Tom Peters Times--June 2008

Tom Peters Times--June 2008

Entering a New Era of Talent I was recently reminded of a Tom Peters video that was hot when I first met him. It was provocatively titled Recession as Opportunity: Smart Moves in Tough Times and catalogued six recession-beating strategies for the early 1990s. Invest in service and quality improvement was the main, and counterintuitive, advice from Tom for those troubled times. Sadly, by my observation, few people took it, and we entered a management dark age of right-sizing and business process re-engineering. But the times did move on, and we have entered the much-heralded era of the knowledge worker, intellectually at least. We have accepted that the best way to beat our competition is by winning the war for talent, and we know that it is increasingly becoming a Brand You world. We enjoy the services of the best-educated management cadre that ever walked the earth. So, we are on course for a successful business future. Right? I bet most of us would have answered "yes" until the earliest rumblings of the coming credit crunch began to be heard last summer. To pick out three particularly worrying announcements from recent news, U.S. unemployment suddenly jumped 0.5% to 5.5% in May and Ford Motor and UK insurance giant Norwich Union announced a round of savage white collar job cuts. The context is getting tougher for all of us, and our expensive Western workers are again paying for our complacency with their jobs. I remain convinced that management thinking on the era of talent is sound. Application and execution are quite another matter! Sure, there is much more flexibility in terms and conditions of employment out there: more people are working as freelancers, more people are taking gap years and career breaks, more people are sharing jobs and working flexible hours, hardly anyone goes to work "suited and booted" these days, etc. I can also see that there is a lot of self-publicity going on, on networking websites like Facebook and LinkedIn, and in the myriad blogs burgeoning on the Web. People seem to love advertising a tailored version of themselves to the world, and they are keen to post their opinions on just about anything for widespread scrutiny and comment. People have eagerly grasped the personal and lifestyle opportunities of the talent era, but I don't often see that same enthusiasm for the other side of the coin, the task of staying in shape, in terms of competency and capability, for ever more demanding requirements at work. Too often, under-performance in this respect is blamed on someone else's failure, be it a poor line manager, the human resources department (heaven forbid), or the company at large. The required degree of personal commitment to stay on top in the talent era is all too often missing. That's my current experience, anyway. So, is there anything that's good about this current economic downturn? Well, experience teaches us that facing up to a crisis is one of the few things that will jolt us human beings into overcoming our strong preference for doing what is comfortable and familiar, even if we know it is not good for us! Maybe in these current tough times we'll see more people making smart moves of their own. Maybe we'll start to see a shift in mindset and a marked increase in the responsibility people take for their own personal performance and development. That step-change in engagement at work would herald a new era of talent, in the true meaning of the term. Richard King Managing Partner, TPC!UK

Selections From Tom's Blog ... Tom's recent blog post entitled "I'll Miss You (I Already Do)," is a great story about a server in a local restaurant who had a distinct personal Brand. Her consistent solidness and spirit became a reliable start to the day for her appreciative customers. Take a look to learn some of the key lessons for Brand Yous. Another blog entry on the subject restates Tom's case about why Brand You is the only choice for all workers, knowledge workers, service workers, employees, employers, self-employed, et al. It may be over a year old, but it's worth re-visiting, "Now Don't You Worry Your Little Self."

Continuing the Conversation with Our Latest Cool Friend After years in the film industry, Stephanie Palmer thought she might know a few things about taking a meeting. As a result, she started a coaching/consulting practice—see stephaniepalmer.com—and she wrote Good in a Room: How to Sell Yourself (and Your Ideas) and Win Over Any Audience. She talks with Erik about selling yourself and your ideas in her Cool Friends interview. You can also listen to their conversation by using this link for an MP3 file, or get a few quick tips with this shorter MP3, "Three Things."

And Selections from TP Wire Service Regular visitors to tompeters.com will know of the TP Wire Service, which scours the Web for interesting publications. Some that recently caught our eye on the subjects of Talent and Brand You were these: Podcast: Technology vs. Personal Interaction, one way of exploiting technology to promote your Brand. The Art of Nimble Networking, top tips for honing your networking skills. Talent Trumps Resume, Persistence Trumps Talent, two counterintuitive views. Treat Employees Right in Tough Times, alternatives to mass layoffs and salary freezes.

Public Tom Events Tom doesn't make many appearances these days that are open to the public. We frequently get inquiries regarding chances to see Tom live. Thus, we are happy to point out two events on his calendar in 2008. First, our friends at HSM bring Tom to Mexico City to join an illustrious group of speakers for the Worldwide Forum on Marketing and Innovation (Foro Mundial de Marketing y Innovacíon 5 November. Then, a very old friend, IIR, hosts Tom in Dubai on 16 & 17 November. There are also two events in October for which we have no registration information as yet. The Estonia Conference on the 7th will be open ticket, as will one in California presented by Linkage on the 16th. Stay tuned.

Master Slides on Talent Don't forget Tom's slide sets ... his Talent master, part 5 of his previous Master set, focuses on "People. The Brand You imperative. Talent, the best Roster wins." Tom has moved on to a NEW Master, so this collection is no longer linked from the front page of tompeters.com, but it is still available, and we offer it here to readers of the TP Times: Part Five, Tom Peters' Master Slides, 19 Oct 2007.

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