Change Your Life -- You CAN Make it Better

Would you change your life if you could? Would you change your career? Don’t you want to be the best you that you can possibly be? Isn’t your ultimate fantasy to have a career you love? A job where others recognize and praise your talents? A position where you are nicely rewarded with a higher salary and enhanced perks?

That fantasy can quickly turn into reality if you are savvy enough to see that a new paradigm is sweeping through the workplace, one where employers are focusing on matching an employee’s strengths to the job requirements for a particular position. It used to be that managers encouraged employees to focus on improving weaknesses. Now, the human resource trend is to develop and enhance natural strengths, since an employee, using his or her inherent gifts, is found to perform better on the tasks required by the job.

The number one New York Times bestseller, Break All the Rules, from the Gallup Poll’s Marcus Buckham and Curt Coffman study, cited more than 80,000 interviews to test the hypothesis of whether working on strengths betters your career, or if working on overcoming weaknesses will help you advance to a higher level. The study decisively concluded that after examining why top managers excelled, one reason stood out successful managers consistently used their strengths.

Skeptical? So was my career counseling client Kelly who had to relocate and give up a job she really loved. She was convinced she’d never ever find a job as good as the one she had just quit so she could be near her fiancé. Her five page resume did nothing to promote her strengths and talents.

Once we clearly defined who she was professionally and established her career identity, AKA her personal brand, employers took an interest. That led to her accepting a legal counsel job with a Fortune 100 company. Kelly wrote to say: “Robin, this new position is beyond my hopes and dreams. The personal branding we did was eye-opening for me. My new employer has given me a wonderful advanced opportunity based on totally using my strengths. It’s really a fantastic fit … thanks for all your help in getting me here.”

Society has been focused on thinking that attempting to fix weaknesses is what management of employees is all about. New research shows people who are allowed to use their strengths perform their very best each day, and are much more successful and productive on the job. This approach results in a win-win situation employers get more engaged and productive workers, while the employee gets a job that is rewarding and fulfilling.

   Your Career Identity

Can you quickly state what your key strengths are? Do you know what your career identity is? Not your job title, but your CAREER IDENTITY. It’s that unique authentic reputation you have among bosses, colleagues, and other employees. This reputation is what I call Brand You.

Personal branding may not be a term you are familiar with. But you need to be. It took me quite a while to consider how exactly I could teach someone else about self-marketing their personal brand to advance their career. The heavy corporate brand advertising or marketing approach would lose people quickly. So I spent over two years working on the process, and the end result is my newest book, “Soaring on Your Strengths” available as of today!

I think I found the best way to show you how because my career-counseling clients those that followed this advice -- surely soared! New jobs …promotions … big salary increases …and greater job satisfaction. I think Divine Providence helped in writing this book, since the end result can quickly transform someone’s career and life.

Your career identity is not some slick piece of advertising. Brand You is based on the authentic, talented, and genuinely unique and special person you are. It is not phony and conceited, or an exaggeration, nor is it a trick or fleeting fad. The components of Brand You are the essence of you as a person, which include: your work strengths, your image, your passion and your personality traits, along with other people’s perceptions of you, applied in a work environment that enhances your productivity.

I recommend you give yourself a gift for the new year that will impact your career throughout your lifetime. You will shape your career identity into one that is highly valued and well rewarded by employers. By the end of this book, you will possess a clearly defined career identity. No matter what stage you are at in your career the beginning, middle, or senior level, or if you are changing careers or reinventing yourself you’ll have a game plan for your future. You will know how to self-promote and market yourself successfully to become the very best you can be.

                                   

 I recommend you give yourself a gift for the new year that will impact your career throughout your lifetime. You will shape your career identity into one that is highly valued and well rewarded by employers. By the end of this book, you will possess a clearly defined career identity. No matter what stage you are at in your career the beginning, middle, or senior level, or if you are changing careers or reinventing yourself you’ll have a game plan for your future. You will know how to self-promote and market yourself successfully to become the very best you can be.

“Soaring on Your Strengths” is a book that will prove to have been a great Christmas offering in years to come. So go ahead, buy it, read it, and use it to improve your future.

Hire Robin to be your Career Coach

Robin Ryan will be your personal trainer during your career counseling. Let America's most popular career counseling expert give you the help you need with your career now, to improve your life and allow you to achieve your dreams.

Lots of people start looking for work and suddenly find themselves competing hard for a dream position. Robin can improve your odds of landing it. Career counseling sessions are offered nationally over the phone; with in-person consultations available in the Seattle area.

Want to read more articles by Robin Ryan?

Many of Robin's articles have appeared in such prestigious magazines as Money, Business Week and Cosmopolitan. She has also appeared in the pages of the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, and many others. Robin's nationally syndicated column by Gannett Newspapers is carried on 100+ online newspaper sites.

Reprint permission: The author grants reprint permission, but requires any usage to credit the author with a byline, list all her book titles, her website information and link if online. Please email Robin at robin@robinryan.com detailing intended use of her articles.

© Copyright 2008 Robin Ryan. All rights reserved.

Need more assistance?  Robin is available to help you achieve your goals and dreams with individual career counseling. Click here to learn more.

Robin Ryan has appeared on Oprah and Dr. Phil and is considered to be America’s top career coach. Robin has a busy career counseling practice providing individual career coaching, resume writing services, interview preparation, salary negotiations, and outplacement to clients nationwide. She is the best-selling author of : "60 Seconds & You're Hired!," "Soaring On Your Strengths," "What to Do With the Rest of Your Life," "Winning Resumes," and "Winning Cover Letters." A dynamic national speaker, Robin has spoken to over 1200 audiences sharing her insights on how to improve their lives and obtain greater success. Contact Robin at: 425.226.0414, or email: robin@robinryan.com, or visit her website: http://www.robinryan.com

Reprints release: Newspapers, magazines, online websites are granted permission to reprint this in part or whole but are required to credit the author including author's bio, book credits, and include author's website information (with link if online); PLUS email author at robin@robinryan.com and state when and where reprint publication will occur. Questions: contact author at robin@robinryan.com or 425.226.0414.