Personal Prophecy Perspective

Let's examine the life of a critic. Your occupation is to criticize. I would guess the underlying premise of said occupation would be to spend your life judging others to avoid any judgement upon yourself.

I never put stock in reviews. In fact, a bad review from one of the aforementioned deflectors of personal accountability may even prompt me to engage the art that they seek to destroy. Reviews are meaningless. If reviews were of such profound merit, we wouldn't have to see a film at all, we would simply let a few interpret the creation of others. All things created are yours to interpret in your own way. No one's opinion should matter more to you than your own!

In this blog we have frowned negativity as a motivational tactic and we have scrapped popular opinion in favor of unique individual inspiration. Today will be no different.

No one lives every minute in your shoes. Still, you will be told of ways to improve yourself and on the surface level this may seem like an attack. In most cases, people see your path to potential and want to help you kick the pebbles aside. It is vitally important not to let a pebble slow your pathway stridings. Be aware that the intent of your accuser is nothing more than a pebble on your motivational path.

Consider the Source
My friend was interviewed recently for a job she was entertaining. She called me afterward in disbelief of the interviewer's arrogance. The 20 year sales veteran was questioned by an accusatory staffing pro who's time on earth barely matched her career length. She explained to me that the job offered less money than she was currently being paid, the company was not a proven, and that the person interviewing her made no correlation of her applicable skills to the position. In short, she had met the gatekeeper to a land she didn't even want to enter.

You will walk into "no win" situations. It is always better to be polite, give the gatekeeper a few cookies, and to move on to a land in which you will be appreciated. The company may have another candidate in mind, you may be column fodder for due process, and maybe the interviewer's brother wants the job. It is my candid advice not to over-analyze strange misgivings. If you start a climb at the bottom of the hill with a ton of bricks on your back, two things can happen:
1. You succeed at the behest of your accuser
2. You will fail

Neither is an all-fulfilling formula for winning. When you prove someone wrong you usually put money in their pocket for betting against you. Why would you want to do that?

Path Assessment
The best partnerships are not forced. You can point to people and companies with whom you have worked who just "get it". They understand that you add value becuase you are not trying to fit a big square in a small circle.

You may love your I-pod but that doesn't mean Apple is a good company to work for. You may be a music fanatic but a position in Def Jam's marketing department might cause you to hate music. You could be an awesome golfer but your drive accuracy will probably not make you a better salesman for Callaway.

It's about finding partnerships that fit:

Do your organizational cultures align?

Does your product address their need without a ton of work arounds?

Does the person with whom you will work appreciative of you as a person?

Find Your Kingdom 
I would venture to guess that a dream job is out there for every one of us. A place where we can have fun, make money, and bring value to the world.

Professional life offers two options:
a. Search tirelessly for that perfect fit and do not compromise until you find it
b. Make your current job the best it can be

Start by considering the criticism you face every day. Sometimes you are given advice that you have to hear....it will help you remove obstacles and make you a better professional. Accept advice, assess how it will fit into your strategy and apply what will make you better. If in considering the criticism of your accuser you cannot find merit, politely ignore them!

You are in charge. You can make your current job your dream job. You know better than anyone if you have given your maximum effort. Listen to others but let your personal motivation drive. Take advice with a grain of salt and thank those who help you grow. Ignore the unkind. Be critical of your effort without beating up on yourself.

It's not just a job, it's your life. You will succeed by being honest with yourself. You are the only person who knows your genuine truth! Let your genuine truth lead!

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave           

The 3 P's

Most often, this blog deals the bigger issues that relate one's personality to their professional development. Today, we will work in much more direct terms. As a Career Coach, I am often asked for the silver bullet methods for success that one can implement in their climb to professional nirvana. It changes based on variable factors but I can suggest the following:
Preparation
Purpose
Personal Attention

The 3 P's are a excellent method in differentiating a truly successful company from the pretenders. They are also a turn-key to good professional habits. It is important to conduct oneself in a professionally graceful manner. Follow the 3 P's......

Preparation
Do you get freaked out when someone you meet for the first time knows the college you attended, your favorite sports team or your past employers? Did you ever consider that this is information you have made readily available? Why wouldn't you be flattered if someone took a personal interest in you.

A 2 minute google search can tell you a lot about a person. Understand the common language that correlates to a person's lifestyle and work it into conversation. It's a great way to establish rapport and common interest.

The look of surprise is one of flattery not alienation.

Purpose
Common purpose creates a company identity that cultivates an organizational culture. A logo represents a professional ethos shared by everyone who humanizes a brand.

No two people are perfectly alike but let's consider a football analogy. The path to victory is driven by a style of playing the game and directives for success. Business is no different: every company has core values, every department has business critical goals. Professionals should be able to recite their company's core values and the top 3 directives of their business group. Purpose is driven by common goals and a style for achieving success.

Personal Attention
Can you commit to responding to every email/voicemail within 3 hours? I bet you can. Even if you do not have a perfect answer, you can at least lay out a plan of action or report that the process is under way. People love to know that they can ping someone and that person is reliable to the extent that any given task will be addressed in short time. Your boss loves it, your customers love it, your wife loves it.

Implement a 3 hour turnaround time!

In summation:
1. Google every person you meet
2. Believe in what you do (or do something else)
3. Implement a 3 hour turn around time

Don't sweat the small stuff but always remember the little things!

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

Life's Unfair Balance

There is a lot of doom and gloom these days....struggling economy, protests, political muck raking, less than entertaining sporting events, over priced nights on the town. It seems the work day requires us to do more with less and when we try to break free our bank accounts are emptied. Not exactly a fair way of living: bust your butt, earn a few bucks and spend them all releasing stress....a steep price to pay for a headache.

If we are able to admit we may have to work harder than ever to earn less (and be OK with that) we might be on to something revolutionary! Life isn't fair, times are tough, and our only certainties are death and taxes. The landscape may not change any time soon. So you can sit at the bottom of the hill and cry or you can strap your boots on and start climbing the mountain.

With every task there is another, there are thousands waiting to fill your job, and you feel tied to the whipping post. The choice is pretty simple: get busy living, or get busy dying. Your Perception and your Attitude navigate your destiny.

In this time of uncertainty the following things remain indiscernibly true:
Hard Work Pays Off!
The 5 Best Words in the Human Language
Take a Breath

An Inarguable Truth
We are all looking for that idea, stock option, or widget that will catapult our wealth. There is only one sure answer: Hard Work! No matter what you do, if you grind it out for long hard hours, you will succeed! You can always work harder, you can always do more, your true potential is almost impossible to realize. It may take a month or a year or five years....but if you stick to it with unflappable determination: You Will Win!

Things that are out of your control may derail your progress. Someone may play dirty to take that promotion you wanted. There will be times when you trust the wrong person. Sometimes you take a chance and fail. Allow nothing to discourage you! If you keep working hard, success is eminent!

5 Words We All Want to Hear
I once worked for a person who saw my truest potential and pushed me every day to discover it. She liked me immensely but she would never let me know it. She felt responsible for my success and she would not allow me to under perform for even one day. When I finished at the top of the revenue report she met me at the bar at our awards banquet, put her hand on my shoulder and said....

I Am Proud Of You!

...I nearly cried. Those 5 words made 365 days of total effort completely worth it. Some employees want more money, others want gifts or travel vouchers, and there are those who like trophies. But, everyone wants to be told they have honored their post with the fullest of integrity!

Who Cares
I am a hyper-focused professional. I take advantage of every opportunity to improve and I take my work personally. Those who do less than I, and pass judgement, make me insane!

I once asked a really good friend (professional musician) to hear me out on an interpersonal struggle I was having at work. I explained the situation to her and she replied:
Who Cares.........!!!!!

Usually that reply would drive me nuts but in this case it made perfect sense. I was so focused on the mundane detail of a completely irrelevant point that I lost my focus of what was important. It was a shocking revelation. We often fret over things that are completely meaningless. In fact, most of the things that cause stress do nothing more than distract us from our actual goal. Sometimes you have to take a breath, blow it off and move on!

Week in and week out we learn that we often neglect what is important. We lose time with our children because we are pre-occupied trying to please someone at work. We are distracted at dinner with a loved one because our head is in our BlackBerry. We forget to tell Mom we love her...and then she is gone!

Time is fleeting, use it wisely! Nothing is too important!

Don't Forget to Remember!

- Dave

The Mountain Top

I gave a speech at the wedding of a misunderstood friend. Some had questioned why this renegade was settling down. I explained that freedom is defined not by what you are running from but by what you are running to. As we grow up, the things we once feared become the very things that drive us: love, responsibility and an extended tribe. I heard Jesse Ventura say that he embraced being Governor with the ethos, "If not me then who". My friend grew up to be a great husband and father and the aforementioned professional wrestler ran the state of Minnesota in honorable fashion. Motivation is the process of what you do with your energy....eventually we all discover that it takes the same degree of energy to run from that it does to run to. In the time you waste avoiding your life's goals you could have achieved them.

Entitlement and Accountability are rival terms that strike us with the same degree of uncertainty. People don't like to be accountable to results...the connotation is motivation by fear. The aforementioned group may also be deemed entitled by seeking recognition for their every effort. We navigate a the tightrope of giving unto ourselves what we feel we deserve (entitlement). We also take a breath when the checklist is complete (accountability). In reality, neither of the previously mentioned forms of motivation are genuine. Short term effort for quick fix results do not serve to improve your personal process. Getting something done just to check it off a list is a means for senseless channeling of effort.

The real challenge should be to find that which you genuinely believe in, to ensure your every effort benefits what is truly important. Purpose, Constitution, and an ever-ascending Mountain Top - these things give a more grandiose reason to wake up in the morning.

Purpose
In his book "Delivering Happiness", Tony Hsieh explores his path to success: Purpose, Passion and Profits. Tony advises that we find the thing we believe in and to pursue it with unflappable intent. If you genuinely care about a cause, the money comes naturally. Conversely, if money is all that drives you, you will never be satisfied.

Purpose is the foundation of decision making. With every idea you have, every partnership you pursue, every person you invite into your life; the question of matching intent should be explored. Are you presenting to your team because you believe in a new directive or do you just want to prove your worth? Are you courting that large company because they are a good partner for your organization or do you just want to prove you can close a large deal? Is that new friend really someone you enjoy being around or do you want something they have?

Constitution
Last week we laughed at the idea of terms like Integrity and Accountability being company core values.
These terms seemed a little too high and mighty to be business terms. Constitution might be a more appropriate term in describing your personal motivation.

What is at the core of you and are you able to make it part of your professional life?

Do you enjoy serving the people you work for? Do you believe in your products and services? Are you empowered to mention if you feel otherwise? Are there parts of your Saturday in your Monday?

The Ever-Ascending Mountain Top
Entitlement comes from our intrinsic human need to have our effort rewarded. After the hunt we want food to bring back to camp. You work out to earn a burger. You hustle through the morning shift to earn a smoke break. This transactional motivation does nothing but fulfill short term checks and balances. It's a push/pull existence with only 2 certainties: a pay check & death!

What if with every achievement you sought not a pat on the back but more responsibility? What if the end result was not a conclusion but a new beginning? What if you quit smoking and gave up greasy food because the diminishing returns left you feeling purposeless.

I left you with a lot to ponder. I sit beside you in digesting these thoughts. It is very difficult not to get caught up in the rat race....to perform, receive praise and assume you have the appropriate direction. We all ponder the valued time we have on this earth and if any of it means anything. Next time you ponder your existence, do something about it.

You owe it to yourself to maximize every opportunity before you with your fullest effort and genuine intent. You should be empowered to ignore the insignificant. Your every action should be set in motion by your place in the sun surrounded by those who matter to you. Once you start climbing the mountain you will be surprised how much stamina you possess!

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave 

Put Down The Branding Iron

Last Year, I surveyed the top performers in their respective industries. Some interesting facts revealed themselves:
* Over 60% of top performers are of Generation X
* Money played second fiddle to Flexible Schedule & Opportunity for Advancement
* 36% of Top Performers desired employment of 10 years or more
* Recognition from Senior Leaders is the most important Motivator

I presented these finding to a group at a major Social Networking Company. They denied the validity of these results. Their contention was that top talent in the Silicon Valley lived by different rules:
* Generation Y is the top talent pool
* Employees are consistently looking for new career opportunities

The statistics don't lie, but the points of the Social Networking Company are well taken. Any way you slice it, the talent battle is always on. The state of the economy is secondary to business planning. Companies always have to put industry trends aside to find the extra edge. We might want to consider a few things:
* Talent is not Generation specific
* Employees don't want to switch careers
* Cash is not King

Y does it matter?
I understand that career planning is crucial to your organization. You have to know what motivates your employees and how long they plan on sticking around. I must say that most companies idea of retention planning is uninventive at best. We are so quick to brand our companies in a certain way in order to create sex appeal among the talent pool.

Why not just treat people really well? Give them great Leadership to admire and a career track motivated by open dialogue. Why not let your employee culture create itself instead of trying to brand every person as they walk through the door.

Turnover is Never Voluntary
The term voluntary turnover seems like an oxymoron to me. No one joins a company to leave it.

People quit for one of the following reasons:
1. You are not treating them well
2. There is no room for advancement
3. There is no Leadership commitment

People want one career, at one company, for life. You give them a reason to leave...it is best to figure out why and action plan from there.

It's not all about the Benjamin's
In the foreword to his book "Good to Great", Jim Collins pondered how much money it would take to prevent the book's release....he couldn't put a number on it. The old adage, what would you do if you didn't need the money.

People can go make money anywhere. Most people are driven by their occupation, it creates a great deal of their personality. As long as you trust them, empower them, and Lead with purpose....they will stick around.

The survey seems simple and the results shouldn't be surprising.

We get so caught up in generalizing our company and stamping a catch phrase to our recruitment strategy that we forget how to treat people.

You cannot brand kindness. Trust is not just a word on the wall. When you tell people to do something but you can't explain the purpose of the instruction...you give up your Leader badge!

You cannot brand your company to be like Zappos. Zappos is great because they care about people.

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave