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January 2012
You'll Never Walk Alone*Alvah Parker is a practice advisor and coach for successful attorneys who want to build a more profitable and fulfilling practice and still have time for other parts of their lives. If you are searching for a way to have more fulfillment from your practice Alvah's Value Program will enable you to identify your strengths, values, behavioral and motivational style so that you can create a practice suites you and doing work that is meaningful to you. By knowing your natural self it will be easier for you to find the joy in the work that you do and make more money in less time thus leaving more time for other parts of your life. With her background in sales and marketing Alvah is able to guide you to a way of doing business that suits your particular style and definition of meaningful work. You will learn to authentically develop business, manage time, hire and direct staff, and control cash flow. For further information, visit Alvah's website. * Title of a song from Carousel by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II Using song titles is just my way of expressing my love of music and musical theater. Each time I come up with a title I rediscover a song I love.
Table of Contents1. Welcome 2. I'm Not That Girl*- A Values Conflict Can Be A Recipe For Disaster
Welcome
Road to Success is an email newsletter written for those who want to find new ways to approach their work and personal life so that their whole life is happier, more fulfilling and productive. I write this newsletter on topics that I find challenging in my own work-life. As Lily Tomlin says, "The road to success is always under construction." I welcome your ideas and hints too. My vision for this newsletter is that it will be a means for us to learn from each other. Happy At Work is the name of my blog. I chose that name because it captures what my practice is about. We spend one third or more of our day working and my goal is to help you find ways to make that work meaningful and profitable so that you are "Happy at Work". Some issues of Road to Success and Parker's Points are the same for both attorneys and career changers. At other times I write two different articles. This month the editions of Road to Success are the same. January 3, 2012 was my mother's 98th birthday. Last year she was ill during the fall and still recuperating in Massachusetts for her 97th birthday. We had a very low key celebration-a party of two people. This year she is in Florida and thriving. We are truly blessed. To celebrate I invited her friends to a party at a local deli where we all had lunch and birthday cake. My mother gave me a list of 15 people to invite. Having that many friends at her age is remarkable. I remember about 10 years ago when she told me her friends were all dying. Actually while we were in the cemetery she noted she knew more people in there than outside. The solution I said was to make younger friends and she has. Now all her friends (all 15) were younger than 98-and she has a similar number of younger friends in Massachusetts. I told the people I invited not to bring gifts. (At 98 she doesn't need more stuff.) They themselves were the gift. I really believe that my mother's longevity is partially due to her ability to make new friends easily. Social interaction is important at every age but gets harder as you age and are less mobile. I hope when I reach 98 I will have a large group of friends like she has. This year I plan to write articles that relate to my value coaching program. This month I have focused on values and values conflicts. I had a values conflict of my own while working for AT&T. It was painful but I learned a lot from it. If something similar happened to you, I'd love to hear about it. You'll find a comment box under the article on my blog. Please write a comment. Wishing you a good finish to the month of January. Watch for Parker's Points on February 9th.
My Best,
I'm Not That Girl*
A Values Conflict Can Make Be a Recipe For Disaster
"Could you fire someone?" That was the first question the Branch Manager asked me at the interview. Needless to say I was floored by the question. I stammered something like, "Yes, if I had given the person time to improve and helped him/her to change but nothing worked then yes I could fire someone. " Somehow that did not satisfy her. She said she was looking for someone who was tough, who focused on the bottom line and was ready to quickly fire anyone that was not producing. I didn't get that job. She said that our "styles" were too different. I wanted the job and was really disappointed. Since I was on the Sales Vice President's staff in New York City and had been for 4 years I was eager to get back to Boston. Later that year the Vice President (her boss too) pretty much strong armed her into hiring me for another sales manager's position. Taking that job was a huge mistake. It was clear from the beginning I was not a good fit for the branch and that branch manager. Today I would say we had a values conflict that did in fact make our styles very different. She had hired the other sales managers and they were happy working for her. I was not comfortable with her nor was I comfortable with the other sales managers. The 2 years I spent in that job were horrible ones for me. I was definitely not happy at work! During that time I secretly criticized her for an insensitive approach to move very quickly, eliminate poor performers and get business at any cost. Today I would say that her values were in conflict with mine. What made my predicament really difficult at that time was that I was limiting my job search to AT&T and Boston. At my level there were very few AT&T jobs in Boston and openings were rare. I had a good salary and benefits at AT&T so I was reluctant to leave the company. Oh those golden handcuffs! Two years later I found a new job -still within AT&T and in Boston. I reconnected with a woman that I had worked with before. She had been promoted to manager and brought me on to her team. I knew her to be organized, dependable and focused. Her team welcomed me and I immediately knew that I fit in. At last I was happy at work again. Let me say that both managers were very successful in their jobs. It was not a question of a bad manager as I thought when I left the first manager's branch. It was just that my values were more aligned with those of the second manager and so we worked really well together. What did I learn from the situation?
*Song from the musical Wicked with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz.
Do You Have a Clearly Written Hiring Process?Do you know what you need to do to determine the values and value of a candidate? Hiring the wrong person is costly, disruptive and unpleasant. The time to prepare for hiring is before you need to hire. I have many useful tools and assessments that can help you with hiring new personnel. Email me for a free values tool. (asparker@asparker.com) If you would like a more in depth discussion and assessment call me at 781-598-0388 or email me at asparker@asparker.com
Links to RememberCheck out the Parker Associates Facebook page for an article entitled How Expectations Can Turn Anything From Worthless to Priceless. Follow me on Twitter @asparker41 Check out my latest ebook, Fast Track Job Search Guide which I co-wrote with Lenore Mewton. Be sure to look at all my offers for attorneys. Visit my blog, Happy at Work to read this and other articles I have written.
About Alvah ParkerAlvah Parker is a Practice Advisor and Career Coach. An award winning Account Executive and Sales Manager for AT&T, Alvah has successfully coached clients to define and achieve their goals. At AT&T, as a SCORE counselor and as a Practice Advisor and coach, Alvah uses her business knowledge to help her clients develop a business and/or career plan. Alvah specializes in working with attorneys who want to build a profitable and fulfilling practice as well as people in transition who are interested in exploring new career options. Her coaching helps her clients to get clear about their personal vision. From that they design a plan and strategy for the future based on that vision. Alvah coaches her clients over the telephone. This means she can be reached from anywhere in the world. You can reach Alvah at 781-598-0388 or asparker@asparker.com. Copyright © 2012 all rights reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce or copy Road to Success in its entirety including copyright and contact information.
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