Interviewed by Aniisu Verghese on Personal Branding

 Some months ago I was interviewed by Communications specialist Aniisu Verghese on my approach to personal branding 

You can find the transcript of the interview here.

As I share in the interview I have mixed feelings about the term. Since I studied organizational behavior and HR, I am aware of the term of branding and not very comfortable with it. According to marketing literature, a person is hugely complex and there are also group dynamics involved when it comes to branding.  

You all can also find the video of the interview

People development and the role of the Manager in the Future of Work

In my last post I touched upon the fact that there needs to be a constant reskilling of people in the future of work, and this also impacts the role of the manager much more than before

The critical role of the First Line Manager

While leadership development remains a criteria for most organizations, an often neglected but critical (if not more) area is the development of the first line manager. In most organizations individual from the front line are promoted to the supervisor/manager roles based on their skills and performance in their role, not on the basis of an assessment of their "people management" skills. However the latter is the most critical skill ! A great salesperson is not always a great sales manager

What skills do managers (of all levels) need to develop?

I'll focus this post on the area of talent development. In most performance management systems the individual's development needs arise from a discussion between an individual and their manager. However in the future of work, we say the onus is on the individual to drive their own development. So what role should a manager play?

The number one skill a manager needs to develop is the ability to assess where the individual is in their career journey and where they are headed. For that, a core skill is the ability to listen and have conversations with each and every employee on the team on a regular basis. That means the manager has to play both the part of a mentor and a coach.

What does that mean?

Being a mentor means showing the person a path forward and telling them what skills are needed to develop to go down that path. It means recognising the strengths of each individual and telling them "Look, you are great in this, and therefore you should focus on these possible career moves"

Being a coach means asking each individual questions about what motivates them at work, what is their own purpose in life and what path do they see for themselves. It helps the individual to come to their conclusions themselves.

So, why doesn't that happen more often?

It is incredibly hard for organizations to assess the above skills in people when it comes to promoting people to supervisory and managerial roles. There can be a virtuous cycle when by chance a current manager has these skills and therefore can recognize these skills in people to be promoted. Or in most cases, unfortunately, a vicious cycle when a person who doesn't have the above skills goes ahead and promotes someone based solely on performance.

What can organizations do?

Explicitly state that these people assessment and development skills should be the primary focus on deciding who takes on a frontline manager role.

Create an alternate career path for people who are great at their roles but might not want/be suitable for developing people. In 99% of companies the only way to grow in your career is the managerial route, which is why so many people are disengaged at work as their development is not a priority for their managers

Here's a great video by Julie Winkle Guilioni on what managers can do help people to own their career development

Am Joining BraveNewTalent.com

Image via CrunchBaseIt's an exciting time for me as I get ready to take on a new assignment, joining BraveNewTalent.com in India - focusing on marketing and user growth. BraveNewTalent.com is a startup focused on building Talent, Skill and Learning Communities for clients. Here's a video of Lucian Tarnowski, the visionary CEO of BraveNewTalent (pictured on the right) being interviewed by Robert Scoble. In India I would be working with Dheeraj Prasad, the India Managing Director (you can read his blog posts here and here)

Personally what excites me about BraveNewTalent.com is the overall mission of thinking beyond "social recruitment" and focusing on helping organizations create and nurture Talent Communities. (see my previous posts on Talent Communities here, here, here, here) We know the challenges that people face when they hire in India (abundance of people, but a shortage of skilled, trained people) and this is where I see BraveNewTalent.com having the maximum impact. On a personal level, the experience of starting up an organization in a country and grow it is what is most exciting! Do check out the BraveNewTalent blog

The other reason for me is that I would be a colleague with a blogging buddy, Maren Hogan (whom I had interviewed in Jan 2009 for my other blog!). Maren heads the Marketing for BraveNewTalent.com in the US and I look forward to collaborating with her and sharing our learning. 

You can sign up for BraveNewTalent.com using your Facebook id here

Amplifying Strengths and Talents - HR's Achilles' heel?

So someone asked me "Why do people in organizations spend so much energy focusing on what is not there? Why don't they polish and make what's already there, and grow that? When customers pay you, they pay you for your strengths, not for what you're doing to remove your weakness"

I agree. We spend too much time, effort and energy focussing on "I lack this. This is my weakness" kind of thoughts. When we get feedback from our managers. Or when we give feedback to our subordinates.

I remember when I had read Marcus Buckingham's book "First Break all the Rules" - he said the strengths based thinking is usually not transferred to organizations, because careers are not designed to maximise on strengths. In the book he gave the example of a law firm, and how when a lawyer grows in his/her career- the focus sharpens from a generic area to a specific area. Compare that to a typical corporate career where people usually see an expansion in their skills - and therefore the need to develop newer and newer skills - until they hit what is known as the Peter Principle.

The way to really leverage the concept of strengths in an organization is to look at not one career path and therefore a pyramid, but a multitude of alternate career paths (earlier posts here and here) , taking off from each role. Giving rise to fractal career ladders.

Such careers will not just leverage each employee's inherent strengths but also contribute to the organizational knowledge and innovation, reducing the need of people to blend in - and encouraging their individuality.

The question is: are organizations really mature enough to embrace the creativity and the chaos that this calls for?

Student's query about a career in HR

Image by B Tal via FlickrA reader asked me this query on mail. What would you suggest?

I am {name deleed}, pursuing 3rd sem MBA (HRM) from {institute name}. I am passionate towards HR but my family and relatives suggests me to take up MARKETING as a specialization as they feel that it has a wide scope and a high career growth.

I completed my Bachelors in Business Management (HR), PGDHRM and pursuing MBA other certificate courses in HR.

I request you to suggest me as to,
1. What should i do now ?
2. What do corporates look for in a MBA HR fresher ?
3. Which area in HR has a high career growth ?
4. Where can I get my Internship in HR ?

Here's what I wrote back to him:

If you are passionate about HR you will do well, if you're not passionate about Marketing - then you won't

HR operations has the highest growth - but if you are attracted to the specialist areas like Recruitment, L&D or C&B you should try for them too

Corporates like to take fresh people who have attention to detail and willingness to work hard and learn

Indian HR leaders start their own consulting gigs

I've started to see an interesting trend. Indian HR leaders after reaching the top jobs are starting to start their own consulting businesses. The latest in the line are Bimal Rath (who was heading Nokia's HR in India) and Aquil Busrai (who was HR Director at IBM) have both started their own consulting businesses.
They join the list of HR folks like Udai Upendra (ex-HR head of Ranbaxy) and V. Kartikeyan (ex-HR head of Texas Instruments) who have their own consulting businesses.
Why the trend?
Personally I think it's because HR heads after reaching the top of their organizational growth find they don't have a next career growth. Unless they move to a business role, like Google's APAC HR Head, Manoj Verghese who joined Facebook India as Director of Business Operations.

So the next challenge they seek is to set up their own ventures and use exisiting skills and build new skills too.
On the other hand - there are professionals like Ravi Virmani (who have spent their careers in consulting) are moving to industry roles.
Looks like there will be more news on this list in the future.

Atlassian overhauls the traditional performance review system

I have blogged earlier about Daniel Pink's thoughts on what motivates us - as well as the view by an expert that performance reviews should be scrapped. Now Australian software firm Atlassian, inspired by @danielpink is taking a public step to doing something about it. Check the announcement below:

Atlassian's Big Experiment with Performance Reviews

For years, Atlassian's performance review model was in line with 'HR Best Practice'. Twice a year, people would review themselves and their peers via 360-degree reviews. Managers would review their team members and determine their final performance rating on a simple 5-point scale that determined their bonus. I believe it's a similar model to that of many other tech companies like Google and Salesforce.

So, what was the problem? In short, twice a year the model did exactly the opposite to what we wanted to accomplish. Instead of an inspiring discussion about how to enhance people's performance, the reviews caused disruptions, anxiety and de-motivated team members and managers. Also, even though our model was extremely lean and simple, the time investment was significant.
The Trial
For 12 months, we will trial a new review methodology. We'll make iterative improvements along the way. What's more, we'll blog everything  here

Here are the outlines of the trial:


We'll replace the traditional performance review structure with a more lightweight, continuous model.

We'll incorporate the constructive aspects of reviews in the existing one-on-one meetings. Atlassian managers already have weekly one-on-ones with their team members. Now, every month, one of these meetings is dedicated to a discussion on how the person can enhance their own performance and play to their strengths.

We'll provide managers with a conversation guide to help them structure these one-on-ones.

We'll remove the distribution curve.

We'll stop paying individual performance bonuses. Instead, we'll give everyone a salary bump (similar to Netflix's approach, paying top market salaries rather than bonuses).

Every six months, managers and team members use a one-on-one catch up to discuss their performance and how often they have challenged themselves in the last six months. Unlike in traditional performance reviews, there will be no requirements to write lengthy written assessments in preparation for the catch up

At the beginning of each six month period, we'd like everyone to focus on some personal areas where they can challenge themselves either by capitalising on activities they already love or by improving a weakness.


The Impact

This will mean that employees will have more regular chats with their managers about how they'd like to work, not just about everyday tasks. Also, managers won't have to spend hours on thinking back and recording people's past performance during lengthy performance review cycles.

You can follow the process here. They will share their journey publicly.

Brand You is about Content and Community - Thoughts on Personal Branding and Social Media

Today I had a conversation with a journalist who's doing a story on how people can get career success by building their personal brand. I have earlier blogged on personal branding here and here

I believe that the essence of building your personal brand (whether internally in an organization or externally) is Content and Community.

1. Content - refers to the expertise you build - it is the sum of your intellectual and emotional quotient. It is not just what you know - but also how you do. To build a really distinct personal brand - answer this question "What do I want to be known for" In most cases you will find the answer in a T-shaped expertise - a broad expertise of an area - and a deep expertise of one specific niche. In your organization - are you the "go-to guy" for any aspect? If you are not - then build a niche that's purely your own. Remember deep expertise requires deliberate practice. There's no shortcut to it.
2. Community - refers to the relationship capital you build with people who know and trust your Content expertise. In an organization these would be seniors, supervisors, CXOs across functions. They will know and trust you if you demonstrate (a.) Visibility - being seen at group events, volunteering for cross functional projects, taking on "above and beyond" challenges that others are not - and (b.) Credibility - showcased in you keeping your commitments and delivering above and beyond. Remember, visibility or popularity alone will not be enough to develop your personal brand. Also, be sure that your community comprises of a diverse group of people (best explained in this article)

When you have a community and have built a trustworthy relationship with them - you will give insights that will feed your Content bucket - and the secret is to continually keep growing both of them - as and when your career evolves (an make no mistake - it will evolve) you will be poised to grab opportunities before others.

So what does this have to do with Social Media?

When you want to build your brand externally - social media is the tool you use to showcase your content and build your community. As Michael Brenner posts:

I am an advocate for social media marketing and personal branding which I believe can help to benefit both your company and your career. And so I am often asked why I tweet, why I blog and why I participate in both online and offline social communities and events.

Despite the huge press coverage around social media, I am still surprised at how many marketers and other market-facing professionals resist the call to participate in social media and to be brand ambassadors. To me, social media is all about personal branding. Grow your personal brand, with respect and proper attribution to your company as an ambassador, and the company benefits through the greater exposure of a positive voice out to the market it serves.

As a marketer, I feel compelled to participate as an individual voice in my company ecosystem. Companies are a collection of individuals with all the diversity that is inherent in its employees. A company brand is directly impacted by the voice of its employees, along with customers, partners and the larger community and ecosystem in which it participates. I actively and passionately participate in social media conversations with authenticity and I do it because I want to. But I also believe success in building my personal brand is direct evidence of my abilities to execute an overall marketing strategy for the company – in essence to build the company brand.

Online MBA acceptance rising in the US

Interesting article by PayScale on the growing acceptance of online learning compared to traditional MBA learning programs.

However this is US specific, and I really don't see this reality being replicated in India soon. That's because the credits offered in online or "satellite" courses results not in a Post-Graduate Diploma (like IIMs and XLRI offer) but in a PG Certificate. Employers simply don't equate both these together - leading to salary differences between the two.

In fact - in one of my roles - I was looking after the Continuing Education Policy of an organization - and was amazed how even a course of full time employees who would visit the MBA college every few weeks or on weekends also ensured that the education given was a certificate!

Check more from the article PayScale - Online MBA Programs, Online Degrees Accepted

A Sloan Consortium study cites barriers to the widespread adoption of online distance learning. Topping the list is the concern that "students need more discipline to succeed in online courses"-64 percent of all institutions see it as a significant hurdle. The number-two concern is the extra time and effort that online faculty spend; 32 percent of schools think this is a problem.

Other disadvantages include lack of face-to-face feedback and in-person activities with peers, and loneliness, according to DETC's Lambert, who also said, "The few drawbacks are more than offset by the convenience features."

Experts say benefits of online distance learning include savings on time and money-no commuting, gas money or parking fees are required. And some students just function better online.

"Online there's anonymity, you can interact and participate, and you can be whoever you want to be. For some people it's a more comfortable environment for them to study in," said Walden's Sidler.

Another plus is the increased earning power an MBA brings. According to 2007 statistics from the Graduate Management Admission Council, a nonprofit group that owns the GMAT, MBA graduates who have gotten job offers typically earn 58 percent more than before they got their degrees.

Some Job Hoppers may not be so bad

Image via Wikipedia

Penelope Trunk is at it again, writing a counter-intuitive article that is sure to upset a lot of peopleWhy Job Hoppers Make the Best Employees Personally I think she's generalising, and a lot of job-hopping also results from incompetence or people not really knowing what they want to do, rather than the other way around.

It also does not hold true in jobs where the results of a role are long term and not really measurable in months.

And her views will not really be supported by the majority of Indian corporatedom.

Here are the reasons she gives for thinking so:

1. Job hoppers have more intellectually rewarding careers.
If you change jobs often, then you’re always challenged with a lot to learn — your learning curve stays high. This is true for office skills, and industry specific knowledge. It also applies to your emotional intelligence. The more you have to navigate corporate hierarchies and deal with office dramas, the more you learn about people and the better you will become at making people comfortable at work. And that’s a great skill to have.

2. Job hoppers have more stable careers.
The way you do that is through networking. Because you can be sure you’ll need to find many jobs in your lifetime, you want network as efficiently as you can. After all, the most efficient way to find a job is through a network. It’s how most people land jobs. People who work for lots of companies have a larger network than people who stay in one place for long periods of time. Which is why job-hopping creates stability.

3. Job hoppers are higher performers.
You can’t job hop if don’t add value each place you go. That’s why job hoppers are usually overachievers on projects they are involved in; they want something good to put on their resume. So from employers’ perspective, this is a good thing. Companies benefit more from having a strong performer for 18 months than a mediocre employee for 20 years. (And don’t tell me people can’t get up to speed fast enough to contribute. Fix that. It’s an outdated model and won’t attract good employees.)

4. Job hoppers are more loyal.
Loyalty is caring about the people you’re with, right? Job hoppers are generally great team players because that’s all they have. Job hoppers don’t identify with a company’s long-term performance, they identify with their work group’s short-term performance.

5. Job hoppers are more emotionally mature.
It takes a good deal of self-knowledge to know what you want to do next, and to choose to go get it rather than stay someplace that for the moment seems safe. It takes commitment to personal growth to give up career complacency and embrace a challenging learning curve throughout your career — over and over. And it’s a brave person who can tell someone, “I know I’ve only been working here for a month, but it’s not right for me, so I’m leaving.”

Career Advice and Job Hunting

I recently got listed as the 30th blog for "career advice" by Online Degrees. I must admit - it's been a long time since I posted something specifically about managing one's career.

However since the last few weeks - I have been job hunting - and some things that I have done and some reflections on what is happening in my career front. It's not an advice piece - so if you get anything out of it - it's purely your own :-)

• When I knew I had to move on from my last role - I got into touch with people - recruiters, college friends, ex-colleagues, twitter friends, bloggers I knew. People cannot help you unless they know you need help.
• Over the last few years I had opened up my networks to help many of these folks - particularly journalists, recruiters. So asking them for help didn't feel strange for me :-)
• I blogged about my changed employment status, shared it on facebook, linkedin and twitter too. Many people would consider that a bad move. Friends in large corporates told me "you have to look without looking" - however I believe in being transparent and open - so even if a prospective employer offers me a salary that's lower (which is where the hesitation to share one's true employment status comes from) that's OK with me.

So yes, I haven't yet got a job - but people have been incredibly helpful, pointing me out to opportunities, and helping connect with people they think can help.

Some other things that I have done:

1. Targeting 2-3 different kinds of roles - depending on what I have done so far - and the next steps in my career.
2. Trying to get as much referrals from recruiters to get at least a phone conversation with the hiring managers. I'm fortunate that recruiters are pushing their clients to at least talk to me when they don't seem very impressed with my resume. One interviewer said "Mr. [recruiter] urged me to talk to you because you're creative and have done different things"
3. Traditional HR and Learning and Development folks don't understand my "Social Business" stint - so I explain it not using Facebook, Blogging and Twitter - but as modes to increase employee engagement and employer branding.
4. Researching as much about the hiring manager (using Linkedin, Twitter) to discover common interests, previous employers, mutual friends - helps to discover common ground and a shared ground. If it's a hiring manager who's interviewing you - you have to get to a comfortable personal equation.

Ultimately it boils down to a few important things - how much social capital you've invested in your networks, how much do your family and friends support you and help you not to be down - and your own determination not to be cynical or get into a self-pitying mode.

What are some of the things that have worked for you when you have been looking for a new job?

Care to share?

The Noble Profession - 8 career guidelines for Consultants

Guest post by Sunit Sinha. Sunit is a Consulting Leader with one of the large management consulting firms. He recently posted this as a note on Facebook, and I asked him for his permission to share it with all of you.

It was with some trepidation and even a lingering skepticism that I decided to write this note – just imagine writing a gyaan article for a group of consultants. Then I thought; well all I could do is just share some pearls of wise counsel I have gleaned from my limited experience, a bit of reading and also what one learns from all the brilliant and wonderful people one gets to work with – both fellow consulting professionals and clients. Lest I may sound presumptuous and ingratiating – let me clarify that in no measure does this list of “sunitspeak” purport to be absolutely original or something I woke up to one morning and lo and behold – saw the light!!

I hope they bring you some perspective and be like the North Star that they have become for me in what is a truly challenging but at times a hard and lonely profession – management consulting.

1. A job is what you make it. If you look at your function as only a job (show up, fill a desk, answer a phone, pass on a report), that’s what it will be. But if you recognize the time you spend in your early, entry or junior position as a process of career building, then that’s what you will have: a career. Always play your role with dignity, looking for ways to learn from it.
2. The real keys to success are not smarts or qualifications or belonging to a brand-name firm. Rather, success is derived from courage, drive, energy, passion, ambition, enthusiasm, excitement, initiative, discipline, a dream and enough self-confidence to keep trying.
3. Don’t be intimidated by senior people. Remember, they also started somewhere, and if they are purposely intimidating you, they can’t be very secure themselves. Don’t, however, confuse intimidation with respect. Even if you don’t agree with a senior person, they have earned and deserve their due for what they have achieved in the organization.
4. When you feel underappreciated (or undercompensated) take a deep breath. Even if you are doing better work and have more responsibility than someone earning more or being treated better, show some patience. It’s the long term that counts!!
5. Broken promises are remembered more than kept promises. Do what you say you are going to do. It’s better to have the guts to say up front, “I’m not sure I can get that done,” than to accept a task that you can’t deliver on.
6. It is important to , listen to the assignment and carry out what has been asked. Again, remember that you are the directee, not the director, at this point in your career. You may not like the assignment, but do it with the same enthusiasm that you show for those projects you do like. Pencils must be sharpened, and everyone (even the CEO) has taken his turn.
7. Remember that success is not spontaneous combustion; you have to set yourself on fire.
8. Last but not the least – remember who actually pays for your salary – the client. Never lose your connect with clients, and always put them at the centre of what you do.

Twitter and Career Success by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Interesting post by Harvard professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter on the parallels between having influence on Twitter and the new competencies for success.

In the 21st century, America is rapidly becoming a society of networks, even within organizations. Maintenance of organizations as structures is less important than assembling resources to get results, even if the assemblage itself is loose and perishable.

Today, people with power and influence derive their power from their centrality within self-organizing networks that might or might not correspond to any plan on the part of designated leaders. Organization structure in vanguard companies involves multi-directional responsibilities, with an increasing emphasis on horizontal relationships rather than vertical reporting as the center of action that shapes daily tasks and one's portfolio of projects, in order to focus on serving customers and society. Circles of influence replace chains of command, as in the councils and boards at Cisco which draw from many levels to drive new strategies. Distributed leadership — consisting of many ears to the ground in many places — is more effectives than centralized or concentrated leadership. Fewer people act as power-holders monopolizing information or decision-making, and more people serve as integrators using relationships and persuasion to get things done.

This changes the nature of career success. It is not enough to be technically adept or even to be interpersonally pleasant. Power goes to the "connectors": those people who actively seek relationships and then serve as bridges between and among groups. Their personal contacts are often as important as their formal assignment. In essence, "She who has the best network wins."

Go ahead read the full article - and you can follow Rosabeth Moss Kanter on Twitter too

New Social Business Careers: Technopologist?

The Fast Forward blog pointed me to this interesting article on someone in P&G who is the marketing brand manager for Digital Business Strategy.

I've always believed new careers emerge from a hybrid of earlier careers/skill areas and Dave Knox reiterates my belief. As he says:

In its most simplistic description, a Marketing Technopologist combines the skills of a Marketer, Technologist, and Social Anthropologist. As a Technologist, you might not be a “coder” but you know your way around the language and culture of tech.  You understand things like API and Open Source or why Facebook Connect working with Open ID is a big deal.  Through the lens of a Social Anthropologist, you can then look at that technology and understand the impact it will have on society and culture.  You can recognize that the technology behind the Social Graph can actually have a huge impact on how we make decisions or shop.  And finally, the marketer will build upon both of these elements, recognizing the business potential created.

Interesting to note how social businesses is giving rise to new careers.

Listed as a top 50 Career Management Blogger

Ok

This was a surprise for me to find out when they emailed me

Thanks for reading and liking the blog, dear readers. All this wouldn't ever be possible without your attention and support!

Check out the list, there are tonnes of great bloggers listed from some of my favorites to some I've come across the first time.

Jobs: Officer shortage in the Military

Interesting article from the Strategy Page on the officer shortage faced by the Indian armed forces. Will the global recession change this reality? Will we see more talented people joining the Indian military?

Until the last few decades, it was considered prestigious, and career enhancing, to serve at least a few years as a military officer. These days, no more. Shortages are often filled by lowering standards, which can have disastrous results in combat.

The Indian Army is short 24 percent of its officer strength, while China has the numbers, it is seriously concerned with the quality. Meanwhile, the Indian army has had a shortage of officers for decades. The air force and navy are also short, but only by 12-15 percent. In China, the problem is growing as the economy continues to boom (despite the global recession.)

But it's not just officers that are hard for the Indians to recruit and keep. Technical specialists are in short supply, which is a growing problem as the army adds more high tech gear. The basic problem is that the army must compete with the civilian economy for highly trained or educated personnel.

The Indian army maintains high standards for officers, and has tried to eliminate the shortages by more aggressively recruiting young NCOs for officer candidate school. But that doesn't always work, because too many of the NCOs cannot pass the entrance exam.

Who are Career Counselors?

Over the last few months have got a couple of mails from folks, typically who are looking to relocate to India - asking me if I can suggest people who can be their career counselors.

Full time career counselors are not really well known in India, and the only type of career counselors who come to mind are the ones who do advice columns in the papers like Usha Albuquerque or TV, like Rashmi Bansal.

But what exactly does a one on one career counselor do?

This is a good answer on Lawjobs:

A counselor serves as a guide on your career exploration. He or she is an objective listener who can help you determine solutions to the issues that brought you to her or him.

Do not expect a counselor to tell you what to do. As a way around what may be viewed as a counselor's unwillingness to resolve a dilemma, a client sometimes asks the counselor what he or she would do in the same situation. Even if the counselor responds, the answer may not be relevant to the client. Each one of us has different characteristics and needs. As a result, the hypothetical actions of the counselor may not be the best approach for the client.

With that in mind, consider the counselor's qualities that can lead to a productive relationship. Working with an objective, attentive listener is a key component. The talking-listening balance favors you engaging in a major share of talking while the counselor listens and poses questions that help you probe into the issues.

A counselor may also challenge you to analyze some of your underlying perceptions. Without recommending a particular course of action, a counselor can offer ideas and strategies for you to consider.

When deciding on a counselor, take into account your level of comfort and trust. As you determine whether you are comfortable with a counselor, discount your discomfort about dealing with your career issues. Focus on whether you have rapport and can discuss issues openly with the person.

Slasher Careers

No, am not talking about horror/thriller genre of films called 'slasher' movies - in line with how many people get slashed :)

No, I am talking of this phrase which is coming into vogue because lots of people, specially freelancers are carrying on multiple careers as "HR Manager/Photographer" The slasher in 'slasher careers' refers to the "/" symbol between the two careers. And its a progression of the portfolio careers that Charles Handy has spoken about.

I personally think new careers will emerge at the intersection points of careers/functions.

As this article says:

While a new vocation may begin as a hobby, slashers tend to view all their pursuits as careers; and while those who moonlight might quietly take on a second job, career slashers are generally open about their multiple interests. They may even have a business card to prove it: The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article about the increased demand by career slashers for more than one business card so they can effectively promote their varied interests.

Slashers typically have a primary vocation, but they may pursue several other interests over the course of their working lives. For example, someone might be a copyeditor/aerobics instructor for a few years, and transition to a copyeditor/masseuse. As Marci Alboher, who coined the term, said in an interview with BusinessWeek, “Being a “slash” is a way to evolve without giving up the security of a job or losing the confidence in your expertise.”

Check this book by Marci Alboher 
The Blog that she used to write for the New York Times and the blog she writes at Amazon.

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• Use a "Slash" to Find Work While Unemployed [Career] (lifehacker.com)

Finding your differentiator

Terrence Seamon posts an interesting insight on how to answer the question in an interview "Why should we hire you?"

The best answer is to say, "You should hire me because I can do X for you and your company."

But how do you figure out what X is?

I call it, Finding Your Differentiator.

And the way to discover it is by working, really working, on your resume.

I find that as the job hunter works on their skills, accomplishments, and Summary (or Professional Profile), especially the identification of key capabilities, they get closer to their differentiator(s).

So what's your differentiator?

To add to Terry's suggestions I would add - think of the time when you have been happiest and contributed most to the organization and think what was the difference between that role and others when you might not have felt so good.
Also try to see what was special to the context and outside your influence.

Business Managers should be HR business partners

I've blogged earlier (in 2003!) about Dave Ulrich's HR Champions framework.

I've been thinking about the whole argument that HR folks have to align themselves more to business to become strategic.

And yes, I've also been thinking about the whole generalist and specialist thought.

So now I've reached my conclusion. For the moment at least.

Business managers should actually move into the role of the HR business partners.

• Reason No. 1: They really know the business! Take a deep breath, and reflect truthfully. However, much a HR guy knows about the business, he or she will always be seen as a "HR person" 
• Reason No. 2: If business managers really have to start doing the actual HR work - like sticking to the timelines for performance discussions - or start doing succession planning - and HR folks should do the 'facilitation' - then you have to have a ex-business turned HR business partner.
• Reason No. 3: As businesses grow and expand - not every business manager wants to rise up the traditional way. Some managers are great at helping people grow and develop. Others are great at spotting talent before they are obvious. Such people are needed by HR. 
• Reason No. 4: If HR has to be a way of life for people, and not just another function - then this should be the way to go.

If generalization is the way to grow one's career in large organizations - then it should not be really restricted to a function.

I know people who started careers in HR but then due to opportunities in their organizations moved to operational and sales roles. Some moved back to HR. Some moved farther away. 

In fact it has been more than 3 years that one of India's largest firms known for its HR processes asked its CFO to become the HR head. 

I personally think that there should be more such examples! Any that you know?