How to sale yourself ?

The following speech I made for my toastmasters project-7.  Project was targeted at research skills and using the relevant data to drive , convince audience about your point of view.

Objectives of Project as mentioned in the toastmasters manual are :

• Collect information about your topic from numerous sources.
• Carefully support your points and opinions with specific facts, examples, and illustrations gathered through research. 

As I was working on use of Social media for personal branding for newcomers at my b-school. I decided to use the same subject for the research. And here is my speech.

Toast Masters good evening. 

So let’s talk how to sale  oneself in the market. 

Confused? Oh sorry, I am not talking about Slavery of 18-th century, but about the Job-market.  

This talk is about Personal branding.  Personal branding is all about standing out in the crowded, tough and difficult job market. It’s all about placing yourself in the better bargaining position. 

We know corporate brands like Apple, and we have product brands like i-phone, similarly there are personal brands. For example look at Amir Khan. (Talk on grape vine says he received  3 Cr/episode of Satyamev Jayate). See how carefully he had nurtured his persona, image and how he is cashing on it – in the job market of celebrities.  What you see there is Personal branding at work. 

But it’s not only celebrities; anyone can use personal branding.   Today’s talk is about two aspects of the personal branding.  One is why you need it and second how to use social media in promoting yourself. 

Even in the booming Indian growth story, Job market is really tough. Given our 1 Billion plus population, it is going to be that way always. One rough estimate says that for every job posted, sometime there will be as high as 45 applicants.  Naukari dot com, India’s most popular job site and 5^th most popular website has as high as 25 million users  (May be active/inactive) and another data points they have around 9 Million active users  and everyday 14,000 resumes are uploaded on Naukari.  Irrespective of the real figures, facts remains that Job Market is really crowded. 

You may think this is true for fresher’, but things are more difficult at top.  We have this typical pyramid structure in organizations. So as you go higher, number of job openings will reduce, further there will be more/tougher scrutiny of your profile.  One blog posting mentioned some top-notched firms’ rejects as high as 94% applications.  I know a friend of mine, a unit head – had taken a break and now searching for a job for almost one and half year. And he is no-where even near the selection process. 

Surely the picture is very challenging – as it is really difficult to even cross screening and reach the interview stage.But don’t be afraid, one way to increase your chances passing the screening process is Personal branding and using Social media. It’s all about self-image and self-promotion. 

For example FB – Face book has almost close to 47 Million users in India, 4% of total India’s population but 35% of total online population is on FB.  Another site Linked in has 13 Millions of Indians on line. It is 2^nd largest online popular site in India.  FB has more concentration of youngsters (18 to 24 group), but its sheer size compels your potential employer to look at your profile on FB.  That is not the case with Linked in – which is purely professional hang-out place.  Employers not only check your educational and workplace background. But use it judge your network, asses your references and understand feedback on you. 

So how do you really use them? 

First and most important thing is – use your good quality, professional head-shot as a profile picture. Not some funky avatar.  Research shows that visitors are more likely to dig at your profile if it has a photograph.  A step closer to your dream job. And if you want to leverage brand - use same photo on your FB, twitter, Google profile.  More face time is likely to lead them to hear you.  And get a call for Interview.

Leverage your strengths, by contributing to the groups, discussions. Follow the thinkers, leaders in your area of expertise. Join the professional groups/clubs.

If you are eying for a top job, you surely need expertise in the functional area and in your Industry. 

 The best way to showcase your expertise, your work, achievements and contributions in the area is to use Blog.  Well developed blog will have a good and importantly relevant readership. For instance you can show-case your communication skills by posting your Toastmaster achievements; you can keep writing about your strengths in presentation skills, you can keep writing, critic great presentations and public speeches of TED on your blog. And People will start recognizing you as a sincere follower in your area of expertise. They will follow you on twitter, connect with you on linked in and will be your friends on FB. This doesn’t happen over night.  It is the whole ecosystem that matters.  You need to keep working at it slowly, diligently.  Amir Khan hasn’t developed his brand in a day – nor can you do it.  

 So start at it early and Toastmasters you will reap the benefits of personal branding in the job Market.

Image Source :  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sale_Tags.jpg 

Disclaimer: The data or figures I have used in this speech is just figurative, though I have used online , web-based resources for collecting the figures, I have not verified the figures or claims. I simply used them to support the relevant parts of my speech.

Toastmaster Speech 1 : The Ice Breaker

Thus my journey of developing speaking skills started . Though I used to participate in speech contests in school , I have never done it over long period . I wish to conquer speaking fear as well as acquire public speaking skills , which will help me in all walks of life.

Toastmasters prepared speech first project is "The ice breaker". Objectives of first project are

• Simply begin speaking in front of audience.
  
• Find out weakness in public speaking so as to improve them.
• Introduce yourself to Fellow club members.

I used "Six minutes" blog liberally to prepare for this .Though it has large number of example speech in text and video ,I found the section on "Speech preparation" most useful.

Fitting your story in maximum 6 minutes is pretty difficult task, mine is still going little above 6 minutes and I wonder ,how and where do I curtail it .But now I wish keep this as it is and let fellow toastmasters comment on it.

I centered my speech on how and why academic is my best career option Here goes my speech -

Lost in India ,Found in Japan.

Good Evening Fellow Toastmasters.

Introducing “yourself” looks very easy and simple , but now I realized that it is one of the most difficult thing to do. But for Toastmasters I gathered my courage ,did some soul searching and standing in front of you with my little story.

I born and brought up in typical lower middle class Indian family. My father was clerk in Government service, mother house-wife and I have a younger sister. We two ,ours two , short and sweet family. Life was not very harsh ,but it was neither comfortable and luxurious. My mother always hammered ,if you want to grow and come out of all hardships ,study hard. You eat ,drink and play ,yes play also that helps in study. Just be a better student.

As a student once I played the role of Teacher on “Teachers day” .We taught in other classes for one full day. That left a lasting impression on my body ,mind and soul. I used to teach my sister too ,who was junior to me by 6 years. It was more than helping in studies. I used to coach, teach and scold her too. Everyone enjoys bossing around brothers/sisters ,isn’t it ? .But it worked. word spread among her friends and I became a kind of “Community teacher” very early in my life. This continued till Junior college. And it helped me too. Helping others to learn , helped me to learn. I became a better at studies and got good grades.

Eventually I got admission to Engineering college. This was my regions most prestigious engineering college. I started working in IT and was posted to Chennai - a South Indian city.

Here too I used to counsel and help my juniors to become a better at work.Again helping others to grow ,helped me to grow. It fine tuned my skills And I became better at my work, got better opportunities. It helped me to land in the land of rising sun ,Japan. Starting from one part of India to Southern India to Japan , the career graph was up-rising ,rewarding .

But still “something” was missing .I had feeling that my potentials are not used fully.

To search this “Something” and expand my wings , I participated in JMEC - Japan Market Entry competition in 2006, (Again one of the inside secret - In the super-expensive Tokyo that was the only affordable learning option.) .I learn lot about market survey, financial and writing business plan. Further I enrolled for MBA and completed it. But that “Something” was still missing.

So I returned to JMEC director ,talked to her and volunteered, to mentor JMEC team. We competed with other 12 multinational high profile teams. As a Mentor ,I worked beyond expectations.I searched for ways to to help team learn better, faster .and yes again It worked !. We were winners in 2009.

I started reflecting , did you ? Have you got the pattern. Whether studying , working or volunteering , or in my home-state , another state or another country too. So in different time, space and roles I was best when I was counseling , coaching & mentoring too.,Essentially I was teaching in one of the three ways.

Yes that's it- teaching ,that's where my heart is. In India I lost my teaching heart to IT and found it in Japan. So I decided to switch my career to teaching , teaching in business school ,where I will be able to counsel, coach and mentor to aspiring minds. I am very very very happy and satisfied about my decision as it will help me to grow with growing minds.

Smile and Move - A excellent Presentation.

I am interested in developing presentation and speaking skills . And I keep on following some blogs/sites related to it . Further try to collect the motivating and excellent examples. Here is one more excellent presentation "Smile and Move" , I found it on "The Extreme Presentation Blog".

Excellent Presentation - on Social Media

The subject is interesting and appealing ,but additionally the whole presentation is nicely prepared . A excellent case for making self-explanatory impressive presentations ,

What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later

View more documents from Marta Kagan.

Words are important .

Extrememe presentation's Dr. Andrew Abela posted a interesting video from youtube. It emphasizes again on how words are more important .

Original post is here.

This specially applies to the situations of business presentations, as Prof. Mehrabian's formula ( 7% words ,38% tone of voice and 55% body language ) is not applicable to these situations. It works only when communicator is conveying about his feelings and emotions.

Thus it is paramount important that your communication speech , need to boil down to central theme or ideas ,translate those ideas into key-words . Use these key-words in your power-point/keynote slides. Experience tells that graphics associated with these key-words will further enhance your message for pursuasive delivery.

Watch this interesting video .

Presenting Business Plan

As far as JMEC ( Japan Market Expansion Competition ) goes ,though team has prepared the BEST business plan , still they are far away from winning. Team still need to present it to Judges ,face the critic and satisfy their doubts.

This post looks at the Presentation aspect.

JMEC arranges a excellent workshop on presentation skills specifically with respective to business plan. Further as a mentor I advised team to take a serious look at Guy Kawasaki's 10-20-30 rule of presenting business plan.

In general all following rules apply

• Very punchy, good start will ensure that judges will listen more attentively.
• Too much to read on slides or jazzy graphics, both is distracting .
  
• As a thumb rule less than 4 lines on a slide & less than 6 words in a line .
• Remember bullets kill and bullet points too ,know this "Death by Power-Point" ?
  
• It is good to prepare a list of potential questions with model answers – if possible with some backup slides.

From my experience ,sure tips to ensure satisfaction of Judges -

1. Does plan address market potential ?
   
2. Does plan establishes market need ? [ Do you understand the difference ?]
3. What magic team is recommending to the client to address 1 and 2 ?
   
4. And most importantly whether financial section supports this magic ?
   

Japan Market Expansion Competition

If you are foreigner in Japan , then you already know that how difficult it is to get insight about how business works in Japan and why certain things - which prima facie looks very normal to you ,don't work in Japan.There is a way to get around this problem and understand intricacies of Japanese business - enroll for JMEC.

JMEC is Japan Market Expansion Competition ,though it is named as a competition - it is an intensive learning program that runs approximatly from October till June. Essenec of program is "writting a real time business Plan" in a live environment. Program is divided in two phases. In first phase you learn over a period of around 6 saturdays sessions. These lecturs and workshops covers practical aspects of Japanese business from experienced business players. This lecture series is like mini-MBA that will make you sensitive towards issues and practices specific to Japan. Then participants are segregated into different teams with confidentiality pledges. They meet project sponser - a real firm who is doing business in Japan or willing to enter Japanese Market. Team - guided by mentor and a consultant ,works on market entry problem and submit "Business Plan" to JMEC appointed Judges and Project sponser.

JMEC Judges grades these plans. Team gets a chance to present and defend this plan to judges and the client. This presentation is graded and combined grades will decide the three top winners out of all competiting teams. This competition sprit is the principal motivating factor behind high quality plans.

If you are university degree holder working in Tokyo , fluent in English and have minimum 2 years of experience , you can apply for JMEC.

JMEC is a very good opportunity -

* If you want to expand your horizons beyond the nuts-n-bolts of your daily grind.
* Great to network in multinational environment as participants are from many countries.
* Ideal to hone your language skills in business settings as each team has Japanese and English speakers.
* Gain practical business skills like market research , financial planning, strategy and time management.
* Yes and you can win exciting prizes and earn a certificate of participation - which is valued.

Managerial Style & Financial Fiasco

Though theory states about different managerial styles like AUTHORITATIVE , COERCIVE ,DEMOCRATIC and so on . But fact boils down to how "managed employees" look at you as a boss.

This is further high lighted by recent confession by many managers in financial industry that they were not aware that trouble was brewing .

This BBC article throws light on why !

So mere 7% of employees , who think that the boss is "kind" , reported that the managers listened to them. Further research indicated that "kind" bosses gets superior results.

This new generation Y, ( not only in US ,but in other part of world too ) is seeking change in managerial styles. Article further stresses that "Kind" bosses are not doormats , but like respectful knowledgeable parents with integrity.

So the qualities required are different than what the contemporary textbooks are conveying.

Happiness at Work

Ravindra Prasad has written an article on employee happiness on rediff.
In my opinion "Plan your week on Sunday night or Monday morning" is the most important in this list. It is surely more than mundane "to do list".

Those who are aware of Coveys most popular work "7 habits of highly effective people", will recognize that weekly planning is much more than effective time management.

Week is the basic planning block for realizing your long term goals which stems from personal mission statement. A motivating mission statement ,is the one which runs as a central thread in all decision making and planning. Preparing smart goals that reflect mission statement is the first step in good and effective time management. Now breaking down these goals in small chunks of weekly target is just a matter of working with details.

Personal mission statement and weekly planning complements each-other and sure way to lead purpose driven and satisfying life. This is applicable to personal as well as work-life.
No doubt that "7 Habits" has become a one of the most important work of our lives.

In my humble opinion introducing 7 habits at work-place in teams and with individuals is one concrete step towards happy employees.