The Ultimate Corporate Entrepreneur

Career Stagnation: Why You Need an Exit / Re-Entry Strategy

"Why," you might be thinking, "Should I worry about an exit strategy when I don't plan to leave my employer?"

With worldwide unemployment rates stuck at we're-not-out-of-the-woods-yet, people with full-time, decent paying jobs will likely stay the course (for now).

However, many professionals are nearing burnout after 18 months of relentless stress about jobs, their financial situation, and quality of life. Burnout does not equate to full engagement at work.

High performers--what organizations identify as critical talent--know that they're marketable, even in a down economy, and they're ready to shop their skills.

Have you allowed yourself to stagnate this past year?

• When was your last measurable, visible success at work? If it's been more than a year, you're milking the past. 

• Do you consider yourself well-positioned for a promotion, salary increase or even a bonus? (Yes, companies are still looking for ways to reward and retain talent even in this dour economy.)

• Have you updated or refreshed your current skills? If you've lapsed in the training, retraining and cross-mentoring arenas, it's time to chunk out 30 minutes to work on a plan that addresses this. 

• Have you developed new skills? Give yourself points if you've started on this path. Zero points if you have nothing documented.

• Have you differentiated yourself by packaging your expertise into a personal brand? How will you stand out from the crowd? What makes you unique at your job, in your field, or in your industry?

Maybe you're stuck because your job has gotten stale. You like working for your employer, but you'd like to try your hand at something entirely different. But not now. It's prime time for developing your exit/re-entry strategy.

Check out the blog post I wrote for E.Factor Playing Your Cards Right: 7 Steps to Making Your Employer Your First Customer. Sorry, the redesign of E.Factor's website moved things around and this link no longer works.

The Compassionate Side of Corporate Entrepreneurship

Most of us have heard the old saying about giving someone a fish and you feed him for a day, but teaching a person how to fish and you have fed her for a lifetime.

I'm reminded of this when I see so many unemployed people right here in my own Silicon Valley sandbox as the result of company downsizing, rightsizing, restructuring, et al. 

Given the Bay Area's penchant for start-ups, I'm surprised that so many professionals still struggle with managing their careers like business owners and why so many employers still fail to invest training dollars in entrepreneurial skills at the onboarding stage.

Instead, companies "invest" in outplacement firms to help their former employees "transition" into a world without a safety net. A friend's husband recently lost his job of eighteen years following an acquisition. The training and coaching that he's now receiving as part of his layoff package provides him with a glimmer of hope. 

"I'm finally learning what it takes to truly manage my career."

How unfortunate that his former employer didn't teach him to fish while he was employed by the company--discovering innovative ways of feeding himself and others--years of missed employer-employee opportunities.

Nuts and Bolts of Corporate Entrepreneurship

Introducing key aspects of corporate entrepreneurship is especially critical during the first six weeks of an employee's onboarding experience. An organization ensures a level playing field through shared knowledge that benefits everyone, so don't forget to include your current workforce along with your strategic suppliers in required CE training customized for the company.

• Level the playing field--defines entrepreneurial activities and cultural behavior
• Get it right from the start--ideation and understanding of the vetting process
• Establish clear lines of accountability--consistent across the board
• Provide course correction tips, handling personal and professional setbacks

Everyone in a company needs to know what it takes to operate a business. This doesn't necessarily mean that everyone will want to run their own business one day. However, knowing what it takes to build a successful business increases an employee's appreciation for the "many hats" it takes to do so and provides them with incentives to become "strategic careerists". 

How many of the core, foundational, and differentiating knowledge and skills can you check off for yourself? What is your action plan for the remainder of 2010 to address any gaps?

Core CE Competence (Knowledge & Skill)

Business Building (infrastructure, strategic planning, marketing)

Finance (models, indicators, measurements)

Operations (implementation, sustaining innovation)

Foundational CE Competence

Communications

Relationship Management / Collaboration

Negotiations / Influencing skills

Sales / Persuasion skills

Personal Branding

Differentiating CE Competence

Personal Risktaking / Resilience

Entrepreneurial Leadership

Change Catalyst / Succession Strategist

Emotional Intelligence

Compassionate Leadership

Compassionate leadership prepares people for career success on their terms, shows workers how to rebound from adversity, and teaches them how to glean the gems from their professional experiences and setbacks.

Teaching people how to fish for themselves is another way to manage workplace fear. If people learn entrepreneurship skills and then get a chance to practice them with a regular paycheck coming in, they feel more confident about themselves, learn to trust their abilities, and realize that they can assume more risk and successfully manage their careers outside their comfort zones.

It becomes a win for the self-managed employee, a win for the company's leadership teams, and a win for the organization at large.

If a professional becomes unemployed or chooses to leave the corporate nest to start a business--possibly becoming a micro-supplier for their former employer--they know they can do it, because they have done it.

This is the compassionate side of corporate entrepreneurship. It's also smart business.

Personal Decision-Making: Perfect Timing Doesn't Exist

Our decisions put us in the driver's seat and over time define who we become. So, why do people so often allow others to make decisions for them by choosing to do nothing? Of course, it is easier to blame someone else for not doing right by us, instead of accepting the consequences of an imperfect decision.

But when we give others permission to make choices for us, we still risk an imperfect outcome when the decision made isn't in our best interests.

I have a number of professionals in my current R.E.I.N.V.E.N.T. You live intensives who are struggling with the "perfect timing" aspect of their decisions. "What do I do now versus what do I do later?" The challenge (and fun) is helping them get clear on whether they're not taking action now because it feels safer to sit on the fence versus a real need for additional information, training, or more practice time within a safe environment. 

I used my own example of deciding to launch my online training site School of Innovation now, in the midst of the Great Recession, instead of later when the economy "picks up". I had this idea two years ago and during this time I've spent considerable time and money researching and experimenting. I even came close to launching it earlier this year, but the software solution we were using at the time still felt kluge. 

So, I decided to sit on the fence a while longer and continue with my research.

Then along came a software as a service (SaaS) solution that met our needs:

• Affordable pricing
• Ease of use
• Scalable
• Simple commission structure for paying our instructors
• Donation model where we set a % of each sale for our non-profit partners

So, off the fence I jumped, signing on with PRfessor.com and launching our site within a month. Some folks had suggested that we wait until all our "core" Guest Professors were on board and we had a full offering of ready-to-buy courses. Others said put yourself out there now and continue to build your instructor base and course offerings over time.

I made the decision to leap now. There is no perfect moment. Just a moment in time.

*Disclaimer: PRfessor.com link above is an affiliate link.

Do You Have (Real) Actionable Career Strategies for 2010?

The official word has it that the recession is over. It's just not over for everyone at the same time. Professionals must continue to be vigilant in preparing their career strategies and executing to their plans. Those most at risk are workers who still have a job (whether they like the job they have or not).

I realize that wearing multiple hats and juggling the work of three or four downsized co-workers doesn't leave you with much energy at the end of the day to focus on your "career strategy".

Good news? You're already living the entrepreneur's la vida loca, so why not take it a step further and develop your 2010 career strategy and prepare your plans for surviving and thriving in a sluggish recovery.

This is why I invited Marky Stein to join me for this week's Big Dreamers! The Reinvent Success Show on BlogTalkRadio leading up to her "get back to work now" strategies at the Career Reboot Camp happening Oct 26-27 in Northern California.

Marky is the bestselling author of several career books including "Fearless Resumes", "Fearless Job Change", and "Fearless Interviewing".

During our hour-long show this Sunday, Oct. 18 @ 6pm (Pacific), Marky will share her 7 Fearless Job Search Strategies with Big Dreamer listeners. 

1. How to capture your reader's emotions in the "seven second" zone of your resume.
2. How to make your job skills sizzle.
3. 10 mistakes to avoid on your resume and how to quickly fix them.
4. How to master the first 15 seconds of the interview.
5. How to create "chemistry" with the interviewer.
6. Questions you should ask the interviewer.
7. Negotiating a higher salary in a recession.

We'll take your call-in questions or you can post them in the chat room. Can't listen to our show live? No worries. You can listen to the recorded show posted on my BlogTalkRadio page at your convenience.

7 Career Reinvention Actions You Must Take Now

This entrenched economic malaise is forcing everyone to change. If you’re like most busy professionals, you prioritize what needs tackling based on the amount of pain you’ll experience if something doesn’t get done.

Whether you’re one of the multitudes who’ve lost your job during this downward spiral of companies embracing the color pink or still pulling in a regular paycheck, you must take steps now to reinvent yourself if you want to do so on your terms. 

[Participants attending the May 12 panel Innovation and Career Tech Reinvention that I’m moderating for the Women Who Tech TeleSummit are in for a real treat. My panelists Sheryl Chamberlain of EMC, Nance Wheeler of Intel Corporation, Christine Adzich of Big Picture Productions, and Megan Fitzgerald of Career By Choice will share their practical tips and career strategies gleaned from decades of experience.]

Reinventing isn’t about tossing everything out. It’s a methodology that provides you with stepping stones for differentiating yourself in the marketplace and work arena. Innovation always begins with you.

Begin the process by reframing your professional reinvention as a way to have some fun instead of working on your career strategy, which sounds too much like work. Here are 7 actions to get you started on your next reinvention.

Action #1

Be honest with yourself.

Where are you at the moment? Are you employed, but hating your job and looking for a new challenge? Maybe you're positioning yourself for a new job or promotion within the company. You may be one of the thousands of “forced entrepreneurs” looking to start your own business.

It’s important that you honestly assess your situation not from a defensive position but an offensive one.

A frequent blind spot that I see with my clients is the maturing of their emotions. How well do you really manage your emotions in different situations? (This is an area that I continue to evolve for myself as well!)

Ask others you trust to give you an honest assessment of your EQ. You might consider taking one of the online EQ or EI assessments to establish a baseline for yourself. Remember, that EQ is something that you can learn, develop, and evolve.

Evolving the Enterprise: 7 Characteristics of a Healthy Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

When James F. Moore originated the strategic planning concept of the business ecosystem based on his book The Death of Competition: Leadership and Strategy in the Age of Business Ecosystems (HarperBusiness, 1996), he described the business ecosystem as “an economic community supported by a foundation of interacting organizations and individuals—the  organisms of the business world…”

It’s the health of the organism that is crucial to the survival of an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Workplace innovation requires that organizations create equilibrium between the financial health of the business and the emotional well-being of its workforce. It’s not one at the expense of the other. 

Listen to my recent Coach for Innovation radio show when guest Rev. Dr. Lorraine Cohen, CEO and founder of Powerfull Living, and I discuss the healthy entrepreneurial ecosystem.  

There are seven areas that I look for when assessing the entrepreneurial health of an organization. It’s important for companies to reassess their value proposition for attracting and retaining workers.

1. Business Basics
2. A Level Playing Field
3. One Size Doesn't Fit All
4. Risktaking is Responsible not Reckless
5. Trust has Backbone
6. Status Quo Isn't Sacred
7. Endings Mean New Beginnings
   

Just as the enterprise evolves so does the workforce; increasingly professionals are looking to align themselves with companies that match their career goals and personal values. Quite often it’s the company you keep that determines your ability to innovate while managing your career success.