It took me a while to develop the habit of donating money to charities in a planned way. When I was new into the workforce it was not top of mind for me to give some of my very small income away to others. Today I tend to look at the world a little differently! I am very fortunate to be healthy, gainfully employed and living in one of the best countries in the World. I now think it is my responsibility as a good citizen to give something back, to help those who are less fortunate than me. This is a habit that I have cultivated over time and each year my wife and I plan out how much we will donate and to which causes.

Giving money to worthy causes should be a conscious choice and not a knee jerk reaction to being caught at a “weak moment” … although donating $10 or $20 here and there has become an expected part of my life!

Probably the first time I made a conscious decision to allot money on an annual basis was to the United Way through a payroll deduction scheme. A few dollars every payday certainly didn’t make a huge difference in my life and yet it can make a big difference for a charity. Many people will spend money every day on coffee without a second thought, so giving some dollars every month to charity should also come naturally.

How much should you give?

If you are new to the workforce I would suggest looking at your disposable income and make a contribution that isn’t going to hurt. If you gave $20 a month would that make a difference in your life? Could you give $25 or even $50 without feeling the pain … then do it!

Once this becomes part of your conscious decision making process then you can adjust your budget over time. Some people will apportion a percentage of their income to charity, while others will budget a certain dollar value on an annual basis. You have to be able to feel good about your donation and that will be different for everybody.

My message with this blog is to encourage everybody to give something to a good cause on a regular basis, and to make that just a natural part of being a good citizen. Start small, start now and make a difference … it really does feel good to help!

I was given a copy of Jeffrey Gitomer’s book, “Little Black Book of Connections” which I briefly skimmed and will definitely read. One of the first sentences in the book says, “To climb the ladder of success you don’t need more techniques and strategies, you need more friends.” Clearly the focus of this book is networking.

My belief is that if you are a salesperson, or a business person then the more people you know the more chance you have of knowing what is going on in the market. If you know where the opportunities are then you have a chance of winning them, If you never knew they existed then your competition will be happy.

So the first reason to meet lots of people is to have an “ear to the ground”.

Over time you will develop relationships with people that can influence your world. These may be people that buy your product or service, or they may be people that can influence decisions in your favour. If your whole approach is to create relationships with people who can help you then you are doomed. By its very nature a relationship is a two-way thing and it is here that the less experienced sales person can really have problems. How can you bring value to your client? How do you build a relationship of trust?

The hardest part of networking is building valued relationships.

- The easiest answer is to be genuine. Take a real interest in the person and look for ways to bring them value and to build trust.
- Make commitments and keep them! If you say you will get back to them within 24 hours then deliver … even if you don’t have the answer yet, you MUST get back to them.
- Relationships happen over time, so one or two meetings does not mean you have a relationship. Meet them regularly … which could be daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or even annually depending upon circumstances. However you need to understand that there is no relationship until you have met several (I have heard the number 6 used) times.
- Do things for them. It doesn’t have to be big things, one sales manager I knew always showed up with 2 cups of coffee (one for the client). Send them interesting clippings, cheer them up when they are down etc.
- Feed them information about the market, the industry or anything that might help them.
- Never “develop” a relationship based on what you can get … always try to develop a relationship where you are giving.

A good sales person will have a network that consists everything from close friends to casual acquaintances. A good practice is to always be consciously strengthening the network by meeting new people and building stronger relationships with existing contacts.

One of the interesting questions in Gitomer’s book is “Who can count on you? Who would call you at two in the morning?” What would your answer be … besides your Mom!

When people think of the Toastmasters clubs they tend to think of public speaking. Certainly this is a big focus for the clubs, which seem to exist all over North America if not the World.

I am not a member of toastmasters however many years ago when I was first moving into a sales role it was suggested that this might be a good organization to help me to refine my presentation skills. I spent two years in the group, gained a certification in public speaking and learned a great deal. It is an experience that I would suggest to anyone in business, but particularly for sales people.

Here are some of the benefits that I personally enjoyed:

1. First and foremost a grounding in public speaking. How to organize a speech; how to present the speech and many “do’s” and “don’ts” of public speaking.
2. Thinking on my feet. The group has exercises that force you to think through a mini-speech with very little preparation time. It is amazing over the years how many times I have mentally developed an ad hoc presentation. Introduction, body and conclusion!
3. Meeting organization. Not an obvious thing when you first hear of toastmasters, however their meetings run like clockwork. It is a great way to learn about effective meetings!
4. Networking. The people in the clubs are all trying to improve themselves, so there is already a common connection. Many “up and comers” will view these clubs as a good learning mechanism and so it is a good place to meet like minded people.

There are many other ways to learn about public speaking and organizing one’s thoughts before talking, but I have fond memories of my time at Toastmasters. It is worth a try for any budding sales person or even people who give presentations.

A quick Google search will reveal a multitude of clubs wherever you are in Canada.

I have written about passion several times on this blog. I think it is irrefutable that someone with passion can really make things happen, and every now and again we are fortunate to come across someone with that infectious kind of passion. It can be both exhilarating and exasperating! You might well agree with them, but you might as easily disagree with them. Really it doesn’t matter, people with passion have a purpose to their lives.

Recently a friend sent me a foreword from a Lee Iacocca book. Here is an eighty-two year old guy and he still has fire in his belly! He was talking about apathy in the American public, in accepting the policies and decisions of their government. He talks about Iraq, about debt about statesmanship and is clearly not a George W. Bush fan!

I have not read the book and can’t really comment on his politics. I can tell you that I would love to have even a small percentage of this man’s passion when I am his age.

if you are not living your life with passion then what are you doing? Coasting? You only get one chance at this life so get passionate about SOMETHING!!!

There are certain times of year when most of us find it a little harder to keep the same effort going at work. Holiday seasons tend to lead to a slow down, as does the onset of the warmer weather. It can be a big distraction on a hot day looking out the window and picturing yourself sitting on a patio somewhere drinking a cold beer.

It may, or may not, surprise you to know that CEOs and other senior executives have the same thoughts! We are equally enthralled by the prospect of sun on the face, forgetting about the pressures of work and sipping a cold one!

Unfortunately work still needs to get done, clients’ needs must be met and the bills have to be paid … so we can’t give in to temptation. At least not all the time! As anyone who reads this blog regularly will know, I am a big fan of good time management techniques and I also like to think that I am a pragmatic kind of guy. So my answer is to plan for “downtime” … come in a little earlier, work through lunch, be extra productive and then reward yourself with that hour on the patio on a Friday afternoon.

At the end of the day, if you are a professional, most 21st century managers don’t really want to be measuring your effort by looking over your shoulder. They want to see results! If you are delivering results then you will get plenty of slack from management … it is those who are not delivering that will have trouble getting away for the afternoon beer.

The CEO is where the buck stops … if I consider that I can afford to go sit on a patio then I do it. Nobody will do my job while I am gone so whether I do the work before the beer or after may be a mute pint!

The bottom line is that there is nothing wrong with rewarding ourselves now and again. The trick is to make sure you have earned the reward! Maybe Friday!!!

Talent is Never Enough by John C. Maxwell

This book strikes a chord for me because I have always believed that people with great talent don’t always achieve the success that they might, and my conclusion had been that they did not work as hard as others. Perhaps their talent made them a little complacent, such that less talented but harder working people beat them out. This book goes much further and identifies 13 factors at play besides talent!

1. Belief. Maxwell identifies a belief in yourself, in your potential and in your mission as major factors in success at whatever your goal might be … regardless of your talent.
2. Passion. I agree that a person with passion makes things happen, can ignite others to follow and will be hard to deflect from a purpose!
3. Initiative. People who succeed are willing to act even if conditions are not perfect, will ignore their natural fears and “go for it”.
4. Focus. People with focus direct all of their energies (talents) to the goal.
5. Preparation. People who prepare well increase their chances of success, where sometime the talented individual may rely upon their natural abilities.
6. Practice. If you study the great athletes they all practice their skills, to improve upon their natural talents. The same can be said of great business leaders.
7. Perseverance. People who lack perseverance will give up too easily, the resilience need to persevere through adversity makes winners.
8. Courage. The courage to face adversity and take risks will take you to great heights.
9. Teachability. This is Maxwell’s word, I might have suggested that humility might have worked here too. Winners are open to learning, will recognise that they can always learn from others. Sometimes talented people have an ego that suggests otherwise.
10. Character. Maxwell suggests that character is composed of four elements: self-discipline, core values, a sense of identity and integrity.
11. Relationships. None of us can accomplish much alone and the relationships that we build might well define the extent of our success.
12. Responsibility. Maxwell suggests that a sense of responsibility is required by all of us and often that is not nurtured. He cites the example of high school athletes whose reckless behaviours might be overlooked because of their importance to a sports team. Hence the talented individual may sometimes not develop a good sense of responsibility.
13. Teamwork. Often the talented individual is not the best team player, yet we all know that it is teams that win in the end.

Maxwell’s book is a good reminder that we are all capable of success, whether we are the most talented or not. It is also a reminder to those with great talent that they need other qualities to have true success.

Enjoy the book! I will also mention Executive Book Summaries, because this is a great way to get a synopsis of business books in 8 pages without committing to buying a book that you may or may not enjoy. Maxwell’s book summary is available through these guys!

Again this subject receives a lot of attention in the press. CNC Global released their quarterly report (Eagle does it monthly) and it talks about skills shortages. The resultant press about the subject generates a response from IT professionals who are having trouble finding jobs. I wrote a blog about the IT skills shortage in February last year, I don’t think that much has changed.

The facts as I see them …

1. There is a big demand in Canada for qualified IT professionals, both permanent employees and contract resources.
2. That demand is not likely to reduce because IT is a key component of any business and retiring boomers will reduce the “gene pool”.
3. Today employers are still being very picky about what they want.
4. As the skills crunch gets worse they will not have that luxury.
5. As demand increases the qualified resources are applying market force economics and increasing their expectations (salary, or hourly rate for contractors).
6. Employers are struggling to operate in a global economy and trying to contain costs.
7. Offshore solutions are gaining traction because of increased local costs, AND shortages of qualified resources.
8. Companies are not equipped to retrain resources from one technology area to another, particularly with the pace that projects move.
9. There are plenty of good reasons why students are not selecting technology course in university … however, this is a big problem for the future of our industry.
10. Immigration is a good answer for Canada (hey maybe I’m biased because I immigrated 25 years ago from England).

Kevin’s definition of qualified resources: Someone who has the skills to do the job today.

Notes:
1. In IT that can be very frustrating, resulting in very qualified IT resources having difficulty getting work because their skills are in a technology or area that is not in demand.
2. Re-training is often referenced as “the answer”, but for many companies the costs and risks are higher than finding other solutions … such as offshoring.

Whenever the issue of skill shortages hits the press so does the plight of these people. In February last year I also wrote a relevant blog about how progress can hurt.

I don’t have any magic answers for the underemployed IT professional today, hard work reset expectations, humility and a willingness to do what it takes usually wins in the end.

In the B2B (Business to Business) sales world there are a number of different “types” of sales but for simplicity I will categorize them into Complex sales and Simple sales. A simple sale is also sometimes known as a transactional sale.

In the staffing business we have both types of sales. The complex sale might be the process required to become a preferred supplier to a client; the simple or transactional sale is the process of placing a person(s) into a role.

Success in transactional selling requires the normal credibility development and relationship management, however a strong work ethic will also bring good results. Someone with a good work ethic, an established credibility and good relationships will ‘clean up”!

So how does it work? Certainly not rocket science …

1. The more opportunities that you have from clients, the more closes you will have! If you have a great recruiting engine the results will be even better.
2. The more meetings you have, the more opportunities you will get.
3. The more calls you put out the more meetings you will get.

If, as a sales person, you can buy in to this concept then you are half way to success! It really isn’t much harder than that … the work at the front end will drive the result at the end.

There are some obvious skills that will help:

1. Good cold calling capability will help with the calling.
2. Good meeting preparation will help drive productive meetings.
3. Good listening skills, note taking and asking the right questions will mean getting all of the required information to identify the right solutions.
4. Good follow up, attention to detail and sense of urgency will increase the close ratios.

What a great industry this is! We are in a hot market, with growing skills shortages and our sales teams should be having a ball! Go get them!

My son will be graduating from high school this year, and in the Fall he will “leave the nest” and go to Toronto University. It is an exciting time for an 18 year old, and I have no doubt that he will have (more than?) his share of fun, in addition to his studies.

This is also an age where many people come to realize some of life’s harsh realities, and one of those is that our actions can have serious consequences. I know people that are unable to travel to the US because they have a criminal record … 20 years ago they were caught smoking marijuana etc. Many jobs today require applicants to complete a background check, and a criminal record could impact getting the job, whether it was marijuana, drunk driving or some other “relatively” minor offence.

Some common actions that have been known to have serious consequences:

- A few drinks, out with some friends and an argument happens. Blows are exchanged and someone dies after banging their head on the sidewalk. You could be the person on the sidewalk or you could be the person who will pay for the bad choice.
- A few drinks, over the limit but its not far to get home. Stopped by the police means a conviction and a lost license, worse an accident might cost a life.
- Applying for a job you embellish your resume … later as a senior manager you are caught. Being fired, disgraced and labeled a liar is a tough consequence.

Obviously there a million decisions, big and small, that can have consequences. So what is the answer?

Never get to the point where you don’t have control enough to make sane decisions. Always think through the consequences of your actions and develop a moral compass that is built on values that you can believe in and which can guide your decisions. Life is a fabulous journey that will include every emotion and can truly bring great satisfaction. It is a terrible shame when a poor decision ruins that promise!

Walk Fast and Smile!

Each month Eagle’s Regional Vice Presidents put together this cross Canada look at the IT job market … here it is hot off the press!

They say April showers bring May flowers… this axiom is certainly true for IT in the West! Requirements for BAs and Architects in April (and previous months this year) are translating into the need for technical resources to bring their vision to fruition. The contracting business continues to be brisk with higher pressure on rates – from the contractors “up” and the clients “down”. Overall, rates are holding relatively steady, although there is a lot of tension surrounding these.

Vancouver has witnessed increased activity in the gaming and alternative fuel industries and over the past month there has been substantially more supply-side challenges for IT resources of all levels. Demand from Alberta is clearly being felt. BC companies are being forced to be less selective when choosing their contractors – picking people who are 7′s and 8′s where they had been holding out for 10′s. Any delays in the hiring process, results in missed opportunities as contractors often have multiple opportunities and offers.

The Edmonton IT job market remains strong and with many local contractors working, supply of readily available resources is low. Contractors wishing to relocate to Edmonton (even temporarily) are finding that rising housing and rent costs are making it much more difficult. The dearth of available, high-quality contractors is having much the same effect as in Vancouver where organizations are being far less selective and are accommodating contractors looking to work remotely or part-time hours.

In Calgary, large oil and gas clients are demanding and, so far, are willing to pay for IT professionals with specific industry experience. Contractors without the oil and gas experience show a lot of interest in becoming involved in this industry and are seeing more success in the smaller companies. It is suspected that as budgets begin to be threatened, large oil and gas companies will begin to consider IT professionals from other industries, as these contractors have been apt to reduce their rates for the chance to enter the industry.

Winnipeg organizations, who historically have been very cost conscious, are really feeling the labour shortage as over the past months many mobile contractors have looked further West for bigger, better, more lucrative opportunities. Local IT talent is almost fully employed making it challenging to fill open requirements. Rates are up and available, high-quality IT resources have multiple offers to consider. Companies uncomfortable with the rising cost of contracting are looking to hire more full-time staff and we are seeing an increase in full-time placement activity. Businesses are interested in converting contractors to permanent employees but are mindful of transition costs.

Hot skills in demand across the West include: Vancouver – .NET, PMs, BAs, QA, Java Developers and 1st-Level IT Support (a first for our hot skills list!), Edmonton – BAs, SAs, PMs, Oracle DBAs, Architects and .NET experienced Programmer/Analysts, Calgary – SAP, .NET, BAs, PMs, Java, “Upstream” anything, Java Developers and Agile, Infrastructure and ERP Consultants, Winnipeg – PMs, .NET and Java Developers, Crystal Reports and SAP.

The month of April in the GTA was one that saw a marked improvement in both public and private sector contracting activity. With their new fiscal year in full swing, the public sector has started to pick up across Ontario. Candidates with health care experience will have many choices, as it tops the “in-demand” skill sets. The financial industry showed particular overall growth, with a demand for contractors that ranged from developers and testers, to more functional business analysts and project managers. Contractors with brokerage experience were in particular demand this past month, as well as those with insurance (Ingenium) experience.

A study released on April 18, 2007 by the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) (a “Current Snapshot of the Canadian ICT Labour”) reiterated what everyone in the industry knows as a universal truth – it is hard to obtain and retain ICT talent in the GTA and across Canada. In addition to the usual key statistics on labour supply and demand, they dispel some of the current “myths” about the marketplace held by candidates and employers alike. This is reflected in the rise in April of full-time staffing placements.

The hot skills this month in the GTA include: SAP (all modules), .NET, SharePoint, SQL, Oracle, and Tandem. In the full-time market the top in demand technical skills include: Java, SQL, J2EE, Oracle, ASP, .NET, VB, and C#.

In Eastern Canada demand continued to be strong through the early spring, particularly for full-time roles with many companies investing in their IT and business systems. Many organizations, the Federal Government included, are in very active hiring mode and most are planning for further requirements and hiring to continue through the second half of the year. Organizations are clearly struggling with resourcing challenges. In fact it’s a double whammy in that several not only are struggling in finding new hires on their own to facilitate growth and expansion but also in retaining their own key resources as more and more competition heats up for qualified, experienced people. There are some who suggest we are at full employment levels in IT with National IT employment at 600,000 – a level not seen since the pre 2000 dot com bust. Salaries and working conditions, primarily hours, have and will continue to be adjusted favourably towards candidates to offset what is clearly one of the biggest challenges facing most organizations. It remains a conundrum that most university and college technology and computer science programs continue to struggle to attract high school graduates in to their programs as the hangover effects of the aforementioned bubble burst of 2000 continues to have legs when it comes to students and career choices.

Federal government departments are talking more and more these days about transformation and change as departments streamline and look to focus on being more service and client oriented, web enabled and accessible to all Canadians easily and readily. There are also a couple of common themes heard in government of late as it pertains to the use of contractors. First the use of contractors to enhance internal IT organizations, more specifically as a means of
knowledge transfer to government full time employees, is becoming a highly visible and strategic benefit that many departments have not utilized well and look to realize more as they face their own internal demographic challenges. Also, many departments are taking a strategic look at their use of contractors overall to get better value. There has been a tendency in the past in government to use contractors beyond the skill gap solution they were originally required for, for instance moving a contractor from a development environment into maintenance mode and thereby negating the skill gap solution they were brought in for originally which often sees them evolve into a more employee-like role. Both ideas are very valid and will bear watching in the months and years to come.

Hot skills in the region this month include: Biztalk, Quality Assurance Specialists, Architects, Oracle DBAs and Change Management Consultants.