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New Year, New Career, New You

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How can any of us resist the urge to reinvent ourselves with the turning of the calendar? Jump on the bandwagon'”there's plenty of room here among the hopeful, the determined, and the motivated.

Do Some Inner Exploration


Man reflects on his career in the new year

First, consider this a fresh start for you. What are you seeking as you dream about your next career opportunity? Some enticing ideas that often appear in my initial conversations with clients include:

  • Autonomy: The freedom to embark on creative projects, to dictate your own time, to put your attention where you're drawn.
  • Meaning: At the end of the day, knowing that where you're spending your time matches your values at a basic level.
  • Connection: Working alongside people who get you, who respect you, who say "thanks" every now and then.
  • Engagement: Dialing into what you're doing, using your brain, your intuition, and your other talents.
All of these possibilities are compelling, but before you press down on the gas pedal and drive out of where you are right now, ask yourself whether it's your environment that's creating the lack of these qualities, the boundaries (or lack thereof) that you put in place, or possibly the underlying ideas you have about yourself and your own worth and power.
Usually, it's a combination of all of these factors, and if you can pull apart the company, your boss, your co-workers, and other dimensions of your environment which you're unconsciously creating by playing out old scripts, then you're ready to move to the next phase of the process.

Articulate The Most Important Qualities You Want


Woman writes down her career goals for the new year

Make a list of what you want in your new career. Imagine that you're single and you're searching for a new romantic partner. Sit down and write a list of 10-15 qualities you're seeking.

Next, get very specific about three more categories:

Reach Out And Build Your Sphere Of Connections


Man reaches out to and reconnects with his professional network in the new year

Strategically expand your circle to be in purposeful conversation with people who can offer intel on the companies and positions on your list.

For those of you who cringe at the idea of asking for help (particularly when it seems like you're almost using people), if you've been networking the right way all along, it shouldn't feel uncomfortable. Networking, maintaining, and building your professional connections is about providing value. When you connect with someone on LinkedIn, you shouldn't ask for their help right away. Establish a relationship first. Once you do that, they'll be more than willing to help you in your career because they know you'd do the same for them.

Whatever you want out of life and your career, you can accomplish. A year from now, you really can be in a completely different spot, one that resonates more deeply for you. So, what are you waiting for? Start making changes today!

Need more help with your career?

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This article was originally published at an earlier date.

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Want To Land A Job In 2023? Your Resume MUST Include This!
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Want To Land A Job In 2023? Your Resume MUST Include This!

The primary goal of your resume is to help you stand out to employers so they give you a call and invite you in for an interview. It’s the first impression a hiring manager has of you, and the first step to landing a job. So, how do you optimize your resume so it beats out the competition?

Many job seekers feel lost when writing their resumes. What should you include on it? How much information is enough? What do hiring managers really want to see?

If any of these questions have crossed your mind, don’t worry. Here’s the one thing you need to include on your resume if you want to stand out to employers and land a job.

The Secret To Landing A Job In 2023? Quantifiable Accomplishments On Your Resume!

Man writes his resume on his laptop

The most important thing to include on your resume is quantifiable accomplishments. Quantify your work experience and put those numbers and figures under the “Work History” section on your resume.

Not sure how to quantify your work history?

Follow these 3 tips to effectively quantify your work history on your resume:

1. Add numbers to your bullet points

You should have at least one number for each bullet point you include on your resume. If you want to show your depth of experience in certain areas, you need to show those numbers. By doing this, an employer can see how much experience you have and how often you use a certain skill. So it’s really important to add as many numbers as you can to these bullet points.

Go through an average day at work, list all of your responsibilities and tasks, and ask yourself, “Okay, so if this is what I was doing every day, how often was I doing it? How much did I do? How many people did I work with?” By asking yourself these types of questions, you’ll be able to pull out those numbers and add that depth of experience to your bullet points.

2. Include 3-7 bullet points per role

For each role you list on your resume, you should write three to seven of these quantified bullet points to showcase the skill sets that you have that are related to the position you’re applying for. Any more than that and you’ll likely overwhelm the reader. The hiring manager may think you’re overqualified, that your experience is all over the place, or that you wouldn’t be happy in the job.

So, be careful how much you put on your resume because too little text sends a message, but so does too much text. You need just the right amount of information, and three to seven bullet points is the sweet spot.

3. Choose accomplishments that support your relevant hard skills

You need to be intentional with what you’re choosing to put on your resume to make sure you’re supporting your specialty, that service you provide to employers as a business-of-one. The key is to only choose the accomplishments that relate to the skill sets you’re showcasing in the top fold of your resume, the skill sets that directly support your specialty.

Make sure you’re intentionally pulling these things and including them on your resume as opposed to listing every accomplishment you’ve ever had in your career. This is going to be very important in terms of showcasing that depth of experience because you don’t want hiring managers to get distracted. You don’t want them focusing on an accomplishment that doesn’t support a relevant skill set. Make it clear what your specialty is and how you’ve provided value to employers with those skill sets in the past.

Why Quantifying Your Work History Is Essential

Woman holds her resume while talking to a hiring manager on the phone

Quantifying your work history is usually the hardest part of writing a resume for job seekers. It’s simply not something we learn in school. Recruiters and hiring managers don’t want to know how you did your job or what your tasks were. All they care about are the results.

What did you make happen as a result of your work? How did you add value? When you quantify your work history, a recruiter can look at the hiring manager and say, “This person has done this, this, and this. And here are the numbers to prove it.” That’s why your resume needs to be quantified. It’s proof that you’re a qualified job candidate and a valuable potential employee.

What Does “Quantifying Your Work History” Look Like?

Man reviews his resume

There is always a way to quantify your work experience. You may think that you have nothing to quantify on your resume, but you do.

If this is your first time trying to quantify your work history and you can’t think of anything that counts as a quantifiable accomplishment, write out what you did at a specific job, circle every noun, and ask yourself: “Can I quantify that?”

For example, a receptionist may not think they have any quantifiable accomplishments or any type of work history that can be quantified. But when they asked themselves the right questions, they realized they accomplished a lot more than they thought, and they could assign numbers to these accomplishments. They asked…

  • “How many people work at my company?”
  • “How many calls did I take a day?”
  • “How many phone lines were on the system?”

The result? A few bullet points listing their quantifiable work experience:

  • Receptionist for a 500-person firm
  • Handled over 100 phone calls a day
  • Managed a 12-line phone system

You can absolutely quantify your work experience. You will find a way. Circle every noun and quantify them. Look for percentages. If you can’t come up with exact numbers, you can use your best guess, erring on the conservative side. What was the percentage of growth? What was the percentage of savings? What were the revenues? There are always numbers. You just have to look for them.

In order to land a job in 2023, your resume must have quantifiable accomplishments. It may be difficult at first, but once you get the hang of quantifying your work history, you’ll never go back. Quantify your work history on your resume and start seeing results in your job search today!

Need more help with your job search?

We’d love it if you signed up for Work It Daily’s Event Subscription! Get your career questions answered in our next live event!

Are You Running Or Leading Your Company? (Intent Doesn’t Count)
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Are You Running Or Leading Your Company? (Intent Doesn’t Count)

I was excited to catch up for some coffee with a CEO friend of mine at their request. We had met a month or so ago when they were really “stuck” at taking steps to prepare for the future while also preserving the company during the current uncertainty.

We talked about the importance of strategy, an action plan, resources, skills, and incentives to accomplish what she wanted to do. She actually seemed lifted up out of a fog when we finished. In fact, as we departed our last meeting, she said, “Thanks for hearing me out and helping me clarify what steps to take, and how to make choices with ROI in mind. I cannot wait to meet with my leadership team in a couple of days to discuss. They will be thrilled that we are finally taking action.” It was almost like she knew she was holding them back.

As we sat down with our coffee she immediately jumped in with how she had wanted to meet with her team and start to figure out their strategy and so on but can you believe this banking situation? How she and the team had been discussing it and the same with her key clients and so on. She went on to explain how she had been consumed by and before she went much further, I SMILED. Her face turned red and she said, “What is so funny?”

“I thought you banked with J.P. Morgan Chase bank?”

She said, “Yeah, I do. We switched to them a couple of years ago so we are in great banking shape and they are going to be fine, and wow, thank god I do because can you imagine…”

I put my hand up.

I asked her, “What is holding you back from attacking the game plan we discussed a month ago?”

As she dropped her head, she said, “I know, I know. I just have never had to do it before and wonder if I am up to the task or not.”

Look… Intention isn’t good enough as a CEO and/or business owner. Action trumps it.

I also realized that as an executive coach and facilitator, maybe I was playing a role in this and because she is a friend, I had a blind spot so I stepped back myself and thought further about how to help her move forward in a more confident way.

Here are my thoughts that I shared with her and will share with any/all CEOs of SMBs that are wondering what is the best way to proceed.

First and foremost, just because you are the CEO doesn’t mean you have to be in the driver’s seat behind the steering wheel for everything. It is worth considering having a professional facilitator who knows your space or works with companies of your size and scale.

I would be asking myself the following questions to decide how to proceed:

  • Do I lead it or have it facilitated or are there other CEOs I could connect with in my market?
  • How will I measure ROI?

Facilitator Considerations

Executives use a facilitator to help their team

Facilitators bring an outside perspective: A facilitator can offer a fresh perspective on your organization and its priorities. They are not bound by the same biases or assumptions as your team and can help you identify blind spots or areas for improvement.

Facilitators can help manage group dynamics: When a group is trying to prioritize initiatives, there can be a lot of competing opinions and emotions. A skilled facilitator can help manage these dynamics, ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard and that the discussion stays on track.

Facilitators can bring structure to the process: Prioritization discussions can quickly become overwhelming and unproductive if there is no clear structure in place. A facilitator can help design and facilitate a process that is efficient, effective, and aligned with your organization’s goals.

Facilitators can help drive consensus: It’s important that your leadership team is aligned around your organization’s priorities. A facilitator can help drive consensus and ensure that everyone is on the same page.

Of course, bringing in a facilitator comes with a cost, and may not be necessary for every organization. However, if you feel that your leadership team could benefit from an outside perspective, or if you’re struggling to make progress on prioritization discussions, it may be worth considering.

Peer Advisory Groups – There are several of them in every market place so exploring the right fit for you takes some time but is well worth it. I wish that when I was a CEO someone gave me that advice! When you join a CEO peer advisory group you will be working with a group of people who are demonstrably committed to learning—people who dedicate significant time, effort, and money to being regularly challenged by their peers, speakers, and chairs—all in the service of becoming better leaders and better people. It doesn’t get much better than that. It is the only safe, confidential space for business owners and CEOs to validate their decisions, recognize gaps in their thinking, or gain new exciting ideas they didn’t think of on their own.

Measuring ROI

Patrick Lencioni\u2019s Six Geniuses

When a CEO is deciding to prioritize certain projects over others, it is important to measure the return on investment (ROI) of each project to ensure that the projects being pursued will have a positive impact on the organization. In my experience, I would ensure my finance lead or CFO (depending on org size) had this responsibility. The two of us would talk it over and they would help me decide how best to measure the ROI. Below are some things to consider.

Define the goal: The CEO should define the desired outcome of each project, such as increased revenue or improved efficiency.

Estimate costs: The CEO should estimate the costs associated with each project, including both direct and indirect costs, such as labor, materials, and equipment.

Forecast benefits: The CEO should forecast the potential benefits of each project, such as increased revenue, improved customer satisfaction, or reduced costs.

Calculate ROI: The CEO should calculate the ROI of each project by dividing the projected benefits by the estimated costs. This will provide a percentage that indicates the potential return on investment.

Prioritize projects: The CEO should prioritize the projects with the highest ROI to ensure that resources are allocated to projects that are most likely to generate a positive return.

Monitor progress: The CEO should monitor the progress of each project and adjust priorities as needed based on actual results.

When you are ready (note the prep work below), I would bring your team together and ask them the three most powerful words outside of I LOVE YOU…

I need help.

Set clear goals and expectations: Before you can prioritize tasks, you need to have a clear understanding of what your goals are. Take some time to articulate what you want your team to achieve and communicate those goals clearly to your team.

Define what is important: Know the big from the small and you will have to learn to be aggressively patient. (Move fast on some things, slow on others.) Once you have your goals, it’s important to determine what tasks or projects are critical to achieving them. Make a list of these items and share them with your team.

Collaborate with your team: It’s important to involve your team in the prioritization process. Hold a meeting or brainstorming session where everyone can contribute ideas on what should be prioritized. Encourage open and honest communication to ensure that all perspectives are heard.

Assign ownership: Once you’ve prioritized your tasks, assign ownership to specific team members. This will help ensure that everyone knows what they’re responsible for and that the work is distributed evenly. This is one of the most important steps in all of this because it establishes buy-in.

As a side note, I would also suggest looking at Patrick Lencioni’s new Working Genius tool (see image above) because it does an amazing job helping you and your leadership team identify your gifts as individuals and as a team. You will quickly see where maybe certain team members’ gifts are not being leveraged. Great story in Chief Executive magazine.

When you have total alignment it requires preparation and planning but, done well, you deliver optimum results! Strategy (without you get confusion), set the action plan (false starts without), have the right resources (frustration without), make sure you have the skills/competencies (or you create anxiety, and finally have incentives aligned (you will get only gradual change).