• “We have a current leadership void.”
• “There’s an impending exodus of baby boomers. We need to develop their replacements.”
• “Our competitors have an LD program.”

But at the end of the day, those charged with greenlighting leadership development programs want to know how their investment will reduce costs or increase revenue. By these standards, the above rationales are far from compelling.

There’s one simple way learning executives can bolster the business case for leadership development programs: by using research.

For example, many studies during the past decade have severely discredited the notion that leaders always have a direct impact on performance. A 2001 Harvard Business School study titled “When Does Leadership Matter?” found that in industries where opportunities are plentiful, CEOs often have a very small impact on firm performance. Conversely, in industries where there are limited opportunities, CEOs have a greater impact on firms’ overall performance.

Then, a 2004 study titled “Top Management Team Cohesion and Superior Industry Returns,” published in the journal Group and Organization Management, suggested that while leadership has a very weak direct association with performance, leaders do indirectly impact performance. In fact, leadership behavior accounts for roughly 14 percent of a team’s overall cohesion, according to the research. When you consider that cohesion accounts for roughly 28 percent of a team’s performance, more than a quarter of a team’s output results from cohesion.

This research supports what we already know — that leadership is important — but suggests that it’s important in an unexpected way. First off, some leaders matter more than others. Second, leaders matter not in how they can singularly get results, but rather in how effective they are at developing cohesion within their teams. This information has the potential to reshape how learning professionals approach three aspects of an LD program: the participants, the competencies and the sell to decision makers.

The Participants
Ideally, all leaders in a company would go through a leadership development program. But with many companies tightening purse strings, difficult decisions need to be made about the scope. Specifically, who should participate? If leadership matters more when opportunities are scarce, it would seem that leaders in profit centers with limited opportunities should have priority. The sooner they attend, the less likely they are to pass on critical business opportunities and negatively impact performance.

The Competencies
If what matters to a team’s performance is the leader’s ability to facilitate cohesion, then the content of an LD program should focus on building and fostering relationships with and between others.

While many LD programs address relationship-building skills in an ancillary manner, these should be the primary goals. An LD program should include activities and information that build the following competencies: fostering commitment to shared goals and objectives; helping team members understand the importance of all roles and how they contribute to the ultimate objectives; and fostering corporate and team values.

Further, leadership development courses should teach participants how to build relationships between team members, create significant shared experiences in and out of the office and provide effective social support for team members through modeling and instruction.

The Sell
LD programs can be difficult to sell because of the inherent challenges in measuring their monetary impact. However, the research described above can alleviate some of that ambiguity. For example, which of the following rationales would be more compelling?

1. “We need an LD program because many of our senior executives are approaching retirement.”

2. “The cohesiveness of every team accounts for 28 percent of its performance. Let’s consider a department in which the revenue target is $100 million. If the team is cohesive, it could bring in $128 million; if it lacks cohesion, it could bring in $72 million. That’s a $56 million variable depending on the team’s cohesion. And research shows leadership accounts for about 14 percent of team cohesion.”

Numbers resonate. With a little creativity and research, learning executives can demonstrate the bottom-line impact of leadership development programs and align their departments more closely with the company’s greater business goals. And that’s a great rationale no matter how you slice it.

Executive Briefings

Published April 2010

Joe Frontiera and Dan Leidl are the managing partners of Meno Consulting, a firm specializing in organizational and leadership development. They also serve as adjuncts in the leadership studies department at West Virginia University. They can be reached at editor@clomedia.com.

1. It’s Covered in Glitter — Literally.

Yes, it has been done. In an effort to make your resume stand out, you may find that it gets thrown out.  Less extreme attempts such as including image files or using non-traditional symbols or fonts should also be avoided.  While it may be a nice break for a recruiter reading through hundreds of Times New Roman documents, you run the risk of the fonts or images not loading properly.  And you can bet that busy recruiter isn’t going to contact you for a simplified copy.

2. There Are References.

Listing your references on the resume is a definite no-no. References should always appear on a separate page, and should only be produced when asked for.  Also, be sure to delete the “References: Available Upon Request” line.  It’s understood that you will, so save some space and your potential employer’s time.

3. It’s Written in Full Sentences.

The headhunter has likely received dozens if not hundreds of applications — help them out!  Your resume should be short and sweet and bulleted.  You aren’t writing a novel, you are trying to catch a skimming employer’s eye and prove you are worth a second look — and an interview.

4. There Are No Numbers.

One of the worst things you can do on a resume is be vague.  Don’t just list your accomplishments in a general way — have the quantitative data to back it up.  If you exceeded a goal, by how much did you exceed it?  If you created and distributed company performance reports, how many did you do?  Adding numbers concretizes your accomplishments and paints a better picture of what you actually did.

Also, make sure you are answering the “how” question.  If you completed five projects this year instead of the expected four, how did you do it?

5. It Includes the Words “Duties” or “Responsibilities.”

When you are writing your current or former job description, focus on your accomplishments, not what you had to do.  As an alternative to “duties” or “responsibilities,” flip your tasks into achievements.  For example, instead of being “responsible for the sales team,” consider “directed the sales team to beat their repeat client objective by 10%” — remember that number thing!

6. It Lists an Objective.

For the most part, objectives sound insincere and, worse, can limit your options.  Let your cover letter do the talking when it comes to why you want that particular job.  And remember, each cover letter and resume should be individually tailored to a specific job posting — not just a specific field.  Taking an interest in the specifics of the job makes you look professional and focused and not like you are mass-emailing anyone who might hire you.  Desperation is no more attractive to an employer than it is to a date.

7. It Contains Spelling or Grammatical Errors.

We all know to avoid this one. It makes you look sloppy and negates the part of your resume that proudly describes you as “detail-oriented.”  The best thing you can do for a resume is send it to a professional resume service or a professional editor.  If you are a student, your career center likely offers free resume counseling or at least free information to help you fine tune your CV before sending it out.  At the very least, have a friend look it over and check for basic language errors — spell check just doesn’t cut it.

8. It Lists an Unprofessional Email Address.

In a world where email is free, and most of us have multiple addresses, make the effort to have a professional email address.  Keep it simple — using your name is best.  Just make sure you leave the sparklebaby@hellokitty.com for personal use.  One more tip?  Don’t use your current work email unless you are self-employed.

9. It Includes a Picture.

The ONLY time this is appropriate is if you are applying to be a model or an actor, and in both cases, a separate portfolio is preferable.  Including a self-portrait could exclude you for not being serious and may make you appear unprofessional.  Let your skills and experience speak for you.

10. It Is Too Personal.

Resumes should demonstrate how professional you are — that means the anecdote about the time you met Britney Spears is not appropriate.  That being said, let your personality come through in your resume by including volunteer experience or a (very) short section about your interests.

The Bottom Line

When times are tough, getting a job is a stressful undertaking.  Don’t sell yourself short.  Instead, make sure your resume is the best example of you as a potential employee and before you know it, you’ll be employed once again.

by Erin Joyce

 Isn’t It an Unaffordable Executive Perk?

Organizations that have never invested in effective executive coaching may not be clear on the distinctions between executive coaching and personal coaching. An executive coaching engagement should be evaluated like any other business proposition. What are the goals? What are the anticipated outcomes? How long will it take? How will we know if it’s working? Just make sure that evaluation is occurring. With the improving economy, it might even help your executive retention efforts if the coachee does view it as a corporate perk – as long as he or she becomes fully engaged in the coaching process. It’s a good time for executives to hear a vote of confidence in their future with the organization.

When Is Executive Coaching a Bad Choice?

You really need to become educated about executive coaching to determine that. Two of many telltale indicators that someone (an authorizing executive or the potential coachee) needs to understand more about executive coaching before a contract is signed are:

• The potential coachee indicates that the coach is needed to help improve the coachee’s presentation skills
• There is a stated need for an organizational development expert to do the coaching

A needs assessment is imperative.  Once the needs of the organization and the individual are identified, you should distinguish which needs are best fulfilled by an executive coach versus other means.  For example, there are a number of effective programs available for improving core professional skills, including presentation skills.  Those programs are typically less expensive than executive coaching because they are less customized to the individual.

Similarly, the role of an organizational development expert differs from that of an executive coach.  An organizational development expert examines the functioning of the entire organization with respect to roles that currently exist and advises on how those roles might need to change to more effectively carry out the organization’s current or evolving mission.  Executive coaching does contribute to organizational effectiveness, but it achieves that by maximizing the potential of a given individual within a specific organizational role, whether that be a current or future role.

Another imperative is understanding whether the potential coachee is or can become sincerely committed to the coaching process.  Both willingness and commitment must be present.  Here’s an example of both not being present and why executive coaching would be a bad investment:

During a needs assessment with a VP of a municipality who was vying for the CAO job, it became clear that the commitment to development didn’t exist.  The individual was merely willing to accept the coaching to impress the council and current CAO that he was dedicated to ongoing professional growth, and hence a viable contender for the position.

What Should Be in the Coaching Contract?

Once it is clear that coaching is what is required and everyone is on the same page in terms of what coaching is and isn’t, the process advances to the contracting stage.  Just as blueprints are critical in construction, contracting in executive coaching is paramount for trust, clarity, consensus, transparency and focus. Ideally, the contract should spell out:

• Roles and responsibilities of coach, coachee, the coachee’s manager and potentially HR.  Clearly spelling out what the manager and HR can do in this process ensures there is no abrogation of performance and development management/feedback from the manager.
• The focus areas and definition of success for the coaching.  Ideally, there should be 1-3 focus areas.  For each focus area, there should be a corresponding definition of what success looks like if the area is effectively addressed.
• Who is privy to what information?  This is especially important if assessments are part of the process.  Both the coachee and his manager should become comfortable with this so that trust and confidence in the process can be established and maintained.
• The timing of 3- or 4-way check in meetings.  Check-in meetings include the coachee, the coach, the manager, and potentially HR as well.  They are an important part of providing accountability for the investment.
• Length of the coaching engagement.  There should be clear verbiage around justifiable grounds for extensions.  For example, needs may change if the coachee is promoted or otherwise assumes broader or different responsibilities.  This, along with definition of focus areas, helps to avoid run-on engagements and should eliminate fears that the coachee will become “coach-dependent” in order to be effective in his or her current capacity.

Open and sincere discussion of these points and inclusion of them in your contract is important.  They can help everyone in the organization be confident that an appropriate investment is being made in executive coaching.

 Melanie Hazell, President
Hazell and Associates
Toronto, Ontario

Every hiring manager is always looking for five (5) things during an interview whether they know it or not.  It’s important you know and understand what they’re looking for so you can sell yourself during the interview.  Be prepared to show:

MOTIVATION

Would you hire someone that didn’t show motivation?  Of course you wouldn’t.  It is absolutely important that you demonstrate enthusiasm for the job.  This can be done by voice inflection, facial expressions, body language, and a genuine interest in the position.  He needs to feel that if you’re selected, you’ll approach the job with passion.  You have to be able to show why you’re better than any other candidates they might be interviewing.  What sets you apart from the rest?

CONFIDENCE

You have to demonstrate absolute confidence you can handle the job.  Would you hire someone that wasn’t confident they could do the job?  Even if there are aspects about the job you might not completely understand, you need to let the interviewer(s) know you can handle it.  Very often a candidate is told they would be doing something they hadn’t done before.  You don’t want to say ‘I’ve never done that before’.  Rather say ‘I haven’t done that specifically before, but I’ve done similar things and I’m sure I’ll have no trouble figuring it out’.  The hiring manager needs to know he doesn’t have to worry about you being able to do the job.

SKILLS

In all likelihood the interviewer(s) will be going through your resume and asking questions about your achievements/accomplishments and how you did them.  They will be asking questions about your skills and your experience levels with the various skills they’re looking for.  Make sure you can speak about everything in your resume.

FIT

Every interview goes two ways.  While the interviewer(s) is interviewing you, you are also interviewing them.  Pay attention to what your gut is telling you – not your brain.  During the interview you are getting a sense of who the hiring manager is and what the corporate culture is all about.  If everything on the surface sounds great, but your gut is telling you ‘no’, then trust your instincts.  Don’t accept a job where you question the fit because you will ultimately be miserable.  You need to focus on finding a job that satisfies your financial needs as well as fit needs.

POTENTIAL

You need to be able to convince the interviewer(s) that you are looking for a career – not a job.  Hiring managers will not hire you if they feel the job you are interviewing for is merely a short-term stepping stone until you find a better job.  You need to express your interest in the position in terms of the longer range.  They need to feel if they invest in you, you will stick around long enough for them to reap the benefits of their investment.

Michael P. Paradis is a Consultant at CPI / New Options Group in the Career Services group.  He is a major contributor to the Webinar series and the revamping the Outplacement business process.

Our firm was having a meeting to discuss important elements of our strategy and marketing efforts, when something really great happened—we got into an argument.  Not a disagreement.  A loud, contentious, uncomfortable and passionate argument.

On one side of the battle was a pair of our team members who were arguing their point based on a very accurate and literal interpretation of something we had decided months earlier. On the other side was a group of team members that was even more loudly making their point (probably because I was a member of that group and I’m Italian and Irish) based on a more theoretical interpretation of that past decision.

For a few minutes, our debate sounded more like a brawl, with team members calling each other out for their intellectual biases and blind spots.  Fortunately, because there is a great deal of trust on our team, our argument never came anywhere close to personal or mean-spirited attacks, though an outsider who didn’t know us certainly would have thought it did.

When the melee was over and we had arrived at a decision, a couple of things occurred to me.  First, the conflict we had engaged in—as uncomfortable as it felt at the time—was a wonderful thing because it allowed us to get closer to the truth, which often lies somewhere between two divergent points of view (though this was not a new revelation for me, I am amazed at how much I still need reminders).  Second, those divergent points of view were based, not on randomness, but on the diverse personality profiles of the people on either side; one side was comprised of our more rational and data-driven team members while the other represented our more emotional, intuition-dependent people.

Which brings me back to the power of diversity, and the reason why it remains so misunderstood and under-exploited in most organizations: it requires conflict.

The practical advantage of diversity boils down to this: a group of people with different perspectives usually makes better decisions and finds more creative solutions than those who have largely similar views, backgrounds and skill sets.  This is true for all teams, whether they’re running a corporation, a church, a school or a movie studio.  However, when a team cannot productively engage in conflict, not only does that diversity remain untapped, it becomes a competitive disadvantage.

That’s because when team members with divergent points of view cannot openly and passionately advocate their positions, the team will not be able to properly understand and incorporate those ideas into a final decision. Instead, they will frustratingly agree to compromise, walking away dissatisfied with the outcome and resentful of their team members who they still don’t understand.

This is the norm in virtually every organization where I’ve worked or consulted.  And that’s because when we talk about diversity, the emphasis is usually on acceptance and tolerance and “getting along.”  All of which, of course, are good things.  The problem surfaces when those qualities prevent people from challenging one another’s points of view out of fear of being labeled close-minded or intolerant.

And so the key to making diversity work is to teach people first how to appreciate one another’s differences, and then how to challenge them in the context of pursuing the best possible outcome.  When a company can do that, it will transform diversity from a slogan to a real competitive advantage.

Pat’s POV    The Table Group News

Are you one of the many people who more or less “fell into” your current position, simply because a friend or relative worked at the company, or because the company had an opening for which you happened to be qualified? It’s been our experience that people succeed and people fail for exactly the same reason-Job Fit! And building a plan and strategy around this concept is the first critical step in taking back control and direction of your life and your career.

If you’re considering developing a career plan, either because of disillusionment with your current position or downsizing, Paul Sniffin, CPI Baltimore/Washington (New Options Group), says that coming to grips with this aspect of your work life is the first and most important component of success.

A Five-Step Process

“Finding your passion, and then following it, should be the driving motivation for any career plan,” says Sniffin. He suggests a five-step process for devising a great career plan:

1. Evaluate your life’s accomplishments – Which things gave you the greatest sense of fulfillment?  (Fulfillment and money are NOT necessarily the same thing.)
2. Identify the things you should avoid, because they diminish your passion
3. Test the marketplace around your passion. There may be different types of jobs that can fulfill your passion. Talk to people in those jobs to see what the realities and opportunities are and what kind of skills you need to obtain.
4. Invest in yourself. Get the skills, credentials, and expertise needed to succeed in the profession you’re passionate about.
5. Get creative about ways that you can use your current skills and experience to make the transition to your field of dreams.

Dare to Believe

Both younger and older workers should make sure that they strive for good job fit. Make it Work: Navigate Your Career Without Leaving Your Organization by Frodsham and Gargiulo is a book that Sniffin recommends for redefining your career plan within the organization. However, he points out that sometimes you have to make the choice between advancing on the career path you’re on or taking a risk by leaving the organization to find true fulfillment.

Sniffin likes to cite the case of the Chief Nursing Officer at a metropolitan hospital that was gearing up for expansion. While the CNO realized her current role was a significant opportunity most leaders would be delighted to pursue, she realized it would take her further away from her career goals and passion which was to make a difference and to mentor new and inexperienced nurses.  Even relatively late in her career, she realized she had reached a major crossroads and chose the path to fulfillment. She left the “safety” of her current role and sought a new position with a teaching hospital that was more closely aligned with her passion for academia, teaching, and mentoring nursing students, instead of hospital administration.

Whether you’re facing a crossroads, an unexpected career transition because of a layoff, or are just feeling unfulfilled, it’s never too late to dare to believe that you can find career fulfillment. Isn’t it time you got started on your career plan to help you achieve that?

Many Career Partners International firms now offer career counseling and coaching services directly to individuals. If you’d like help in defining or redefining your career plan, contact your local CPI talent management firm to explore the possibilities.

Job cutting is never easy, but it often becomes progressively harder as we go deeper into an organization.  At the beginning, employers may be able to lay off only weak employees they might have considered letting go anyway.  While these weak performers are human beings worthy of dignity and respect, we can make ourselves feel okay about their terminations because they are based on merit.

The deeper we get, the less likely it is that we honestly can say that a job elimination is simply a matter of letting go those who should have been let go years ago.  Now we are letting go of solid performers who would remain employed in a good economy.  Every organization has solid citizens who do fine in anything but a deep recession.

But we are not done yet.  We are told to go even deeper.  Now we must let go of good, or even stellar performers—employees who add value and who at a different time might be considered for promotion, rather than termination.

last fired, last hired?

Letting talented employees go is further complicated and can become emotionally difficult for managers.  First, those terminated earlier often receive better severance packages than those terminated later.  As times get tougher, organizations often cut back on severance or eliminate it altogether.

Second, the last to be let go often are competitively disadvantaged at landing jobs, in contrast to poorer performers who were let go early on.  Mediocre employees laid off at the outset of the economic crisis had less competition for scarce jobs—and open positions are even harder to find now.

Perhaps the worst feeling of all may arise when employees you protected from termination in the early waves are caught up in subsequent layoff tides with less severance and fewer opportunities.  You may wonder if you hurt them by protecting them.

Finally for some, there is survivor guilt.  When you don’t go down with the ship, you may be plagued by your “good fortune.”  This can become too much for a “feeling” manager.  Such an administrator may need to find meaning in the job eliminations—or at least explain his or her role.

So managers often say things in termination events to make themselves feel better.  Unfortunately, the comments can make the employees on the wrong side of the axe feel even worse.

The top 10 comments to avoid uttering

Here are 10 things you should never say when terminating an employee:

While these comments may not be evidence of an illegal motive, they may produce anger that results in the employee’s visiting a lawyer to determine whether a viable claim exists.

1.   “This was a job elimination and had nothing to do with your performance.”

Do not say this when a discharge had everything to do with an employee’s performance. Your desire to protect an employee’s feelings—or your own—can later be used as evidence of pretext if the employee brings a discrimination claim.

2.   “We have carried you for many years. It’s just not possible to continue to do so during these difficult times.”

Don’t trash the past. It is not only insulting to the employee, but it may be inconsistent with the employee’s prior evaluations. Remember, pretext alone wins cases.

3.   ”We have no choice but to terminate your employment.”

There are always other options. Why not tolerate mediocrity a little longer? Termination need not be the only viable option, so don’t suggest that it is.

4.   “You have no one to blame but yourself. You just did not try hard enough.”

Hold employees accountable, but don’t impugn their integrity. When employees feel personally attacked, they fight back.

5.   “This is just as hard for me as it is for you.”

There are few absolutes, but it is absolutely true that it always harder to be fired than to fire. Don’t ask an employee who is looking at unemployment to feel your pain.

6.   “This is not the right job for you. When you get the right job, you will thank me.”

That may make you feel good, but it will make the discharged employee bristle. The “thank you” may come in the form of a complaint.

7.   “I am sorry, but you are fired.”

You may mean: “I am sorry we have come to this situation.” The employee may hear that you think you are wrong. It’s not a good time to have a conversation about the meaning of “I am sorry.” Avoid apologies, even though you may genuinely feel badly.

8.   “I know how you feel.”

Unless you have been fired recently, you don’t know how the person feels. If you have been fired recently, now is not the time to share that experience.

9.   “You will always be a part of the corporate family.”

Trust me. This will make the fired employee think: “Oh, good. Will I still get the newsletter after I sue you?”

10.  “Pardon the e-mail, but you are fired.”

This may not be unlawful, but it’s gutless. And it invites the angry employee to go for your gut.

Jonathan A. Segal is a partner at Duane Morris in the employment, labor, benefits and immigration practice group. He is the managing principal of the Duane Morris Institute, a provider of employment instruction via seminars and webinars.

As online job boards have grown crowded amid the recession, many big companies, including Microsoft Corp., Verizon Communications Inc., Raytheon Corp. and Viacom Inc.’s MTV Networks, now list job openings on the Twitter microblogging site.

Job hunters can sign up to follow a company’s listings on Twitter or receive tweets about jobs through a third-party service. They usually need to click a link in the tweet to access the listing online, where they can submit their résumé or application. They can also reply to the tweet with a question or comment; sometimes, employers tweet back.

With so many people looking for jobs now, some employers say they like that Twitter yields just enough job leads—but not too many. Job boards have “become saturated,” says Mike Rickheim, vice president of global talent acquisition for Newell Rubbermaid Inc., a global manufacturer based in Atlanta.

“With Twitter, we don’t have to go through that huge pile of résumés.” Mr. Rickheim says the company uses Twitter to fill positions that tend to attract tons of applicants on job boards, such as administrative roles, as well as to share company news.

(Of course, recruiters note, the more popular Twitter gets, the more applicants it will likely attract.)

People who respond to job tweets typically have social-media skills, and some employers say they use the service to target them. In March, MediaSource Inc., a video-production and publicity firm in Columbus, Ohio, advertised a media-relations specialist job only on Twitter, LinkedIn and two niche job boards, says Lisa Arledge Powell, MediaSource’s president.

“We needed someone that understood social media, so we thought, ‘Why not go to where these people go?’ ” she says.

Andrea Slesinski, who was following the company’s Twitter feed, saw the job listing and quickly tweeted her interest. She got an interview request within a week and was hired.

Image is a big part of Twitter’s appeal to employers, as using it to engage with job seekers can suggest they’re cutting-edge. “Verizon is a technology company so we need to be out there,” says Asif Zulfiqar, a talent-management specialist at the New York-based telecommunications firm, which began listing jobs on Twitter in March.

But the image issue cuts both ways, he notes, and job seekers don’t always pay enough attention to how they appear to employers on Twitter. Recently a follower of Verizon’s jobs feed tweeted to the company something along the lines of, “Hey dude, you got any jobs in California?” says Mr. Zulfiqar.

The writer’s casual tone made a poor impression, he says. “I want to see something more professional,” he says. “You want to put your best foot forward.”

Indeed, people trolling for jobs on Twitter need to tweet with care—not just when they’re interacting with employers, says Cynthia Shapiro, a former human-resources executive and career coach in Woodland Hills, Calif. Hiring managers could use information they find on Twitter, just as on Facebook, to form opinions about an applicant’s employability. People sometimes disclose personal things over Twitter, like work-family challenges, that an employer couldn’t ask about in an interview but which might color their impression if they knew. For example, if an employer sees on Twitter that a candidate is going through a messy divorce, they might “assume you’re going to be distracted,” Ms. Shapiro says.

Job seekers can do their own sleuthing on Twitter to research prospective employers. In June, Rob Totaro landed an interview for an account-manager job at Potratz Partners Advertising, a small agency in Schenectady, N.Y., after learning about the position on Twitter. In the meeting, he joked that he wasn’t sure he could work for a firm that supports the Red Sox, which he had discovered from reading tweets the company posted about a recent employee outing to a ballgame. “It was a great ice breaker,” says Mr. Totaro. He got the job.

Twitter users say the service can be more convenient than online job boards, allowing users to follow feeds that list jobs from a variety of companies rather than trolling through thousands of job-board listings. “It’s an efficient way to get a general idea of what type of jobs are out there,” says Ryan Kellett, a senior at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vt.

He subscribes to about a half-dozen job feeds on Twitter. “It’s a little bit more of a chore to go on [job boards] on a daily basis,” he says. “You don’t know if there’s new content on there.”

Twitter’s interactivity also can provide a new source of advice for candidates. Subscribers to Google Inc.’s jobs feed, which went live on June 29, can pose employment questions to recruiters at the Mountain View, Calif., company, says a spokeswoman. Recently someone posted a tweet asking what job candidates should wear to interviews at Google.

A little over an hour later, a recruiter tweeted back: “We care more about your mind than your clothes,” the spokeswoman says.

Cost is a main draw for employers, many of which post jobs on their own Twitter feeds free. Some services distribute job listings for employers on Twitter for a fee, but they are generally less than the cost of posting on a big job board.

U.K.-based InterContinental Hotels Group PLC, which has U.S. headquarters in Atlanta, began listing jobs on Twitter in July through a distribution service called TweetMyJobs, which charges 99 cents to promote one position for a day. The service also offers volume discounts. Francene Taylor, a talent-acquisition technology manager for InterContinental, says the service is more affordable than most job boards and she expects it to help the hospitality company save money as more job seekers turn to the company’s Twitter feed to look for postings.

“We will see a decline in a need to use the major job boards and that will mean we won’t have to spend quite as much,” she says.

Ms. Taylor says the quality of the candidates, for all positions including room attendant and housekeeper supervisor, is the same as what comes through job boards.

But sometimes, Twitter produces enough leads that InterContinental doesn’t need to advertise the jobs elsewhere. During the last week of August, she says, 4,622 people clicked through to the company’s job-listings section from Twitter.

Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com

Now don’t get me wrong. Of course there is age bias in hiring and promotion. Just as there is gender bias, race bias, religious bias, personality bias, way-you-dress bias, where-you-went-to-school bias, who-you-know bias and the countless other forms of  bias (illegal or not) that are  part of the imperfect world of who eventually gets the job or promotion. I don’t believe that age bias is any more or less prevalent than any of the other irrelevant factors that seep into a deficient selection system.

It’s altogether too easy to point to one’s gray hair and smugly declare that it is the reason why your career is stalled, job offers have dried up or promotions go to the next generation.  I think age gets used all too often as a convenient excuse by a lot of people who want to ignore the real issues that may be blocking their advancement.

1. THE OLDER YOU ARE THE MORE YOU MAKE.

This statement is generally true. And since there are fewer higher paying jobs and lots of people who want them it tends to take longer to get one.  Often the scarcity of opportunity at a given salary level is the cause of protracted job searches, not the age of the candidates. Folks are often too quick to blame gray hair (or no hair) for what is in fact a supply and demand reality. I have a real problem with surveys from many of the national outplacement chains that show older workers taking longer to find jobs, implying that the cause is age. These studies never “salary adjust” these results to account for the higher compensation and lower demand (and thus longer job search times) for these situations. This only fosters the misperception of age bias. Higher pay expectations and fewer high pay opportunities play a more significant role than the color of one’s hair.

2.  UGLY LITTLE BIT OF PAINFUL TRUTH.

Many older workers (younger ones too, actually) are not worth what they are currently paid or were paid in their previous positions. This is not to say they are bad or worthless people. It just reflects the ever changing price tag for the value that a person brings to the marketplace. In some cases this is exactly why they are unemployed. Some were promoted and often paid beyond their contribution. Others wound up in crafts that are not valued as much today. Thus the fifty-something who was paid handsomely to run the elevator ten years ago can not expect the same salary to sit and oversee the automated elevator go up and down on its own. Age is not the issue. The value that you bring to the enterprise is. This is no different than the young dot-commer who can’t find work these days that pays a six figure salary, includes a BMW, massive stock options, company yacht and seven figure bonus. They whine for sure, but it’s not because they think they are the victims of age bias. Most just miss the fun of Fantasy Land. The value of your skills has nothing to do with age. The Market, not one’s gray hair, determines worth.

3. ATTITUDE.

Young or old, this is the biggest job search and promotion killer. Unfortunately many older workers go to the job market with a lot of baggage- fear, resentment, anger, entitlement, insecurity and sometimes arrogance. Many believe that they have “earned” the right to a job and compensation equal to or greater than their previous job. For many, things like tenure, and job security, loyalty and paying dues meant something in the past. One can bemoan the passing of these values but it won’t help to get a better paying job any faster. The reality of today’s world of work demands that we have to prove our worth to the enterprise every day. It is all about what I can do for you tomorrow. Not about what I did for someone else yesterday.  No one hires resentful, angry, insecure, fearful, and sometimes arrogant candidates who are stuck on the diminished value of their past accomplishments- no matter what their age.

Yes, of course there is age bias. But it is not the deal killer that many make it out to be.  I bet a lot of gray bias would magically disappear with some attitude adjustment, a realistic market appraisal of one’s worth and the recognition that it is competition- not age- for the better positions that makes them scarce and hard to get.

Take great care of yourself- and your career.

Peter Brener

PILOT Workplace Advisors

651 Holiday Drive, Ste. 300

Pittsburgh, PA 15220

412 928 2058

www. pilotworkplace.com