Because even though I've used the word "attraction" in this post's title, and I'm convinced that we can do a lot to attract the kinds of people and situations we want in our lives, there are more effective ways of attracting what we want than simply repeating, "I welcome the abundance of perfect job offers" to yourself in the mirror every morning.
You need to know what value you provide to an employer, envision your ideal job and take steps to make yourself attractive to your ideal organization.
Stacey Hall and Jan Brogniez's book, Attracting Perfect Customers: The Power of Strategic Synchronicity, is one I turn to weekly as I develop and grow my own business. I have a business, and the business depends on customers. Every business owner has to figure out where those customers are going to come from.
The tactic of running around, chasing after customers wasn't working too well for me. Imagine that. When I read this book, which was introduced to me by coach extraordinaire, Molly Gordon, I began to think about attracting perfect customers. I created something called a strategic attraction plan. And this changed my business entirely.
OK, so what does this have to do with you and your perfect job?
Everything. You can create a strategic attraction plan to attract perfect customers, a perfect job, mate, perfect vendors, business partners, or whoever. It's not magic, but is a fresh way to look at marketing or job seeking.
The book has all the details, but here are a few highlights:
- You are most attractive when you are like a lighthouse, standing still with a very focused beam of light, than when you are running up and down the beach, shining your light everywhere, trying to attract the attention of all the boats in the harbor.
This metaphor is about knowing who you are - in the case of being a job seeker, knowing your value proposition - and not trying to be what you think everyone else wants you to be. Focus is attractive, diffuseness is not.
Paring the process down quite a bit, your strategic attraction plan is the result of:
- Envisioning your perfect employer (it helps to have already worked for one that was awfully good), writing down their qualities and attributes
- Writing down what you choose your perfect employer to expect you to do
- Writing down what you need to improve to attract your perfect employer
- Working to improve what you decided you need to improve
- Reviewing the plan each day, to keep it alive
Creating a strategic attraction plan for a job search requires that you know yourself well, that you can imagine an ideal environment for you, and that you understand what you can do to make yourself more attractive to your perfect employer.
Just getting to the point of writing the plan takes a lot of thought and exploration! But it helps you become the lighthouse, someone your ideal employer will recognize as a great fit for their needs. Having a plan also positions you to recognize opportunities as they come along. Long-hoped-for synchronicity often ensues.
If you've done reading on personal branding, you recognize how closely tied the strategic attraction plan is to developing your personal brand. (Check out the 1997 Tom Peters article that started it all for more information). Dan Schawbel, among many others, is at the forefront of personal branding evangelism today.
“I’m an Electrical Engineer, I go to a job networking meeting and ask for contacts at one of my target companies, and someone gives me the name and contact information for an Accountant! What good is that???”
