Self Perspective

Here is today’s rundown for the podcast:

First up, we revisit last week’s weekly video blog on an early trend in healthcare that I believe has real merit for personal career brand management and to help in finding your next better job: the use of video bios.

Next, we will focus on the common phrase “Bigger is Not Better.”  As the transformation of healthcare continues apace, some health systems are eying mergers, apparently believing that bigger is better.  Bigger is just bigger and less n

Job Interviews are probably the most important aspect of the employment process and yet this is where many candidates struggle. 

Today on SelfPerspective we are going to talk about how to integrate your life’s stories into your answers to questions from prospective employers.

If you want to improve your interview performance, this is a must listen-to podcast.  John Self is a masterful story teller and understands how to use stories to fashion a compelling message in a job interview.

To be successful in today’s business climate, you not only have to execute your business strategy and exceed your performance objectives, you must also have well-honed career management skills, including a deep understanding of personal branding.

It is a concept author and consultant Tom Peters first wrote about in Fast Company magazine in August of 1997 entitled "A Brand Called You." In the 21 years since the article first appeared, it is has become more relevant.

Today we focus on the prickly question of how you should change jobs — what to say to your current employer and when you should say it.

There are far too many bosses who can be extremely vindictive to employees who become  job seekers.  They view it as a loyalty issue — by accepting another position, even for a nice promotion you have betrayed them.  These “Its all about me” bosses can react inappropriately, sometimes even illegally, so looking for another job can be a dicey proposition.

We view starting our own business, being an entrepreneur, in the most romantic and exciting terms. Rarely does the idea, the realistic possibility of failure, cloud our  thinking.   We hold on to the stories of those famous entrepreneurs who started a company in a small garage somewhere only to hit it big and reap the enormous financial rewards of taking the gamble.

The money, the fame are powerful distorters of the reality that most entrepreneurs fail.

Leaders who cannot communicate are toast.  We are revisiting a blog post from earlier this year that really resonated with me today as I was planning this broadcast.

“Do you understand what I just said?”

That was one of my mother’s questions that always got my attention.

 Conversely, as a recruiter, there are times when I have wanted to ask a candidate: Do you understand what you just said?

There is emerging momentum to the idea that affiliating with a larger health system will not guarantee independent community hospitals or smaller health systems the market security or financial sustainability to serve their communities. Market dynamics for safer, lower cost of care delivered in an environment that patients really like seems to fly in the face of the mega systems.

Here is today’s big idea:  Health systems and hospitals, facing cost structures that are not sustainable, are looking at outsourcing departments and operations that have never before been subject to scrutiny, according to Black Book’s Q2 outsourcing survey.  

The survey’s authors said that by 2022, four short years from today, average hospital costs must be reduced by 24 percent in order to break even.  

This could have an impact on your career so now is the time to pay attention to this importan

There is a career transition myth that the size of a job applicant’s network or absent his own, the size of his outplacement consultant’s network, is critical in the process of finding a new job. It is simply not true. 

Candidates win or lose jobs based on their performance in the interview and most candidates struggle mightily with this aspect of their job search

The biggest threat Chief Executive Officers face when joining a new organization is the existing culture. Today’s big idea focuses on job transition and how to avoid this common cause for CEO failure.

Culture is an incredibly complex subject. It is the amalgamation of a multiple of things, from values, leadership examples, behaviors and habits. CEOs that ignore the existing culture at a new organization do so at their own peril.

Today's podcast offers three steps to mitigate this risks.