEO to senior management. This will create a trickle-down effect, but you must start at the top. If the Board does not have faith in you, there's no reason to expect that anyone else in the company will. Building trust takes patience and time--time that you may not always have. Do everything in your power to build trust and show that your interest is with the company's success, from the bottom up.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - ~**~ - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Related Topics

Business Plan Cover Letter Advice

Resume Help for Managers & Executives

Posted by Teena Rose, President of Resume to Referral, an Executive Resume Writer

Value Proposition for Executives

Add to Onlywire

The Value Proposition; Everyone Needs One
By Randy Block

Remember the good old days? People used to return calls and email. When inquiring about a job, applicants used to ask, “What do you want?” One well-written resume fit every opportunity. Demand for people far exceeded supply. Conveniently, hiring companies did all the analysis to see if the applicant was a good fit for the job. All that the candidate had to do was just show up for the interview and answer the questions.

Well, those days are well behind us now. Globalization, the dotcom bust, business consolidation and many other factors have insured that. These are factors the job seeker had no control over.

Today, the job seeker and/or candidate must have a value proposition. Companies are now hiring solutions and not people. The 90’s were driven mostly by the “wants”. Companies in the new millennia now hire based on their needs.

There are two main needs common to most organizations today. Put succinctly, they want to know, “How can you increase our revenue?” and/or “How can you help us be more productive”? No matter what kind or level of job you are applying for, that is the crux of the screening. If you can’t deliver productivity and/or revenue proposition solutions and the other candidate can, you are definitely at a disadvantage. I have found this to be true in non-profit organizations as well.

Conducting retained search in the 80’s and 90’s, I would expend a lot of time and effort evaluating the candidate's background relevant to the clients’ job description. I had to dig sometimes very thoroughly to bring out the candidates relevant strengths. Today, the candidate has to “connect the dots” (their strengths and skills with the employer’s needs). They have to show why they are a good fit with the employer.

Applicants need to show the relevancy of their backgrounds to the employers needs. In networking, they must focus on listening for the needs of the person with whom they are networking. The cover letter and resume have to be slanted to demonstrate that their background is a good fit for the employer. The thank you note needs to again “connect the dots” (“these are the challenges we discussed in our meeting and these are my strengths and experience relevant to those challenges”).

Organizations like to be chosen. If you have targeted them because you share their excitement with the industry, products, services, culture etc. that increases your marketability and prospects of being hired. You are genuinely excited about them vs. “I am looking for a job.”

Your value proposition reflects you and what you do not only well but also naturally. Candidates who impressed me in the interview, were not only excited about the job and my client company but were excited about who they were and what they liked to do

Once you have proven that you can fulfill a need then you can talk about how you can best work together. Your value proposition comes usually in 3 flavors: Full time, part time and short term contract. Always leading with “Do you have a full-time opening?” can greatly limit your exposure and opportunity for meaningful work and cash flow stress reduction (e.g., short term leading to full time.)

As Bill Bridges suggests in his book “JobShift”, the full time permanent job is slowly disappearing. However, in today’s world there are plenty of challenges requiring unique value propositions.

So what’s your value proposition?

(c) 2006 Randy Block. All rights reserved.

Randy brings expertise in executive search as a certified career coach. He has guided all levels of professionals in the areas of career transition: changing careers, choosing a career direction, evaluating/negotiating offers, executive career marketing, finding jobs, getting organized, as well as finding opportunities for self-employment, freelancing and consulting. He holds an IJCTC certificate from the Career Planning and Adult Development, a CCMC (Certified Career Management Coach) from Career Coach Academy and a PCRC (Professional Certified Retirement Coach from the Retirement Coach Institute. His email address is randy@randyblock.com or visit his website at www.randyblock.com.

Posted by Teena Rose. Republished with permission from the author.

How to Write a Resume with Purpose and Pizzazz!

Add to Onlywire

Written By Jimmy Sweeney; President of CareerJimmy and Author of the Amazing Resume Creator Jimmy Sweeney Resume

You may wonder if such a thing is possible. Aren't most resumes about as interesting as yesterday's news?

Yes, most are. But yours doesn't have to be. You have about three seconds to grab the hiring manager's attention. So don't waste it with trite, cliché-ridden sentences or a long list of the jobs you've held––from bagging groceries to supervising a sales team. Instead, start your resume with a powerful objective, which includes your desire to be called for an interview, which will lead to the job you're seeking.

Place that statement at the top of your resume like this:

Objective: Communications Trainer
Seeking an interview for a position where my ability to increase and open communication between management and employees will transform interpersonal relations, resulting in an increase in the bottom line and in company morale.

When it comes to writing a resume, opening with an objective is a relatively new technique. How can you be sure it will work? Because the more specific and direct you are with your purpose, the more compelling you will appear to the hiring manager. When you are clear about what you want, he or she will be clear about wanting to meet you.

1. A clearly stated objective will cause a hiring manager to sit up and notice you as an individual with a goal in mind.
2. A clearly stated objective will cause a hiring manager to begin 'picturing' you in the position for which you are applying.

A strong purpose-filled statement like the example above leaps off the page of your resume. It will keep your goal front and center. And if your objective is to land a job interview, what could be more important than commanding the reader's attention the moment he or she starts to read.

Here are THREE more examples of excellent resume openers:

Objective: Executive Secretary
Seeking an interview for the position where my organization and communication skills will increase the executive's ability to manage key affairs without delay.

Objective: Director of Marketing
Seeking an in-person meeting to secure a job where I can enhance the bottom line as a result of my ten years of experience moving a company from start-up to successful corporation.

Objective: Head Chef
Seeking an interview for the opening at Chez Francois, Century City, where my prize-winning entrees with an international flair and my unique 'very French' chocolate desserts will increase the bottom line within three months—guaranteed.

Punch up your resume with a clearly worded objective and the hiring manager just may open the door for you—one that leads to a new career in the profession of your dreams.