Success Tweet 101: Dynamic Communication
Sep 6th
Today is Labor Day in the USA; the holiday that marks the end of Summer and the beginning of Autumn. It’s back to school for kids and a time for success seekers to refocus on their career success goals. Today also marks the 101st post in my series of posts about the career advice in my latest book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less. You can pick up a copy on amazon.com or at your local bookstore. Better yet, you can download Success Tweets for free at http://www.successtweets.com.
I have been writing this series for the past 20 weeks. I have eight more weeks to go before it is complete. This post is the beginning of 20 posts that deal with an important career success skills, dynamic communication.
Today’s career advice comes from Success Tweet 101…
All dynamic communicators have mastered three basic communication skills: conversation, writing and presenting.
The life of a business traveler, especially one like me who travels to New York City regularly, appears glamorous at first glance. People always ask me if I’ve eaten at famous restaurants like “21” or the latest hot spot they’ve read about in Travel and Leisure.
Most often when I’m in New York and don’t have a business dinner, I dine on Chinese food delivered to my hotel room from a local take out place. Recently my fortune cookie read, “Your talents will be recognized and suitably rewarded.” I was happy with this fortune, but it made me think.
My talents, your talents, everyone’s talents will be recognized and rewarded if we develop and use our communication skills. There are three types of communication skills critically important for career and life success: 1) Conversation skills; 2) Writing skills; and 3) Presentation skills.
You need to develop each of these skills if you want to have your talents recognized and beocme the life and career success you deserve to be. There are a few common sense career success coach points associated with becoming a dynamic communicator.
Become a good conversationalist by listening. Take an active interest in other people and what they’re saying. Show them you’re listening by asking appropriate follow up questions to what they say.
Conversation skills enhance your networking ability. Networking is an important but often overlooked communication skill. It is helpful when you are looking for a job, but it is even more important when you are happy with your situation. All people who are a career success build and nurture strong networks.
Networking is an important skill. Successful people have large networks. They have people they can call to help them. They know they can call on these people because these people know they can call on them. That’s the real secret of networking – look to help others, not just to find out how they can help you.
Write in a manner that communicates well. In general, this means, being clear, concise and easily readable. The best way to make sure your writing is readable is to read it aloud before sending it.
When I was in high school, I was the editor of my yearbook. To raise funds to cover the cost of our yearbook, we sold ads. There were a lot of factories in the town where I grew up. In the past, the yearbook staff had never approached these factories to place ads in the yearbook. I wrote sales letters to all of the plant managers. We got several full page ads from those letters.
One of the plant managers wrote back, asking if I would come to see him. When I walked in to his office and introduced myself, he was surprised. He told me that my sales letter was so well written that he thought I was the teacher who was the yearbook sponsor. Two years later, I was looking for a summer job after my first year of college. The market was tight. I called this man. He remembered me, and I got a job.
Preparation is the most important key to good presentations. You have to analyze your audience, prepare a talk that gives them what they want, and practice your talk out loud if you want to be a great presenter.
Presentation skills may present the biggest opportunity for getting your talents noticed and becoming a life and career success. A couple of years ago, I did a talk for a local chamber of commerce. As it so happens, the Sheriff’s department is a member of this chamber. The Sheriff himself happened to be there that day. He liked my talk. About a week later, I got a call from his training office. The Sheriff asked him to get in touch with me to conduct some supervisory training for their sergeants. I never would have gotten this business if it weren’t for the notice I received from a talk at that chamber meeting.
The Dilbert cartoons often focus on poor communication. I cut out the ones I really like. Here’s one from a Sunday paper…
Dilbert approaches his boss (you know, the one with the tufts of hair that look like devil’s horns) and says, “The security audit accidentally locked all developers out of the system.” The boss says, “Well, it is what it is.”
Dilbert says, “How does that help?” The boss replies, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” Dilbert, obviously frustrated, says, “Congratulations you’re the first human to fail the Turing test.” The boss says, “What does that mean?” Dilbert replies, “It is what it is;” to which the boss says, “Why didn’t you say so in the first place?”
There really is such a thing as a Turing test. Dictionary.com defines it as follows: “A test proposed by British mathematician Alan Turing, and often used as a test of whether a computer has humanlike intelligence. If a panel of human beings conversing with an unknown entity (via keyboard, for example) believes that that entity is human, and if the entity is actually a computer, then the computer is said to have passed the Turing test.”
This is pretty funny. It is also kind of sad as it is indicative of the lack of communication in today’s business world. Scott Adams, Dilbert’s creator, really gets it when it comes to workplace communication problems.
Beyond Bullsh*t, by UCLA Anderson School of Management Professor, Samuel Culbert is an interesting little book. Professor Culbert defines bullsh*t in the following way.
“It is telling people what you think they need to hear. It may involve finessing the truth or outright lying, but the purpose is always self serving. And while I appreciate the role of some b.s. in keeping the corporate peace, it makes people feel beaten up, deceived – even dirty. When people talk straight at work, companies make out better because the best idea usually wins. In contrast, when people are bullsh*tting, they hide their mistakes and the company suffers. Straight talk is the product or relationships built on trust.”
Phrases like “it is what it is” are not straight talk. They are part of the inexplicable jargon that has overtaken us. Dynamic communicators say what they mean, in an easily understood manner. Effective communicators don’t show off their large vocabularies. Instead, they choose words that are the most easily understood and still get across their point.
Dynamic communicators eschew, I mean don’t use, jargon. They avoid meaningless phrases like “it is what it is” to explain something. They use the simplest words possible to get across their ideas. And they don’t bullsh*it. They say what they mean. Follow these rules in conversation, writing and presenting and you’ll become known as a dynamic communicator.
The common sense career success coach point here is simple. Successful people are dynamic communicators. If you want to become a dynamic communicator, follow the career advice in Tweet 101 in Success Tweets. “All dynamic communicators have mastered three basic communication skills: conversation, writing and presenting.” You don’t have to be a career success coach to know that if you’re a great conversationalist, a good writer and an outstanding performer you will reach your career success goals. Successful people communicate well. The career advice here is simple. Develop your communication skills if you want to create the life and career success you want and deserve.
That’s my take on the career advice in Success Tweet 101. What’s yours? Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us in a comment. As always, thanks for reading. If you’re in the US, I hope you’re enjoying this last holiday of the summer.
Bud
Success Tweet 100: Care About What You Do
Sep 3rd
I’m really enjoying writing this series of posts further explaining the ideas in my latest career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less. I hope you’re enjoying reading them. I’m pleased to say that Success Tweets is now in its second printing. You can pick up a copy at your local book store, or online at Amazon.com. Better yet, you can download the eBook for free at http://www.successtweets.com.
Today’s career advice comes from Tweet 100. It is the last tweet in a series on becoming an outstanding performer.
Care about what you do. If you care a little, you’ll be an OK performer. If you care a lot, you’ll become an outstanding performer.
The NFL begins play next week. If you read this blog regularly, you know that I am a huge Pittsburgh Steelers fan. I grew up in Pittsburgh. My dad had Steelers season tickets for many years. He gave them up only because he moved to Florida. He learned to use the internet at age 70, so he could follow the Steelers on line. He really cares about the Steelers. I’m not that much of a fanatic, but there is no professional sports team more near and dear to my heart than the Pittsburgh Steelers.
On Sunday February 1 2009, Steelers won the Super Bowl. On Monday February 2 2009, Mike Tomlin, their coach noted that because the Steelers were in the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl, he was “a month behind getting ready for the 2009 season. We’ve got to be thoughtful in how we prepare our football team.”
Some may say, “Chill Mike, savor what you’ve just accomplished.” However, Mike Tomlin knows that outstanding performers don’t rest on their laurels. They care about what they do, and they care about their life and career success. High performers always set higher goals and look towards greater achievements. The Optimist Creed urges us to “Press on to the greater achievements of the future.”
That’s what Mike Tomlin was doing the day after he won the Super Bowl, and that’s what all outstanding performers do. They care about their life and career success. They set high goals and meet them. Then they set higher goals and meet them too. Pay attention here. This is some important career advice.
Mike Tomlin was 36 years old when he won the Super Bowl. He is the youngest coach to win a Super Bowl. That’s pretty impressive. But not to Tomlin. Because he cares deeply about winning he says he expected that kind of success and expects more. On the other hand, he is humble. He realizes that football is a team game. Coaches don’t win Super bowls on their own; neither do players. They need one another…
“I’m an unrealistic dreamer sometimes. I’m blessed, extremely blessed. I’ve been around some great people – coaches, players, ownership – and I’m a product of that. That’s my story.”
And a great story it is. It shows the power of caring about what you do.
I care about helping people create the life and career success they want and deserve. I care a lot. That’s why I wrote Success Tweets and I give it away for free. That’s why I am writing this series of blog posts explaining each of the 141 tweets in more detail. I care so much about helpingyou achieve the life and career succes you deserve that I’ve committed to writing 700 or 800 words every day for 28 weeks. I’ve also committed to doing a podcast on each of the tweets. I do this because I care. I care a lot about helping you. And I know that this caring will pay off — for you and me. The thinking and writing that goes into this work will help me become an even better career success coach – somebody who gives really great career advice.
When you care you do your very best. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of one of my favorite books To Kill a Mockingbird. There is a passage in that book that has always stuck with me. It’s in Chapter 11 and spoken by Atticus Finch, the father, played by Gregory Peck in the film. He’s speaking to Scout, his daughter…
“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”
It takes courage to care. Because when you care, you put yourself out there. You do your best. And doing your best can be a scary thing. When you care, when you consciously do your best and fail, it is heartbreaking. But at least you have the satisfaction of knowing you did your best.
I remember when I applied to graduate school at Harvard. I decided that I was going to demonstrate to myself how much I cared by writing the very best application I could. I wasn’t going to let myself off the hook if I didn’t get accepted by saying “I could have written a better application, but I just didn’t spend the time I should have.”
When I put my application in the mailbox – we still did quaint things like that back in the old days – I was proud of what I had written. I knew it was the very best I could do. I was also frightened because I knew that my best might not be good enough. After all, both of my other degrees were from state schools. Who was I to think that those kind of credentials would get me accepted at Harvard?
I cared about the quality of my application, so I did the very best I could. The story in this case has a happy ending. I was accepted and got my degree. Even if I had not been accepted, I would have been proud of myself because I cared enough to write the best application I could, and I dared enough to admit it to myself.
The common sense career success coach point here is simple. Successful people are proud of what they do. They care. They follow the career advice in Tweet 100 in Success Tweets. “Care about what you do. If you care a little, you’ll be an OK performer. If you care a lot, you’ll become an outstanding performer.” Does your work show that you care? Or does it reflect an “it’s good enough” attitude? Take it from a career success coach, if you want to create the life and career success of which you are capable, make sure that how much you care shows in every single piece of work you do.
That’s my take on the career advice in Success Tweet 100. What’s yours? Please care enough to take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us in a comment. As always, thanks for reading.
Bud
Success Tweet 99: Go With What You’ve Got
Sep 2nd
I’m really enjoying writing this series of posts further explaining the ideas in my latest career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less. I hope you’re enjoying reading them. I’m pleased to say that Success Tweets is now in its second printing. You can pick up a copy at your local book store, or online at Amazon.com. Better yet, you can download the eBook for free at http://www.successtweets.com.
Today’s career advice comes from Tweet 99…
Get the job done with what you have. Don’t worry about what you don’t have, or would like to have.
I studied journalism as an undergraduate. Journalism is a great major. It teaches you to write. It keeps you up on current events. And most of all, it provides you with the discipline of making deadlines. Bob Farson was my advisor at Penn State. He never accepted a late assignment. He never gave an incomplete in a course. Every journalism student in my day at Penn State heard his mantra over and over again…
“There is no late in journalism. You can’t put out a blank paper. A good reporter will never have everything he wants for a story. You’ve got to learn to go with what you’ve got and do the best job you can with it.”
Bob Farson’s career advice – “go with what you’ve got” — really stuck with me. I finished my four years at Penn State, got an MA at The University of Colorado and a PhD at Harvard, and never missed a deadline. I never asked for an extension, and I never took and incomplete in a course.
I never worked as a journalist, but my journalism education taught me the importance of getting the job done with what I have – and that, in turn, helped me create the life and career success I so badly wanted.
When it comes to deadlines, I find that people make two types of mistakes. 1) They miss them because they are always looking for that one additional piece of information that will bring everything together perfectly. 2) They get so focused on making them that they don’t dig deep enough to find all in information they need to do an outstanding job.
Both are problems. When I say go with what you’ve got, I mean you need to find the right balance of gathering all the information you need and still making the deadline. Avoid problem number 1 by realizing that you’ll never know everything you want to know about a given subject. I’ve been a career success coach for 20 years, and I still learn new stuff about career success every day. Avoid problem number 2 by getting overly focused on the deadline. If you do, you run the risk of not doing as good a job as you can on any given project.
Go with what you’ve got only after you do an exhaustive information search and make sure that you have all the information you can possibly find and still make the deadline.
In a post earlier this week, I mentioned a great little book QBQ: The Question Behind the Question by my friend John Miller. If you find yourself needing information or materials to get a job done right, don’t ask, “Why won’t people give me what I need to do my job?” Instead ask yourself, “How can I get what I need to get this job done right and on time?” The answer that question will put you in charge. You’ll be better able to go with what you’ve got to get the job done well.
The common sense career success coach point here is simple. Successful people meet deadlines. They follow the career advice in Tweet 99 in Success Tweets. “Get the job done with what you have. Don’t worry about what you don’t have, or would like to have.” Take personal responsibility for doing the work with what you have – or getting what you need to do to do the work well. If you don’t have what you need, do whatever it takes to get it. Take personal responsibility for making sure you have what you need to do your job well. Taking personal responsibility for getting the job done – with what you have, not what you want will set you apart from the pack and put you on the road to the life and career success you want and deserve.
That’s my take on the career advice in Success Tweet 99. What’s yours? Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment. As always, thanks for reading. I really appreciate it.
Bud
Success Tweet 98: Do Your Job Well and Things Will Work Out
Sep 1st
I’m really enjoying writing this series of posts further explaining the ideas in my latest career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less. I hope you’re enjoying reading them. I’m pleased to say that Success Tweets is now in its second printing. You can pick up a copy at your local book store, or online at Amazon.com. Better yet, you can download the eBook for free at http://www.successtweets.com.
Today’s career advice comes from Tweet 98…
Don’t worry about getting credit for doing the job. Worry about getting the job done well – accurately and on time.
Harry Truman, 33rd President of the United States, really got it right when he provided this bit of career advice, “It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit.”
Many years ago I was assigned a joint project with a deadbeat for a partner. This guy was bad. He was a triple threat – not so bright, a big ego and lazy. As the project wore on and we were nearing a deadline, I thought about going to my boss and complaining that he wasn’t carrying his weight. I decided not to do so.
I slogged on, got the project done well and on time and submitted it – with his name and mine on the finished product. I was feeling kind of resentful, because I was worried that even though I did all the work, he was getting half of the credit.
A couple weeks later, our boss called me into his office. He said that he wanted to compliment me on the fine job I did on the project. I bit my tongue and said, “Gil and I worked on that project together.” My boss said, “I know Gil’s work, and I know your work. I could tell that you did all of the work on that project.”
I said “thanks for noticing.” He said, “I assigned you that joint project as a bit of a test. I wanted to see how well you could work with others. I figured you would get frustrated with Gil because I knew he wasn’t up to doing quality work on this kind of project. I wanted to see what you would do. You did the work, and didn’t rat out Gil. I’m proud of you for that.”
We can debate his leadership style here; I don’t think it’s a good idea to treat the people who work for you as lab rats. But this story makes an interesting point about the career advice in Success Tweet 98. Do your job. Do it well. Don’t worry about who gets credit.
It’s been my experience that people in positions of authority can identify good work when they see it; and that they can differentiate the work of the people who report to them. If you consistently produce high quality work and results, you will get your due.
Take it from this career success coach. Focus on getting the job done – well and on time and you will get the recognition due you in the long run. And creating life and career success is a long run – a marathon, not a sprint. As the old saying goes, “The cream rises to the top.”
Delivering high quality work, consistently and in the long run will get you noticed and help you create the life and career success you want and deserve. Stay focused on your work, get creative with your ideas. Make sure you cross all of your t’s and dot all of your i’s and you’ll succeed.
The common sense success career success coach point here is simple. Successful people deliver high quality work, consistently and over the long run. They follow the career advice in Tweet 98 in Success Tweets. “Don’t worry about getting credit for doing the job. Worry about getting the job done well – accurately and on time.” Most leaders recognize the output of the people who work for them. That’s why it’s important to focus on doing a good job on every job – no matter how small. You’ll be building your brand and portfolio in your manager’s mind. In the long run, producing consistently high quality work is the best way to get the recognition due you — and the career success that will come with it.
That’s my take on the career advice in Success Tweet 98. What’s yours? Please take a minute to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us. As always, thanks for reading.
Bud
Success Tweet 97: Activity and Persistence
Aug 31st
I’m really enjoying writing this series of posts further explaining the ideas in my latest career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less. I hope you’re enjoying reading them. I’m pleased to say that Success Tweets is now in its second printing. You can pick up a copy at your local book store, or online at Amazon.com. Better yet, you can download the eBook for free at http://www.successtweets.com.
Today’s career advice comes from Tweet 97…
Today, do the things others won’t do; so tomorrow you can do the things they can’t.
I got this one from Jerry Rice an American Football player. He is in the NFL Hall of Fame. When he retired, he held all of the important records a wide receiver could amass. I’ve never seen anyone better – and I’ve watched a lot of football over the years. Growing up in Pittsburgh, Sunday’s meant two things – church and watcing the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Jerry Rice was well known for his commitment to fitness. He worked out harder and longer than any other pro football player. When he was asked the secret his success, he said, “I am willing to do the things today that others won’t do, so I can do things on Sunday that they can’t do.” In other words – work hard, prepare, commit to taking personal responsibility for your own success.
It’s simple, really. Success is all up to you, and me, and anyone else who wants it. We all have to take personal responsibility for our own career success. I am the only one who can make me a career success. You are the only one who can make you a career success. When you become willing to do things that others aren’t willing to do – and this can be a million little things like keeping your clothes in good repair; shining your shoes; rehearsing your presentation out loud; proofreading your emails, not just relying on spell check; staying up to date on your company, your competitors and your industry; building relationships by doing willingly for others.
If you already do these kinds of things, bravo. You’re in the minority. Too many people do only what they have to. Successful people always go the extra mile. As Jerry Rice says, they do the things others won’t.
Think for a minute. What are the kinds of things that you can do that go above and beyond, that demonstrate your commitment to your own career success? Make a list. Then go about doing these things regularly.
Here’s a bit of important career advice. Stuff happens: good stuff, bad stuff, frustrating stuff, unexpected stuff. Successful people respond to the stuff that happens — especially the niegative stuff — in a positive way. Humans are the only animals with free will. That means we – you and me – get to decide how we react to every situation that comes up. When you take responsibility for responding positively to people and events – especially negative people and events – you’re taking personal responsibiliyt for you career success, doing the things that a lot of people won’t do. This means that you’ll be more successful in the long run.
Personal responsibility means recognizing that you are responsible for your life and the choices you make. It means that you realize that while other people and events have an impact on your life, these people and events don’t shape your life. When you accept personal responsibility for your life and career success, you own up to the fact that how you react to people and events is what’s important. And you can choose how to react to every person you meet and everything that happens to you.
The concept of personal responsibility is found in most writings on success. Stephen Covey’s first habit in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is, “Be proactive.” My friend John Miller’s book QBQ: the Question Behind the Question asks readers to pose questions to themselves like, “What can I do to become a top performer?” When you ask and answer this question, you’ll be on your way to doing the things that other won’t do – and getting the promotions and recognition that they can’t get.
In my opinion, all of this comes down to two words: activity and persistence. Activity and persistence are my watchwords. I set some very high goals for myself for every year. I begin each year in high gear and then I kick it into overdrive. And, I persist until I achieve all of my goals, no matter what. I am committed to activity and persistence.
My friend, Mike Litman has some interesting things to say about activity…
“Activity. Activity. Activity. Too many people are standing still. Too much pondering, too little action. Too much scatterness, too little focus. Too much talk, too little results. In 2009, commit to a year filled with activity. Be 1% more active each day in your business. Start at 1%.
“Activity. Activity. Activity. When you stand still too long, moving becomes real tough. Very tough. Every day, do at least one action that moves you forward. What I love best about a lot of activity, is that I get to make mistakes and learn what works. You can do the same. Activity. Activity. Activity. 2009 is about you being more active then you’ve ever been. Are you in? Are you ready to commit to a year filled with activity?”
Kevin Eikenberry writes to leaders, but his ideas apply to anyone who wants to create life and career success. He says…
“Let me be blunt. We can create and engage in the best leadership skill training, we can create the best leadership development opportunities, and we can provide coaching and mentoring that is outstanding, and yet, if all of these programs and leadership activities, don’t include an ongoing persistent process of improvement – a way to instill and inspire persistence, we will fall short of what is possible…As a leader, when we practice proactive persistence – persistence that is positive and supports people through both an example and support to pursue the desired objectives persistently, we are truly leading…Ask yourself today what you can do to create greater persistence in yourself and your organization. Your answer (and the action taken on that answer) will pay you rich rewards.”
These guys are right! Activity and persistence will make you an outstanding performer. And they are the key to putting the career advice in Success Tweet 97 to work. Activity — even 1% more than you currently do — and persistence — fighting through problems and setbacks — will yield positive results in the long term. But you have to commit to them.
The common sense career success coach point here is simple. Successful people commit to taking responsibility for their life and career success. They follow the career advice in Tweet 97 in Success Tweets. “Today, do the things others won’t do; so tomorrow you can do the things they can’t.” Be willing to put in the time necessary to create the life and career success that you want and deserve. Successful people are willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. They are active and they are persistent. The law of inertia says that a body in motion tends to stay in motion. That’s why activity is so important. Once you get moving, it’s easier to stay moving towards your goals. And it’s easier to persist in the face of problems and setbacks. To paraphrase Muhammad Ali – “Inside a ring or out, ain’t no shame in going down. It’s staying down that’s shameful.” Persistent people don’t stay down; they get back up and keep moving. Make activity and persistence your watchwords. You’ll amaze yourself with how much you will accomplish, and the life and career success you will create.
That’s my take on the career advice in Success Tweet 97. What’s yours? Please take a minute to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us. As always, thanks for reading.
Bud
Success Tweet 96: Good is the Enemy of Great
Aug 30th
I’m really enjoying writing this series of posts further explaining the ideas in my latest career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less. I hope you’re enjoying reading them. I’m pleased to say that Success Tweets is now in its second printing. You can pick up a copy at your local book store, or online at Amazon.com. Better yet, you can download the eBook for free at http://www.successtweets.com.
Today’s career advice comes from Tweet 96…
Good truly is the enemy of great. Don’t settle for good performance. Today, good performance is mediocre. Become a great performer.
In his book Good to Great Jim Collins hit the nail on the head when he began with the idea that good is the enemy of great. He’s right, good is the enemy of great. There are lots of good performers, but only a few great ones. To achieve the life and career success you want and deserve, you need to become a great performer – not just a good one.
Good is seductive. For many of us it’s not too difficult to be good. And good has a nice feeling attached to it. On the other hand, good performance won’t get you to the top of the promotion list and keep you off of the layoff list. Great performance will.
But great performance comes with a price. You have to work at it. In The Success Principles: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, Jack Canfield of Chicken Soup for the Soul fame quotes several great performers on paying the price…
“If people know how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem wonderful at all.” Michelangelo
“When I played with Michael Jordan on the Olympic team, there was a huge gap between his ability and the ability of the other great players on that team. But what impressed me was that he was always, the first one on the floor and the last one to leave.” Steve Alford, Head Basketball Coach, University of New Mexico.
“If I miss a day of practice, I know it. If I miss two days, my manager knows it. If I miss three days, my audience knows it.” Andre Previn, Pianist, Conductor and Composer.
“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” Stephen King, Bestselling Novelist
Here are four people — an artist, a basketball player, a pianist and a writer – all saying the same thing: good is the enemy of great.
Your natural talent might allow you to be good. Great, however, requires determination and persistence.
Here are some interesting ideas about the difference between good and great when it comes to sales. They come from a study done by Herbert True at Notre Dame University.
- 44% of all salespeople quit trying to sell their prospect after the first call.
- 24% quit after the second call.
- 14% quit after the third call.
- 12% quit trying after the fourth call.
Great sales people make the fifth and sixth calls. According my Mr. True 60 % of all sales are made after the fourth call. And, according to his research, 94% of all salespeople give up after four calls to one prospect. The 14% and 12% of salespeople who give up after the third and fourth calls are probably pretty good salespeople. However, the great salespeople make the fifth and sixth calls – and make more sales.
Recently, I worked for about six months to close a large (for me at least) sale. At first, I seemed to be getting nowhere, but I believed in myself and knew that the services I was selling were valuable to the company to which I selling them. After six months and way more than six meetings with numerous people, all of whom had some input into the buying decision, I received a signed purchase order for $105,000. I was great – at least when it came to this sale.
My best career advice on going from good to great is to persist. Practice harder, prepare more, make the extra call, rewrite your proposal, rehearse your presentation and you will find yourself creating the career and life success you want and deserve.
Some of the best career advice on persistence that I’ve come across comes from Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States….
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
The common sense career success coach point here is simple. Successful people are great performers. They follow the career advice in Tweet 96 in Success Tweets. “Good truly is the enemy of great. Don’t settle for good performance. Today, good is mediocre. Become a great performer.” Hard work and persistence are the best ways to become a great performer. If you practice longer, prepare more, make the extra call, rewrite your proposal, rehearse your presentation you will find yourself creating the life and career success you want and deserve.
That’s my take on the career advice in Success Tweet 96. What’s yours? Please share your stories of going from good to great in a comment. As always, thanks for reading.
Bud
Success Tweet 95: Trust Yourself
Aug 27th
I’m really enjoying writing this series of posts further explaining the ideas in my latest career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less. I hope you’re enjoying reading them. I’m pleased to say that Success Tweets is now in its second printing. You can pick up a copy at your local book store, or online at Amazon.com. Better yet, you can download the eBook for free at http://www.successtweets.com.
Today’s career advice comes from Tweet 95…
Get into a high performance mindset. Don’t question yourself. Trust your skills and abilities.
If you want to create the life and career success you want and deserve you have to trust yourself. Trusting yourself is one of the key components of self confidence. Self confident people cultivate a high performance mindset, one in which they believe they will succeed at whatever they attempt.
If you read this blog, you know that I am a big fan of The Optimist Creed.
Point 4 of the creed says,
“Promise yourself to look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.”
Point 7 says,
“Promise yourself to forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.”
You have to trust yourself to put these two bits of common sense career advice into play. Optimists trust themselves. They trust themselves to do whatever is necessary to meet the goals they set for themselves. They trust themselves to develop the skills they need to meet their goals. They trust themselves to create the life and career success they want and deserve.
There is a lot of great career advice in The Optimist Creed. I have prepared a .pdf of it that you can download, print and hang in your office – just like I have done. If you would like a copy of The Optimist Creed, go to http://budbilanich.com/optimist.
Here’s a personal example about trusting yourself. I have trained thousands of people in leadership skills, I’ve led hundreds of team building workshops, I’ve coached hundreds of people, helping them create the life and career success they want and deserve. Recently, I decided that I wanted to reach a broader audience – not just the people who work for the Fortune 500 companies who have engaged my consulting and coaching services.
To do this, I needed to make my ideas more widely available via the internet. Several years ago, I realized that I didn’t have a clue about how to prepare, present and market my ideas on the internet. I trusted my knowledge and wisdom, but I didn’t know how to get it to a broader audience. This might have stopped some folks dead in their tracks. But I trust my ability to learn new skills.
First I learned how to blog, and then I committed to blogging five days a week. I’ve kept that commitment for the past five years. I blog every Monday through Friday with the exception of two weeks at the end of the year. That’s 250 posts every year. Then I learned about social media. I spend about an hour a day on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook sharing my thoughts on life and career success. Finally, I’m continuing to learn about internet marketing – affiliate programs, membership sites, etc. When I started, I had no internet marketing skills. Today, I am a bit of an expert. I say this realizing that I need to keep learning and growing in this field.
I trusted myself. I knew I had something of value to give, and I knew I could learn the skills necessary to reach large numbers of people. By the end of this year, I will have launched several information products on the internet – all because I trusted my ability to learn and my motivation to do new things.
How about you? Do you trust yourself? Do you believe that what you have to offer is important and of high quality? Do you believe that you can learn what you need to know to succeed? I bet you do, or you wouldn’t be reading this blog post.
The common sense career success coach point here is simple. Successful people believe in themselves. They follow the career advice in Tweet 95 in Success Tweets. “Develop a high performance mindset. Don’t question yourself. Trust your skills and abilities.” Trusting your skills and abilities means knowing when you need to learn something new, and then doing whatever it takes to gain that knowledge. Be a self confident optimist. Trust yourself. Know in your heart of hearts that you will succeed.
That’s my take on the career advice in Success Tweet 95. What’s yours? Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment. I appreciate and value every one of your comments. As always, thanks for reading.
Bud
Success Tweet 94: Lighten Up
Aug 26th
I’m really enjoying writing this series of posts further explaining the ideas in my latest career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less. I hope you’re enjoying reading them. I’m pleased to say that Success Tweets is now in its second printing. You can pick up a copy at your local book store, or online at Amazon.com. Better yet, you can download the eBook for free at http://www.successtweets.com.
Today’s career advice comes from Tweet 94…
Don’t take yourself too seriously. Lighten up. It will help you master yourself and become an outstanding performer.
I love the internet. You can find anything and everything there. I googled “lighten up”. I got 1,740,000 hits in less than half a second – 0.42 seconds to be exact. I clicked on a Wiki How called “How to Lighten Up” and found six common sense tips on how to lighten up.
1. Stop assuming you know everything. Nobody knows everything – even in his or her field. When you think you know everything, you become closed to new ideas.
2. Stop exaggerating. Be truthful with yourself about your skills and abilities. Just like you should avoid assuming you know everything, you need to avoid coming across to others as a know it all. Knowing it all sets you up for unwanted stress.
3. Let go of things. I love what the WikiHow has to say about this. “Better to be humble and humorous about your journey through life than to be the drama queen of Seriousville.” Learn from your mistakes and move on. Don’t hold grudges.
4. Laugh. Be willing to laugh at yourself. It may just be me, but I laugh about myself or something I do almost every day. I’m not an idiot, but I do make my share of human mistakes. Instead of getting frustrated, I choose to laugh. Laugh with others. Share their humor. But, never laugh at others.
5. Delegate. This may come as a surprise to you, but you’re not indispensible. Someone else can probably do your job at least as good, and maybe better than you. The old saying “if you want something done right, do it yourself,” just isn’t true. Figure out what you’re holding on to just to satisfy your ego, and then let it go.
6. Stop being so rules focused. We make lots of rules for ourselves. Things like “I should do this,” or “I should do that.” As one of my early mentors told me – “Don’t should on yourself. You’ll be happier.” I couldn’t agree more.
I love these tips, and agree with them. I thkn they are great career advice. I particularly like number 4 – laugh. I think that the ability to laugh at yourself on one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself – and the people around you. Being too serious, beating up yourself over mistakes causes lots of stress. And it makes you an unpleasant person. No one wants to be around someone who is constantly frustrated by the smallest mistakes.
I heard a story about a teacher the other day. She asked some young children just learning to read if they could identify the animal in a picture she showed them. One little boy said, “it’s a frickin’ lion.” The teacher was upset about his choice of modifiers. When she pointed that out to him he said, “It is a frickin’ lion. It says so right here.” The teacher was frustrated, but looked at the picture again and saw that the caption read, “African Lion.” Now that’s cause to laugh – at yourself and the phonics method of learning to read.
I also like point number 6 – stop being so rules focused. As I mentioned above, we sometimes create unreasonable expectations for ourselves and these expectations become rules – if only in our head. These rules become “shoulds.” “Don’t should on yourself ” is some of the best career advice I’ve ever received. Stop thinking that you should do this, or should be so far along in your career, or shouldn’t have to do a job you think is below you. The best way to stop letting unnecessary rules govern your life is to stop making up rules to govern you. Don’t should on yourself.
The common sense career success coach point here is simple. Successful people work hard at creating the life and career success they want and deserve. But they don’t take themselves too seriously. They follow the career advice in Tweet 94 in Success Tweets. “Don’t take yourself too seriously. Lighten up. It will help you master yourself and become an outstanding performer.” If you want to lighten up laugh a little more, don’t get too caught up in rules by making too many “shoulds” for yourself. Or, as one of my early mentors always said, “Don’t should on yourself.”
That’s my take on the career advice in Success Tweet 94. What’s yours? Are you willing to laugh at yourself? Do you learn from your mistakes and move on? Please leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us. As always, thanks for reading.
Bud
Success Tweet 93: Increase Your Heart Rate
Aug 25th
I’m really enjoying writing this series of posts further explaining the ideas in my latest career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less. I hope you’re enjoying reading them. I’m pleased to say that Success Tweets is now in its second printing. You can pick up a copy at your local book store, or online at Amazon.com. Better yet, you can download the eBook for free at http://www.successtweets.com.
Today’s career advice comes from Tweet 93…
Becoming a high performer is easier if you’re physically fit. Increasing your heart rate is a great way to improve your fitness level.
As a career success coach, I advise my clients to live a healthy lifestyle. This means eating right and exercising. You don’t have to become a tri-athlete; every little bit of exercise helps. Exercise helps you increase your heart rate. I like to ride my bike to increase my heart rate.
Dan Robey is a friend of mine. He is the author of The Power of Positive Habits. I am one of his subscribers. A while back, I received a great e mail from Dan where he discussed how brisk walking is a positive habit – and a great way to increase your heart rate. Dan is a generous guy and he always lets me repost his posts here.
Check out what Dan robey has to say about the power of brisk walking…
Make “Brisk Walking” A Positive Habit
“Not running, not jogging, but walking is your most efficient exercise and the only one you can safely follow all the years of your life.” – Executive Health Organization
Walking as a daily exercise habit can truly be a life-changing positive habit and is one of the most powerful habits for reaching your goal of a healthy trim and fit body. Over the past 20 years, there have been dozens of studies that have proven the benefits of brisk walking.
Thousands upon thousands of people have improved their health and lost weight by the diligent habit of walking. If you think that walking does not provide the same benefits as other more vigorous exercises, think again.
A study published by the New England Journal Of Medicine showed that postmenopausal women who walked regularly lowered their risk for heart disease just as much as women who did more vigorous exercise, such as playing sports or running.
This study suggests that walking is just as good for your heart as heavy exercise. I spoke with study author Dr. JoAnn E. Manson, Chief of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Womens Hospital, Professor of Medicine, at Harvard Medical School. She said, “The study provides compelling evidence that walking and vigorous exercise provide similar heart benefits, about a 30% to 40% reduction in the risk of cardiovascular disease with 30 minutes per day of either activity.”
I also asked her about the benefits of making brisk walking a positive habit, and she responded, “They could surely walk away from heart disease and several other chronic diseases. We have also found that brisk walking for at least 3 hours a week can lower the risk of stroke, type 2 diabetes, and breast cancer.”
No pain, no gain, is an outdated notion; exercise doesn’t need to be strenuous or uncomfortable. It can be easy and enjoyable. Even though the study consisted solely of women, it is likely that men would experience similar benefits from the positive habit of brisk walking.
Here are additional benefits you will receive from your habit of brisk walking:
Walking burns calories and helps you lose weight and burn excess body fat.
Walking can help to improve your posture.
Walking requires no special equipment or gyms.
Walking can help lower blood pressure and help prevent circulatory and heart disorders.
Brisk, aerobic walking will give you the benefits of other exercises, such as jogging and cycling, but without the risk of injuries.
Walking at night can help promote better sleep.
Dan makes some great points about the benefits of developing a positive habit of brisk walking. Personally, I prefer to bicycle in the summer, and walk in the winter.
A lot of the people who I coach say that they know they should exercise, but often can’t seem to “get around to it.” I have come up with the answer this problem. I have printed several thousand stickers that are round and say “TUIT” in big capital letters. Whenever someone tells me that they know they should do something but can’t seem to get around to it, I give them one of these stickers. It is a round TUIT. I tell them that now they can never say that they can’t get a around to it anymore, because they have a round TUIT. I have a round TUIT sticker on my computer. I have another one on my bike. They are constant reminders to me to keep up good work and exercise habits.
Would you like a round TUIT? If so, please send me and email at Bud@BudBilanich.com with the words “Round TUIT” in the subject line. Include your snail mail address, and I’ll put up to five round TUITs in the mail to you – free of charge. Use them for yourself, or give them to your friends who are procrastinators — especially about exercise.
Make sure that you get around to living a healthy lifestyle. Elevate your heart rate. Brisk walking is a great way to start.
The common sense career success coach point here is simple. Successful people are outstanding performers. Outstanding performers live a healthy lifestyle. They follow the career advice in Tweet 93 in Success Tweets. “Becoming a high performer is easier if you’re physically fit. Increasing your heart rate is a great way to improve your fitness level.” My friend Dan Robey, author of The Power of Positive Habits says that brisk walking is a great way to increase your heart rate and one of the most healthy habits you can adopt. I agree, almost everybody can walk. The more you walk, the healthier you’ll be. Dan points out that “No pain, no gain, is an outdated notion; exercise doesn’t need to be strenuous or uncomfortable. It can be easy and enjoyable.” Elevate your heart rate daily. Llike the Nike ads say, Just Do It! Or as this career success coach says, “Get around to it.”
That’s my take on the career advice in Success Tweet 93 and on developing positive habits that will keep you healthy and on top of your game. What’s yours? Please take a minute to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us. As always, thanks for reading.
Bud
Success Tweet 92: Your Peak Energy Times
Aug 24th
I’m really enjoying writing this series of posts further explaining the ideas in my latest career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less. I hope you’re enjoying reading them. I’m pleased to say that Success Tweets is now in its second printing. You can pick up a copy at your local book store, or online at Amazon.com. Better yet, you can download the eBook for free at http://www.successtweets.com.
Today’s career advice comes from Tweet 92…
Determine your peak energy times. Schedule high brain tasks when your energy is high and low brain tasks when it is low.
A long time ago I learned that my energy is high at the beginning of the day and at the end of the day. My energy is lowest mid day. I do my best to schedule myself accordingly.
I reserve the morning for my important and urgent tasks – like writing and posting this blog. I use late afternoons and early evenings to work on my important but not urgent tasks – like writing my books and other thought pieces. Mid day, I catch up on correspondence, return phone calls, exercise and run errands.
This works for me. I think best and most clearly in the morning and have a bit of a sinker mid day. My energy and mental acuity picks up again late in the day. This is really helpful, as I get a lot done late in the day when many people are biding their time getting ready to go home.
This schedule works for me. It may or may not work for you. You have to determine your peak energy times and schedule yourself accordingly.
However, no matter how well you plan your day, surprises and interruptions will come along. A couple of years ago, I saw a great article on Success.com by David Allen called “It’s Not About Time.” Mr. Allen suggests that too often we focus on managing our time when we should, in fact, be focused on managing ourselves.
“The savvy know that self management is really an issue of what we do with ourselves during the time we have. Self-management needs to encompass managing our thoughts and emotions, and dealing effectively with our work, family and community relationships. It’s about gaining dynamic balance of control and perspective to achieve more successful outcomes and feel more relaxed along the way.
“Self-management is about knowing what to do at any given moment. It’s dealing effectively with the things we have to do to achieve our goals and fulfill our purpose. It’s also about deciding the importance of the varied and constant information coming at us.”
What do you think about David Allen’s ideas on self management? I like them. Even though I try to schedule my high brain tasks at the beginning and end of the day, I sometimes end up doing them mid day when my energy is lowest. I have found that no matter my preference, sometimes I have to deviate from it to handle matters that are out of my control.
As David Allen says, “self-management is about knowing what to do at any given moment.” This means that you cannot become a slave to your to-do list or your personal preferences. No matter how well you plan, you will be faced with new problems and opportunities every day. Sometimes what I want to do is different from what I need to do. I bet you find this to be true too. My best career advice is to do what you need to, not what you want to, as you go through your day.
Do your best to schedule yourself so that you can deal with high brain tasks when your energy is highest. But when circumstances create different demands, suck it up and do the best you can every moment you have. The problems and opportunities on which you focus at any given moment in time will have a big impact on the level of your performance and, ultimately, your career success. Don’t be so focused on managing your time that you miss opportunities because they fall outside of your plan for the day.
The common sense career success coach point here is simple. If you want to succeed in your life and career, you need to become an outstanding performer. To become an outstanding performer, you need to become a lifelong learner, set and achieve high goals and be well organized. Self management and time management are two important keys to becoming organized. They are tied to the career advice in Tweet 92 in Success Tweets. “Determine your peak energy times. Schedule high brain tasks when your energy is high and low brain tasks when it is low.” But don’t become a slave to your to do list or preferred manner of working. As David Allen points out, “Self management is different from time management because it allows you to respond at your best to surprises.”
That’s my take on the career advice in Success Tweet 92 and the difference between self management and time management. What’s yours? As always, I’m interested in your perspective on these thoughts. I welcome and appreciate your comments. Thanks for reading.
Bud
