Seth Godin’s recent reflections on writing blogs is, as always, food for thought.
His first advice is avoid any advice that includes the word “must.” It seems like his collegue, Brian Clarke, has a similar take.

Seth finds that for big organizations to embrace something, they often need the template, the strict rules, the golden path. TV commercials must be thirty seconds. Public companies must have a big lobby and a receptionist. Like that.

The reason that there’s so much pressure and focus on finding an ironclad list of musts is that the big and the slow demand it. Seth’s final take- That doesn’t mean you have to listen to them.

Seth’s advice in a second post - Just say it

Don’t let the words get in the way. If you’re writing online, forget everything you were tortured by in high school English class. You’re not trying to win any awards or get an A. You’re just trying to be real, to make a point, to write something worth reading.

So just say it.

Candidates who are actively looking for work are visiting more and more job boards - these job boards are a great source for getting your message out to this target audience.

This new technology is great for the job seeker - with one new service, candidates can search all the top career sites at once and apply to all jobs with one click, whether it is 1 or 1000.

While this makes it convenient for the job seekers – it creates major challenges for the recruiters. Now the same resume goes to several companies at the same time and it then becomes a race to be the first to make an offer before someone else does. This is forcing many recruiters who feel under pressure to consider ways to move the process along faster so they can get the candidate an offer faster. The most common technique is to ask fewer questions, leaving out key information about the candidate, and to measure success by how fast we fill the position.

The goal of the hiring process is to find The Right People, not People Right Now. Who are The Right People? That is your decision, but here are the big six things that we recommend you look for in an applicant:

1. Learn quickly and don’t get caught up in the wrong details

2. Take personal accountability or responsibility for their own actions

3. Have a sense of humour and know how to use to use it appropriately to defuse conflict and/or engage others.

4. Attitude towards types of work

5. Attitudes towards types of supervision

6. Attitudes towards your customers/clients

These are not the characteristics that come from the resume, but do come from the next step in the McKinley Hiring Solution, the online first interview that begins the McKinley Hiring Process.

If you want to Attract, Hire, Train and Retain “The Right People”, check out the complete McKinley Hiring Solution.

I received an invitation from a business colleague to become his Facebook “friend”. He is a well-known author and public speaker and views Facebook as a valuable and viable business networking venue.

While there is a chance that some of the information could be open to abuse, he is willing to take that chance because of the benefits of being more connected to his colleagues and clients.

He presents some compelling business development reasons to get on Facebook:

…the key to a successful online presence for business, for networking, and for fun is to show up in many places. One web page does not an online presence make. When you keep popping up one environment after environment people start remembering you. One small cavil, however… what pops up must be congruent.

The days of hiding behind gatekeepers are over. Long live transparency and intimacy.

In case you’re wondering, Michael and I are now “friends”.

According to Jeffrey Gitomer, people spend more time trying to figure out how to get a 7% return on their money than they do trying to figure out how to get a 1000% return on their life, their career, their success, and their fulfillment.

Investing has a much more powerful opportunity that most people do not take advantage of. Investing in you. Personal investing that, if done correctly, will lead to wealth and security without one share of stock.

According to Gitomer Investing in you consists of several elements, including:

Think investment. How much “think time” are you setting aside each day?

Library investment. Survey your library. Look at the books you admire most. Look at the ones you promised yourself you’d read, but somehow never did. What about the books you need to read to get ahead?

Physical investment. What shape is your body in? You must invest in a healthy lifestyle to have a healthy look.

Health investment. When you’re sick, nothing else matters besides getting well. That’s why it’s an imperative to invest in heath and well-being. Prevention. Not “cure what ills.”

Study investment. In sales, the word “student” is defined by the salesperson’s dedication to lifelong learning, and the salesperson’s willingness to research sales calls before they are made.

Time investment. I saved this quality for last, because it’s the glue that holds all the other investments accountable. Time to study your product, time to think, time to study your customers and prospects, even time to study the competition. There is also a time commitment for networking, writing, and marketing. Time is your best friend. Take advantage of it.

Instead of searching for a hot tip, you might want to consider searching your PDA and inserting some appointments with yourself for thinking, writing, reading, exercising, and studying — elements vital to your success, but currently missing from your lifestyle.

You can improve personal productivity with Web tools according to a recent article in Profit magazine. They include Web tools that will help you:

Get control of your to-do lists - Still scribbling to-do lists on scraps of paper at home, at work and in the car? Toss them all and try a free online to-do list such as Ta-da List .

Keep appointments straight, from anywhere - Online calendars such as Google Calendar have two big advantages over those in e-mail programs such as Outlook: they’re easier to view from any place or device, and easier to share with business contacts, friends and family.

Gather key info in one place - Having crucial information scattered all over the place can blow a hole in your productivity. Web tools such as Backpack helps you keep it all straight by providing an online home for your ideas, to-do lists, photos and files.

Say goodbye to Word and Excel with Google Docs and Spreadsheets - Word processing and spreadsheets are what got business hooked on computers in the first place. The addiction will only deepen now that you can use this free browser-based service to, for example, create a word-processing file even if you’re on the road without your own computer

Slice and dice data in bold new ways - Once you’ve seen the eye-opening Dabble DB video on the firm’s site, suddenly Excel, Access and FileMaker seem a bit clunky. Dabble makes it easy to import existing data from spreadsheets, contact lists or databases (or input it from scratch), then group, sort and filter it.

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Because many people resolve to achieve some goal or realize some form of personal satisfaction around New Year’s, it’s an ideal time to reflect on your career according to a recent article in Chief Learning Officer.

Take time to consider your unique strengths, skills and interests to ensure you are doing what you do best. With this focus, you’ll be prepared to consider ways you can better leverage your talents and identify career paths — whether within your current organization, or with another employer — and then begin to map a plan of action.

To help evaluate career satisfaction and success, ask yourself these questions:

• Assess your level of satisfaction - Consider how much you enjoy the work you do, your career opportunities and the culture of the organization. If you’re not happy in your role or with your employer, a job change may be something to consider.

• Assess your skills and abilities - Are you doing what you do best? Take a look at your skills, abilities and interests, and see if they are aligned with your current role. People whose skills, abilities and interests are at their highest perform at the top of their games and get the most satisfaction out of the work they do.

• Assess your professional development opportunities - Are you satisfied with your current career path? Has your career been moving forward, laterally, standing still, or are you being bypassed for promotions and choice assignments?

• Assess your career net worth - Career net worth is the value the market places on your unique abilities and knowledge. Continually building your skills, knowledge and technical expertise creates demand, keeps you competitive and generates the highest career net worth.

• Assess your opportunities for 2008 - In this dynamic, global market, it is critical to be able to effectively manage changes. Don’t neglect actively building and maintaining your network. Great places to make new networking contacts include people from both your personal and professional lives, such as trade and industry groups, and community organizations. Keep in touch regularly to strengthen those relationships.

Be sure you don’t make impulsive, snap decisions based on only one or two factors — such as a recent disagreement with your manager, or a smaller-than-anticipated raise or bonus. Decisions about whether to change jobs or careers need to be based on a complete picture, and not just one incident.