Category: Corporate Games

My figure skating coach
once told me
that the sign
of a great figure skater
was she made skating
look easy.

The truly great
do this.
They make very difficult tasks
look easy.

In the November/December
The Costco Connection,
Astronaut Chris Hadfield
shares

“On paper,
my career trajectory looks preordained:
engineer, fighter pilot,
test pilot, astronaut.
Typical path for someone
in this line of work,
straight as a ruler.
But that’s not how it really was.
There were hairpin curves
and dead ends
all the way along.
I wasn’t destined
to be an astronaut.
I had to turn myself into one.”

Just because something looks easy
doesn’t mean it IS easy.
Even the truly great
have to work.

William Arruda
shares

““Busy” is the most common reason
people give me
for not doing anything
to build their brand
so they can advance their career.
They make time for emails
and meetings and teleconferences,
but they don’t capture
the true benefits of all those activities.
Working in their career
is getting in the way of
working on their career.
Sound familiar?

Well, here’s
the one personal branding habit
you can’t be too busy for.

Document your wins.
What’s the easiest way to do that?
Keep a job journal.”

When I was working in corporate,
I documented EVERYTHING
I thought might help me in the future
– my wins,
mistakes by others (my dirt file),
secret relationships
(the boss went to school
with my co-worker),
the brand of chocolate
the CEO’s executive assistant preferred.
The more detailed my notes were,
the more powerful the information was.

And information IS power,
especially when so few of my competition
documented anything.
My documentation saved my job,
snagged me promotions,
helped me sell my projects
into the management team.

Take the time every day
to document.

A loved one works for a company
where supposedly employees are graded
on a bell curve.
Within the group,
evaluations are split from 1 (best) to 5 (worst)
based upon this distribution.
These evaluations drive bonuses.

My loved one was told
that because he was new to the group
and he was with a strong team,
he’d be ranked a 4.
Based upon results, he thought this was bullshit
so he asked
how many people fell into each rank.

The manager said he didn’t have this information.

In other words, it WAS bullshit.
And now my loved one doesn’t trust his manager.

Similar things have happened to me
in the past.
A manager will make a statement
and when I push for more information,
he doesn’t have any facts to back it up.

Expect to back up your statements.
An intelligent employee will ask.

Before going on vacation,
I would look at the things I normally do
during this time
and delegate what HAS to be done.
Then I would seriously ponder
whether or not the other tasks
EVER had to be completed again.

Rohit Bhargava
takes this idea
one step farther

“When you are busy,
one of the challenges of going on vacation
is how to handle your work
when you’re gone.
Some people simply save it
until they return.
The smart people, instead,
actually hand off some of their work
to colleagues or employees
to handle while they are away.

But here’s the really smart part:
When they return,
instead of assuming all their old activities,
they watch how people are performing
and ask themselves
if they really need to take that task back.

Taking vacation, in other words,
can be the ultimate method
to get out of long-term, time-consuming tasks
that you no longer need to do anymore.”

Use vacations
as an excuse to prune or delegate tasks.

When leaving an out-of-office
autoreply message,
value the other person’s time
as much as your own.

As
Kevin Roose
shares

“If your auto-responder includes
more than two ways
to get in touch with you
in an emergency,
you’re doing it wrong.
By the time you get to
“If your message is urgent,
contact me through awayfind.com/joeschmoe,
then text ‘50445’
to my Google Voice number,
then shoot an e-mail
to vacationjoe@gmail.com,”
we’ve already given up.”

Keep it short.
Keep it simple.

A new grad told me recently
that she quit her first full time job
because it was ‘a toxic environment.’

What was toxic about it?

Her boss yelled at her,
calling her an idiot,
and that’s abuse, don’t you know?

Well, sure it is,
but she had no work experience,
she didn’t know what she was doing,
and there isn’t exactly a labor shortage right now.

We all work shitty jobs
when we first start out.
We work long hours for little pay
and we usually don’t have the best managers.
One of my managers could be heard yelling
from the parking lot.
He threw things.
I would come home every night
and cry.

But I sucked it up
because I had a plan
and I needed that job
to get me to the next level.
I didn’t stay there
but I also didn’t quit
until I had another job.

Yes, get the hell out
of a toxic work environment
but leave on your terms.

I love the concept of independent learning.
I love hearing
the stories about people
who taught themselves trades
by borrowing books from the library.

I do read books and blog posts,
take online courses and seminars,
and engage in other means
of independent learning.

However, if I have a choice,
I’ll always choose a physical classroom.
I pay attention in class.
I don’t have distractions.
I’m competitive
so the presence of other people
pushes me to learn more.

Independent learning isn’t for everyone.

As Seth Godin
shares

“The dropout rate
of massive online courses
is higher than 97%.
It’s easy to be exposed to education,
but actually quite a challenge
to learn.
Access to education isn’t sufficient…”

Figure out how YOU learn.
Test some methods
and then use the method
that works best for you.

It is very difficult
for people
to imagine generalities.
We imagine specifics.

When I write a scene,
I am as detailed as possible.
Instead of saying
the heroine said good morning to her co-workers,
I will recount one example of an encounter,
relaying exactly what was said
and what the co-worker looked, smelled, sounded like.

When we’re selling
either ourselves or our products,
we should also give specific examples.

Georgina Stamp
shares,
regarding job interviews,

“It has been shown that
when all other things are equal,
the candidate that has
the psychological preparation
will most likely be the one
chosen for the position.

This “softer” side of the process
involves presenting the appropriate attire,
allowing the process to be a “two way street”
as opposed to dominating a conversation
by recounting various achievements
and having discreet facts at-hand.

For example,
instead of simply stating that
you helped increase the sales pipeline
at your last position,
be ready with specific facts
and figures.
These will lend credibility to your position
and demonstrate a working knowledge
of operational duties.

Bland and spurious statements
will lead to a lukewarm response.”

Give specific examples.

A writing buddy asked my advice
about her cover.
She wasn’t certain
if her cover reflected her story.

So I asked for her blurb
(i.e. marketing copy).
Her blurb was BAD,
all caps.
That’s how bad it was.

She, however, loves her blurb.
It was challenging
but I limited my advice to her cover.
She wouldn’t have listened
to my advice about her blurb.
She doesn’t think she needs advice.

As
Chip Bell shares

“Make sure
the protégé is as eager to improve
as you are to see him improve.
You may learn that
the protégé has already determined
what to do
and has little need for your advice.
Your goal is to hear
the protégé say something like,
“Yes, I’ve been concerned about that as well.”
As Abraham Lincoln said,
“A person convinced against his will
is of the same opinion still.””

If you want your advice to be taken,
give it to someone
who wants it.

Success is a long road.
For some of us,
it is never ending.
Once we achieve success,
we set another success benchmark.

So I truly believe in enjoying every step.

Right now,
I’m on a killer deadline
(and writing these blog posts
while completely drained,
an hour or two before they go live
and minutes before I sleep).
It’s tough going
but there are moments of pure joy.
I’m also learning,
becoming a better writer
and a better person.

As Ilene Gordon,
CEO of Ingredion,
shares

“It’s a mistake
to always be looking
towards what’s next in your career:
it’s very important
to really enjoy every position
you’re in.

The question should be
‘what skills do I need
to get to the next level?’
not ‘when are you going
to give me that job?'”

Enjoy this moment.