Over-50

Just Ask

In the HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW, Dorie Clark explains that we have to get over the fear of asking others for help in our professional life.  Surprisingly, many who open their own businesses don't even inform their network.  They assume others don't want to be bothered.  Yet, new business as well as jobs often come directly through other people.

What should we be asking for?  Here's just a handful of professional-helpers:

• For a reference
• For a testimonial
• For client referrals
• For job leads
• For putting in a good word for us on their network [that third-party endorsement carries more weight than our own pitching]
• For a [brief] briefing about software, where to buy affordable health insurance and so on
• For feedback
• For no feedback, just an ear to listen.

Admittedly, it's not easy to screw up the courage and humility to Just Ask.   I walked by a neighbor's door three times before I knocked.  She had Excel down cold.   I was willing to pay her to tutor me.  When I finally got on the other side of that fear, knocked, and Just Asked, the neighbor coached me for free.  That happy ending doesn't mean, of course, that the next time I Just Ask it will be any less traumatic.  After all, this is America, the land of self-reliance.

The Great Contraction: Ditch everything we Baby Boomers learned about working

"The Great Contraction."  That's what the supposed recovery is being called.  In FORTUNE, Nin-Tseng details how the U.S. economy has mutated into an entity most don't understand.  That's because we haven't experienced it before.

And that explains plenty.  For example, when we Baby Boomers attempted to apply all the wisdom and success formulas we had learned during our many years in the workplace and running our own businesses, we just got deeper into the hole.   The lessons of the past, the cliches in career columns, and the hype about new models didn't help.

Those of us who have gotten jobs, have been promoted, and have turned around our businesses did so because we experimented with what might be effective.  That's how we discovered to custom-make resumes and cover letters, months before the experts were blaring that advice on the morning television shows.  That's how we became flexible about how to present ourselves.  Maybe we should tone down the assertiveness.  No joking around.  And plenty of listening.  That's how we became less gullible about social media.

 
No surprise, the meme or zeitgeist has become: The power of now.  That's where opportunity is presented and we have to pounce on it. 

Consumer confidence down to 44.4 in August v 59.2 in July

According to the Conference Board, in August consumer confidence plunged 15 points - from 59.2 in July to 44.5.  What this is important, reports AP, is that a rating of 90 is taken to be a sign that the economy is okay.  Clearly, in the perception of the consumer, the economy is not all-right.

We Baby Boomers at work or looking for work or clients are going to bump up against resistance - new or intensified.   At the top of the list is fear, both our own and that of employers et al.  If we admit and accept this reality then we can proceed to manage it.  Maybe we can turn it into a plus if we can convince others we're the one to trust to help them, not our competition.

Right after fear is flagging hope.  Cracker-barrel optimism has no place here.  Instead, we show how better opportunities can be created.   Remember in the worst of times as well as the best, some people did lousy financially and some people did quite well.

Third is the lack of funds in the now.  Often this has solutions, based on common sense.  One is to get more members of the family out to work.  Another is to sell assets that aren't underwater such as gold.  There's also a radical change in spending. 

 

Geezerville: United, we survive Irene and more

Perhaps aging is creating late bloomers in the enigmatic business of being human.  So many of us invested ourselves primarily in our careers when we were young adults and in middle age.  We sure knew how to network.  But forget about empathy and altruism. 

Then came the perfect storm of aging, declining value of our assets, and diminished earning power.  The shock triggered that inner paradigm shift the Buddhists call "mindfulness."  Among what we noticed have been our fellow human beings.  Those of us who live in senior citizen complexes like Bella Vista, New Haven, Connecticut have the opportunity for the majority of our new "friends" to be over-50. 

Our awakening comes just in time.  Life, when you aren't rolling in dough any more, has lots of crisis.  Take the recent hurricane.  We who have cars played taxi to those who didn't.  They had plenty of food.  We whose AT&T phone and DSL lines were knocked out were welcomed into the voice and electronic cottages of our neighbors in Geezerville.  My neighbor served me cup after cup of tea as I stayed parked at her kitchen table making the kinds of calls which have to get made during crisis.  Her ISP was down also.  She briefed me about Internet access at the public library and free wireless at Barnes & Noble, where I am right now.

On "Mad Men," Dan Draper says teenagers mourn the passing of childhood.  That observation applies to every point of developing and then aging.  Sure, we mourn the options opened to us in middle age.  However, making that leap into young old age has been full of pleasant surprises. 

 

"100 Plus" - Working most of those years

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL has joined the conga line of media warning us that we can make it past 100.  The new book on that phenomenon is "100 Plus" by Sonia Arrison.  

The rub for most of us Baby Boomers in this curse or gift of longevity is how to pay our way through the years.  Most of us will have to continue working, be that as an employer or contract worker or through operating our own business.

 
Finally, at age 66, after more than the usual number of career crashes [here's the chronicle of one Download Geezerguts] I finally got a handle on how to keep working.  This has been helped significantly by the human beings who I coach opening their hearts to me.  Insight is not a solo sport.

Frame everything for the long term.  The knowledge base, skills, and contacts which keep us making a buck come from every bit of our experience, even if that has represented a setback, unpaid work, or a disaster. 

A corporation put on hold a white paper I had researched and had produced 15 pages for.  Yes, a disappointment.  But I had that knowledge base about network centric organizations [first pioneered by the Department of Defense].  I reconfigured the material I had written into a format I could use as writing sample, without violating any confidentiality.  I know for a fact, that one sample has brought in three new assignments.

Stay in now.  Henry Cloud is the best on the importance of constantly taking inventory of what we might be bringing into the present which should remain back in the past.  His book "Necessary Endings" describes with myriad examples how carrying people, perspectives, and expectations from the past drains our energy, makes us appear stuck, and prevents opportunities from being presented to us.  Once I gave up anticipating the kind of fees I had received pre-bust, my business exploded.  I had to change that mindset.

Forgive ourselves. The longer we live, the more "sins" we will commit.  That sure is a heavy burden of remorse to lug around.  Some of us can use the parish priest and make a general confession.  Some can work that out through a therapist.  I have access to the Twelve Steps of those Anonymous Programs.  In those programs there is a process from embracing the wrongs we have done, making amends, and moving on.

Great Performance Art Trumps Credentials

Way way back, when the labor market was stable, "What Color Is Your Parachute?" hammered the reality that the person who gets hired or gets the customer order is not necessarily the most qualified.  Who wins out is the person who is the most skilled [add "clever"] at going after jobs and new business.

In FORTUNE, career consultant Annie underscores that same point: It's all in how we present ourselves. 

 
 
 I call that "performance art."  No book and no coach can instruct us how to put together our stagecraft, ranging from what goes into the resume to how we comport ourselves on an interview. 

Here practice, as every artist knows, counts a lot.  The more we try out new approaches and improve those which seem to be effective, the better we become in producing the most important performance of our lives, at least during this global downturn.

Tip:  The definition of "insanity" is to continue doing what isn't working.  If our hunt for work isn't turning any up, then let's change what we are doing. 

Baby Boomer Personal Branding: Learning from Sarah Palin

Baby boomers who want to not only survive but thrive have down cold the importance of setting ourselves apart in the marketplace.  That's called "personal branding," "blue-ocean strategy," or more practically "making the right impression."

Understanding this concept is not the problem.  The challenge is, in this ever-mutating global economy disrupted by technology, to keep that brand resonating with what employers, clients, and customers want.  How do we do that?  The most efficient and no-cost way is by observing and analysing other brands, both organizational and commercial. Then we figure out how to adapt what fits us to our own branding.

The easiest way to jump right in on the deconstruction is to focus on the Sarah Palin brand.  It's out there.  The best minds in the marketing and public relations trade are examining and publishing about its strengths and weaknesses.  For example, here are the takes of those on POLITICO.  And it encounters fresh obstacles and opportunities as Campaign 2012 unfolds.

We can view this brand through the lenses of:

Competition.  That constantly changes.  Palin entered the public consciousness as a Mommy.  Now there are the Mommy Bloggers.  Palin's voice as a female conservative is not the only one out there.  Michele Bachmann is giving her a run for her money.

How do we frame and then respond to competition?  There is no one way.  There are myriad approaches.  Often we have to be willing to invest the time and risk appearing foolish to try out enough strategy and tactics.  Often the first handful won't work.  

Make our mantra: Don't give up before the miracle.

Course Correction.  What has to be phased out or brutally and abruptly dropped from the brand?  Branding is dynamic.  If we're not pruning the brand it is likely losing its strength.  A useful read on this is Henry Cloud's new book "Necessary Endings."

Focus.  If the economy were a river, we would describe it as "turbulent."  Therefore, a brand which is totally focused on doing what it is supposed to do and not distracted by what should be irrelevant will get that done.  The brand which allows itself to invest resources in what doesn't count will be pulled under, often quickly.

Power of Now.  Memories are shorter in this digital era.  What determines Palin's success is not the smart or dumb move she made in 2008 or 2009 or this spring.  It's what she's putting together and executing now.  Also, increasingly, the past isn't prologue.  What Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg did last month is irrelevant now that his social network space is being reconfigured by Google+.

 

Steve Jobs: End of his era

Steve Jobs and us shared the same life space.  Both of us had broken away from the conformity we had grown up with.  Jobs made his mark in technology and innovative ways to market it.  The rest of us look back and hope we made a difference in politics, education, or  journalism.

Now, Jobs is ending his career at Apple.  He announced that his health just isn't holding up any more.  That's the end of his era.  It also ends our time as the Baby Boomer generation dominating technology.  Generations X and Y are now the new Jobs.  Only their companies are called Google and Facebook.

Early-onset Alzheimer's: Would you continue to work?

Pat Summitt, 59, disclosed that she has early-onset Alzheimer's and that she will continue with her coaching job at Tennessee.  Lynn Zinser reports in THE NEW YORK TIMES that Summitt will manage this disease, which runs in her family, with medication and mental exercises.  Time will tell if this has been a wise decision.

Some of us, as well as those we care about, will face this same decision about holding on to the job after this kind of diagnosis.  Because Summitt has had an amazing track record at Tennessee, including last year, she has the power to negotiate this with the powers-that-be.  Other people might not.   Or their employers might fear liability issues.  After all, we live in a society which thinks legal first.

Working can retard the progress of the disease.  Or it could impose such pressures that it could emotionally destroy the person who is struggling to remain in the workforce. 

Those with experience or opinions on this issue are encouraged to leave a comment.  

My First Earthquake

In New Haven, Connecticut the earth does not shake, unless it's symbolic as with the Petit murder trial.  So, you can imagine our puzzlement and then our alarm [I live on the top of a high rise] when the earth did move back and forth, back and forth this afternoon. 

Sure enough, the media reports, it was a major earthquake, registering 5.9.  Its center was the Washington D.C. area. But there was plenty of activity left over for the New York metro area.

This weekend there might be a whopper of hurricane.  Will the complex management advise us to steer clear of the windows?