I’m on vacation. So you will enjoy some guest posts! Today’s guest post comes from Cindy Jordan. She runs a recruiting consulting company peoplelogixconsulting.com, which assists small to medium sized businesses with the recruiting process. In this post, she discusses approaches to manage your relationship with your superior. You can follow Cindy on Twitter @cijordan.

The Story
I was speaking to a friend the other day about being effective in the workplace and she threw out the term “managing up.” I have heard so many thoughts lately on the term managing up and it’s a term that is so often misconstrued. Some people feel it means that somehow there is a role reversal and you actually get the opportunity to manage your boss. That somehow there is a magic wand you wave. That you and your boss magically trade roles for the day. Although I’m sure many people love to fantasize about that scenario, that isn’t at all the true nature of the term “managing up”.

What does ‘Managing up’ mean?
Managing up really involves the relationship you have with your boss. The easiest illustration of managing up that I can convey is a bull horn vs. a telephone. The bullhorn is the traditional form of boss/employee relationship, all the communication comes from the boss to the employee. Managing up is more like the telephone; the communication is free flowing back and forth between employee and boss.

The keys to managing up are threefold:

1. keep your boss in the loop,
2. go above and beyond, and lastly
3. own your development.

Keeping your boss informed on what’s happening doesn’t mean you need to give them an hourly log of what you are doing. Rather, you should make sure you let them know about any challenges you faced and what you did to overcome them. It is important that you make them aware of your successes. Go ahead, pat your own back, toot your own horn. When setting goals for yourself, make sure you are setting stretch goals that are line with what your boss feels is important. Nothing impresses the boss more than taking on more of a challenge. Finally, if there are skills that you need in order to succeed don’t wait for your boss to train you. Take ownership of your development, create a plan and map how you are going to obtain these skills.

By effectively managing up you will make yourself a more valuable and promotable employee. And who knows, you may end up managing your boss after all.

Guest Post Intro: Lauren Sandelin is a senior at Miami University (Ohio), where she currently serves as the PR Director for the university’s PRSSA chapter.  She will graduate in May with a bachelor’s degree in Public Relations.  Connect with her on Twitter, LinkedIn, and visit her blog. If you have any opportunities feel free to assist on that end too!

How Social Media Saved My Job Search.

I’m sure you wouldn’t be shocked to hear me say that the job-hunt hasn’t been too easy.  We’ve all been there at least once, and many of us are there right now.  You don’t need me to tell you that today’s economy isn’t exactly conducive to the whole process.

My job search began far before I was technically ready.  I was so excited for the future I had imagined in my head that I started searching last August (yep, that’s right).  I obviously had no intention of applying for any of those jobs at the time, but it’s fair to say that I was ready to get the ball rolling.  When January came, it was finally time to start applying to those jobs.

Wait, what jobs?

All the jobs I had been hoping to apply for were long gone.  Expected?  Of course…but that doesn’t mean I was okay with it.  It’d be fair to say that January was a wash, and February came around soon enough.  Sure, I found a few openings here and there – but I’m sure you wouldn’t be too surprised to hear that most listings used the dreaded, “send your resume into this black hole and chances are slim you’ll actually hear back from us” application process.  Oh yes – you know exactly what I’m talking about.

February ended soon enough and I was still without even a glimmer of hope.  So what’s a girl to do?  Well, I could sit around and mope.  You know, feel sorry for myself, throw pity parties with a whopping guest list of one, and become frustrated with the whole process.  That almost seems productive, right?  Okay…so maybe not.

It didn’t take long for me to throw that idea into the wind and take a good hard look at my approach.  There comes a point when you have to reflect on things and say, “Okay, kiddo…this isn’t working.  What’s next?”

So what was next?  I mean, wasn’t everyone using the same blind approach I was?  What other options were there?

Then I came across this little thing most refer to as “social media.”  Yeah…I know what that is.  Facebook?  Sure, I’ve had an account on there since my senior year of high school.  Whoop-dee-do.  I have a LinkedIn account, but I don’t have a clue what to do with that.  Twitter?  How in the world would telling people what I do every second of the day help me land a job?  C’mon, brain…give me some real ideas here.

It didn’t take long for me to discover the real beauty of social media.  Actually, what I really discovered was the beauty of networking.  As it turns out, social media is just another doorway to networking and connecting.  This doorway, though, opens up into a big ol’ world where (believe it or not) people are not just willing to help, but want to.  When used effectively, you’d be amazed at the results.  I’ve never been concerned about my ability to do a job and convince others that I’m capable, but it’s all a process and step one is getting noticed.  Shortly after, of course, comes the interview.  Unfortunately, getting noticed and getting that interview are always the toughest parts – but networking makes it that much easier.

There certainly isn’t a lack of posts and articles about the benefits of using social media in your job search, so I’m not setting out to explain exactly how or why.  Instead, I just want to serve as living proof that this does work.  Obviously, I’m not condoning that Twitter (or LinkedIn, Facebook, whatever your preference) serve as your only means of networking and job-hunting, but I’d highly recommend you at least add it to your arsenal.

Now hold on just a second – I’m not sitting here with a smug, accomplished grin on my face saying that this just suddenly fixed all my problems.  I still have yet to land a job and we’re now less than a month away from graduation (not that I’m keeping track or anything).  Anyone who knows me could attest to the fact that I started off my senior year bound-and-determined to have a job offer before May.

Truth be told, I’m far from any job offers at this point…but hey, at least I’m finally getting e-mails and phone calls – a definite improvement from where I was just a month ago.  I’ve already gained so much insight on not just the job search process, but also on my chosen career field.  I’ve had the chance to speak with industry professionals, HR geniuses, you name it.  That “black hole” has gotten ten times smaller and this entire process suddenly seems “doable” again.

Feeling ready to give up and call it quits?

Freshen up your approach.  If what you’re doing now isn’t getting the results you want, then what do you really have to lose by trying something else?  Get in there.  Connect with others – ask questions, seek help, don’t be afraid to admit that what you’ve been doing just isn’t working.

When I hear the term Talent Management, I often hear it talked about in the context of recruiting and sourcing. Now I may be completely off, but to me, Talent Management is much more than just finding people for the role. It’s much more than finding the RIGHT people for a company to fill a job. Talent management is more than just recruiting. It is about how you interact, engage and build the people you have, to retain and develop them and even if they leave you, they will want to come back!

One definition I found was this: Talent Management is a holistic approach to optimizing human capital, which enables an organization to drive short- and long-term results by building culture, engagement, capability, and capacity through integrated talent acquisition, development, and deployment processes that are aligned to business goals.

Umm yeah… right. My eyes roll to the back of my head like when I was in my human psychology & anthropology classes’ freshman year.

There are many debates within the circles of HR on how you should Manage Talent. Here is what Talent Management is to me.

Talent Management = Sourcing: All you are doing is finding ways to differentiate you from the competition. Just like a candidate, you are defining and setting up how you will identify, search and contact talent. At the same time, maybe subconsciously you are projecting that beautiful and trendy word called a ‘brand’ that will attract the best, the brightest and help you somehow keep them! At the beginning of hiring, it is a sourcing strategy. You outline responsibilities; define the steps, & plans for contingencies. You also define what success looks like. Your methods become a toolkit that will set your approach and allow you to be flexible. However, this doesn’t mean you should just network or source to fill orders, meet deadlines or be “on to the next one.”

Talent Management = Talent Development: If you get the best and the brightest and ignore their need for development after they arrive, you lose the potential you once had. Talent development happens within performance management and consulting. It works when you help an individual identify and assess their needs in order for them to be prepared in performing their responsibilities to the company. By identifying where they are, where they need to be and the gaps that exist; you will keep them from or allow them to succeed. By identifying the appropriate tools and experiences for that individual, you better position the current talent to reach their full potential and contribute to the value and bottom line. This makes everyone’s job much easier ~ at least in theory.

Talent Management = Succession Planning: This simply means that an organization identifies key roles that need to be filled and the people that need to fill them when the time is right. It is preparing people and positions, getting them ready for a transition and change; not just with the possible change of a person in a position but also within the organization.

I talked to a colleague the other day and I think that there is a lack of this happening. In the current economy you would think that planning for possibility of replacement of key roles would be essential. That you would create opportunities for cross-training, identify people within the company that could fill the pipeline for unforeseen or potential. Yet with budgets dwindling and the focus being on surviving, many are forgetting that they may be surviving now, but when they get out of the trenches, will they thrive?

Talent Management = Saying what you mean, mean what you say: If you boast a great brand. Preach an awesome culture and praise what the organization will do for current and potential employees… and then don’t deliver… you not only hurt the company but also your own reputation. Now is a time where people want and appreciate honesty. Just as you are trying to make a well informed decision from the talent pool you have at your disposal, the candidates are also selecting you based on the promises you keep and the lies you tell.

Talent Management = Leadership: All of leadership, from the hiring manager and recruiter to the department head and CEO need to walk the walk, talk the talk and be ready to show that if need be, they will run with the heard to do the work that needs to be done to help make everyone be successful.

Above all Talent Management = People: In the end, it’s about people. I mean, you’re not managing androids, recruiting machines or training dogs. You are maximizing an individual’s potential to help you and the organization maximizes results! Don’t just be about the money they make for you. Don’t just hire them, forget them and then move On to the Next One…

Jay-Z Featuring Swizz Beatz – On to the next one (click for readers):

Disclaimer: This post was originally on the NAS Recruiting Talent Talk Blog in March of 2010 (without the images and narly video). NAS Recruitment Communications has created and evolved solutions to assist organizations with their recruiting, employment branding and on-boarding/retention efforts. They have not paid me nor nudged me in their direction to advertise them. Check them out.