What is the FIT Mindset? Part-1

As I’ve mentioned, I think a lot about what holds experienced professionals back from engaging and performing at the expected level.  When I’m not coaching, I help startups find their way to successfully ship their first product or service.  Another part of my business helps companies that are not performing well to learn how to improve their performance and sustain continuous improvement and growth.

It’s probably a good time to explain what exactly a coach is and is not.  A coach is not a psychologist or social worker, although many coaches are professional social workers and psychologists.  A coaching is not a consultant.  Consultants are hired to be experts, coaches are guides, that may have professional expertise in certain disciplines.

What I have learned from working with startups and distressed companies as a consultant is they are more similar than different.  Startups haven’t yet found their way to create a successful business and distressed companies often have lost their way from being a successful business.  It both cases a major mindset change is required.  With startups it’s often a shift from research to product development and commercialization.  With distressed companies it’s realizing “what got you here, won’t get you where you need to go” to save your business.

In many ways I think of Launch Success’ target clients as startups.  Energetic, creative, and wanting to contribute, but not able to figure out the puzzle of the next steps, and not being given the chance to launch, prosper and experience their success.  My work with startups focuses on developing an understanding of a company’s value in terms of products’ or services’ strengths, and determining how to align their realization strategies with best practices and existing commercial efforts.  Of course, startups usually do have something special going on, or they wouldn’t be startups.  But most startups are “for profit” enterprises and are constrained by time and resources.    The stakes are high and there’s a lot to be done, so managing risk is paramount.  Also, a startup must survive its commercialization journey without exhausting its people. 

As I’ve discussed previously, vision and resilience are key factors.  But there are other headwinds that need to be considered.

Society and Politeness can hold you back

One key mindset change is pushing what you might consider socially acceptable behaviors.  Experienced and less experienced job seekers worry about what are appropriate behaviors, how they will be perceived if they push, and often lean towards not pushing boundaries when that’s what needed most.

People experience the following:

Feel like they need permission to envision change or even to consider options and change their mindsets (…you have my permission)

Use a sense nostalgia, loyalty, or connection as an excuse not to change their mindset

Fear that they will be caught in the act of thinking about change and embracing their vision

Not realizing that Social Media and the pandemic could be holding them back

When working with clients, I keep bumping up against a mindset that: “I don’t want to leave a negative impression” and “what if a push too hard”.

Let’s talk about the odds of getting a job in an aggressive marketplace, where job is posted and 100’s of people apply for the position you want.   There’s a 5-10% (5 out of 100) chance that a hiring manager will even see your application and cover letter.  You’ll have less than a minute to make an impression, which will be fleeting and ephemeral, because the hiring manager is attempting to narrow down applicants based on keywords, education, and other arbitrary indicators that may or may not result in finding the right fit.

An applicant must figure out a way to get to the front of the line, the top of the resume stack, and bang a metaphorical drum, screaming, “I’m the best FIT for this position and your company”, just give me a chance to prove it.  Your job is to move that manager’s mindset from you being a chance encounter while plowing through a stack of resumes to someone who is interesting and can solve the PROBLEM.  What problem, you ask?

Remember that companies hire for specific roles when they have a problem to solve.  Your job is to convince them that you can solve that problem.

Behaviors You Control

Another perception I encounter is that clients don’t believe they have control of the career and job search.  After exploring their experiences and examples and understanding the root of these concerns I often point out that people who are dedicated to their vision, brand, defining their FIT, and maintaining resilient mindset, they actually control a lot.

How you present yourself, the degree of mastery of your resume and brand, knowing what to Promote and Protect©, and expressing how you can FIT at a target company builds credibility and your confidence.    It’s like you studied and prepared for a difficult final exam over weeks, and didn’t cram, finishing the exam early and getting the A.    You deserve an appropriate role at a desirable company, but you must be driven to beat out everyone else.

Appropriate Behaviors while meeting with decision makers and interviewers:

Confidence, Presence, and Knowing your Brand:  You are the master of your brand, your experience, and how you best fit into companies.  The FIT methods help you prepare, allowing you to be mindful and present, instead of struggling for examples and feeling unprepared.

Preparing, Practicing, and making sure you’re ready:  A big part of branding and selling yourself is understanding your foundations (Preferences, Strengths, Satisfiers) and being able to launch into your pitch immediately, with confidence.   Your pitch is like an executive summary, setting the stage for a productive interview, opening opportunities for questions and engagement.

Active Listening, Stating in the Moment, Showing Interest, and Engaging:  Getting to a productive interview mindset is half the challenge, establishing rapport and engagement is the next.  Our clients learn to prepare and practice by studying and researching as much as they can about the company and interviewers, so they can be present and aware during the during.  Yes, our clients are nervous. And yes, this might be your perfect career opportunity, but unless you settle down and answer the questions, your career goals will remain out of reach.   It’s a big ask, but mastering your brand and value is your responsibility and within your control.

Mastery of your strengths and potential value in a desired role: This is the creative and fun part.  You will prepare answers to questions that might be asked, based on your resume.  You will practice giving examples clarifying and strengthening accomplishments on your resume.  Your will develop examples how to describe your strengths I the context of your career visions, and when asked what holds you back, you can explain what holds you back and how you’ve figured out strategies to move you forward.   Basically, you’ll be practicing and going through scenarios, researching, and becoming an expert on all aspects of the company and the role.   In the process, you become an ISM (Interviewing Seeking Machine).

Best of all, you will start seeing yourself working at the company, and the decision makers will see this as well.  Why, because it’s a two-way FIT.

Inappropriate Behaviors

While you control appropriate behaviors, you also control in what I consider inappropriate behaviors:  These include:

Not being engaged enough to value the above appropriate behaviors:  If you don’t prepare, have no interest in the company beyond getting a job, and can’t stay focused during the interview cycle, you don’t deserve the job.  The point of a career is not to get a job, but to engage with and work for a company where there’s a mutual benefit.  They have a problem, and you solve that problem by contributing and improving outcomes.  Early in your career, you will require more support and investment to add value.  Later, you will be expected to contribute and add higher levels of value.  It both cases, there’s mutual trust and interest, a degree of co-investment and engagement.

Being Late:  The easiest way to not get a job is to be late for some stage of the interview process.  Instantly, you go from promising a prospect to a waste of time.   You control when you arrive, just as much as how much you prepare for the interview.  What can you do to make sure being late is not a possibility, unless an asteroid lands on the parking garage where you were going to park.  And if an asteroid does happen to take out your first parking choice, do you know where the next closest garage is located, assuming emergency services let me park at all?  I know this is a bit out there, but I’m making a point.  Getting to the interview physically or virtually is in your control.  Understand and eliminate possible risks and obstacles early and often, so you can be relaxed and confident, and be perceived as the professional you are.

Not presenting yourself professionally (through the lens of the employer):  This is a tough one.  I think of the “vigorous discussions” I have with my college age daughter about tattoos in certain workplaces.

Daughter: “You’re telling me that you’ve never hired a person with a tattoo?”

Father: “I didn’t say that.  What I said is that a person with a tattoo or piercings cannot control how people perceive such a tattoo or piercing, and what impression it leaves.”

Daughter: “Boomer”

I guess I’ll own that, although I’m just barely a Boomer. 

But sadly, the fact is the person in an interview is under constant scrutiny.   There are norms and behaviors that are perceived as more acceptable, and others that may draw unwanted attention.  When I travelled in Japan, you could wear anything to work as an engineer as long as it was the company uniform, which dictated pant type, dress shirt type, and the standard jackets with function specific colors and badge.  In that culture the movers and shakers would roll up their jacket and shirt sleeve in defiance.

My point is that you need to make your mark with your mastery and your presence, allowing decision makers to envision you in the company.  The goal is not to demonstrate that you’re a maverick and unable to appreciate the importance of the mutual experience.   Stating it another way, take away the excuses for not hiring you.

Bragging or taking undo credit:  If you claim to have achieved something, particularly in an audience of experts, make sure you’re ready to answer questions and can prove it.  What is on your resume needs to stand on its own and when explored.  If you are early in your career, your experience might be limited, but still appropriate for the hiring scope (Level 1, Associate, Junior).  There is no need to inflate or add undefendable content because you think the company wants it.

I had the uncomfortable experience of interviewing an applicant for a critical position with very specific semiconductor processing skills.  The skills were uncommon, and we were getting desperate to find a qualified candidate.  I was in a senior management role, and a one of the final interviewers since the position reported to one of the managers on my team.   I wasn’t an expert but having worked to help solve some very specific problems, I had an idea what we needed.  During the interview as the questions got more specific, the candidate kept redirecting and not answering specific questions about their experience.  I rephrased the questions and kept pulling them back to the key topics.  I could see that they were listening and understood what I was asking but would not answer my more in-depth questions.   I suddenly realized they never worked in the specialty area and attempted to inflate some related experience.  I quickly ended the interview, showed them out, and then pulled my team together to explain that we couldn’t afford to hire the wrong person.  I took responsibility for the outcome, explaining that as a company we did a bad job of vetting this particular candidate because of our perceived urgency.

Not answering questions that are asked:  The example above is the wrong way to deal with this situation.  It OK to say “I don’t know”, particularly if they are probing the extent of your knowledge.  You can always ask permission to give an example of what you believe is an experience in a closely related area.  If they are probing hypotheticals, it’s OK to clarify that they want a “I would do this…” answer and describe what you would do. 

But remember, if it’s something specific to your resume and you don’t have an answer, you’ve lost.

About the FIT Blog

The FIT Blog adds depth and understanding to the Launch Success FIT Method.  Think of it as a resource to learn more about the methods before signing up with Launch Success.  It’s also intended as a resource during and after you’re engaged in the process.   We provide definitions and examples on some of the foundational ideas, like the FIT Mindset and explaining Your Vision and Balance.  What the FIT Blog reinforces most is that you control more than you think and can have a path forward towards independence and financial security.

About Gary Ainsworth

With over 30 years in working in technology and worldwide operations, and nearly 10 years as a certified executive and career management coach, I’ve gained insights in how companies hire and how career seekers increase their probability of getting hired.  I’m committed to helping younger, less experienced professionals understand and unwind what’s holding them back in their careers.

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