lifelong learning

Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less is my new career success coach book.  I’m proud to say that it has just gone into its second printing.  I also want to thank all of the kind folks who have posted a review of Success Tweets on Amazon.com.  You’re the best.  I really appreciate you. 

You can pick up a copy of Success Tweets at your local bookstore or on line at amazon.com.  Better yet, you can download the eBook version for free at www.SuccessTweets.com.

Today’s career advice comes from Success Tweet 84…

Stay up to date in your industry.  Read industry publications.  Know the hot topics for your company, competitors and industry.

I saw a blog post on www.askamanager.blogspot.com a couple of years ago that asked the question, “When hiring, how much does industry knowledge matter?”  The answer was “not much.”  Here are the first two paragraphs of the post…

When hiring, how much does knowledge of your industry matter? It’s a nice bonus, but in most cases it shouldn’t be a driving force behind your hiring decisions. But too often I see hiring managers over-valuing this sort of knowledge, and hiring the wrong candidates.

If you hire someone smart and motivated, they will learn your issue or industry. Hire for the things you can’t teach, like intelligence, work ethic, communication skills, integrity, and whatever non-teachable skills the open position truly requires. It may take your new hire a little extra time to get up to speed, but once that happens, he or she will blow away that mediocre candidate whose main advantage would have been starting out with industry knowledge.

The author makes a good point.  And it’s one with which I agree.  Industry knowledge should not be the deciding factor in making hiring decisions.  But it is a “nice to have.” 

However, once you have a job, you need to get up to speed in your industry quickly – and more important – stay up to speed.

Here’s a personal story that inspires this career advice.  Many years ago my first job in business was with a large oil company.  When I took that job, I decided to learn everything I could about the company and the oil industry.  So I read the company’s history and got on the distribution list for all of the industry publications to which my colleagues subscribed.

I took home a stack of magazines every night.  I read about trends in petroleum marketing, exploration and refining.  I learned about the compliance issues facing the industry – in those days affirmative action for women was a hot topic.  When I joined the company, there were men with whom I worked who had been male secretaries because when they began their careers the company had a policy of hiring no women.  And, as you might expect, environmental compliance was also a hot issue.

I learned about all of these issues, and I went one step further.  I befriended coworkers in the Marketing, Exploration, Refining and Compliance areas.  I had lunch with them and picked their brains about what the company was doing regarding all of the industry issues about which I had read.

Pretty soon, I got a reputation as a knowledgeable young guy.  I was working in the Training and Organization Development department, so many people didn’t expect me to have the depth of industry knowledge I developed in a relatively short time frame.

One day, I was traveling on the company plane with the VP of Refining.  He was making a trip to a refinery we had in Louisiana. I was going to the same refinery to conduct some supervisory training.  I engaged him in a conversation about something I had read in an industry publication.  He had been mentioned in the article.

We got into a fairly deep discussion of the topic.  When we were landing he said, “I’m surprised I’ve never met you.  How long have you been with us?” I said “Seven months.”  He was astonished.  He said that I knew as much about the issues as many folks who had been with the company for 10 years.  He invited me to visit with him in his office when we returned from the trip.

That visit was the beginning of a great relationship with this guy.  He always asked for me when he had training or OD needs.  I became a bit of a star in the company because I took the time to become knowledgeable about industry issues.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  You can build a great reputation in your company by following the career advice in tweet 84 in Success Tweets.  “Stay up to date in your industry.  Read industry publications.  Know the hot topics for your company, competitors and industry.”  Staying up to date doesn’t take a lot of effort, especially when so much information is available on line these days.  Take a few minutes every day to read at least one industry related article.  You’ll find that pretty soon you’ll be very knowledgeable about the pressing issues for your company and industry.  And, being knowledgeable is a great way to get noticed by the people who can influence your chances for promotion.

That’s my take on the career advice in Success Tweet 84.  What’s yours?  What do you do to stay on top of things in your industry?  Please take a minute to leave a comment, sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less is my new career success coach book.  I’m proud to say that it has just gone into its second printing.  I also want to thank all of the kind folks who have posted a review of Success Tweets on Amazon.com.  You’re the best.  I really appreciate you. 

You can pick up a copy of Success Tweets at your local bookstore or on line at amazon.com.  Better yet, you can download the eBook version for free at www.SuccessTweets.com.

Today’s career advice comes from Success Tweet 82…

Learn faster than the world changes.  In a world that never stops changing, you can never stop learning and growing. 

Lifelong learning is a key to success.  In today’s fast paced world, if you don’t keep learning, you’re not standing still, you’re falling behind.  One of my favorite quotes from Gandhi nails it when it comes to lifelong learning…

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

He’s right; and that’s great career advice.  None of us should ever quit learning.  I have a thirst for knowledge and do my best to quench it through learning.  I try to learn something new every day.  Sometimes my learning is trivial, sometimes it is profound.  Regardless, I keep on learning.

On days when I feel as if I haven’t learned anything, I turn to a little book that I have called Live and Learn and Pass It On.  The subtitle is, “People ages 5 to 95 share what they’ve discovered about life, love, and other good stuff.”  I usually find something in there that satisfies.

Here are a few of the learnings in the book that have helped me…

I’ve learned that if you wait until all conditions are perfect before you act, you’ll never act.

I’ve learned that if you want to get promoted, you must do things that get you noticed.

I’ve learned that 90% of what happens in my life is positive and only about 10% is negative.  If I want to be happy I just need to focus on the 90%.

These are little life learnings and career advice that I find helpful.

All of the people I know who are committed to lifelong learning have several traits in common.  They all…

…Are humble.  They admit what they don’t know.  This is the first step in learning what they need to know.

…Question the status quo.  They realize that because something is right today, it may not be right tomorrow.  They know that doing things “the way we’ve always done them” is not good reasoning.

…Are intellectually curious.  They truly want to learn and find learning fun, interesting and stimulating.  They see life as a journey in which they are constantly learning.

…Are willing to try new stuff.  They experiment and see what works.  When things work, they use them.

…Are not afraid to fail.  They see failure as an opportunity to learn.  Just as they incorporate what works into their repertoire, they use failures as stepping stones to other experiments.

…Are tolerant of ambiguity.  Learning creates ambiguity.  These people are willing to let go of past ways of doing things in order to come up with new ways of doing things in the future.  The gap between the past and future can make for an uncomfortable present.

…Focus on staying ahead of the pack.  They are early adopters – of new technology and new ways of thinking.  They realize that knowledge has a short half life today.  They keep learning to stay ahead.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people are outstanding performers.  Outstanding performers remain outstanding performers by becoming lifelong learners.  They continually expand their knowledge in order to get out in front of the pack and stay there.  They follow the career advice in Tweet 82 in Success Tweets.  “Learn faster than the world changes.  In a world that never stops changing, you can never stop learning and growing.”  Begin your lifelong learning journey by focusing on your strengths and working to improve them every day.  Building on your strengths is easier that overcoming your weaknesses.  When you build on your strengths you can make incremental improvements.  However, if you have a glaring gap in your skills, address it now.  Don’t wait to take necessary quantum leaps.  What do you need to learn to create the life and career success you want and deserve?  How do you plan on learning it?  Remember what Ben Franklin had to say, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

That’s my take on the career advice in Success Tweet 82 and on lifelong learning and success.  What’s yours?  Please take a minute to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud