Career Coach. Management Consultant. Writer. Marketer. Accountant.
A few days ago, I told you how I fell in love after a business dinner.
What I didn’t tell you is that I received an award earlier that night. In fairness, I almost forgot about until I pulled it out of my mobile office backpack today.
It’s the illustrious baby’s bottom award, for being “smoothest in times of crisis”.
I bring this up because it highlights a key lesson that people overlook far too frequently. And that lesson is…
[Read more…]You shall not pass!
– Gandalf (the gray), Lord of the Rings
Okay – I admit it. I just wanted to try to find a way to refer to another one of the most iconic scenes in movie history. Since spring break I’ve probably added a few dozen hundred views but who’s counting.
There’s something to this though and I’m going to give a few scenarios where if you’re doing this, your expectation when you’re trying to get promoted should be “you shall not pass!”
And if you’re more of a monopoly fan… do not pass go. Do not collect $200.
So here they are: [Read more…]
So I was walking to the client office from my hotel in San Francisco recently when it dawned on me how pedestrians mimic the behavior of some struggling careerists.
Here’s what happened… [Read more…]
Every year at consulting firms there’s a time where you have a mad exodus of people. The messages are delivered in all types of fashions but it ultimately comes down to two words: I quit.
In truthfulness, some need to go and some come with a little pain and the question on what could’ve been differently to keep them.
The reason this phenomenon is different than working in industry is because all of the promotion decisions happen at the same time in consulting. When you work at a company, you definitely have performance reviews but rarely are you confronted with your shortcomings in the same way as you are in consulting.
For example, in industry there’s often a chance to see you did a great job but we don’t have any open spots at the next level right now. Going into it, you kinda know someone has to quit, get fired, or die for a promotion opportunity to become available.
There are three reasons people typically are leaving the business. 1. They don’t want to travel anymore. 2. They don’t like the people they’re working with (and see no end in sight) 3. They didn’t get the promotion they wanted.
Let’s talk about #3 and if you want to cover #1 and #2, let me know and I’ll get into that a different day.
Notice on #3 I said “wanted” and not “deserved”. A lot of people want to start out making their case for promo by talking about how long they’ve been around (aka managed to not get fired). There’s nothing inspiring about this. Results should be your focus. Then and only then should you consider talking about your years of experience.
Years of experience is more of a hedge against you not screwing up when you get dropped into a new situation. The more experience you have, the less “new” situations and therefore risk you’re likely to come across.
Speaking of risk, here’s another thing. Knowing you can do something and demonstrating / convincing other people of your capability are totally different, unrelated things.
If you want to get promoted, get your receipts in order and make a case nobody can deny.
That ended up a little more ranty than I was expecting but I felt like I needed to get that out.
Those are the types of things I work with people on in the Success Factory (if you didn’t apply, it’s too late for April), but you can get some inspiration from my book.
Some people inevitably will come back and say it doesn’t look like it’s for them. My advice to them… don’t buy it then.
For the smart ones who buy it, read it, and apply some of the ideas, I’m confident they will get more value than the cost of the e-book, regardless of where they are in their career. Fundamentals never go out of style.
Get the book here:
https://ericpbutts.com/clu-book/
– EB
You ever wake up and you have that one thing on your calendar that has you feeling all kinds of nerves?
Too much angst to eat.
Heart pounding when you let your mind sit idly thinking about it for too long.
Or maybe you just get the sweaty palms as eloquently immortalized by Eminem in the movie 8 mile (such a good song).
Well that was me leading up to my first martial arts test tonight. I’m happy to report I survived despite being terrified I was going to freeze up in front of everyone including my wife.
If you know that feeling in your stomach that I’m talking about, then I have two words for you that are going to help you make moves in your career: don’t panic.
As it turns out, it’s really hard to focus when you’re panicking.
And as I’ve said before, if you can’t focus, you’ll make unnecessary mistakes. Those mistakes will cost you career progression, which equals money and the related recognition you know should be well within your grasp.
There’s another piece to this though.
The fact is getting outside of your comfort zone is a good thing. It’s one of those things you know is working when you feel it. It’s basically muscle confusion for your brain and all those sensations you feel are just your brain letting you know you’re transforming.
When there’s an opportunity to learn something new, embrace the chance. Acknowledge the fear and discomfort but don’t let yourself be paralyzed by it. Charge through it and see what happens when you’re on the other side.
As it turns out, I’ve gotten pretty good at helping people push themselves in this way. If you want to experience for yourself, you can apply for the success factory coaching program for another week. Who knows, if I get promoted from a white belt that might go to my head and I raise the price of coaching too. Head on over and apply now:
https://ericpbutts.com/success-factory/
Have a good weekend.
– EB
Let’s talk about focus.
It’s easy to get distracted by what’s happening around you. Maybe people are getting preferential treatment.
Aside from you only being able to control so much, you worrying about what somebody else is doing can have a real negative impact on your performance.
When we were in taekwondo this (the same session I wrote about a couple of days ago), something else interesting happened. [Read more…]
As many of you know, I recently attended the National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) Conference in Detroit. During the two-day job fair, I came across a lot of hungry young professionals trying to figure out this whole career thing. While there, I realized I’ve discussed the importance of showing up to conferences and job fairs and my own experience in turning a job fair into a management consulting job offer, but never really talked about what to do once you’re *at* the job fair. I’m going to change that now and share the 5 keys to job fair success. These have held true since I was in the recruiting process several years ago, and they are just as true today. [Read more…]
When looking for a coach, it helps to seek out someone who will tell you the things that are going to be hard to hear. If you’re the coach, you should strive to be that person. The struggle is how to deliver hard-to-hear information without making the person on the other side feel like trash. Even in situations where someone is making the most basic mistakes (in your opinion), you need to keep your cool. [Read more…]
I’m just going to come right out and say it. The Atlanta Falcons gave us the most epic collapses in Super Bowl history, and possibly all of sports (this and this make it a tough choice). In case you’re not an American football fan, the Atlanta Falcons boasted one of the most prolific offenses in the National Football League all year and managed to get up 28-3 in the biggest many of them will ever play. It was announced during that game that no team up by 19 or more points in a playoff game had ever lost. This scenario had happened 93 times prior to this year’s Super Bowl.
Luckily for me, meltdowns make for more compelling writing than blowouts and as sad as that game was for anyone, who calls the Falcons their team, there are 3 important lessons you can draw from their shortcoming. [Read more…]
I was in this restaurant, home of some of the best pulled pork I’ve had in some time, and a noticed a sign on the wall that resonated with me.
It said “asking dumb questions is easier than correcting dumb mistakes”.
How many times have you been in a training or workshop or speech and had a question you wanted to ask but you held back because you didn’t want to be the person asking the stupid question?
Instead, you hold your tongue and try to quiet your curiosity until the urge to clarify your understanding passes. You can do better than that. [Read more…]