The Millennial View: Fixing Our Shortcomings

May 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Note from Art: Eric Rodriguez is the voice of The Millennial View here at Management Excellence. His periodic posts offer insights from early career professionals seeking to navigate their way through this challenging world.

Nobody is perfect and everyone has a deficiency. It doesn’t matter how good we think we are at something or how much success we’ve had, everyone has an area they can improve.

A friend of mine experienced this lesson a couple of weeks ago; she was on a second interview and felt confident she would get the position. But then something unexpected happened. My friend who was self taught in graphic arts software, failed the company’s graphic arts test.

She later found out through the interviewer that the exam was the reason why she didn’t land the job. She was upset, but she resolved to overcome this shortcoming. Less than one week after the interview she enrolled in a graphics arts class at the local community college.

“I need to fix this, I want to be ready for my next interview that will lead to my new career,” she told me.

One of the blessings of failure is that it shows us the areas we need to improve. It can be painful, especially when our failure results in not getting a job or promotion, but because of failure we see where we need improvement.

Attitude About Failure is Everything:

Obviously not everyone takes rejection or shortcomings the right way.

Some people get defensive, point out why they think the critic is wrong, ignore the deficiency and continue to operate with their errors intact. Other people accept that they need to make improvements, discover how their shortcoming can be improved, and then they take steps to fix it.

Taking action could mean joining a networking group, attending a speech club to improve public speaking skills, finding out how to use social media, going back to school to earn another degree, or fixing the slice on a golf swing. Instead of begrudging our shortcomings we should embrace the fact that we need to make changes or learn something new to succeed.

Some of the most successful people have had to improve their deficiencies to achieve greatness. Michael Jordan worked countless hours on his jump shot after he got cut from his high school basketball team, Margaret Thatcher hired a voice training coach to improve her public speaking skills, and Henry Ford made many changes to his prototypes before he produced the Model T.

These efforts to fix a shortcoming resulted in six championship rings, becoming a key figure in ending the Cold War, and mass producing the first automobile. Imagine what would have happened if these people didn’t improve their errors – we may not be talking about them today and their accomplishments would be sorely missed.

Success can be tied to not giving up, but it should also be attributed to people who step out of their comfort zone and work on their shortcomings. These improvements can be applied to our careers and our personal lives.

It should also be noted that learning a new skill is a step to preparing for something great in the future, a promotion, a new career, or a significant personal accomplishment. The list and benefits go on, but when we make improvements good things happen to us and that is a great incentive to make changes or learn something new.

 

 

Filed Under: "To Do" List, Career, Marketing Yourself, Performance, Project Management Tagged With: , ,

The Millennial View: Why Job Hunting is Like Dating

April 27, 2011 By 6 Comments

Note from Art: Eric Rodriguez is the author of The Millennial View here at Management Excellence. His periodic posts provide insights into the career and business pursuits of a young professional striving to navigate our challenging world.

You sit at home looking at your smartphone, your palms are sweating, you wait in anticipation that the woman you met last Thursday will call you back. She told you she was interested, you said the right things, you shined your shoes, you gave off the right body language, and you shouldn’t worry because she told you she would call you today, and today’s Monday, right?

Monday passes, Tuesday ends, Wednesday’s over, and finally on Friday night you receive an email stating, “We’re sorry, but you have not been selected for the position.” It feels like you just got dumped and it’s moments like these that make you relive your worst breakups.

Job searching is like dating and I can relate to these feelings because for the past couple of months I have been trying to transition into a new career. It hasn’t been easy and sometimes it feels like I stand a better chance of scoring a date with Katy Perry than I would to land a new job – ok I’m exaggerating.

Here are four thoughts on why job searching is similar to dating:

Thought #1: If you don’t have a boyfriend/girlfriend job, the worst thing you can do is obsess over it.

According to CNN a job seeker can be out of work for as long as 39 weeks. It’s a long time, and if a job searcher constantly thinks about their unemployment it starts to plant negative thoughts about their ability to get a job.

Like dating, a job seeker has to put himself or herself out there and let employers know that they’re available. But, once someone has done all they can do in relation to a job search, it’s important to do something else to take their mind off the job search. The longer you think about your unemployment the less confident you’ll be in yourself. This shows on a date and it shows during an interview.

Thought #2: When you’re single looking for a job you may meet many different people employers before you find someone who wants to commit.

The majority of job seekers are not going to find the right career on the first try, although a few lucky people do. It’s just like dating, a job seeker is going to meet a lot of interesting people, and some job seekers may even picture themselves having a future with one of them.

It’s dangerous to think that one job or one person may indeed be the one you’re looking for. Interviews are like dates, they’re either fun or horrifying, but they don’t mean anything until a job seeker gives someone a solid commitment. A prospective employee can meet a lot of employers in their job search, but it’s important to keep on looking (even if there are future interviews scheduled) until the right job is offered.

Thought #3: Rejection sucks

When an employer doesn’t call when they say they will or when a job seeker receives a rejection letter it hurts. Nobody likes rejection, but that’s the practice companies engage in – only one person can get the job and like dating a company is going to go with the right fit.

The best way to deal with rejection is to accept it because nothing in life is ever guaranteed. Rejection is beyond our control, but one day the right job will present itself.

#4: The right person job is out there!

This thought comforts me when I am looking at classifieds on Indeed. There are many stories of people who have landed a good job, but it does take effort and a commitment to keep searching no matter how bleak things may seem. If a job seeker looks regularly they’re going to find something, it may not be in the immediate future, but they’ll get the right job.

Winston Churchill said, “Never, never, never give up!” this is the right attitude to take in both a job search and in life. Always remember when dating or looking for a job, that it’s usually the last person you meet before you find the right fit.

Filed Under: Career, Marketing Yourself Tagged With: , , ,

The Millennial View: Public Speaking Doesn’t Suck

March 31, 2011 By 4 Comments

Eric Rodriguez is the voice of The Millennial View here at Management Excellence. You can follow Eric on Twitter @mvieweric for more on the millennial perspective.

With spring break currently underway my office has been getting an influx of students from other colleges and universities who want to take summer classes at the community college. If you want to know one of the classes students are most likely to enroll in this summer it’s the dreaded speech class.

Last week a Millennial summed up the phenomenon of students taking speech classes in the summer when she said, “A community college’s speech class is short in the summer, most universities accept it, speech sucks, students hate it, and we’ll probably never use it again.”

These were strong words and it’s understandable why a speech class isn’t a student’s most pleasant experience in college. In speech students have to stand in front of their peers, be judged by an instructor, and some stare and clutch their cue cards hanging on for dear life hoping they won’t screw up.

Before I go any further I want to establish that this is not a post on how to prepare for a speech. There are many great articles out there for that, but the purpose of this post is to convince Millennials and others that public speaking serves a great purpose and doesn’t… suck.

One reason why public speaking is great is because it gives an opportunity for a young professional to shine. A speaker has the attention of everyone in the room, they can communicate clearly about a topic without interruption, and great speeches can make a speaker get noticed by people in the workplace who can advance a career.

But, some people will never speak in public because they’re scared of an audience.

This fear is irrational – maybe the phobia is rooted in a bad experience, an annoying classmate, or a rude teacher. If an aspiring speaker is still hung up about this, it’s time to move on and realize that was then and this is now.

The audience wants you to succeed. The audience is there to hear you, listen to your ideas, they’re giving you their time, and that is one of the highest honors anyone can receive.

There’s also something rewarding about sharing a laugh with a crowd, seeing some heads nodding in agreement with an idea, or having people smile in your direction.

Public speaking can be a beautiful thing, but the Millennial generation and others need to give it a chance.

It’s puzzling that Gen Y possesses so many new and valuable skills, but when it comes to public speaking some of them shy away. This is a mistake, public speaking is something that looks hard, but with enough practice it becomes easier and Millennials will gain a skill that’s immensely valuable, if they try it.

A colleague once told me that the most successful people she knew were professionals who were great public speakers because they would get noticed by management for their ability to communicate. It wasn’t a surprise for her when she saw these speakers get promoted or when they were asked to talk to clients for a business deal.

When an individual starts developing a talent for public speaking it becomes less strenuous, the butterflies disappear a little, and soon an aspiring speaker will be able to step in front of a crowd effortlessly and talk about a topic with ease. When this happens people realize that public speaking doesn’t suck, it may even be, dare I say it?

Fun.

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The Millennial View: Fired for Facebook

March 10, 2011 By 11 Comments

Fired for Facebook, by Eric Rodriguez

Eric Rodriguez is the voice of The Millennial View here at Management Excellence. You can follow Eric on Twitter @mvieweric for more on the millennial perspective.

I like many other Millennials love social media. If I didn’t have a Facebook account, I wouldn’t be able to keep up with old friends, post pictures of a party, or find out if someone I met was single. Facebook is fun, but there are Millennials and many others that are oblivious that social media could cost them their career.

Dan Leone is the perfect example; he was a stadium operations manager for the Philadelphia Eagles, and in 2009 when he found out that his favorite Eagles’ player, Brian Dawkins, signed with the Denver Broncos he posted this on his Facebook page:

“Dan is [expletive] devastated about Dawkins signing with Denver … Dam Eagles R Retarted!!”

(By the way, the spelling errors are Leone’s not mine.)

The next day management found out about Dan’s comments and told him they were letting him go to “Denver or Oakland or maybe Pittsburgh.” But, they really didn’t care how he would get there because Dan was to be terminated immediately for his offensive remarks about the Eagles and people with mental disabilities.

Dan’s termination illustrates this decade’s newest form of corporate dismissals – Facebook firings.

There are people in my generation who think “What happens on Facebook stays on Facebook.” Someone actually told me this and I responded with, “It’s all fun and games – until someone gets fired.”

Every tweet, every picture, every webcast, could be saved, copied, or pasted away for further reference that can bury a career or reputation  – I’m thinking of you Charlie Sheen.

I’ve seen profiles with pictures that look like a Jersey Shore party, people who use language that makes them sound like Eric Cartman, and I’ll never forget when a past acquaintance sent me a friend request. Their photo was a mug shot.

(Editor’s note: If you don’t know who Eric Cartman is, you’re probably not a Millennial. I had to look him up. He’s a fictional character on the cartoon, South Park.)

I understand that many in our generation were teenagers when social media hit and many of us felt comfortable posting whatever, whenever we wanted because nobody thought that one day an employer or university we wanted to go to would look at our online profiles. We were so wrong, everyone looks at Facebook: admission counselors, employers, bosses, coworkers and my mom.

I predict that in this decade and beyond irresponsible use of social media will be the end of many careers, promotions, political aspirations, and marriages.

This may sound harsh, but it’s true, and it has happened.

That’s why posting dumb stuff on social media has become the equivalent of getting drunk at the office party, downloading illegal files on an office network, hitting on the boss’s daughter, or surfing for porn at work. No career professional in their right mind would do these things if they wanted to keep their career and project a positive image, so it irks me when I hear stories of people who could have avoided being fired if they would have used their brains when posting content on the web.

I’m a child of the digital age and an early adopter of social media and I use extreme prejudice in what I post and say when I’m using it. I love my Facebook and Twitter, but I also know that if it’s not carefully used it could be a liability that affects my personal and economic well-being.

I hope the majority of Millennials and other social media users recognize that responsible use of social media can mean the difference between a great career and a bad one. Use your social media wisely and you’ll be rewarded, but make a mistake and you’ll make life difficult for yourself and your professional future.

Filed Under: Career, Marketing Yourself Tagged With: , , ,

4 Key Skills Leaders Must Develop to Succeed in Today’s Workplace

March 1, 2011 By 12 Comments

With the clear disclaimer that there are no magic formulas, silver bullets or guaranteed fast-track approaches to success in the workplace, there are a number of critical steps you can take to accelerate progress and improve your odds.

4 Key Skills You Must Develop to Succeed in Today’s Workplace:

1. Learn to See Yourself as Others See You.

Short of having a genuine out-of-body experience, learning to see yourself as others see you is a challenging task.  Our own view to our strengths and weaknesses is often pretty inaccurate, based in large part on the fact that we’re human and open to a huge number of cognitive biases.

Overcoming our own self-perception biases requires good outside help. I encourage emerging leaders to cultivate a feedback group comprised of other motivated professionals interested in gaining and giving input on performance and perception. While the recruitment of your 3-5 person group is not easy, a good (dare I say it) support group is a priceless source of frank feedback and idea exchange.

Define a group charter, ensure everyone is comfortable speaking openly about perceptions, and hold people accountable for input…as well as for actions. Politically motivated members and social loafers should be quickly benched in favor of others genuinely interested in giving and gaining.

2. Cultivate Your Social Intelligence and Skills

Learning to assess and respond appropriately to the situation at hand is a core component of projecting your professional presence and building your brand. While this sounds a lot like playing politics…and it may be, it is at least being smart about how you participate.  No one’s asking you to nod your head blindly…or, to compromise your morals. I am indicating that you should be smart enough and self-aware enough to adapt your style and approach to the situation. Make your point, but make it with grace and courtesy.

The inability to assess and respond appropriately in varying situations is a derailment factor for too many. We all know the person who never passes up an opportunity to stand-up and standout, often in an obnoxious and off-putting approach. You can be zealous in pursuit of your agenda, with out being a martyr.

3. Become a Network Connector

Think in terms of organizational and industry ecosystems, not departments and functions. The better you are at building connections across the broader ecosystem, the more likely you are to gain access to unique information and insight to top talent. A well-developed network where you constantly strive to connect parties (in contrast to just linking yourself into disparate groups), the better the opportunity to help others create value and for you to gain opportunities in the process.

4. Learn to Lead both Vertically and Horizontally

The most successful leaders understand that theirs isn’t just a downward facing challenge. Effective leaders apply the tools in 1-3 above and cultivate their power and influence across organizations. They learn to involve others in pursuit of vexing organizational problems and improvements, and importantly, they learn how to make heroes out of others.

Managing upwards is one of the more important and in my experience, one of the most under-pursued critical professional activities of all. And sucking up to the boss, brown-nosing and generally serving as a brainless follower are not the same as properly managing upwards.

Proper boss management requires you to invest in understanding the boss’s priorities, communication and decision-making styles and preferences. Once you’ve gained some insights in these areas, you are accountable for both providing support for the boss’s agenda, and for adapting your behaviors to better align with his/her approaches. Remember, someone chooses you to be successful, and the boss usually gets a big vote.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Self-development….it’s hard work.  It’s also a full contact sport. Engage or expect to be left behind.

–

Art Petty coaches and trains emerging leaders and consults with B2B firms on strategy and marketing. You can reach Art via e-mail to discuss your needs for coaching, speaking or consulting,

Filed Under: "To Do" List, Career, Leadership, Marketing Yourself, Professional Growth Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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