What is the biggest mistake people make once they get a new job?
You just got a new job. Great! You figure “Thank God my job search is over and all I have to do is get through the test… the 3 month work triathlon. Put out real hard for the next 3 months until I pass the probation period, then I can pull back a bit and get into cruise mode.”
In the back of your mind something is still nagging at you, “will I still be safe after three months?” Well my friend, I have news for you and it is not what you are thinking. You are thinking that I am going to say “You can’t cruise you have to keep putting out real hard so you don’t get laid-off or fired again.”
NO! Look there is only so much you can do –and you are not in control of your fate at work. At any time the company can be sold, your boss could change, a fire can ruin the building, your boss could decide to stop taking his/her Prozac and turn into a big big gigantic meanie…you just never know what lies hidden in the treacherous waters of employment.
In fact, cruising or finding your work balance is cool -as long as you don’t turn into a sleep walker… remember respect yourself. You have to be true to yourself, your body, your mind and your spirit… after all it is your life not your boss’. With the above in mind why not make it easy to always be employed.
What if you could always have a job and never ever ever ever have to worry about looking for a job again? What if jobs came knocking on your door? What can you control?
What you can control is your “visibility”, that my friend is your key to being employed. Some of the big thinkers call it branding and marketing yourself but I like to call it your visibility. What is visibility?
Visibility is about how visible you are to everyone in your field. Visibility is being “findable” and “plastered all over the place” in your field. It is also about how you are automatically perceived favorably by others due to your name being associated with other notable people in your field.
Visibility: is who you know but more importantly it is who knows of you. This requires emphasis -it is not who knows you but who knows of you. You need to be findable, and notable. Now I did not say you need to be great and the best in your field – I said simply notable.
Let me give you an example –McDonalds is one of the most notable and visible names in the restaurant business and one of the most successful. Do they make the best hamburgers in the world? Personally I feel far from it –I believe many hamburger restaurants make much better burgers. Why is McDonalds so successful? Visibility and association.
They are in front of their most important audience children-they target children not adults. They have cartoon characters as their front men (Ronald and his gang) and celebrities as well. They target their best audience -kids, and maybe even your kids. Boy does it work. A tantrum screaming kid who wants his/her happy meal or an excited kid wanting McDonalds as a reward is a powerful weapon against the better judgment of adults. Ronald wins to the tune of $22.74 B that’s right folks- 22 billion dollars a year.
What’s my point? You do not have to have the best product to make it big you just need the right visibility, the right marketing approach and you need to target your audience. When children think fast food they think McDonalds, when they think hamburger they think McDonalds, when they think happy restaurant they think McDonalds. It is excellent and a bonus if you are the best in your field but that alone will not make you visible. You still need more. Let’s assume you are good or even fair at your job. What can you do to become more visible and grab your audience?
First you need to identify who is your target audience? Your target audience is decision makers –ranging from front line Managers to CEOs, peers/colleagues, and human resource professionals in your field as well as head-hunters. And Secondly you need to be visible to your target audience.
