Get the tools, resources, and information you need to maximize your most important economic asset-your career-in this guidebook that's all about you. Author Linwood Bailey, a longtime personal coach, recounts the lessons he has learned advising clients and companies in a multitude of industries. He'll help you find a job, keep it, get pay raises, get promoted, and find opportunities in unlikely places. Each chapter begins with a quote and question that uncover core concepts of featured business management processes. Summaries with specific steps help you execute a comprehensive action plan to advance your career. While there is an abundance of career management data available in other books, the Internet, and in the media, this guidebook provides a structure so you can improve your personal brand and achieve your goals. You'll learn how to apply business management principles revolving around product development, marketing, selling, product delivery, and much more. Get the guidance you need and learn from real-life examples and Bailey's thirty-four years of experience. Stop being managed by data and start applying the business principles that help you build The Business of Me.

The Business of Me

Your Job ... Your Career ... Your ValueBy Linwood Bailey

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2012 Linwood Bailey
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4697-7382-7

Contents

Acknowledgments.................................................xviiIntroduction....................................................xixBusiness Management and The Business of Me......................xxiGuide for Reading The Business of Me............................xxiiiBuild Your Value Foundation.....................................xxvDevelop Your Product: Define What You Offer.....................3Brand Your Product: Make Yourself Unique........................29Get Your Value in Gear..........................................45Market: Let Them Know What You Can Offer........................47Sell: Get Hired.................................................63Prove Your Value................................................95Deliver: Provide What You Promise...............................97Learn and Adjust................................................109Learn and Adjust: Keep Up with Change...........................111Conclusion......................................................129About the Author................................................131About Fields of Success.........................................133

Chapter One

Develop Your Product: Define What You Offer

"Business is not just doing deals; business is having great products." &mdash:Ross Perot

What do I offer—why would anyone hire or promote me?

Product Development: Business Management Process

The core measure of business success is value creation. At the heart of value creation is the offering of products that satisfy the customer's needs. This sounds so fundamental and simple, yet companies from large to sole proprietors can sometimes lose sight of this critical factor. In Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, Al Ries and Jack Trout cited failures that companies experienced when they touted their expertise in financial management and other competencies as predictors of success as they introduced new products. After the products failed in the marketplace, the companies realized that the products were not successful because they did not satisfy the needs of customers more than products offered by their competitors. The companies realized that operational excellence is important, but developing and offering products that satisfy the needs of the customer is critical.

The Product Development component of the Business Management Process includes five basic steps:

1. Assess company's strengths and capabilities.

2. Research the marketplace to identify opportunities based on the company's capabilities and strengths.

3. Develop a product concept.

4. Develop a prototype.

5. Develop the product to be introduced into the marketplace.

Executing steps 1 and 2 focuses the Product Development Process on what products the company should develop.

Step 3 defines the features the product must offer to satisfy the market needs identified in Step 2 and provides the basis for the development of prototypes.

Prototypes serve as models of what the final product must offer and provide the foundation for establishing the product development plan.

The execution of the product development plan closes the gap between what is required to satisfy the needs of the market and what the company already has in order to achieve that goal. Closing the gap could include actions such as acquiring equipment and technical expertise, redesigning or creating new business processes, and training employees.

Product Development: The Business of Me

Companies organize functions such as finance, information technology, engineering, marketing, and sales to support business operations and the execution of business strategies. In performing your job responsibilities as a member of a business function, you can easily overlook that you are providing a product to satisfy the needs of a customer. That product is your skills and capabilities. The customer is your function, boss, and other functions and individuals who depend on you to perform their responsibilities. The value you create for yourself is your compensation—your base salary, bonus, and benefits. By reading this chapter, you will:

1. Gain an understanding of the essential role that Personal Product Development serves in managing your career.

2. Be introduced to a process that you can use to convert your skills and capabilities into a personal product that will create value for you.

3. Be alerted to resources and tools that you can use to enable the development of your personal product.

Let's apply the Product Development component of the Business Management Process to the development of your personal product.

Assess Your Strengths, Capabilities, and Skills

There are several assessments designed to help you identify your strengths. Assessments establish profiles of you based on the answers you provide to questions related to your interests, likes and dislikes, and how you act in certain situations. These profiles provide themes or terms that describe situations, roles, or assignments in which you will be most effective. Your profiles are ranked in order of your most to least dominant strengths.

Assessments are also available to help you identify your strongest capabilities and skills. As with the assessments designed to help you identify your strengths, skills assessments rank your skills in the order of your level of proficiency. Skills assessments focus on:

• Measuring your natural abilities.

• Defining your interests.

• Inventorying your skills.

• Relating your personality and psychological type(s) to occupations and job roles.

Some assessments are available on the Internet, either for a fee or gratis. Many career counselors, human resources professionals, and coaches are qualified to administer assessments. Your company may provide assessments at no cost to you.

Also, do not overlook the valuable input that you can receive from people who know you well—your peers, supervisors, friends, and even family members. My own interest in coaching was sparked by a close friend, Ed, who listened to a friend describe coaching—how it included relating to people, being able to listen and provide feedback, and making a difference in the lives of people. Ed recalled his observations of me during our friendship of over twenty years and how coaching reflected how I related to people and the impact that I had on them.

Ed said, "Why don't you take a look at coaching as your next career after you retire from the corporate world?"

Ed gave his friend's phone number to me. When I called her, she provided more information on coaching, identified a book on coaching to familiarize me with the coaching profession, and identified a program that could train me to be a coach.

My interest was further supported by my sister, Sandra. When I expressed my intention to become a coach, she said, "I'm surprised that you didn't pursue this earlier in your life." She spoke of how I had coached family members and friends through challenging situations and also told me of her son's admiration for how I relate to people. In his middle school poem about his favorite relatives, Adrian said, "My uncle has never met a stranger."

You can gain insight into your strengths and skills by conducting an exercise I observed in a class of MBA candidates in a leadership...