How to Succeed Chapter 7: Next Steps

OK, we’ve been through the meat of the book, and thank you, thank you, thank you for the feedback!

Emails, calls, posts have all been good. Interestingly, so have the traffic stats. Here’s what I’ve learned:

—Shorter, tighter content blocks (both in the chapters and on in the blog posts)
—Simpler and more directive content (less stuff that makes you think, more stuff that makes you think about what you’re about to go do)
—Naming the self-destructors and providing specific strategies for dealing with each of them
—Clear distinctions between “what” to do, which most people know, and “how” to do it, which most people only think they know
—PERSPECTIVE SHIFTING content that helps people walk a mile in others’ shoes… especially, helping people understand the perspective the next level up in the org (aka, their managers’ perspectives). I’m get a fair numbr of comments to the effect of “I did all this hard work, and look what happened anyway!” Sometimes, these situations are truly out of your control (and truly difficult). I’ve gotten exactly ONE comment to this effect. The rest of them show people who are not correctly interpreting their own behavior. (e.g., you think you’re bringing a solution to your boss, but the way you present it, you give 6 different examples of the problem before first and then when you suggest the solution, you also suggest multiple risk factors that make it sound unworkable… to your boss, you’re bringing problems and drama, and she tells you as much in your next review.)

I can’t thank you all enough, this has been great!

Not sure that my Q1 goal will stick; there is a lot of foundational work still yet to be done…

working on the course for job seekers with Willy F and now also looking to use my assessment content for another product for hiring managers. This could be very cool. I’d love if I can help make the hiring process better for BOTH sides of the equation—that would truly be win/win!

Jason Seiden is Co-founder and CEO of Ajax Social Media, a training company that shows professionals how use social media to work more effectively.