Career Check-up

Summer is a great time to check in on your goals — to make sure you are making the professional progress you want.

If you have been thinking about becoming a member of Azzarello Group to get actionable ideas and guidance to optimize your career, now is a great time to join.

Join by June 30 and get 3 months Free

Your membership will be active through September of 2011. (That’s 2 summers!)

Join now

Employee/Leadership Development Option

Did you know that many companies use this membership program as an employee/leadership development program?

If you’re not familiar with this program, this is unique development resource for your team.

The program is delivered through:

• Monthly webinars on topics of effective business and personal leadership. Browse webinar topics.
• Worksheets to put the learning into action
• Live coaching from Patty in a member-only Coaching Hour each month

Personalized Approach

As members, your employees can personalize this program to:

• Participate at their own pace, on a schedule that works for them.
• Download specific resources when they need guidance or support on a particular leadership or business topic.
• Ask their own questions and get direct access to Patty in monthly member Coaching Hours

.
It works.

Members who use this program have got promotions, raises and recognition.
They have learned how to be better leaders, think and work more strategically, communicate better, and deliver more value in their business.

Companies who offer this program get lots of points for providing employee development!

Many companies use this as a primary employee development resource.

It’s low cost. It’s easy to provide, It’s easy to use. People love it.

How to join

Individuals can join for only $179 for a whole year!

(with the 3 months free option, that’s just over $10/month! – a no brainer)

This program is a remarkably good deal. The quality of the content is unmatched.

It’s valued at over $1000/year. But since the economy is still struggling, I want to keep this priced so people feel comfortable asking for reimbursement or can pay on their own.

I really do want to help.

So make sure get the extended deal, don’t wait. Join now.

Learn more about membership
Join now and get 3 months for Free!
Contact me about corporate discounts to use this as a development program for your team.

Thanks so much,

Patty

Last week I was the keynote speaker at an event for a services organization in an energy company.

I spoke on the topic of Adding more Value to the Business.

This is an important topic for all of us.

The bottom line here is that you can’t wait to be told what adds value, and you can’t count on your job description as written to add enough value.

You need to figure this out for yourself.

You need to educate yourself about what the business values, and then tune your work specifically to deliver more value.

Do more than your job description

Your job description is valid for a moment in time — the moment when it is first given to you. As soon as you start doing the job, what the job needs to be evolves as the business grows and as the world changes.

If you do your job as written for too long a period of time, you will become out of date. You will begin to lose relevance to the business. You will not be adding enough value.

Don’t wait to be asked or directed

Yes, you need to do your job, but you also to think about how to improve the way your job is done. Don’t give this extra work of figuring out how your job needs to evolve to your to your boss. Sort it out on your own and make a recommendation. (That’s what high performers do).

What adds value?

I have collected some questions that will help you figure out how to tune your job over time to make sure you are adding enough value.

1. Who uses my work & what do they need most?

• Who are the consumers of each piece of work that I do?
• Do they still use it? Do they still need it?
• Do they pass it on to others? What do those people need?
• Can the content I deliver be modified to be more useful or relevant?
• Can the manner in which I deliver it be improved to be more useful or relevant?

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Note: Stop producing work no one cares about.

Check! I know so many organizations that are over-busy producing reports, analysis, or sales and marketing that no one uses. Don’t burn up your time on things that no one cares about. DO actively learn what they find most useful, and tune what you produce to be more valuable.

2. What business outcomes does my work drive?

• What is the business outcome that happens as a result of my producing this work?
• How does my work impact profit?
• Does my work impact quality, innovation, efficiency, competitiveness, cost reduction, process improvement, sales effectiveness…
• Can I tune my work to create a better or different business outcome?

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Note: If you can’t connect your work to a business outcome, you are in danger of not being relevant.

If you are not relevant you are not adding enough value. You need to stay educated on the most important outcomes the business is driving and stay connected with them.

Even if you are a cost center providing an internal service, you need to find ways to improve efficiency or usefulness.

3. What does my work cost?

• How much does it cost the company for me to do this work?
• Can it be done for less?
• What happens to my work after it’s delivered?
• What are the downstream costs of the things that I do?
• Who else does my work cause work or costs for?
• Is there a way to make my work more efficient for others?

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Note: Own improving the outcomes your work causes, not just delivering the work.

Always be finding ways to take cost out. If you produce 50 reports, maybe 20 better reports would do? (Everyone will like 20 reports better than 50!)

If you do things manually or in a chaotic reactive mode, how many people are impacted by this? How can you create a process to streamline the work, make it less complicated, and require fewer touch points, questions, or follow-ups?

4. What has changed?

• What has changed in the market since I started this job?
• What has changed in our customers’ business since I started this job?
• What has changed in our competitors’ business since I started this job?
• What has changed inside our company since I started this job?
• Do these changes require a change in the way my job is done?

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Note: If you are not evolving your job, you will no longer be qualified when the game changes.

Or you will be doing the wrong job, and your job will get eliminated. Be the one to recommend changing your job to meet the evolving business needs.

5. Growth & Scaling

• How much has the company grown since I started this job?
• How much does the company plan to grow in the future?
• What still works in the way I do my job if the company is much bigger?
• Which things about how I do my job don’t work if the company is bigger?

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Note: When companies get bigger all the jobs change.

You can’t keep using the same way of working. It doesn’t scale. You can be the one to build a new process that will scale, or you can be the one who gets pushed aside by someone with experience at a bigger company.

6. Help others

• What can I do to communicate better?
• How can I share more knowledge?
• How can I teach someone to be more effective?
• How can I help someone step into a bigger role?
• How can I help someone believe that something bigger is possible for them.

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Note: If you are not helping others, you are not adding enough value.

The other upside is that helping others can put a meaning into an otherwise unfulfilling job. If you are feeling unsatisfied about being in a corporate role that doesn’t make enough difference in the world, help someone. When you help someone else, you change the world for that person.

Don’t wait

I see a lot of people thinking that answering these questions is not part of their job. They wait for others to answer them, and await new instructions from their manager.

It’s dangerous to rely on your job description to tell you what to do, or to wait for your manager to tune your job along the way. It’s much safer (and your are adding more value) when you do it yourself. Take that weight off your manager. You decide what needs to get done to drive the future goals and continue to add the most value.

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Context is critical

1. Understand what drives the business.

2. Put your work and your communications in that context.

3. This gives you a tremendous advantage. Don’t miss this.

THINK LIKE A GENERAL MANAGER

In this month’s webinar we covered the key aspects of how general managers think, and why it’s important to think like a GM, whether or not you want to be one.

Listen or Download the Podcast: Think Like a General Manager

Here are some of the things we talked about.

Understand the Business and the P&L

Know how the business makes money. Where do the revenues come from? Where do the profits come from? What are the fixed and variable expenses? Where do you and your team fit in the P&L?

Make sure your whole team understands the P&L. We talked about a simple way to share how the P&L works with everyone on your team. It’s important for each person to know where the revenues, profits, and costs fit, and where they and their role fit, personally in the P&L. (The webinar includes a worksheet on this).

What do YOU cost? If your salary is $100k/year, and your business makes a 10% profit on units that sell for $10k each, then your sales force has to bring in 1000 units, or $1M of revenue, to pay your salary. Are you worth $1M/year?

Likewise, if you propose to hire another person, the sales force will need to sell another $1M to pay for them. Does your need justify an additional $1M year in revenue? Why? If you can’t answer, you shouldn’t be asking.

Educate your team. Talk about the P&L frequently. Invite customers, partners and people from other functions into your staff meetings to share their perspective on what drives the business, and what is important to them.

More Innovation. When more people understand how the company really makes money, and where the costs come from, I find that they get more creative, not less. When they know what is important, they solve more of the right problems, and invent more valuable solutions.

Tradeoffs

A GM’s job is about tradeoffs. When a general manager wakes up in the morning their job is to make tradeoffs. Should I invest in more sales people? Or in making the product better? Should we hire more services people and try to get more profit from service than product? Or should we invest in marketing? Or in training the sales force?

Know the context. What tradeoffs is GM is considering? Before you make any kind of proposal, be ready to propose your own tradeoffs, show that you understand the whole business. Don’t always just advocate for your function or project. Put the business in the center of your discussion, not your project.

Don’t always be seen as asking for new money. You need to fund some new work out of your existing budget. You need to do the things you did last time for less money this time. We talked about why this is so hard. You already don’t have enough resources, what do you do? You will not be credible if you are not seen making tradeoffs and shifts within your own function. We talked about how to do this.

Your strategy is where you put your resources. Know the company’s strategy. Know where the company is investing and cutting and why. Know how the company is measuring success. Make sure your proposals fit into the right context.

Timing and Scope

Know the size of what you are asking. It’s important to get the scope right. We talked about how to assess the scope of your initiative relative to the scope of what the GM is worried about, and how to position your piece the right way.

Know the business calendar. Always know what else the GM has going on in the normal cycle of quarter ends, board meetings, or key program rollouts. Know how to strike at the right time, and how to ask for the right amount of time.

Communicate and Persuade

Have a business case. GM’s need business cases to make decisions. “We are overloaded” is not a business case. We talked about how to make your communications more persuasive by always making the business case clear. (There is an outline of a business case in the webinar presentation.)

Personal, Engaging Style. Don’t try too hard to be overly impressive. You will come across as trying to be overly impressive. Instead, be prepared, be relevant and be engaging. Be human. Execs are humans too, and they like to have conversations with real people. We talked about how to get this right and wrong.

Want more?

Listen or Download the Podcast: Think Like a General Manager
Download the complete webinar: Think Like a General Manager
(includes the presentation, and worksheets to put the ideas into action)

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RISE…How to Be Really Successful at Work AND Like Your Life.

Who is helping?

One of the CEO’s I am working with on a business transformation said to me about his managers,

“No, he won’t actually help solve the problem, he is more of a reporter.”

Ouch!

Think about your behaviors.

Are you at any risk of being a reporter?

Do you often highlight things that aren’t working?
Do you study things and point out what is wrong?
Do you regularly play devil’s advocate?

Oops!

What adds value?

I always talk about the importance of adding value to the business.

When it comes to reporting trouble, many people confuse what adding value actually means. They think that identifying and exposing problems is adding value. Or that doing analysis and providing insightful commentary about what is broken is adding value.

It is not.

So, you may be thinking…but you have to identify problems if you want to solve them. Or you need to know about issues if you want to fix them. Surely the person who raises these issues is adding value because the business “needs to know”.

Talking vs. Doing

The big, BIG difference for adding value is between talking and doing.

It is the difference between describing the current state or moving something forward. …Between exposing a problem and fixing it, or at least proposing a solution.

Do you have reporters on your team?

You can find them — talking.

Sounding smart, playing devils advocate. Raising important issues. Figuring out what is wrong. Telling people about it.

Do you have solvers on your team?

The solvers are the ones that show up and say, nervously, “I hope it’s OK, but I did this.”

Or, “I found this nasty issue, but here is what I have done to resolve part of it. Can I get your thoughts on these two options to fix the rest of it?”

When solvers run into an impossible problem they say to themselves, “Man this is screwed up, what is the first thing I am going to fix? What will I propose that will move us forward?”

The reporter is the one that gets to “Man, this is screwed up”, and thinks “I have to come up with the most compelling way to communicate how big of a problem this is so that people will get sufficiently worried about it, and I will get credit for exposing it.”

Reporting vs. Solving – the behaviors

Example: An organization that is chronically late delivering.

The reporter might analyze root causes and talk about lack of definition, poor test plans, poor communication, lack of accountability. All may indeed be real issues, but the reporter will expect someone else to lead and to act.

The solver will think through what actions might actually help. Even if it won’t solve the whole problem, they will endeavor to at least move something forward.

In the case of something like chronic late delivery a solver might say, “I am going to create a sign-off document that defines what finished looks like. This will help all of us clarify what specific actions must be completed to reach the deadline. It might not solve the whole problem, but it will make things better and we will learn something by doing it.

Another example: Sell higher

If an organization is not selling strategically enough, a reporter might present information about background and revenue and current sales skills, and recommend kicking off further study.

A solver will find someone in another organization inside or outside the company who is an expert and learn from them. They will experiment. They will try a new sales process. They will tune it until they hit on what succeeds. They will propose specific changes to share the learning.

What is your proposal?

You want to send a clear message that being a reporter is not good enough.

In every organization I have ever led or consulted with, I have found that merely responding to every single news report with the question, “What is your proposal?” goes a long way to solving this. Consistently doing this changes the culture and separates the solvers from the reporters.

The people who come back with a proposal will rise in the organization. Next time and forever after, they will start with a proposal.

The people who get annoyed by this and say things like, “I just thought it was important to make you aware of this”, (by the way, even typing this makes me cringe – I can still picture the specific people who regularly said this to me). These people will never be significant contributors to the success of the business.

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RISE…How to Be Really Successful at Work AND Like Your Life.

I recently received some input from a reader that defined the perfect storm of being stuck in the workhorse trap. Here it is…

“I’m the workhorse for our volunteer emergency communicator group. There are 4 of us, but here lately I’ve been the only one answering the calls from the City for severe weather (tornadoes, severe hailstorms, etc.) even in the middle of the night. Problem is, by the time the City gets to me, they’ve already tried the other members with no luck. I’ve said something, but so far no results.

Since lives and property may be at stake, I feel it’s important to have someone doing the job. So, I do it—

But I say something to the rest of the group every time since the 5th time in a 3 day period– now, it’s been 13 times in a week that we’ve been called and I’m the only one who would answer the call. Okay one guy had surgery twice this week, first on his eye and again on his foot so he gets a pass. But the other 2? One is a definite flake and the other… well, I really don’t know.

I’m tired, and we still have more shots at being called again in the next 2 days. I feel bad saying “NO, SORRY– I can’t” when it’s the City Office of Emergency Management or the National Weather Service, but I might just have to, and tell them that I’m exhausted. After all, we’re VOLUNTEERS!

First, let’s look at the situation

1. THANK YOU. The world is a better place because of people like you that are willing to make personal sacrifice and step up when others need them.

2. Many people in their jobs feel like this. They feel they are the only one capable or available to the work. The work must get done, so they do it. Even though lives are typically not at stake, their values won’t let them drop the work.

3. In your case, lives are actually at stake! Truly, the work must get done.

4. Because you are all volunteers, there is no official way to insist that people do the work.

5. You have tried to raise the issue to get the rest of the team to step up to no avail – so you are stuck being the workhorse.

What can be done?

The first point to remember is that even if you can order people around, you are much better off if you can persuade them to be emotionally committed to doing the work. This makes everything better.

Second, it’s important to note that when I talk about getting out of workhorse mode, it is never about abandoning the work. The trick is to figure out how to get the critical work done without doing it all personally.

Sure, sometimes you need to work 24X7 when there is a crisis, a deadline, a big opportunity. The problem arises when that becomes a steady-state way of working.

If you want to get out of work-horse mode, don’t expect your manager to make it better.

YOU need to be the one to invent a new approach to make it better.

Stick to your instincts that this is not right. Devise a plan to change it.

Here are some suggestions to improve the situation:

Your desired outcome:  Have other people to share the workload with.

There are two basic ways to achieve that outcome.

1. Get the people on the team to step up
2. Get new people

Get People on the Team to Step Up

1. Record the data about what has happened. Data is not opinion or emotion. It can’t be argued with. Keep a record of all the phone calls that were made and what the response was from each team member.

Call a meeting of the whole team and share the data. Ask everyone to comment on it.

2. Discuss the team’s desired outcome. What does successful service look like? What will it require? Ask everyone to contribute to the definition of the process and the required commitment and responsibility.

Be really clear what the responsibilities are. Ask everyone on the team to talk about their ability to respond to their share of responsibilities.

3. Create an actual calendar for who is on call each day. Set an expectation that if you commit to be on call that you WILL ANSWER. Have everyone sign off on the schedule as a group commitment to one another.

4. Be super clear that there are only two choices, sign and commit or leave the group. There is no room for broken commitments when it is a matter of life or death.

If you are afraid of losing people on the team by doing this, remember that the people who are NOT answering the phone on a regular basis are not part of the team anyway. (They shouldn’t get to talk big and pretend they are a volunteer if they don’t do the work.)

They are not helping. Ask them to leave. Get new people who will be committed members of the team.

Get new people

A critical factor of getting out of workhorse mode is making sure that you have a team that is capable of doing the job.

No matter how vital the work is, staying in work-horse mode long term is the wrong answer.

You need to take it upon yourself to create a team or a process that can get the work done that really matters, without burning up your time personally.

If your current team can’t cut it, you have to change the team.

If you are an individual, you need to influence. You need re-negotiate the work to focus on the most critical outcomes, and recommend a new, better process that achieves the desired outcome in a different way.

In any organization, volunteer or business, people get burned out, leave, or have other priorities come up in life. It is important that you are always cultivating a pipeline of new people that can (and want to do) the job.

When you look at the people who are not performing, decide “Can’t or Won’t”.

Can’t you can work with, Won’t is not worth the trouble.

Cut them loose. Get people who are motivated to help. That will be your only way out of workhorse mode long term whether you are in a group of volunteers or leading a business team.

Also, there are lots more ideas about workhorse traps and escape routes in Chapter 3 of my book, Rise… They Shoot Workhorses, Don’t they?

What do you think?

IF you have any other ideas for this generous and tired emergency response volunteer, please share them!

If you found this useful, you can subscribe to this blog for free and get updates in your email or RSS reader.

THINGS YOU CAN DO NOW

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RISE…How to Be Really Successful at Work AND Like Your Life.

Today We are Rich, by Tim Sanders

I love this book.

It is rare to find a business book that inspires you to be a better person.

In Today We Are Rich, Tim Sanders outlines how we can improve our confidence, our life, the lives of others, and our business success by investing in specific positive behaviors.

He describes this new book as a pre-quel to his book, Love is the Killer App, where he first introduced us to the “Lovecat” — the type of business person who is generous, kind, and respectful — the business leader who gives his way to the top, and grows people along the way.

In his new book, Tim shares with us where he got these values in the first place, through the lessons he learned growing up, from his grandmother Billye.

Abundance

“Today we are rich” is a declaration of abundance – We can redefine what it means to be rich in moments of giving and helping. When Billye was able to take what little she had and change the world with it (even if it was just for one person), she would declare “We are rich”.

Moving forward

In the book, Tim shows us how to get our lives and our businesses moving forward by living in what he refers to as “The Good Loop” of learning, thanking, giving and finishing. It’s about investing in good habits, on purpose, and avoiding negative talk and behaviors. Living in the good loop requires that we act.

I had a chance to have an awesome conversation with Tim Sanders about The Power of Confidence and his new book Today We Are Rich.

You can download a recording of the conversation here.

Confidence

Confidence is easy when you are on top. But what about when things go bad? You need confidence when you don’t have the wind at your back and you are in a “personal recession” where you stop growing as as a human. Confidence is rocket-fuel for the abundance mentality.

Tim emphasized the importance of confidence, and how to get it!

Giving

When you give, you believe that there is enough to go around. When you share…in that moment …that’s when you are worth something to the world. Richness is within your control if you stop making it about things.

The fundamental secret: the law of reciprocity. Humans in western culture are engineered to give back. So the more you give, the more you set off a whole chain reaction of giving. Everyone wins. Your confidence grows.

The Horn of Plenty

In the book, Tim tells a story about the “horn of plenty”. If your granny or your mom has one of those wicker baskets, the horn-shaped one with the plastic fruit in it, ask them why…

Tim’s grandmother told him this. During the 30’s if you didn’t have poverty, you caught the fear of poverty from listening to other people. Around the dinner table, the conversation was about  - who’s going broke next? Billye’s mom, bought an “end-the-depression-horn-of-plenty”. It symbolized today we are rich. It changed our family’s culture forever.

Culture comes from conversation.

You need to always move the conversation forward

Tim’s grandmother proclaimed: I’m tired of talking about the economy. Let’s talk about what’s going right. We have everything we need here.

Culture, whether in your family or company is a conversation, and the conversation must move forward. We’ve got to change the conversation, because the negative one will drive us into the ground if we let it.

Practice Gratitude

Gratitude is a muscle, not a feeling. People get spiritually flabby, because they stop re-investing in their gratitude. They become a cynic whether at work or in their relationships.

Ask What do we HAVE?

What are we grateful for? Tim shared some great stories about people and organizations who got out of a slump, and started moving forward simply by being grateful.

Breakfast for your soul.

Give your gratitude a workout in the morning instead of doing email! Think about the people you are grateful for. Tell them.

Feed your mind good stuff

Processed food and sugar are bad for your body. Same goes for what you put into your mind. Anything that is easy to eat and digest is genrally not that good for you. TV, internet browsing, and bite size news and gossip online are not nourishing you.

Books are hard. (Think protein and fiber!) But that slow, deliberate intake of information lets us assimilate specialized knowledge. It makes you better. When you feed your mind good stuff, you are making an investment in everyone. Fill gaps in your day with confidence-building, learning.

If we’re not growing, we’re not keeping up. If you want an advantage in business, read books.

You can download Tim’s “Feed Your Mind Good Stuff” chapter for free.

Purpose vs. Passion.

It’s popular to tell our kids, just do what you love, just follow your passions. (Be selfish.)
When a person enters society, we need to change the compass.

True north needs to be a Purpose.

We need to think about something bigger than just ourself. Tim talked about how investing in your purpose and giving something to the world further builds your confidence.

No Short Cuts

Positive thinking is an outcome not a prescribed behavior.

Everybody wants to make short cuts out of self help. When things are really bad, to prescribe positive thinking to someone who is down and out is as useful as going to someone who is struggling with obesity and telling them to just think skinny.

Positive thinking is an outcome of investing in the right behaviors and habits on purpose.

If you want to invest in building your confidence and abundance mentality, it’s a serious workout. Tim’s book Today We Are Rich is loaded with insights and practical advice to get into  ”The Good Loop” of learning, thanking, giving and finishing.

Tim, thank you for writing it!

Tim Sanders

Tim Sanders is an internet business marketing visionary, former Yahoo Chief Solutions Officer, and international best selling author of Love is the Killer App.

You can download a free eBook chapter of his new book Today We Are Rich, and learn more about Tim’s work at www.twar.com.

Listen to the conversation

You can listen to my conversation with Tim Sanders here.

It’s 30 minutes that will inspire you.

What you sound like in your head and what other people hear are very different things.

How you sound to others

We get used to ourselves, and if you never check (get a recording of yourself talking), you just don’t have the full picture of how you are coming across.

Whenever I talk about executive presence or personal brand, there is always a lot of interest because people are very motivated learn how to position and present themselves more effectively.

Don’t forget how you speak!

Whatever you are are saying, how you come across when you say it leaves as strong an impression as the content itself. (Or stronger.)

I’ve written about some of the things you can do on purpose to improve how you present yourself.

Executive Presence
Selling Your Ideas
Do you stand out enough?

Things that detract from your competence

In this article I want to focus on what can distract people from seeing your competence because of how you say it.

Here are some things which lowered my opinion when I’ve interviewed people for executive positions.

• Uh, um, ya-know, like, OK, Yeh – too much of this is really distracting
• Speaking too softly – conveys a lack of presence and confidence
• Question tone – some people have a way of talking that always makes them sound like they are asking a question. It conveys uncertainty
• Sounding dismissive – this just pisses me off!

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Here are some ideas to improve how you speak.

1. Record yourself

This is the most important thing. You need to hear what you sound like when it’s not in your own head.

When I worked at HP I gave my self a goal of deleting the “uh’s” from my vocabulary. The most effective way I found to do this was to always copy myself on any voice mail I left that was more that 30 seconds long. I would then force myself to listen to my own messages.

Listening to a recording and cringing at what you hear has a big impact on your ability to improve how you speak.

If your work habits do not include voice mail you can copy yourself on, just use a digital recorder when you talk on the phone and play it back when you are in the car.

I am not perfect in my speech but I improve all the time. I still say “uh” sometimes, but it’s not so often that it is distracting. I’m still working on it.

You have to force yourself to listen to yourself if you want to improve. If you don’t want to listen to yourself, why would anyone else?

2. Practice your opening and closing lines

Prepare. Say them out loud. Rehearse.

When you have a presentation to give, or you are preparing for an important conversation, actually plan and practice your opening and closing lines. There is no shame in preparing and practicing ahead of time. If you are on the phone, you can even write it down and have it right there in front of you. I do this.

3. Book-end your presentation on your strengths

I noticed that we all have a tendency to be comfortable when we interact with our team and our peers, but then get defensive when we present upwards.

Give yourself the chance to be comfortable.

For example, if you are comfortable with big picture ideas, start and end your presentation with big picture ideas. If you are comfortable with analytics, start and end your presentation with compelling data.

The important point is not about the content, that’s what’s in the middle. It’s about giving yourself 15 seconds at the opening and the close of your presentation to be completely comfortable and confident in what you are saying. I refer to this in my own mind as having a place to stand.

That comfort, and therefore the resulting confident tone, will carry through the content. Then if you run out of gas in the middle, you have a plan to end on a high note.

No matter what you have to present and to whom, allow your self to book-end your talk with things that put yourself in your best light.

While you are at it, keep a digital recorder in your pocket and make yourself listen to it later. (You’ll improve next time.)

4. Don’t try to sound impressive

This pretty much always backfires.

At best it sounds contrived and over-worked, and often has a tone of manic defensiveness. The best advice I got here was from someone who said, I think of the person I am presenting to as a friend that I would like to help.

I don’t think it gets better than that!

If you found this useful, you can subscribe to this blog for free and get updates in your email or RSS reader.

THINGS YOU CAN DO NOW

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4. Get RISE for your whole team at corporate, volume pricing.

People often ask me why I stared my own company. Why did I choose not to get another big job as a GM or CEO?

How did I choose this particular business?

Growing Business, Growing People

There is a lot to this answer, but a big part of it is that I chose to create a business that helps people. My corporate business helps teams execute better and helps leaders grow.

And my membership program is something that I do in addition to my corporate work to help individuals at any level, or any point in their career get their breakthrough.

Here are 3 of my favorite stories…

These are stories about people who have made big breakthroughs in their career, are making more money, and are enjoying their lives more.

They obviously did the hard work themselves, but the fact that they point to their membership in Azzarello Group as a factor in their success means the world to me.

1. Karen – Started a successful business

Karen is sole-income earner who was working in a large services organization when she got the news that her role and her team were being outsourced.

Oops! No job. She needed to figure out what she was going to do!

She was getting quite nervous about her income stopping.

Her company came through with a role she could interview for. Since no income was not an option, she was quite tempted by the “paycheck continuation” opportunity, but in her heart she was not excited about this job.

Karen had heard the webinar on Investing in Strengths. She told me she download it and listened to it a bunch of times! It helped her realize that the reason she was not excited, was because this role did not use her core strengths. Yes, she could do the work, but she wouldn’t be great at it, and she wouldn’t be thriving.

This insight gave her the motivation to focus on what she was really good at.  She thought about the kind of work that gave her the most energy. And this focus on her strengths gave her the nerve to turn down the guaranteed income of the “wrong” job.

She also downloaded the webinars on Authentic Networking, and Building your Personal Brand.

Karen then put her consulting offer together based on her strengths. She packaged herself and her new company to promote the work she was truly gifted at doing. Then she started networking, and getting clients!

She is now highly respected and sought after in her field.

She makes more money than she did before, and is thrilled that she is doing work she is great at.

Karen did an impressive job of transitioning her career. She told me that being a member of Azzarello Group gave her a new way of thinking about her career, and the guts to make a change.

2. Mari  – Got a big promotion

Mari just landed her first promotion in over 10 years.

Mari was a manager in a large technology organization, but had been stuck at the same level for a really long time. She was frustrated with her boss, and did not feel like her contribution was being appreciated.

No one was stopping by her desk to offer her a promotion.

Mari was capable of much more.

She is very talented. Mari called into the member Coaching Hours each month and had discussions with me and other members on Leadership.

First, the coaching helped her realize that in her current position, she had the opportunity to maximize her learning, tune her experience and build career capital instead of just being focused on the frustrations. This new habit of going after experience proactively, helped her get ready.

But the big “aha” for Mari was that she should not wait to be discovered.

The advice she got helped her to gain the confidence that she, indeed, had everything it took to do a bigger job — she just needed to package it up and promote it better to others. She realized that she, herself, could position herself for a promotion, (and that no one else was going to do it for her).

From the webinars on Relevance and Building Your Credibility she realized that being clear and up front about her goals with others helped her land a C-Level mentor who helped her prepare.

Mari downloaded the Packaging and Positioning Yourself webinar which helped her organize her best stories and make the interviewing process much easier.

Mari used the tools and support she got from her membership to make this promotion happen for herself.

3. Karl – Got a better job (without changing jobs)

Karl was a project director in a retail company.

As someone who fell into the “work horse” category Karl was struggling to keep his head above water.

He is very talented.

He always delivered, so the work just kept getting piled on. And his reward for working so hard and getting so much done was, you guessed it — even more work.

Karl was stuck being over-busy.

From the member Coaching Hours and using the Career Year of Action Guide, Karl took control of his career path.

The Guide helped him create space in his work to be less busy and to do specific things each month to make his work more strategic, more visible, and more relevant to his company. The guide helped him build his credibility and his network, and better manage conversations and expectations with his boss.

The webinars and worksheets on Be Less Busy, Delegate or Die, and Ruthless Priorities helped him redefine how he approaches his work.

He realized that he could create a path for actually advancing his career, where before he was buried in the never-ending sea of day to day activities.

Karl was finally able to rise above the work.

He hasn’t changed jobs, but he likes his job a whole lot more and is getting more recognition than ever for the value of his contributions – not just for delivering lots of work. And he got a raise.

What do you want?

Why not join Azzarello Group to get the insights, the support and the advantage you need.

This is exactly what I formed the membership program to do — to encourage and support people to go for their breakthroughs.
Members get insights, tools, and access to me.

I really want to help. I had help. Help works.

So I priced the membership at a level that lets me continue to run it, and is easy for you to get approval for, or doable to pay yourself.

I have to say at $179/year it’s a screaming good deal. How much is a real career breakthrough worth to you?

Get your advantage.

Learn more about membership.
Join now.

Get the Career Year of Action Guide for Free

Special Offer: If you become a member this week (by March 15), in addition to being able to attend the member-only coaching hour calls with me, and getting access to all the  the webinars and resources in the member library, you will get a free copy of the Career Year of Action Guide.

This guide stages out all the things you need to do (over and above your job) to ensure that you make progress in your career and aren’t just endlessly delivering work and not getting anywhere.

New members who joined this year:

If you joined after Jan 1, 2011 and you would like a free copy of the Career Year of Action Guide, just send an email to support@AzzarelloGroup.com and request one.

What should you do when your boss keeps asking for things?

What should you do when demands pile up so high that you and your team are constantly over-booked and the work just keeps coming?

I always talk about how you need to rise above the tactical workload and be more strategic — but what do you do when it’s your boss that is causing the problem?

I have been the annoying boss in this story!

When I was running a $1B software organization, I was the one who was guilty of doing this to my staff.

The disconnect

There is a built-in disconnect that I find very interesting:

When you are working in the business, generally speaking, your job is get work done.

But when you are running a business, generally speaking, your job is to go out into the world, learn things about the customers, the competition, and the market and figure out new stuff to do.

Then you come back all excited about what you’ve learned, and share your ideas with your team about how to improve the business — and they are exasperated. You see it as great new ideas. They see it as more work, changing direction, or fire-dirlls.

There will always be a disconnect between what the boss thinks up and what the organization can deliver.

The secret

Here is the secret. Your boss wants you to push back. Your boss is expecting you to think through the business strategy and the workload an offer advice – not to just try and do everything.

“Oh, no. She’s back…”

I know that when I would come back from a trip, my staff would brace themselves and think “Oh, no, she’s back. Now what? What else is she going to want us to do? We are already too busy, why does she keep piling it on?”

As the boss, I wanted my team to listen and internalize what I had learned. But I did not want them to treat all ideas and requests equally and immediately.

I did not want my team to just try and take on all the work and have it kill them. I did not want or expect them to do everything.

What I wanted was for them to catch all the work, analyze it, make judgements about business priorities and come back to me and negotiate.

Advise your Executive

Big Idea: You need to catch all the work, but not do all the work.

I wanted them to stay focused on the strategic stuff we were working on, but be aware that key triggers were occurring in the market.

I wanted them to think it though and recommend to me how we could stage out all the work. How could we keep focused on the right strategic stuff, but then also come up with a way to prioritize the new ideas and take some of them on over time?

I wanted them to suggest ways of streamlining or stopping things to make room for something new.

I wanted them to debate with my about what is most important and why, and suggest how to re-work the plan to do the most important things first.

Who stands out?

The people who would come back to me with a thoughtful proposal for what to do, in what order, that would be good for the business, and do-able for the team were the ones that stood out as high performers.

The ones who didn’t just accept all my ideas and requests, and helped me think through the strategy and priority stood out as high performers.

The ones who tried to take on all the work and do everything, resulting in everything slipping were not so impressive.

The ones who simply ignored my inputs, kept their heads down, and did not step up to the strategic thinking and debate were not so impressive either.

How to negotiate the workload

• Keep a list of everything your boss asks for
• Keep a list of the top strategic priorities you are working on
• Have regular meetings with your boss where you take out these lists
• Make recommendations about what to prioritize based on the context of business and the content of these two lists.

.
When you show your boss these lists several things happen.

• They get embarraseed not realizing they have aksed for so many things. When they see it spelled out right there in front of them, they can see it’s unreasonable.
• You win lots of credibility for keeping the list, catching everything, and not dropping anything. You make them comfortable that you’ve got it covered. They trust you.
• You can ask them “Is this still important”? You will find they have forgotten about several of the requests and have decided that others don’t matter anymore.
• You will realize that you are not beholden to everything on the list!
• You will be able to negotiate timelines and suggest priorities.

.

Your boss forgets

There is a tendency to treate all requests from the boss equally.

You need to resist this because they don’t intend them all equally.

They can seem equally excited or serious about a wide range of ideas. Some are vitally important, others are just musings. It’s hard to tell. They will often forget things that asked for, or change their mind without telling you.  You need to check.

They need you to help them with their thinking.

You are being paid to judge and decide, not just to do everying you are told.

Want to know more:

Attend my free webinar this week: Be Less Busy, Be More Strategic.

If you found this useful, you can subscribe to this blog for free and get updates in your email or RSS reader.

THINGS YOU CAN DO NOW

1. Get Facebook Updates.
Click “Like” to get more great business leadership updates on Facebook

2. Check out a short video about my new book:
RISE…How to Be Really Successful at Work AND Like Your Life.

3. Get your copy of RISE… now on Amazon

4. Get RISE for your whole team at corporate, volume pricing.

Why it Matters

This month’s webinar on executive presence drew record breaking participation.

Why are so many people interested in this topic?

Recognition & Respect

People want to be more recognized and respected.

They want access to bigger and better opportunities. They want an advantage.

Having a strong, credible presence is important. You need it in your current job and you need it to open doors. You need it to get access to higher level networks and to win bigger opportunities.

Download the podcast of the webinar.

We talked about how to build your executive presence…

How You Feel

Be yourself. You need to feel comfortable and confident. The best way to do that consistently is to be who you really are. Putting on an executive-like facade does not work nearly as well as simply being comfortable in your own skin and projecting confidence.

Confidence. You don’t need to have a big, showy personality to have exeutive presence. Having a strong presence is about confidence, not personality. Even if you are a quiet, humble person it’s about putting your best self out there consistently, not changing your personality.

Fearlessness

If you can’t be confident, be fearless. Don’t back off when you are not confident. You’ll come off much worse if you are tentative and worried about what you are presenting. We talked about ways to achieve a more fearless approach, and build your confidence along the way.

Practice and prepare. If you are not comfortable in the moment, then prepare. Don’t feel bad about practicing ahead of time. The worksheets for this webinar help you plan for situations when you need to exert your presence. Script what you will say and rehearse it. You will be more confident in the moment, and you will get more confident over time, with practice.

Never mind the details. Don’t wait until you feel like know everything. Disconnect “knowing everything” from having executive presence. If you spend all your time learning the details, you will not gain executive presence. You won’t be stepping up and putting yourself out there, and to make matters worse, people will always see you in the weeds.

How You Look

Quality matters. It’s not about fashion, it’s about looking like you care. No one ever felt more confident by wearing a cheap suit. Put some effort in.

Remove distractions. Make sure nothing about your appearance distracts from your competence. Take stock, get feedback. Make changes.

How You Behave

Lead the room. Don’t just be in room. Lead the room. We talked about various rooms and types of gatherings and how to portray leadership and confidence in each situation.

Be fast on your feet. Part of executive presence is being able to actively listen and respond, and not become defensive under attack. You also have more presence if you can be flexible and don’t always need to stick to the script.

Be Present! Part of executive presence, is “presence”. You need to put yourself out there. Don’t stay in the shadows. Speak up. Have something to contribute. Be personable. Be the one to ask key questions or put forth recommendations. Don’t talk just to talk, but don’t be silent just to avoid risk. Step up.

Fit in Socially. You need to be able to fit in to higher level networks. Get over being awe-struck, and find a way to personally connect with people as higher levels. If you can’t fit in socially, you will appear junior. You need to make others comfortable that you belong there.

Never Appear Overwhelmed

Ease and grace. Although this is part of how you behave, it’s worth emphasizing because appearing overwhelmed is inversely proportional to executive presence. You need to find a way to deal with overwhelm privately, and have others see you as calm and in control. If you are appear overwhelmed, no one will see you as ready for more.

Download the podcast for Executive Presence
Download the complete webinar (includes podcast, presentation and worksheets)

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THINGS YOU CAN DO NOW

1. Get Facebook Updates.
Click “Like” to get more great business leadership updates on Facebook

2. Check out a short video about my new book:
RISE…How to Be Really Successful at Work AND Like Your Life.

3. Get your copy of RISE… now on Amazon