Talent and Opportunity - Always Being In Demand

It has been a little while since I have posted anything and while the holidays seasons will make that more challenging I will be blogging more often.

One of the more interesting discussions of late has been the increase in the demand for talent within our local area: the silicon valley. While there is a generally high unemployment rate overall, typically mentioned at being around 11% or so, talented individuals are very much in demand. This had been written about in several blogs and captured nicely in GigaOM. My own personal inbox has been swamped with opportunities with inquiries and recruitment being markedly on the rise. Even recruiter and placement professionals whom I know have mentioned how "crazy" the demand for talent is with some opportunities offering good salaries and great talent being very difficult to find.

Often times in my professional career I am asked by others how do they "become talented"? In truth everyone is talented, they have valuable skills that can be of benefit to any organization. The issue is how to communicate that value and at the same time, understand how that value would be perceived by an organization. Typically for any number of reasons people confuse what the term value actually means. They akin it to accomplishments, tasks, duties, etc. None of these are the measure of someone's value to an organization. They are in fact results or outcomes.

There are many ways for a professional to understand their value such as reviews with your management. However that sometimes may not be easily determined. What I have found useful is to sit back and reflect on the following question: "What would the organization miss or find lacking if I were to suddenly be absent?" Or another way to look at it is ask yourself "Why would anyone want to hire me into an organization?"

This takes a lot of really deep introspection because many professionals do not understand the difference between what they do and what value in what they do brings to an organization. For example while it is true you may be very good at core project management skills, being an outstanding project manager in and of itself is not valuable to an organization. However what they accomplish with their skills and experience for the organization is considered valuable. Note the comment "with their skills and experience" which is very individualized.

In the high tech field there is a constant need to be abreast of changes, understand them, and find the proper mix of experience and learning to create new solutions that benefit the organization. Being able to deliver effective solutions under tight deadlines, minding costs, and with a certain innovative/entrepreneurial flair is what almost every high tech company wants in their staff. Bright, open, creative minds delivering just awesome solutions.

Interestingly in existing legacy organizations while this is desired incumbents also see that talent is a dangerous competitor to their position within the company. Talent is noticed quickly, rises quickly, and moves quickly typically faster than incumbents are comfortable with. Hence in many legacy organizations talent is quelled, creativity squashed, and solutions marginalized due to incumbent belief that talent poses a threat to what they considered "time-in-grade rewards" or "legacy rewards". After all someone who has put in say 10years at a company feels a certain level of entitlement at least so I have been told.

I counter that such a viewpoint makes a legacy organization not only a bad place to work, but makes the organization as a whole lose their competitive edge. Not wanting to compete or never having to means that those professionals lose their skills to adapt, learn, and compete in the broader market. As a result their solutions are of lower quality and less capability which creates dissonance with their customers who in turn start looking for other alternate suppliers. This starts to affect an organization in terms of market position and ultimately revenue.

Interestingly doing projects with such enthusiasm is very noticeable and infectious. This is why individuals such as recruiters or key decision makers in other organizations reach out to such individuals on a regular basis. They are so enthusiastic and passionate about what they are doing that it shows to others in their industry and in their areas of interest. Typically from a quick poll of professionals that I consider talented, they typically receive opportunity contacts even in the latest recession averaging about 6 quality contacts a week. By "quality contacts" I mean empowered decision makers who are capable of making a hire/no-hire decision after face-to-face and phone conversations. Recently these same individuals have gone from 6 quality contacts a week to about 12 to 18 a week.

Being talented in my opinion means not just being smart and insightful, but also being open-minded, accepting of change, and committed to taking risks to do things that will make an impact to people's lives. These traits are why some of the most successful companies have some of the best mechanisms to attract, retain and grow talent for the benefit of their customers, partners, employees, and shareholders.

Stand Out By Being Yourself - Understanding Your Value

Throughout my professional career and having moved across a variety of companies from small startups to large corporations handling transition within a career is a major challenge for many professionals. It makes no difference whether the individual is just out of college graduate or a seasoned professional with decades of experience they all act the same.

The interesting thing is that most professionals try very hard to be what they think employers want. In truth they all ready are: they are valuable individuals. The challenge is making prospective employers understand their value enough to want to hire them. 

I have found the most effective manner to tackle this is looking at your own unique value. For example, you may have a title of "Software Engineer" or "Chief Technology Officer". There are certainly quite a few thousand at least in the various industries. Does this mean that every person with these titles are the same? Of course not. They are commonly understood titles to provide a general basis of communication. However, the individuals within these positions are far from common. They are in fact professionals who individuality, experience, creativity, and other traits make them invaluable to their organizations. Therein lies the key that most professionals miss... being invaluable.

Now this concept is always something elusive. People believe for any number of reasons that they are not invaluable. Some common examples are being laid off from their employer, being within a common level within an industry, or merely being humble. While all true, it is also true that these individuals happened to be generating value for their organizations in their own way. Circumstances may have impacted them in some way but overall they are still valuable and have a lot to offer.

It is the professional's individuality that is a big part of them being valuable to any employer. This is what is many times forgotten or never realized. By being who you are and by changing who you are over time, allows someone to be very valuable to others in a variety of ways. 

I often advise other professionals seeking new employment opportunities to take the time to really understand what they want to tackle next, why, write that all down, and then highlight key elements from their career that demonstrates their value towards their next endeavor. I also let them know it is something fundamental and takes some time to work out especially for professionals doing it for the first time.

Once a professional has these basic and powerful elements they can start to craft branding statements, value statements, cover letters, resumes, elevator speeches, and any manner of communications necessary to present themselves in the best light possible. Especially in today's hyper-competitive marketplace, being yourself and standing out is absolutely essential in being able to prosper.

Taking Care of Yourself

The various news media have all been talking about how the economy seems to be stabilizing and possibly turning around. They cite jobless claims and improved corporate earnings among many indicators that appear to point progress. Yet overall consumer confidence is down with the main reason being that most people are still highly worried about being laid off. Hence citizens across the United States are not spending their money.

Interestingly in my mind this makes sense and personally I hope that Americans have learned from the past and take steps to do things differently and hopefully better in the future. Many professionals that I speak with are still very frightened about their current positions. So much so that they are still putting in long hours and doing what their management is basically ordering them to do so that they can stay employed.

Among my peers many of the talented individuals are actually using the economy to either strike out on their own or move to other opportunities that they enjoy and that can help assist a company's bottom line. These same individuals find being ordered to do mindless tasks for no particular reason very offensive. Couple that with the long hours to do these tasks, it makes their dissatisfaction very high. Admittedly in lean times everyone should be prepared to expend a little more effort however that is really not the issue. For example, one really talented engineer who excels at back-end server engineering had been told by their manager that they would have to devote four hours of their day to fill out project plan forms. Now this would not be bad if it were their project, but instead they are for projects that are not even related to him nor his group and are essentially projects such as lease rollovers.  He has to do this work on top of his existing engineering tasks. Another example would be an enterprise architect being asked to fill out expense reports for managers who are not able to meet their filing dates per their director's request. If these requests were maybe one-offs to help out due to headcount reductions would be one thing, but in my opinion ordering valuable technical professionals to do excessive paperwork totally unrelated to their duties is a good way to drive them away.

On the other end, many of whom I would call average contributors are pretty much doing whatever they are told. As a consequence they work long hours, have high stress and have a lot of resentment. I have seen professionals working themselves so hard that they are skipping doctor appointments, their children's first soccer game or recital, their parent's funerals, etc. In at least two instances, the combined stress and fear have actually cost some people that I know their lives; one colleague succumbed to cancer due to postponing treatment because they were afraid of missing work and another died of complications due to a respitory illness aggravated by high levels of stress and lack of rest because of the long hours they were putting in due to their fear of losing their positions.

I have not seen any real decline of this unreasonable fear/reaction among either corporations nor colleagues. They are still very much concerned about their positions and being able to earn enough income for themselves and their families.

While it is true that these are trying times and many families are under tremendous stress it is important to understand that while this condition is temporary, it will last a while. So it is best to think of this as a marathon and to take things in moderation. Cut back where you can. Rest and relax because stress really affects how you feel, you think and how you approach problems. Be brave enough to push back when you are taking on too much. And finally individuals should take time to reflect upon what they are doing now and whether it is what they want to do. All too often I find many professionals in the technology field are performing tasks and functions that they do not enjoy and are not passionate about. Doing something you do not believe in or are not passionate about just makes work even more unpleasant in today's climate. 

If you take care of yourself and take the time to insure you are doing what you truly enjoy, then you will find that you will be happier with the work that you do.