Lessons from the Corner Office
Career boosting tactics from a Chief HR Officer
September 19, 2010

Welcome to the Corner Office

First, If you are subscribed to my newsletter service, thank you for taking the time to subscribe and please pass this on to anyone who you think would benefit from these. If you received this from a friend, welcome to our club and please take a moment to subscribe at: http://www.torigian.com/freenewsletter

Since this is issue 1, I want to take a minute and explain how I am going to create this. I want to cover a couple items each week: One time organization tip, one interview question tip, one sample Job and how I would approach the value discussion, a recruiter (head hunter) profile and finally, any Q&A you submit. Please let me know what you think, any suggestions and send me your Q&A's!

I am looking forward to our journey together and can't wait to see the amazing things you are able to achieve.

Eric Torigian
Founder, Lessons from the Corner Office
Career advice from a Chief HR Officer

ABOUT LESSONS FROM THE CORNER OFFICE

I’m an accomplished, driven, strategic, global HR Executive and Chief People Officer recognized as a highly effective business leader. I have 20+ years of global experience driving organizational performance through strategic HR leadership and counsel.

My driving passion as a coach is to help individuals leverage their strengths and empower them to live their best possible life!

I love a challenge and am always willing to roll up my sleeves to get the job done!

Time Management Tip of the Week

For this week, I want everyone to use the time gap tool to map out where you are spending your time. Next week, we will work on strategies to move closer to the sweet spot but for now simply keep track of your time. On a sheet of paper, write down each hour that you will be working (i.e., 8am, 9am, 10am, ...). At the end of the hour simply document what quadrant that hour fell in. Remember the quadrants are:

I - High personal enjoyment, High value to others: Sweet spot;
II - High enjoyment, low value to others: Hobby
III - Low enjoyment, low value to others: Time wasters
IV - Low enjoyment, high value to others: Dues

The hardest part of this exercise is to be honest with yourself. Next week we will graph the results but for now, just capture the data.

Interview Tip of the Week

Are you an interview STAR? Most of the time I interview people, they get bogged down in the wrong details when answering a question. You need to be very clear and set the stage for an interviewer. There are a lot of systems but I like the STAR technique:

Situation - set up the situation for me. What was happening that required an intervention
Tactics - What steps were needed, what would solve the problem
Actions - What actions did you take. Be specific, not the team but you!
Results - What happened and more importantly, what did you learn.

Feature Job of the Week

I chose this job to feature this week because it is a senior level role. I would love it if all of my readers were at this level and ready to compete for a job like this. If you are, please click on the image and apply! Grand Rapids is an amazing place.

For the rest of us, use this role as an aspirational target. Look at the experience, skills and education that the poster is looking for. Are you on track to get that experience? How long until you are ready to compete for this role.

Please reach out to me to help. We can use the Career Gap Planner to build a strategic plan and go attack these and other opportunities

Recruiter of the Week

I have had the pleasure of knowing Marty for quite some time now. He has been recruiting in the automotive space since 1988 and he specializes in providing senior-level technical and executive talent to OEMs and tiered suppliers in the Automotive, Agriculture, Aerospace and Consumer Goods industries. Core expertise in complex mechanical systems.

Reach out to Marty and say hello. This is a great example of building your network and getting connected. Remember to always be a net giver. Offer access to your network, see if you can help him with a job he is sourcing. When you look for ways to help others, they will do the same!

Lessons from the Corner Office Career boosting tactics from a Chief HR Officer September 19, 2010