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Your Career:10 Tips for Winning in a Bad Economy

1Don’t drink the Kool-Aid.

The news is sensationalized and fear sells. Things are rarely as good as they seem

and things are rarely as bad as they seem. If you allow yourself to give in to the

news, you will determine your destiny. When people tell me about the bad

economy, I tell them “I have chosen not to participate.”

2Reach out to your contacts.

Past and present contacts, colleagues and friends are the lifeblood of any career

(“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”).

• Call your closest contacts & colleagues and ask them how they are. Listen.

Don't talk, offer help. Have lunch, drink coffee, and strengthen those contacts!

• Send birthday or ‘just for being you’ cards to keep in touch and make them feel

special. No one does this and it makes the recipient feel special.

3Focus on what you do best.

You need to present a extremely positive persona to management - this is the time

where they might be looking at cutting the bottom 10%.

• Be a partner to your boss - ask for more work.

• Come in early or stay late (or do both!).

• Be smart and flexible - which ones are more important and which are the ones

that can be shelved, streamlined or retired?

4Keep your ear to the ground.

It is essential in down times to have a clear picture of where your company’s

revenues and expenses come from.

• Stand back and see what projects, departments, or people are slated to be cut.

• Ask questions, read industry journals/blogs, and keep up on the business news.

• Track your company on the web - sometimes you hear something that isn’t

currently communicated in your company.

• Listen to what your colleagues are saying - but don’t accept it as gospel.

5Look at your “product”.

It’s IMAGE, IMAGE, IMAGE. How do you clothes look? How does your hair look?

How do YOU look? Hate to say it - it’s perception people.

• Always dress one step above everyone else.

• Spend the money and go to a better barber/stylist.

• Do you need to tone your physique?

6Connect with new people.

The best defense is a good offense. This may be a sports cliche, but right now, it

rings true. Now is not the time to go into hiding, based on fear of the recession. It’s

the time to ramp up your networking, personal public relations, and marketing to

actively remind people of your presence.

• Go to associations, meetings, conventions that are associated with your

profession.

• Set up coffees and lunches with people that you don’t know, but want to know.

7Review your resume.

Too many people let their resumes grow old gracefully. When they really need

them, they have to scramble and cobble together a mish-mash of experience that

no one really wants to read.

• Use a professional resume writer.

• Keep it concise.

8 Get financially fit.

One of the biggest worries people have during downturns is losing their job. They

crawl into a hole and hope for the best.

• Start now. Having 3-6 months of current income stashed away in a cash

account (savings, money market) will allow you to act normally during times like

these.

• Worst case scenario? If you do lose your job, you have 3-6 months of full-time

looking to find a new one before you begin to really deplete your savings.

9Talk with your boss.

During an economic downturn everyone is skittish and hungry for information. 

Even if the situation is tight, being upfront with your boss about your concerns

creates and reinforces an environment of trust.

• Catch them at the end of the day - sit down and just converse with them.

• But if you have a boss that tends to keep information or hide things, watch their

body language.

10re-VISION your career.

I love downturns in the economy. Why?

When executives get scared, they get going and they get SMART.

Take a step back and RE-vision your career - understand your key interests and

strengths and investigate new opportunities in YOUR marketplace.

• Look at everything you do - how can you use time more effectively?

• Are you still a hot commodity on the market?

!re-VISION with a COACH.

Try a free consultation (and don't worry, it's not a sales pitch).

If you found this information valuable, you're probably a likely candidate for coaching. I'm so sure coaching can work for you that I'm offering a free phone consultation to talk about your goals and your potential.

And it really is free coaching -- not a sales pitch. You can ask as many questions as you like during the our session and I will give you every idea and resource I can think of.

Why would I do this? Because the only way to really know how coaching works is to experience it yourself. And at the end, if you want to know how coaching can be tailored to fit your specific needs, I'll tell you that too.

But even if you just want the free advice and have no intention of ever signing up, that's fine too, because you may tell someone about it, and that is of tremendous value to me.

So if you like what you heard, call me now at 203.500.2421 and we'll schedule your free consultation. Or if you prefer email - richgee@richgee.com.

richgeecoachingp l a n a c t s u c c e e d .

203.500.2421 richgee@richgee.com 1266 East Main Street Stamford CT 06902 www.richgee.com