Career Talk With Pat Meehan

The Unknown – Get to Know it a Little Better

2012-02-10T20:41:00.000-08:00

By Pat Meehan

“Managing change is the art of breaking down unknowns into predictable and hopeful visions of the future.”

____________

Fear of the Unknown … That phrase doesn’t really make much sense does it? Fear is not measurable or tangible. It is a feeling people have, but they can’t really pinpoint what it is attached to. Fear is usually based on ignorance or lack of knowledge … the unknown. A person will say “I’m afraid.” When asked what that person is afraid of, the answer usually is “I don’t know” or “I’m not sure.” Fear is a skeptical feeling like in a horror movie. You just think something bad is going to happen, and you sit on the edge of your seat and wait for the unknown.

Change brings unknowns with it. Managing change is the art of breaking down unknowns into predictable and hopeful visions of the future. How far can you go? You can go as far as you can see.
When you become blind with fear, you can’t go anywhere. You can go as far as you dream. Through self-accountability, we take on self-awareness, and move forward through self-improvement. We become self-knowing individuals, continuously growing, and learning more through exploration. We maintain a drive to learn more, know more, become more self-aware, and more self assured. In this manner we conquer fear, allowing us to see forever, dream the greatest dreams, and become triumphant in times of great challenge.

Reactive people have barriers that stop them, and they become victims of their barriers. Proactive people have challenges, and through accountability, self-awareness, and self-improvement, these challenges are transformed into opportunities.

How far can you go in your career? You can go as far as your challenges are challenged. This message is for those who want endless growth, balanced with general happiness in career, family, and sense of accomplishment. There are no barriers that block your career, unless you allow them into your life.

5 Basic Steps Crucial to Your Job Search

2011-02-08T17:16:00.000-08:00

By Pat Meehan

Basic steps are more important than more detailed steps because if a candidate falls down on the basic steps of a job search he/she will not get to the detailed steps that lead to a job offer.

BASIC STEPS CRUCIAL TO YOUR JOB SEARCH:

1. Answer the phone, as a habit and be friendly. So many candidates screen calls and prefer texting. Missing one call could be the last call that you get from a recruiter or HR Representative.

2. Listen to your own voicemail. Is it warm and friendly or uncaring sounding. Replace your voicemail and include stating your name, sound friendly, and say thank you for the call.

3. Return voicemail calls the same day, even the same hour whenever possible. This shows courtesy for other people's time and shows interest and politeness on your part.

4. If you are married and have kids, teach your spouse and you family how to take messages for you. Make sure a note pad and a pen are always available. They should take name, number, and the message the caller might leave.

5. Use your lunch hour to return calls if you are at work. Don't wait until you get home. The person that called you went home too.

Friendliness with a little common sense goes a very long way. If you become very skilled at these five steps, your likability factor will always rank towards the top of your competition. Technical skills are important, but people hire people they like.

Happy job hunting !

The Career Continuum

2011-01-17T14:50:00.000-08:00

By Pat Meehan

When you say “Where do I go from here,” and get there, you will find yourself repeating that process again and again. You will continue to be more accountable, more self-aware, and more self-improved. Your career becomes a continuum, moving forward towards life’s unlimited opportunities. Life becomes a continuous adventure where burn out does not exist, and enthusiasm shines brightly.

One road almost always leads to another and when it doesn’t, we build new roads. That is what accountability is all about … building new roads of career adventure, and miles of opportunity for an endless career continuum. Life is so much fun when you are heading in a direction. Whether you are in the last chapter of a book, or the later chapters of your life, there is always another road to lead you in your direction.

Accountability is now your way of life. It is something you can teach to others, and something to pass down from generation to generation. By achieving a career of a lifetime, your experiences are carried on through the many others that have been continuously networked with you. Through all of your accomplishments, and through the lives you have influenced, you are leaving your legacy for many others to continue down that road of accountability, self-awareness and self-improvement that you have paved. You will always be remembered by the life you lived, the people you touched, the value you added to the world, and the brightness that shined from your light.

You have carved your name into stone along with the values of networking and communication. You are leaving for your grandchildren the lesson that your whole career is a conversation, no matter how sophisticated their technology gets. You are leaving your mark in life, through your lesson to others, that being as good as, or better than anyone on the team, or in the office, is a value to hold high with a sense of accountability, and a sense of honor.

Your career is a continuum that that you have passed on to many others to help them reach their dreams and goals. Your circle of influence, which was once very small, is now almost infinite, and is still growing with the expansion of your boundaries. In your life of networking, the goodness you have received from others didn’t stop when you received it, but you passed it on to other people, as your gift to them.

A career of a lifetime is not a place or a thing, an amount of money, a fancy car, or a diamond ring. A career of a lifetime is a state of mind, a circle of influence, and an ocean of friends. A career of a lifetime is a full and prosperous life filled with purpose and adventure, and an endless chain of network partners that was built, one person at a time, with more emphasis on giving, than on taking. You have built credibility through the many “deposits” that you have made in your “emotional bank accounts.” You have built this credibility through your trustworthy behavior. You have found your career of a lifetime, and you have discovered that it is here to stay, and to grow continually though the people you have touched, and through the people who will touch them.

All of this is yours because “You became accountable for your success!”

The Grieving Cycle

2010-08-25T02:44:00.000-07:00

By Pat Meehan

Grieving is a natural process that helps us to work through the impact felt by a loss. We grieve at the death of a spouse, child, friend, relative, or a pet. Grieving comes with a loss, a death, a divorce, a bankruptcy, an illness, and the loss of a job.

In 1963 the nation mourned the loss of a young president, John F. Kennedy. An entire country and most of the world experienced the grieving cycle as a result of this tragic event.

When we lose a job due to a downsizing it is a painful experience. The grieving cycle allows us to work through the pain and into new positive visions of the future. These new visions are called hope. Although the grieving cycle is a built in defense mechanism to help us through hard times, it is very important to fully understand how it works. Without this understanding we can get trapped in the grieving process. Relax now, as we move through the four stages of grieving.

Stage One: Denial

Denial is a built in pain reliever or tranquilizer that comes to us very quickly following a trauma. It is a form of temporary amnesia that allows us to be numb or temporarily pain free from the trauma or shock we have experienced. After a loss a person will go into the denial stage. Let’s use the example of a lost job and look at the frame of mind of a person in denial. Here are some symptoms of denial.

- Refusal to even talk about the loss
- Will not admit to feelings of sorrow
- May abuse alcohol or drugs
- Will not relate other problems as being related to the loss
- Will sometimes show a happy-go-lucky attitude

Stage Two: Resistance

When a person moves through the grieving cycle naturally, reality sets in and the person becomes consciously aware that there is a problem and pushes away from it in a variety of ways. When a person moves from denial to resistance here are some of the symptoms.

- Anger
- Blaming others, self, God, or their environment
- Irritability, rigid personality, nausea, headaches, etc.
- Tenseness, anxiety, depression
- Embarrassment, shame, guilt, isolation.

Stage Three: Exploration

A person who moves through the grief cycle in a healthy way will eventually come to grips with the feelings experienced in resistance and move to exploration. In exploration a person is starting to turn the corner of the grieving cycle and will show the following signs.

- Agreeable to sit with another person to discuss the loss
- Willingness to get outside help
- Learning to take one step at a time to move in a positive direction
- Accepts the reality of the loss and shows willingness to let go of control
- Starts to wonder out of the defense mechanism mode / starts to trust others
- Willingness to follow direction to be self-starting

Stage Four: Closure

In the final stage of the grieving cycle the person has explored new ventures and opportunities and finds himself/herself seeing options and solution of which to choose a new way to continue living in a positive way. A person in closure will show the following signs.

- Readiness to move forward again
- Cheerfulness and energetic attitude
- Self reliance and self assuredness
- Decisiveness and good decision making ability
- Replacing the loss

Working through the grieving cycle it is not a lonely undertaking. It is quite the opposite. There are many resources that can help us improve our lives and our careers. These sources, just to name a few, are mentors, former co-workers or bosses, and network partners, support groups, and professionals in counseling.

What We Can Learn From Kids ... A Father's Dream

2010-08-11T21:50:00.000-07:00

By Pat Meehan

In my life I have coached 9 different 5th & 6th grade basketball teams. This is a wonderful age to coach young boys because they are at an age in which they are still boys but they have developed the competitive nature of men. In all of those 9 years that I coached, there were only 2 years in which I had my son on a team. Before I had kids, I was a non-parent coach. I always said that when I had a son, if God granted that, I would not coach the team(s) he was on. However, when my son Jimmy was in the 5th grade, the school booster club found out I was a 5th & 6th grade basketball coach with all winning seasons except for one out of 7 years and they asked me to coach.

It was 1997 and they came at me hard to coach my son’s team. This was a unique situation because in the entire 5th grade class there were 23 girls and only 6 boys. I took the job because with a 6 man team, I could not be partial to my son.

I will tell you in advance that we had a winning season. I will also tell you that we played our last game of the season with the undefeated team in the league that had beaten us by 28 points in the 1st game of the season. I promised my kids that if they could beat this team on this final game I would take them all to a college basketball game. Little did they know that I already had the tickets and had already planned to take them regardless of the outcome of the game.

Two weeks prior to the game we planned a strategy to slow the game down, conserve our energy and be aggressive on outside shooting. We also planned a very tight, packed inside zone 2-3 defense with an occasional swarm tactic on a signal from the bench. These 6 young men delivered on their training for the game and they controlled the pace. In addition they became very assertive on outside shooting with no fear of missing the shot. Missing the shot was totally acceptable.

Long storey short, in each quarter the score went back and forth and the game was very close. With only 28 seconds left we hit two free throws and gained a 3 point lead. As the other team came down the floor, our defense was in place and with 12 seconds left, a player on the other team shot a 3-point attempt and made the shot and drew a foul from one of our players. Now the game was tied with 12 seconds left and the undefeated team was on the foul line for one shot. The tension mounted and the other team shot an “air ball” and we gained possession. Our point guard brought the ball quickly down court and passed to a forward who passed to Jimmy, my son, and he took the ball inside and made the layup.

We had beaten the undefeated team of 17 players with our little 6 man team. In the story of David and Goliath, a very similar thing happened there. There is no impossible feat in 5th grade basketball or in anything we do in life. We all can rise to the occasion and be the victor if we believe in ourselves with the God given talents we have. It is amazing what lessons we can learn from 6 ten year old boys. It was a day I’ll never forget.

In hard times we get beaten up pretty badly, but with a little help from upstairs and faith in our ability to pull out our best efforts, we too can prevail. It is so amazing what kids can teach us.

Was FDR a Hero or an Opportunist

2010-07-19T10:11:00.000-07:00

By Pat Meehan

Did FDR save us from the Great Depression? Below are unemloyment rates from 1929 - 1939. Your call... Please post your comments.

1929 3.2%
1930 4.2%
1931 15.9%
1932 23.6%
1933 24.9%
1934 21.7%
1935 20.1%
1936 16.9%
1937 14.3%
1938 19.0%
1939 17.2%

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Networking - Trust - Relationships

2010-06-24T19:52:00.000-07:00

By Pat Meehan

Building a network over a lifetime is the most accountable thing we can do. It is the epitome of being a proactive person. Day by day, we build on this chain of meaningful personal relationships to which we can exchange the gifts of our ideas and influence. We should value these relationships and put great trust in them as they continue to develop. Stephen Covey teaches that a relationship is like an “emotional bank account.” We must nurture this emotional bank account by making more “deposits than withdrawals.” For example, we might take the time to have a mentoring discussion with a co-worker prior to that person’s internal interview for a promotion. We share our wealth of knowledge with this person unconditionally, and in a total sense of giving. This is truly making a “deposit” into that relationship and a tremendous step in building credibility, or “trustworthiness.”

What, on the other hand, would have happened if that person showed up to have that discussion with you and you forgot to be there? That person would have felt let down and slighted. His/her faith in you would have been greatly diminished. You would have just made a huge “withdrawal” from that relationship. With too many withdrawals, you will find that you have lost your network and your credibility through your “untrustworthy behavior.” If you are truly accountable, your nature will be much more of a giving one than a taking one.

In relationship building, it is very important to share each other’s goals and aspirations, and encourage each other to achieve those goals and dreams. Through having this type of openness, coupled with an attitude of giving, many people will take notice, and your name will become ideas of opportunity in other people’s minds. Therefore, that tap on the shoulder you received from your boss one day to discuss a promotion wasn’t a coincidence after all. It was a direct result, or dividend, of all the “deposits” you had been making in your “emotional bank accounts.” Your accountability to yourself allowed you to have that keen sense of self-awareness that attracted your network partners. This magnetism is the leadership quality that you have developed through accountability, self-awareness, and self-improvement. This leadership characteristic will continue to evolve and become more powerful each day.

Self-awareness is your compass that leads you in your path through life, as your network building capabilities continue to develop. It is a part of the well rounded cycle of being totally accountable. You can’t know where you are going unless you know where you are. Proactive people consciously build their networks on a daily basis. Day by day, month by month, and year by year, they build new relationships and continually improve their current ones.

Have You Targeted "Small Business" as a Market for your Consulting Services?

2010-06-15T19:18:00.000-07:00

By Pat Meehan

This year I took on the Directorship of a Small Business Center in a county in Southern Indiana. We identified seventy small businesses (1-100 employees) who were already members of the Chamber of Commerce and sent each of them a 12 question survey. The question that seems to have gotten the most universal response from the group was question #4:

4. Do you want information on training programs?

A. Business Planning:
B. New Business Development:
C. Human Resource Policies & procedures: X
D. Payroll Administration:
E. Sales Training:
F. Relationship Building:

It seems that many small business owners are buying into small business as their life's work and employee growth is a necessity. They need help with Human Resource issues.

When is the last time, if ever, that you targeted a small business as a potential long term client? Think it over. Think about your approach. How would you like to be approached as a small business owner for something you need?

I will leave out my opinion and let you enjoy your own thought process. I would like to hear your thoughts in the comments area of this blog. Always remember small business is 70% of the entire work force.

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Stimulus Program Spends Millions in Kentucky for Short Term Results

2010-06-07T18:44:00.000-07:00

By Pat Meehan

In a public announcement from the Governor’s office in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, $46 million is being spent on summer jobs for youth workers.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (June 4, 2010) – Gov. Steve Beshear today announced Kentucky will put nearly 10,000 disadvantaged youth and adults with children to work this summer through WorkNow Kentucky. Funded with nearly $46 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program dollars through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the program aims to jump-start job creation by subsidizing the wages and benefits of eligible participants who are hired through the program.

My question is first, how do summer jobs for youth workers jump-start job creation? Second, what happens when the summer is over, where is the benefit? Third, how much can a youth worker learn in twelve weeks? Forth, who, in a company where a youth worker is hired for a summer job, is going to invest time in any type of training for that youth worker?

The Small Business Association (SBA) has allocated billions of dollars to banks that are scared to lend those dollars because of the Obama crack down on the banks themselves, therefore, small businesses can't get loans due to very tight and regulated underwriting guidelines.

I would pose this question: Why not just take 460 legitimate small businesses in Kentucky and give/lend them each $100,000, which totals $46 million, for the sole purpose of hiring real, fulltime employees who will/might build a career with these new jobs over time?

A $46 million summer youth program is a give away with no ROI.

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Pulling Information for Your Resume

2010-06-03T23:37:00.000-07:00

By Pat Meehan

Let’s take a look into your current or last job and start to identify all of the little things you do or have done each day that add up to making you capable of doing your job responsibly, and without supervision. This takes a great deal of thought and determination because we tend to take ourselves and our skills for granted. Imagine a new person doing your job. What would he/she have to do to perform your job correctly? What would this person have to know? What skills should this person be able to perform to do your job immediately? Let’s break down your job into basic requirements and specific requirements:

Basic Requirements: These are the day-to-day things that you probably take for granted, but, are necessary to the daily routine in the performance of your job. They could include things like general industry knowledge, communication skills, basic computer skills, manual dexterity, punctuality, reading directions, basic math, basic writing skills, etc.

Specific Requirements: These are things that require a great deal of knowledge and experience, and are very specific to the job in order that the job can be performed. They might be things like forklift operation, Microsoft Excel, tooling, maintenance, machine operation, safety, engineering knowledge, making presentations, high school diploma, report writing, maintenance skills, etc.

Now let’s move this process to a couple of specific job titles:

EXAMPLE 1: General Ledger Accountant

Basic Requirements: Light accounting experience / math skills / computer skills / organization / quick thinking / eye for details / communication and presentations skills, etc.

Specific Requirements: Bachelors Degree in Accounting / three years of accounting experience / experience with integrated computer systems / expertise with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint / fixed assets accounting experience / accounts receivable and accounts payable experience / balance sheets / forecasting / spreadsheet creation / general ledger, etc.

EXAMPLE 2: Manufacturing Shift Supervisor

Basic Requirements: Excellent people skills / leadership skills / organizational skills / tolerance for imperfection / training skills / even temperament / visionary thinking, etc.

Specific Requirements: College degree or equivalent experience / union or non-union experience / technical knowledge / scheduling of employees for shifts / interfacing with multiple departments / interviewing and hiring experience / disciplinary procedures experience / employee training and development experience / safety training experience, etc.

Next, we want to work on your accomplishments. Accomplishments are measurable impacts that have added value to your company as a result of your activity and creativity in your current job. Let’s look back on the two earlier examples to illustrate potential accomplishments:

EXAMPLE 1: Accomplishments General Ledger Accountant

Implemented a multi-departmental, financial reporting system utilizing Excel, which was user friendly, and allowed for information to be reviewed by all department managers.

Guided the management team through a new computer system implementation and conducted user training in every department. This resulted in timely reporting of production, quality issues, and down-time.

Conducted a monthly management financial report which provided detailed information allowing for adjustments to profit & loss statement.

EXAMPLE 2: Accomplishments Manufacturing Shift Supervisor

Met with customers quarterly to discuss quality performance and evaluate ways to improve customer service.

Managed the successful installation and start up of a 500 ton progressive press.

Performed hiring activities including interviewing procedures for approximately 300 employees for a new start-up plant.

Received the “President’s Quality Award” for improved quality and customer satisfaction.

Now it’s time to get your pen and paper and take adequate time to recall your accomplishments. You are now going to formulate your accomplishment statements and write them down. Don’t worry about how they sound at this point. There are many places to get help in wording your resume, but, only you can fully and adequately identify and define your own accomplishments. Remember, a person who is accountable has strong self-awareness which allows this person to imagine himself/herself as a person who is upwardly mobile.

The most important thing is to take that first step and start building your resume today. Let it evolve into a precise and powerful document which explains your career summary in a way that other people will understand what you do and what you have done.

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Business Unusual - For The Business Owner

2010-06-01T23:45:00.000-07:00

By Pat Meehan

“Another day another dollar...” If that’s all it is then why are we here each day doing our mundane tasks? What is our purpose? “Another day another dollar...” We have heard this term so often and what does it really mean? This is a statement of frustration, stagnation, and resignation that anything will ever get better and that everything will always remain the same. Is this is what you are stuck with, and if it is, you’d better get used to it, or move now to choose an ever changing course in your personal and professional life.

You, the business owner, have found yourself at a plateau, but who or what entity has created this plateau that says you have reached your peak? What else can you do or expect? It’s just “business as usual.” If you really believe this, I know hundreds of people who will buy you out, today, for ten cents on the dollar and why? Not because your idea is so great, but because their idea is the one they believe in and practice each and every day. Their idea is “business unusual.”

In these days of social networking, we find ourselves meeting new friends across the globe, and we exchange ideas and become networkers. Then we form groups, and each group has an owner with an idea and a slate of managers. When the group starts to go by the wayside, some of the leaders come forth and say things like “we should run this social enterprise group like a business.”

Jim Collins, bestselling author and student of enduring great companies and how these companies grow and how they attain superior performance, says there is a reason for that. Jim Collins says, “If you think about it, most businesses, like most of anything else in life are, by definition, is average. So why would we want to take the practices of average business and bring them to our world? The comparison is powerful because it’s not the difference between business and social, but the difference between “average and greatness.”

In our strife for greatness, we must be able to discriminate between “business ideas” and “greatness ideas.” As Jim Collins illustrates, we must define a culture of discipline that speaks to greatness, not average. We must seek to serve our customers based on not just what they need, but on what they long for. We must reach out to those who don’t know where they are, and try to show them a direction. We do these things in a culture of discipline, a culture of greatness, and a culture of genuine giving to a unique group called the human race, the most valued entity on this earth. We give, as business people and as part of this blessed group of human beings, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, to help those like us find their way through the guidance of our God given gift, the vision of greatness that we have realized and have been blessed with to pass on to others.

Always remember our greatness in life is never measured by what we achieve, but by what we gave to others to help them achieve.

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A Memorial Day Tribute

2010-05-29T12:52:00.001-07:00

By Pat Meehan

A Memorial Day Tribute to all of the soldiers, sailors and marines and the families of those troops whose loved ones have paid the ultimate price for our safety and the protection of Liberty! They will be forever in our debt, and they will be sorely missed!

Kids are the Best Teachers

2010-05-11T22:10:00.000-07:00

By Pat Meehan

Today I completed two days of participating in "Earth Day." This was something I was asked to do in Spencer County, Indiana as a service to pre-school, 1st grade and 2nd grade kids (about 500 in all). The event was sponsored by American Electric Power Company in Rockport, Indiana.

My job for these two full days was to run groups of kids through a project on making a bird feeder from a bagel, syrup, bird seeds and a string tied through the hole of the bagel to use to hang it on a tree.

A nice lady told the kids all about birds, and let them participate in the discussion. Then they came to the tables with the bagels and squirted on the syrup and pressed the bird seeds on to the sticky bagels. Next the kids packaged their new product in a plastic bag with their name on it to take home to hang in a tree.

Their excitement was enormous. They were inspired as individuals and as a group. It dawned on me how simple it is to help people feel excited if we keep the process simple and doable. We're all like those little kids in our jobs, our businesses and our lives in general.

Get enthused about the good work you have been doing and go home excited about it! You may find yourself moving forward and enjoying life a little more each day.

Never Too Old

2010-04-29T03:12:00.000-07:00

By Pat Meehan

There is nothing more enlightening than to watch a person who has worked for a company for thirty or more years to continue to improve himself/ herself and have visions of his/her career future. It is so commendable when a person, who is fifty something, decides to go back to school to work towards an Associate Degree or a Certification with the vision of moving forward in his/her career. This dedication to self-accountability is validation that a person never stops growing and always has a place to say, “Here’s where I am now, and I know where I want to go from here.”

Have you ever listened to a retired person who was bored with retirement and filled with frustration because he was lacking purpose? If you have heard this person, he may have said something like this: “Retirement, that’s just what I’ve been waiting for all of these years. It will be wonderful to play golf every day, travel to distant places, have the life of leisure, take walks in the park, and have no cares in the world. What a great life that will be, at least for a couple of months. I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to get bored already. I miss being in the thick of things, and interfacing with all of those great people I used to work with. I miss someone asking me to help figure out a better way to get something done. I miss my lunch hour. I even miss all those meetings I used to complain about. I would give anything just to be in that meeting room again, sitting around the conference table, and arguing about which way is the right way to do something. It’s too bad I’m too old to get another job. You know, it’s strange, but my golf score is the best it has ever been, and I walk three miles every day. I never walked when I was in my thirty’s. The doctor says I’m in good enough shape to pass the Army’s physical exam, but what good would that do? The Army has an age limit. My company just had to come up with that blasted early retirement package, and they made it sound so good. It only seems like yesterday when I was 25 years old and was told I was the best candidate for the job. I guess I’m too old. I’d better get used to this retirement idea.”

It really doesn’t have to be this way. For the second time in your life, you can start a career, and it’s going to be more fun this time. You don’t have those little mouths to feed and those college tuition bills to pay like you did the first time around. This career is for you, and not because someone feels sorry for you. The fact is they need you very badly. Oh yes, I’m not kidding you about that. There is a talent shortage going on these days. Every time someone like you retires, the talent shortage problem gets bigger. There is a lack of wisdom, people skills, common sense, loyalty, dedication, and dependability in the work place today. You are just what the doctor ordered for many companies.

This talent shortage problem is going to get worse before it gets better. It’s people like you who can really make a difference and help solve this shortage problem. You are so important to today’s work force, and you can make a major impact by adding value to a growing company. This will be a great opportunity for the company that you choose to work for, and what a dramatic difference for you. You will find so much improvement in your quality of life, your emotional well being, and your continued career growth. You may not need the money as much as you used to, but it sure feels good to get that paycheck for a good day’s work. As a person who is accountable, the choice to work is yours. You don’t ever have to retire because you are too much in demand.

Ronald Reagan, who is considered one of the top five best Presidents of United States, was also the oldest President in history to be elected. He was re-elected again for a second term. In addition, he lived until age ninety three. In the Presidential Debates of 1984 between Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale, a question was posed to President Reagan, regarding the age factor, and how he would respond to this issue. He replied, with wit and confidence, that he would never, for political purposes, exploit his opponent’s youth and inexperience, just to win an election. What a statement from this seventy three year old incumbent President seeking re-election. He hit a home run with that statement, and the election was one of the largest landslides of the century in a presidential election, and in favor of Reagan.

Much is to be said about the relationship of age and experience in the need for leadership, not just in our country, or in politics, but in the management and workforce of our American based companies, now, and more so, in the future.

In 1963, shortly before his assassination, John F. Kennedy was asked in a press conference about what his political and other goals were at the time. His response was, “I seem to be at an awkward age… too old for a new career, and too young to write my memoirs.” In 1963, this was a pretty true statement from this young, forty five year old President. It was also true for the workforce in America in general, at that time in history. It was difficult to be in your forty’s and looking for a job during the 1960’s with large bubbles of young baby boomers growing up in overflowing numbers. In those days, people in their forties struggled to find new employment when a job was lost. There were just too many young applicants available.

Today however, this is no longer the case. This is the time of the re-birth of the baby boomer generation. This generation of Americans is totally responsible for making its mark on our country and for the dominant success of large and small businesses in America, as they were in the past, and as they still are today. This rapidly retiring generation of American workers and managers are in much greater numbers than the younger generation who follows their great efforts.

The day is coming, sooner than later, when retired managers, engineers, and other retired workers, from many different industries will be recruited out of retirement to fill the void that will be left vacant due to the shortage of younger replacements. We will see the day when healthy and skilled retirees will be recruited back into the workplace with purpose, and to retire again, for a second time, in their efforts to keep the industry of this country great.

You are never too old to have career dreams and aspirations. Take accountability for the wealth of knowledge and experience you possess, and make yourself available to enjoy a career of a lifetime. Give yourself that opportunity to hear, once again, those wonderful words, that you are “the best candidate for the job!”

Self-Improvement comes in Small Steps

2010-04-26T06:51:00.000-07:00

By Pat Meehan

Each person has many opportunities for self-improvement that fall in line with his/her self –awareness, or “realized, developed skills.” The recipe for effective self-improvement is as follows: “A person’s developed skills must be realized through becoming accountable to himself/herself, which leads that person to self-awareness. Once self-awareness is ingrained in habit, the search for self-improvement becomes an ever evolving natural course.”

Here are a number of examples of how people become self-improved:

1. The General Ledger Accountant has defined her Bachelors Degree in Accounting as one of the specific requirements she already has in her current job. Through accountability, and by evaluating the skills that she has already developed in her job thus far, she has devised a plan for self improvement to start working towards pursuing a CPA (Certified Public Accountant), CMA (Certified Management Accountant), or MBA (Masters of Business Administration). By evaluating where she wants to go from here in her career, and through discussions with her boss and other mentors, she will collect the necessary information needed to choose which one of these certifications fits best in her chosen career direction.

2. The Manufacturing Shift Supervisor has completed one year of college. By evaluating his current skill level, and his drive to move upward, he will choose to start taking classes to complete his Associates Degree. He has also volunteered to co-facilitate some up-coming training classes that his company will be sponsoring. This requires his accountability to learn the material well, and then, to teach it to others. He improves himself by helping others improve.

3. An hourly Warehouse Associate wants to add to his present list of skills and signs up to take a course to become a Certified Fork Lift Driver. This may later lead him to become an instructor in the fork lift certification program. Success is a result of a person’s sense of direction, which comes from self-awareness.

4. A grocery store Cashier takes a course to get a management certificate and becomes the Assistant Customer Service Manager, along with continued cashiering. By doing this, she has improved herself and is being noticed, and she will be ready for other advancements, especially as she continues her self-improvement activities.

5. An unemployed Engineer takes free classes offered by the Employment Office in his county, and he learns a great deal on how to market himself more effectively in his job search. Taking on this self-improvement activity will help him land more job interviews, and to become a better interviewer because of his accountability to self-improve.

6. A Distribution Center Associate has just realized the value of being accountable and has taken a new employee under his wing to mentor that employee. This is an extremely powerful action! The process of realizing self-worth and self-awareness, and wanting it for others, and giving it to others through mentorship, is called LEADERSHIP.

So, what are you waiting for?

Self-Awareness is Your Career Ticket

2010-04-20T23:34:00.000-07:00

By Pat Meehan

Once self-awareness is ingrained in habit, the search for self-improvement becomes an ever evolving natural course.”
____________

If you have started reading this first sentence and are still reading, you are really thinking that you can pull off a new life long career growth adventure. Believe it or not, you are becoming accountable for your career and your life in general. You are becoming Self-Aware.

Let’s review what you can learn through Self-Awareness:

1. You are not at a dead end. If you are still reading this means you have already gone past the starting point. You are already growing in your career one day at a time. This day that you are in, so far, is the most important day of your life.

2. You aren’t thinking about bad luck, who you can blame, how bad the economy is, or of being stuck in a rut. You are too busy thinking of new ideas that are challenging your mind and what you can do to improve yourself today.

3. You believe you can really build your own resume. You are aware that you will get some free help from other people in sprucing up the wording, formatting your document, and knocking around some content ideas. You are learning that these people really do want to help you.

4. You are becoming aware of the basic requirements and specific requirements of your current or last job, as well as the accomplishments you have achieved, and how they have added value to your current and/or past employers.

5. You are learning that the only way to go is in an upward direction, and you have formulated ideas and visualizations on where you are now and where you are going next in your career progression.

Just think how refreshing it will be to wake up each morning feeling elated and wondering what opportunities you are going to seize in this new day. This feels much better than your old way of thinking in terms of dreading the day and counting the hours. You are positive that good things are going to happen to you and you can’t wait to see what they are going to be. Your morning drive to work is relaxing and refreshing. You are consciously developing the habit of thinking about positive things you can do that will make significant impacts on your career and your life. By becoming self-aware you are starting to become self-improved.

Working with Executive Recruiters or “Headhunters”

2010-04-20T07:09:00.000-07:00

By Pat Meehan

Executive recruiters, often known as “Headhunters,” are independent contractors. They are hired by companies to search for talented candidates that possess the skills and experience required to fill job vacancies for key positions within the companies that hire them. With manufacturing and other industry jobs on the rise, you may get a call from a headhunter soon.

A good recruiter can be your best friend when making a career move. Recruiters are also a part of the unadvertised job market. Although they do run ads on internet job boards and in newspapers, headhunters are very proactive in seeking and finding talent. Because they are proactive, they are accountable people and therefore, you will want to work with them as part of your self-marketing program.

How can you tell if a recruiter is a good one or a bad one?
There are many books that have tried to make this distinction. However, it is a very easy one to make. As a person who has chosen accountability as a way of life, your keen sense of self-awareness should enable you to quickly identify relationship-oriented people. You will easily be able to distinguish between recruiters who are relationship building ones from those who are not. As a self-aware person, you can rely on your gut instinct to work with recruiters that you have identified as proactive and relationship oriented. Good recruiters are excellent relationship building people and they can help you immensely.

When you work with a recruiter, you should be very cooperative in providing information about yourself. Recruiters work very hard to match your talents, experience, and personal goals to the requirements and specifications of their client companies’ job vacancies. Recruiters work on straight commission and they only win financially when they match both the employer and the employee together. It is very important for you to cooperate with your recruiter by providing all of the information that he/she needs in the areas of your current and desired salary, relocation spots that you are open to, family issues that may present concerns in a job change, and any other pertinent information that may come into play in a career move.

Recruiters are the only exception in which you must openly share your current salary as well as your salary expectations for your next career move. A recruiter can’t and won’t present you to his/her client company without this information. Therefore, be cooperative and extremely truthful as they will try to help you get to where you want to go based on the information you provide them.

The term ‘executive recruiter’ can be misleading, as the term might imply that they only work with top executives. To the contrary, recruiters/headhunters actually seek all levels of employment, from first line supervision to top management. Working with a recruiter is a great networking opportunity and like everything else in life, it requires a high level of relationship building and networking capability on your part.

Building a good relationship with a recruiter may be a very valuable experience, not only in your current job search, but it may become a lifelong relationship that produces a continuum of benefits for you in your “Career of a Lifetime.”

Bluegrass Music... What a Life!

2010-04-13T16:09:00.001-07:00

By Pat Meehan

A small businessman can get pretty wrapped up and self absorbed in a tough economy. That’s what was happening to me about a year ago. The old saying "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" was holding true for me as well. About that time, Bluegrass music came back into my life. I've played music in four local bluegrass bands over the past 35 years.
About a year ago it had been a long time since I had played Bluegrass music and I decided to go to Rosine, KY to see what the Barn Jamboree was like. It's an old barn converted to a Bluegrass concert hall. In the summer the side doors and the front door are opened and lawn chairs surround the barn and the seats inside are full. This is a place where I met five new lifelong friends.

The first was Melvin Gill (Lawrence "Melvin” Gill), a guitar player and singer who was born and raised in West Virginia. Melvin and his wife raised their daughter in Ashland, KY and then moved to Southern Indiana in the 1990's. Melvin and I started hanging around at the barn playing Flatt & Scruggs songs. We, Melvin with his guitar and me with the mandolin, became a pretty good duo. Melvin, an Army veteran, who was in the U. S. Army in Germany with Elvis Presley, had lost his band, “Sandy Creek”, after their bass player passed away and their guitar/mandolin player and singer, Rick Smith moved to Louisville.

Rick Smith, however, started showing up at Rosine again and the three of us became a pretty good trio and called ourselves "Kentuckiana Grass." Rick was a favorite among the Rosine fans, especially for his truck driving songs and the "Auctioneer" song. Rick, also a bass player, helped the tempo with the upright bass. Melvin was already pretty famous at Rosine himself with his "Build Myself a Woman" song, otherwise known as the "Dummy Song," a heartbreak comedy number.

Then came Brian Crossen with his Martin guitar, upright bass, his deep bass voice, and a song book with over 100 songs he had written.
Now we were a four man band and were sounding pretty darn good. We began singing Gospel songs in four part harmony and "Kentuckiana Grass" became a regular on the weekly stage at Rosine.

Next came Guynn Cagle, or Mr. Cagle as many call him. Guynn, the Chairman of the Board at Rosine became our band member each week on the Rosine stage.
He would sing a song or two, but he just loved to play the guitar and be part of our band and we really liked him being there.

We were missing one thing, a banjo player. We tried out a lot of banjo players here and there, maybe as many as Bill Monroe auditioned ... I’ll never know for sure. One day Chris Pike, from Selvin, Indiana, brought his banjo to a jam session. Chris was fairly new at the banjo but took it seriously and practiced for hours each day. His dedication to playing "Hard Driving Bluegrass Music" got him a spot and he joined “Kentuckiana Grass” towards the end of 2009.

Every week I find myself playing the mandolin with the sounds of Bluegrass music all around. The sounds of songs of Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanly fill the air along with the songs of our own Brian Crossen and Melvin Gill. It’s a great place to be. If you haven't been to Rosine, KY you should put it on your list as a place to go on a Friday night. Come on down and Kentuckiana Grass will play just for you!

Are you too old to get a job?

2010-04-13T00:12:00.000-07:00

By Pat Meehan

As a baby boomer myself, at age 57, and even though I can do pretty well on this desk top computer I’m typing on, I don’t own or operate a blackberry, I don’t like laptops, and I never send text messages. I even have a cell phone that doesn’t take pictures, much less opens up Microsoft Outlook. I have no desire to get emails 24 hours a day. Yet, in 2009, the toughest economic year in nearly 70 years, nearly one third of my colleagues dropped out of the recruiting business. Believe it or not, most of them were much younger than me.

What does this mean in generational terms? I am not a social scientist but of my last five employee placements as a recruiter with my client companies, of which I get 25% of the new employee’s starting salary, three of those five placements were as follows:

- Purchasing Manager – female – age 59 – starting salary of $78,000

- Human Resource Labor Relations Manager – male – age 61 – starting salary $80,000

- Materials Manager - male – age 60 – starting salary $75,000

- Plant Accountant - male - age 58 - starting salary $40,000

Why did these three candidates get hired and how many people would give anything to have any of these jobs today? First of all, I submitted them to my clients with full knowledge of each of their ages. My clients looked at their experience, interviewed them and hired all of them. In all of the, “off the record” conversations, I have with my clients, age was never mentioned in the entire interviewing process in all three cases.

In the early 1990’s the unwritten rule was that the 30 somethings and the early 40 somethings got hired in the management jobs. Why? Because of the entire employment population there were more 30 somethings and early 40 somethings than any other age group (baby boomers).

Today the 50 somethings and early 60 somethings are still 45% of the total workforce. They have more experience than those who will follow them , … a new phenomenon in the baby boom generation.

You, as a baby boomer, are worth your weight in gold today if you choose not to be your own worst enemy by telling yourself that you are too old. I won’t try to talk you out of that. You will have to learn it for yourself.

Good luck on your Interview!

Generation Y - Millennials in the Workplace

2010-04-07T13:25:00.000-07:00

By Pat Meehan
April 7, 2010

Dubbed Generation Y, Millennials are the new adult generation born after 1982. The term “Millennials” is so new that the word has just recently made its way into Microsoft’s spell check dictionary. Millennials, however, are very in tune with Microsoft and all other forms of high technology. In their world of high technology and higher education, Millennials are becoming quite a question mark for the employers they work for and the employers who are considering them for hire.

The word Millennials has been assigned to this generation by employers. This young new generation grew up in an era of being rewarded just for being present. They started playing sports at the age of 5 in an environment where the score was not kept and everybody wins. At the end of the season participation trophies were given just for wearing the uniform and not for achieving excellence. They grew up on Nintindo, followed by a large variety of high tech video games. Their fist car was not one they saved up for, but in most cases, an expensive car that was given to them by their parents. Facebook, MySpace, texting, IM and other instant communication technologies may explain Millennials' reputation for being peer oriented and for seeking instant gratification.

In a survey of executive recruiters, Millennials are becoming a frustrating group of people to work with. The common frustrations are as follows; Millennials respond to job ads by email, however they don’t answer their cell phones or emails when contacted back by recruiters. If and when they are reached, their level of interest is minimal in many cases. They don’t portray warmth and energy in a conversation and they lack basic people skills. It has been discovered by some recruiters that Millennials will respond quickly if sent a text message. Recruiters say Millennials go on job interviews and do not send thank you notes or follow-up letters. When presented with written job offers they often respond very late or not at all. They simply lack etiquette when presenting themselves.

These frustrations have spilled over to employers who say that Millennials are not company oriented employees. They expect the company to be oriented only to them. As a result of participation trophies, having had cars given to them and their experience of constant praise in childhood, Millennials struggle with poor employee performance evaluations. It is not unusually for the parent of an adult Millennial to call a human resource manager and complain about their child’s performance evaluation, just as parents of other generations would complain to the school teacher. Companies are finding they have to provide fun in the workplace to keep Millennials happy. Whether it be food, costume day, or flexible hours day, Millennials continue to expect more and more from their employers and struggle with conformance to a corporate structure.

Older workers who are retiring are being recruited back as contract employees by their former employers because of the knowledge and work ethic that employers are starting to miss. New hires in their mid to late 50’s are rapidly on the rise as life expectancy increases and people are choosing to work longer. Companies want people with maturity, people skills, and a sense of responsibility, as well as loyalty to the company.

Millennials are a new wave generation of the post baby boom called the “baby bust.” This generation is a product of a 7-10 year slowdown in which the numbers of children born after 1980 were at the lowest in U. S. history. This phenomenon is correcting itself as the volume of children born after 1990 are in much greater numbers. This may cause future problems for the instant gratification seeking Millennials as more employees become available behind them and as competition becomes more of a factor to them. As time unfolds it will be interesting to observe the blending of generations in the world of employment.

Downtime or Social Networking Time?

2010-04-06T12:19:00.000-07:00

By Pat Meehan
April 6, 2010

This is not, by far, a scientific study or measured analysis but it seems to me that the slowest part of my day, meaning incoming calls, emails and people answering the phone, happens from about noon until 4:00PM. Then from 4:00 until 5:30, it all picks up again.

So what do I do during downtime? Lately I've been logging on to LinkedIn, FaceBook, or Twitter only to find that all of these sites are running very slowly due to too many tweets, too many wall writings, and too many LinkedIn job searches. What does all this mean? I used to think the human race went into a form of siesta, kind of like catfish. Catfish are either very still on the bottom of the lake or they move around, all at the same time, which is the time when you get a bite. I think I may be on to something here. People don’t fall asleep but they do change their form of activity, and at predictable times.

The next time you feel like the whole world went to sleep, checkout your favorite social network site, maybe Facebook, and see what’s going on!

Have a great day!

Identifying and Planning Self-Improvement Activities

2010-04-04T08:19:00.000-07:00

By Pat Meehan
Easter Sunday, April 4, 2010

In your job search and through building your resume you have discovered some new things about yourself. You have become much more self-aware of your skills and accomplishments and now it’s time to start evaluating where you are now and where you want to go from here.

So, where are you now? Because you are still reading this article, you are much farther along than you were before you started. As your habit of self-awareness develops daily and gets stronger over time, you will become a being of continuous improvement. Once you start identifying and implementing your self-improvement activities, the process of your continuous improvement will carry on over your lifetime.

People who work on self-improvement activities daily keep in tune with and ahead of their constantly changing world. For instance, let’s talk about the computer system you use at work. As little as fifteen years ago, only certain categories of employees were required to have excellent computer skills. Today however, every job has computer skill requirements. Hourly employees log in and log out of work each day by swiping an ID card through a computer scanner. Every employee who has a desk at work has a computer on that desk. We all send and receive e-mails daily. Hourly production workers enter data into the company’s computer system to report production numbers, raw material usage, quality control, etc.

Every cashier, customer service rep, inventory control clerk, department vice-president, ATM user, bank teller, UPS driver, postal worker, and every other person in the workforce uses a computer in his/her job. This brings up a very important question for you to ask yourself. The question is, “am I the best in my department at utilizing the computer system I use at work?” If your answer is no, then a self-improvement opportunity has just jumped into your lap. You are now accountable to be as good as or better than anyone else in your department who utilizes that computer system. To be the best it might require some reading outside of work. You may need to spend some time at work before you log in or after you log out. Whatever it takes, you are determined to become expert at that specific skill. You want to be so good at that computer that others start asking you for help. When others ask you for help they have realized your leadership value. This will be noticed by many people within your company.

Everything you do in your job, whether it is technical, manual, written, or spoken, is an opportunity for self-improvement for the accountable person. Your identification and self-awareness of the skills and talents that you have identified for yourself in your current job are vital to your upward mobility. Unless you have truly identified these skills and talents that you possess, it is literally impossible to identify your opportunities for self-improvement. Realizing your skills comes from self-awareness which is an automatic catalyst to self-improvement.

Each person has many opportunities for self-improvement that fall in line with his/her self –awareness, or “realized, developed skills.” The recipe for effective self-improvement is as follows: A person’s developed skills must be realized through becoming accountable to himself/herself, which leads that person to self-awareness. Once self-awareness is ingrained in habit, the search for self-improvement becomes an ever evolving natural course.

Recommended reading for self improvement: Winning Impression - Social Media Recruitment Strategy & Training

The Four T’s of Success

2010-03-23T17:52:00.000-07:00

By Pat Meehan

In this time of recession and recovery, the greatest opportunities of your life lie ahead of you. Your mind and your being, combined with purpose, will produce your best work yet. Never suppose that you are nearly finished, for you are just beginning. When you graduated from high school or college you didn’t stop your education by a long shot. That was just the beginning of your education. Your formal education taught you how to learn. Your ability to learn takes you on an endless journey of education and success. It’s time for you put into practice the four T’s of success.

Think: In all the chaos and confusion in the world around you, just stop and think. Take yourself away from the daily turmoil that causes frustration and just think. Think about what you have done, who you have met, who has made an impact on your life and which lives you may have impacted. Think about the peace that came from these wonderful things and then think about doing it again,… more often, in a bigger way, a better way, and forever for the rest of your life.

Talk: What else makes more of a difference than talking? Maybe listening does, but listening happens when you have someone you can talk with, exchange ideas with, interact with, brainstorm with, appreciate and communicate with.

Your whole career is a conversation.

Someone says something to you and you say something back, and thus, an exchange of ideas begins to happen which will lead to many more conversations with many other people. Communication is the link that ties human beings together and through communication, many chains of human connection are developed. Another way to describe this dynamic is to call it Relationship Building. We build relationships through communication with one another.

Trust: Allow yourself to make a mistake and allow others to witness. Trust others so much that even if they laugh at you, you will still trust them again and again. By doing so, in such an open way, they will learn to trust you and they will follow your lead. With trust comes leadership and courage. In trust the fear of failing goes out the window and progress will surely happen because you will always try again and again. Trust in yourself and trust in others and you will always find yourself at the foot of greatness and pointed only in an upward direction.

Train: With the first three T’s in place your mind becomes an endless vessel to be filled with knowledge, wisdom, purpose and accomplishment. The mind never stops the learning process until we cease to think, which is the first of the four T’s of success. Train today, tomorrow, and every day for the rest of your life. Appreciate the new things you learn each day and through appreciation you will learn even more.

If you practice the four T's of success, there will be no more hurry and haste, and no more time to waste. You have all the time in the world for you will never retire from purposeful activity. Have a good day and take a moment and Think!

Small Business: “Negotiating Payment Terms”

2010-03-10T06:28:00.000-08:00

By Pat Meehan
March 10, 2010

In last week’s blog we determined the importance of cash flow. Without steady cash flow bills can’t be paid, payrolls can’t be met, and stress infiltrates the operation. Today, cash flow is more critical than ever before. Banks have closed credit lines, SBA is just “not making loans,” and customers are thinking twice before buying any product or service.

This just might be a good time to make some business changes in the area of payment terms for your small business. Business is the provision of a product or service in exchange for a “consideration,” being money. In the old days business might have been a trade of a product or service in exchange for a “consideration” of another product or service. This was called the “barter system.”

Today, one of the biggest frustrations of small business men and women is waiting 30, 60, 90, or even 120 days for payment from their customers. The frustration stems from feeling trapped by corporate legal documents and contracts with very demanding payment terms that are signed when becoming a vendor.

I recently took a poll on LinkedIn.com on businesses as to what their payment term waiting times were and results were as follows:

Less than 30 days - 25%
30 – 60 days - 55%
60 – 120 days - 10%
Some money upfront - 10%

What is missing from this equation: Business = Product or service traded for money? If you can’t answer this question, you are probably waiting 60 – 120 days for your money. The equation should be: Business = Product or service traded for money in a “win-win” environment based on a personal relationship.

A Fortune 500 company is not your customer. It is a person within that company who is your customer. It is a person within that company with whom you have built or have yet to build a relationship with. Shouldn’t that be called a “business relationship?” You can call it whatever you like but the relationship is with a person. The relationship is built and grows stronger through a process called “conversation.”

I know many small business owners who never talk with their customers. Everything is handled online by email and/or other electronic methods of communication. Calling the customer is unheard of and sometimes frightening because warmth is lacking in the so called, "business relationship." A customer that has no personal relationship with you will drop you for pennies on the dollar.

If you want to reduce the waiting time for your money, try one of these ideas:

1. Bypass your contact of sales orders and call an accounts payable person within that company and inquire about shorter payment terms. You might find out that there are no defined payment terms for you in your customer’s accounts payable system. Therefore, work out a shorter payment plan.

2. When proposing your product or service to a new client, you propose the payment terms: e. g. “Payable upon receipt net 10 days.” Have you ever tried this?

3. Consider offering a discount (1%, 1.5%, 2%) for immediate pay.

Everything is for sale in business today, including payment terms. The only thing lacking in your business might be the sales skills to sell alternative payment options. Give one or all of these ideas a try and you will find that your trip to the mail box will start becoming a much more rewarding experience!

“Happy days are here again!”

The First Rule for Small Business: "Collect Your Money"

2010-03-01T06:24:00.000-08:00

By Pat Meehan
March 1, 2010

If you own or manage a small business, you know the importance of cash flow. Without it bills can’t be paid, payrolls can’t be met, and stress infiltrates the operation.

For a small business to be considered solid, three things must be in place:

1. Money in the bank
2. Accounts Receivables
3. Projects in the works that will create new accounts receivables

If one of these three ingredients is missing, the business is not stable. Most small business folks are great sales people. They are customer focused and provide excellent products and services. One thing, however, that many small business folks lack, is a well developed method of collecting accounts receivables. Many times I have heard from small business people that their customer is very slow in paying invoices. I always try to remind a small business owner that the best way to keep a customer is to collect the money on time. If they don’t pay or become problematic as a slow payer, they are really not a customer.

The collection process in small business should start immediately. One of the biggest mistakes small business people make is that they send the invoice to the wrong person. When developing a new customer who will get a first time invoice, it is critical to know that customer's specific pay procedures. In most cases the person who gives you the order is not the person who processes your invoice. However, many small business people send the invoice to the person who gives the sales order. The chance of an invoice getting lost in this instance increases dramatically.

Here are some tips on collecting your well earned money:

1. Establish a method of invoice processing. Find out who the accounts payable person is in that organization and talk with them as to how to submit your invoice. Accounts payable people are extremely friendly and they love to pay bills. That is their job.

2. After an invoice is sent, wait 3 days and call the accounts payable department to verify that your invoice is in the system to be paid with a scheduled pay date. This way you know that your collection skills are working and you can spend your energy on creating new business.

3. Mark your calendar for three days after the due date of your invoice and call the accounts receivable department to ensure your check has been cut and mailed.

Always remember the best way to keep the relationship good with the person who gives you new sales orders is by keeping them out of the accounts payable process. Get to know your accounts payable person and develop a good relationship with him/her. Finally, always remember that the best way to keep a customer happy is to be a good vendor, part of which is collecting your hard earned dollars on time.

Our next blog will discuss negotiating payment terms. Happy collecting!

Dealing With a Job Loss

2010-02-16T13:40:00.000-08:00

By Pat Meehan

Being downsized from a job is listed in the top ten most stressful things a person experiences in a lifetime. Dealing and coping with this situation is a big adjustment. It will take a little time to get acclimated to the loss, and the absence of your daily routine, but you will make the adjustment successfully. One of the most important things to realize is that you are going through a grieving cycle. Realizing this allows you to move naturally through it in a healthy way.

Grieving is a natural process that helps us work through the impact felt by a loss. We grieve at the death of a spouse, child, friend, relative, or a pet. Grieving comes with a loss, a death, a divorce, a bankruptcy, an illness, and the loss of a job.

In 1963 the nation mourned the loss of a young president, John F. Kennedy. An entire country and most of the world experienced the grieving cycle as a result of this tragic event.

When we lose a job due to a downsizing it is a painful experience. The grieving cycle allows us to work through the pain and into new positive visions of the future. These new visions are called hope. Although the grieving cycle is a built in defense mechanism to help us through hard times, it is very important to fully understand how it works. Without this understanding we can get trapped in the grieving process. Relax now, as we move through the four stages of grieving.

When we lose a job due to a downsizing it is a painful experience. The grieving cycle allows us to work through the pain and into new positive visions of the future. These new visions are called hope. Although the grieving cycle is a built in defense mechanism to help us through hard times, it is very important to fully understand how it works. Without this understanding we can get trapped in the grieving process. Relax now, as we move through the four stages of grieving.

Stage One: Denial

Denial is a built in pain reliever or tranquilizer that comes to us very quickly following a trauma. It is a form of temporary amnesia that allows us to be numb or temporarily pain free from the trauma or shock we have experienced. After a loss a person will go into the denial stage. Let’s use the example of a lost job and look at the frame of mind of a person in denial. Here are some symptoms of denial.

Refusal to even talk about the loss
Will not admit to feelings of sorrow
May abuse alcohol or drugs
Will not relate other problems as being related to the loss
Will sometimes show a happy-go-lucky attitude

Stage Two: Resistance

When a person moves through the grieving cycle naturally, reality sets in and the person becomes consciously aware that there is a problem and pushes away from it in a variety of ways. When a person moves from denial to resistance here are some of the symptoms.

Anger
Blaming others, self, God, or their environment
Irritability, rigid personality, nausea, headaches, etc.
Tenseness, anxiety, depression
Embarrassment, shame, guilt, isolation.

Stage Three: Exploration

A person who moves through the grief cycle in a health way will eventually come to grips with the feelings experienced in resistance and move to exploration. In exploration a person is starting to turn the corner of the grieving cycle and will show the following signs.

Agreeable to sit with another person to discuss the loss
Willingness to get outside help
Learning to take one step at a time to move in a positive direction
Accepts the reality of the loss and shows willingness to let go of control
Starts to wonder out of the defense mechanism mode / starts to trust others
Willingness to follow direction to be self-starting

Stage Four: Closure

In the final stage of the grieving cycle the person has explored new ventures and opportunities and finds himself/herself seeing options and solution of which to choose a new way to continue living in a positive way. A person in closure will show the following signs.

Readiness to move forward again
Cheerfulness and energetic attitude
Self reliance and self assuredness
Decisiveness and good decision making ability
Replacing the loss

So take a deep breath, relax and don’t beat yourself up. Let yourself move through the grieving cycle. Utilize your network mentors, clergy, career coaches to help guide you along the way. You will be back on your feet again soon!

The Unknown – Get to Know it a Little Better

2010-02-15T15:01:00.000-08:00

By Pat Meehan

“Managing change is the art of breaking down unknowns into predictable and hopeful visions of the future.”
____________

Fear of the Unknown …. That phrase doesn’t really make much sense does it? Fear is not measurable or tangible. It is a feeling people have, but they can’t really pinpoint what it is attached to. Fear is usually based on ignorance or lack of knowledge … the unknown. A person will say “I’m afraid.” When asked what that person is afraid of, the answer usually is “I don’t know” or “I’m not sure.” Fear is a skeptical feeling like in a horror movie. You just think something bad is going to happen, and you sit on the edge of your seat and wait for the unknown.

Change brings unknowns with it. Managing change is the art of breaking down unknowns into predictable and hopeful visions of the future. How far can you go? You can go as far as you can see. When you become blind with fear, you can’t go anywhere. You can go as far as you dream. Through self-accountability, we take on self-awareness, and move forward through self-improvement. We become self-knowing individuals, continuously growing, and learning more through exploration. We maintain a drive to learn more, know more, become more self-aware, and more self assured. In this manner we conquer fear, allowing us to see forever, dream the greatest dreams, and become triumphant in times of great challenge.

Abraham Lincoln's Birthday 1809 - 1865

2010-02-12T10:32:00.000-08:00

By Pat Meehan

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States and preserved the Union during the American Civil War. His qualities of faithfulness, honesty, resolution, humor and courage, gave him the strength to lead our country during the bloodiest years of our existence.

He was elected President in 1860, and by the time he had taken office, seven states had already seceded from the Union over the issue of slavery. He issued his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 to set the slaves in the rebellious states free. He coordinated every aspect of the war effort as commander-in-chief and his military genius was instrumental in the Union victory.

He was re-elected in 1864, and tragically assassinated before he could oversee the reconstruction of the South.

A number of famous quotes that were his words…included:

“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.”

“Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived.”

“Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.”

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.”

“I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot.”

As we remember Lincoln’s birthday we can surely reflect on the principles he stood for and believed in.

Happy 203rd Mr. President !

Utilizing Networking in Your Career

2010-02-11T11:00:00.000-08:00

By Pat Meehan
February 11, 2010

Building a network over a lifetime is the most accountable thing we can do. It is the epitome of being a proactive person. Day by day, we build on this chain of meaningful personal relationships to which we can exchange the gifts of our ideas and influence. We should value these relationships and put great trust in them as they continue to develop. Stephen Covey teaches that a relationship is like an “emotional bank account.” We must nurture this emotional bank account by making more “deposits than withdrawals.” For example, we might take the time to have a mentoring discussion with a co-worker prior to that person’s internal interview for a promotion. We share our wealth of knowledge with this person unconditionally, and in a total sense of giving. This is truly making a “deposit” into that relationship and a tremendous step in building credibility, or “trustworthiness.”

What, on the other hand, would have happened if that person showed up to have that discussion with you and you forgot to be there? That person would have felt let down and slighted. His/her faith in you would have been greatly diminished. You would have just made a huge “withdrawal” from that relationship. With too many withdrawals, you will find that you have lost your network and your credibility through your “untrustworthy behavior.” If you are truly accountable, your nature will be much more of a giving one than a taking one.

In relationship building, it is very important to share each other’s goals and aspirations, and encourage each other to achieve those goals and dreams. Through having this type of openness, coupled with an attitude of giving, many people will take notice, and your name will become ideas of opportunity in other people’s minds. Therefore, that tap on the shoulder you received from your boss one day to discuss a promotion wasn’t a coincidence after all. It was a direct result, or dividend, of all the “deposits” you had been making in your “emotional bank accounts.” Your accountability to yourself allowed you to have that keen sense of self-awareness that attracted your network partners. This magnetism is the leadership quality that you have developed through accountability, self-awareness, and self-improvement. This leadership characteristic will continue to evolve and become more powerful each day.

Self-awareness is your compass that leads you in your path through life, as your network building capabilities continue to develop. It is a part of the well rounded cycle of being totally accountable. You can’t know where you are going unless you know where you are. Proactive people consciously build their networks on a daily basis. Day by day, month by month, and year by year, they build new relationships and continually improve their current ones. Reactive people, on the other hand, don’t think of networking until they get into trouble or experience a crisis like losing their job. If a plant closing is the reason for a lost job, the reactive person watches the proactive people go along their way in positive directions. The proactive person, who has built a solid and credible network, will be invited in many directions by his/her supervisors and co-workers to move on to other adventures and into other directions.

Opportunity takes opportunity with it. The proactive person can see all of the best opportunities due to long-term self-awareness development. The reactive person will call the proactive person lucky. A wise man once said, “Success is only luck, ask any failure and he will tell you so.”

Understanding Accountability

2010-02-09T18:54:00.000-08:00

By Pat Meehan
February 9, 2010

“When we truly take accountability for ourselves, we are freeing ourselves from the chains of self pity, poverty, blaming others, and being victims.”
______________

Accountability can be a very scary word. Many of us grew up to learn it as a negative word that assigned blame for something we did wrong. For example, you may have gotten a D on your report card in the 6th grade and your dad said to you, “I’m holding you accountable, mister.” That statement made the word “accountable” seem like a very tough and frightening word.

We grew up in a world of rules and regulations that demanded our conformance. Rules and regulations are very good things. They teach us discipline, and they guide us to be civilized people in a world where civilization is critical for the survival of the human race. In this world of rules and regulations, however, many of us have learned to repress our talents, our creativity, and our genius. We have learned to be inhibited to express to the world, and share with the world, all the wonderful talents and gifts that we have been given. This learned inhibition is a result of a misconception that “being accountable” is the same as the concept of conformance to rules and regulations. In retrospect, nothing could be farther from the truth. “Accountability is a personal commitment to maximize the full use of one’s talents along lines of excellence.” Only through accountability can you achieve self-awareness, and only through self-awareness can you become self-improved.

Each of us has so much value to offer to the world around us. In our transition of becoming accountable to ourselves, with a focus on self-awareness and self-improvement, we must “un-learn” the negative thought patterns that caused us to be inhibited, and “re-learn” new and energetic thought patterns that allow us to display our talents to the world. In this process, we will discover the career success and career freedom that we have longed for. Through this achievement, we empower ourselves to help others find their freedom.

Targeted Marketing Helps Unemployed Workers in Tight Job Market

2010-02-07T06:43:00.001-08:00

By Pat Meehan

How do you get a job interview? Hopefully your first attempt isn’t from looking in the newspaper, where everybody else looks, or on internet job boards, where everybody else looks. You might ask “where else can I look, what’s left?”

Actually, only 15% - 20% of career opportunities are posted on all of the above mentioned media. The rest of the career opportunities are ideas running around in other peoples’ minds. These people are the key people that make hiring decisions in companies.

Proactive job seekers are discovering how to find the 80% of job opportunities that others can’t find. They have simply figured out that there are many companies that employ people who have similar skills, goals, and achievements as them. Therefore, there may be an opening for someone like them.

They have discovered that there are directories with nearly every company’s information, including location, type of product, number of employees, key names of managers and directors, addresses, and phone numbers. These directories can be found at your local library. One of them is the Harris Infosource Company Directory. This is a free alternative to get good information on companies you want to market yourself to. Just ask the Librarian to help you find it.

Successful job seekers are sending their cover letters and resumes to a targeted audience of key people who make hiring decisions in these targeted employers of choice. This method of job searching is called targeted marketing. They are marketing themselves to targeted companies that employ people like them, and to people within those targeted companies who make hiring decisions.

These successful job seekers are taking a one day at a time approach and mailing two or three mailings per day to targeted companies in the unadvertised job market. Their mailing program is powerful because their cover letter and resume comes in an envelope with someone’s name on it. That is a rare occasion these days. People still love to open an envelope with their name on it.

If you take your cover letter and resume and send two mail outs per day, you will have mailed your marketing documents to 60+ targeted companies over a month, and 180+ over a quarter. You will be methodically evolving into greater opportunity in a relaxed and self assured manner. In three months time you will have hit 180 targets.

When your resume hits its targets, it will most likely be opened immediately. Of 180 targeted mail outs there are normally 10% - 15% of those targeted companies that need someone like you. In this scenario, based on my experience of working with thousands of job seekers that have started this targeted marketing approach, here are the numbers: 180 targeted mailings over three months would generate eighteen serious looks at your resume, ten initial phone contacts directly from the targeted companies, three or four face-to-face interviews, and one, two or possibly three job offers.

This system is predictable, measureable, and it works. All you have to do is start your targeted mailing program today.