Innovation Requires Personal Brands That Are Rebels

An interview by Dan Schawbel
Today, I spoke with Hayagreeva Rao, who is a professor at Stanford Business School and author. He talks about what a “market rebel” is, why they are important, some examples of rebels, the benefits and how personal branding relates. Hayagreeva makes a great case why you should become a market rebel to stand out amongst your peers and start innovating to change the world. Although, market rebels aren’t readily visible, they are able to innovate within company’s or as entrepreneurs. Innovation causes change and change is needed for progress!
What are market rebels? Why are they important?
“Market rebels are activists who challenge the status quo and defy conventional wisdom.”
The Compact Oxford English Dictionary defines a rebel as one who resists “authority, control or convention”. Market rebels are important because they spearhead collective action that takes the form of social movements. In turn, these social movements can either advance a radical innovation or block it. In either case, market rebels construct ‘hot causes’ to harness the attention of distracted audiences and rely on ‘cool’ techniques to mobilize collective action.
For example, the market rebels at the vanguard of the personal computing movement had a ‘hot cause’ – centralized computer and a computer that could only be touched by a priestly class, and a ‘cool’ technique of mobilization – ‘homebrewing’ clubs where people could assemble their own machine and personalize computing and gain autonomy.
They played a crucial role in in spawning new firms that led to the birth of the personal computer industry. Similarly, deaf rights activists challenged producers of cochlear ear implants and thwarted the spread of the technology. Their ‘hot cause’ was the loss of sign language and the demise of a deaf culture, and their cool techniques of mobilization included public marches and destruction of cochlear ear implants, and even litigation.

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Resolution Strategies from a Late Bloomer

With 11 hours to go before the ball drops in Times Square, I’m thinking about New Year’s resolutions–and how to make them stick. Statistics show that 45% of us make them every year, but that only eight percent of those who do will consistently achieve their goals.
Why are New Year’s resolutions so hard to keep–especially as we grow older?
According to research by author Steve Shapiro and the Opinion Corporation, “the younger you are, the more likely you are to achieve your resolutions.”
39% of those in their twenties achieve their resolutions every year or every other year.
Less than 15% of those over 50 achieve their resolutions every year or every other year.
Like many of you, I’ve often struggled–and frequently failed–to accomplish my own New Year’s resolutions. But this year has been different: I achieved my resolution and it stuck. Consistently. It’s been a watershed year.

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My Work Life Balance is in Jeopardy!

This just in from a WCW reader: “Dear Alex, my new department works really hard. How can I maintain the work/life balance I’ve tried so desperately to attain?”
One of my favorite managers used to say that perception is reality, and there is nothing stronger than a perception formed on the basis of a first impression. Whether you have a clock-watcher as a boss or not, it’s crucial that you are on your best behavior during your first month at a new job. Be aware that everyone is watching you, so make sure to arrive on time for work. Remember that half the battle is showing up, so don’t get caught by someone’s attendance radar.
It’s not a bad idea to be seen eating lunch at your desk a few times so that your coworkers keep that image in their minds. If you do go out, don’t run over the allotted hour, and refrain from midday workouts at the gym until you’re well established at the company. At the end of the day, carefully watch what time people in your department leave the office. You should aim to depart at the midpoint. You don’t want to be the first one out the door, but if you’re the last one, you’ll set a precedent that you are willing to work through dinner for the rest of your days at that company.
In a department that continually emphasizes work over personal time, it’s critical that you make sure your boss and colleagues see early on that you have a life outside business hours. Remind your manager about the leadership class you take on Thursday evenings, or the important volunteer work you do on the weekends. Don’t get into the habit of breaking plans with family or friends so that you can get one step closer to burnout. Remember that in most cases, the work will be there to finish tomorrow.
It should go without saying – but I’ll say it anyway – that you should work hard at your job too. If you prefer to take the easy way out and get in and out of the office without breaking a sweat, then this is probably not the right place for you. But if you always get your work done, stay late under unique circumstances where it’s truly necessary, and even log in occasionally at an odd hour, you will be perceived as a hard-working, can-do employee regardless of the physical hours spent in the office.
Article by Alexandra Levit and courtesy of Water Cooler Wisdom blog.

College Not the Refuge from Recession It Used to Be

During past recessions, many high school seniors elected to go to college and many college seniors elected to go to graduate school rather than face almost certain unemployment. This recession appears to be different.
Maureen Sharib, Telephone Names Sourcer/Trainer, drew my attention to a recent survey of 371 private institutions by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. According to the survey, two-thirds of the schools said they were greatly concerned about preventing a decline in enrollment. There are several reasons for the drop-off:

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Change is good

It’s that time of year again… the time of year when you look to the year ahead as a clean slate and make resolutions to do better, to be better, to be happier, to make changes.
Unless you are perfect and live a perfect life in a perfect world there is probably room for change in your world. It’s the New Year and what better time to take a look at your life and make a plan for where you want to be at the end of 2009.
Change could mean a new career, a new job, a new opportunity, or even just a new way of doing things. Maybe you’d like to spend more time with your family and finally get a hold on work-life balance? Maybe you’d like to advance your career by way of a promotion? Maybe you’d like to make a career change all together? What ever it is – now is the time for you to make changes – call it a New Year’s Resolution, call it a goal, call it whatever you like just make some changes!
Last year I posted a list to help get started with your New Year’s Resolution and this year I’ve switched it up a little…

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Job Search Tip: Complete the Entire Job Application

Latest story: A hiring manager I am working with in medical sales asked for a completed job application, rather than just a resume. The job is a 65 -75k base, with another 45k up for grabs in commissions. Nothing to sneeze at, surely. When the manager reviewed the application, he discovered that the candidate didn’t fill out the references area or any of the money questions. (You do leave this stuff off a resume, but not off an application when they are specifically asked for.) The manager thought that was weird, so the candidate was out. If it had been just one or the other, he probably would have just asked for the info. But both seemed fishy to him, and not worth the risk.
Moral of the story: Complete the entire application. Otherwise, it looks like you a) have something to hide, or b) can’t follow directions. Neither makes a candidate very attractive in any area of medical sales, healthcare sales, clinical diagnostics sales, imaging sales, pharmaceutical sales, DNA products sales, medical supplies sales, hospital equipment sales, medical device sales, pathology sales, laboratory sales, or biotech sales.
Article by, Medical Sales Recruiter
Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates seeking entry-level jobs and other career opportunities.

U.S. Department of Labor Issues Final H-2A Rule

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and Employment Standards Administration (ESA) publishes a final rule that modernizes the H-2A program for employing foreign workers in temporary or seasonal agricultural jobs, and enhances important worker protections.
“These reforms will improve the operation of the H-2A program for agricultural employers and help ensure that the employment of temporary foreign workers does not adversely affect U.S. workers,” says Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao.
Many of the program’s regulations have not been updated in more than 20 years. Last year, only about 75,000 positions were certified to be filled by legal H-2A workers, while there are an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 undocumented workers employed on America’s farms. The changes will update the H-2A program to improve the process for hiring legal foreign agricultural workers when no U.S. workers can be found. Unlike the proposed AgJOBS legislation, which would arbitrarily slash agricultural workers’ wages, the revised H-2A regulations will set required wages according to prevailing local market rates, a methodology that has been used successfully in other temporary worker programs. Regulatory updates include reducing unnecessarily duplicative filing, and federal and state government review of applications. Required employer recruitment for U.S. workers will begin earlier, thereby giving U.S. workers additional notice of available jobs, and employers will be required to submit an initial recruitment report to the department prior to receiving certification.
The rule establishes enhanced penalties for violations and new tools to ensure employer compliance, including audits, revocation of approved labor certifications, increased debarment authority and substantial increases in fines – up to $100,000 for violations resulting in serious injury or death of a worker. The rule also will prohibit employers and recruiters from charging fees to workers for access to jobs, a practice that in the past has led to many reported abuses. The Office of Management and Budget has cleared the rule: the rule will take effect January 17, 2009.
Article courtesy of Kennedy Information Recruiting Trends providing leading edge insights and strategies for the recruiting professional

David Armano Reveals His Personal Branding Secrets

An interview by Dan Schawbel
Today, I spoke with David Armano, who is a well-known blogger and visual expert. He’s best known for his marketing diagrams and speaks at a lot of industry events. I spoke to David about how he’s grown his personal brand, what it takes to become known in a cluttered world and tips he has for bloggers who are just starting out. One of the main themes in our talk was how he separates his personal brand from his employers brand and how he’s able to make both brands mutually benefit over time. I’m in a similar situation to David, so it was helpful to see how he’s handled it.
David, in terms of the way you branded yourself online, do you feel you owe much of your success to your visual drawing? Was there some sort of viral effect with them that got you noticed?
The visuals absolutely had a great deal to do with the visibility I am fortunate enough to have. My first few blog posts were mostly about user experience and brands. There’s a lot of people talking about these topics. Then one day, I did a visual and I noticed that other blogs started using it on their sites and they would link back to me. And as I did more, I noticed the same pattern. Over time, I started building a reputation for doing this–and I enjoyed dong them. People saw value in the visuals–many use them in their presentations. One visual in particular that I created is called “influence ripples” and it pops up all over the place.
The visuals themselves have helped me to build my personal brand as they are often times immediately recognizable, but what’s more important is that I try to provide value with them. There’s a lot of change going on in the spaces between social media, marketing and even the user experience and what I try to do with my visuals is take something potentially complex and boil it down. Those who find value in this, use what I put out there and in return reward me with their attention and eventually trust. But like any brand it has to happen over time. I’ve done hundreds of visuals and posts over the past 3 years which I hope contribute something to the larger conversation.

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Who’s Hiring?

Who’s hiring? Let’s go right to the source, Company Career sites. Taking a look at some Company Career sites yields a surprising number of job postings. While Job Boards and Recruiters sometimes list stale jobs (jobs that have been filled or “put on hold”) through no fault of their own, Company Career sites tend to list only actively recruited positions.
UPS:
Shipping giant UPS’ career site is jam packed with information. The tabs at top link to job search, careers and general information about UPS. The left hand side of the page has featured jobs, employee videos, and an entire section for managing your career search on their site. You can register and complete an application online. There are several hundred jobs posted across the US and you can narrow your search by state.

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10 Ways Gen Y-Millennials Will Change the Future Workplace

Hi All!
I hope you are enjoying the holidays! It’s hard to believe that the New Year is just [1 day] away.
Today I came across this interesting blog post written by Ryan Healy, a recent college grad and founder of Brazen Careerist; an online community and career site for Gen Y. And his blog is called Employee Evolution.
In this article, Ryan shares his Gen Y perspective on 10 ways his generation will certainly change the face of corporate America:
There’s no doubt that Generation Y will fundamentally change corporate America. It’s already started. Managing Gen Y is the hot topic among consultants, Human Resource executives and talent management professionals. For a Gen Yer like me, this is great news.
We have a voice, and we have the ear of the decision makers. Not bad for a group of lazy, entitled, twentysomethings. We’ve learned the importance of balancing work and life from our overworked parents, and we’ve watched our older siblings and cousins struggle with their baby boomer bosses who refuse to retire. Now we’re primed to change the workplace for the better. Here’s how we’ll do it.
1. We’ll Hold Only Productive Meetings
Meetings are important, sometimes. A good meeting will pull everyone to the same page while motivating them to get the work done. It’s rare when that should take more than 30 minutes. Efficiency is the name of the game with Gen Y. We know that a drawn out meeting really means, “we have no idea what we’re doing,” and these time suckers actually halt productivity and stifle creativity, the qualities that they were supposed to encourage. As soon as Gen Y is running the show, watch wasted meeting time drop dramatically.
2. We’ll Shorten the Work Day
The work day is eight hours. Or so they say. A real work day for most of us, if you include the commute, lunch, breaks and maybe dinner, is at least 10 hours. But how many hours of the day are actually spent doing real work? I would guess about half. To truly balance work and life, you cannot mess around and waste time at the office. Gen Y knows this. We’re productivity machines; we will figure out how to get as much done in six to seven hours as the average boomer does with his eight.

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