How does a Power Group Differ from a CEO / Functional Small Group or Roundtable?

A CEO or Trusted Advisor group, like the Vistage model, provides a structured approach with a pre-qualified facilitator. The quality of the facilitator will vary but they usually are trained. The focus of these groups, from personal experience and observation, is on business growth, leadership, and generally does touch upon deeper personal issues.

The challenge is that deeper personal issues are difficult to deal with in this environment and usually are best dealt with on a one-to-one session with the facilitator. This is particularly true when, as is most cases, the audience are mixed genders. In some cases, the group can work at a deeper level unless the discussion keeps centering around the same person which takes away from the other members.

Can these small groups help? Absolutely! I recommend Vistage – and they have recommended me. We do not compete. Their focus is not job search or career development. By design, members are often from completely different careers, companies, and environments that limits usefulness in helping each other but also reduces competitive threats or misuse of information.

Small functional groups are often far less structured. A good example might be a roundtable comprised of CFOs or similar career individuals. These groups are often lead by a less skilled individual who may best serve as a facilitator to encourage other members to brainstorm issues that they are facing. Again, these issues are generally profession related but having members from the same profession, yet different companies, can be immensely useful for sharing ideas and asking questions that may not be suitable within their own company.

Functional groups usually do not get too personal but can be low risk environments to meet others of similar mindset who then could become part a personal trusted advisor network or of a Power Group.

How does a Power Group Differ from a Mastermind Group?

A Mastermind Group can be similar. Both groups depend upon members to help each other, pass leads, brain-storm, and make the success of each member the success of each other. In both groups, self-serving members are soon asked to leave or are ignored.

In a typical Mastermind Group, there is often no leader or coach to facilitate the meetings. The same is true for Power Groups.

The major difference is that Mastermind Groups are typically used by entrepreneurs to help each other obtain customer or client leads, discuss business marketing, best practices, leadership, and a broad range of issues that are business focused.

A Power Group is usually job search or career development focused. Whereas business discussions can occur in both groups, a Power Group often gets far more personal, intimate, and may deal with very sensitive issues.

It is not unusual to see Mastermind Groups help each other at an arm’s length while Power Groups put their arms around each other. Both groups can develop into long term commitments but Power Groups have a stronger potential to develop into lifetime trusted relationships.

Which group should you join? It depends upon your objective. If you are in a job search or trying to develop your career, I recommend the Power Group. The only exception would be for those joining a Jobpreneurship™ Mastermind Group lead by a Job Doctors Certified Coach™.

Power Groups for Jobs and Careers

What is a Power Group? It is a small networking group that meets weekly, biweekly, or monthly for the purpose of helping each member with job leads, mutual encouragement, mutual accountability (kicks in the seat), peer-to-peer coaching, and shared learning.

Why bother with a Power Group? While you may find 10 job leads, a group of 5 may have a combined total of 50 jobs leads (10 per person). Which would you rather have? While you may know 500 people, a group of 5 may have a combined network of 2,500 people. Which network would you prefer?

We all have up times and down times. During a job search or a career cycle, there are always times when we need someone to talk to who will not share your comments outside of the group. Leaking conversations outside of the group is an immediate cause for being kicked out of the group – and great harm to their reputation / brand. We need encouragement, reflection, brain-storming, accountability, and what you might call a “Board of Advisors.”

How many of your friends do you know of in a Power Group? Your answer is probably, “None.” Do you think such a group might be helpful? Do you think you might be more effective and competitive by working as a team?

Obviously these are trick questions. If you are not interested in a Power Group that probably means that you are a Lone Ranger (not good), a hermit on a mountain top (have limited options), or don’t know enough about them. If the latter, stay tuned! I will spend a few days explaining them further.

Should You Utilize Recruiting Firms When Job Seeking.

Only 5-10% of jobs are from recruiters. We recommend pursuing them but spending only 5-10% of your time pursuing or working with them.

However, the greatest mistake people make is thinking that their technical skills are all that matter. Over 50% of a hiring decision is based upon relationships, cultural fit, and the emotional decision to buy.  Since most people focus on their resume and their technical fit, they are often surprised when a recruiter or hiring manager dismiss them.

The best way to approach a recruiter is by learning how to develop yourself, market yourself, sell yourself, and develop trusted relationships. These are all teachable skills that make the candidate the preferred choice, easy to place, and sought after by both recruiters and companies.

Therefore, we recommend spending 80% of your time developing these areas and honing them through networking events. Done well, you will find others referring you into recruiters and hiring managers which will increase your chances of landing by well over 4,200%.*

So, how do you learn how to develop yourself, market yourself, sell yourself, and develop trusted relationships? These topics are covered in my books, Whacked Again! and Trusted Relationships and in my seminars.  Much more information is available at www.JobDoctorsInternational.com.

Tips On What Employers Look For In A College Graduate

The key question for any job hire is “can I trust them, based upon their resume and performance history, to perform well?” For a college graduate hire, this question becomes more difficult since the knowledge, experience, and expertise of a college graduate is largely untested. That means more hiring risk.

So, what HR and hiring managers generally look for are clues to find the best fit candidate with the best performance history (grades, extra-curricular activities, awards, and references).  What top career coaches recommend is, in addition to the above, helping candidates learn how to market and sell themselves and how to use relationships to change the fear of making a wrong hire into the excitement of finding someone who “gets” how the real process works. Those who understand and use the “real process” are more likely to have a higher potential for their personal future success and to become a credit to the person who hired them. Instead of the hiring manager fearing making a wrong hire, they see you as a guaranteed performer.

What is the “real process?” It includes combining personal development, marketing, sales, relationship development, and performance strategies. These are what top achievers are using for both job seeking and career development.

College Career Services Tips For Alumni

I was recently asked, “How helpful can a college or university’s career services office be to alumni who are looking for jobs? Some colleges and universities provide services (free or for a fee) for job seeking alums, including resume writing, mock interviews and job listings. If so, what are the best way to utilize them?”

My response is:

• Using traditional methods, career service training value is rather limited. In addition, college career services offerings to alumni are seeing a significant growth in similar offerings from other groups. For example, churches across the country have begun career ministries which provide resume reviews, how to interview, job listings, and job search tip presentations. Also, the number of people hanging out a shingle to “review resumes and coach” is growing dramatically, with the quality of their services ranging wildly.

• What are my suggestions for career service offices to add more value to alumni? First, they already have strong relationships with many companies and alumni. This is an area that has tremendous value if properly leveraged.  This is a different mindset than job postings. Job postings are like cold calls. Instead, using the Relationship Referral Model is one of the top ten secrets to getting a good job quickly.

• My second suggestion is for career services offices to consider the need for a new paradigm. Resumes, interviews, and job listing cold calling is fine in a robust, low employment economy.  Today, proven strategies of personal development, marketing, sales, relationship development, and repeatable performance are what top achievers are using for both job seeking and career development. Career service offices may want to consider how they can partner with third parties who can introduce these dimensions through speaking engagements, books, and seminars. By tapping into leading edge thought leaders, college career services can make their offerings a guaranteed value to their alumni.

• If your college career service office does not offer these suggestions, you may want to speak to them. By you helping them to help you, you both win.

What suggestions or comments do you have?