Post from Transformation Tom™-LEARNING TO TOUCH IT ONCE: Chapter from “Time Management Manifesto”

July 26, 2016 / tomdowd / News

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I would like to expand on the comment made in the previous chapter
about managing your email inbox. I used to have a position as
business support manager for a large operation. I was privy to my
manager’s inbox and was asked to periodically manage it for him. I
thought it was an easy enough task—until the first time I saw his inbox
and realized there were over one-thousand emails. Many were read,
while many others were not. Some were important, others were not.
Some were critical, with deadlines that had passed. I had some work to
do. The most critical point when dealing with email is to touch it once.
As soon as you’ve chosen to allow yourself to read it or even preview it,
you must now do something with it. Leaving it in your inbox should
not be an option. Learn to touch it once.

You can effectively manage your inbox with a few easy tips. I normally
filter my inbox by time with the most recent on top. However, for this
exercise, start by filtering your inbox by “Subject” and keep only the
most recent one if it’s a duplicate. Next, review for topics, subjects, or
senders that come on a regular basis that you don’t ever read. If you
can or want to, click on unsubscribe. If you feel there may be a need
to reference it in the future but don’t read it often, establish a setting
to send it directly to your trash, but know that you can get to it if you
need to. Next, go through your current inbox and determine which
emails have tasks or follow-up required. Make actual dates to work
on them. Make appointments for following through by embedding
or inserting the email into the calendar appointment. Email platforms
with synchronized calendars will have tutorials or help if you need
further details.

Read your emails once. Even if the email catches my eye as a preview,
I have a rule of thumb to deal with it as soon as it’s seen. It already
distracted me, so I should put it in its proper place. We only have a few
choices in how to handle it: delete it, save it to another file for future
reference, move it to an appointment to do something about it later, or
address it now. Touch it once.

Thomas B. Dowd III’s books available in softcover, eBook, and audiobook (From Fear to Success only):

Time Management Manifesto: Expert Strategies to Create an Effective Work/Life Balance
Displacement Day: When My Job was Looking for a Job…A Reference Guide to Finding Work
The Transformation of a Doubting Thomas: Growing from a Cynic to a Professional in the Corporate World
From Fear to Success: A Practical Public-speaking Guide received the Gold Medal at the 2013 Axiom Business Book Awards in Business Reference
The Unofficial Guide to Fatherhood

See “Products” for details on www.transformationtom.com. Book and eBook purchase options are also available on Amazon- Please click the link to be re-directed: Amazon.com

Do you know about Avanoo.com? Two-to-three minute eLearning programs that can change your life.

When Your Job is to Find a Job—and Yourself

Manage Your Time—Don’t Let It Manage You

MP3 Downloads of “From Fear to Success: A Practical Public-speaking Guide” are available at Apple iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, Emusic, Nokia, Xbox Music, Spotify, Omnifone, Google Music Store, Rdio, Muve Music, Bloom.fm, Slacker Radio, MediaNet, 7digital, 24-7, Rumblefish, and Shazam “From Fear to Success” MP3 on CD Baby

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Post from Transformation Tom™- Put Together Your Marketing Plan: Chapter from “Displacement Day: When My Job was Looking for a Job”

July 19, 2016 / tomdowd / News

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What do you want to do when you grow up? Does your target audience
know your desires? Do you know your target audience?
If you don’t know the answers, it’s time to figure them out. If you don’t
know what you want for yourself or how to market yourself, how can
people help you get you what you want? Even for someone like me who
teaches résumé writing, I had enough critical feedback from readers of
my own résumé as being “too dense” or “too broad” to know that I had
to make some significant changes. For example, that flexibility was easily
identified as a marketable trait on my résumé since I averaged many positions
in a short period of time at the same company. This strength of being
flexible was a nice-to-have, but people making the hiring decision needed
to know what competencies I had, what skills I possessed, and what I
could do for them. The companies I was pursuing couldn’t be expected to
guess what path I wanted to take. I had to find a way for people to know
that I was both flexible and competent. As much as I thought I was giving
companies options, I found that they didn’t have time to be too interpretative.
The message is to still cast a broad net, but be more targeted with
the approach so people know exactly what you want.

An effective way to be precise about what you want is by putting together
a marketing plan. I used this tool in networking situations and
found the murkiness cleared up not only for me, but for the people who
could lead me where I wanted to be. You can still have multiple options
based on your various pursuits, but the key is to have a targeted approach
that aligns your skills with a field of work. The marketing plan can have
fluidity for different fields you are looking into, but should be stable
enough that you don’t need one for every person you meet or for every
different company you are looking into.

There are a variety of types and definitions of marketing plans. My
advice is to look at the purpose of a marketing plan first, and keep it
simple. The purpose is to make your goals as clear as possible to someone
reading the document. The design of your marketing plan should be
based on the harsh reality that someone may well glance at it for less than
thirty seconds, so make the layout count. For example, you might put a
clear statement expressing your interest at the top of the page, followed
by examples of the types of positions you want to pursue, skills and/or
competencies you possess, strengths, and accomplishments. It should be
in a table format to pack a punch with an economy of words. In sessions
that are truly networking only, you can also list all of the companies you
are looking into so the person you’re meeting with gets a sense of the
direction you’re taking. Your marketing plan can be adapted for different
fields you are pursuing, but don’t put yourself in a position where you’re
constantly revising it. My rule of thumb is that 85 percent of the story of
you should remain the same regardless of the positions or fields you are
looking into. Remember, the importance of a marketing plan is to market
yourself in order to give someone a very clear picture of what you want.

Thomas B. Dowd III’s books available in softcover, eBook, and audiobook (From Fear to Success only):

Time Management Manifesto: Expert Strategies to Create an Effective Work/Life Balance
Displacement Day: When My Job was Looking for a Job…A Reference Guide to Finding Work
The Transformation of a Doubting Thomas: Growing from a Cynic to a Professional in the Corporate World
From Fear to Success: A Practical Public-speaking Guide received the Gold Medal at the 2013 Axiom Business Book Awards in Business Reference
The Unofficial Guide to Fatherhood

See “Products” for details on www.transformationtom.com. Book and eBook purchase options are also available on Amazon- Please click the link to be re-directed: Amazon.com

Do you know about Avanoo.com? Two-to-three minute eLearning programs that can change your life.

When Your Job is to Find a Job—and Yourself

Manage Your Time—Don’t Let It Manage You

MP3 Downloads of “From Fear to Success: A Practical Public-speaking Guide” are available at Apple iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, Emusic, Nokia, Xbox Music, Spotify, Omnifone, Google Music Store, Rdio, Muve Music, Bloom.fm, Slacker Radio, MediaNet, 7digital, 24-7, Rumblefish, and Shazam “From Fear to Success” MP3 on CD Baby

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Post from Transformation Tom™-FOLLOWING UP: Chapter from “Time Management Manifesto”

July 12, 2016 / tomdowd / News

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As I continued to come up the ranks as a new manager, I constantly
heard focus group feedback about how lack of follow-
through by leaders and managers was a key point of frustration
for teams of employees. Whether it was to solve a problem,
answer a question, or do some customer research, it didn’t matter—the
same managers’ names came up time and time again. They were building
a reputation—and not a good one.

Communication and follow-up are extremely important. Your
ability to follow up with employees, clients, or peers is one of the
clearest indications of the effectiveness of your organizational skills.
When people are continually apprised of your progress, assumptions
disappear and stress is greatly reduced. Even if deadlines must be
extended or your progress isn’t as far along as you’d hoped, your ability
to communicate that clearly to all parties builds trust in the fact that
movement is taking place.

Your online calendar should be a haven for follow-up appointments.
As soon as you ask someone for something or they ask you for something
by a certain date, your next inclination should be to immediately add
it to your calendar. Then, the pressure is off of you to remember. Once
you do this a few times, it will become second nature. Specific examples
include calls to return or email responses. For email requests, many
online calendars allow you to embed the actual email request into the
calendar appointment itself. Now you’re beginning to manage your
inbox volume.

An important point to consider is to schedule these followup
deadlines and appointments before they are due. If you owe
your manager a presentation by five o’clock p.m. on Thursday, the
appointment should not be seen for the first time at five o’clock on
Thursday. You can use pop-up reminders or audible cues (alarms) if
you are using an online calendar tool to your advantage. If you’re still
using a written calendar, you can use color coding or symbols to address
urgency or action needed.

Your calendar is an important proactive tool to manage your followup
items—not just the due dates, but the actual time to work on them
and provide periodic updates to the person making the request. Be
the leader who gets things done. Build the confidence of your peers,
colleagues, direct reports, clients, and business partners, and never have
their confidence in your ability to effectively follow up questioned.

Thomas B. Dowd III’s books available in softcover, eBook, and audiobook (From Fear to Success only):

Time Management Manifesto: Expert Strategies to Create an Effective Work/Life Balance
Displacement Day: When My Job was Looking for a Job…A Reference Guide to Finding Work
The Transformation of a Doubting Thomas: Growing from a Cynic to a Professional in the Corporate World
From Fear to Success: A Practical Public-speaking Guide received the Gold Medal at the 2013 Axiom Business Book Awards in Business Reference
The Unofficial Guide to Fatherhood

See “Products” for details on www.transformationtom.com. Book and eBook purchase options are also available on Amazon- Please click the link to be re-directed: Amazon.com

Do you know about Avanoo.com? Two-to-three minute eLearning programs that can change your life.

When Your Job is to Find a Job—and Yourself

Manage Your Time—Don’t Let It Manage You

MP3 Downloads of “From Fear to Success: A Practical Public-speaking Guide” are available at Apple iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, Emusic, Nokia, Xbox Music, Spotify, Omnifone, Google Music Store, Rdio, Muve Music, Bloom.fm, Slacker Radio, MediaNet, 7digital, 24-7, Rumblefish, and Shazam “From Fear to Success” MP3 on CD Baby

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Post from Transformation Tom™- Apply if Greater Than 50 Percent: Chapter from “Displacement Day: When My Job was Looking for a Job”

July 5, 2016 / tomdowd / News

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As someone who has written up many job descriptions, what do you
think I’m looking for? I’m looking for the perfect candidate, just like
every other hiring manager and recruiter. The chances that I will find the
perfect candidate are always slim. As I talked with fellow unemployed
individuals, I discovered that many people read job descriptions and gave
up without any further action. They made no call to the recruiter or hiring
manager, and chose not to fill out applications for positions they were
actually qualified for. Mary LaFontaine, who works for the Maine Career
Center said, “Apply if you meet more than 50 percent of the job description.”
It is not an exact science or math equation. If you feel that you
meet enough of the criteria, then go for it. Even if the “requirements”
are not fully met, you should take a serious look at applying. I am realistic
enough to know that perfect candidates most likely don’t exist, but
qualified candidates do. The ones who take the most shots increase their
chances significantly. A colleague in the sales world used to say, “If one
in ten buy, and you are only asking/offering to one in fifty…it’s going to
take you a long time to get that ten who say yes.”

Thomas B. Dowd III’s books available in softcover, eBook, and audiobook (From Fear to Success only):

Time Management Manifesto: Expert Strategies to Create an Effective Work/Life Balance
Displacement Day: When My Job was Looking for a Job…A Reference Guide to Finding Work
The Transformation of a Doubting Thomas: Growing from a Cynic to a Professional in the Corporate World
From Fear to Success: A Practical Public-speaking Guide received the Gold Medal at the 2013 Axiom Business Book Awards in Business Reference
The Unofficial Guide to Fatherhood

See “Products” for details on www.transformationtom.com. Book and eBook purchase options are also available on Amazon- Please click the link to be re-directed: Amazon.com

Do you know about Avanoo.com? Two-to-three minute eLearning programs that can change your life.

When Your Job is to Find a Job—and Yourself

Manage Your Time—Don’t Let It Manage You

MP3 Downloads of “From Fear to Success: A Practical Public-speaking Guide” are available at Apple iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, Emusic, Nokia, Xbox Music, Spotify, Omnifone, Google Music Store, Rdio, Muve Music, Bloom.fm, Slacker Radio, MediaNet, 7digital, 24-7, Rumblefish, and Shazam “From Fear to Success” MP3 on CD Baby

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