One year ago today, the company I worked for went out of business. I think that’s a nicer way of saying we “collapsed” or “failed”.

Over the nine years I spent there (over the course of 14 years), four different names hung above our door but it still just always felt like Providian.

I am proud of my accomplishments and even more proud of my team’s accomplishments. I worked for some great leaders that pushed me to succeed and taught me a great deal. I had the privilege of working with some very talented and hard working people and have many, many awesome memories.

More than 1,000 of my colleagues and friends lost their jobs in the months after the collapse. For those that are still looking for that next great gig, hold your head high; keep up the fight.

Stay positive. Keep looking. Never stop looking.

I had a conversation with Dawn tonight about “networking” and using LinkedIn. My wife, with her wonderful honesty, reminded me I have some pretty strong opinions about this subject. Our conversation reminded of me of my own axiom: just because you're on LinkedIn doesn't mean you're building your network or even "networking".    

I have been on LinkedIn for a couple of years now and have found it to be a very helpful tool to keep track of all of the career movement out there. When I am looking to hire someone, or want to make a referral to a hiring manager or recruiter, LinkedIn is often the first place I visit. On many occasions, I have also been able to connect with people of whom I had lost track.

LinkedIn is a tool for gathering your contacts' info. It is not, however, the only one.  I use an application on my Mac that has proven to be a great tool for maintaining contact info.  Nothing high tech here. It's called Address Book and comes, with little fanfare, on every Mac.  For those on Windows machines, I guess you could use Outlook or build your own in Excel or Access. I maintain my address book with religious devotion. People are, after all, how and why the world works. I treasure my family, my friends, my colleagues and people in general. I keep up to date contact details and reach out to everyone I know every few months or so. It is a practice that has given me great joy through the years.

I take great pride in maintaing my personal and professional networks. Staying in contact with people has proven valuable many times. Add to that the fact that most would call me a pretty “social” person; I genuinely enjoy meeting and spending time with people. Every success I have had in my career is thanks to lessons I have learned from other people. Learning new things and growing starts with building and maintaining a strong network.


To help you build your network, here are my 5 tips for using LinkedIn:

1. Share your contact information. I am happy to share my work and personal e-mail addresses, work, home and cell phone numbers with anyone in my network. If you are not willing to share all of your contact details with someone, you have no business sending them an invite on LinkedIn.

2. Don’t discriminate. LinkedIn represents only a small percentage of what would be considered my professional network. I believe in building my professional network indiscriminately; I don’t just focus on those that are on LinkedIn, thus my reason for using Address Book. As a rule, I never send a “join LinkedIn” invite to people that I know that aren’t on LinkedIn. Chances are, they know about it already and I don’t need LinkedIn to stay in touch with them.

3. Personalize your introduction and invitation request. “Because you are a person I trust...” and “I'd like to add you to my professional network...” is code word for “You’re not important enough to me to take the time to write a personal note.” Okay, I admit, that’s a bit much, but is it really that hard to customize that message? If you get a link request from me I promise you’ll get a customized note, and my contact info!

4. Building meaningful relationships starts by adding value.  Your professional network is not there for you to feed on. Look for ways you can contribute to others.  Check in with people, ask how you can help. Make meeting new people a priority. And please, when you do, stick your hand out and introduce yourself.

5. Stay in contact. My Mother, being in business for herself most of her life, planted the seeds for this practice early in my life. She taught me that staying in contact is the most important rule in building relationships. Make a point to reach out to your contacts regularly. My goal is to reach out to everyone every 3 months. Admittedly, I fall a little behind from time to time but would never dream of letting 6 months or more go without sending out a quick e-mail, phone call or card (yes, hand written cards rock). If you value your relationships, stay in contact. My trick: schedule time on your calendar to follow up. After years of doing this, it comes natural and the rewards are immense.

Networking, as a term, gets a bad rap. Building relationships is about sharing and adding value. Need help building your network? Check out the Manager Tools podcast episode on the subject. This podcast has fundamentally changed my effectiveness in my career and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

If you want to link with me, you know where to find me.

This is dedicated to all of my friends and former colleagues who have recently been given lay off notices. They are a great number of wickedly talented people and I wish them all the best.

On the US jobs front, this has been an ugly week, and it's only Tuesday.  So, here are three things I believe to be true:

1. Unemployment is high.
2. The economy is in the the tank.
3. There are jobs out there!

Yesterday, 7 companies announced a total of 71,400 job cuts.  Today, another 11,500 were lost.  With over 218,000 announced layoffs since January 1 this is shaping up to be a very tough year.  In the financial services industry alone, there have been over 230,000 jobs lost since November 2008.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today that the national unemployment rate rose from 6.8 to 7.2 percent. California had the highest increase (9.3 percent in December) while Michigan had the highest overall (10.6 percent).

I could have become one of those unemployed.

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Mark Horstman and Mike Auzenne, the genius duo behind Manager Tools, have introduced Career Tools.

For those readers that are not familiar with Manager Tools, it is one of the greatest resource for Managers. Actually, it is THE source for managers to learn how to become more effective at work. Their training, delivered through podcasts and conferences, focuses on the nuts and bolts that we can do immediately to be stronger managers.

With Career Tools, they bring the same dedication and expertise they bring to their weekly Manager Tools podcast. These are challenging times in the workforce across the nation and, as many of my friends and former colleagues recently discovered, improving one’s career management and career search toolkit is essential.

If you are looking for work, or will ever be looking for work, you owe it to your self to check out Career Tools. Being prepared is key. If you don’t need help today, you may someday, and the time to improve your skills is now.

Last week I had the privilege of joining the Manager Tools Effective Manager Conference as an associate of Manager Tools. As a long-time listener and premium member since day one, I was honored that Mark Horstman and Mike Auzenne gave me the nod to working with them in San Francisco.

After their first conference last year I considered it the most valuable conference I have ever attended. This time, as part of the Manager Tools team for two days, it was absolutely the highlight of my professional life.

My role was to interject with my thoughts as Mark, Mike and Michael presented on effectively using one on ones, feedback, coaching and delegation. It was my goal to talk about the successes and challenges I’ve had in, and after, the implementation of one on ones, feedback, coaching and delegation. Just the same as last April, the conference was high energy with over 100 other managers who were all passionate about becoming better. At no other conference have I ever seen attendees stay for two hours after the formal close of the conference, digesting more content.
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