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early career
“Have the guts to own your career,” said Art Gensler, the founder of Gensler, the largest architecture firm in the world. “Refuse to play the victim. You have one life and what you do for a living makes up a large part of your time. Make the most of it. Make it joyful and rewarding. Develop a sense of purpose for what you are doing.”
You might feel unqualified. If you feel that way, consider it a good thing and get set to grow.
A few things that I learned from researcher, author, and TED talker, Brene Brown at the recent Inbound conference interspersed with thoughts from talks from Dharmesh Shah from Hubspot and others:
Students and professionals alike regularly hear about the benefits of networking. They may see it as some sort of punishment or obligatory task that would require them to introduce themselves to a stranger. In professional circles, “network events” are often nothing more than shameless vendor self-promotion hidden under the guise of free food and drink. This misconception starts with an improper definition of networking and a lack of understanding of how and why to build one.
A network is simply a collection of people or resources that connect for mutual benefit. It could be the members of a club pulling together to accomplish a big vision. It could be a work team. It could be a group that joins up because of a shared interest or cause. A network effect occurs when there are enough members of the network to have the scale and reach to allow each member to contribute and benefit.
You build a network because you can’t do everything alone and neither can members of your network. Even with the wealth of the internet at our fingertips, it is useful to learn from others about what college to attend, what clubs to join, or how to improve your 5k time. It is satisfying to offer your own expertise for the benefit of others. You don’t build a network just to take. You must be purposeful about giving as well.
You have heard the adage, that to have a friend, you must be a friend. The same is true to building your network. Start by connecting to people you respect or appreciate by telling them so. Use social media invitations or a personal invitation complimenting them and saying that you’d like to stay in touch. Then simply do what you said: stay in touch. Let your network know what is going on with you. Ask questions. Ask people to refer others who might have expertise where you need it. Answer questions. Offer your expertise or make an introduction to someone you know who is a relevant expert. Be a catalyst that brings people together to discuss big ideas or practical projects to make the world a better place.
Remembering that networks are just people that are helping each other be more successful, makes it easier to build and keep your network strong.
This article was published by Saturday Academy.
Presentations are increasingly part of academic and professional life. Don’t bother trying to fight it. Instead, use your poised and polished presentation style as an opportunity to shine. Here are three easy techniques that will dramatically improve your presentations.
1. Practice out loud
Whether or not you have a script, practice by reading or reciting your speech out loud. Not only will this allow you to make sure it is long (or short) enough to fill your allotted time, but it will help you memorize your speech or have it flow better. Reading words on a page might be great for visual learners, but hearing your own voice say the speech and by using your real gestures and movement, you reinforce the speech through your other senses. You will also be able to identify and correct awkward word choices, rushed transitions, or tongue-twisting sentences before you are on stage.
2. Record yourself
An audio recording (from your phone) is helpful because it allows you many of the benefits of practices out loud without the hassle of having to find a private space. Record it until you get it the way you want and then listen to it using headphones. The benefits, however, of videotaping yourself are substantial. Practice your gestures, pacing off different points during your speech, making eye contact, and projecting. And for an advanced lesson, play back the video in fast forward. This is the best way to identify repetitive, and often distracting, hand motions.
3. Feel your feet
Nerves are natural. The comedian Jerry Seinfeld once noted that more people are afraid of public speaking than death, which means people would rather be in the coffin than delivering the eulogy. If you feel this way, it is perfectly normal. Sometimes that apprehension takes the form of nervous movements or rushed pace of the speech. You literally can’t wait for it to be over and it shows as you rattle off your points too fast for anyone to understand. And some of us have a lot of “performance energy” that can make us a little too bouncy during presentations. All of these can be helped by a simple move. When you take the stage, feel your feet in your shoes. Feel the shoes upon the firm ground of the floor or platform. This simple mental move will instantly quiet your body and has a calming effect that will help you slow down and keep your nerves in check.
Follow these rules and you’ll be giving your own TED talk in no time!
This article was published by Saturday Academy.
I remember an interesting and impactful article I read in college in the Atlantic magazine about the different cultural norms in the generations in the U.S. We have added a few more named generations to the progression since that article was written and got my attention. The business world is in a tizzy about how to attract, retain, and motivate the famously free-spirited “millennial” generation as increasingly we are losing members of the “greatest generation” every day. We wonder about the shift in our population, work forces, and voter ranks based on these changing demographics.
I heard Perry Hewitt from Harvard University talk recently about how some corporate cultural attributes like collaboration acted as “millennial nectar,” helping organizations attract new talent like colorful and fragrant flowers would attract bees and birds to a plant. Conversely, an insistence on fixed job structures, long-term and slow-building career paths, and corporations that act too “corporate” act something like a millennial repellant. I suppose each generation has their own nectar and repellant.
As part of the ill-defined “Generation X,” I am intrigued and puzzled by these generalizations. I think each generation has faced its own impactful events and infrastructure. Some things are consistent and many things have changed dramatically from generation to generation, leaving the “young people” of each generation to find their way. A second world war, which came to US soil, demanded that the greatest generation develop a sense of duty and a fight for the common good and we wondered by in other times it wasn’t replicated by their children or grandchildren. Today the world’s knowledge (and misinformation, as well) can fit in our pocket and we are puzzled when children raised with any answer only a click away, might feel impatient with corporate career paths and having to “pay their dues.”
As I think of my own children, who have never known a world without the internet, cell phones, and on-demand entertainment, I am excited and curious what they will take for granted and the implications of this to their psyche and culture.
There is a ladder, if you will, that you must climb to be qualified and recognized to take on more responsibility (in exchange for more authority, more compensation, and more influence that may come along). There are many rungs to the ladder, but today I want to talk about the first four and how you can give yourself a promotion and grow as a leader. In short, you should be secure on each rung before you could expect to climb to the next. Together, you can give yourself a promotion in four easy steps. Let’s begin.
Rung 1: You can manage your time
Most individual contributors (that is, people who are not managers, but responsible for their own work) have one main resource that they alone can allocate: their time. We all have the same 24 hours a day and how people choose to allocate those hours makes a huge difference in their results. A lot of experts have written tomes on this subject (some of my favorites are Getting Things Done, the classic 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the provocative 4 Hour Work Week, and the insightful Better Than Before), mobile apps have been written to help track and monitor time allocation, and there is no shortage of life hack websites that will walk you through best practices for time management. But if you can not manage your own time and get work done in a reasonable timeframe with reasonable effort, no one will consider you ready for more. If you don’t know how you spend your time or feel like you are chronically under-estimating the amount of time things will take, missing deadlines, or letting down your team mates, this is a place to start. To be a manager, you must first manage yourself.
Rung 2: You can optimize your potential
Once you have mastery over your deadlines and tasks, you can build upon that to make the most of your capabilities and interests. You start with an understanding of your style, approach, and thinking processes (using tools like Myers-Briggs, StrengthFinders, Kolbe, and others that I have blogged about in the past). You get feedback from worthy mentors. You seek out professional development opportunities. You strive to get better and to outgrow your current assignment. You broaden your perspective beyond how you spend time today to apply yourself in new ways to new problems. You know what you need to inspire and drive you and you make sure your environment is right (which is described in detail in the book Triggers). You never stop managing your time and you never stop growing, of course, but you have reached this rung of the ladder when you have a vision of your best self and understand yourself well enough to play from your strengths and propel yourself to new heights of performance. If you want to be a leader, you must first lead yourself.
Rung 3: You can manage other people’s time
The first supervisory job that most people have involves managing other people’s time. You make sure people show up for their shift. You make sure the phones get answered as expected and the call queues are not too long. You make certain that there is adequate coverage to handle expected traffic at a trade show or retail environment. You sign time cards. You help them know what to do between punching in and punching out. You offer up work instructions and on-the-job training. In many cases, you can help others reach the first rung of their ladder by managing projects and allowing more capable people to manage their time towards the good of the project. This is where basic employee engagement comes into effect. Good managers have employees that have the time and resources to achieve the goals at hand.
Rung 4: You can unlock other people’s potential
This is the run where leaders emerge from among the sea of managers. Their employees not only want to use their time better, but they want to be better. Using both encouragement and discipline, they realize that honestly, delivered respectfully, is a gift and can help high potential individuals achieve more than they thought possible. Identifying latent talents. Probing for unrealized motivations. Describing hidden possibilities and bringing those to light. Establishing new standards and enabling people to do more than what is required so that they can feel pride in their work. Helping individuals bloom, where they are planted and to find new landscapes to explore.
These first four rungs on the ladder illustrate a great truth about getting recognized and promoted: most things are within your control.
Whether or not you want to be a manager of people (that is not everyone’s ambition), these same principles apply. As I have said before, you don’t have to wait for someone’s permission to get the experience you want and need to further your career in whatever direction you wish to direct it. You, alone, can effectively manage your time for maximum results. You alone can be curious about your own potential. And without a job change or a fancy title, you can help others do the same. From whatever role you are in today. It won’t be long before you are ready for the next challenge and that will be recognized by others. You’ll be doing a bigger job already when the opportunities come your way.
In my career in technology, I have helped many customers create wayfinding systems—the touchscreen-enabled systems that allow people to chart where they are and where they are going as they navigate a shopping center or college campus. Wayfinding is a lot like the lifelong effort of shaping a career.
The first step is to identify where the “You Are Here” pin might be and to determine what direction might be a good next step. Unlike the touchscreen map in the shopping mall, however, one’s entire career landscape typically isn’t visible. This is because people create their careers as they go, and the total career map is only available in hindsight.
As my own career approaches two decades (and spans two millennia), I have been reflecting on the things I wish I better understood in the early years of my career. Here are some of the top insights:
Finally, you don’t need to wait for a specific job opening or opportunity to get the experience you want. In today’s world, it’s easier than ever to proactively develop your experience.
Do you want experience planning a highly visible event even though your company doesn’t have that need? Volunteer for a non-profit that puts on a fun run or festival.
Do you want to put your journalism degree to work even though your current job doesn’t require writing?Start a blog.
Do you want to learn a new skill, like programming iPhone apps? Take a class, read a book or join a local hack-a-thon group.
Are you not getting what you need from your manager to help you take your career to the next level? Join a professional development organization or seek out a mentor.
Knowing a lot of people and building a network is key, but it is also critical that they know you—to allow people to get to know you including what you’re good at, what you’re curious about, what you’ve done and what you’d like to do. This puts other people in a position to help you.
One way to get people to know you is by developing a special area of expertise. As an appreciator of artistic talent, I am often struck by how many famous artists get known for a particular style of art even though they can often paint in a variety of styles. Vincent van Gogh built his brand on the rough brush stroke style depicted in his Sunflowers and The Starry Night paintings, not his more realistic paintings of potato farmers. The artists who achieve prominence do so by getting known for doing one thing. They have talents and interests outside of that focus, but they develop a signature style. The same thing is helpful in your career.
When the industrial design firm IDEO hires new staff members, it looks for “T-shaped people”—individuals with a broad span of curiosity and experience (the top of the T), but a deep expertise in a single area (the base of the T). Think about your own experience and interests. Decide what your T looks like and reinforce it in your communications with other people.
Another way to get people to know you is to ask for advice. There’s nothing that makes you look smarter than asking smart people for their counsel. So put yourself out there to learn more from others on both small and big things. Ask the Excel expert in your office to show you her most useful tips and tricks. Ask someone in your circle his advice for graduate school programs. And even after you land a position, continue the informational interviews and other networking techniques you learned in college. An ongoing curiosity will serve you well. Not only will you learn, but the people you meet will get to know you on a deeper level.
Everyone has heard this maxim before and it is generally true: You are more likely to hear about a job or be given an opportunity from someone you know. But it goes further than that. Second-degree connections are of critical importance as well.
Early career individuals often seek to build a network of people who are hiring managers or executives, and as a result, they might miss the networking opportunities that exist with their peers. When I was in graduate school, I found that I often learned more and had more relevant professional connections with my classmates than my professors. The same is true in the business world. If you go to graduate school, join a company or volunteer for a non-profit, pay special attention to those whom you will be working alongside and attach yourself to the talented, smart, high-potentials in that group. You can grow your future network in this way.
It’s common for college students to feel like their selection of a major is setting them on a career path that’s more defined than it actually is. And many new college grads bemoan getting a job “outside their major.” But this is not a tragedy. Instead, it illustrates how fungible one’s career path and choices actually are.
In your lifetime, you may have several distinct careers. You will likely work for multiple companies, or at least multiple groups and managers, and although there will be skills gained from one assignment that you will use in others, the path will only be clear in hindsight. Don’t be afraid to take a leap and do something new, pursue your interests and have those take you in a different direction. Don’t be afraid to take on new responsibilities.
I often hear early career professionals say they feel pressure to pursue a defined career path despite not fully knowing what they want to do. The truth is you will always have additional choices and nothing you start doing today has to be forever.
Any business—whether it’s a services firm, technology manufacturer or even a retailer—uses a common scorecard for measuring success: financial results. Sure, some organizations are starting to track triple-bottom line results in recognition of their impact on the community and the environment. But those factors typically supplement the traditional financial statements and metrics that allow all organizations to measure their results. It is critical that you understand how the score is kept.
If you want to obtain more responsibility in the organization, lead with the financials when making a proposal, explaining an initiative or presenting alternatives. Overall, you will be more strategic.
