Working to Be a Leader

Miss me?  My last post was on December 10, 2009, around the time when I began working on another level playing field special report.  Almost finalized, it will be availabe  at the Leadership Training Room website in early February.

The report contains almost 11,000 words that I’ve crafted into a letter and six essays about the impact of the Great Recession on lives, my own included.  Great Recession (two words, 15 characters with the space) is  better to use in a 20-page report than writing out the worst economy since the Great Depression (six words and 40 characters with spaces). 

The level playing field special reports I write are based on workplace behavior and the impact of external factors on an individual’s performance.  My reports are positioned to inform, educate, and enlighten readers on topics that resonant with them and can help further their careers.  The youngest of nine children, my older siblings loved to tell me, “Children are to be seen and not heard.”  Well, I’m being heard now on an international stage like this blog and enjoying writing to be heard by you and others.

What I’ve also been doing since I last posted a blog entry is volunteering the area of human resources for organizations.  The work has included collaborating with other volunteers in the process to fill a position:  developing an accurate position description, reviewing and evaluating resumes, identifying the first and second tier candidates to be called in for interviews, and interviewing a series of professionals to filter out the one we feel has the credentials and the ‘good fit’ demeanor to be hired.

Although I’ve hired people previously, the hiring process during the Great Recession has been different.  It’s different because I’m sensing desperation by how words are strung together.  Very determined to get a job since being laid off or fearing being laid off, the tone of a candidate’s writing often gives off a feel of, “It’s all about me and you should hire me because I am so great and I really need this job!”

How do I know that?  Well, in one very long cover letter, the writer composed 12 sentences and they all focused on her.  “I am…”   “I have…”  “I worked…” “I look forward…” was what I read and thought, “What about how her skills, knowledge, and experiences apply to and can benefit our organization?”

Hers was not the only cover written that way.  Many came in with a form cover letter with obviously only the inner address and salutation changed—which is not good form from my perspective.  What I wanted to read in their sentences was that the prospective candidate had done their research:  been to our website, searched periodicals online that could provide them more background, and then could translate this information into words that created a relationship between our needs and their backgrounds.

Resumes, also, left a lot to be desired.   Proof and proof again.  Use the “Grammar Check” in Word.  Punctuate consistently in descriptions and bullets.  Be accurate with the tense:  all past or all present tense.  Etc., etc., etc.

Finally, if you want to be heard and be seriously considered to be hired for a position, use the appropriate wording to describe what you do.  We, charged with hiring an employee, need to trust that an individual expressing an interest in being a candidate and possibly ‘the one’  hired, has documented authentically what she has done and is capable of doing from the first day on the job.

Whether you are in the process of developing a cover letter or resume—or an 11,000 word paper—write so that you are heard.   Now, it’s time for me to go resume finalizing my next level playing field special report.