Observe Careers Carefully

Observe Careers CarefullyObserve Careers CarefullyWant to be the next vice president and GM? Look to the current vice president, and take notes about what makes her a success.Work is the learning laboratory for how to improve your career. All around you are positive and negative examples that you can observe and learn from. The key is to do your work while studying other people and determining what makes one person a success and another person a failure. Forget their titles. Study how decisions and behaviors improve or weaken a persons career.In the spring of 1998, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates sat down to answer questions from students at the University of Washington. It welches one of the most effective interviews Ive ever seen. During that interview, Buffett shared some of his ideas on how to be successful. He suggested to the students that they write down the names of the three people they admired the most and why they admired them. He then encouraged them to spend as much time a s possible doing the things they admired in those people. He then told the students to write down the names of three people that they absolutely detested and why they couldnt stand being around them. He then encouraged them to avoid doing the things they did not admire in other people.This is practical and powerful advice if you want to create a career that generates $100,000 or more a year. Become a student of the nuances that create successful and unsuccessful careers. It really does not matter what job the person has. Instead of focusing on the persons label, step back and observe his or her performance. If you think the person does a great job, then work to isolate the three or four most important keys to that persons success. If you think the person does a poor job, really search for the attitudes and/or actions that ruin the persons chances for success.Keep a list of lessons learnedI used to coach an executive who was the regional senior director of operations for a region wit hin McDonalds Corp. who had his eyes set on his next promotion vice president and general manager of a region, the highest ranking job in McDonalds regional hierarchy. Before he could join them, he studied them. He studied the GMs that he met, and he made a list of ideas on what it would take to eventually become a successful regional GM. He kept that list with him everywhere he went, and added to it whenever he came across a new insight. After serving as a very successful GM in two different regions for a period of nine years, he was promoted twice and eventually became the Chief Restaurant Officer of the entire U.S. business. His career education was constant and on-going. He always searched for ways to get better at what he did.One of his keys to success He became a student of the sttte that he eventually wanted to earn. He then applied the ideas that he gathered, which made him a very experienced GM even when he was first starting out.If you find yourself aspiring to a certain career track, consider those who trekked it before you.What position do you want?Who is in that position right now?What do these people do that makes them successful, and what do they do that keeps them from being successful?Maintain a running list of your answers. Then periodically review your list and determine how and when you can apply the ideas on the sheet to improve your performance. Make your career an ongoing learning laboratory.Uncover your own wisdomOf all the people you can observe and learn from, one of the most important is your past self. Step back and reflect on your career when you were at different ages. Picture yourself doing whatever it was you were doing at that age. Once that personal video pops up, identify what you did at that age that made you successful and what you did that got in the way of your potential success.These insights from your past are like a lifetime supply of career gold nuggets. You can turn to them as often as you want. You can simply fill in this statement, When I was that age I was fill in the job you were doing. What made me successful at that time was doing ____. What kept me from becoming more of a success was when I did _____.Your wisdom is there for the taking, but you do have to take the time to gather it. Pausing to think is a great way to internalize what happened and convert it into a driver for greater success in the future.See your strengthsWhile youre in an observant state of mind, let me add one more homework assignment to your list Have an out-of-body experience, and look at yourself. What do you do well? Thats no small question. Take some time to identify what it is that you do well, whether its in your work, community or home life. Then identify what your passions are. This may not be intuitive, so be patient. Maybe as you look at different areas of your life you can only write down one or two good things. Thats fine. Start the list and add to it as you uncover another one of your strengths or passio ns.In his 1966 book, The Effective Executive, Peter printer writes, All in all, the effective executive tries to be himself he does not pretend to be someone else. He looks at his own performance and at his own results and tries to discern a pattern. What are the things, he asks, that I seem to be able to do with relative ease, while they come rather hard to other people?Making strength productive is as much an attitude as it is a practice. But it can be improved with practice.The advice remains true today. Observe yourself. Identify what you do well and what you are passionate about. Then spend the vast majority of your time using your strengths and passions to improve the most important desired results for your organization.David Ogilvy, in his book, Confessions of an Advertising Man, writes, Creative people are especially observant, and they value accurate observation (telling themselves the truth) more than other people do. David Ogilvy built one of the most successful advertisi ng agencies in history. As you look to build your career, value accurate observation tell yourself the truth about what will make you successful and then work to apply your insights, your wisdom, your passions and your strengths to build the career you want.

Staffing the Initiative

Staffing the InitiativeStaffing the InitiativeSTAFFING THE INITIATIVECFOs were asked, How do you typically staff major one-time initiatives such as an acquisition or system implementation?*32% Internal staff only57% A combination of internal and external resources12% External resources onlyThose who use external resources were also asked, Why do you work with external resources?**61% Access to specialized expertise49% Alleviate the burden on full-time staff46% Access to new methodologies and processes45% Support is immediately available30% Scalable project teamsManagement Resources survey of more than 1,100 CFOs at companies in the United States

Better Technical Speaking

Better Technical Speaking Better Technical Speaking Better Technical SpeakingImproving your presentation skills can help impress a client, make a great pitch to coworkers or management, or even land a new job, yet many fear speaking in public more than death. Workshops, classes, and personal speaking coaches can help you move to the next level during all phases of your career. Heres why technical professionals should care and information about whats possible.Why CareTechnical personnel and management are required now more than ever to have good presentation skills. Why?Interfacing with customers is becoming more commonplace.You may be called on to stand up and talk on the spot, give updates, or sell an idea.Coworkers, your boss, or complaining customers may have told you to improve your speaking or presentation skills.You are tired of feeling uncomfortable speaking in meetings or with management.There may be much at stake in an upcoming presentation.Speaking effectively helps you adv ance in your career, earns you more money, and makes you more in demand.Whatever You Focus on Owns YouEric Stone, personal speaking coach, helps people have a good time speaking in public. The first level he helps master is anchoring yourself in the physical world and your own body. He says that if you can see the floor, the audience, and simply stand in front and breathe, youre 80% there. Stone says you need to relax in your body before you can relax in your mind. The audience has access only to your physical being, not your mental experiences. Knowing what to expect when standing in front of an audience helps you prepare and focus correctly.Comfort in Your Mind The next level involves understanding what the mind is focusing on while speaking in public. Public speaking implies that the audience is passive and only the speaker is active. If you want an audience to feel good, feel good yourself, and the audience responds. Viewing the audience as a sponge helps you stand on your own a nd empowers you to let people feel your presence, like singers, comedians, and actors who know they are giving a show.Stone says technical people tend to rely and place too much importance on mental aspects of speaking. Rapid and constantly changing feelings and thoughts are not reliable anchors. But the body, when relaxed, doesnt change. Feeling the weight and unchanging pull of gravity helps relax you. Being at ease using all elements of body language gesture, posture, tone of voice, is key to having a strong appetite to be seen and heard. Being able to say its ok to see and hear me is fundamental.Owning the Space More established speakers can gain comfort by utilizing the largest space possible, especially if they are shy. Understanding the concepts of personal space, professional space, social space, and public space, helps appropriately address each. When you finally get in touch with simple elements of physical life, you can free yourself to be in front of an audience effectiv ely.Debbie Sniderman is CEO of VI Ventures LLC, a technical consulting company.Being at ease using all elements of body language gesture, posture, tone of voice, is key to having a strong appetite to be seen and heard.