What’s in it for you?

I’ve been reading the Bouncing Back After A Layoff blog over the past few weeks – lots of food for thought in these turbulent times. Today’s article on What Jobseekers Can Learn From Obama is an excellent reminder about thinking about where the other person’s interests lie. Barack Obama focuses on what the other person wants, not what he wants. He speaks about desired outcomes. The article  reminds me of a strategy I’ve used myself and since forgotten about:

While I was a manager at ABB, an internal vacancy as Core Technology Manager in research opened. Lots of people applied for it, almost all of them better-qualified than me. My mentor gave me the advice, write one page and tell your future bosses what you would do, if they gave you the job. So I wrote a one-pager titled, “If you give me $3 million …” (this was to be the core budget, not my salary!) and mapped out where I believed we could take the research. Three weeks later, I had a great new job!