You Don’t STOP being the CEO of ME, Inc. after Accepting a New Position!

We’ve had some recent successes helping professionals land positions in less than 40 days from starting our 7-Step Job Search Program. Landing is only half the battle; securing the position and preparing for next steps is equally critical.

During your first few months in a new position, you will obviously want to manage your workload carefully and make sure you have the answers from your management on these two questions:

1. What do I have to do to meet your expectations over the next 6 months?
2. What do I have to do to EXCEED your expectation over the next 6 months?

And make sure you manage your work against management’s expectations. This is the best way to secure your value to the organization.

During periods of downtime the following activities, all of which are intended to shore you up when your next job loss occurs:

• Network actively with your new fellow employees (i.e., build and expand the “safety net”).
• Manage your new relationships; nurture them with the idea that they will lead you to others and in all cases, connect with them on LinkedIn.
• Check Indeed.com regularly to see what kinds of opportunities are out there even though you are temporarily secure.
• Explore the “Hidden Job Market” to gather business intelligence, discover market conditions, spot trends in your industry, and so on.

Here is what you need to understand about the first few months in your new job. I’m presenting it as it was shared with me during a training conference call by a member who not only mastered the methodology, mind-set, networking machinery and value proposition but who also understood the extraordinary value of keeping those processes going after he landed his new position.

“The first 90 days are all about securing the first year. In any new position, it’s important, as CEOs, not just to meet expectations, but to exceed expectations.”

“But if I abandon my networking activities just because I’ve landed, I’m taking myself out of the very loop that got me here in the first place: my trusted contacts in the Warm, Trusted Network. It took me a long time to build that network; why would I want to let go of it now, especially when most business and economic trends show that a majority of people will go through a job search roughly once every three years? What if I have to re-engage my network unexpectedly?”

“Naturally no one should give their new responsibilities a lower priority than networking. But all of this has to be put in perspective: Most of us, in the course of a business day, have at least some free time, time to just rest and recharge the batteries. That free time can still be thoroughly enjoyable if you meet some people in the cafeteria and share information, ideas, and opinions. You’re still networking, it’s just that you’re assigning it a different “rotation” in your business day.”

There’s another point to consider, and it’s important. Even after being hired by your target company, you are still (and will remain) the CEO of ME, Inc. In that lifelong position, you must not relinquish the duties of managing your career. You don’t STOP being the CEO of ME, Inc. just because you’ve accepted a position and now have a new title. Your real title remains — the CEO of ME, Inc. The only real difference will be how well you strike a balance between managing your new client’s responsibilities and the overarching responsibilities for your CEO of ME, Inc. enterprise.

You can do it … I know you can!

Coach Rod