At home, it's done for love, in our roles as spouse and parent, child and sibling, friend and neighbor. At work, it's done for success in the business enterprise because it's the only way to create long-term healthy prosperity.

"Syntonics Relationship Management©" is what we call our branded Stakeholder Relationship Management process. Syntonics derives from an ancient Greek term that once meant "the active process of musical harmonization," e.g., two people actively harmonizing in song. In its etymological evolution, it came to mean "the active process of linguistic harmonization," e.g., two people actively communicating via creation of shared meanings.

We use Syntonics to mean creating win-win stakeholder relationship alignments, e.g., working to actively align and harmonize interests with important stakeholders (or family and friends). In the business world, we thoughtfully apply a 10-step process that essentially boils down to Research, Design, Implementation, and Evaluation.

Critical for each of us - at home, in our community and at work with colleagues and customers - is to map the relationships that are important. Then we need to understand where we are, where each relationship is weak or strong. Alongside that, we need to understand the needs, wants and values of the other person(s), and the implications for us in creating more effective win-win alignments that help each of us succeed, whether the motivation is love or money or altruism.

Professional: Work, Business, and Career

My children are Sam III, 24, Rachel, 22, and Andrew, 19. The time I've had to talk with them about work has been a joyful opportunity to reflect on what I've learned since I drew my first paycheck in June 1965 as a student sports PR assistant at the University of Illinois.

During my 16-year career as a corporate PR exec at DuPont, I knew a lot of people who set their goals to become a manager, director, or vice president by certain points in their lives and careers. I also saw that single-minded goal-setting created a lot of unhappy people, some who achieved their goals and many who did not.

In addition to our client work, I meet at least once or twice weekly with friends, and friends of friends, who are - as I describe them - "in transition." Some lessons I've learned that I share include:

1. Lifelong Learning - it's your only way to be successful throughout your life.

2. Flexibility - the chances are that you will set out to do one thing at 20, and at 30, 40, 50 and 60 you'll be doing entirely different things - different each decade!

3. Happiness - understand what in your work life and work day makes you happy. Is it about money? Workplace relationships? A sense of mission to society? Intensity? I sometimes find myself quoting that popular writer and speaker, Harvey Mackay, who said, "Find something you love to do and you'll never have to work a day in your life." It's important to understand the difference between success - when you get what you want - and happiness, when you want what you have.

4. Balance of Properties is a term we used at DuPont to describe products. With certain properties, you get certain features and benefits. One feature may help a product last longer, but it increases the price, or perhaps it makes it less comfortable to the touch. Others may "feel good," but not have the resilience for durability.

5. Work, jobs, careers and life can be a lot like that, when certain things that may seem desirable (e.g., high salary) may come with other things that a particular person finds undesirable (e.g., rigid hierarchies, reduced personal satisfaction, politics, ethical issues).

The above is an excerpt from The Last Job Search Guide You'll Ever Need: How to Find and Get the Job or Internship of Your Dreams, which is available for sale for $19.85 in our bookstore or $27.00 at Amazon.com but for free to those who subscriber to our free career newsletter. This hot new book contains job search secrets of the most experienced, most knowledgeable and most respected career experts. Learn career planning, job hunting tools and tactics, interviewing, cover letter and resume writing (lots of samples!), networking, and how to find an internship. Written by 149 career experts. To receive a free copy, subscribe to our free career newsletter.

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