Expanding Your Personal Brandwidth Marketing Your Personal Skill Set Kevin Williams, C.P.M.

., Manager - Account Development American Express Corporate Services (www.americanexpress.com), P.O. Box 364, Hebron, CT 06248, 860/228-6705 kevin.j.williams@aexp.com When you control the ball, you control the score - Pele Abstract This paper supports a workshop to be held at the 87th Annual N.A.P.M. International Purchasing Conference to be held in San Francisco, California from May 5 through May 8, 2002. This presentation will look at ways Supply Management professionals can grow, develop and find that "dream job" they have been seeking. Starting out The toughest task to accomplish in any effort is deciding where and how to get things underway. This is no different when considering a change in your career path. Part of the problem is that it appears as if youre starting in the middle of a task as opposed to the end. You already have certain life experiences such as education, previous work experience, maybe even family experiences. These all blend to make it appear as if your career path has been predetermined, and that your career depends on outside influences. In this session well look deeper into the elements that make up one example of a career plan, and identify those actions you can take to gain control of your employment situation. Taking a skills inventory It would be impossible to build any product without a basic Bill of Materials to reflect the components that make up that product. In order to establish the full extent of opportunities you have available to you, you first must establish what current knowledge makes up your skills inventory. These are the assets that you bring to the table in any job environment. This step, like all others in this process, needs to be done in writing. If you document each step, it makes it far easier to track your progress along the way and to make adjustments as you need to. Start out by listing those general areas that are obvious components of your current career in Supply Management. These may include skills such as interpersonal communications (phone, email, live, etc.), data entry, data analysis, budgeting and negotiating. Next, drill down a level to find those secondary skills that are a critical component of your current job. For example, you may not feel you have sales and marketing skills. However, have you recently had to convince a department head to consider a change in suppliers? Or maybe youve implemented a new ordering process to which some areas initially objected. These efforts required selling skills to effectively convince your coworkers to adopt a process you strongly believed in. As you look deeper at the work youve performed, you are likely to find dozens of additional support skills you have acquired including consulting, teaching, sales, customer service, graphic arts and facilities operations to name a few.

Once you feel you have tapped out your skills you use at work, look at the skills you have developed in other non-work related activities. Do you teach religious education to youth in your town? You have developed some teaching skills, even if the program seems less formal. Have you served as the chair of a committee in a local volunteer organization such as a PTA, town board or even an affiliate of NAPM? In that capacity, you have developed numerous skills by need, including areas such as leadership, planning and forecasting, surveying, communications and documenting. After you have completed your list of skills (which should now be fairly extensive), list one or two examples of how you have applied each skill successfully. The examples do not only have to come from your work environment, but can include volunteer and outside experiences as well. The key is to make sure you have a lengthy list of ways that you have actually put theory and knowledge to work to solve a problem or to address a need. This step alone will put you well ahead of the curve when you need to sell yourself to a prospective employer. When evaluating my own skills, I found that my ability to relate Supply Management trends in the language of my internal customer was an area of strength. I also discovered that my ability to translate Supply Management data into a plan of action was also evident in my career. When I extended my review out beyond my work environment. I found that my experience as a volunteer Emergency Medical Technician provided me with a basis of breaking down crises into step by step solutions. I also realized that my experience as the President of my local NAPM affiliate provided a wealth of knowledge in leadership, budgeting, strategic planning and performance measurement. When I added up all of my skills, I found I was comfortable with a wider variety of potential situations that I originally considered. Creating your brand Now that you know what you have to offer, you have to decide how to package that offer into an attractive package. Businesses have long known that a powerful brand can equate to long term loyalty, support and even consideration over other equally beneficial products. The premise of this approach is that as individuals, each one of is basically running a small service business. Our employer is the customer and we are selling our ability to meet their needs for our services. In order to successfully market ourselves to the right kind of customer, we need to identify what our own personal brand stands for. Start by reviewing your skills inventory. What traits are strongest among those you have listed? Which ones can you guarantee you will succeed at in any business environment? If it helps in your own organizational process, rank your skills in order from strongest to weakest. Also consider which skills you use on a regular basis against those that you have only relied on occasionally. Having established those traits, next look at those functions which you have a true passion for. Does resolving a tough internal customer satisfaction issue get you excited? When you are able to summarize data that results in making your business case for a change in processes, do you feel elated? The skills that get you charged up and keep you coming back for more represent the core of your brand. By branding yourself in alignment with those areas you enjoy the most, you are building a foundation for strong job satisfaction later on down the road.

For myself, my core brand is all about being a respected consultative resource that Purchasing and Supply Managers can look to for suggestions, opinions and honest advice on better ways to do business. I really get fired up when someone contacts me with a challenge that they are facing and I am able to come up with a solution that they can adopt, especially if the solution yields long term results. So, in essence, the Kevin Williams Company offers guidance and solutions to Supply Management professionals based on his work experience, training and education. Establish your target market Now you know what you have to offer and how you would like to package it. The next thing you need to do is to identify who you are selling yourself to. The best way to address this stage is to create a list of Needs, Wants and Wishes. Needs are those things you have to have to survive. These may include a salary high enough to cover your current debt load, insurance covering your basic health care needs and a company that offers flexible work hours to cover child care needs. Wants are those things that you strongly desire and are likely to be able to obtain. Examples would include an adequate time off policy that covers your needs, a tuition reimbursement program and support for involvement in professional development organizations such as ISM. Wishes are those pie in the sky desires that you think will not be possible, but that you would really like to have. Some wishes might include stock options, a company car and fully paid medical benefits. Some items may fall into different categories depending upon the individual. For example, for some people a work location within a hours drive of their current home may be a need. For others who are willing to relocate, it may be a want instead. Once you have outlined your list, you now need to find those potential employers that can absolutely meet your needs, probably meet your wants and may even meet your wishes. There can be no gaps in the needs list. If there are, then there is a fairly high certainty that you will find yourself hating your job (and possibly your employer) in a short period of time. Then, the more of your wants and wishes that line up, the higher the probability that you have found the right match. Where you find the information on potential employers is dependant upon what your needs are. For example, it is critical to me that my employer value work/life balance and understand that my wife and children are my top priority. As a result, companies that appear on lists that value these traits (such as those in Working Mother Magazine and Fortune Magazine) are companies I am likely to desire working for. Since I personally enjoy the use of advanced technology, companies that have adopted new technology are important to me as well. I found my suppliers to be a great source of information in this area. Now that you have a listing of potential companies you would likely want to work for, start researching what they are really like. Talk with peers that currently work for those firms, many of whom might be attending ISM meetings you are participating in. Ask them what the employer is like to work for. Check to see if assumptions you have are accurate. Those companies whose employees validate that they are getting the needs met that you have identified should now be at the top of your target market list.

Elements of selling yourself Now that you know the companies you want to sell yourself to, you need to consider three key areas in your pursuit of employment with that company. These include: ! Timing. The current overall job market (as of press time for this article) is challenging to say the least. However, there are business sectors which are likely to experience increased opportunity and business in the new economy. If these markets (which may include groups like government, defense, and technology) are the markets you want to be in, then a more aggressive approach to your job search may work. If you are looking to get involved in weaker segments (such as travel & entertainment, finance and consulting), a softer sell and longer term method would yield better results. ! Qualifying leads. In the past, standard job search methods have usually had candidates screen through a Human Resources contact first. Only if you pass the HR screen will you be able to get to the right department, and even them you may not be talking to the ultimate decision maker. This is where your network will become critically important. You stand a much better chance of influencing the ultimate decision maker in the company you are approaching if you can learn who that person is through your network and build a rapport with them before you need to make the push to get hired. ! Expansion of considered jobs. Notice that nowhere in this presentation do I mention listing the specific jobs you are interested in. The reason for this is that by limiting the scope of your search to positions which you know, you are eliminating a long list of potentially great job matches for you in positions you know nothing about. This is probably the key area to the job match I obtained myself in October of 2000. My current job is to serve as a Relationship Manager. In essence, I am a Customer Service Consultant on the products and services my employer provides to our customers. If I had limited my search to strictly positions labeled as Supply Management or Purchasing, I never would have found the opportunity I have today. You need to make sure your considered positions include those jobs that require your skills inventory, match strategically with your brand and fall within your target market. If these criteria are all met, then the title doesnt matter. Summary and Conclusions At times, it can seem that it is impossible to find a job that meets all your needs. In most cases, the real cause of dissatisfaction is that we have not invested the same effort in improving our career that we have in improving our employers bottom line. If you spend the time necessary to identify your skills, label your brand, identify your target market and then time your efforts properly, you can find your dream job.