The Ultimate Corporate Entrepreneur

Playing Your Cards Right: 7 Steps to Making Your Employer Your First Customer

A thought crosses your mind while sitting in your cubicle at work, “One day I’d like to run my own business.” You’re not alone. A recent study on employee engagement, (complimentary copy of the article with registration) conducted by the Corporate Executive Board's Corporate Leadership Council (CLC) and published in the May 2010 issue of Harvard Business Review, found that 25 percent of the "employer-identified, high-potential employees" plan to leave their current companies within the next year.

It’s too soon to tell whether these individuals will look for new employment or follow the path of a micropreneur--business owners with ten or fewer employees--who often provide large corporations with products or services as micro-suppliers.

Handling your workplace exit with finesse positions you nicely for converting your current employer into your first customer.

Step 1: Plan your exit strategy.

Every good business begins with a plan and checklist that includes tasks for each of these seven steps. Your exit timeframe should consider three key points:

• How long you / your family could afford to not receive your regular paychecks
• Employer restrictions on hiring former employees, i.e. you might not be able to become a business-to-business micro-supplier for a year (or longer)
• Your Plan B is solid. For example, you could consult via a boutique consultancy or directly with your company’s current suppliers

 

Step 2: Develop your succession plan.

One of the best ways to leave a legacy and a bridge that you can re-cross later is to develop a solid transition plan for the organization. Begin by documenting your job responsibilities in detail for use in training and coaching your replacement.

Is there someone in your immediate circle, former project team members or colleagues who you could recruit to assume your position following your exit? You might consider a face-to-face or virtual “brown bag” lunch time discussion about the differentiating aspects of your role.  What’s fun about your job, interesting to outsiders who may not have a clue about what you do?  People who show up could be potential replacements for you, so be sure to get their names and email addresses and follow-up with them.

 

Step 3: Build your early customer base.

Planning to return to your employer doesn’t mean that you have to work with your current department or business unit. Although certainly an option, this is the time to look across the organization to see what groups could use your expertise.

Expand your reach by collaborating with others on cross-functional projects that interest you, with the goal of building your list of decision-makers beyond your immediate circle.  

 

Step 4: Rebrand your expertise.

Ask people how they would describe your expertise. You might discover opportunities not previously considered. This is an important part of the reinvention process. If your passion lies in one area, but others don’t see your strengths in this area, now is the time to begin rebranding yourself as an expert of “X, Y or Z”.

Leverage your company’s social media tools via internal blogs where you post articles and tips about your “evolving expertise”. The goal is to lay a new transition path for others—you want people to discover what else you bring to the table.

Consider starting an external blog to differentiate and position yourself in the marketplace. If your business idea reflects your current expertise, then by all means blog about your competency in this area using your current title. Note: be sure to follow your organization’s social media policies if you’re blogging under the company name.

 

Step 5: Set-up your business.

Begin taking low cost or no cost courses, teleseminars, and webinars for starting a business. You’re in great shape if you’ve been applying the principles of corporate entrepreneurship. Now is the time to contact an attorney and verify that your idea doesn’t conflict, but complements your company’s products and services, or addresses gaps in what isn’t being offered today.

Cautionary note: developing your new product or service while employed is a gray area, one that is best discussed with your lawyer who can address potential issues associated with work for hire and conflicts of interest with your current employer.

 

Step 6: Begin your transition.

This is when you begin connecting the dots and all your hard work comes together. Expect first-time jitters, but like all opening acts this is where you see what’s working and what still needs work.

At this stage, you’re likely three months from any formal notification to your company.

 

Step 7: Graceful exit, powerful entry.

You officially resign with your employer at this point. Advise your manager and HR representative that you are flexible with your end date (since you’re not joining a new employer).

Share your succession details with them: documentation for training your replacement and suggestions for qualified individuals. If you’re open to training your replacement, now is the time to mention it. It’s also a great time to negotiate your exit package and, perhaps, even your re-entry terms.

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.

Expertise in a Jobless Recovery: Portable Assets and Transferable Skills

Whether you're looking for a new job now or prepping for a promotion or new role with an existing employer in the future, your reinvention strategy needs to bring more to the table in a soft recovery--one that some analysts and officials say could last well into 2012.

The 2009 Employment Dynamics and Growth Expectations (EDGE) Report based on the annual survey findings of employers and employees by Robert Half International and CareerBuilder® discovered that a full 47 percent of managers surveyed cited "a shortage of qualified applicants" as their top hiring challenge*.

They also reported that 44 percent of the resumes received are "not qualified". The characteristics most valued by these hiring managers were "multitasking", "initiative", and "creative problem solving".

When was the last time you reviewed and updated your "expertise bundle"?

Portable Assets

Portable assets are your key differentiators when you're looking to reinvent yourself. These are your areas of expertise, something defined in Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers as mastery of a skill or The 10,000 Hour Rule.  

All too often, professionals discount their skills even when they do hold "mastery status" due to a variety of reasons, but primarily because they haven't used the skill for some time. Even a one-time passion that's been buried for years, or even decades, gets a bit rusty over time.

I've had clients who were genuinely surprised by the quality of their own experience and the mastery of their skills. Unearthing their past like skilled archeologists, it's fun to watch as the layers of experience unfold before their eyes.

Reinventing is often about surfacing what already exists. 

But what if you don't have expertise or "skills that sizzle", a question I posed to Marky Stein, author and career expert, during last week's Big Dreamers show. Marky offered some great tips for college students and those with limited experience by leveraging the power of language ("knowledge of", "competent in" or "proficient in", for example).

Transferable Skills

Transferable skills are "flex" skills because they cross industries and functional areas. You can take them anywhere and begin applying them just as quickly.

These are often referred to as "soft skills" or non-technical skills. Although company searches for technical positions don't always include soft skills, quite often these skills are what recruiters and hiring managers look for during their first interview with you.

Skills such as communication, negotiations, organization, collaboration, leadership, Emotional Intelligence (EQ), relationship management, problem solving, creativity, risktaking, and innovation are valued business skills in any economy, but even more so during a soft recovery that require professionals to innovate in new ways. 

Transferable skills are where you source for areas that "hum your heart", converting them to Portal Assets over time through training and practical application. 

Proactive versus reactive: isn't it time you reviewed and updated your "expertise bundle"?

•

Some other interesting points contained in the EDGE Report:

• 40 percent of employers report that when the economy improves, they expect to use money as their primary method for retaining top performers.
• 45 percent of employees plan to change "jobs, careers, or industries" when the economy recovers.
• 9 out of 10 employees "are satisfied with their current work situations"
• Nearly half of employees surveyed said higher compensation will be the most effective way to retain them after the economy improves.
• Top perks for employees? Technology upgrades (79 percent) and tuition reimbursement or subsidized training (61 percent).

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.

Career Transition: Visualize Today, Plan for Tomorrow

During a recent cafe visit, I eavesdropped on a conversation between four men with one telling the others that he had "Just enough money left for this transition."

Remember when career transition was an in-between stage? It was a time when you left one job to go to the next or moved to a new position within the same company and was typically a short-term action.

Career transition, today, is something that you can expect to do for as long as you plan to work. And with 1 in 4 American workers over 50 saying they don’t ever plan to stop working, professionals need to continuously assess their tools and techniques for what will become lifelong transitions.

This is especially true for professionals who have lost their job in this tanked economy. Losing your job, and unemployment, are among life's most traumatic events.

With the average time for finding a new job in the U.S. approaching 25.1 weeks, people are definitely feeling the stress. But did you know that how you react to the loss of a job will make or break your search for new employment?

Forced gaps in employment can have a negative impact on your creativity and slow down your innovation spark--differentiating qualities in any economy.

Job-recovery and visualization expert, Dr. Lynn Joseph, is my guest this week on Coach for Innovation and will share five exercises from her groundbreaking job-loss program and visualization system to get you back to work fast. 

You can catch Dr. Joseph at the Career Reboot Camp conference October 26-27 in San Rafael, CA.

Connecting the Dots: Collaboration, Innovation and Strategic Alliances

Join me for a jam-packed evening on today's CFI Radio Hour when I host a panel of strategic alliance experts at 6pm (PT) / 9pm (ET). Our topic Collaborative Innovation: Leveraging Strategic Partnerships for the Global Playing Field

Collaboration begins with people. Innovation is driven by people, and strategic alliances are about business relationships.

Then why do so many people assume that collaboration equates to innovation, as if somehow you automatically get one with the other just because you introduce a collaboration tool.

You'll have a chance to gain some great insight and practical tips from my panel of alliance experts who have decades of experience delivering successful business results.

Well-known thought leader, author, and founder of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (ASAP), Robert Porter Lynch is deeply engaged in the next edge of alliances.

Norma Watenpaugh is the founding principal of Phoenix Consulting Group, a group that provides partnering-related consulting services with expertise in partner strategy, alliance management, and program development.

Business development executive at Emerson Network Power and President of the Silicon Valley Northern California ASAP chapter, Brian Handley, racks up thousands of frequent flyer miles each year while keeping a pulse on local and global developments and alliance management trends. 

• What collaborative innovation is and is not
• What type of person is best at collaborative innovation
• Why so few companies successfully innovate - how strategic alliances can change the tide
• 3-4 things you should do first to use alliances to jump-start your innovation engine
• Required skills for effective collaboration in today’s workplace
• How strategic alliance managers play into the "innovation mix"
• Real world issues why alliances get into trouble or fail
• Trends in the field of strategic alliance management