Let's Think About It Podcast
Welcome to the Let's Think About It Podcast with Morice (Coach Mo) Mabry! Are you ready to break free from fear, doubt, and uncertainty to unlock your true potential? Join Coach Mo on a transformative journey as we tackle the barriers hindering your personal growth. In each episode, we engage in insightful conversations with certified coaches, career professionals, and thriving entrepreneurs. Together, we uncover practical strategies to overcome self-imposed limitations and cultivate resilience. Gain clarity, boost confidence, and thrive in the face of uncertainty. Coach Mo, an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and a published author, serves as your guide on this empowering quest for self-discovery and growth. Through mindfulness and mindset mastery, we empower you to navigate the inner critic and life's challenges to seize opportunities for success. Tune in to the Let's Think About It Podcast to equip yourself with the tools and inspiration needed to embrace uncertainty, conquer fear, tame the inner critic, and chart a course towards personal fulfillment. Start your journey to greatness today!
Let's Think About It Podcast
Career on Course: 10 Strategies to Take Your Career From Accidental to Intentional by Scott Jeffrey Miller
🔓 Unlock your Career on Course: 10 Strategies to Take Your Career from Accidental to Intentional with the guidance of Scott Jeffrey Miller, an authority on professional growth and a seven-time best-selling author. His experience with giants like the Walt Disney Company and Franklin Covey Company has equipped him with invaluable insights that we're thrilled to share. This episode is a gold mine for anyone aiming to navigate their own career plan with Scott's 10 strategies to implement, featuring personal anecdotes and expert advice that could be the key to your next big career move.
🤔 Feel like job interviews are a mysterious code you can't crack? Scott and I break down the "barbecue factor," that special sauce of personality and interpersonal skills, and discuss how it can significantly sway your chances with potential employers. We delve into the power of enthusiasm, the allure of genuine curiosity, and how even the quietest among us can project an engaging presence. Get ready to learn how to bring your authentic self to the table, leaving a lasting impression that goes beyond your resume.
📈 But it's not just about landing the job; it's about excelling in it and climbing that ladder. In our conversation, Scott shares the top reasons why people get promoted—or shown the door. We also map out how to craft a long-term career plan that ensures you're not just a passenger on your professional journey, but the driver. From the art of self-disruption to the strategic navigation of workplace politics, this episode equips you with the tools to build a reputation that commands respect and opens doors to new opportunities. Join us for an episode that could transform the trajectory of your career.
Welcome to the let's Think About it Podcast, where we embark on a journey of thoughtfulness and personal growth. I'm your host, coach Moe, and I'm here to guide you through thought-promoking discussions that will inspire you to unlock your full potential. In each episode, we'll explore a wide range of topics, from self-discovery and mindfulness to goal-setting and achieving success. Together, we'll challenge conventional thinking and dive deep into the realms of possibility. Whether you're looking to find clarity in your personal or professional life, or seeking strategies to overcome obstacles, this podcast is your go-to source for insightful conversations and practical advice. So find a comfortable spot, chill and let's embark on this journey of self-improvement together. Remember, the power of transformation lies within you, and together we'll uncover the tools and insights you need to make it happen. So let's dive in. Welcome to another episode of the let's Think About it Podcast. I'm your host, coach Moe, and I'm here with another exciting guest. His name is Scott Jeffrey Miller, who is author, a best-selling author, right, and I'm so excited. Seven times best-selling author. My bad, my bad, my bad.
Speaker 2:Moe. Come on, man, that's a lot of work. At least give me credit for it. Come on, I know right.
Speaker 1:Right, I'm happy that you're here, but before we dive into that and about you, you got to tell us where you're calling from. What area in the world are you calling in from?
Speaker 2:I live in Salt Lake City, utah, with my wife, stephanie, and our three young sons that are nine, 12, and 13, fortunately at school today on this bluster-y spring morning. But love Salt Lake City. I'm from Florida, originally lived the first half of my life in Orlando, florida, and then realized, you know what, you can live life without humidity. So I discovered Utah and fled and never went back. I love the Four Seasons, we like to ski, we like to bike, love the outdoors here. A beautiful place to raise a family.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, we're definitely happy to have you, but before we dive into your extremely successful book that we're going to talk about today, tell us about your journey and how you even got to this point in being a best-selling author.
Speaker 2:Sure. So, as I mentioned, raised in Orlando, florida, worked for the Walt Disney Company for four years in my early 20s and then they invited me to leave, which is how it kind of happened at Disney, when your career is a bit of a wreck. And so, where mode is, a single Catholic boy moved to Well, of course, to Provo, utah, where all the Catholics were 30 years ago.
Speaker 1:I'm kidding, of course there wasn't a single Catholic.
Speaker 2:You guys all Latter-day Saints, known club-likely as Mormons. Anyway, dr Stephen R Covey, the author of the book the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. He recruited me out and this is the best-selling business book of all time in the personal development space. And I then spent 30 years with the Franklin Covey company on the front line selling their leadership solutions to universities, school districts and companies. Lived in London, lived in Chicago, lived in Salt Lake, eventually moved my way up into the C-suite, became a named executive officer in the company it's a public, global company Was the chief marketing officer for a decade and then I retired from the firm about four years ago. I still consult with him. I host the world's largest weekly leadership podcast for Franklin Covey, called On Leadership with Scott Miller.
Speaker 2:And about six years ago I decided to start writing books and so my first book was called Management Mess to Leadership Success. My next book was Everyone Deserves a Great Manager. That became a Wall Street Journal bestseller and then kept writing. And here I am now today on my seventh book, just sharing my expertise, my failures, my successes, my messes on marketing, mentoring, management, leadership and my new book, my seventh book, career on Course, is really a culmination of 10 strategies that I codified. Thanks, mo, for showing the book. These are 10 strategies that I codified from my own career successes and failures, but also from having hired and fired hundreds of people and watching the expertise be unveiled in other people's successful careers, and reviewed hundreds of chief human resource officers, chief talent officers, recruiters, human resource professionals, and then congealed these best practices into 10 strategies, and now it's in this book that launched about a week ago.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow, that's great man. That was great.
Speaker 2:It was 56 years and four minutes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so tell me this from all of your experience what's the common theme of why people struggle in the area of, maybe, career transitions or development? What's your input on that, your insights on that?
Speaker 2:Thanks, mo. It's the same reason why people succeed as to why they struggle. It's their ability to know what it's like to work with them, what it's like to collaborate with them and to be married to them. It's this concept of self-awareness. How self-aware are you of what it's like to join a Zoom call or a virtual team meeting, or go to Topgolf with your colleagues or work a trade booth show? How self-aware are you of what it's like to work for you or lead you or be led by you? It all can jeal down into people maturing the knowledge of what is their personality like, what is their communication style, like what are the things they do that delight people and that annoys people. And I have found that, by and large, most people have pretty low self-awareness, and so that's the defining theme between people whose career is implode.
Speaker 2:But I'll tell you, mo, in my almost 35-year career between Disney and the Franklin Covey Company and now as a talent agent, which is my full-time job on the literary speaking and talent agency in Gray Miller, I have hired hundreds of people. I have fired dozens of people, part of the job. I've never had to terminate someone because they lacked the technical skill to do the job they were hired for. They had the degree, they had the certification, they had the know-how, or they could get there pretty easily with some coaching, which we all need. Every one of the people that I've had to terminate in their career is because they lacked self-awareness. They had no idea what a cancer or train wreck they were inside of the culture. If I wanted to be respected by the high performers, I had to address these other issues. That's the defining theme. Yeah, thank, you.
Speaker 1:You know what it's like to work with you, yeah, and as a coach right, that's what I really help clients with is being present and having self-awareness. So with that self-awareness you're emotional and it's that much higher and you can learn how to pivot and not come reactant to the emotion. At that moment you start to become more intentional in how you can navigate any circumstance. But one thing you talked about you said you hired a lot of people, you fired a lot of people, and I'm gonna tap into your book, because this is a great transition to start digging a bit into why you wrote this book and the insights in the book. There's three things that really stood out to me when I first opened the book. You said the top five reasons people get hired, fired and promoted. Yeah, okay, you mentioned that you hired a lot of people, you fired a lot of people, so I'm gonna start there the top five reasons people get hired. Can you tell us about that?
Speaker 2:Sure, I'm gonna read them from the book. Okay, top five reasons people get hired. One is they're engaging. I call it your barbecue factor. Everybody has a barbecue factor. Meaning, if I invited Mo over to my house for a barbecue, what would he be like? Would he come late? Would he come at all? Would he be the first person to show up? Would he bring a housewarming gift? Would he offer to man the grill? Would he help clean up? Would he move outside of his comfort zone? What would he be like?
Speaker 2:I'm not saying you have to be the life of the party or the extrovert, but you just have to know like. Are you engaging? Are you always talking? Are you sometimes listening? Do you ask other people questions? Are you generally interested in other people? Do you have a level of curiosity?
Speaker 2:I think, as much as that may sound shallow, your personality is a crucial aspect to getting hired into a job. Ask yourself, what is your barbecue factor? And people hear this as an extrovert. They think that I think, oh, everybody has to have a big, charismatic personality. No, did you send a thank you note? No, did you often go around and help clean up when someone was drowning in the pool? Did you save them. When someone had too many margaritas, did you graciously call an Uber for them, or did you just sit there frozen tweeting about it? You get the point. It's like what's your EQ? And I just call it your barbecue factor. I think it's a genius term. That's kind of the first thing. Others is they don't hide their gaps. They have a good track record. They have a history of grit and determination. They have a record that they're proud of and they can actually deliver.
Speaker 2:I tell you, the second most important reason people get hired is during the interview process. They focus on what they can do for the organization, not what the organization can do for them. There is a time to ask all those questions, but upfront. You wanna make sure you know what are the company's top priorities? Where are they struggling? What are their weaknesses, what are their strengths? How can your natural genius, your work ethic, your know-how, your market knowledge help them drive what's most important to them? And then you can ask questions around what is the culture like? What's the path to succession? How do I earn more money? What are the benefits? What is the comp? Is there beer on tap on Thursdays? Those are important questions to people. First, you wanna make sure that they are very clear on what you can do to help them, and I think too many people get that backwards.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And can I just add a little bit to that? Energy, energy and enthusiasm. When you talk about going on then to the interview, everything that you said is 1000% correct, right, but the piece of being engaging, I convey that with your energy and your presence and your enthusiasm about the opportunity that's sitting there right in front of us and I rely on that heavily and anything that I do, my enthusiasm, my energy I'm intentional about that and just how I show up in those different moments.
Speaker 2:Moe beautifully said. I'd even take it one step further. The fact is, I'm actually an introvert who masquerades as an extrovert because I think I've right or wrong. I think the more charismatic and more engaging you are than what people like you. That's a broad statement, I know, but that doesn't mean you should be someone you're not. When I'm meeting someone, I try to calibrate my energy to theirs. I don't know if someone is super quiet and shy. I'm not capable of doing that in public, but I try to be aware that I'm not overwhelming someone, because I can do that. I have a like you. I have a big personality and a loud voice and big hand gestures. You think I was from the East Coast? Oh wait, I am. So I think it's also important to be yourself, but also to calibrate your energy so that you're not maybe overwhelming someone in the interview. That's just self-awareness. It all comes back to how aware are you of how you are perceived by others?
Speaker 1:And I think we got that going on right now. You and I do Moe, so tell me about the five reasons people get fired.
Speaker 2:Number one they lack judgment. Number two, they lack self-awareness. Number three they lack character. Number four they don't contribute. And number five they have a victim mentality.
Speaker 2:This is just about who you are when people are watching. Who you are when people aren't watching. What's your character? People tend to get fired because they lack good judgment. You know, the joke sounded funnier in your head than when it came out of your mouth.
Speaker 2:You've retold a story that was in mixed company and someone was offended by it, and then increasingly, companies one striking you're out because they can't afford to have you break the values. It's really around. You know, can you read the body language of others, right? Do you have good judgment? Do you have good self-regulation? Do you know if it's the right setting to share something? Do you know if someone might have a sensitivity or trauma or an offense beyond something? Right, it's just. You know the world has changed, right? I mean, some jokes that might have been funny-ish two years ago now can be offensive to people. You just have to be sensitive and appreciative of. You know, is it the right setting, the right people, the right time? And should you be saying that at all? And then I think, lastly, I'd argue that they have a victim mentality.
Speaker 2:People get fired because they're constantly blaming everybody else. Well, if Mo had just done his share, or I didn't have all the information, or no one told me? I mean, what is that? Use your resourcefulness, use your initiative, take it on, solve it. I mean, I don't know anybody who's doing the job that was in their job description. I don't even read a job description. I do what I have to to drive the company forward, so I get promoted.
Speaker 2:Duh, that's your job, whatever it needs. Plus something. Plus one more thing. Go ask your boss. Boss, am I working on the right thing? Has anything changed? Do you need me to stop doing something and start doing something? Maybe I'm doing something that I'm still passionate about and you're not, and you don't want to hurt my feelings. Tell me. I want to be your most relative contributor. And, by the way, what's changed in your world and what can I start adding to my plate that could help make you indispensable? Because when you rise, I rise with you. Now listen, I know that isn't the culture of every organization. So if that isn't the culture of your leader, quit her. If that isn't the culture in your company, quit them, because companies cannot afford any longer to have corrupt cultures or bad leaders. So if that doesn't describe where you're working, quit and go work somewhere where it does.
Speaker 1:And that's why I connect with everything around this topic Victim mentality of what you're talking about and why people get fires. That connects with my episode when I was talking about the seven levels of motivation, and that's level one, the lowest level of motivation, because a person is showing up. Why me?
Speaker 2:Why does this keep?
Speaker 1:happening to me From a defensive standpoint it wasn't my fault. They always have an excuse why this event has happened. They're right and they struggle and they're consistently in their own way and it's everybody else's fault and there's absolutely no accountability and it's a career killer. They're problem focused.
Speaker 2:They're problem focused Right. They're what I call problem identifiers versus solution providers. Yes, everybody who works for me knows there is no condition in which you will ever respond to me with the phrase my bad. That repulses me. No, you won't say my bad. What you will say is Scott, I am sorry. The truth is, my cousin was in town from Chicago last night and we went to a ball game and we had too many beers. We took an Uber home and I actually didn't set my alarm and I overslept by three hours. I own it. I was irresponsible. That is the truth. I am sorry and that won't happen again. Most people say my bad and they slink back to their cube and say I'm like no, just tell me the truth.
Speaker 1:Ownership, own it. I'm taking accountability and that's the level one aspect of motivation that I really highlight that often gets in people's way, that limits them from their true potential. You also talked about the five reasons people get promoted.
Speaker 2:Number one they get results. Number two they make themselves indispensable. Number three they help others outside of their role. Number four they put themselves in challenging situations. And number five they make others look good. I mean, this really is kind of outward focused, right. They have what Dr Covey would call an abundance mentality versus a scarcity mentality. They don't take credit for other people's projects. At the end of the day, they are focused on the company's top priorities.
Speaker 2:If your job as a salesperson is to meet your monthly revenue quota, you organizing the team's birthday parties cannot happen at the expense of that. You have to know what are you hired to do and that you have a very strong track record. There is no confusion, there is no disparity between what you see as your performance and what your boss sees at as your performance. And that requires you to get Uber clear. That requires Scott to go to Moe and say hey, Moe, can I have five minutes of your time? Hey, I'm working on these nine things and I feel like they're the things I should be working on, but I want to be like right in your boat rowing with you. Can I ask you a question Are any of these nine things not a priority to you anymore. And Moe says, as a matter of fact, Scott, number six and seven, did I tell you the truth? I haven't looked at for five months. Let's stop doing those. And can I tell you a new thing? And most people don't have the maturity to have that conversation. Well, why didn't you tell me? Well, because Moe is a human. Moe is not a perfect leader, right? Bad leaders are often still good people. They lack the maturity, they lack the courage to tell you that that project ceased a couple of weeks ago, but they don't want to hurt your feelings so that I'm not sure. Just you know, as a, as as the employee, take responsibility, take control of the relationship. Make it easy for your leader to give you feedback, to change directions, to say that's not important.
Speaker 2:I think people put so much blame on their leaders. Let me tell you, every leader has imposter syndrome. Every leader is doing the best they can to align to their leader and their leader and their board of directors and their you know funders. Most leaders weren't trained as leaders. It's the only profession in the world where you get the job with no training. To be a commercial airline pilot, you got to go to school to be an anesthesiologist. Last time I checked, you got to have a residency, but to be a leader, no, all you had to do is be the best individual contributor and then the job came open and you were promoted. And the fact of the matter is most people receive their first leadership promotion at age 30, but they're not trained formally until 40.
Speaker 2:There's a 12 year gap, according to HBR, where you've got really quality individual contributors who are now leaders of people who are still mindset, skill set and tool set, acting like an individual contributor. They're not bad people. They're bad leaders. They're untrained leaders. And so I evangelized to everyone reading my book be a little more forgiving of your leader. Recognize that she or he may be doing their best and they may be untrained. Yes, there are sociopaths. Yes, there are narcissists.
Speaker 1:There are outliers Right and that's set to stage. To transition to the 10 strategies, because you mentioned how to get the top five reasons of getting hired, fired and promoting, and that's set to stage to provide more insights around these 10 strategies so that you can keep your career on course.
Speaker 2:That's right. Right, you got to have a course to keep it on course. Most people don't even have a course.
Speaker 1:Yes, and you talk us through overview of what those 10 strategies are.
Speaker 2:Strategy number one is know your professional values. A lot of people have identified their personal values, but to some controversy. I think you ought to have two sets or two lists personal values and professional values. For example, your personal values might be integrity, it might be freedom, it might be choice, it might be loyalty, it might be health or purpose. Your professional values might be maximize my income gain, equity, flexibility, security and international assignment, growth title. I think they're separate lists personal, professional and you ought to have them both codified so that you know when they are in alignment and when they are in conflict. Number one is know your professional value. Number two is decide if you're a specialist or a generalist. One's not bad, one's not good.
Speaker 2:My brother became a chemical engineer. He got the bad that my parents were looking for in life. To this day, my parents have no idea how I earn a living Project management, sales, marketing, public relation. You write books, you give speeches, you're a podcaster, you're a radio host, you're a columnist, you're an agent. What? Yeah, I outrun my brother three to one.
Speaker 2:Sorry, mike, he's a genius for MIT, but I mean I was a generalist and he was a specialist, and I think most generalists get into the trap early on in their careers of comparing themselves to specialists, and it creates a lot of insecurity in us. Great for the person who knew they were gonna be a veterinary in fourth grade. I couldn't spell veterinarian in fourth grade, so I wrote this chapter to give voice to the generalist, to not meander. You're gonna have a lot of passions and interests and you've gotta kind of you know, crochet them, knit them together so that you can actually build a set of skills people wanna pay for. Otherwise, you will have had a fulfilling career, but you probably wouldn't have had much traction and maybe not earned much money.
Speaker 2:Number three is study yourself. This is a further dive on the whole concept of self-awareness. We spend a lot of time studying other people bloggers, authors, podcasters, celebrities, ceos. We don't spend a lot of time studying ourselves. There's a whole chapter around getting feedback from others, around what it's like to work with you Real quick, real quick.
Speaker 1:Before you hit number four study yourself. What's a quick tip? Because a lot of that a person could do to study themselves. What did you expand on that a little bit?
Speaker 2:Thanks for asking, mo. So in each of these 10 strategies in the book there is a worksheet that will take you anywhere between an hour and a week to properly fill out. This is not the kind of book that you read on a flight from Miami to Atlanta, right? Although it's a short book, this is a book about really developing a great course In strategy three study yourself. I suggest you create a team of eight four people in your personal life and four people in your professional life and you ask them two questions what do I do that delights you and what do I do that annoys you?
Speaker 2:And I get you to set the conditions, but then to tell you the truth, most people will say, well, you aren't annoying at all. That's not true. All of us are very annoying to people, trust me. They just haven't told you, you've not set the conditions for them to just feel safe telling you. So the whole chapter really is about asking people what are the things that I do that annoy you and delight you and then saying thank you so much. Hey, can you give me a circumstance, can you give me an instance, an example of when I did that and other people, including you, found that annoying? Oh my gosh, I had no idea. That hurts, that smarts, that's embarrassing. But thank you for caring enough to tell me I'm gonna become much more aware.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm not and screw you.
Speaker 2:I don't care which a lot of people think and say it's up to you to determine how you want to action on that All right. Strategy four is illustrate and recalibrate your long-term plan. This is about having a multi-decade plan for your career. I think again, I use this phrase a lot, but I think most people think about what's next, and I think you should think about what's after, what's next, Instead of thinking about your next job.
Speaker 2:Think about the ultimate career 10, 20, 30, 40 years from now. Do you want to be CEO? Do you want to be chairman? Do you want to be self-employed? Do you want to be the Western region president? Do you want to be the mayor? Do you want to be the division head? Think about the ultimate goal and then, instead of forecasting backcast, do you want to be the CEO?
Speaker 2:You probably need to be in the C-suite. You probably need to earn the role of being an EVP, an SVP, an AVP, a VP, a director. You probably need some international experience. You need to know how to run a P&L. You need to know how to calculate margin and EBITDA. You need supply chain experience and marketing experience and sales experience. The whole point is think of your career in terms of decades. Now. You may not know at the age of 30 or 20 or 40 what you want to do when you're 60. You probably have some inkling. It requires you to understand how organizations are structured. You'll move around a little bit, but the idea is to think about your career in terms of decades.
Speaker 1:I think of that as being visioning, having a vision for yourself, a whole new vision. That's it.
Speaker 2:And the idea, to quote you, is have a plan or become part of someone else's, and I never wanted to be part of someone else's plan. I'll tell you, though, the reason I wrote this book is because, when I was an executive at Franklin Covey, one of my very competent colleagues came in and she said something that was horrifying but piercingly accurate. She said you're never in the room when your career is decided for you. So true, yeah, yeah. When the executive team is thinking about candidates for the Western region sales vice president, or who's going to take over the Brussels office, or who might be good to put over on this hotspot or launch this product, they close the curtains, they get up the chart pad and they put the names up there Very ethical in most cases.
Speaker 2:But one person that had a bad experience or one person says, yeah, I don't think so. You know you get crossed out, right. I mean, you want to be in control of your career and there will be serendipity. You can't control everything, right. There are mergers and acquisitions and job eliminations, there are recessions pretty much like clockwork, right, industries can go, but I think you can mostly control those outliers if you have a plan and you work that plan. You talk about it so people around you understand it.
Speaker 1:I'm going to keep going Be intentional, be intentional, be intentional, right.
Speaker 2:I think too many careers are accidental. Yes, there is serendipity. There was a lot of serendipity in my career but I had written out my entire 40 year career plan. I write about it in the book on the back of the TGI Fridays paper placemat. At the age of 23, 24, I wrote out like my 40 year plan to be in the C-suite and it had twists and turns and I took it out every year and updated it. It had my age on it, my title, my salary, all the skills I wanted to learn, and that might seem a little bit maniacal to most people, but it's how I got to where I am, because I had it, you know what, and it's something about the consciousness when you write things down like that, it absorbs it.
Speaker 1:You shift into creating an autopilot that you're going to achieve these potential things that you wrote down, and it positions you to create the hot that you subconsciously create these opportunities to walk through those doors. That's amazing For those who may be watching this on video.
Speaker 2:I mentioned there are 10 worksheets. In fact, there is a worksheet that helps you work through your multi-decade plan, including all of the skills and talents you need to master to move on to that next career as well, too. So that's strategy four. Strategy five is define and build your brand not an epiphany. Everybody has a brand. They're probably accidentally created. Your brand is probably the way it is because you've neglected it, and so there's a whole exercise around identifying some people to tell you what is your brand. You write down what you think your brand is. You write down what you want your brand to be and then take some specific actions on rebuilding, weak-frafting, re-intentioning your brand based on some of the feedback you got. Number six is be willing to disrupt yourself before someone else does right. Act or be acted upon. I love that phrase. Act or be acted upon. Yeah, elaborate on that.
Speaker 1:Well.
Speaker 2:I think the statistics show from Whitney Johnson, who wrote the book disrupt yourself. Most people. The science shows that somewhere between 18 and 36 months in their role, they've mastered it and so they can kind of do their job pretty easily subconsciously, and they somewhat accidentally become complacent and before they recognize it, other people do and it begins to impact their brand. So I argue in the book that you ought to be the one that is firing yourself. I took myself out of every job other than Disney who took me out, but inside Franklin Covey I had nine distinct careers over nearly 30 careers, 30 years. It's rare, I know, to have one career in a company, but the company afforded me a lot of opportunity because I busted my ass for 30 years and moved around and took on new roles and moved outside my comfort zone, disrupted myself, tried new things, and so I think it's vital that you are really self-aware of when you have mastered this job and is it time to move on Now. A lot of people will see it differently. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm toiled to get to this job and now I can keep this for 20 years and I'm safe. I mean not me, that might be somebody else. But I don't want a career where I'm safe for 20 years. I want to learn, I want to grow, I want to move, I want to disrupt, I want to be promoted, I want to earn more money, I want to build skills that are more marketable. I don't want to earn a job and squat on it for 20 years.
Speaker 2:I see a lot of people that work in public service or in government and that's their goal to earn a retirement. I mean, maybe great for you, but probably not great for your team, probably not great for your constituents. I'm just, by the way, I'm the sole provider for four people, plus myself. Right, I mean, my wife's a full-time mom and home manager. So it isn't like I had the luxury of just quitting my job and saying, han, you're up. No, my wife's like no, han, you're up. That was the deal. So I don't take that lightly. I don't say just quit your job at a whim. I say you should always be disrupting your skills, your self-awareness, your confidence, your capabilities, your job, your title.
Speaker 1:But sometimes the fear gets in the way of the unknown, but it's all fear driven Right. Yes, because you're comfortable. You've comfortable. You got to this point and now to challenge myself, to disrupt myself, to go outside of this comfort zone. Man, this is scary. I don't know what if this happens, what if I did? That's where that imposter syndrome, that inner negative voice, starts to chatter. Stay where you are, we're safe here, it's okay.
Speaker 2:I don't speak that language so I can't help anybody who likes comfort. I'm not shaming that, I just don't speak that language. Right, I'll tell you.
Speaker 2:I actually think I like discomfort because you don't move until you're forced to by someone else or by yourself, and I never wanted someone else in control of my career. And I equate comfort with giving up control, because at some point that's going to come back to haunt you. The budget's going to get cut, your company's going to get acquired and all that comfort you thought was so great is going to come back to haunt you. Because the people who lose their jobs are the ones that were viewed as being comfortable, as not being vital, as not being instrumental to taking the organization in a new direction. Comfort to me means you're not agile, you're not flexible and you're not willing to change things up. Comfort to me means you're squatting on something, you're hiding on something. So I have no tolerance for comfort in my life or in for those who work with and for me.
Speaker 1:Well said, my friend Well said.
Speaker 2:Number seven take the lead with your leader. We talked about that. I think you should take more responsibility than maybe you're used to leading up, understanding what is your leader's personality, what are his fears, what are her goals? What is her relationship with her boss? Does she work for a horrible person? And she's running around scared and you interpret that as her being mean, but she's really scared, let me remind you and I speak to my fellow C sweet leaders.
Speaker 1:Everybody's just making it up.
Speaker 2:Everybody is making it up as they go along the board members, the venture capitalists, the producers, the directors, the actors, the stars, the discoverers everybody's making it up as they go along. Now, some of them have a better education, some of them have more experience, but the fact of the matter is, when people say, well, I've got 30 years of experience, what really is the truth is they have one year of experience, repeated 29 times. They're just doing the same thing over and over again, making some small adjustments. I'm not saying everybody's a fraud. I'm just saying people are making it up, and so is your leader. So recognize your leader as a person too right. They have fears, they have bills they're trying to pay. They have a relationship they're trying to manage. They're trying to take their career to new heights.
Speaker 2:I have worked for some bad people. I've worked for some great people. Some people think I'm the best boss they ever had and some people think I'm the worst boss they ever had. This chapter is about developing a relationship with your leader, and that may require you to be a little more curious, a little more forgiving and a little more patient than you naturally are. By the way, I spent my three decade career in the leadership business, so I'm not a Pollyanna.
Speaker 2:I know that some of you work for people that are mean, that are corrupt, that are dishonest. You might need to leave them, and that's scary. That takes courage, it takes a plan, it takes a network, it takes skill sets. It takes you keeping your LinkedIn up. Yeah, welcome to owning your career. Yep, number eight do the job you were hired for, plus the one you want. Can I riff on that for a moment? My most common experience as an executive in this company was when someone would come into my office and ask for some career advice Typically someone that did not work in the division that I led, and they saw me as a guy that was willing to help other people, which was my brand at the company. I'm proud of that and they would walk in and they would say, hey, I saw a position posted in the company and I'm thinking of applying for it. What do you think? I asked them a few questions, depending upon the person's circumstance and their longevity and seniority and skill set, and then I always ask the following questions so tell?
Speaker 2:me your boss, mo, how would Mo describe your expertise and your success? How would Mo describe your performance? Oh, I think Mo would be my biggest champion. I mean, I think Mo would say I'm crushing it. I think Mo would really promote me. And then, inevitably, I'll go seek out Mo in the lunchroom, in the gym and say, hey, mo, how's it going? Hey, great launch over there in the Middle East. You're crushing it. Hey, tell me about Tom Now, because I was an executive, that wouldn't have been an odd question, right?
Speaker 2:And Mo would say Tom, who you know? Tom Moreland. Oh, good grief. Ah, tom Moreland. Tom's missed four of his eight quarters. Tom's more focused on celebrating everybody's career anniversaries than he is getting the website up. I mean, I like the guy but quite frankly, you get the point. There always is dissonance, there always is a disconnect between how people view their own performance and how their leader views their performance and, more importantly, how people think their leader views their performance. Because I don't know a company you can get promoted in unless your leader releases you from the job, gives you permission to apply for the job and, more importantly, gives you a recommendation.
Speaker 1:Because when.
Speaker 2:Scott calls Mo and says tell me about Tom. Mo says, oh, tom's great, when can he start working for you? It means that he wants to get rid of Tom. You get the point right. It's really about make sure you are crushing the job you are in. Do the job you are hired for, plus the one you want.
Speaker 2:I know a lot of ambitious career people, including me, that were kind of always neglecting their current thing but so opportunistic and taking on other things, and that isn't how to get promoted. How you get promoted in healthy companies, healthy organizations, is you crush what you are doing. So your results are screaming and everyone can see them beyond whether or not your leader will give you promotion. This about having your leader take credit for your projects. Do not tolerate that. I'm so tired of people saying, well, my boss keeps taking my credit, then walk into her office and say I'm tired of you taking credit for my projects and when she comes back at you say no, I need you to sit down and listen to me in a respectful way. Now, obviously, you would do this with more deliberation, a little more judgment, but what is she gonna do? Fire you Really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's making yourself become undeniable. You know what I mean. And creating that courage, creating your own inner voice, that positive inner voice that sticks up for yourself, it does For what's right, and there's so many ways to do that right.
Speaker 2:Hey Jim, can I express a concern I have? I'm sure I don't have all the facts, I'm sure I don't have all the information, but from my perspective I feel like my contribution is like getting squashed. For some reason it's not being recognized beyond you. I think you recognize it. By the way, that's different than saying I'm tired of taking credit. But you may have to have a high courage. Intervention.
Speaker 2:If you've got a boss that is a narcissist or a sociopath or whatever, you may have to have a confrontation. Just be prepared to deal with that fallout. They may choose to punish you, they may choose to ostracize you, they may choose to fire you. But I tell you, life is too short to work for someone who you don't respect. Yes, you're working in an organization where you're not valued. I'm not recommending people up and quit First time there is a altercation or a disagreement. No, you have to know how to have difficult conversations. You have to know when to be courageous and when to be diplomatic and how to balance the two of those. I write about this in the book. But you got my energy. It may be that you need to go in and say I got a problem, though. I mean, I'm sure you see it differently, but it feels like you're taking credit for a lot of my projects and that's not sitting well with me. It makes me see that conversation.
Speaker 1:Yep, and there's nothing wrong with having that type of conversation.
Speaker 2:As long as you're willing to deal with the consequences. Yes, number nine keep your ear to the ground. This is about making sure that you are aware what's going on in the company. Now, each of you are on a need to know basis and not all of you are in the need to know everything. In some public companies, there is information that is proprietary and confidential and legally needs to stay so. But in the book I have a worksheet, of course, where I help you identify some credible people in the company that you could ask to mentor you. What products are on the rise, what division is the best funded? Which division is the most precarious? Which regions are comp tree offices? Company offices are the healthiest.
Speaker 2:Now, this is different than gossip, and I write a whole section about. Keeping your ear to the ground is not about becoming the company gossip this is every answer in every company is the gossip, and I'm very particular around asking questions that help you with your career, not who's having an affair with who or who's getting fired, who's on the out. That's called gossip. Stay far from that, by the way. We all do it. We all are gossips, just to varying degrees, and you want to minimize yours as much as possible. So a whole chapter about keeping your ear to the ground.
Speaker 2:And then, lastly, number 10 is dig your well before you're thirsty. This is about recognizing your next job is probably not going to be with someone you know, but it'll likely come through someone you do. Your next job is likely not going to be because you have a great resume and you're just throwing it out to 10,000 companies for the algorithm to hit you on LinkedIn or on Indeed. You want to build your network, your mutually beneficial network, on LinkedIn, on Instagram, on YouTube, on Twitter, on TikTok, on Facebook, with the Chamber of Commerce, with your associations inside your company, outside your company. That doesn't mean that you're a Dyson vacuum or a Hoover vacuum and you're an opportunist. No, you want to make sure that Mo knows. If Mo wants one of the guests that are on my podcast to be on his podcast, I'm going to help him.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Because someday I might need Mo or might want Mo or Mo and I might connect. So I think it's not about quid pro quo. It's about how can I help people with no strings attached. How can I build my network without looking like a networker?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Building connections that have no benefit to you. So if and when you ever need your well, you have dug it before you are thirsty, scott.
Speaker 1:you are the man. You are the man. These are 10 powerful strategies. I appreciate you breaking it down, giving us insights so that our audience me can definitely tap into this book. How do we find the book? How do people get ahold of you if they have more questions and sites?
Speaker 2:Sure, lots of ways. The book is at every major retailer, online and in print stores. It's on Amazoncom and print and in digital. I'm taping the audio book this week. It'll be out in the spring. You can visit careeroncoursebookcom. You can just Google careeroncourse. The book will come up. You can connect to me and follow me on every social platform. I release daily videos with leadership insights on TikTok, instagram, youtube, facebook and LinkedIn every day. I'd like to have you follow and connect. I have three more books coming out of the next two years on power, skills, parenting, communication and so Look at you.
Speaker 1:Look at you, man acquire to my wife.
Speaker 2:I am not hard to find, and she was not giving that as a compliment to me either. That's awesome. That's awesome. Thanks for the spotlight today?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, man. I appreciate just the wisdom that you dropped today Very valuable. Definitely, staying connected to a person like yourself is very valuable, and as we sign off today, is there any lasting thoughts, tips, points that you would like to share?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would just reinforce our opening thought, moe, and that is the best careers have one thing in common they are the result of people moving outside their comfort zone and asking for feedback on their own blind spots. That takes humility, that takes courage, that takes confidence, that takes vulnerability. You're not perceived like you think you are. Go around and ask your spouse or partner what's it like to be married to me? Ask your roommate what's it like to live with me? Go ask a peer what was it like to stand in that trade show booth for three days with me? Generally, I want to know. Well, can I tell you actually, scott, you talked a lot and you never closed a deal. Scott, can I tell you you get the point right.
Speaker 2:Most people won't tell you the truth, which is why you've got to make it easy, moe. I really want to know if I had a camera on me, what would I have looked like? What would I have been horrified? I want to grow, I want to learn. I know I'm not as handsome and smart and courageous and as well-spoken and as diplomatic as I think I am. I want to improve. This takes courage, this takes humility, but the best careers have that in common. People are not so defensive. They're more open to say oh my gosh, that's horrifying. Thank you for telling me. I'm so grateful you told me that I might need to go throw up for a moment, but when I come back, can I learn a little more about that so that I can stop doing that, because that's crazy.
Speaker 2:I don't want people to perceive me that way. That's a gift you give those who work with you, but it's also a gift you give yourself.
Speaker 1:Yes, Thank you, my friend, thank you, man, thanks for the spotlight and the platform.
Speaker 2:Nice to be coming with you. Yes.
Speaker 1:Have a great day and talk soon. Thank you for joining me in this episode of let's Think About it. Your time and attention are greatly appreciated. If you found value in today's discussion, I encourage you to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. Remember, the journey of self-improvement is ongoing and I'm here to support you every step of the way. Connect with me on social media for updates and insights. You can find me on Instagram and Facebook at CoachMoCoaching, or LinkedIn at Maurice Mavery, or visit my website at MauriceMaverycom for exclusive content. Until next time, keep reflecting, keep growing and, most importantly, keep believing in yourself. Remember, the most effective way to do it is to do it Together. We're making incredible strides toward a better and more empowered you, so thank you and I'll see you in our next episode. I'll see you in our next episode.