Category: Corporate Games

I’m an alpha female.
My natural inclination
is to be strong,
to not show weakness
or lack of knowledge.

Looking at me,
folks might assume
I don’t need mentoring.

But everyone needs mentoring.
Mentoring makes the good better,
the strong stronger.
It speeds up success.
It allows us to learn
from other people’s mistakes
AND successes.

So I ask for mentoring.
I don’t wait for mentors
to come to me.
I decide whom I wish to learn from
and I approach them.

I usually tiptoe into being mentored.
I’ll ask an author
“How do you sell so well
on Amazon?”
I’ll ask a saleswoman
“What is your best closing technique?”
I ask.
I listen.
I implement.
I ask for their feedback
on how I could have improved.

If you want to be mentored,
don’t wait to be asked.
YOU do the asking.

It is a contract job world now
even for full-time employees.
New employees receive minimal training.
They’re expected to perform tasks that first day
and already know the job they’ve been hired for.
They’re judged based upon that assumption.

Knowing 100% of a new job day one
is almost impossible
so that means a steep ramp up is needed,
a ramp up not possible
within the 9 to 5 confines.

I would work on the tasks
I needed to complete
during the day.
At night and on weekends,
I’d learn acronyms, customer/product information
and skills I didn’t already have.
I’d easily ‘work’ 100 hour weeks

In other words,
expect to hustle that first month.
Superstars ramp up quickly.

You’re busting your ass
working on a project
that goes above and beyond
your job duties.

Then your coasting co-worker,
the gal who is barely doing her job,
gets a “Good Job”
from your boss
and you think
“Why the hell am I busting my hump
when all I have to do to get recognition
is my job?”

Has this happened to you?
It has happened to me.
I still busted my hump
because that is who I am
but my impression of my team wasn’t great.

Terry Starbucker
has a brilliant post
on why good isn’t good enough.

“Leaders cannot overpraise work
that is just meeting the job description
and standards,
and nothing more.
It sends a signal that
“good” is enough,
and it can quickly lead to complacency.”

Praise over-achievement,
not ‘good enough.’

I came from poverty.
I knew I had one shot at a formal education
and that formal education had to be worth
the sacrifices.

When I chose my field of study,
I made damn sure
the investment in my education
would pay off
with a job after graduation,
a job I could eventually earn a good living with.

Some of my buddies had no idea
what they’d do after graduation.
Their thinking was
that an education was enough
to become successful.
Many of them graduated
to find they weren’t employable.

Steve Siebold,
author of “How Rich People Think,
has drafted up a list of
21 ways the rich think differently.

One of these ways
is how the rich view education.

“Many world-class performers
have little formal education, and
have amassed their wealth
through the acquisition and
subsequent sale of specific knowledge.”

“Meanwhile, the masses are
convinced that master’s degrees
and doctorates are the way to wealth,
mostly because they are trapped
in the linear line of thought
that holds them back
from higher levels of consciousness…

The wealthy aren’t interested in the means,
only the end.”

Education isn’t enough.
It is what you do with that education
that matters.

You’ve started a brand new job
but your boss is busy.
She doesn’t have time
to set up meetings for you.

So help her.
Set these meetings up yourself.

Ask the admin assistant
for the organization chart.
Set up half hour meetings
with your co-workers.
If they’re too busy
to meet with you,
they’ll ask to reschedule.

Draft a list of questions.
My favorite is
“What do you know now
that you wish you had known
when you started?”

Ask the questions.
Write down the answers.
Thank them for their time.

Between these meetings,
put these answers
(excluding private information)
in a general format
(“I wish I’d met with Ted”
becomes “Consult with the purchasing agent.”)
and create a new hire FAQ binder.

Bam!
First week on the job,
you’ve showed initiative,
you’ve learned,
AND you’ve added value to the organization.

This is much better than staring into space.

You are at the beginning
of your career.
You have the latest knowledge.
You get the most out of the newest technology.
You learned all of that in school.

But you’re not in school anymore
and that advantage doesn’t last long,
not without some work on your part.

As Bill Lane,
in his book
Losing It,
shares

““You need to ask yourself
every day of your career,
‘Am I up to speed?
Am I pushing the envelope,
or am I stagnating and falling behind?’”
Are you still living off
the same achievement
you had 20 years ago?

The ultimate sustainable advantage
in your career
is the ability to learn.”

Continue learning.
This isn’t a choice.
This is a necessity.

I reported to a manager
who hated excuses.
He’d respond to an excuse
with
“Don’t waste my time
telling me why it happened.”

Working with him,
trained me to cut the bullshit excuses,
pinpoint the problem,
and solve it.

As Tim Sanders shares
“While many might think that
the explanation excuse is helpful,
it’s actually a waste of
creative energy and breath.

While traffic problems might provide
a reason for being tardy,
they don’t erase the lost time
or make those I’ve inconvenienced feel better.
That’s the fallacy of the excuse-makers:
We think we are providing a service,
when in fact,
we are asking to be let off the hook.”

Excuses might make you feel better
but they waste everyone else’s time.
Unless someone asks,
don’t offer an excuse
for your bad behavior/mistake.
Simply fix the problem.

Three months ago,
a loved one applied for a job
he really really wanted.
He went through the entire interview process.
He razzled and dazzled the management team.
He thought he had the job.

The job went to someone else.

Why?
Because the management team
had a specific employee in mind for the position.
They had to post the job
and interview candidates
because that was company policy.

My loved one was frustrated
but not for long.
The day after the first job was filled,
he was contacted about another job.
He had impressed the management team
during his interviews
and they knew they wanted to hire him.

This time,
he went through the entire interview process
and HE was the favored candidate.
He starts his new job in a week.

A preferred candidate is one reason
you might not have gotten that job.
Dawn Lennon shares some other reasons.

But just because you didn’t get THAT job,
doesn’t mean you won’t land another job
within the same company.

We’re all very busy
so often when management requests
we attend a training session,
we look for a reason, any reason,
not to attend.

When I worked for a big beverage company
however,
we ALL attended the training sessions.
Why?
Because we knew the management team,
ranging from the CEO to our bosses,
were attending these same training programs,
and they always asked who bailed.

Yes, sometimes
they had additional management training sessions
but they always attended
the employee training sessions also.

As Bill Catlette and Richard Hadden,
authors of
Contented Cows Still Give Better Milk,
share
“There should be no executive parking spaces
when it comes to training.
Managers must participate enthusiastically
and, more important,
be able to demonstrate the skills
they expect everyone else to learn.”

If possible,
all employees of a company
should attend training sessions,
even management.

I once worked for a complete asshole.
This man was a womanizing jerk
and a condescending bastard.
If the company could have fired him,
they would have.

But they couldn’t,
not without taking a big financial hit,
because he was so damn good at his job.

I tolerated his sexist jokes,
and his PMS comments,
to learn from him.

I learned what to do
(his area of expertise)
and what not to do
(slap female employees on the ass).
He’s one of the reasons
why I became successful.

There are no perfect mentors.

Take the good,
leave the bad,
and learn from both.