Hello, This is Laura Lee Rose, author and host for the IT Professional Development Toolkit series. I wanted to take this moment to thank some people that made this toolkit possible.
I wanted to thank Coach Training Alliance, where I received my professional coaching certification. That organization allowed me to take my 25 years of IT experience and develop a successful coaching practice around that knowledge.
I also loosely modeled this toolkit after Will Craig and Rhonda Hess Coach Training Accelerator program (co-founders of the Coach Training Alliance). I found their strategy and learning style very effective and versatile. Although I have added a few features and sculpted for the IT professional, I benefited from their model.
For more information on their great program, please go to
- www.CoachTrainingAlliance.com or
- call, tool-free 888-432-4121
I especially appreciate Stephen Wynkoop and the Bits on the Wire production team. Stephen Wynkoop founded SSWUG.ORG in 1999 as one of the first cross-platform sites to cover enterprise technologies. Since then, the site has gone from being a part-time hobby to a reputable content provider with thousands of articles and video-based training sessions. Their mission is to provide relevant news and information on career management, data management, collaboration software, development tools and cloud computing to help information technology (IT) professionals succeed in the field.
For more information on Bits on the Wire and SSWUG.org, please go to www.sswug.org Or
- vConferenceOnline.com/Bits on the Wire, Inc.
- 6420 E. Broadway, Suite A300 Tucson, AZ 85710
- 520-760-2400 or (877) 853-9158
- info@vconferenceonline.com
Without this great staff of supporters, this toolkit would not have been produced.
Practice business networking by using this program and contacting your online classmates. These professionals have the same goals and career development plans as you do. Take advantage of those shared aspects to build a strong collaborative working relationship.
Welcome to the IT Professional Development Toolkit. This is Laura Lee Rose and I am the author and host for this course. This program will train you in the most effective tools for career management, time management, business networking, work life balance and quantifying your performance to the company bottom line. It will inspire you to start
thinking like the owner, in order to better quantify your value as a high-performing individual contributor and a team player.
This program is designed to be used in a couple of ways. 1. As a self-paced, self study program OR 2. As a reference tool
This program is designed as a 12 week comprehensive program; complete with practice concepts, real-world IT examples, on-line discussion forums and feedback from an on-line coach. If you have decided to go it alone at this time, the IT Professional Development Toolkit will assist you with pacing yourself. If you would like some companions on your journey, we encourage you to enroll and take advantage in
Congratulations on your purchase of this toolkit. This is Laura Lee Rose, business and efficiency coach. And my focus is to assist IT professionals with their time management, project management, career development and work-life balance strategies.
You purchased this toolkit, because you recognize the need to continually sharpen your professional and business skills. The IT Professional Toolkit is designed to give employees and employers the resources they need to supplement their business, professional and personal goals. Most of the tools in this kit can be covered in ten or fifteen minutes; and are intended for daily use. The materials are designed to cover real-world IT situations that can be incorporated in real-time (right away). The purpose of this document is to demonstrate different ways to use this toolkit to promote professional and career growth.
Getting Started Self-paced training and on-going professional development is key to implementing effective habits. However, it's not always easy to find the time to work with staff (or self) on specific issues. But whether you have daily time, or just 15 30 minutes once a week, you can use the IT Professional Development Toolkit to help increase productivity, improve morale and support career success.
10 Ways to Use this Toolkit provides a step-by-step model for conducting professional development. Through it, you will learn about the resources in the IT Professional Development Toolkit, reflect on your current practices or habits, and try new approaches to your work environment. The steps are sequential and build upon each other.
Method 1) Introduction to the Toolkit (15 minutes)
Method 2) Introduce a Practice (or habit) Using a Video (10 minutes)
Method 3) Introduce a Practice Through Reading (10 minutes)
Method 4) Learn the Theory Behind a Practice (15 minutes)
Method 5) Examine a Real-World Scenario Segment (15 minutes)
Method 6) Choose a Practice (15 minutes)
Method 8) Rehearse a Planned Activity (15 minutes)
Method 9) Reflect on Instruction (15 minutes)
Method 10) Explore Additional Resources (15 minutes)
There are various ways to use this toolkit. It can be used as a 12-week self-paced e-learning program, as well as reference materials.
This video recommends additions ways not limited to using these topics for discussion and sharing. Please make use of the Question Tab to share and discuss.
A Professional Mastermind and Synergy group is also available. The intention of this mastermind group is for 4-6 professional with the same background, experience and career goals to become accountability partners for each other. For more information on how to participate, please <<GO HERE>>
Tools for Success
Templates, worksheets, workbooks, cheat sheets and samples.
You can download the IT Professional Tools.zip file to receive all the tools, or pick and choose the tool when you want them.
Remember:
Your net worth is equal to your network: if you are not 110% happy about your current network, you can take ACTION immediately by joining a mastermind group. Unfortunately, 95% of people will never take the action needed in order to become part of a mastermind team.
Welcome to the IT Professional Development Toolkit. This is Laura Lee Rose and I am the author and host for this course. This program will train you in the most effective tools for career management, time management, business networking, work life balance and quantifying your performance to the company bottom line. It will inspire you to start thinking like the owner, in order to better quantify your value as a high-performing individual contributor and a team player.
This program is designed to be used in a couple of ways. 1. As a self-paced, self study program OR 2. As a reference tool
This program is designed as a 12 week comprehensive program; complete with practice concepts, real-world IT examples, on-line discussion forums and feedback from an on-line coach. If you have decided to go it alone at this time, the IT Professional Development Toolkit will assist you with pacing yourself. If you would like some companions on your journey, we encourage you to enroll and take advantage in the discussion forum and on-line coaching sessions.
We are going through these practices in a quick pace. If you have decided on the self-pace version, I recommend you set aside a specific time to review and study these materials. 10 minutes a day or 30 minutes per week is a good pace.
In each practice section, there are action challenges and success tips. In addition to these practices, there is advanced-level work, designed to be executed the second or third time through the program. Since this is a practice-based program, it is encouraged to review and repeat the content several times. There is a wealth of information in this package and it is not expected that you absorb everything the first time you go through it. Each time you repeat the material, you will be at a different skill and experience level. Therefore, you will have a different and more advanced-level of understanding.
In the Resource Library, you will find supporting documents, worksheets, templates, checklist, eBooks, related articles and other helpful items. The supporting documents will enhance your learning comprehension. It is not required to implement all the recommendations and tools at once. What you have here is a compilation of best practices. Youll learn from others mistakes as well as short-cuts that will take years off your learning curve. You will also accelerate your career and ability to earn high-performance ratings, while maintain a satisfactory work life balance.
Welcome IT Professional Development Toolkit Soft Skills for the IT Professional
Practice 1: Importance of Soft Skills in IT
Now a days, employers are looking for the total package. Becoming a high-profile IT professional requires a blend of authenticity, integrity, skills and business savvy. There are six major practice areas that will round-out your existing skill set. They are :
1. Soft Skills for the High-Performing IT Professional
2. Impeccable Professional Business Sense
3. Mastery of Time
4. Effective Professional Development Tools
5. Becoming a prestigious project and client magnet
6. Mastery: Putting it all together
At the end of each segment, I will come back and chat with you again in the section review.
Purpose: Give an overview of the soft skills required to increase efficiency and productivity. Soft skills includes: quantifying individual and team value to the companys bottom line; business networking for distributed and global environments; and time and priority management for a decent work life balance.
Practice or concept :
All successful IT Gurus have one thing in common. They are well-balanced in both their technical and soft-skills. Although they can go into great technical detail, they understand their audience; have great empathy for others; exhibit good presentation skills; can collaborate with most; and have a smooth business and marketing persona.
In the IT Professional Development Toolkit series, we cover 4 critical categories of our personal and professional lives. Even though the scenarios will be IT specific, the concepts are transferable to other professions. Although this is intended as a self-pace, self-discovery journey, most of us feel more comfortable with some structure. The suggested syllabus in the associated pdf file provides the study structure that most of us enjoy. The modules are in 5 to 10 minute bite-size portions. The exercises solidify the new habits and systematic changes.
Who can use this? This learning package is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers.
You can accomplish much with only ten minutes a day. Here are some things you can do in one ten minute block of time.
Select one ten minute activity a day.
__ Scan the referenced Zipinar eBooks (presentation slides with speaker notes and exercises). You can always return later to study a particular topic more closely.
__ Work through the Real-World exercises. The scenarios are designed to be implemented right away. Take advantage of the online discussion forums to get the most out of the exercises.
__ Select 2 related articles and review them. The Intent is to provide additional reference materials without overwhelming you. Scan the enclosed titles, and select the articles that most connect with you at this time. The other articles will be available for future review. Treat this as a smorgasbord and abundance of material. It will always be here, so there's no real hurry. Absorb a little at a time with the knowledge that more will always be provided.
__Watch the related videos and webinars. Feel free to have the videos, audios and webinars play in the background, knowing that you can always return for a closer look.
__Discuss and share the concept with others. Getting coworkers perspectives solidifies the new habit throughout your organization.
Before we get started, please take a moment to outline what you are willing to do to achieve your realistic scheduling goals. Use this 1-page worksheet to help clarify your intentions.
Purpose: To increase your value to the companys bottom line which will increase your performance rating? To better quantify your individual and team contribution to the organization.
Practice or concept: There is a saying that "If you don't know where you are going, then anywhere is fine."
Most professionals expect rewards and acknowledgement for their hard work and contribution. Most companies conduct performance reviews in order to reward employees contributions. Even though both the employer and employees goals seem in synch; the definition employees contribution and value can differ significantly. Even though the company, employer, and employee are using the same words, they may not be using the same dictionary and definition.
Companies are in business to make money. Progressive companies have clear vision and mission statements. Employers are responsible for clearly articulating their departments goals that support the company visions. Employees are responsible for understanding their role and responsibility in achieving their department and teams business goals.
To increase your professional value to the company, you must first understand the company business goals and vision. This lesson introduces a few tools to help you align your effort with the right business commitment plan.
Who can use this? This is career management tip is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers.
Purpose: To improve your working relationship with your manager, executives and customers. To expand your level of influence in your organization and company.
Practice or concept: There is a saying in a marriage that "If your wife is happy, then you are happy
This is also very true in the business environment. If your manager, executives and customers are happy, you will also be happy and successful. There are many aspects to a happy working relationship. Some of them are easy to accommodate and some are not. This section will cover some of the fundamentals. We will then delve into the details as this journey progresses into the following practices.
Who can use this? This business relationship tip is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers.
Purpose: To get the most out of the exercises and real-world scenarios in each practice session. To use these exercises to propel you to the next level in your professional career and personal life.
Practice or concept: Each of the practice chapters includes Real-World Scenarios. These examples are from the IT corporate environment. They are structured to be implemented in real-time (or right-away). The sooner you put new habits and concepts in action, the sooner you will see the results.
Delayed action loses the effectiveness of any training program. Take for instance learning a new technology or computer language, then waiting several months before developing in that environment. Although you want to stay ahead of the learning curve, if you dont exercise the new skill right away (perhaps with your own side-application or prototype demo) - you will lose the effectiveness of that education.
The intent of these real-world scenarios is to give you immediate practice and use of these concepts. This practice chapter is to help you better transform or modify the practice scenario to better meet your needs. Each scenario can be modified and made relevant to your specific role or responsibility.
Who can use this? This soft skill is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers.
Purpose: To stay on target to your vision. To prevent the mutation of tasks and distractions from delaying or diverting you from your ultimate vision and goals.
Practice or concept: Do you Keep the vision or is the devil in the details?
I had a client ask me Okay I hear people say dont get bogged down in the details just keep your overall vision in mind. But then others say that the devil is in the detail. Which is right?
Well as it is with many things in life. They are both right even though they seem contradictory. The secret is in another adage theres a time and place for everything. Thats the key to this encryption.
Take the example of a much cluttered, pitch dark room. Your goal is to safely traverse the room and get to the other end of the hallway without injury to self or items in the room. You have your trusty flashlight. As you start to maneuver through the obstacles, you are focusing your attention several inches in front of your current location. Your flashlight beam is bright and focused. You see very clearly your next steps. You can even admire the nick-knacks on the tables and shelves are you maneuver around.
Periodically you shine your light toward your general direction or final destination; because you want to make sure that youre still on target. As you use the same flashlight to light your final destination, the dispersal is now a wide, diffused and soften. You cannot make out the details of the items farthest away. They are only dim outlines at this distance, but its not your intent to maneuver those items now. You dont need to see those items clearly, right now. Your intent is just to make sure you are still on course toward that general direction. And you notice that, while you were focusing on the details, you have slightly maneuvered off-course. Because you are regularly checking, its easy to adjust and manage.
Its the same with any project, goal or life in general. You want to use your flashlight in both ways. You want to pay attention to the details in front of you, while you periodically keep a watchful eye on the horizon, general direction or final destination. If you stay focused on a particular task too long or focused only on the daily interruptions you can easily lose sight of your larger goals. Everything changes. Tasks also tend to mutate and sometimes deviates you off course.
Conclusion: Always understand the essence or the why you are doing a particular task or project. Periodically review the why to make sure the things you are spending your time on are propelling you toward your goals (or holding you back).
Who can use this? This soft skill is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers.
Welcome to Review: Soft Skills for the IT Professional.
In the first for lessons, we covered:
- Creating value to the company as both an individual and team contributor
- Co-creating the employee-employer relationship
- Mastering the real-world scenario exercises
- Following the vision
In Creating value, we discussed the importance of quantifying your performance value against the company mission and vision statements. We acknowledge that companies are in the business of making money. Therefore, the better you can illustrate your value to their revenue stream, the more valuable you are perceived.
In Co-creating the employee-employer relationship, we clarified that our career and professional success is OUR responsibility. A successful work experience is a co-creative role. As an employee (regardless of our level or band), we are ultimately responsible for making things happen. Therefore, its critical that we take ownership of our relationship with your managers, executives, coworkers and even customers.
In Mastering the real-world scenario, recognized that delayed action loses the effectiveness of any training program. Therefore, these exercises are intended for real-time, right-now execution. We highlighted the different ways to use the real-world scenario exercises, so that they stay relevant at any level: staff, manager, executives, vendor or client. We illustrated how to modify the sample examples to fit your role. We demonstrated how the concepts are transferable and expandable. We also explained how integrating these models directly into your everyday environments provide you the level of practice to easily and quickly transform these concepts into habits.
In Following the vision, we realize that focusing on a single task can actually divert us from our ultimate goal or vision. Tunnel vision on your current task or delivery date isnt effective in the IT Professional environment because life is a Big Picture proposition (not 1 dimensional). Todays economy requires IT professionals to be the total package. Keeping your high-level, Big Picture vision is a composite of many attributes, talents, opportunities and relationships.
Although the audio portion of this tool-set discusses the educational concepts, its important to also review PDF versions for the suggested worksheets, exercises and related supporting materials.
Purpose: Give an overview of the soft skills required to increase reliability, dependability and premium customer service.
Practice or concept Regardless of our role or responsibilities, we all have customers. Customers include our managers, coworkers, family and friends. Customers are anyone we make a commitment or promise regardless of the social or work environment. Therefore, building an impeccable business reputation is based on great customer service
This chapter covers four areas for increasing our business reputation.
1. Increasing our Integrity and Skills
2. Handling Interruptions and distractions to may derail our previous commitments
3. Transparency in everything that we do
4. Understanding whats important to your customers
Who can use this? This learning package is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers.
Purpose: Give an overview of the techniques toward impeccable integrity. Steps to quickly recover from inevitable slips in integrity. Practice or concept Not doing what you said you would do is lying. People dont like it when its phrased like that. Lying may seem too harsh a description. Perhaps you like: unreliable or undependable? Simply put, not doing what you said you would do, is a slip in integrity. Do it often enough, your reputation will be affected.
People do business with people they know , like and trust.
The Trustworthy equation that I like to use is:
Trustworthy = Sincerity + Reliability + Competency
Where:
Sincerity is to say what you mean Reliability is to do what you say
Competency is the level of accuracy, precision and professionalism in which you perform.
Many people define integrity as: Saying what you mean, and doing what you say. Most of us will say we have integrity. If so, then why are we still?
- late for meetings
- avoiding certain client and coworkers
- not following-through on commitments to ourselves and others
- telling people what we think they want to hear (regarding schedules and feature lists)
- asking just short of what we really want, because we dont think others will give us exactly what we want
- saying something we dont really mean
- being late in our deliverables
All the above are examples of a slip of integrity.
In the corporate environment, there is pressure to agree with the proposed schedule and feature lists (especially when everyone else is agreeing to it). Its natural. Its human. But it is saying something we dont really mean. To me, integrity is a muscle that we can make stronger with practice and time.
A key integrity-muscle toning exercise is how we respond when we do fall off center. Do we not only apologize, but go out of our way to make amends? Or do we make a string of excuses for the mistake? Do we blame others? Do we allow the shame of making a mistake compound the situation? Generally, it is not the initial hiccup that causes people to question our sincerity and reliability. It is actually how we handle our mistakes that define our true integrity. People dont normally lose respect for us when we make a mistake. Its how we take responsibility for that said mistake.
Who can use this? This learning package is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers.
Purpose: Give an overview of the techniques toward impeccable integrity. Steps to stay on schedule even when you are working in an interruptive work environment.
Practice or concept: Everyone has complained about being interrupted. People have interrupted our conversations, our tasks, even physically (i.e. being cut in line, in traffic, beepers, texting).
On the other hand, everyone has interrupted. Everyone does it.
In either case, the interruptee (person being interrupted) may be allowing or enabling this behavior. Before we discuss how we can interrupt this behavior in general, lets examine why its so prevalent.
On the average, we speak at the rate of 125-150 words per minute. We can comprehend and listen at the rate of 600 words per minute. This means that our minds are underutilized by a factor of 4-5 when listening to others. Therefore, its a struggle to keep our minds on topic. Often times, we hear one or two phrases of the conversation and we jump ahead to a solution or experience that happened to us. Were quick to share our experience and expertise before we realize that this wasnt really the focus of conversation. Because of our boredom, we inadvertently created a tangent that separated us from the conversation.
Our society also supports and encourages this lifestyle. Not only does our minds working at a faster rate, other things are happening so fast these days. With the internet, cell phones, texting, beepers, and instant messaging information is constantly streaming at us, for us and by us. Even our interruptions are interrupted. For instance you may be working on a task and then you get interrupted by an instance message or online chat by someone (or via phone call). While responding to that initial interruption, someone else enters your office. Its situation normal. We even have a name for it: multi-tasking.
Because interruptions have become so natural, we may not even notice that were doing it.
People interrupt us for many reasons:
- They need our help
- They want attention
- They are bored with the current conversation
- They feel we are wasting their time
- They want to distract the group away from the original specific topic, goal, or issue for some reason.
- They may be a little arrogant.
Sometimes we feel we have really good reasons to interrupt others:
1) We only have a limited amount of time to accomplish something
2) The discussion has drifted off the topic that we think is important and we need to get it back on target
3) They interrupted us first.
4) We need help and need it quickly.
Everyone does it. Interrupting isnt seen necessarily as bad or wrong. It can actually be a natural part or flow of a conversation (i.e. friends or spouses completing each others sentences or even speaking in short hand). Even so it can be distracting, especially if the interruption causes you to lose your train of thought.
Conclusion: As technology continues to advance, information and data will continue to come at us. Since we are biologically engineered to comprehend much faster than we can speak or type, our minds will often wander between the gaps. Interrupting (via personal interjections or technical interruptions like texts, cell phones, chats) have become part of our daily routine and therefore our default mode. But just because the interruption is happening now does not mean that it is urgent or even important. It just means that the interruption is occurring now. And that is all it means.
Be deliberate in how you respond to people and their actions (versus in default mode).
Who can use this? This learning package is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers.
Purpose: Give an overview of the techniques toward impeccable integrity. Steps to manage the idiosyncrasies of both you and others. Using the 5 Love Languages in improving working relationships.
Practice or concept :
Companies are made of people. And people are human with various habits, tendencies and idiosyncrasies. The sooner you realize that the only person you can control is yourself, the more relaxed and at ease you can be. Portraying a calm and professional persona is often read as confidence and competency. This lesson discusses some ways to be at ease with some possible frustrating idiosyncrasies of your daily work environment.
In Dr Gary Chapmans New York Times bestseller 5 Love Languages, he states that we all have a love language or primary way of expressing and interpreting affection. He shares that we identify primarily with one of the five love languages: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service, and Physical Touch. He surmises that once you understand which love language your partner responds best to, you can better say or do just the right thing to make that special someone feel loved.
Since building good working relationship is critical to your professional advancement, we can use the same concepts to make that those important coworkers, managers, executives and clients feel cared for as well. After all business is made of people and networking is all about building lasting relationships. Heres my translation of the 5 Love Languages for the IT professional arena.
In this lesson, client refers to anyone needing your services and products like: managers, coworkers, sibling departments, executives, sales team, and technical documentation team, test team, etc.
The challenge is to learn your clients right love language. For instance, if your client yearns for some of uninterrupted training time on your product or skills, sending them an email of appreciation will not fulfill their need. Everyone will have different preferences; therefore, its important to tune into their individual preferences. Often times there will be two primary languages that attract your clients (for instance: Touch and Quality Time). And the others will be less dominant.
Conclusion: Since our businesses are made of people and networking is building relationships with these people, then any technique that we use to improve our personal relationships will be an effective networking marketing technique.
Who can use this? This learning package is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers
Purpose: Being transparent and open in everything that you do leads to impeccable integrity. Being honest with your dealings is the best defense against negative perceptions.
Practice or concept Do you feel your career has stalled? It may make you feel better to blame others, but chances are that there are some things that you are doing to kill your own career.
Check this list to see where you stand.
1) Singular focus on your assigned tasks and responsibilities.
2) No career vision or plan.
3) Lack of imagination in your career vision.
4) Not aligning your performance with the company bottom line.
5) Not 'project managing' your own career.
6) Blaming other people for your work-load.
7) Not understanding what is expected of you
8) Not making use of Change Management
9) Assuming your manager know all the answers
10) Not asking for help
Who can use this? This learning package is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers.
Purpose: Give an overview of what your employer is and IS NOT responsible for.
Practice or concept
Its important to understand how your manager and executives minds work. By getting into the habit of thinking like the owner you will be able to anticipate and predict important shifts and turns in your own work environment. You will be better prepared for the unexpected. By expecting others to take responsibility for your professional and career development is a limiting mindset. Companies are in the business to make money.
- They are not responsible for making sure you have a decent work/life balance.
- They are not responsible for making sure you get along with your co-workers.
- They are not responsible for making sure you get the proper exposure to other managers and executives to assure that you keep your job.
- And they are not responsible for making sure you understand all of the above.
Your companys primary task is to provide a clear direction and vision of the company (or business) goals and mission. Your manager then needs to outline his individual departments role in accomplishing those company and business goals.
You need to be clear about your own career and professional path. You need to be able to clearly articulate your career goals, your skills gap to achieving those goals, and your timeline for accomplishing. You need to verify that your individual career path aligns with the company vision and their business goals. If your desires are not a match, you will be continually frustrated. That frustration is a good indicator that you may need to find a different company that is more in-line with what you really want to do. After you have verified that your goals and this companys mission are a match, then you need to continually communication your career development plan to the appropriate personnel (like your manager, HR rep, second-line and co-workers). And finally you need to excel in your own project and time management to assure your own work/life balance.
Your professional career is solely your responsibility. Its not your companys responsibility to fund your advanced education. Its not your companys responsibility to block out your time in your calendar to focus on career maintenance. Its not your companys responsibility to assure that you stay ahead of the learning curve and master your craft. Its not your companys responsibility to stay current on salary requirements, professional certifications or market/company directions. Its not your companys responsibility to define who you really want to be, do or have.
Purpose: Give an overview of the soft skills required to increase reliability, dependability and premium customer service. Illustrate strong following-skills that lead to impeccable
leadership skills.
"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he
wants to do it." Dwight D. Eisenhower
Practice or concept: We hear that for an effective organization to smoothly evolve and develop there should only be one Indian chief and many Indians; one leader and many followers. And we continuously applaud, train and promote leadership positions.
The reality is that the majority of most organizations are followers. Since an effective follower is critical to an organization and its ability to accomplish a mission, should there be some discussion in what makes an effective follower?
This lecture covers two important traits:
- Empowering Dynamic Followers and
- Effective Following
Conclusion While most aspire to be the Indian Chief, without the Indians, there is no leadership, no tribe to lead. Emancipating and elevating the role of follow-ship is the quickest way to success. Therefore, a leader with foresight would focus on creating an environment of effective followers; an environment in which the roles of leaders and followers are interchanged and interactive. Since we naturally fulfill both roles simultaneously and inherently, it would be to our advantage to exploit and make the most of that nature within us.
Who can use this? This learning package is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers.
Welcome to Review: Impeccable Professional Business Sense
In the second for lessons, we covered:
- Impeccable integrity and being transparent in everything that we do
- Handling interruptions and distractions to stay on target
- Reviewed the 10 reasons your career is stalled.
- Reviewed the false assumptions that are holding you back
- How being a superior follower leads to great leaders
In Impeccable integrity we discussed that we all have slips in integrity. Do it often enough, your reputation will be affected. The key to keeping a good reputations is to keep our slips to a minimum and to quickly amend (and recover) when slip does occur. We also illustrated the 4 steps of a perfect apology.
In Handling interruptions, we covered why people interrupt. Its actually built into our biology. We also introduced active listening and paraphrasing to reduce the occurrences of interruptions. By setting clear expectation before every interaction, we can proactively reduce interruptions and distractions.
In 10 reasons your career is stalled and False assumptions that are holding you back, we recognized several assumptions and false expectations that slow us down. By taking more ownership of our own performance and career progress, we eliminate these speed bumps.
In Being a superior follower, we talked about being a premiere team player. We realized that by releasing our ego and focusing on the team-goals, we will naturally be elevated into a leadership position. Instead of waiting for someone else to do something that is important to us, we take the initiative. We also selectively choose what we champion so that we do have the cycles and availability to participate when it is important to us.
Although the audio portion of this tool-set discusses the educational concepts, its important to also review associated PDF versions for the suggested worksheets, examples, exercises and related supporting materials.
Purpose: Give an insight on why some people have enough time to accomplish everything that they want. To give an overview of how to handle unclear and multiple directives. How to better use time to accomplish your important tasks.
Practice or concept
The secret about time is that time cannot be created. Since you cannot create more time, then you must have enough time for everything that you need and want to do. There is no other solution. Therefore, you need to make do with the time that you have. That means we need to better manage the time that we have. This chapter covers some of tricks to time mastery.
Todays discussion covers how to handle unclear and multiple directives. Whether we are in the corporate environment or starting our own small business, we have competing resources for our attention, skills and talents. How can we not only professionally handle these multiple and unclear job directives, but use these opportunities to propel us forward faster?
Who can use this? This learning package is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers
Purpose: Give an insight on why some people have enough time to accomplish everything that they want. To give an overview of the business of busyness paradox. How to conquer the wasteful traits of being constantly busy.
Practice or concept: Most of us are caught up in the what-is-ness. Were often so focused on the tediousness of our daily, tactile events, that we dont take the time needed to create time. We are caught up in the Business of Busyness, versus the specific items that will actually propel us forward faster. If you are taking this course, you are a member of an elite group that are not satisfied with the status- quo. You are striving for more. We are all a work in progress. Because were constantly changing and evolving, we cant get it wrong because were never done. Today is a perfect place to start simply because its the only place we haveright now.
The focus of this lesson is the Business of Busyness. I call the Business of Busyness a paradox. When I feel overwhelmed and stressed; frustrated by request; find myself spending more time switching from task to task instead of actually accomplish anything.. When I am in this state, all I want to do is be left alone. I want to close my doors and just get my work done. This actually the opposite of what we should be doing. We are only getting interrupted, because people value our talents, experience and competency. We dont necessarily want to turn that faucet off or change those perceptions. We just want to be able to distribute and manage those requests better.
The keys to being ease with time, is to tune-in to your passion and whats important to you. When we work through inspiration, we are working with spirit or in-spirit (inspiration). We are working in the Zone, in the flow.
When we schedule and plan for interruptions, we can better flow with the natural webs and interruptions in our day. We can be spontaneous and take advantage of some of the opportunities that cross our paths. If we include some buffer, some acknowledgement that we will be interruptedthen we can take the steps toward more realistic expectations on our time.
A good book on this topic is Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, (Harper Perennial, 1990)
Who can use this? This learning package is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers.
Purpose: Relay an important story and tool to help you keep your non-negotiables in focused.
Practice or concept The Mayonnaise Jar and the Golf Balls... Author unknown
Who can use this? This learning package is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers.
Purpose: Give an insight on why some people have enough time to accomplish everything that they want. To give an overview of how to handle delays and speed bumps. How to better use time to accomplish your important tasks.
Practice or concept: Whether you're managing a software development project or coordinating your children's soccer and dance lesson times, schedules are helpful tools for orchestrating a sequence of events. Most schedules involve a start and end date, and include tasks, task duration, and dependencies between tasks. But no matter how well you plan for a series of events, unexpected events will compete for time and threaten deadlines. People you hadn't anticipated will step into your plans and begin to influence, control, and often complicate things. When we do not handle unexpected events and the interpersonal elements well, our schedules fall apart. Good scheduling is very difficult, a combination of art and science. In this article, I will discuss realistic scheduling, which seeks to cover all the above types of events -- the planned, the possible, and the unimagined. There are some techniques that can help you keep your schedule.
It's common to hear teams complain that "we don't have enough time." We often feel overwhelmed and helpless against an aggressive schedule, and when we work "against" something like time or schedules, there is much struggle and a large chance of failure. When we stop fighting against time and work within our schedules and abilities, we increase our success rate. For instance, the schedules themselves may not be aggressive; it's just that we've chosen to put too much into that allocated time. Intelligently deciding what to put into the schedule and how to work within those boundaries is within our control.
Who can use this? This learning package is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers.
Purpose: Give an insight on why some people have enough time to accomplish everything that they want. To give an overview of how to handle unclear and multiple directives. How to better use time to get back on schedule after a project delay.
Practice or concept: An high-performing professional expects speed-bumps and actually plans for the unexpected. So how does one do this intelligently to synchronize with the final delivery dates? There are several tools in the good professionals arsenal:
- Acknowledging the natural ebb and flow of a project
- Recovery Protocol
- Critical Path Analysis
The next two lessons will cover some high-level points of these points.
Purpose: Give an insight on why some people have enough time to accomplish everything that they want. How to better handle delays in your projects. How to realize that you are becoming the bottleneck and how to extricate yourself.
Practice or concept Last lesson we focused on acknowledging the natural flow of a project which includes periodic speed bumps and roadblocks. Today we will focus on using critical path analysis to keep our delivery dates and commitments. Diagramming the critical paths of your commitments accomplishes several things:
1) Identifies imaginary dependencies
2) Highlights invisible bottlenecks
3) Allows you to de-tangle the issues before they materialize.
Purpose: To improve your working relationship with your manager, executives and customers. To improve your estimation skills.
Practice or concept Time is just a form of measurement. Its a tool for our convenience. Just like there are 12 inches in a foot, and 3 feet in a yard or 16 ounces in a pound, there are 60 minutes in an hour. We dont normally stress if we have more material than we would like for a shirt, we simply measure and cut what we desire. We dont normally feel guilty when we cannot pour 8 pounds of sugar into a 5 pound sack. Why do we fret when we cannot fit our activities into the time allotted?
The simplistic answer is that, unlike measuring material or sugar, activities are less tangible and tactile. We can estimate how much 3 yards of material looks like. We can estimate what 5 pounds of sugar, wheat, or flour looks like. We are just not good at estimating what 1 hour of activity looks like.
Some will argue that every task is different, so its impossible to estimate how long something takes. That may be true if you only do a task one time and every task is so dramatically different. Then it would be impossible to interpolate from other similar tasks. This is not the case. Eight out of 10 cases, you will be doing similar things; therefore, you can log how long they are actually taking you. Once you take the time to log the actual time, you can better estimate for next time.
Welcome to Review of the Mastery of Time.
The secret about time is that time cannot be created. Since you cannot create more time, then you must have enough time for everything that you need and want to do. There is no other solution. Therefore, you need to make do with the time that you have. That means we need to better manage the time that we have. In this lesson, we covered:
1. Timeboxing
2. The business of business and its cures
3. The Basics of Realistic Scheduling
4. Taking Care of Business
In Timeboxing, we discussed the importance of deliberating timing our activities. The only way to improve our time management, time estimates and time wasting is to get used to measuring time. A major contributor to inaccurate estimates and chronic lateness is that we dont really understand how much activity fits in an hour (or a unit of time). We can accurately guess how much 3 yards of material looks like. We can eye-ball what 5 pounds of sugar, wheat, or flour looks like. We are just not good at calculating what 1 hour of activity holds. The first step is to get comfortable with how long time really is.
In the Business of Busyness, we talked about the paradox of being busy. The act of busyness isnt directly proportional to significant and meaningful results. Being busy doesnt mean that you are productive. Taking the Business of Busyness Challenge helps identify your problem areas. We showed how the Sprint and Buffer technique can be used to help keep us on schedule, as well as make progress on tedious but important tasks. We talked about the importance of de-cluttering our lives from unnecessary tasks, procedures, beneath-level responsibilities, and even people. For without the needed space and time to take on advanced-level projects, we will stay forever stuck in our current environment.
In the 12 Tricks to Realistic Scheduling article and video presentation, we covered several techniques to overcome our typical pitfalls. We covered several tools such as the 4D, 4 Quadrant Method, Change Management review, Critical Paths and Bottlenecks.
In Taking Care of Business, we covered several techniques to focusing on the important and imperative items. We found ways to eliminate the unimportant and non-urgent items. We discussed technique on how to increase your estimation accuracy. We used the 4D method, 4 Quadrant techniques and the URGO Method to prioritize and illustrate the true ROI of activities.
Although the audio portion of this toolset discusses the educational concepts, its important to also review PDF versions for the suggested worksheets, exercises and related supporting materials.
Purpose: Give an overview of the soft skills required to increase reliability, dependability and premium customer service.
Practice or concept Scheduling and focusing just 10 minutes a day on your career and professional development is enough to make huge strides. Today we are reviewing the 10 Tools in 10 Minutes excerpt from the IT Professional Development Toolkit. These specific tools allow you to fast track through the corporate bureaucracy to gain appropriate professional recognition and rewards. This is a quick overview of the tools and worksheets that you will find in the IT Professional Development Toolkit Vol1. All the worksheets, templates, and checklists are designed to be used in 10 minutes blocks.
Purpose: Give an overview of the Professional (or Personal) Business Commitment document. Be able to know exactly where you stand in regards to your performance and managers expectations.
Practice or Concept: The Personal Business Commitment or Professional Business Commitment tool as a great way to communicate your goals and commitments to your manager. But what makes up a PBC? Who creates it? Who approves it? How does it fit in the performance rating process?
Lets take these questions individually.
Its natural to shy away from evaluations, judgment, risk of rejection and confrontations. A performance evaluation or performance review meeting with your manager certainly falls into this category. Most of us postpone or even avoid such conversations until it is too late. When we feel we are doing well, we dont think we need to discuss it. When we feel we are not doing well, we avoid it. In both cases, were postponing the cure. The cure, of course, is to take command of your own performance and the management of your own career.
Step 1: Take ownership of your own career.
Step 2: Understand how performance ratings are created.
Step 3: Declare your Personal Business Commitments upfront.
Who can use this? This learning package is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers.
Purpose: Give an overview of the Individual Development Plan (IDP) and the Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) documents. Be able to know exactly where you stand in regards to your performance and managers expectations.
Practice or concept
An Individual Development Plan (IDP) is a formal document that identifies an individuals learning and development goals. The individual and the Manager should jointly develop the plan. The plan would include training, skill sessions, and coaching events (formal and informal) to acquire the skills needed to achieve the IDP goals. Input into the IDP includes (but not limited to):
- Dream Sculpting Worksheet
- Non-negotiable and Imperative List
- Professional Business Commitment Plan
- Individual Network Strategy Plan
The Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) is designed to facilitate constructive discussion between the employee and manager and to clarify work performance to be improved. Once the employee and manager have developed the plan, a copy of the document is kept in the employees personnel file. The manager will monitor and provide feedback to the employee regarding their performance and may take additional disciplinary action, if warranted, through the Company's Progressive Discipline Process.
The manager should review the following 6 items with the employee when using the attached template:
1. State performance to be improved (be specific and cite examples).
2. State the level of work performance expectation and that it must be performed on a consistent basis and within a specified time period.
3. Specify the support/resources you will provide to assist the employee.
4. Communicate your plan for providing feedback to the employee (meetings, with whom and how often).
5. Specify possible consequences if performance standards are not met.
6. Provide sources of additional information (i.e. Company policy if applicable).
Who can use this? This learning package is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers.
Purpose: Give an overview of the importance of powerful and open-ended questions. How the right question can reduce stress and frustration between coworkers.
Practice or concept
I had a vivid dream last night. In this dream, a friend was very proud of her published article in a certain magazine. She asked me to read it. I was very excited and was looking forward to a pleasant and proud read, Sure, where is it? She hands me the magazine and says, Its in there. I start thumbing through the magazine. The type was very small, and all the articles started with the same 6 words, making it:
1) Very difficult to read, because the type was small and in italics.
2) Time consuming, because all the article titles started the same.
I was squinting and found myself losing interest the longer I searched. Then my self-doubt set in. Maybe I scanned the titles too quickly? Maybe I misread some of the titles? Maybe Ive actually passed the article? So I confessed, I cant seem to find the article in here. She quickly said, Its in there. The more I searched, the more impatient I became. Im not seeing it.
She was now getting frustrated, Its there. Keep looking. By the time I found the article on page 101, I was not in the right frame of mind to read it. At this moment I woke up with one question in my head: Why didnt I ask which page her article was on, in the first place?
Asking the right question isnt as easy as it sounds. First we need to recognize that an important question needs to be asked. Second we need to decide what that important question would be.
In my dream, I was so caught up in the action of finding the article that I did not pause to recognize my mounting frustration. Although my initial goal was to pleasantly and proudly read my friends published article, it mutated into merely finding the article. By the time I actually found it, I was neither pleasant nor excited. Even though I found the article, I didnt read it (failed at the essence of my goal).
One recommendation is to use your emotional trigger of frustration, or impatience as a sign that a question needs to be asked.
Who can use this? This learning package is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers.
Purpose: Give an overview of the advantage of scheduling frequent one-on-one meetings with your manager. To illustrate how regularly scheduled meetings encourages and supports transparency in everything that you do.
Practice or concept
If the only time you meet with your manager is when there is a problem or during performance review time, those meetings will be nerve-racking. Practice makes perfect. The more often you meet with your manager, the more at ease you will be.
Who can use this? This learning package is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers.
Purpose: Give an overview of how your boss mind works. Dismiss various false assumptions regarding what is important to your manager.
Practice or concept:
Todays topic is What you really need to know about how your boss mind works.
- Even if you are very happy where you are and you dont have any executive level aspirations.
- Even if you feel very comfortable and arent called to take that leap into entrepreneurship.
- Even if your only goal is to stay in this same job until you retire and to not rock the boat.
- Even so its important to understand how your manager and executives minds work.
By getting into the habit of thinking like the owner you will be able to anticipate and predict important shifts and turns in your own work environment. You will be better prepared for the unexpected.
Purpose: Give an overview of the advantage of outlining effective communication plans, especially in these diverse and distributed working environments.
Practice or concept
Most people complain that their meetings are ineffective or they are not getting the timely response from others that they feel they deserve. Even though we cannot change others, we can change how we interact with them to increase our communication success.
In these diverse and distributed working environments, not all of us are on the same time zones or technology level. Understanding how individuals best communicate will greatly benefit you and your flow of results.
Who can use this? This learning package is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers.
Purpose: Give an overview of the importance of concise and on purpose meetings
Practice or concept:
Effective meeting management skills are not just for the board room. Everyone could benefit from these useful tips. Check out a question that I recently received regarding chronic lateness.
Question: I had a potential roommate to interview. I emailed him that I would be at the house until 11:45am and that I needed to leave for another appointment at that time. He arrived by 11:40 and then I couldnt find a good way to end the conversation. He made me 30 minutes late for my next appointment.
This happens often to me.
Answer: It is hard to "cut-off" a conversation, especially if this person took time and effort to travel to your location and the goal of the meeting had not been completed. We often feel we're being rude and not considerate to that person. But when we're delayed and making someone else late or wait on us, we're also being rude and inconsiderate to the other person.
Here are some things that could have been done upfront.
Who can use this? This learning package is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers.
Purpose: Give an overview of the importance of personalizing the customer experience.
Practice or concept: Developers, testers and customers perceive defects and fixes quite differently. Once you understand the clients perspective, you may notice different ways to handle them. Below is a helpful cheat sheet on how to better react to the different reactions.
Who can use this? This learning package is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers.
Purpose: Give an overview of the Individual Networking Strategy workbook. Use the INS workbook to build your business networking strategy.
Practice or concept:
If the idea of networking triggers a negative reaction, then lets use another word. Lets use building relationships. Thats what networking really it. Networking is connecting with others with a specific purpose. You are essentially creating strategic partners in your shared success. Building the proper relationships at work will allow you to accomplish several things:
- Autonomy allows you more access to self-directed projects
- Mastery opportunities for growth to excel in the areas that you really want
- Purpose clarifies your overall goals within and outside the company
Networking isnt just for business owners. It is the strategic relationships at the workplace that allow some people to live up to their full potential while others watch from the sidelines.
How does one go about creating an Individual Networking or Marketing Plan?
Most business owners acknowledge the need for a marketing and network plan. It's good business.
Welcome to Review of the Effective Professional Development Tools
In this lesson, we covered:
1. Dream Sculpting Worksheet
2. Non-negotiable and Imperative Charts
3. Professional Business Commitment Plan
4. Individual Career Development Plan
5. Meeting Management Checklist
6. One-on-one Manager/Employee Agenda
7. Professional Career Press Kit
8. Appropriate Client Response Cheat Sheet
9. INS Individual Network Strategy for business IT network
Although the audio portion of this tool-set discusses the educational concepts, its important to also review associated PDF versions for the suggested worksheets, examples, exercises and related supporting materials.
- Effective communication. The exchange of information
- Influencing the organization. The ability to get things done
- Leadership. Developing a vision an strategy, and inspiring people to achieve that vision and strategy
- Inspiration. Energizing people to achieve high levels of performance.
- Negotiation and conflict management. Conferring with others to reach an agreement Problem solving. The combination of problem definition, alternatives identification and analysis, and decision-making.
Purpose: To encourage professionals to ask for exactly what they want. To share techniques to attract the right people, supporters and projects your advantage. To eliminate clutter from your schedule so that you have the space, resources and time for the prestigious projects.
Practice or concept: As an effective and prestigious project and client magnet, you have a wealth of interpersonal skills which includes:
Who can use this? This learning package is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers.
Purpose: To improve your working relationship with your manager, executives and customers. To expand your level of influence in your organization and company. To take that leap to the next professional level
Practice or concept
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
- Albert Einstein
If you want to raise your professional bar, you will have to do something different. This means moving out of your comfort zone a little. It may mean trying something a little scary. Once you have your Career Vision and Dream Sculpting Worksheet complete, you may find that you have some skills gaps. For instance, if your 10 year goal is to be an owner of a successful company you find that your technical background is great, but your business and marketing skills is lacking. Taking temporary positions in sales, marketing and customer advocacy roles may feel uncomfortable but will help close those gaps.
Using your Adjacent Career Paths to fill those gaps is one way to populate your portfolio. The adjacent positions are different roles that share your transferable skills. They are often complementary positions that are either a lateral band/level or a promotion. If you accept a lateral position make sure the role includes opportunities to learn and experience the skills that you need to fill your career gaps.
Who can use this? This business relationship tip is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers.
Purpose:
Every year, many people explore New Year Resolutions. But Im not here to talk about New Year Resolutions. I want to discuss changes that will boost your IT career to the next level. These career boosting tips will assure that you have a happy and prosperous career.
These resolutions have 3 things in common:
1. They are very easy to accomplish.
2. We want to do a little every day (do not get overwhelmed by trying them all at once).
3. We dont want to worry about the results, because the results will actually be delayed.
Before I share the actual resolutions, there are 2 critical prerequisites:
- A clear and concise outline of your mission statement
- Be comfortable articulating it to people that cross your path
A Clear mission or vision statement:
This vision, mission or career goal statement should be well-rounded. It should have a 360 degree view to include your IT professional development aspirations, personal development ambitions, family goals, social and relationship aims, body and health objectives, financial targets, community and spiritual passions. It also needs to be concise (within 25 words) and practiced. This will be your 30 second commercial. Many times our goals and resolutions are placed in a drawer, lost in our journal or filed away on our computer. By continually and concisely articulating it to the appropriate people that cross your path throughout the year, you will keep your goals visible and alive. These people include your manager, the director of your IT department, your HR representative, your clients, your IT training facilitators, potential company clients, people interested in your current and future work.
To assist in the above, review the Dream Sculpting Worksheet and the Next Year in the Making: A Review Challenge. These tools cover many areas of a busy and discriminating life; and can be found in the IT Professional Development Tools section.
10 Career Boosting Resolutions:
Below are the actual 10 Career Boosting Resolutions. We will talk about each separately (through audios, videos, and various articles) in the IT Professional Development Toolkit.
10 Career Boosting Tips Developing Strong Professional Networking System
1. Convey your mission to at least one person each day
2. Ask at least one person each day about their goals
3. Focus on the relationship you are building versus the detail IT task
4. Surround yourself with exciting and motivated people in IT
5. Create a network of supporters and collaborators that are in line and excited about your vision
6. Emphasize ethics, honesty and integrity in everything that you do
7. Elevate those around you
8. Be aware of the abundance of possibilities
9. Delegate or delete items that are not aligned with your goals
10. Acknowledge that everything is unfolding perfectly
Who can use this? This learning package is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers.
Purpose: Illustrate that it is important to polish off our professionalism before the first point of client contact.
Practice or Concept: We typically associate with folks of the same socioeconomic circles. So, if you want to jump to a different salary or professional level, we may need to change who we hang around with. If you want to leap to the next professional rung, we may want to find ways to network with people of that next desired level. In other words, surround ourselves with the success we want to achieve.
The best way to surround ourselves with the right people is to learn how to make a good first impression. But sometimes we dont realize when the first impression actually starts. It often starts long before we meet the person.
Who can use this? This learning package is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers.
Purpose: Share techniques and recommendation for remote employees and employers. The more significant business connections and collaborations that you make the more doors that will be open for you.
Practice or concept
Networking is critical in any career minded individual. But its even more so in a remote and global environment. Now that you are a remote employer or employee, you need to take your networking skills to the next level. Gone are the days when you can easily bump into a conversation regarding a high- profile upcoming project. Because you are not in the office and halls, your name and face is less likely to cross the minds of 2nd line managers that dont regularly work with you. You are not as recognizable as you would be if you were seen in the cafeteria. It really is the case of Out of sight, out of mind.
Understanding how your boss mind works helps you anticipate issues and concerns. If you are not a manager, then ask your manager to do the following for you. These concepts are interchangeable and adaptive.
Who can use this? This learning package is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers.
Purpose: Give an insight on why being fully satisfied and laid-back at work can be a detriment in the long run. If you have already accomplished all your goals, your dreams were not big enough.
Practice or concept
I recently heard several friends comment that they have been in their last position for 15 year; they are satisfied with it; the work is easy; the people are nice; and they get to put in their 8 hours and go home. Its not stressful and they are not motivated to do any more than is asked of them because there is no opportunity for advancement and raises at the current company.
I really do think this is very nice. My only concern is that - although you have no plans to work anyplace else, the owner of the company may have other plans. Successful small businesses have a tendency to be purchased. Small business owners goal is to actually attract the selling of their company for millions and billions of dollars. During mergers and acquisitions, redundant positions are eliminated. Often times the highly valued professionals will easily find another job (whether in this new company or at a different place). People with out-dated skills (which were adequate for the current position, but are antiquated to the new company) are released.
Welcome to Review of the Becoming a prestigious project and client magnet. As an effective and prestigious project and client magnet, you have a wealth of interpersonal skills which includes:
- Effective communication. The exchange of information
- Influencing the organization. The ability to get things done
- Leadership. Developing a vision an strategy, and inspiring people to achieve that vision and strategy
- Inspiration. Energizing people to achieve high levels of performance.
- Negotiation and conflict management. Conferring with others to reach an agreement
- Problem solving. The combination of problem definition, alternatives identification and analysis, and decision-making.
In this lesson, we covered:
1. Raising the Professional Bar
2. 10 Career Boosting Tips
3. Attracting the right attention
4. Gaining Visibility
5. Thinking like a Pro
In Raising the Professional Bar, we realized that we need to do things differently to get different results. If we are consistently getting Below Average or Average performance ratings and we want Above Average or Excellent ratings, we need to do something different from what we have been doing. This means moving out of our comfort zones. This may mean doing something a little scary. In this chapter, we introduced the idea of Adjacent Roles to get to your final destination. Sometimes the journey is not a straight path upward, but a zigzag continually forward.
In 10 Career Boosting Tips, we talked about tips to get that exceptional performance evaluation as well as achieving your 5 and 10 year goals. We discussed the importance of a clear mission statement and how critical it is to get comfortable articulating it to people. This is what we use to create your 30 second commercial.
In Attracting the right attention, we discovered that we typically associate with folks of the same socio- economic circles. So, if you want to jump to a different salary or professional level, we may need to change who we hang around with. If you want to leap to the next professional rung, we may want to find ways to network with people of that next desired level. In other words, surround ourselves with the success we want to achieve. The next step to attracting the right people is to study what makes a good first impression. In this chapter, we discussed various ways to make the good first impression.
In the Gaining Visibility, we shared audios, article and video presentation that covered remote employee and employers issues. Although working from home or other distributed work environment is convenient, we realize that it comes with some additional responsibilities. We have already recognized that our career and professional development is our responsibility. Networking is critical in any career minded individual. But its even more so in a remote and global environment. Now that you are a remote employee, you need to take your networking skills to the next level. Gone are the days when you can easily bump into a conversation regarding a high-profile upcoming project. Because you are not in the office and halls, your name and face is less likely to cross the minds of 2nd line managers that dont ordinarily work with you. You are not as. It really is the case of Out of sight, out of mind.
In Thinking Like a Pro, we discussed the risk of being too complacent at the office. Many people are satisfied with average ratings, no raises, no challenges and no opportunities for advancement. They may have been in the same position for 15 years. They enjoy the company and the people that they work with. They are happy putting in 8 hours and walking away. And they can explain away the reasons for no advancement and raises. Even though you have no intention of leaving this job, the company may have other plans. Small successful businesses tend to get purchased. Redundant positions are often eliminated. Out-dated skills are removed. Having a comfortable, stress free 9-5 work environment is a perfect place to add external interests and new career skills.
Although the audio portion of this toolset discusses the educational concepts, its important to also review PDF versions for the suggested worksheets, exercises and related supporting materials.
As a Business Process Consultant and Efficiency Coach, I am a subject matter expert in the field of Process Improvement. I work closely with the client to analyze both operational processes and financial metrics to assess project opportunities that positively impact the financial performance of the client business. In that role, I see a few misconceptions in how to make office changes (or any change for that matter). The most prevalent false premise is to start where you are and take small steps. That may be the resulting action but I dont recommend we start there.
3 Top Office Changers are:
1) Clearly articulate where you want to be, do and have.
2) Educate or review the explicit and specific foundation pieces required to get there (i.e., business plan, resources, staff, funds,etc)
3) Evaluate where you currently are against those specific foundation pieces.
Once you have identified where you want to be and where you currently are in relationship to the new destination, throw away any past maps that got you to todays location.
Practice forgetting:
My recommendation is to practice forgetting how you got where you are today. Many of those processes and procedures definitely assisted you to this point. But now you are going to a different place. Therefore, you need a different map. You may find that many of your current procedures are still valid. But that is not the goal. So, forget those old procedures for the time being. Focus on putting in place the right procedures for your new goals and destination. If, after you have identified the right procedures for where you are today and where you want to be tomorrow you find that some old procedures still work; that is fine. But dont try to fit the new square peg in the old round hole. Remember, to advance and evolve, you need to do some things differently.
The caveat is also true: Do not dismiss things that did not work in the past, just because you tried that before and it did not work. You are a different person today. You have a different team. And you have a different situation and goal. Just because that process did not work in that different situation, does not automatically make it irrelevant today. It could just mean that it was a great idea before its time. And now its the right time.
Conclusion: Consider your GPS. When you have a new destination or goal, your GPS doesnt try to force you to travel the same path as you did last week or last month. Your past paths have no relevancy to your current GPS navigation. Your GPS starts from scratch every time. Depending upon the gap between where you currently are and your new destination, there may be some roads and routes in common. But thats not the GPSs focus. Its just a consequence of time and space not the goal. Your Business Practices should be treated the same.
Although the audio portion of this tool-set discusses the educational concepts, its important to also review PDF versions for the suggested worksheets, exercises and related supporting materials.
Purpose: Illustrate real-world interest and need in this type of information. Share various radio and television interviews regarding this topic
Practice or concept : This chapter contains an audio collage of radio, TV and webinar interview regarding professional and career development issues. The shows range from the NBCs My Carolina Today television on the East Coast; to the radio and TV shows both ProdManTalk (California), Association of International Product marketing and Management (California) and SSWUG TV (Arizona) on the West Coast. illustrating the topics is truly real-world and relevant.
Who can use this? This learning package is useful in both the professional and personal arena. It is an effective tool for executives, managers, team members, technical staff and even customers.
Career Boosting Resolutions
How to do the Scary Things
How to Exit a Job Interview
How to Pick the Right NEXT Technology
How to Prepare for New Hires
Quantifying your Performance
Taking the next IT Career Leap
Handling Unclear Job Directives
A Clear mission or vision statement:
This vision, mission or career goal statement should be well-rounded.It should have a 360° view to include your IT professional development aspirations, personal development ambitions, family goals, social and relationship aims, body and health objectives, financial targets, community and spiritual passions.
Learning these tips is only the first step. Now is the time to take actionable steps. This worksheet can help identify the areas that you most want to change, find appropriate supporters and accountability partners and put in place a structured schedule for change.
If you are wondering if it's time for your next promotion, career or challenge and are not sure, use this worksheet to help decide.
Download the form from the supplementary section.
There is much written on Effective Meeting Management. This video gives some quick tips. This is a quick checklist to use when preparing for an effective meeting:
- Have a purpose and success criteria for this meeting
- Have an agenda with time tables.
- Stick to your time table and meeting ground rules
- Dont leave without verifying that youve met your meetings success criteria with a Summary of your action items, owners, deadlines (See Rigorously Institute Reasonable Forcing Functions)
Sample agenda for an informal meeting can be found in the Supplementary Material. This short video provides some tips to creating an effective meeting agenda.
Consider that any time you are interacting with one or more people, that is a meeting. Practice good meeting management planning and execution in all your interactions.
Clearly articulate your goals and time frame for each interaction (even if it's an adhoc interruption), and you will be successful in staying on schedule.
Reviewing these tips does us very little, if we don't take action. Below is a helpful implementation and profess chcklist for your use. Pick an accountability partner with similar goals (check with the people taking this same course), set a regular meeting dates, and review your progress on these times.
Hold each other accountable for each other's goals. It will help.
Use this Career Resolution worksheet to define your goals and line up your entourage of supporters and accountability partners.
- Your manager is not responsible for making sure you have a satisfying professional or personal life.
- Your manager is not responsible for making sure you have a decent work/life balance.
- Your manager is not responsible for making sure you get along with your co-workers.
- Your manager is not responsible for making sure you get the proper exposure to other managers and executives to assure that you keep your job.
- And your manager is not responsible for making sure you understand all of the above.
This is your job. Use this worksheet to stay in control of your career.
Most of us use a Pro and Con list to help make decisions. Consider using this Pro and XCon worksheet to eliminate the Cons to make faster and more successful decisions.
Download the form in the Supplementary Material section.
Reviewing these tips does us very little, if we don't take action. Below is a helpful implementation and profess chcklist for your use. Pick an accountability partner with similar goals (check with the people taking this same course), set a regular meeting dates, and review your progress on these times.
Hold each other accountable for each other's goals. It will help.
Instructions for the worksheet
1)Review each items and rank your current progress on each item
2)Dont get overwhelmed, and just look at the items that you marked at 6, and 7.
3)Put a plan together the increase just those items at least an 8.
4)Once those items have moved to an 8, you will see that the others have moved up as well.
5)Repeat until all items are at least to an 8
Become the CEO and Rainmaker of your own life. Fill out this checklist to help get you there.
There are many online tools to help you build a new habit to success. This is a list of 10 (mostly free) tools. Review and find the ones that best fit your personality and MO.
Take time to celebrate your accomplishment by outlining your accomplishments in this worksheet.
Download the worksheet from the Supplementary Material section.
Revisit this course from time to time. As you continue to evolve, your perspective on certain things will also change. And this course will also continue to evolve and change. Check back.
Related Articles.zip contains all the articles in this lecture. But you can also pick and choose to download just the articles that you are interested in, at this time.
7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a well-known personal development book by Stephen Covey. This lecture takes those 7 habits and focuses on the professional and career environment.
Sun Tsu was a practical philosopher who wrote the The Art of War in about 500 B.C.
For centuries The Art of War was held the preeminent position among both Chinese and Japanese strategist.
In 2001 Gerald Michaelson translated it for the business world, titled,The Art of War for Managers.Ive borrowed both Sun Tsu and Gerald Michaelsons ideas, and brought them into the realm of the High Performing Project Managers.These same fundamental principles define our best.
Although there are about 50 strategies (categorized in thirteen sections) this presentation just review the first 3 or 4 categories.
Laying Plans
Waging War
Attack by Stratagem
Disposition of Military Strength
Use of Energy
Weakness and Strength
Maneuvering
Variation of Tactics
On the March
Terrain
The Nine Varieties of Ground
Attack by Fire
Employment of Secret Agents
Would you network if it meant?
Sharpening your craft
Expanding your influence reach
Increasing your resources
Doing more with less work
Collaborating with like-minded people
Getting the job of your dreams
Receiving top performance evaluations
Supporting Powerpoint Presentations/Videos
For full answers to these practice exercise, purchase the book "The Book of Answers: 105 Career Critical Situations"
Additional Practice Examples
Modify the below scenarios to better match your experience:
- Your co-worker is dependent on your hand-off. You were unable to meet your previous schedule and you dont want to commit to another date (for fear that you will not meet that one either). So, you avoid making any commitments at all thinking that if you dont make a commitment, you cant be late. Without your dates, your co-worker cannot properly project manage his piece. He is unable to work with you this way. Avoiding making a commitment is not increasing your reliability or dependability. What steps do you take to succeed?
- Your co-worker is consistently late for your one-on-one meetings. Since his actions are repeatable and consistent, you should be able to manage around the situation. What steps do you take to succeed?
- Your team mate asks for your help on his important high-profile client issues. You are knowledgeable in the area and feel you can get the task done in a few days. What steps do you take to succeed?
- Your team is getting a little on edge. Your group has been working extra hours and are getting grumpy. What do you do to succeed?
- You have just been promoted to lead on this project above more experienced and older staff members. You sense some resentment and jealousy. What do you do to succeed?
- You need time with your manager, but he doesnt seem to have the time. What do you do to succeed?
- You have fallen behind in some deliverables but your manager is not asking for an update. What steps do you take to succeed?
- You are reporting your issues (and asking for help) in email to your manager, but you are not getting any response. What steps do you take to succeed?
- You have a distributed team (some folks work from home, some are in different time zones
- Your features depend upon the progress of other pieces, but you are having trouble getting status on the various pieces. What steps do you take to succeed?
- Your company has not blocked any time or budget for your professional/career development. What steps do you take to succeed?
- You are not excited or enthusiastic about working with a coworker or on a particular maintenance project. You see it as a dead-end position. What steps do you take to succeed?
- You are a participant in a weekly meeting. You feel the meetings are ineffectual and a waste of time. You are not the facilitator. What steps do you take to succeed?
- Your manager outlined some tasks for you to do. You dont really understand the reason for the task and the steps seem wasteful. What steps do you take to succeed?
- Somehow you are on the phone with unhappy customer. This is not your job. What steps do you take to succeed?
- You are on a technical call with an unhappy customer. You are convinced that the problem is in the third-party code and cannot fix it. The client doesnt really care where the problem is; he just knows he purchased the product from you and its not accomplishing what the customer needs it to do. What steps do you take to succeed?
The follow-up practices (or chapters) will go into detail on how to approach all of the above, while staying focused on your individual performance and career goals.
For full answers to these practice exercise, purchase the book "The Book of Answers: 105 Career Critical Situations"
Modify the below scenarios to better match your experience:
- I get great ideas while I am working. These ideas are separate and have very little to do with the original task. Often time I veer off to explore that new (but separate) idea and forget about my original goal. What do I do to succeed?
- I arranged to work from home, so that I can home-school and spend more time with my family. But now my family is constantly interrupting me as I try to complete my work. What do I do to succeed?
- I told a client that their website would be done within 5 weeks. Its week 10 and its still not complete. The client keeps calling for an update and a date when its going to be completed. I dont know when its going to be done because I dont know how to estimate these things. What do I do to succeed?
- I always underestimate how long things will take. Now, no one believes my estimates and schedules. What do I do to succeed?
- My days are very stressful. I come home every day exhausted and dejected. I am going 100 m/h all the time. I dont have any time to breathe. What do I do to succeed?
- I am overwhelmed with everything that I am responsible for. I have started to string people along with empty promises and blowing them off on previous scheduled meetings. I continue to promise to meet with them later, but dont have the time to actually attend the meeting. What do I do to succeed? 2) I email and text people at the last minute to cancel appointments because I cant face them in person. What do I do to succeed?
- I am avoiding commitments so that I dont make empty promises. What do I do to succeed?
- My partner avoids making commitments so I cant assign him any tasks and know when he will be delivering them. What do I do to succeed?
- At the regular staff meeting, I am asked when I will be done with my project. I dont have an answer. What do I do to succeed?
- I am a Band 9 but most of my activities and duties are considered Band 7 and Band 8 responsibilities. They are important tasks, but are below the expectations for a Band 9. If I continue to do these tasks, I will receive a below expectation performance rating because I am up living up to a Band 9 performance. What do I do to succeed?
- I am waiting on responses from the CEO on a survey. I dont know how many CEOs are intending to response. Therefore, I dont know how long to wait. What do I do to succeed?
- One of your non-negotiables is to learn more about XX technology; but you company doesnt have the budget to send you to training. What do you do to succeed?
- Your 10 year plan is to own beachfront property and have that be your primary home. You want to be a successful consultant who travel to customer sites for your work, and come home to the beach between jobs. You want to feel like you are on vacation when you are at home. What do you do to succeed?
- You are drawn more to community service and see yourself campaigning for both local and state positions. You can see how your engineering, customer advocacy and innovation will be a strong foundation. What do you do to succeed?
- One of your IDP goals is to write your book, but you havent spent any time on that project in the last 6 months. What do you do to succeed?
For full answers to these practice exercise, purchase the book "The Book of Answers: 105 Career Critical Situations"
Modify the below scenarios to better match your experience:
1. I am a Band 9 Senior Level Engineer, but I am not doing Band 9 duties. I am doing lower level tasks. These tasks are important and we dont have anyone else that we can assign the task. Therefore, I am stepping up to do them. But its now jeopardizing my performance rating. What do I do to succeed?
2. How can I better elevate my current tasks to raise my performance bar? What do I do to succeed?
3. Ive been at the same position and job for 15 years. I like the company and the people. . Im happy putting in my 8 hours and leaving. I dont see myself working anywhere else. But I dont have control over what the company does. What if the company is sold or needs to consolidate. What if my department is phased out. I am too young to retire. What do I do to succeed?
4. I work for a non-profit for 15 years. I havent received a raise in a long time. Because I work for a non-profit, I dont get paid very much to begin with. I can pay my bills but dont have any savings. On the other hand, I enjoy the company, the work and the people. I like putting in my 8 hours a day and leave work at the office. What do I do to succeed?
5. I am consistently getting passed-over for advancement and high-profile projects. What do I do to succeed?
6. Joe is getting the more visibility and high-profile projects. How do I steal some of those project and clients away from Joe? What do I do to succeed?
7. I am consistently getting passed-over for advancement and high-profile projects. What do I do to succeed?
8, I get great ideas while I am working. These ideas are separate and have very little to do with the original task. Often time I veer off to explore that new (but separate) idea and forget about my original goal. What do I do to succeed?
9. I arranged to work from home, so that I can home-school and spend more time with my family. But now my family is constantly interrupting me as I try to complete my work. What do I do to succeed?
10. I told a client that their website would be done within 5 weeks. Its week 10 and its still not complete. The client keeps calling for an update and a date when its going to be completed. I dont know when its going to be done because I dont know how to estimate these things. What do I do to succeed?
11. I always underestimate how long things will take. Now, no one believes my estimates and schedules. What do I do to succeed?
For full answers to these practice exercise, purchase the book "The Book of Answers: 105 Career Critical Situations"
Modify the below scenarios to better match your experience:
1. Joe seems to get all the right projects. What do I do to succeed?
2. I want to get a new job and I have been looking for quite some time. But I dont see any jobs that I really want. Theres always something that I dont like about the new positions or the people that I will be working with. What do I do to succeed?
3. My manager has been alluding to the fact that receiving a series of 2-Ratings (Average) is not a good thing. My last 5 performance ratings have been 2-Ratings. What do I do to succeed?
4. I am a Band 9 Senior Level Engineer, but I am not doing Band 9 duties. I am doing lower level tasks. These tasks are important and we dont have anyone else that we can assign the task. Therefore, I am stepping up to do them. But its now jeopardizing my performance rating. What do I do to succeed?
5. My manager has been telling me to look at other positions within the organization since my last performance review. The problem is that I like working from home, the people that I work with, and I am comfortable doing what I am doing. I dont want to change jobs. What do I do to succeed?
6. Ive been at the same position and job for 15 years. I like the company and the people. . Im happy putting in my 8 hours and leaving. I dont see myself working anywhere else. But I dont have control over what the company does. What if the company is sold or needs to consolidate. What if my department is phased out? I am too young to retire. What do I do to succeed?
7. I work for a non-profit for 15 years. I havent received a raise in a long time. Because I work for a non-profit, I dont get paid very much to begin with. I can pay my bills but dont have any savings. On the other hand, I enjoy the company, the work and the people. I like putting in my 8 hours a day and leave work at the office. What do I do to succeed?
8. How do I use my PBC and Resume to raise my professional bar? What do I do to succeed?
9.I want to be realized as an expert in my field. I want to become a Distinguished Engineer and then a Fellow (which is the highest, most prestigious technical level at IBM). But that requires that I get published, hold patents, and give speak and present on various topics. These all scare me and I dont know where to start. What do I do to succeed?
10. I feel that I am an expert in my field. I feel that I do excellent work. I talked my manager into giving me the title of Distinguished Engineer. I am now starting to get below average performance reviews because I do not travel, give lectures, have a patent, or am published in my field. I feel that people are expecting the Peter Principle: "Employees tend to rise to their level of incompetence." I dont want this to happen to me. What steps do I take to succeed?
11. I want to raise my professional level. But I work in a family-owned business and there is no room for advancement. I like where I work and the people that I am working with. I dont want to leave. What steps do I take to succeed?
12. I want to raise my professional bar, but I work for a non-profit organization. There isnt any room to advance. What steps do I take to succeed?
13. There is a shake-up at the top. How do I protect my job when there is a shake up at the top? What steps do I take to succeed?
14. How do I know what type of job I have signed up for? What steps do I take to succeed?
15. I want to start a new career. But no one is interested in hiring me because I dont have explicit experience in that new career or role. What steps do I take to succeed?
o Read How to prepare for an interview when you have a long-employment gap article in the Related Articles section
o Use Transferability Skills Checklist to identify the professional skills that you have in common with the new career.
Possible Next Career Coaching Steps
Professional Mastermind and Synergy Group -A group forum consists of 4-6 individuals with similar professional backgrounds and career goals. The size gives you enough one-on-one attention in a session, but at a reduced rate.
1-on-1 Career Coaching:If you havent worked with a business or success coach before, you may not have any idea how to proceed.There are a few programs:
- If you have a specific project or goal to accomplish, we work toward that task until accomplished
- If you have more general things that are affecting you at the time, we work on those items
- Client defines how they want to work and for how long
02:56: Welcome to the IT Professional Development Toolkit. This is Laura Lee Rose and I am the author and host for this course. This program will train you in the
Blended Schools Network Professional Development Courses ...
Ed tech company Sibling Group Holdings will make all of its Blended Schools Network professional development courses available via Udemy.
10 Hidden Time Wasters - Udemy: Online Courses Anytime ...
that you may be unknowingly doing
Udemy | AhmadNaser
//www.udemy.com/unity3d-professional-2d-game-development AND START USING THIS UNITY 2D PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT kit has scripts to
Udemy Launches Free Computer Tech Courses for Teachers ...
Professional Development. Udemy Launches Free Computer Tech Courses for Teachers. By Joshua Bolkan; 03/23/15; Udemy has launched the Teacher Tech
Learn Professional 2D Games Development From Scratch ...
Learn Professional 2D Games Development From Scratch Ahmad Hammad. iPhone 6s is really bad news for carriers Christian Schuh. Sorry, The Valley Isn't Full of D-Bags
Pay Raise Up Ahead - Laura Lee Rose
There are some supplemental online courses available on this topic as well: Get that Well-Deserved Raise at https://www.udemy.com/how-to-get-that-well-deserved-raise
Wiley Partners with Udemy for Organizations to Bring ...
Wiley announced a partnership with Udemy for Organizations (UFO), Udemys online corporate learning platform, to offer organizations instructional videos from the
Laura Lee Rose | LinkedIn
View Laura Lee Rose's professional profile on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the world's largest business network, helping professionals like Laura Lee Rose discover inside
Laura Lee Rose - Google+
10 Career Boosting Resolutions at https://www.udemy.com/10-career-boosting-resolutions/ Professional Development Toolkit at https: