Author Firmsconsulting

Can you lead yourself? If not, don’t expect others to follow you

Firmsconsulting Leave a comment
Author, life coach, and motivational speaker T...

Image via Wikipedia

To be a better leader, the first thing you need to do is to learn to lead yourself. Leadership and learning to lead yourself go together. If you cannot learn this important skills, you will not be able to lead others. Below are some ideas on how to develop this skill of internal leadership.

Ask: “what is the right thing to do?”. Then do it!

Learn to guide your choices, big and small, by asking yourself: “What is the right thing to do?”. And then do it.

At first, it may take extra time. Thereafter, as you will continue with this activity, the new healthier habits will form and you will not need to spell this out question to yourself. You will do “the right thing” by default.

Moreover, as the habit develops, it will become easier and easier, and you will begin to feel and see the difference it makes in your life.

Remember that, most of the time, you already know what is the right thing to do. The trick is in actually doing it. This is what separate top performers at work from under-achievers, great life partners from inferior ones and straight-A students from C students. Imagine the difference it will make in your life if you actually do it?

More importantly, you are doing it and not just expecting others to do the right thing. You are behaving as you expect others to behave. You are taking steps to effectively lead yourself.

Determine the “musts” in your life

This advice is intuitive but was clearly verbalized by Tony Robbins. The reason some people do not go above a certain physical weight or the reason some students do not get B’s but only A’s is because a certain weight or certain academic performance is a “must” for them.

Everyone has things they should do. They know they should do it, they know how to do it, but they just cannot find strength in themselves to do it. The reason for this is because it is a “should” for them, not a “must”. When something is a “must” for you – failure is not an option.

Therefore, examine your life and determine which aspects of your life must be classified as “musts”. Then reinforce those “musts” every day as an activity where “failure is not an option”, until it becomes second nature. Once you break the old habit – based on research old habits take 21 days to break – the new approach will feel more natural to you than the old approach. This simple technique can significantly contribute to success in your life.

For example, imagine that instead of “you should study at least 5 hours a day” you determine that “you MUST study at least 5 hours a day”. Then make sure that you follow it vigorously. Do not allow yourself any excuses.

You are developing your discipline now, so you have to be strict with yourself. You will see that in 2 or 3 weeks it will become a habit. You will also notice how your new positive habit brings you to new levels of achievement, which will give you further strength to continue with your new positive habit.

Thereafter, as you develop the new “must” in your life, you will have the first victory to keep on giving you strength in disciplining yourself.

Determining “musts” in your life and vigorously ensuring that you keep up with them is part of an effort to lead yourself. Incidentally, the goal to lead yourself needs to be a “must” for you as well.

Use one small improvement as leverage for change

Part of the “lead yourself” endeavor is understanding your strengths and weaknesses, and determining the causes of your strengths and weaknesses. If leading yourself and leadership are not your strong qualities at the moment, you need to change your beliefs. Your beliefs affect your actions and your actions affect your results, which further reinforce your beliefs.

If you have a belief that you will not succeed in your “lead yourself” goal – you need to change this belief. One way to change this belief is to achieve a result that will strongly contradict this belief. It does not need to be a big change. It can be something very simple. Just do it to prove to yourself that you can change and that your belief is wrong. Your mind needs evidence.

After you succeed with providing contradictory evidence to your belief, you have a leverage point. Every time you feel that you just cannot do something, always think back to this example to remember what is possible.

For example, take an area which is a struggle for the majority of people. A good example can be waking up in the morning. So many people struggle to wake up in the morning. If you will be a person who always wakes up at the very same time (whichever time this may be) every single morning, on weekdays and weekends, you will have at least one result which contradicts your current belief of not being able to lead yourself.

It may sound like a really simple example, yet it means something to you and that is what is important. You need simple examples to build your confidence and this creates a snowballing effect.

Above are just some thoughts on improving leadership and attaining your “lead yourself” goal. This will give you a good start. Remember that it will not be easy. If it were easy – everyone would be successful.

Now that you have read the article, ask yourself these two questions:

  • Can you trust you to lead yourself?
  • If you cannot lead yourself, why are you learning to lead others?

Take some time to think about this and write down the answers. Use the guide provided above and develop an action plan to lead yourself.

Related Articles

Drowning at the office…improve your time management with these 15 tips

Firmsconsulting Leave a comment
The Alarm

Image by Burns! via Flickr

To understand time management, think about what a wise person once said, you can live your life any way you want, but you can live it only once.

We could adapt it to:

“you can live your day any way you want, but you can live it only once.”

If you don’t have an effective time management approach, your days are going to zoom by while leaving you with the feeling that nothing really gets done. Theoretically, it is not possible to manage time. But one can manage what one does with their time. Effective time management approaches are therefore needed. Below are some of the main principles that can significantly improve your time management and productivity.

1 – Do not deviate from your schedule

There are many distractions around you throughout the day. The more you deviate from your schedule to do something unproductive, the less you will accomplish. Be disciplined, develop a daily schedule and follow it. This is crucial for effective time management. If something comes up that is important, incorporate it into your schedule. If something is not important, then stick to your schedule. Remember that more often than not, your daily activities determine your success.

2 – Have programmed decisions

Programmed decisions are decisions made about recurring activities. Such decisions are made once and used every time the need for such a decision presents itself.

For example, if you are a very ambitious and driven individua, a time management programmed decision can be:

“I decided that I must only watch TV up to 5 hours a week, only between the times 6pm to 10pm on weekends”.

Now, all you have to do is to follow it.

Initially every time you think “should I do my report or watch a show on TV?” you will remember that your time management programmed decision does not allow you to have this option. As long as you are disciplined in following through, it will become a habit, and eventually you will not even have this question in your mind.

This example of programmed decisions also offers you an additional time saver – less TV. Another example of a programmed decision can be:

“I must exercise 30 minutes, 3 times a week on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 6pm to 6.30pm”.

Now you no longer have to spend any time planning and deciding on when you should exercise. The decision is already made. Time management programmed decisions can save you an enormous amount of time, which can be invested in value-adding activities.

3 – Manage your energy

It is important to do the most challenging tasks when your energy is at a high level.

4 – Respectfully say, “I wish I could help but I do not have capacity”

It is very important not to take on more tasks than you can handle. It is an important skill to learn to say “No” when you do not have the capacity to incorporate additional activity into your schedule.

5 – Keep a positive attitude

This may sound irrelevant to time management, but it is. If you have a positive attitude and see opportunities rather than problems, you will not waste time and energy on worry and regret. Instead, you will focus on solutions rather than problems, and opportunities rather than threats and unpleasant events.

6 -Email routine

Emails can be a significant time waster. It is vital, if at all possible, to set a specific time during the day when you will attend to your emails instead of continuously checking them as they arrive.

You could, for instance, make a time management programmed decision about allocating 10 minutes in the morning to attend to urgent emails and 20 minutes in the afternoon to attend to the rest of emails.

Only respond to emails addressed to you or where your input adds value. The novelty of being copied on thousands of emails soon wears out but the time you already wasted on them can never be recovered.

The morning is generally when you have the most energy. Therefore, it is not productive to spend this time handling non-urgent emails. Do not let other people decide how you should spend your most productive time. You should spend it on the high priority tasks.

7 – The “Pareto” rule (80/20)

The “Pareto” rule refers to the tendency for 20% of your effort to account for 80% of the impact. For time management, it refers to the tendency of 20 percent of your activities to account for 80 percent of the positive impact from your work.

Therefore, it is an advisable and smart thing to identify those activities with the highest impact. Spend the majority of time on them while cutting down or cutting out unnecessary activities (activities with no or very little impact).

For example, if you are a student and your main job is to earn a degree, then you should be spending the majority of your time on things which help you obtain your degree. Focus your time on your studies and cut out things which add no value to your studies. You should definitely not be spending less than 50% of your time on your studies if this is your main objective.

8 – Delegate and delegate often

It is important to delegate what can be done by others. This will save your time for high priority items and gives lower level employees an opportunity to grow. When delegating, it is critical to delegate some authority together with responsibility. That is, you need to delegate the task together with the appropriate level of authority to make decisions. Only such delegation brings real value to both parties. If only the responsibility is delegated but every minor decision about the task is still made by you, then your time will still be used up on this task and the lower level employee will not gain the true developmental benefits that delegation can offer.

In fact, you may spend more time on the task should an extra problem be created due to the poor delegation of authority.

9 – Lower standards for lower priority tasks

Some tasks should just be done at “Good enough” level. Striving for perfection in low priority tasks is generally a waste of time that can be spent on more important goals. Time management is also about eliminating the obsession to make everything perfect, even things that do not need to be perfect.

10 – Alarm snooze time waster

Many people search for ways to get up in the morning. You probably know that resetting the alarm or putting it on snooze in the morning can lead to significant time wastage. Moreover, the quality of your sleep during such periods is very bad so you do not get a good rest.

It is, without doubt, very hard for many people to get up in the morning. It is customary not to hear the alarm or not remember any of the reasons why you should get up before you absolutely must get up. Yet, later in the day, many people regret  lost hours that they could have spent more wisely.

The best way to break out of this insanity is to train yourself to wake up exactly at the same time every morning. Our bodies go through what is known as basic rest activity cycles. When you awake a few days in a row at the very same time – your body will adjust your basic rest activity cycle so that it feels natural to be awake at specific time.

It may be helpful, especially in the beginning, to leave the alarm in another room so you physically have to get up when you hear it.

After you start waking up at the same time every day, a pattern develops, and you may not be able to sleep beyond the  time set by your “body-clock”.

If you miss a day or two and will wake up later than your normal set time, you will have to again train yourself to wake up at the set time and it may be almost as hard to train yourself as the first time. Therefore, it seems better to take a nap during the day if you need extra rest and get yourself out of bed at a set time in the morning.

11 – Group similar activities together

It is important to group similar activities together. For example, if you need to make a few phone calls, it is better to do them all at once. One simple rule that can be used to save time is never to leave your desk for just one thing. In this way, you are forced to group a few activities together before your work is interrupted and, therefore, work will be interrupted much less. This is a simple but very effective time management technique.

12 – Work passionately

Time management can be improved not only by reducing the time spent at the office, but also by enjoying the time spent at the office. Constantly look for ways to be interested and passionate about your work. This way you can do your best work and you can be more focused and accomplish the task faster.

13 – Avoid disruptions

Avoid all kinds of disruptions such as drop-in visitors, telephone calls and emails, magazines and newspapers, and news websites. Those activities can take up a large part of your time if you are not careful. Allocate some time from the least productive part of your day to deal with these type of activities.

14 -Avoid procrastination

There is a saying, if you have a frog to eat, eat it the first thing in the morning and, if you have two frogs to eat, don’t start from the small one.

It is a good time management habit to do the most difficult and unpleasant activities earlier in the day. This way it will be done once and for all and you no longer will have to occupy your mind with the thoughts on how unpleasant and difficult it will be do engage in such activity.

15 – Assign a “dollar” value to an hour of your time

You need to assign a “dollar” value to an hour of your time. Time is an even more precious resource than money, but, for some reason, people are generally more careful with their money then with their time. By keeping in mind how much each hour of your day is worth, you can be much more accountable for the way this time is utilized.

Related Articles

Presentation Skills: Stand Up and Present with Confidence

Firmsconsulting Leave a comment
Audience during my Wikimania talk

Image via Wikipedia

Effective presentation skills are vital for most business roles. Many people never master presentation skills. Therefore, you can really set yourself apart from your colleagues by developing strong presentation skills. Steps to enhance your presentation skills are outlined for inexperienced and semi-experienced presenters below.

Inexperienced presenter

If you have never had any experience in presenting your work to an audience, the first few times will most likely be really uncomfortable and scary. What could help you greatly is to prepare what you can say. This resembles writing a script. Later, as you will acquire experience in presenting your work, you will no longer need scripts. The next thing you need to do is to practice, practice and practice. Start from practicing alone. Divide the presentation into manageable and logical parts and practice each part separately. Then practice each part together in the correct sequence. When you feel you can get through the presentation more or less adequately, start videotaping yourself. When you will see yourself presenting your work, you may likely notice things that you had no idea you were doing. An example can be noisily clapping your hands together when you are trying to make a point. To avoid embarrassment it is, of course, much better to find out about this problem while you are alone. Since you know that you do particular things with your hands while presenting, you can keep one of your hands on your leg and break the habit. After you have videotaped your presentation a few times and you will see a significant improvement in the quality of your presentation and will be ready to set up dry runs. Dry runs are practice presentations to a friendly audience. You can start with your family and, when you are ready, you can ask some of your colleagues to come in for a dry run and afterwards give you feedback and make suggestions on how to improve your presentation. After about 5 dry runs you should be ready to give a good presentation.

Semi-experienced presenter

If you have some experience in presenting your work to an audience, then the preparation steps described above can be shortened in frequency and depth to reflect what you feel is necessary to adequately prepare. However, if you do not feel confident about your presentation skills then it is better to go through all these steps to ensure you are really well prepared.

***

Presenting your work to an audience can become one of your favorite activities as you gain more experience. It is exciting. It allows you an opportunity to show your competence, intelligence and reliability. Presenting your work is an opportunity to shine, it is not punishment. You need to embrace it and make the most of it. The ideas above are very helpful and, if followed, will greatly help you in improving your confidence and effectiveness when engaging an audience.

Related Articles

Six ways to enhance your personal style

Firmsconsulting Leave a comment
Dress code as seen at a London Club in the Soh...

Image via Wikipedia

Your personal style significantly influences perceptions that people have of you. Moreover, it rolls up into being your brand or personal image. Often perceptions that people have of you are very one-sided and heavily affected by one negative or positive characteristic which is the so-called “halo effect”, which is one of the biases that people have when forming perceptions of others.

You can definitely influence how people perceive you. You need to adjust your personal style to build your brand the same way as Coca Cola and amazon.com builds theirs. You can be anything you want to be and make people think anything you would like them to.

You just need to consciously manage your brand. It must be of the highest caliber, consistent and credible. You can call it your personal style, your personal image or personal brand. It does not matter. Everyone has one and you need to control your own.

Below are six ideas which can significantly help you build your personal style and, hence, your brand.

1 – Over invest during the first 6 months

You probably noticed when you join a new company or when you start a degree in university, a perception about who you are and what you are capable of develops and is usually based on what you do over the very first few months. Therefore, if you give everything you have over those first 6 months, you will lay a great foundation upon which to build your success.

2 – Appearance counts

Numerous studies have indicated that people prefer attractive and neat people. The way you dress, the way you walk and the way you communicate are all part of your personal style and contributes to the way people see you.

3 – Dress a level higher than the majority

You need to always dress for your next job. If you are a business analyst in a consulting firm, dress as a consultant or even a senior consultant or a manager. Even if more senior people in the work place are dressed very casually, but the overall dress code is business casual, you should be dressed just a level higher than the majority of your colleagues and superiors.

This generally will show that you take your job and career seriously, that you are here to do business and you intend to go far in life. This sends a message that you come to work not to socialize and make friends but to bring great value to the company and the customers. This will make you stand out.

Of course, there are exceptions. Some companies specifically stay away from a professional dress code. A good example is Google, employees of which follow a very casual dress code. But in most cases, this guideline will make you stand out and get noticed. Of course, your other actions, such as the quality of your work are also ingredients of your personal style and should support your overall message of excellence.

THERE IS ONE IMPORTANT WORD OF CAUTION. Dressing well must make you feel better internally and present a confident and positive message. Never ever confuse dressing better to acting better than your co-workers. Your professional dressing will generate attention, so it is very important you go out of your way to indicate that this is your preferred dressing style only and you DO NOT think you are better than your co-workers. Show this in your actions and be sincere about it. If you dress well but act better than your co-workers then you will harm your reputation.

4 – Reputation

Your personal style should be aligned with helping you to build a reputation of credibility, competence and reliability. Your superiors need to know that if there are trouble and they need someone reliable and competent, they should go to you.

5 – Always keep your word

Staying true to your word must be an important part of your personal style. Take on only what you can handle and feel free to renegotiate deadlines, where necessary and where possible. Your personal style must clearly show that you are someone who takes requests and promises seriously.

Your attitude should be one that if you promised to do something – you will do everything in your power to ensure that it gets done, one way or another. For example, if you promised to deliver a certain document by the deadline, and an unexpected and more important assignment came up, you need to do everything you can to find someone to do the first deliverable for you, and be accountable for its quality.

After you find such a person, you need to approach your superior and confirm with them if they feel comfortable with the other person taking responsibility for the deliverable that you were assigned to do.

If you have done everything you could to find someone and there is just nobody available, than you can approach your superior and describe the situation. He or she may then make a decision on how best to proceed.

The bottom line is, you need to be proactive, reliable and feel ultimately accountable for any work you promise to do. Keeping your word must be seen by others as an important ingredient of your personal style. It is also important to be consistent in your personal style across different parts of your life, which includes your personal style in your relationships outside of work.

6 – Under promise and over deliver

This simple technique can help you greatly in establishing an image of competence and excellence. Furthermore, this technique is useful in any area of your life: in your studies, in your career and in your personal life. By following this simple rule, you will consistently exceed people’s expectations and will, therefore, have the reputation of someone who always exceeds expectations.

***

The above ideas are really important and rarely implemented. If you will adapt it to enhance your personal style, this alone will set you apart from the crowd.

Business ethics

Firmsconsulting Leave a comment

Strong business ethics is vital to ensure a successful long-term career. One single thing that you can do that will make you stand out in life and in business is to cultivate very strong fundamental values and make it define who you are.

In practice, strong business ethics is not a common trait in employees, as you may have noticed yourself. If ethics were common we would not need so many laws and enforcement agencies. We could simply expect employees to do what is right. This, however, gives you a competitive advantage. In business, strong fundamental values could include many things but the underlying value is integrity at all times. Integrity must guide all dealings with internal and external stakeholders.

More important than integrity is the image of having integrity. It is a halo which can protect you from accusations. It takes years to develop this halo but it can be lost in one act, lasting just one second.

To cultivate strong business ethics, one needs to acquire or strengthen several business values that are vital for anyone who would like to succeed as a professional and as a leader.

Guide to business ethics

Be ethical regardless of the consequences in dealing with stakeholders of an organisation.

Do what is the best for the company. Sometimes it can mean doing what is the best for the client, if you work on projects for specific clients, such as in management consulting. Doing what is best for the company sometimes means forgoing immediate profits for the company, and even upsetting your co-workers.

  • Take pride in your work at all times.
  • Do your best work at all times.
  • Never say anything negative about someone behind that person’s back. If you have issues with someone, approach them directly.
  • Do not gossip or spread rumours. Do not take part in gossiping. Rumours have many untruths to them and you do not want to damage anyone’s reputation.
  • Be professional at all times.
  • If you promise something – deliver it as promised, but when needed, use opportunities to renegotiate the deadline.
  • Do as you advise others to do.
  • Respect your time and that of others.
  • Promote justice. Give people credit for their work and never accept credit for work done by somebody else.
  • Stand up for what you believe in. If you see wrongdoing, especially the kind that can be damaging to a company’s reputation or performance, do whatever you can to change it and refuse to be a part of it.
  • And last, but most importantly, remember that family and the people you love always come first. This does not mean that one can miss a deadline if there is a birthday coming up. In such situations you will have to negotiate with both parties and use your best judgment. What it does mean is that, in all your decisions, you need to keep your family’s interests as a highest priority. For instance, you cannot neglect your husband, wife or children for a few years while you are building your career. This will cause irreparable damage to your life. You have to incorporate their interests now into your schedule.

 

Ethics vs. Personal Commitments

Take care of yourself. Always remember that if you work yourself to the point that you will get ill, regardless of how outstanding your performance was, you will be replaced. Your employer and management may feel very sad that you are leaving, and may even have to hire two people to do your job, but they will replace you and in time forget about you.

Therefore, always remember to put your health and your family first. Those are the real assets of your life, not your title and the corner office. If you cannot reconcile the needs of your family with those of your career, then you need to think long and hard, and possibly walk away from your career.

Do not go against your values to accommodate behaviour which is not ethical.

The above points on business ethics were probably just a reminder, as they are intuitive. As you go forward, you can incorporate other guidelines that you feel are important. However, it is important to make sure that your values are not negotiable. That is why we call them values. As people often say; if you don’t have values – you don’t have anything. Values and moral principles only count when they are tested. Everyone has them unless they are put to the test. Then only a few truly have them.

Strong values will always make you stand out and are vital for your long-term success and happiness in all areas of your life.

Dress Code for Professional Women

Firmsconsulting Leave a comment
A pair of circular-head court shoes / pumps in...

Image via Wikipedia

Let’s briefly forget about business casual and business professional and do a little test. I want you to do this exercise the next time you go out of the office and see people sitting outside on their lunch break. Try to guess what type of person they are.

  • Who looks reliable?
  • Who appears super-focused on their careers?
  • Who looks like a loner?
  • Who looks like the prima-donna?
  • Who looks like the popular person?
  • Who looks like management material?

ou do not know these people so how can you arrive at an opinion? You may have overheard some of them speaking but that will apply for just a few. Your opinion was based on the following:

  • You looked at their dressing (business casual, business professional or something else)
  • You looked at their posture, stance and behaviour
  • You looked at their facial expressions
  • And you took all these things and compared them against your own perceptions

That’s pretty much how humans work. How many times have you said to yourself “This person does not look serious or reliable? I should stay away from them.

This is why your dressing is such a powerful indicator. Your dressing and posture quickly and effectively create an impression of you.

Business Casual or Business Professional?

Let’s start with women and some observations about how women should dress. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list. Again, this is a comparison between wanting to dress business casual or business professional and how to do it. It is meant to highlight some principles for professional dressing.

Your dressing is part of the brand of the company. Some companies expect all the employees to dress in a certain way. Like IBM did for many years. So while you need to be comfortable, remember not to damage the brand equity of the business. If your firm insists on business professional (suits), then wear a comfortable suit. Don’t come to work in sandals and jeans.

Even when there are options for dressing it is always wise to dress business professional. If it is acceptable, wear a full suit. If full suits are not worn, then wear just the suit skirt/pants and a professional shirt. Remember in the test earlier, you need to meet people’s expectations of a reliable and professional person. This should not change between seasons.

Open shoes have become popular is some offices. Women have started wearing open shoes with their suits etc. This is probably not a good idea and conveys a casual image. Dress appropriately and wear covered shoes. Building a business casual look with your shoes can damage an otherwise good outfit.

Business professional is always recommended when it comes to necklines (not too deep) and skirt-lengths (on or slightly below the knee)

Your handbag is not an accessory. Some days it may be fine to take a small handbag to work but as a professional, your handbag should be functional. It is there to carry out a job and you should make sure it is designed for this. Stay away from flashy handbags that draw attention away from you as a professional.

Your mobile phone, Blackberry or iPhone is also not an accessory. Again it is wise to stay away from jewel encrusted phones, Hello Kitty ringtones and bright colours. If you are not sure, choose a style which conveys a neutral image.

Bright or body fitting tops under your suit jacket are not recommended. However a bright pink neck scarf on a white shirt may work.

Boots are generally not advised. I cannot think of a single situation where this will work accept possibly in harsh winters. If you must wear boots, wear something stylish but neutral. No fir trimmings, bells or pictures on your boots.

Everything you own should be seen as an extension of your dressing. These include pens, notebooks, accessories etc. They all need to be conservative and professional.

High heels are fine provided they are elegant, professional, and not shiny and have covered toes.

Fitted suits are just as good as off-the-rack suits. It is really your choice. If you go the fitted-suit route ensure they look sleek, elegant and not too sexy. You need to balance professionalism with your personal preference.

Casual Fridays are unusual days. It says to me that for 4 days of the week we are struggling to adjust to a culture we do not like, and to make up for the four days, we can wear anything we would like on a Friday. If you accept a company and its values for what they are, and do not see this as just a “job to pay the bills”, then the idea of casual Fridays make no sense. If you are forced to dress down on Fridays, then wear the most conservative clothing you can.

While you are an extension of your company and its brand you can look elegant, stylish and beautiful. Essentially you can vary your cut, colours, texture etc to achieve different looks which are all business professional.

In general, you need to dress for the image you want to project and career you want to have. When you select your clothing in the morning keep this front and centre in your thinking.

Building yourself

Firmsconsulting Leave a comment

When building yourself, you need to eliminate non-necessities from your life and give 100% effort to necessities. A necessity is defined as something absolutely essential to helping you meet your objectives. You also must learn to identify activities that directly contribute to building yourself and activities that are “noise” that you have to go through.

Examples of activities that are noise include laundry, cleaning, driving, and shopping and so on. It refers to anything that does not improve your tomorrow and does not improve your value as an individual, as a professional, as a partner, as a parent or as a friend, but have to be done anyway.

Individual circumstances, priorities, goals and dreams will affect which activities are “noise” and which “build your value”. So you need to use common sense and personal judgment. Spending time with your partner during shopping may be the only time you spend together, so this is a necessity. Notice in this shopping example it’s not just what you do that determines if something is a necessity, it is also important to determine why you do it.

Ask yourself

What do you need to be successful in your business career training?

Do you have all the tools and skills to succeed?

Do you have sufficient time to succeed in your career?

If not, can you create more time for building yourself? In other words, which activities are “noise” and can be eliminated or delegated to others? Are your social activities preventing you from reaching your goal?

What needs to change to achieve your goals?

Do you have the courage, conviction and diligence to make the change?

Using the Answers

These are all good questions! Numerous people go through these questions when considering their goals and inspirations. Many of those people are not willing to make the investment of time, effort and trade-offs to get the result they want. They consciously choose to settle for an average or below average life. However, some remarkable people find the courage to face the challenges and find a way to succeed. And so can you.

This is easier than many people think, but only once you develop a mindset of focusing on what is needed for your future success, focusing on what is needed to have a better tomorrow and eliminating non-necessities which we call “noise”.

You should continue setting more challenging goals for yourself and keep building yourself into the person you were born to be. Along the way, though, don’t forget to enjoy the ride.

What do you want to be known for?

Firmsconsulting Leave a comment

You are a brand. What kind of brand are you?

When people look at you, think about you, or work with you, they inadvertently often distil you down to a catch-phrase. You may have heard the following similar phrases in the office:

“Speak to Paul, he’s the numbers guy and can help you”

If you have any trouble, Dianne understands the marketing side best”

“If we’re going to make this client pitch tomorrow, we need Angelica involved. No one can pull it off like her and certainly not in the time we have”

For these catch-phrases to mean something they cannot be once-off references. If Paul is generally the person people go to when it comes to finance problems, if Paul positions himself as a finance specialist, if he is recognised as the finance specialist, then that is what Paul is known for. Whether he likes it or not, Paul’s actions have resulted in his brand choosing him.

Meet Diane in Sales

What you are known for within the office can be flattering or unflattering and intentional or unintentional. For example Diane may think of herself as an upcoming sales star, but the perception around the office is that she tries too hard in sales meetings and flirts with customers.

Diane may think this is all part of making sales, and feels her colleagues understand this. They may very well introduce her as a sales star when she is within earshot, but it’s what’s said when she is not around what counts. And when she is not around she’s known as the one who flirts to land a sale. This is an example of an unflattering image. Again, Diane may be asking herself, “How do I choose my brand?” However, her behaviour and choices resulted in a brand image she may not like.

Meet Preston In Health Care

Preston has been doing the same job of loading data at a hospital for years. Yet there should be no doubt, he is a stellar performer. As a business analyst he was far more interested in the operations side, but due to staff cuts and data problems he was asked to fix this problem. He did a great job, probably too good a job. His superiors kept him in this role and even the CEO, John Hennessey, mentioned his work in the quarterly report to employees. Unfortunately for Preston he is nothing more than a data jockey. It makes him unhappy and despite his efforts to break out of this role, he feels stuck. This is an example of an unintentional image. Its flattering, but not where Preston wants to be. Preston never wanted to be known as a data jockey but circumstances have led to this. Despite Preston’s dreams of moving into another role, he has been boxed into being known as a data jockey.

Is your career choosing you?

If what you currently known for is not what you want to be known for, what should you do?

  • Keep a record, over a month, of the work you are asked to do, review and/or advise upon. Make a list of the type of meetings you are invited to and the emails you receive.
  • Record the jokes people make about you (“Oh, Ria is not free on week nights. She is the super hero guardian of our data servers”). Lots of truths are conveyed as a joke.
  • When you offer co-workers any help, record the type of help they request. They usually jump to the one thing they believe you are best at.
  • Track both technical and non-technical things. Do people view you as trustworthy, honest, reliable, respectful etc.

Once you have this information, you can build a portrait of yourself. Take a clean sheet of paper and draw two columns. One is labeled “technical” and the other is labeled “non-technical”. Be sure to use only half of each column. You will need the second half later.

On one side of a page write down all the technical things that were linked to you and on the other write down all the non-technical things. Be brutally honest with yourself.

Look at the list. Is this who you thought you were? How do you feel about this? Are you happy? Do you feel proud?

It is okay and normal to be surprised at your co-workers perception of you. Especially if this is the first time you have done the exercise. All is not lost. This difference in perception is normal and happens in everyone’s career at some point. Usually it happens more than once. Take a deep breath and go make yourself some tea or coffee.

Once you have your coffee or tea, let’s do another exercise. On the same sheet of paper, on the half which is blank, write down the technical and non-technical things for which you want to be known for. Be careful when you do this. Focus on one or two things. Like any good brand you cannot be known for everything or too many things. That is not possible. A classic mistake is to focus on the technical skills only. In business, things like values and honesty are usually very important. Make sure you pay proper attention to these. Once you have this list, save it and come back to it in a day or two. This gives you time to think about the list and ensure it is complete in your mind.

Now compare this list to the list with your colleague’s perceptions. Is there is a big difference? In what way is there a difference? Write these down as well. Now think about your typical work week. How can you do things differently, or do new things to show a change in your behaviour. You cannot tell people you have changed, you need to show them.

When you get into the office, you need to keep the new list at the back of your mind and consciously think about the image you are conveying. If you do things correctly you will notice a change in your colleagues’ behaviour. In fact, you will feel a difference in your own behaviour because you are changing.

In about 3-4 months repeat this exercise and see if there are any changes in your co-workers perceptions. Remember, perceptions take time to change so don’t be disheartened if it takes too long. The important thing is to be conscious of your image and actively manage it.

Over time, co-workers will notice you are a different person. At this point you may want to actively enage your manager about a new role. Show him or her a summary of your analyses and explain why it is ineffective using your skills. Remember, you need to show why both the company and you will benefit from the change in roles.

It is a misconception that this “boxing-in” of what you are know for happens to weaker employees. Even the best performers can be stuck in a career loop. It requires self-awareness to identify this and build a way out. These steps will definitely help you.

How do I find a mentor?

Firmsconsulting Leave a comment

One of the most important things you should do, at any stage of your career, is to find a mentor. Without a mentor, your climb up your career ladder may be a bit shaky, or you may even fall off.

Some companies already have mentorship programmes in place. Once you join, the company assigns a mentor to you. This mentor’s role is to help you develop yourself professionally. Assigned mentors are good but usually not great.

Since assigned mentors must carry out this role, they usually lack passion, are over-burdened and simply go through the motions. Therefore it is important that when you join and have the option of having a mentor, you should try to have some influence in the process.

If you are assigned a mentor who is not very helpful, work with them, but try to find yourself another informal mentor. There is no reason you cannot have more than one mentor.

When you are new, you are not aware of all the rules and processes, therefore having two mentors allows you to have checks and balances in place. Two mentors serve as a healthy sounding board.

How do you choose a mentor?

First, as much as you need to select a mentor, he or she also needs to select you.

Avoid mentors co-workers recommend as:

“friendly”,

“John has been here for 30 years and knows this business inside and out”, or

“Shirley is easy to work with and people like her”.

People who are friendly sometimes try to be “liked” too much, and at the expense of providing good advice. Good advice is not always popular or well received and they may be unwilling to do this.

Usually it is a subconscious style and they don’t even know it is happening. Either way, you do not benefit. You want a mentor who has demonstrated real success in the business, is respected for those skills and will push you to reach your potential rather than make you feel good about yourself.

Do not confuse a mentor and a friend. Friends in the office are the nice people who show you around and go for coffee with you. Mentors push you to be your best.

Look for a mentor who knows how to succeed and someone who wants you to succeed. If you are mentored by someone who took 8 years to be promoted, the odds are they do not know how to progress, or worse, they think 8 years in one position is normal. That will just slow you down. You need to find someone who is open-minded and if you progress faster than they did, they are fine with this. They need to want to see you succeed.

Find a mentor who does not have a big ego. Some mentors like  the role since it implies they are guiding junior employees. These are not mentors. They are employees who seek to feel important by working with junior people.

It is best to find a mentor who is not involved in your business unit. Your mentor must not be involved with you on a day-to-day basis. They must be able to offer a fresh perspective and this is not possible if they work with you on a daily basis.

Your mentor is not your champion. Do not expect them to come out and publicly support you or champion you. That person is called your “champion” or your “sponsor”. Your mentor guides you to help you achieve your potential.

Do not pick mentors based on their so-called “political” networks in the business. Whether you like it or not, you are too new to the business to understand the “in-crowd” nor can you trust a co-workers judgement on this. Remember that political “parties” come and go, even in business. It is better to operate outside this circle.

Your mentor is not someone you speak to daily, weekly or even monthly. At best you may speak monthly but it’s usually less frequent. A good mentor is not going to get involved in the details, and you should not expect them to. They are helping you plan the arc of your life and career. An arc is developed over many months and usually years. They want to discuss your plans and ideas, and strategy to achieve your goals.

Things about which you should be extra careful

“How do I do that?” is probably the sentence that annoys mentors more than anything else, especially if it is the standard response you have to their advice. Mentors do not like getting into the operating detail. They do not have the time and do not have access to all the information you know to answer this question correctly. Moreover, having to answer this question tells the mentor you are likely not worth their time.

Mentors will provide guidance and ideas. It is your job to find a way to execute this advice. If a mentor tells you “it is important for you to build a good relationship with finance director”, it will really annoy your mentor if you will ask “How?”.

Your mentor is not there to hold your hand. If you want a good mentor, make sure you are at the state where you are capable of using the knowledge and guidance you receive. Simply having a good mentor is not enough. You have to be a great mentee.

When your mentor outlines an idea, it is your job to figure out how to make it happen or at least present your high level thoughts.

Demonstrate respect and courtesy to your mentor at all times. Show your appreciation. They are not paid to do this, it takes away their time and they are making an investment where the payback is not at all clear. Show that you are actively using their advice. Make them proud of you. Validate their decision to help you.

Picking a mentor post-crises

If you want to be really successful then it is very important you find a good  mentor or two.

In my experience, don’t be hasty to pick one as soon as you start. Take a few months to find one. In fact, wait until after you have been through a small crisis at the office. When there is a problem then the internal power structure of an organisation shows itself and you can quickly see how and who makes decisions. You need this to understand how the company works and the guidance you specifically need.

Developing a career track

Firmsconsulting Leave a comment

A career track is important to develop. When I join a company, like everyone else I am very excited and prepared to focus on building myself to move ahead. I think long and hard about my career track. Both my employer and I need to benefit from the relationship.

However, before I can start discussing my planned career track with my boss, I need to show my employer that I am excellent in my current position and due to the excellence in my current position I have permission to start thinking about and planning my career.

Jane’s Career Track

Let me give you an example. Jane is a 29 year old business analyst at a paper company. Jane is a public certified accountant and holds an MBA. She is bright, ambitious and well liked by her colleagues. Jane arrives at work promptly at 8:30am every day and leaves at 6:30pm. She is a great colleague and her co-workers like socialising with her. Jane has been an analyst for 6 months and is desperately trying to have a conversation with her manager, Karl, about moving ahead to the next level. Karl politely sidesteps these discussions and simply tells Jane she needs more experience. Jane is puzzled and keeps pressing the issue. She believes her career is on track to be Karl’s “lieutenant” in the department.

To Karl Jane is good at her work but not great. He still needs to check and sign-off all her work. She is not creative enough. While her work is good she is usually at her best when she knows what needs to happen and “disappears” for 1 to 2 weeks to complete the assignment.

To Karl Jane needs to have better attention to detail, she needs to be more creative and understand the business better. In Karl’s opinion, Jane does not act as if she is a senior business analyst and therefore does not yet have his permission to start transitioning her career to the next level. To Karl, she needs to focus on being better in her current role first. If anything,

Lessons for Jane

Jane should sit down with Karl and understand his expectations of her.

Jane must distinguish between explicit (“complete the businesses cases on each product launch, review the material for the management meeting etc”) and implicit expectations (“the team has been down recently so we hope to inject some confidence with your arrival, the analysts and marketers do not get along so I hope you can help us bridge that gap etc”).

Understand what is most important to Karl and the business.

The expectations must be clear to Jane, and where possible, be measurable and have milestones.

Jane should also discuss with Karl her expectations of working with Karl. What support, guidance, and feedback she needs.

They must agree to proper feedback meetings at regular intervals and after each major piece of work is completed. They should also agree to a performance discussion every 3 months.

This is important, Jane must determine at which point Karl will be open to discussing her career progression. It is important to note that not all companies have formal career paths, so it is not a bad idea to be proactive.

Once this meeting is over, it is best to transcribe the discussion and send an email to Karl for his records. Jane must keep the email friendly but specific. Many people forget discussions. Capturing key discussion points protects both Jane and Karl.

How should Jane use this discussion with Karl?

Over the first six months of her job Jane must be laser-like focused in ensuring she is meeting Karl’s agreed on expectations of her. Her objective now is not to focus on her distant career track, but to make sure she excels in current role. Jane must document her progress and where possible have tangible evidence of her successes.

Three months after the expectations discussion, she should arrange a discussion with Karl to discuss performance. Prior to such meeting it will be helpful if Jane summarizes her performance on a single piece of paper.

Jane’s objective in this meeting will be to determine if she is meeting or exceeding Karl’s expectations. She needs to gain clear and constructive feedback. Jane should probe for examples and areas of improvement. If this first feedback meeting will not go well, then Jane needs to buckle down and fix those problems.

If it will go well, Jane then needs to focus over the next 3 months on fixing any small development areas. In these next 3 months Jane must start acting as if she is at the next level. Now she can start thinking about her career track.

She should be careful not to overstep her authority, but must use every opportunity to show she is already at the next level. For example, if the next level requires liaising directly with clients, should that opportunity present itself, Jane should engage a client and build a good relationship for the company.

If Jane does this well, then in Karl’s mind she is exceeding expectations in her current role, shows ambition and accountability, and he will likely be open to discuss her career plans. Karl will himself start thinking about Jane’s career track. He will not want to lose a talented employee and may even initiate the discussion himself.

This is a more effective way to progress in a company. Ensure you have the implicit permission of your manager to start thinking about the next level of your career track, and start acting as if you are already at the next level. Yet before you can do this, you must over deliver in your current role. No one wants to promote an employee who cannot perform in their current role, to a more senior role.