Communicating Your Accomplishments

In my previous blogs I have discussed common career liabilities and shared with you an approach for responding to them called the ARQS (Acknowledge, Redirect, Qualify, Satisfy) technique. I have also mentioned on several occasions to Satisfy with an accomplished based story. Today, I would like to share with you a technique for telling these accomplished based stories. I call them CAB stories.

The CAB Story

An effective resume, telephone conversation or interview relies on the ability to communicate clearly and concisely. You have to understand the audience – their needs, style and interests – and respond in a way that showcases your abilities. We have found that the best way to get the point across and be remembered by decision makers is to use real world stories about your past accomplishments and tie them to current or anticipated needs.

CABs – Stories that Work!

Rambling, disconnected reminiscences won’t get the job done. You need a story format that will be easily understood and remembered. The best structure is the CAB story. CAB stands for Condition, Action, Benefit – the three keys to successful communication.
Imagine an interview. The person you are talking to says “One of our biggest problems is accurate budgeting in a rapidly changing environment.”

How do you respond?

CANDIDATE 1: “Well, I’ve worked on budgets for many years. My tasks have included preparing annual projections, reviewing budgets for accuracy and following-up on actual results against projections.”

CANDIDATE 2: “I understand how that can be a problem. Condition When I worked for XYZ Corporation as a Regional Manager, we had difficulty with our budgeting because the industry was changing rapidly and historical data wasn’t enough. Action I took responsibility for developing better projections. I formed and led a team to investigate indicators that could be tied to our product lines. We researched regional and national trends, interviewed front line managers and increased the use of our sales force in collecting information. I created a spreadsheet analysis package which combined our best data to project sales revenues for the upcoming period and used that to generate operating budgets. Benefit The following year, we were able to reach a 95% accuracy level for revenue projections and succeeded in controlling spending well within budget limits. This effort saved more than $125,000 in excess inventory costs and $73,000 in vendor discounts. Is that the kind of performance you’re looking for?

Telling an effective CAB story like CANDIDATE 2 is your chance to really score some points. Most job seekers are focused on the tasks they performed: wrote procedures, trained salespeople, scheduled production. Make yourself stand out by showing an “enterprise orientation” – concentrate on how your actions made a difference in the overall performance of the company. Even if you can’t establish a direct cause/effect relationship with your actions, if you contributed to a positive outcome say so.