LEONARDO DA VINCI – DEFENSE CONTRACTOR

Did you know that Leonardo Da Vinci was a successful Defense Contractor? And, he certainly knew how to put together a proposal!

This week I gave a webinar on How to Market Yourself and I emphasized the need to focus on the buyer’s (employer’s) needs. Prospective employees (and defense contractors!) must show the buyer (employer) how they solve a particular problem and add value.

In 1482, at the age of 30, Leonardo Da Vinci recognized that the Duke of Milan, Ludovico il Moro was in need of better ways to wage war. Here is the translation of Da Vinci’s letter:

"Most Illustrious Lord, Having now sufficiently considered the specimens of all those who proclaim themselves skilled contrivers of instruments of war, and that the invention and operation of the said instruments are nothing different from those in common use: I shall endeavor, without prejudice to anyone else, to explain myself to your Excellency, showing your Lordship my secret, and then offering them to your best pleasure and approbation to work with effect at opportune moments on all those things which, in part, shall be briefly noted below.

1. I have a sort of extremely light and strong bridges, adapted to be most easily carried, and with them you may pursue, and at any time flee from the enemy; and others, secure and indestructible by fire and battle, easy and convenient to lift and place. Also methods of burning and destroying those of the enemy.


2. I know how, when a place is besieged, to take the water out of the trenches, and make endless variety of bridges, and covered ways and ladders, and other machines pertaining to such expeditions.


3. If, by reason of the height of the banks, or the strength of the place and its position, it is impossible, when besieging a place, to avail oneself of the plan of bombardment, I have methods for destroying every rock or other fortress, even if it were founded on a rock, etc.


4. Again, I have kinds of mortars; most convenient and easy to carry; and with these I can fling small stones almost resembling a storm; and with the smoke of these cause great terror to the enemy, to his great detriment and confusion.


5. And if the fight should be at sea I have kinds of many machines most efficient for offense and defense; and vessels which will resist the attack of the largest guns and powder and fumes.


6. I have means by secret and tortuous mines and ways, made without noise, to reach a designated spot, even if it were needed to pass under a trench or a river.


7. I will make covered chariots, safe and unattackable, which, entering among the enemy with their artillery, there is no body of men so great but they would break them. And behind these, infantry could follow quite unhurt and without any hindrance.


8. In case of need I will make big guns, mortars, and light ordnance of fine and useful forms, out of the common type.


9. Where the operation of bombardment might fail, I would contrive catapults, mangonels, trabocchi, and other machines of marvelous efficacy and not in common use. And in short, according to the variety of cases, I can contrive various and endless means of offense and defense.


10. In times of peace I believe I can give perfect satisfaction and to the equal of any other in architecture and the composition of buildings public and private; and in guiding water from one place to another.


11. I can carry out sculpture in marble, bronze, or clay, and also I can do in painting whatever may be done, as well as any other, be he who he may.

Again, the bronze horse may be taken in hand, which is to be to the immortal glory and eternal honor of the prince your father of happy memory, and of the illustrious house of Sforza.

And if any of the above-named things seem to anyone to be impossible or not feasible, I am most ready to make the experiment in your park, or in whatever place may please your Excellency - to whom I comment myself with the utmost humility, etc."
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This has often been analyzed as Da Vinci’s resume, or even his “cover letter” to an employer. Whatever we call it, we certainly have to acknowledge that Da Vinci successfully conveyed his ability in the specific context of the employer’s need. The Duke gave him the job, and Leonardo became a very successful defense contractor!

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Photo credit: "Courtesy of Leonardo3 from Hoepli edition 1894-1094 - www.leonardo3.net."

PEAK EXPERIENCE EXERCISE

(Click here to enlarge)

People often get revelations about themselves by looking at the best parts of their lives in a special way. This peak experience exercise has its roots in the teachings of Abraham Maslow, and in the techniques of NLP (neuro-linguistic programming). Do this in a quiet, relaxed state. It is ok to ask for input from others to recall these best experiences, but then return to a quiet space alone to finish out the exercise.

1. Define the experiences. From each aspect of your life (Education, Relationships, Work), and at perhaps more than one age, remember particular experiences that gave you joy, a thrill, at which you feel you were at your best. Describe the experience. i.e. Started a business and moved quickly to success.
2. Think about what feelings the experience created for you (joy, pride, confidence, excitement, comfort, accomplishment, etc)
3. Vividly recall the situation. Who were you with, where were you, what could you see, hear, sense?
4. What actions did you take to create the outcome? [Contacted clients, bankers, new vendors, hired people]
5. What skills do you have that enabled you to take those actions? [Domain knowledge, ability to analyze things quickly, decisiveness, willingness to risk]
6. How could you apply the skills again? What else can you do with those skills?
7. Look for patterns – similarities in the actions and skills, that help define who you are and your capabilities.
8. Anchor the resources you discover in yourself, so that you can access the skills again and again.

What’s Wrong with Resumes

The trend is moving positive, with many people actually "getting it" that a resume needs to be a promotional flyer that accurately represents who you are in a selective, exciting, compelling manner. BUT, too many people still have really bad resumes!

A bad resume contains:

• Opening paragraphs about Objectives (too general OR too specific – save for cover letter), Summary of Qualifications, Key Strengths, Technical Skills, etc.
• More boring paragraphs about responsibilities and duties
• Insider language and acronyms that people outside your company or industry don't understand
• Bad formatting (emphasis on dates, mixed fonts, letter sizing, pagination problems, headers embedded in text, spacing instead of tabbing, etc.)
• Spelling and grammar errors – more common than you would think
• Personal info that could give hiring managers reasons to DESELECT you
• Functional descriptions with limited job info (should only be used by people with a problem in their job history, like gaps, odd career choices, etc.)
• Tries to tell the WHOLE story of who you are. Leave out the grocery clerk jobs from high school, and start reducing the detail on jobs over 10 years in the past.
  

A good resume conveys a SHORT story about your relevant experience and transferrable skills from the point of view of an employer who needs to understand your value.

Good resumes include the following features:

• Concise, easy to read highlights that list specific accomplishments (with $, %, increases, stats, etc.)
• Focus on employment chronology (with accomplishments for each job listed under that job) without the usual fluff in summary and opening sections
• Well formatted, corrected spelled copy
• Only what is needed to get in the door
• Nothing to enable an employer to de-select you
• Enable scanning, electronic conversion, faxing etc. (Important to know the formatting that works and doesn't work)
  

You may need more than one resume, if you are targeting different types of jobs. Specifics of how you address the requirements of a particular job should be in a concise and to-the-point cover letter, not built into the resume.

Hope this helps!

Exceptional Customer Service – Capt. Denny

United Airlines pilot Captain Denny Flanagan is a legend. Just Google his name and you will find hundreds of personal stories about him. One of my wife's business acquaintances flew with Captain Flanagan last week, and reinforced that Capt. Denny is still at it – wowing the customers with consideration, competence and good humor. I was so impressed with the story, that I asked if I could retell it here. Here is the direct first person account (with the traveler's name and employer changed to protect his privacy):

As I entered the departure area for a United Airlines flight from Orlando to San Francisco on March 1, 2010, I saw something I had never seen before. The captain of our flight was standing in front of the counter with the desk microphone giving a short welcoming speech. He welcomed the passengers to the upcoming flight, told us he was glad we had chosen United, gave an update on travel conditions expected to be smooth, informed us that we would be twenty minutes early due to prevailing winds, once again emphasized how happy he was we had chosen his flight, and asked us to let him know if any of us had any needs.

As we entered the plane, he stood at the door welcoming us and handing out business-size cards with a description of the Boeing 757 we would be flying that day. About once a year I might see a pilot at the door but this was getting to be beyond the normal pilot.

After about two hours of flying, I got up to use the rest room. As I returned to my seat, one of flight attendants stopped me and said, "The Captain wanted me to give you his business card." The card had the name of Captain Denny Flanagan from Chicago's O'Hare Airport and even included his cell phone and e-mail address. The handwritten message on back was special:

Dr. Doe. You are a valued customer and your business is Greatly appreciated. Please let me know how we can exceed your expectations. Capt. Denny

Because I have a lot of miles on United from before going to [current employer] where I mainly use Southwest Airlines, I had used a free upgrade into First Class and my 1 million mile flying status may have contributed to my getting this handwritten card - the second time in fifteen years.

An hour later the flight attendant told the passengers that the Captain had handed out the plane trading card when we entered the plane and he had signed two of those cards. If we had a signed card, he wanted us to have a gift of a bottle of wine. Two call button signals went on and she proceeded back with two wrapped bottles of wine.

Upon return I wrote Captain Flanagan highlighting what I had experienced and thanking him for being a great ambassador for United. Within hours I had this rather remarkable response:

Dr. Doe,

Thank you for your kind words. They are appreciated. Statistics shows that for every compliment or complaint that there are 100 others thinking of doing the same thing. Feedback is so important to know you are on the right track.

In the service business the recipe for success is quite easy. Choose your attitude for the day, anticipate your customer's needs and exceed their expectations. I have a few work philosophies and they have proved effective over the years;

-- I believe that each customer deserves a good travel experience whether on United, American, Continental.........train, bus, taxi or with your best friend in his car. You deserve a safe and comfortable ride.

--Treat each customer as if it is their first flight and have no expectations. .I lead by example and this helps motivate the crew to do a better job. When they see me stow bags, assist moms with strollers and answer questions as if it is the first time I heard it they are brought back to their new hire days.

--It is easier to keep the customers you have than to find new ones....United has a devoted sales team to find new customers and it is time consuming and expensive but necessary. My job is somewhat easier and less expensive and that is to provide a safe and customer-oriented service. If I do my job then the folks in the sales department will have less pressure on themselves.

John, Thanks for flying "The Friendly Skies" of United Airlines. Your business is greatly appreciated. If you are ever on one of my flights again stop up to the cockpit and say hello. If we have time I will go out and buy us a Starbucks.

Capt. Denny

(Cell Phone Listed)

I learned so many lessons from Captain Denny in his response. I hope this five hour experience I enjoyed last week will inspire you to choose your attitude, anticipate the needs of others, and then exceed their expectations. Servant leadership is something else I think about when reading the Captain's e-mail. May others be motivated as you share this brief story.

WOW – I was really impressed reading this, and I hope you are inspired as well! Go Capt. Denny!

Hope in Job Data?

In the last two days, somewhat conflicting job reports have been issued. AP reported yesterday a 7.6% rise in the number of new job openings, and that 5.5 people are competing for each new job, down from 6 per job in December. This is a positive indicator, evidence that employers may soon be hiring. But today, AP reports that unemployment rose in 30 states in January. If this is because there were more people in the job market, this might not be a negative indicator.

There is some anecdotal news evidence at the local level and about specific sectors that indicates hiring is turning up. I've seen articles about San Francisco, San Diego, and also about housing and retail within the last few days.

I've been saying for months that 2010 will bring a big wave of hiring. This week, hiring expert Lou Adler echoed this in his article Are You Ready for the Upcoming Hiring Tsunami?
Lou mentions one of the key reasons we've cited: Employee dissatisfaction. There are other reasons why the "Tsunami" might happen – one that I've been talking about for a while is the potentially unsustainable increases in productivity.

What do you think? Do you think there will be a jobless recovery, or will hiring increase to keep pace with or even outpace economic growth? Let me know! Thanks!

International Women’s Day

In my 25 years as a recruiter I have taken a feminist posture – ensuring that we not only consider but seek out qualified women for all positions. In some sectors, this is quite challenging. Aerospace and Defense engineering for one, is not a niche that historically employed many women. There are times that we have found NOT ONE woman for a particular position, and it often troubles me.

Fortunately, the situation is changing. Women are now in the majority in college attendance, college graduation, and graduate school. Even in technical and scientific disciplines. A generation from now, this won't be an issue.

So, to help it along, if you are in the HR or staffing field, invest a few moments today, International Women's Day, to think about how you can proactively be inclusive on all your recruiting assignments. The workplace is enriched, AND it is the right thing to do.

Top Five Ways to Gain an Edge in Business

This could easily be a TOP 10 list, so to be concise, I offer the five most important ideas:

Benefit to the Buyer: A clear tangible benefit that differentiates you from your competition.

Extra Value: Going beyond why you are different, you must also be better. This includes delighting your customer with superb service.

Communication: The ability to get your message across consistently so it resonates better than your competitor's message. Further, the ability to communicate internally as well, so your employees are empowered, inspired, and known specifically what they have to do.

Play to the Audience: Create products and services that are pain killers (not vitamins) and address specific needs articulated by your market niche. Don't create the perfect mousetrap, only to find out your customer has no problem with mice!

Promise Short, Deliver Long: Create realistic customer expectations, then set a goal of consistently exceeding them. Engage in proactive customer relationship management to ensure you know your customer's perceptions about you at all times.