Now You Are a Manager

You may have been working towards a promotion for ages, and finally won that coveted team supervisor role, or perhaps your job has just kind of expanded almost without you realising it and now you are coaching a volunteer or graduate trainee.  Whatever the route, one day you realise you are a manager now.  This can be a scarey thought!  Many people have had a manager who was less than ideal - they may have been a micromanager, bossy, unappreciative or just too busy to have any time for you.  Most people are determined that they will never be as bad.

I remember when I was first offered a management role, at Manpower back in the mid-1990s.  Although it was for a very small branch, with one full time consultant and one part time administrator, suddenly I had gone from just having to worry about my own performance to being responsible for delivering half a million turnover, managing two staff, and being the person clients meant when they said *let me talk to your manager*.  Although I had a regional manager and head office full of senior specialists to call upon, it felt like a very exposed and scarey position!

Making sure you are a better manager than those aweful managers you remember from the past means learning a whole new skill set.  Many people are entrusted with supervisory roles because they were a great performer in their previous job.  However being good at doing a particular job doesnt necessarily make you good at managing others doing that job.  Doing and managing are very different activities.  Knowing how to do the job is useful, when knowing what to delegate, being able to coach others to do a better job, and knowing when part of the job isnt being done very well.  In other words, it is necessary to the job of managing, but it isnt sufficient.

So, what other skills do you need to be a good manager? 

• Able to set an example - act as a role model
• Value individual contributions - treat colleagues with resect, solicit alternative opinions
• Cultivate collaboration & continuous improvement
• Set stretch targets - challenging but achievable with the resources available
• Inspire and motivate others - create a vision, set goals, offer praise
• Adept at critical and analytical thinking - ask open questions, ask why and so what, question the status quo
• Influence others - either persuade with strong arguments and facts or bring people round to see the benefits to themselves of your ideas
• Building relationships - with your direct reports, with your own manager, with their manager and the rest of the senior team, and externally with suppliers and other partners 
• Able to translate organisation and team goals down to individual level - including understanding budgets and desired outcomes

Some of the tasks you will be doing as a manager are also different from those you do as a team member.  These include things like setting objectives, delegating tasks, monitoring progress, giving feedback and reviewing performance.

Some of the best tips Ive seen for new managers can be found at Work Awesome. They advocate making sure you allow team members to be pround of their work - this means taking account of their ideas, allowing them to implement those ideas where they fit into the overall team goals, and giving credit to them for the idea and the outcomes.  It means not micro-managing them while they are doing the work.  There is a difference between having one-to-one meetings at agreed intervals, where progress on current tasks is reported, and you checking several times a day to see how things are going and to tell them how to do each step along the way!

The other key advice they offer is to "catch me doing something right".  It is very easy to spot when someone has missed something, or isnt using the best technique to get something done.  However, if the majority of your conversations with your direct report are criticisms of what they are doing or how they are doing it, you will quickly demotivate them and they will end up thinking "why bother, nothing I do is right, there is no point trying any more".

Although this seems obvious, it is surprisingly difficult to make sure the balance stays in favour of praising more than offering criticism.  Issues tend to jump out and catch your attention. You could end up being very busy attending to all those issues. Someone doing good work - ie, "just doing their job" - tends to be taken for granted.  Try and take time to notice the little things - a simple "thank you" or "well done" or "thats great" works wonders, especially when delivered in public.

Another useful site, which has a list of common mistakes new managers tend to make, is the management site at About.com.  One of the key points they make is that a major change once you become the manager, is that everything that happens in your team is now your responsibility.  This holds true whether it is something you did or knew about, or not.  You are accountable for the performance and behaviour of your team members.  This means it is up to you to have developed those relationships, delegated and motivated effectively, and communicated often and well, so as to minimise those "oh ......!" moments.

  




 
   
   

"What's Your Problem" Series #6 - Tricky Interview Questions

Most interviews you attend will throw up at least one tricky question, that one question that you hope they won’t ask, or one where you just can’t think of a good example to give as evidence of a competency.

Your first priority in a situation like this is to make sure you don’t panic.  Panicking is a sure way to make your mind go blank!  To avoid this there are things you can do as part of your preparation before the interview, as well as coping mechanisms during the meeting itself.

Before you go to your interview make sure you’ve thought honestly about your CV/application form in comparison to their job description & person specification.  Consider if there are any gaps in your work history, whether there is more than one job where you only worked there a short time, or if there are any areas called for on the job description where you have only weak evidence. 

These sorts of situations are predictable areas for the interviewer to probe, with questions that could be tricky to answer if you haven’t through it through beforehand.  Ignoring them in the hope that the interviewer won’t spot them, or won’t bother querying them, is a sure route to disaster.

Honesty is the best policy in answering questions about any anomalies in your past work history.  Having said that, blurting out “I had to move jobs because I hated my last three managers, they were awful and had no idea how to manage people” isn’t a great idea.  So, how do you explain difficult situations from past employment?

There are a range of situations from past jobs that need careful handling in interviews –some of these are listed below, with suggestions of ways to talk about them in interviews.  These ideas are not meant to be proscriptive, as each person’s situation will be different from these generic scenarios, but hopefully offer some ideas that can be adapted to suit

Situation	Suggestion
Gap between jobs	Depends upon the reason for the gap and its length. Short gaps while job hunting (less than 6 months) should be explained simply as time spent searching for the right job. For longer gaps it is good to show how you kept active, involved in the profession and up to date with current issues and skills during your time out of work (eg activities as a member of information associations & groups, involvement in Twitter or LinkedIn discussions, professional reading, writing a blog, etc. For gaps due to other life events (moving house, caring for a relative, studying) it is fine to give the honest reason for the career break, and again to demonstrate how you have kept up to date.
Many short-duration jobs	If these jobs were a series of fixed term contracts and temporary roles, the interviewer will be seeking reassurance that you are now committed to a permanent post and will stay for longer than a year or two (ie, that you will repay their investment in you in terms of induction and training). One idea is to describe them as something you did in order to gain a range of new experiences and learn new skills, which you now want to put to good use in a long term position. If these jobs were permanent posts, but you moved between jobs once a year or more often, then the interviewer will be concerned about possible clashes of personality with peers or managers, or whether you may have been sacked from one or more of those jobs. If you genuinely left jobs because you disagreed with the company culture, attitude of colleagues or management style, then it is fine to say so as long as it’s done in a positive way. You also need to acknowledge that any disagreement was a two-way thing, and show you recognise that your own actions or attitude may have contributed to the situation(s). Showing self awareness, reflection and learning from past situations is a key skill interviewers are looking for.
A job where you were sacked for misconduct or poor performance	Answers to questions about leaving past jobs, where this was the case, will depend upon the exact reason(s) and how relevant that situation was to those likely to arise in the job being applied for. For example, if the reason was poor performance in customer service, while the current job application is for a back room library services role, then simply stating the reason plus saying that you have now shifted your career goals to less customer facing roles, could be the best approach. Alternatively you could explain how you’ve worked to improve on the skill at issue in the time since (perhaps you’ve had a retail job in the meantime, or volunteered to help at a conference or membership group seminar?).
A criteria in the job description or person specification where you have weak or no evidence	The first thing to remember is that they have called you to interview despite there being little or no evidence that you meet this criteria on your CV/application form or cover letter. This means it isn’t an immediate deal breaker, and they are open to hearing how you are addressing (or planning to address) any deficiency. The interview is your opportunity to discuss this with them. When they ask a question ‘give an example of a time when you xxx (the situation you haven’t faced at work’, first of all give an example a similar or comparable situation, and then use this as your chance to show what you’re doing to get more of this skill, experience or knowledge. For example, if they want budgeting experience and you haven’t been in charge of a budget, you could give as your example a time when you contributed figures or results to your manager and discussed with them how they’d impact the budget, and go on to say that you’ve signed up for (or completed) a budget management course to extend your knowledge, and you’re now keen to put that into practice.

What's Your Problem series #5 - Answering Competency Questions Successfully

Many interviews these days will include some competency-type questions, if not be solely based upon a full blown competency framework with few, if any, ‘normal’ questions included.

So what are ‘competency questions’?  They are based upon a framework that described the ‘competencies’, or behaviours, knowledge and skills, that need to be displayed in order to carry out the responsibilities of the job effectively.  Competency questions are calling for evidence that the candidate has exhibited these behaviours, in situations similar to those likely to arise in the role, in previous jobs or other activities.

A competency framework usually has several levels for each competency, for example corresponding to behaviours that indicate a novice, practitioner or expert level of competence at a particular activity.  An interviewer may therefore have several example answers they are looking for, which correspond to these levels.

What do competency questions look like?  Since they are asking you for evidence of certain behaviour in the past, they are generally calling for you to give examples of having done things before.  Some examples might be:

• Tell me about a time when you dealt with a difficult customer
•  Describe a situation where you had to win consensus for a course of action
• Give me an example of how you researched a question from a user
• Tell me about a time when you worked in a team to achieve something

The interviewer is hoping that you will tell them about how you did things in the situation they’ve described, since that will give them an indication of how you could behave in similar situations in their organisation.

In order to answer these questions successfully, you need to have prepared quite a few examples of different tasks you’ve done or situations you’ve been in, so you don’t have to rely on one example to answer several different questions, as well as thinking through how you dealt with those tasks and situations.  When you prepare your answers to these questions, a useful framework to use is the STAR framework.

This acronym stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result.  Since the interviewer wants to hear about how you did things, and whether it was a success, you need to focus on the Action and Result parts in your answer.  Talk briefly about the situation, describe the task you had (ie, your goal in that situation), and then go into a bit more detail about the action(s) that you took to try and achieve this goal, and about the actual outcome or result of those actions.

Taking the first example question above, here is one potential answer to it, using the STAR formula:

“I once had a user who was very upset that we didn’t have a particular book on the shelves the day they came in.  They said they didn’t have time to come back and it was a disgrace that we couldn’t keep popular books in stock.”  (situation) 

“I had to calm the person down, explain to them why the book wasn’t available, and try and find a solution to their problem of getting access to it.”  (task) 

“First of all I showed that I appreciated it was an upsetting situation for them by saying ‘I agree it’s frustrating the book isn’t here immediately’, then I got their permission to start explaining by saying ‘would you like me to explain how this has happened’.  Next I told them how many copies of that book we had in total, and when each copy had been signed out, and so when the earliest of those was due to be returned.  I said that we can only stock so many copies of each book, so that we can have a full range of books available.  Lastly I explained that they could reserve the book, and we’d contact them to let them know when it was available, so they wouldn’t have to come in again on the off-chance but only safe in the knowledge it would be here waiting.”  (actions)

“They gradually calmed down as we were talking, and agreed that we couldn’t stock unlimited copies of each book.  They were surprised to hear about the reservations procedure and asked if they could reserve a book without coming in face-to-face, so I told them about phone and online reservations.  They were pleased about this and said they’d do that next time.” (result)

When you go into your interview, it’s a good idea to take a notepad, ask the interviewer ‘is it OK if I take a few notes?’ and then have it sitting in front of you.  So that you can remember your examples, prepare your notebook in advance by writing keywords that will job your memory in light pencil at the bottom of the page (ie the part nearest to you when the notebook is on the table).  You can then just glance down and quickly remind yourself, if your mind goes blank from nerves during the interview.  You can use the top part of the notepad to takes notes of the answer the interviewer gives to all the questions you have prepared!

"What's Your Problem" Series #4 - Selling Yourself; the big bugbear demystified

Job hunting these days seems to be all about selling.  From personal branding and image, or designing your CV as a marketing brochure, to selling your key skills at interview, at all stages of the process you need to be selling.

 

Many people find influencing and persuasion skills difficult to master, and just the thought of trying to persuade someone to hire you, especially by ‘blowing your own trumpet’ face to face in an interview, can seem even more awkward and unappealing.

However, help is at hand.  There is, if not a formula, at least a set of communication skills that can be learned that will help you present yourself and what you can do for an employer more successfully.

Here are some links to useful articles about influencing and persuasion skills:

http://www.nickheap.co.uk/articles.asp?art_id=23  focus on influencing skills

http://www.resultsdelivery.com/influence1.html

http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/persuading.htm links persuading, influencing and negotiation together

All of these techniques are based upon focusing on what the other person’s needs are rather than on your own.  In a job hunting situation it is easy to get trapped into only thinking about what you need – what kind of job, where, with what organisation and at what salary.

However, to sell yourself successfully you should spend some time finding out what the potential employers you are applying to need.  Think about things from their point of view – what sort of person would they expect would be able to do the job they’re advertising?  What qualifications, skills and experience are they hoping to see on a CV/application form?  What answers would they be expecting to their interview questions?

If you can answer these questions, then you can work backwards to prepare better answers to interview questions, write a more tailored CV, and create a more impressive online presence. 

One of the simplest things you can do is to ruthlessly avoid using the words ‘only’, ‘just’ or ‘we’ in your answers.  For example, instead of saying “it was just a small project” say “it was a small project where I ...” and instead of saying “I’ve only used xxx system once” say “I used xxx system at...”

In the words of one of the articles quoted, the aim is to create a proposal the person wants to say yes to, because it will benefit them.  It is your job to ensure that your CV/application form, and your interview answers, form this ‘yes proposal’ in their minds.

"What's Your Problem" series #3 - Troubleshooting Your CV

If you have sent your CV off in response to lots of job adverts, but haven’t been having any success, then your CV might be suffering from one of these common problems:

1.   Too descriptive – Reads like a narrative or like a ‘cut and paste’ from your job description.  Lots of detail about what your duties or responsibilities are, but little analysis of what your results or achievements have been.

Remember, your CV isn’t your life history; it is your personal marketing brochure.  Like a brochure, it should focus on the benefits you bring to an organisation, not on a list of things you have done.  Put the most beneficial tasks and outcomes, or those most relevant to the job you’re apply for, near the top of each section.  Make sure your skills and achievements are clearly stated.

2.   Too assumptive – Leaves the reader to assume what your skills are from the mere fact of where you have worked, what your job titles have been or the length of your experience.   Assumes that the reader is going to be a librarian or information professional who ‘gets it’ and will understand.

Both of these assumptions are likely to be wrong.  The reader is more likely to be from HR, or to be a senior line manager who doesn’t come from a library background.  Even if a librarian is involved, they may not make the leap from your job titles or lists of duties to believing you have the skills they feel are necessary to do the job they’re advertising.

A CV should have as its primary goal communicating your key skills clearly to the reader.  As a test, give your CV to a friend, without any hints, and ask them to tell you what you main skills are.  Make sure they tell you skills, not ‘things you have done’, or experiences.  Can they see what your skills are?  Are the skills they come up with the ones you expected?  Are they the relevant skills for the job you’re applying for?

3.   Doesn’t look professional.  You are an information professional; part of your core skill set should be presenting and communicating information.  If your CV is poorly laid out, riddled with grammatical and spelling errors or typos and hard to read then you are demonstrating that you fall down in this key skill area.

Your CV needs to be well designed.  There are lots of CV templates and examples available in books and on the internet to give you ideas.  Make sure that you use a professional looking font, use enough white space to make it pleasant to read, and use bullet points, bold, a larger font size, indented paragraphs or columns to make sure the information is well laid out and key points are highlighted.

4.   Lacks key words. While your organisation may call the intranet their ‘Knowledge Base’ or another jargon term, the reader of your CV or the agency doing a text search of your CV is more likely to use the generic, well known, term.  Make sure you ‘translate’ organisation jargon into everyday terms.

If your CV is going being uploaded to an employer’s CV database or to an agency, then their system may not be able to read text inside text boxes or tables, so it is better not to use them in those circumstances.  These databases can parse text and pick out key words to populate skill code fields in the database.  Make sure you include the right key words for the type of job you are seeking in the plain text areas of your CV.

Addressing some of these issues with your CV and making sure that your skill, achievements and passion for your work stand out will greatly increase your chances of getting an interview.

Tailoring your CV, so that the skills and experiences most relevant for the job you’re applying for are found near the top of each section, will also help you get to the top of the list for shorlisting for interview.

"What's Your Problem" series #2 - Personal Branding, is it for you?

There has been an increasing emphasis given to personal branding, online reputation management, and personal image management in recent years.  Numerous websites, blog posts and articles have been dedicated to the subject, which has generated debate on Twitter and elsewhere over whether this is a good thing. 

Many feel that ‘branding’ smacks of over-commercialisation, and that it is uncomfortable to try turning something as complex and nuanced as a person into a ‘brand’.  There may also be a feeling that having a focus on image or branding means an unhealthy focus on something superficial.

The fact remains that a person is going to have a reputation, for good or ill, whether they make any attempt to ‘manage’ it or not.  People will have perceptions and will form opinions about someone based on what they see and hear, either first hand or reported by others, whether in person or online.

Given this fact, and assuming you are concerned about how others might react to you, whether in your current job, when seeking promotion, or when looking for a new role, it makes sense to take some steps to ensure the perceptions people form are positive ones.

As with most things in life, too much of anything is a bad thing.  No one wants to create a ‘false front’ or insincere brand or image; the very idea of putting on an act like that makes most people cringe.  However, making no effort at all and being oblivious to your own reputation can be equally damaging – who likes someone who swans through life giving no thought to how they affect others?

Perhaps it is more sensible to think about taking care of your reputation, rather than trying to create a ‘brand’.  All the things that you do or say, at work, at external events or online, has an impact on your reputation.  It therefore makes sense to give some thought to how those words or actions might be perceived by others.

To give an example:  what would your conclusions be if, on arriving at an evening seminar and networking event, you noticed someone standing by themselves, wearing a shabby, shapeless jumper with messy hair, who made a beeline for you and announced “I hope tonight is worth it, the last one of these things I came to was useless”. 

Now it could be that this person is a dedicated librarian, who does a great job and is committed to the profession, but has simply had a bad day and did in fact have a bad experience at their last networking event – but those are probably not the first thoughts that went through your mind! 

Looking smart, being positive and professional at all work related events, and saving the moaning that we all do for family and friends, are small steps to take but could make a world of difference to your reputation.  Similarly, being aware of the impression you are creating at meetings, while chatting around the water cooler/making a coffee, or even just when talking to colleagues during your day to day work is worth the effort.

The same principle applies online; just a few tweets, list-serve posts or comments on blogs which appear unprofessional, overly critical or negative, can have a significantly negative impact on your reputation.  On the other hand being professional and friendly, sharing links and information and making positive comments to posts can have the opposite effect.  It can be as simple as saying "...people could do xxx" rather than  "people shouldn't do yyy".

Worrying about your brand might seem narcissistic, but being concerned to develop and protect your reputation is simply being sensible.  As with most things, getting the balance right is the key to success.

Application forms - some hints and tips

Many job vacancies call for application forms rather than CVs, particularly in the public sector.  Filling them out can be a time consuming task, meaning that it's best to be selective and only work on those for jobs you have a realistic chance of being shortlisted for.  It is better to send off one or two carefully and thoroughly completed forms than to try and dash of dozens of applications.


The first and most important piece of advice I can give is to follow the instructions carefully. This sounds obvious, but it's surprising how often over the years I've seen instructions on application forms misunderstood or ignored completely.  This has ranged from flagrant disregard - writing "see CV" across the Experience section instead of listing employers and dates - to the less blatant  - writing in the wrong colour ink or leaving off past salaries or reasons for leaving.


Ignoring or misconstruing the instructions is likely to get your application form put in the 'no' pile on first pass, simply because it demonstrates quite obviously to the hirer that you can't follow instructions!  Whether this is through slopping reading/misunderstanding or wilful disobedience/'I know better' attitude, either are large red flags for someone wondering whether to hire you.


The second area that causes greatest problems with application forms is the large blank box apparent on most of them, headed by a question something like "Describe your suitability for this post, referring to the requirements of the job description/person specification".


Since the JD/PS is likely to have a list of required criteria or competencies in it, it is best to create headings in the application form box and write paragraphs &/or bullet points under each one.  You should make sure you address them all, both the essential and the desirable ones.  You need to give one or more examples in each case, as evidence to demonstrate that you have that attribute.  


One of the commonest mistakes that I've seen is to write one or two sentences that boil down to "Yes I've done x, I'm very good at x".  This will score minimal points in whatever system the hirer is using.  Instead, you need to show and not tell.  That is, you need to describe a time when you used that skill or competence.  It is fine to use an example from outside of work, for example from a club/society, professional association or leisure activity.


The best way to give the examples for each criteria is to use the STAR technique.  This stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result.  Start with a (brief) description of the context, and the task you needed to undertake, then describe in a bit more detail the action(s) you took to do it, and the result or outcome.  It's fine if the result isn't a positive one, so long as you add a reflective sentence explaining what you could do differently next time or what you learned from the experience.


Once you have completed your application form it's a good idea to print it out (even if you will be submitting it electronically) as it's easier to proofread  it in hard copy.  It also allows you to ask a friend or family member to proofread it for you as well.  Ask them to check that you've addressed all the criteria as well as look for spelling or grammar errors.

So what are “communication skills” anyway?

Almost every job description I’ve ever received as a recruiter, and almost every CV that is sent in by people wanting to register, include the words “good communication skills”.

If every job calls for them, and every candidate is offering them, why am I writing a blog post about communication skills?  In recent blog posts and twitter discussions about leadership and leadership skills, communication skills came up several times as a key attribute, and one that is hard to learn.  However the communication skills you might expect from a potential leader would probably be very different from those you’d be looking for in a new professional – and yet the same term is used throughout.

To help people when they’re hoping to be recognised as on track for promotion, are writing their CV to start applying for a new job, or when preparing for interview, I thought I’d put together some thoughts on the shades of grey in between ‘inarticulate’ and ‘excellent communication skills’.

‘Communication’ is actually a broad skill set comprising of a range of different types, each of which has lots of sub-categories:

Verbal 

• Conversation
• Influencing
• Negotiation
• Telephone
• Meetings
• Presentations
• Problem solving & decision making
• Facilitating

Non-verbal   

• Body language
• Tone of voice
• Expression
• Gesture

Written  

• Tweets
• Emails
• Blogs
• Reports
• Articles
• Business Cases

A potential leader would probably be expected to show some degree of competency, if not expertise, in most of these aspects of communication.  A new professional on the other hand may be expected to have mastered conversation, telephone, email and perhaps meeting and report communication but not necessarily presentation, negotiation or business case skills!

Building strong communication skills isn’t just a case of learning ‘what to do’, it also depends on other personal characteristics, such as levels of confidence, assertiveness, and a positive/negative outlook or attitude.  Confident, assertive, positive people might find it easier to develop good communication skills while insecure, unassertive and negative people may have to pay more attention to the basic principles of good communicating and put in more practice to reach the same level.

Mindtools has some great advice and articles on improving your communication skills, covering everything from the 7 C’s of Communication (clear, concise, etc) to the Communication Cycle, Influencing, Body language, NLP, Active listening, Feedback and more.

As this article from Edinburgh University makes clear, communication is a two way process and you need listening skills as well as speaking skills.

One key communication technique that you can use when giving a verbal report of activities, during meetings or in job interviews is the STAR technique.  This stands for Situation, Task, Action and Result, and is a great way to make sure your message is concise, clear and focused.

First you (briefly) describe the situation and the task to be accomplished, then you detail the actions taken to achieve the desired outcome, and finally you describe the result(s) of those actions.  These results could be positive or negative – if the latter it is useful to add in a reflective sentence to show what you learned and say how you would do things differently next time.

Doing some research for this post, I was surprised at how hard it was to find examples of ‘good’ or ‘bad’ communication.   There is lots of advice, such as ‘be concise’, but few examples of what ‘concise’ looks like!  I’ve therefore made up my own, purely fictitious, conversation that might go on at any sort of workplace:

This illustrates that good communication skills are needed on both sides of a business conversation for it to work effectively. Even if a manager has good communication skills and uses open questions, if the worker doesn’t respond appropriately it can be very difficult to keep the conversation on track.

Being aware of the different types of communication skills and how to get your message across effectively, through reading or watching communication skills videos on YouTube for example, is a good start. With this increased awareness you can then put some of the ideas into practice – and see whether you get better results!

Social media; time waster?

Social media seems to be here to stay, irrespective of which platforms or systems are in vogue, and is becoming the primary way many people find the information they need. Information professionals therefore need to get to grips with it, according to no lesser a personage than Phil Bradley, CILIP President; whether to be able to give advice on which systems and how to use them to patrons or to use them to find or track information for your users. 


Out of the many systems currently in use, the two that I most commonly hear the cry ‘I can’t see the point of using them’ about are LinkedIn and Twitter. The former generally because ‘it’s just an online CV’ and the latter because ‘it’s just silly gossip’. I feel that this is a bit like a librarian of 20 years ago dismissing Dialog ‘because it’s too hard to remember all the different stuff it’s got in it’ and trying to use hard copy reference books instead. 


While anything new can seem daunting, social media is easy to access, user friendly and intuitive to use and above all forgiving, so any initial uncertainty in what you’re ‘supposed’ to be doing won’t cause any comment and in fact will probably go unnoticed. So what can these two social networks offer? Are they a waste of time or a useful resource? 


Twitter 


I use Twitter as a newsfeed, to keep track of interesting articles, seminars & conferences. I also use it to keep up to date with issues in the industry, and what people are talking about, as well as to have discussions with people (eg recently there have been chats going on about whether / what hobbies and interests to put on your CV, whether ‘personal branding’ is a good thing or not, and about CILIP’s policy on volunteers replacing paid staff). 


It’s also great to be able to ‘meet’, read the ideas of, and talk to, people I would probably never get to meet ‘in real life’. It’s a good way to test out your own ideas, too, and see if people agree or have a different view, as well as to ask for help! 


Of course Twitter can be ‘full of silly gossip’ – but only if you just follow the sorts of people that only have inane chatter about celebs, etc, to offer! To realise all the benefits I’ve listed, simply follow some of the very many engaged and interesting library, information and records management people already using Twitter to share information. No one minds if you ‘lurk’ for a bit (I hate that word, so many negative connotations, but it seems to be the one that’s come to mean hang about and read what’s going on), but my guess is that pretty soon someone will say something that you really agree with (or vehemently disagree with) and you’ll just have to reply to their comment! 


LinkedIn 


LinkedIn I am more ambivalent about. It has very high Google rankings, so if you are ever likely to be changing job or hoping for promotion it’s good to have a decent profile on there, so someone doing a search will see at least one positive online mention about you. It’s also very useful when you’re going for interviews to find out more about the person/people you’ll be meeting. LinkedIn also has an active discussion community for the library sector that revolves around the Groups. CILIP, SLA, BIALL and many other associations have Group pages on LinkedIn – and the incredibly successful LIKE started life as one. 


On the other hand, as soon as you join a group, you find your email inbox rather deluged with update emails. It’s possible to set these to periodic digests, but if you belong to several groups even these can get irritating. There is also the need to keep your profile updated, and the fact that you may get connection requests from people you don’t really know or want to know. 


Of course these are only two of the many social networking tools out there, and I’m often asked how I keep track of everything and avoid getting overloaded. 


Here’s how I organise my work – this may help some people or not be a good fit for others, feel free to pick and chose whichever bits work for you! I generally have several browser tabs open at once (two email accounts, Twitter, Google Docs, Blogger, etc) and switch between them all the time. In fact most of my work is browser-based now, rather than in ‘offline’ packages like Word. For Twitter I tend to let a bunch of tweets build up and then skim read through all of them, clicking on links to interesting looking articles and responding to any that catch my eye or where I feel I can add something useful to the discussion. For LinkedIn I tend to only log in every now and then, either to post something to share or to look at others’ updates for links to discussions that look interesting. 


It does take a bit of self discipline not to keep peeking *every* time that little (1) pops up next to Twitter in the tab header! It’s the same as email though – I think it’s good to switch off the ‘new mail’ ping and only look at your emails once every half hour or hour or whatever, and deal with those in batches too. That gives me a chance to focus on whatever I’m doing in sensible blocks of time. 


This blog is my contribution to the LIKE Ideas Conference Blog Carnival.


Here are details of the LIKE Ideas Conference event. 

Start with the end in mind

Other than 'what skills do you have to offer', I've noticed that the question 'where do you see yourself in three or five years time?' is probably the one that leads to the most scratching of heads and baffled looks during interviews to register to look for work.

This question is asking the job seeker to articulate their career goals.  What is their vision for themselves in their career in a few years?  Many of us have given little thought to this question, or somehow hope that it is something that will sort itself out over time, so long as we work hard and do a good job.

In the past (well, not so long ago really, maybe 10 or 15 years ago) this approach may indeed have been perfectly fine and led to a nice career looking something like this:

These days, however, with everything changing so fast around us, such a 'work hard and hope for a just reward' approach is more likely to lead to being left stranded up a dying backwater than cresting the wave of new opportunities (if I can mix metaphors!).

So how do you create a vision for yourself?  This sounds all high-faluting and a bit 'corporate-speak', but it really means having some idea where you are heading before you set out - which is just common sense really.

In order to start with the end in mind, it pays to spend a bit of time imagining what sort of life you'd like to lead.  Do you have loads of ideas of how the library service could be run that you'd love the chance to put into practice?  Do you really enjoy mentoring junior members of staff and seeing their skills blossom?  Does creating an effective taxonomy or information architecture and seeing users find what they want without having to learn to be 'mini-librarians' to get there bring you great satisfaction?

What sort of job would you need to have in order to do more of these things? Don't worry whether you have the skills, qualifications, experience (or confidence) to do that job right now - just keep it in the back of your mind as you do your skills audit, prepare your CV or sift through job adverts.  Think about what the in-between steps might be to help you move in this direction. Evaluate promotions or new jobs against this eventual end goal - will they help you on your way?  No?  Don't apply for them then, find something more useful.


Some links to posts with other useful ideas and tips around goal-setting:


#Chartership chat on Reflection

Well formed outcomes

Mindtools Personal Goal Setting

Top Achievement's Powerful Written Goals

Infographic - Interview Tips

Which job is right for me?

When you are reviewing jobs from agencies, job boards or industry magazine adverts, how do you decide which opportunities to apply for? It is tempting to look for impressive job titles, well known organisation and good salaries – but are those the best indicators of a job you’ll enjoy?

To be able to effectively sift through all the jobs available, first of all you need to spend a bit of time on yourself. If you spend some time reflecting on your own values, what motivates you, and what gives you satisfaction at work, then you will be able to look beyond the flashy headlines to assess the job itself more effectively.

If you are to fit comfortably into an organisation and feel energised and motivated to work there and give your best, then you need to be sure that their organisational values are a good match to yours. If they operate on the ‘make the most profit at any cost’ principle, while you gain satisfaction from going the extra mile to give great service, you are likely to find your natural inclinations at odds with their operating policy much of the time. Likewise, if you are driven to earn the highest bonus while they place most emphasis on customer care, you are likely to feel impatient with their slower pace of life quite frequently.

Perhaps you are motivated by receiving praise and recognition in front of your peers for a job well done? Check whether a prospective firm offers internal award schemes. Perhaps getting a promotion is important to you? Find out what their internal career development and appraisal process is like.

Think about what aspects of your current and past jobs have given you greatest satisfaction – that ‘wow’ factor of a job really well done. Was it hearing from a user about positive effects of the information you’ve found for them, completing a library reorganisation or move, or learning new skills so you’re ready to tackle something more challenging? How many of these satisfying activities would a new job involve?

Having thought through all the aspects of a job and an organisation that will make it right for you allows you to frame the right questions to ask of your recruiter, to look for in adverts and job descriptions, and to ask at job interviews. Always remember that these interactions should be two way conversations! Armed with this more in-depth information you will be able to make a better decision when it comes to which job to apply for – and which offer to accept.

How do people see you?

One of the free seminar sessions I attended at Online this year was about online reputation management, although that session focused on companies and how brand reputation can get damaged so easily now with mass peer-to-peer communication made so easy with social media.

I have been thinking more about individual reputation and personal brands.  In the past, your reputation depended upon your personal appearance, actions and achievements and was known only to that limited circle of people you had met, or perhaps those who had read articles you may have published.

Today, however, many more people may have 'heard of you', lots of whom you will not have met (and may never get a chance to).  Whether you put lots of effort into creating a certain image or perception (a 'personal brand') or never give it a thought, those people who see your Tweets, read your blog, friend you on Facebook, read your comments on others' blogs, etc, will all have formed their own ideas about who you are, what your views are, what your personality it like.

I came across this infographic the other day, which gives lots of good ideas on how to find out what your online reputation might be like, and some ways to go about influencing perceptions about you.   This got me thinking - why does it matter what people, many of whom you will never meet, think about you?

From my perspective as a recruiter, it matters because you never know who will be on the other end of the next job application you make!  Chances are, even if they haven't come across you online before receiving your application, they will run a Google search of your name as part of their selection process.  

Would you be happy with what they would find?  It can be very illuminating to check it out for yourself - preferably from a PC you haven't used much, and when you are NOT signed into your Google account.

One quite sneaky, but I thought very useful, tip from the Online session I went to was how to 'bury' less-than-ideal search results about you.  Some of the social media sites rank very highly on Google, so if you make sure you have a well filled-out LinkedIn profile, a Slideshare account with some good library-related presentations loaded onto it, and a Flickr account with shots of your workplace or other libraries, then those could 'drown out' any less-than-flattering mentions of you at the office party...

Having a positive online reputation alone will not win you that dream job, but a negative one might just be the deciding factor in preventing you getting invited for an interview.  It is therefore worth investing a little time making sure that you put your best foot forward online, as you do 'in real life'.

Event - BIALL Solos Presentation

Last week I was delighted to speak to a group of solo law librarians who are all members of the BIALL Solos group.  Slightly unusually, the presentation was conducted by telephone conference, with the slides distributed in advance.

This method of delivery allows people who are working in a team of 1, where getting cover to leave the office to attend a seminar isn't always realistic, and also where not all the members are based in London, to get together and share experiences.

The topic was all about how to develop your career when you are working as a solo.  We focused on two approaches to this - either to develop the scope of your current role &/or lobby to be able to grow your team, or else to move on a find a new role elsewhere.

Biall Solos - Career Development - September 2011

View more presentations from Nicola Franklin.

The slides from the presentation are above and this is a link to the audio recording of the talk (BIALL membership log in required).

We managed to cover a wide range of topics during the hour's session, ranging from how to develop a business case and cost/benefit analysis, through to skills analysis, writing effective CVs and preparing for a successful interview.

Article - Conference from the other side

The BIALL newsletter was recently published and distributed to members, and included an article "Conference from the other side" (needs membership log in), giving an overview of how I prepare to give a presentation as a speaker at a conference.

In the article I talk about how I:

• choose a theme (where can I add value, what will interest the delegates?)
• gather information and fact-check (well in advance of the conference date)
• devise slides and select images (after I've roughed out my key points)
• prepare the timing and delivery of the talk itself (a week or so before the conference date)

The BIALL newsletter is a major member benefit (this issue runs to a 28 page pdf) and includes lots of useful articles and information.

Event - CLSIG Seminar - Getting Organised

Last night saw me arriving at Charles Russel’s offices to attend the latest CLSIG seminar.  Susie Kay was speaking on the subject of Getting Organised - one of the key components of working as a professional.

Susie made the point that being organised is more than just time management.  It stretches across a number of areas:

• Physical environment
• Mental environment
• Time management
• Processes & procedures

Showing a slide of a very disorganised desk, piled high with untidy papers with a PC peeking out from amongst the confusion, Susie asked whether being disorganised matters?  What kind of impression would it make to have a desk like this?  Does it have an effect on efficiency?  If you can’t find a paper or email with some information you need on it, does that make you seem unreliable?  If a task isn’t completed on time, or information is lost, does that have risk management implications?

Susie made the point that having a less cluttered environment can also lead to a less cluttered brain.  Being surrounded by piles of paper, subliminally representing piles of things you should be doing, acts as a distraction and a stress factor.

Email (and, presumably, shared drives and other storage places for electronic documents) is really an extension of physical organisation.  If your e-storage space is as disorganised as that desk, risk, inefficiency and unreliablity will surely follow.  Susie advocated opening an email once - don’t be tempted to close it again, mark it as un-read, return to it later, perhaps repeat this process several times!  Instead, deal with the request or information enclosed, action it, then either file the email or delete it out of your inbox.

Turning to time management, Susie made the point that we can’t manage time - everyone has a maximum of 24 hours in a day.  Instead, perhaps it should be called time use.  We could all plan better how we use the time we have available.  Susie suggested that we plan, prioritise, set targets and have rewards for using time better.

Two techniques that can help with time planning are the urgency/importance grid, and using a day book and diary in combination.

An urgency/importance grid looks like this:

Important	(when should this be done - diarise or communicate it)	(Do it now! - or make sure it is done)
Unimportant	(Does it have to be done at all?)	(To whom can I delegate this?)
	Non-urgent	Urgent

Mentally allocating each of the items on your to-do list to this grid will allow you to prioritise all your tasks for the coming day.

Susie demonstrated a day book layout that she recommends using.  The left hand page of a double spread is divided into 9 empty boxes.  These are for notes of phone calls, new projects that come up, ideas for future actions, etc.  The right hand page of the double spread is divided into columns.  The column headings include:

• Item name/description
• Priority
• Time to complete
• Final deadline date

The final deadline dates, and reminders days or weeks in advance, also go into your diary or electronic calendar.

Finally Susie turned to processes and procedures.  She distinguished between these by saying that a process is the ‘what’ needs to be done (and by whom) whereas the procedure is the detailed description of ‘how’ to do it.  For you to be organised, processes and procedures need to be documented, so that someone else could pick up your work and continue with it when you are on holiday, leave the role or are off sick.  This documentation could be using flow charts (process diagrams) or text documents, and should avoid assumptions wherever possible (who to get information from, who to send things to, where things are kept, etc).

Susie’s final piece of advice to achieve a more organised life?  Learn to say ‘no’.  When someone interrupts your day’s work with a request, being able to say “I can’t do that right away but I’ll get back to you when I’ve finished this email/call/report/etc” is a powerful way to keep your day on track.

We then spent a very enjoyable time networking, with wine and wonderful nibbles kindly provided by Susan Dennis and Charles Russell LLP.  I was particularly impressed by the 'sausage and mash' - coctail sausages split hot-dog style with a miniature amount of mash piped down the middle - a very nifty idea!