According to “Better Golf by Putter Better.com”,
“Most golfers tend to leave their putts short rather than go long. Ideally you want your putts to travel just beyond the hole if they miss.”
Stretching beyond your perceived reach is where winners gather and putting just a bit harder than you are comfortable will help you win. In executive job search this so critical. I hear clients claim that they are spinning their wheels, unable to make a move they are desperately wanting to make because they are unwilling to stretch outside of their comfort zone.
Here are a number of signs that indicate you may be putting short in your executive job search.
- You are not hearing back from corporate recruiters.
- You’re not hearing back from advertised job postings.
- You’re getting invited to job interviews but are not getting the offer.
According to Mike Myatt, leadership advisor to Fortune 500 CEOs and Boards
“Successful CEOs don’t delegate business intelligence, learning, and listening – they do it themselves.”
In spite of an intensely crowded calendar, having an action plan that gets you in front of industry insiders will help you identify those organizations. This includes information gathering as well as networking.
I work with many C-level executives across most industries who have never had to look for a job—ever! When circumstances arise (perhaps a change in ownership, board leadership, or perhaps a contracting marketplace) you need to have your professional packaging together in order for the right people to take notice. Don’t wait until the writing is on the wall to start your plan.
How to do it
Get in front of decision makers often. Meeting with the right people will provide you with information and insight into the targeted organization. Information is power and power is what you need to open doors to opportunities that are not advertised or not advertised yet!
Follow up with these individuals regularly once you make contact with them. This will build trust—the foundation of any important relationship.
Show your value and demonstrate reciprocation
Constantly provide value to your networks when you meet. Demonstrating that you know their industry, organization or their position in the marketplace will build trust and confidence quickly. This trust will go a long way when you ask this person for information or for an introduction to another industry insider—someone who is in a position to help you.
To get you started, here are a few websites where you can begin your own corporate sleuthing. The following are a small sample of outstanding websites that will help you locate decision-makers in your targeted organizations (please feel free to reach out to me for the full list—more than 6 pages of links to excellent information sources).
www.zoominfo.com – This site collects information for 31+ million business professionals and 2 million companies across multiple industries
www.jigsaw.com – An online directory of 8+ million business contacts. Every contact in Jigsaw is complete with full name, title, postal address, hard-to-find email address and telephone number (75% are direct dial).
www.hoovers.com – A premium online business intelligence directory, Hoovers offers proprietary business information on 23+ million corporations and organizations.
Targeted research can have a major payoff rather than waiting for chance to find a suitable organization where the fit is tight.
Know what you offer—your value proposition and your position in the industry. Can you articulate your value in a sentence?
- Be prepared. Not only will it be critical to communicate your call to action, it will be good practice for the next time. Although this may seem overly simplistic, consistency in messaging is as important to building trust as much as being prepared. A fully branded resume written by a certified professional resume strategist can have an ROI far beyond the initial investment when you land a meeting with your targeted industry insider.
- Professional sleuthing will help (see links above). If you are seeking a C-level position in your industry, you need to know who makes the decisions, how to find them and when to contact them. Contact me for help. As an industry insider, I understand how decisions are made, and importantly, why they are made.
- Finally, get in front of those decision makers before the position needs to be advertised. One of my executive level clients just received a lucrative job offer adding $58k to her total compensation package when she was reluctant to ask for what she wanted.
Practice your putt—seek the advice of your mentors. Be bold. Be bold consistently. Have the courage to live up to your potential by executing on a plan that will shore up your golf score.
Don’t golf? Please don’t turn down an opportunity to golf with your networks because your score is above average.
According to Phil Oscarson from Bunkershot.com Golf Magazine,
Bonus Tip:
Like all professional athletes who work with coaches to step up their game, executive coaching can help you clearly articulate your value, target the right organizations and develop the right strategy for marketing your value with a return on investment = Net profit / Investment.
