Category Archive: Career Development

Priority Of Personal Development

Posted by on July 22, 2009

I was attending a conference many years ago and heard for the first time this life changing quote, “You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.”  I made a commitment on that day to apply this principle in my life.

The people you meet part of this development applies to all of life.  There is great wisdom in finding people who know more than you do about your area of expertise or interest and asking them for a meeting so that you can learn all that you can from someone who has already been where you want to go.  Every year you should have a list of at least ten new individuals that are successful and willing to invest in your life.

Please do not limit this to your professional life because you can find people everywhere who are great spouses or parents or involved in church and community work.  Some of the greatest connections I have ever made were in the normal flow of life because I was always looking for someone who could teach me something.

In the area of reading I have found that for every ten books that I read on a particular subject I will find at least one that will permanently change my life for good.  These become the books that you read at least once a year just to remind yourself of all the truths that you need to make sure you are applying in your life.

One of the disciplines I have developed over the years is that I will write the power statements or great quotes on the inside flyleaf of every good book so that I can always go back for a quick review.  If you will set a goal of at least one new book a month to start you will be amazed by how much your life will change because as you read your capacity to understand and develop new skills will be exponentially multiplied.

I am sure if this quote were made today it would include some reference to the incredible amount of information on the web.  Today you can read blogs and watch videos by some of the greatest communicators on life’s most challenging subjects whenever you want and usually without any cost but your time.

All learning that enhances personal development is an investment in your future that will give you an incredible return on your investment.

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Follow Up Or Fail

Posted by on July 21, 2009

I cannot tell you how many people I have worked with over the years that are great at getting something started but totally ineffective in finishing the task with excellence.  They get very excited in the creative planning stages of something but when it gets down to execution they lose interest and allow performance to deteriorate.

Keith Ferrazzi in his great book Never Eat Alone says that good follow up alone elevates you above 95% of your peers in every area of your life.  In his opinion it is the absolute key to success in any field.

In the area of networking he makes sure that he makes contact with any new person he meets within twelve to twenty-four hours after they have initially met.  He says why go to all the trouble of meeting new people if you’re not going to work on making them a part of your life?

This same discipline applies to phone conversations and meetings where commitments have been make for some future action.  It is extremely important to get all assignments down in writing and distribution made for all involved giving what is expected, who is responsible and when the project should be completed.

Many times great decisions have been made only to see the idea or project fail not because of poor initial planning but simply not paying attention to all the details involved in implementation.  Creativity alone can produce a lot of excitement but follow up alone is what produces sustainable excellence.

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Credibility The Foundation For Leadership

Posted by on July 17, 2009

There are many leadership qualities that must be present in the leader if people are going to trust them to the point of following.  It is very important to be committed, competent and inspiring but without credibility especially today people will see you as a fake and be totally turned off.

The bottom line is regardless of how visionary the message if they cannot believe in the messenger then trust is destroyed.  People may show up for work but their heart is not in it and although they seem positive in front of superiors they are constantly critical with their peers in private.

If leaders are to maintain credibility they have to walk the talk and personally practice what they preach.  When their actions are inconsistent with their words and they do not follow through on their promises then they are no longer seen as authentic.

When team members work on a project for a long time and produce great results only to see the leader take an inappropriate amount of the credit they feel burned.  They want to see leaders who give credit to others and assume personal responsibility when they make mistakes.

If the leader is seen as real when things are not going well people will give them the benefit of the doubt every time.  When leaders are hypocritical and things are even going well they will get polite support but in reality they have lost the confidence of their team and sadly don’t even know it.

 

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Lighting Own Fire

Posted by on July 16, 2009

We all understand that light is used in the Bible as a picture of truth, wisdom and understanding.  It is important to daily walk in the light and not in the darkness which represents confusion, deception and lies.

Many times in our life we find ourselves in a position of asking God for specific light or guidance in a major life decision.  We sincerely want His will and we completely trust His plans for our life.  The hard part is when the light does not come and we find ourselves sitting in the darkness of not knowing what to do.

The great danger in waiting on God is that many times we will try to light our own fire because we so desperately want to move forward.  We can justify this because the path we have chosen to walk is a good one and surely this is something God will bless.  When we do this the scripture says that eventually all our manmade fires will go out and we will be in a far darker place than where we began.

The darkness that comes from lighting our own fire is the result of not being patient and trusting God’s perfect timing.  The end result is feeling alone with fear and doubt as your constant companions.

The darkness that comes from waiting on God is the result of His wanting to reveal things to you about yourself that can only be found in a dark place.  Even though the future may not be clear the present is because you are finally aware that He was with you in the darkness all along. 

Waiting with Him is always better than walking ahead without Him.

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Adding Too Much Value

Posted by on July 15, 2009

Every day we have conversations with people who are trying to tell us something we already know.  Most of the time we interrupt them in mid sentence and complete their thought so we can move on to something else that we think is more important.

There are sometimes when this is very appropriate especially where timing is extremely important and we must make decisions quickly.  However the vast majority of times our stopping them is totally inappropriate for a variety of reasons.

First of all we really do not know for sure all that they were going to say and many times they do know something we need to hear but we are too impatient to wait and listen.  We have this need to impress people with our knowledge and experience to the point we come across as rude and insensitive.

In a business environment we feel justified in cutting to the bottom line for productivity sake but we fail as leaders to see the value in allowing other people to participate in the process.  If you only see your team as a means to your predetermined end then in reality they are only attending this meeting for their information and not for their involvement.

The willingness to listen to someone regardless of the value of the information communicated is an investment in them as a person.  The agenda is no longer what can they do for me but how can I help them. 

There is a time to add value and genuinely help someone by what you know but only after they have had their opportunity to shape the conversation first.  Nobody likes someone who always thinks they know it all.  Let’s be sure we are not that someone.

 

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Performance Review Systems

Posted by on July 13, 2009

All of us at some point in time have waited with anxiety for that wonderful time of the year when we receive our annual performance review.  Even if you know that you have had a great year you are never really sure what is going to be said and how pleased management is with your performance.

To a great degree this whole process is a major problem within most organizations.  On the one hand poor performers are not dealt with on an ongoing basis and sometimes they are even given good reviews because their direct supervisor does not want to admit that they also have failed.  Sometimes employees think things are going great only to have the big bomb dropped with no real explanation as to why they were not told before.

On the other extreme top performers are left in the dark about what they are doing well and they only get the one time a year serious conversation about where they stand and what is next in the area of development.  The bottom line there should be ongoing informal times for evaluation and at least twice a year if not quarterly a brief review of exactly where everyone stands in regards to expectations.

I have seen performance reviews that are literally 20 pages in length with a tremendous amount of worthless information.  Most in my opinion should not be more than two to three pages that only deal with key objectives and some type of quantitative analysis on success.

I also prefer some type of 360 feedback system in place so that in a non-threatening way immediate supervisors can be told what they need to do to help improve their direct reports performance.  This should be a time where an honest exchange of information takes place so that everyone knows what they need to do to improve day to day performance and lay out a clear plan for professional development for all involved.

We really need to change the culture of the performance review process from going to the dentist mentality to meeting with my coach who I know has my best interest in mind and is passionately committed to helping me reach my potential.

 

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Problems With The Boss

Posted by on July 10, 2009

All of us have worked at some point in time for someone who at worst just could not get it done or at best was personality challenged.   We come into our jobs with the hope that we can be a part of the solution and yet there are times when we don’t see the progress we had hoped for.

I changed jobs three times in the first five years out of college because I thought the problem was external.  If I could just get with the right company with a great boss then I would be successful.  To my shock I realized that the real problems were internal and I was simply carrying all of my personal issues from one company to the next expecting different results.

These are some of the things I have learned over the years about problems with the boss:

1.       Check Your Motives—make sure that your real agenda is to do what is best for the organization and not for yourself.  When you make it a priority to help make your boss successful then it becomes a win-win for everyone.

2.      Keep It Real—when things are not changing at the pace you had hoped you have a choice to make.  You can get your feelings hurt and start telling people what they want to hear and emotionally quit or you can have the character to tell the truth with a respectful attitude.

3.      Watch Your Tongue—if you allow your concerns to become public in an inappropriate way then you just became part of the problem and not part of the solution.  You should never say anything negative about another person to someone else because it will only spread disunity and destroy team moral.

4.      Do Your Job—when we get in the negative cycle not only are we causing problems for other people we are not focused on getting our own jobs done with excellence.  We must show up every day with a clean heart and high level of commitment to be and do our best.

 

 I can promise you it is not in your job description to change your boss or even your organization for that matter.  What is there is a clear set of priorities that need to be done by a person who is mature enough to stay positive when things don’t go their way and passionate enough to never settle for anything less than their personal best every day.

 

 

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The Building Blocks Of A Strategy

Posted by on July 6, 2009

One of the best books I have read on developing a strategic plan and all that is involved in the execution of that plan was written by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan called Execution.  It is a must read for any organization that uses teams to accomplish planning and execution.

A strategy is the key steps or methodology that you are going to use to accomplish your goals or mission.  Many times the goal seems to be clear and necessary but the breakdown occurs at the point of determining how we are going to accomplish what we want to do.

In this book he lists several critical questions that should be answered during the development of your strategy to ensure a high probability of success:

1.       How good are the assumptions upon which the plan hinges?

2.      What are the pluses and minuses of the alternatives?

3.      Do you have the organizational capability to execute the plan?

4.      Are the short term and long term balanced?

5.      What are the important milestones for executing the plan?

6.      Can you adapt the plan to rapid changes in your environment?

The two most important questions are do you have the organizational capability to execute the plan?  Just because it is the right thing to do may not mean we have the right people in place and this is the right time for implementation.  If we add something major to our process without additional manpower it must be assumed that something else needs to go.

The last question is even more important in the culture we live in today.  Just because something looks great as a strategy today and even works for awhile does not mean that it will be viable in the next twelve months.  This means that nothing must become so sacred that it cannot be changed if necessary when a better plan is discovered.

 

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The Winning Attitude

Posted by on July 2, 2009

Lou Holtz the famous football coach once said, “Ability is what you’re capable of doing, motivation determines what you do and attitude determines how well you do it.” We have heard all our lives how important a role our attitude plays in everything we do every day.

In John Maxwell’s book The Winning Attitude he says that it is absolutely your key to personal success.  His list several key principles about how attitude impacts every part of our lives:

1.       Our attitude determines our approach to life

2.      Our attitude determines our relationships with people

3.      Often our attitude is the only difference between success and failure

4.      Our attitude at the beginning of a task will affect its outcome more than anything else

5.      Our attitude can turn our problems into blessings

6.      Our attitude can give us an uncommonly positive perspective

Maintaing the proper perspective is probably the most important one for me.  We are all going to encounter problems and setbacks in our lives.  It is very important to remember when you are going through difficult times not to focus on what you have lost but what you still have to be thankful for all around you.  When you choose to see the glass for the way it is more than half full it will give you the perspective you need to deal with all the other issues.

I found the following to be very helpful about What is an attitude?

It is the “advance man” of our true selves

Its roots are inward but its fruit is outward

It is our best friend or our worst enemy

It is more honest and more consistent that our words

It is an outward look based on past experiences

It is a thing which draws people to us or repels them away

It is never content until it is expressed

It is the librarian of our past

It is the speaker of our present

It is the prophet of our future

 

 

 

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Practicing Feedforward

Posted by on July 1, 2009

Almost every serious organization uses some form of feedback to evaluate the performance of their top leadership team.  This usually works best in a 360 type environment where the person receives feedback from superiors, peers and subordinates as well.

The concept of feedforward was developed by Marshall Goldsmith in his best seller What Got You Here Won’t Get You There about how to coach senior executives.  He encourages every leader to identify core behaviors that need to change through feedback.  Then apologize for your mistake and commit to change that character quality in the future.

The primary way he recommends to accomplish this is through the four disciplines in feedforward:

1.       Identify Target Behavior—choose the one behavior that your colleagues have told you about that you consider to be at the top of your list for change.  The number one issue among the thousands of people he has worked with is to be a better listener.

2.      Enlist Accountability Partners—the key here is to secure a personal commitment from as many people as possible to help you in this particular area.  This should include family members as well as various levels of people within the organization where you work.  They will all commit to help you focus on this one specific area and help you with ongoing feedback.

3.      Solicit Specific Suggestions—ask everyone in your accountability circle for at least two suggestions that might help you achieve a positive change in your selected behavior.  The key ground rule here is that there should be no mention of mistakes in the past but every comment is about the future.

4.      Practice Active Listening—take appropriate notes if necessary but make sure you are really listening to each and every suggestion to the point that you can put it into practice.  Also it is very important regardless of the quality of the input to be sure to graciously thank everyone involved who will take the time and emotional risk of telling you what you really need to hear.

 

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