What about me? Are you asking yourself this question? If not you should be. Don't wait until you are in crisis mode when you are losing your job or your business before you think "what about me?"
Here are a few points to consider.
No one is indispensable. What's your best option to make yourself essential?
What would happen if you lost your job?
Are you expecting a raise this year? How much?
What would happen if you were asked to locate?
What would you do if you suddenly decide you can't stand your job anymore?
Get the picture. Keep these considerations in mind and put yourself in the forefront of this thought process.
So what about you? Are you waiting for the ax to fall or are you sitting on the sidelines letting events carry you along? Are you actively pursuing avenues that will help you manage your destiny rather than it managing you?
I'm always amazed but the number of colleagues who come out of the woodwork when they get in trouble. I have been providing them with a game plan for years, but it has fallen on deaf ears. When the going gets rough they then call for help.
The best advice I can give is to be proactive. Get a routine established in self- promotion before it's too late. Plan a self promotion activity every week so that you constantly focus on your visibility.
Here are some self promotion ideas for consideration:
Write an article.
Make a speech.
Write a press release.
Enter a competition.
Get an interview.
Start an e-zine.
Get a personal website.
Pick up the phone and call old contacts.
Send out a clever "how are" you card.
Give a testimonial.
Attend a conference.
Does that give you enough ideas? Every week you should schedule at least one of the above activities. The summer is an ideal time to get started because work is a little less hectic. Here's a hint. Use the dog days of summer as a theme. Have a lot of fun with this one with great cards, funny dog cartoons and other creative ideas.
FYI: Dog Days is the name for the sultriest period of summer, from about July 3 to Aug. 11. Named in early times by observers in countries bordering the Mediterranean, the period was reckoned as extending from 20 days before to 20 days after the conjunction of Sirius (the dog star) and the sun.
So happy dog days of self promotion. Get busy because the next time I hear from you I don't want to learn you have "gone to the dogs."
JoAnn Hines' specialty is PACKAGING PEOPLE. Whether you want to be paid more, you just lost your job, or you want to progress in the one you have, Ms. Hines advice and expertise can help you transform your personal brand. She can show you how to package yourself and make your brand a hot commodity. It's easy once you know the ropes and begin to utilize her insider's secrets. She shows you step by step how to increase your visibility, credibility and marketability with easy to use tutorials and templates.
It is time to get started "Packaging Yourself." Email me the Chief People Packager @ pkgcoach@aol.com
AP - A Democratic Congress, unwilling or unable to approve a $25 billion bailout for Detroit's Big Three, appears ready to punt the automakers' fate to a lame-duck Republican president.
AP - Pounded by a fierce financial crisis, the country is sinking deeper into economic despair and is likely to be in the hole well into next year, forcing more Americans into the ranks of the unemployed.
AP - California's highest court agreed Wednesday to hear several legal challenges to the state's new ban on same-sex marriage but refused to allow gay couples to resume marrying before it rules.
AP - Barack Obama is enlisting former Senate leader Tom Daschle as his health secretary, embracing a third Washington insider in the early stages of Cabinet-building by the president-elect who promised change. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the capital's most famous woman for two decades, seemed ever more likely to be his secretary of state.
AP - Animals and plants in danger of becoming extinct could lose the protection of government experts who make sure that dams, highways and other projects don't pose a threat, under regulations the Bush administration is set to put in place before President-elect Obama can reverse them.
AP - A Texas judge has set a Friday arraignment for Vice President Dick Cheney, former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and others named in indictments accusing them of responsibility for prisoner abuse in a federal detention center.
AP - The astronaut who lost her tool bag on a spacewalk admitted Wednesday that she made a mistake by not checking to see if the sack was tied down, and said she's still smarting over the whole thing.
AP - King Herod may have been buried in a crypt with lavish Roman-style wall paintings of a kind previously unseen in the Middle East, Israeli archaeologists said Wednesday. The scientists found such paintings and signs of a regal two-story mausoleum, bolstering their conviction that the ancient Jewish monarch was buried there.
AP - The Dallas Mavericks didn't need Josh Howard as much as the Houston Rockets missed Yao Ming on Wednesday night.
Reuters - A 6 percent fall in Asia pushed world stocks to their lowest in 5- years on Thursday, while oil fell below $53 and safe havens such as the yen gained on fears the global recession and a financial crisis will get uglier.
Reuters - Chances dimmed that a last-minute plan being crafted by Republican senators, with White House support, to provide $25 billion to bail out U.S. automakers would receive enough backing from Democrats to pass before the end of this week.
Reuters - The U.S. financial system still needs at least $1 trillion to $1.2 trillion of tangible common equity to restore confidence and improve liquidity in the credit markets, Friedman Billings Ramsey analyst Paul Miller said.
Reuters - Federal Reserve officials slashed economic growth forecasts through 2009 and some believed even deeper interest rate cuts may be needed if growth slows further, minutes of their October policy meeting show.
Reuters - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's top choice to lead the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, CNN reported on Wednesday, citing multiple sources.
Reuters - California's Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear a legal challenge against the state's voter-approved ban on gay marriage and let the ban stand in the meantime.
Reuters - Wall Street's pain is rippling through U.S. small businesses, as bankers who once pulled in million-dollar bonuses lose their jobs and cut back spending on everything from parties to home improvements.
AFP - Asian stocks tumbled Thursday as global economic gloom deepened following a plunge in Japanese exports and a warning from the Federal Reserve that the United States could be in recession next year.
AFP - Russia announced Thursday it would send more warships to combat piracy in the waters around Somalia, as the Saudi owners of the Sirius Star negotiated with the pirates holding their oil tanker.
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