Career Limitations? Could Dependence On An Outdated Paradigm Be Holding You Back?

August 1, 2019 By AdminNancy

As long as the concept of a job has existed, the definition around what you can do to earn a living has been defined by others using a process that has been the same for decades. Your options are limited by the parameters of a job description: a definition that consists of a job title, a list of tasks to be performed and the skills, experience and personality traits needed to perform those tasks successfully.

There is a salary range for that job description. It is a number based on the skills and experience required balanced against the budget the firm has to fill the position. The budget may or may not reflect the realities of the marketplace or the value of the contribution the employee will actually make to the company.

It is reasonably common to see new employees hired at the low end of a salary range so they will have a chance “to grow” within the company. However, raises have been small in recent years, even nonexistent, because there is a perception that we have little or no inflation. I guess those that have created that perception do not purchase gas, food, healthcare, appliances, cars or homes.

There are unwritten rules around salary increases when you change positions by moving to a new firm. “How much are you making now?” you are asked. That is factored in to what you will be offered because no company wants to pay you more than they have to in order to bring you on board, no matter what the job is worth. If you are making $70,000 as an example and the range for the job you apply for is $85,000 – $100,000, you will probably be offered $75,000, $80,000 if you are lucky, because someone, somewhere decided it wasn’t healthy to get too large a salary bump at one time. Again, someone else deciding what your talent is worth based on outdated thinking. You probably won’t notice because you are thrilled to get a long overdue increase.

Your career and your earning power in a traditional job is limited by someone elses definition of what you are worth. We accept that as fact and we live with it. We need to earn a living and our options are to start our own business or take a job working for someone else. Starting your own business isn’t for everyone, although more and more people are taking this option, some with success, most not. But there is something you can do to increase your odds of staying gainfully employed at a salary that is based on the value you bring to the firm you work for rather than a somewhat arbitrary number decided by someone else.

To increase your earning power, you need to develop the ability to take a new view of yourself, understand the value you bring and how to communicate it to a prospective employer in a compelling way that will impact their thinking. It requires that you begin to think of yourself and your skills differently and be able to help your prospective employer think differently too. It is our acceptance, even dependence on these old paradigms and unwritten rules that is keeping us limited. The paradigms around “the job” have been around longer than you have. The thinking has to change but company thinking won’t change until we do.

If you are interested in talking more about your career limitations, I would love to have a conversation with you. Fill out the Contact form on our website to schedule a conversation.

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Is Your Great 1st Impression Holding You Back?

February 28, 2019 By AdminNancy

You Made A Great 1^st Impression But Is It Holding You Back?

1^st Impressions Are Lasting

We all know that 1st Impressions are important and that they are lasting. We work hard to make a great 1st Impression. What we don’t often think about is that the same 1st Impression that helped you get your job can actually get in the way of your career advancement.

When a new employee is hired in an organization to serve in a certain position, a set of inferences are made about them, their abilities, their capabilities and the level at which they will live in the organization. Making inferences is human nature. We all suffer from information overload and need to “categorize” information to make it more digestible and more manageable. We all make inferences and judgments every day about people, ideas and things that cross our path. Categorizing is not a bad thing when used to organize information, but sometimes categorizing causes labels to be attached to people, ideas, and things and those labels can become limiting.

1^st Impressions Can Prevent Others From Seeing Your Other Talents

For example, if you become known for your attention to details, you may never be seen as someone who can see the big picture or brainstorm future ideas. If you become known as a “numbers person” you may never be noticed as someone who is a creative writer. If you are the person who organizes all of the birthday celebrations and always makes sure there is a cake to celebrate, you may never be seen as management material. Whatever perception, label or inference is made by others and associated with you may prevent others from seeing your other talents.

1^st Impressions Can Label You Forever

Inferences can follow an employee forever, often pre-determining the path of their career inside the organization and how far they will be able to advance their career. These perceptions paint a picture of who people think we are. It is often extremely difficult for people to see us in any other capacity. This, in large part, is why careers stall, why people feel like they are going nowhere, why they become frustrated, dissatisfied and even leave. When people leave, they can start somewhere else with a new 1st Impression. But it doesn’t have to come to that if you follow these three tips.

Break free of inferences and perceptions, broaden your 1st impression by. . .

Sharing other aspects of yourself with coworkers and your manager when appropriate. Talk about what you are reading or a project you are working on at home or as a volunteer that demonstrates other skills you possess.
Becoming knowledgeable about your company and industry. Embrace learning new things. Be proactive. Read and research so you are well versed and can share your knowledge to help solve a problem or help your team with fresh ideas. Contribute in new and unexpected ways.
Volunteering in your company where help is needed to give yourself the opportunity for others to see you in a way that is outside of your defined role. Build relationships and alliances with other employees in other departments and express interest in what they do.

When you widen your circle of knowledge and relationships, you can change the perceptions people have of you as they get to know you, your interests, and your capabilities better.

In the meantime, join our FREE, Private Facebook Group, The No Fear Career Club for tips, ideas, and conversation about career advancement. Just click this link: Join the No Fear Career Facebook Group

Nancy O’Keefe, MBA,, MS is a Leaderhip Coach, Speaker, and Author of the book “Unlimited Talent: What Every CEO Needs To Know To Win The Workforce War”. She works with businesspeople facing business or career uncertainty to get clarity of purpose and certainty on their next steps so they can change their business life to align with who they are and what they want. She is a thought leader in strategy, leadership, and cultivating talent. She can be found at https://nancyokeefecoaching.com

The Challenge of Moving Your Ideas Into Action

January 25, 2019 By AdminNancy

Have you ever attended a great seminar or workshop, walked away with amazing ideas only to find them unrealized in your notes months later?

With our constant stream of emails, voicemails, meetings, conference calls, social media and so on, it is a minor miracle that any of us can accomplish anything. With our smartphones and tablets surgically implanted into our hands, our time is sliced so thinly that we never have the focused time to develop the big-picture perspective required for an action plan, let alone the time to execute it.

“Daily routines, superficial behaviors, poorly prioritized or unfocused tasks leech managers’ capacities—making unproductive busyness perhaps the most critical behavioral problem” in business today, contend Heike Bruch and Sumantra Ghoshal in their book A Bias for Action.

For so many of us—whether CEOs for major corporations, small business owners or solo-entrepreneurs—there is a fundamental disconnection between knowing what should be done and actually doing it. This behavior is so prevalent that it even has a name, the “knowing-doing gap,” as identified by Stanford University researchers Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton. So, if we know what needs to be done, why do we fail to take action so often? Where is the big disconnect?

Getting things done requires two critical components: energy and focus. And both are at risk in the modern workplace.

“Purposeful action-taking depends on engaging the power of the will,” according to Burch and Ghoshal. “Not only does willpower galvanize your mental and emotional energy, it also enables you to make your intention happen against the most powerful odds: distractions, temptations to move in a different direction, self-doubt, and negativity. Willpower is the force that strengthens your energy and sharpens your focus throughout the action-taking process.”

Burch and Ghoshal identify four key steps that form the basis of successfully taking action:

Form your intention. To work, your goal must appeal to you emotionally and be something you can define concretely enough so you can clearly visualize its success.

Commit unconditionally to your intention. This is the key step. Making a commitment to yourself can be difficult. Be sure you are truly in support of your intention, it aligns with your “why”, it is something you believe in and not just something you think you should do or must do.

Protect your intention. Once you have made your commitment, you have to protect it from forces both within yourself and outside, especially naysayers, new distractions, other ideas, self doubt and fear.

Disengage from your intention. Define your “stopping rules,” the point of success—or failure—from which you walk away and take up the next challenge. And don’t view an unsuccessful outcome as a failure. View it as a learning opportunity. Many things we try simply don’t work. Part of keeping your energy high and maintaining your focus is the ability to recognize that and try something else.

From commitment comes both the emotional energy and the focus that are critical to your success. In short, the process of getting things done in business is pretty much the same as in any other aspect of life: The only things that get done are those that you genuinely believe in, and truly want to get done.

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How Well Do You Manage Your Emotional Reactions at Work?

June 25, 2018 By AdminNancy

Is it costing you promotions or money?

Automatic, negative responses to people or events often indicate a hypersensitivity that’s referred to as “getting your buttons pushed.” At work, these emotional reactions can limit your career advancement, cost you clients, reputation, and cap the level of success you might achieve. Usually, these sensitivities have their origins in hurtful childhood experiences, such as repeatedly being criticized, rejected, or controlled. Because we’re all human, we sometimes take them into the workplace with us. Answer the following two sets of questions, true or false, to discover how well you manage your emotional reactions at work.

Set 1

When anyone critiques my work—constructively or not—I tend to shut down and withdraw or feel ashamed.
When someone hurts me—for instance, if they fail to acknowledge my contribution—I lash out at them or blame myself.
I hate it when colleagues tell me I’m “too sensitive.”
When a colleague or client says or does something that makes me mad, it takes me a long time to let go of it. I often carry a resentment.
Sometimes I have no idea why I respond to coworkers the way that I do—I just can’t control myself.

Set 2

If I feel inordinately upset or angered by something at work, rather than blaming someone for making me feel what I’m feeling, I take a deep breath, and then take an honest look at myself to see what I can learn from the situation.
When I feel “triggered,” I know it often has nothing to do with the person who pushed my buttons.
If after I have calmed down and returned to a professional state of mind, I find that a current situation needs to be addressed, I do so in a constructive manner.
I’m familiar with the situations to which I am most likely to overreact. More quickly now I recognize when my buttons have been pushed, and I am less reactive.
When my buttons do get pushed now, I am able to see any unresolved personal issues needing my attention. I can then return my focus to my work.

If you answered true more often in Set 1 and false more often in Set 2, you may wish to learn how to deal more effectively with your emotional responses in the workplace. Your success depends on it especially if you aspire to or are in a leadership position.

This subject is known as Emotional Intelligence. It is a soft skill that is needed today and is a great subject to discuss in executive coaching sessions.

The Business of Change. Change Is Hard.

June 12, 2018 By AdminNancy

I attended a meeting of a group of amazing women I network with regularly and the topic of change came up. Some of us are in the business of change. We help our clients make changes that are necessary to improve their business results, clean up physical messes, and get organized, even clean up emotional messes so they can move forward in their lives. We all came to the same conclusion. It is difficult to be in the business of change. People hate change. People resist change. People don’t want change. Even those that know they need it and that it will help them improve things, avoid change. This makes it difficult for people to get and accept help. It makes it difficult for those of us in the business of change to help them.

Change is Hard

Change is hard. Change is scary. There is no getting around it. The only real certainty in life is that things will change. You can’t stop it. You can’t hide from it and it is happening at a faster and faster pace than ever before. But, you do have choices as to how you deal with change and the choice you make can make all the difference in how hard things are. How do you deal with the business of change?

1. You can go through changes kicking and screaming, resisting and expending a lot of energy trying to control things that you have no control over. That is exhausting and the change still comes.

2. You can try to avoid or ignore change and pretend it is not happening. You can stick your head in the sand only to wake up later and discover that your skills are outdated or technology is passing you by or you have missed great opportunities. Change still comes and now you have to catch up. Catch up takes almost as much energy as control and in some cases once you have been left behind it is nearly impossible to catch up.

3. You can anticipate change, embrace it, prepare for it, and yes, benefit from it by using it strategically as a springboard to growth, personal development and staying relevant in your field. With your eyes on the horizon, you may see an opportunity before others, you may be able to position yourself as a solution to help others navigate change, you may be able to make improvements in your business and your life that make things easier, more enjoyable or more fun. Change still comes and now you are ready for it, maybe can even benefit from it.

So I’d like you to think about change in a different way. If you embrace change, thinking of it as an adventure, you may have the chance to be a part of it and even shape some of what comes out of it. You certainly will have more control over how it impacts you, will be more prepared for it, will have less worry around it because you will be out in front of it planning and taking action, instead of just reacting after it is too late. If you resist it or run from it, the change will come anyway and you will be stuck with what you get when it is over. I don’t know about you, but I would like to have some say in how change impacts me.

Change Creates Fear

There can be a lot of fear around change. It threatens to take us from a place where we are comfortable knowing what to expect, how things will work, what the likely outcomes will be and how to behave to a place of unknown and ambiguity. Volumes have been written on how to manage change but it still comes and we still have trouble dealing with it.

Change is often viewed as negative. We are comfortable with what we know, what we live, even if it is less desirable than what we could have. Even if unbearable, there are those that will stick with what they know over taking a step into the unknown to try and better their situation.

A bright, energetic young lady I know was eager after college to join the Peace Corp. She wanted to make a difference in the world. It is not easy to get into the Peace Corp, but she finally worked her way through the process. She was accepted and assigned to a team in Morocco. The village she was placed in was remote and quite backward by our standards. No modern conveniences. No bathrooms. No toilet paper. Clean water and sanitation were issues. I wasn’t sure how she was going to manage but she was excited about the conditions. She was looking to make a big difference in people’s lives. Her assignment was to educate the women in the village on cleanliness and health standards to reduce illness and disease, especially in children. Who wouldn’t want better health for their children? She made friends with the village women. She learned a little of the language. The women came to trust her and attended her classes. They watched and learned as she demonstrated new techniques. But after every session, the women would return to their homes and revert back to the ways they knew, even if it meant having dirty drinking water and sick children. They were not open to change.

There are countless stories about people who stay in abusive relationships even when repeatedly beaten, sustaining painful physical and emotional injuries or being mistreated. And yet, they stay with their abuser knowing the abuse is likely to happen again. Why are we so fearful of change?

Change Takes Willingness to Risk

Change takes willingness to risk. It takes the willingness to let go of the familiar and head for the unknown with nothing but your beliefs. Change sets you right in the middle of uncertainty and those seas are difficult to navigate. Change is not necessarily negative. Planned, embraced change can be positive. Change and action is what creates results.

Think about this. Not changing does not eliminate risk. Let me say that again. Not changing does not eliminate risk. Doing nothing carries its own set of risks. There are no guarantees that things will stay as they are. Doing nothing risks being left behind or ending up in a situation that is worse than the current one.

One of the characteristics necessary for entrepreneurs is a willingness to risk. Not a “what the heck, cast your fate to the wind” type of risk, but an educated, planned, calculated risk. Risk for reward is what the entrepreneur is after. Entrepreneurs are action takers willing to let go of the familiar and strike out for something new, something better. It takes courage to start out, flexibility and perseverance to stay on the path, face uncertainty, failure, rejection, ridicule and still keep going until you reach the goal. It takes focus and commitment, hard work and a strong belief in what you are doing. It takes a “failure is not an option” mindset. Entrepreneurs plan and consciously take certain risks with money, ideas, new products and services and marketing strategies in the hopes of a greater reward, more revenue, more profit, more success, building a strong business and a better life.

Change is just another form of risk. Get in the business of change. Be willing to take a risk. Make it an educated, planned and a calculated risk. Reap the reward you can create from the business of change.

Think Like An Entrepreneur To Secure Your Career

March 2, 2018 By AdminNancy

Think Like An Entrepreneur To Secure Your Career

I have consulted with a number of business owners and I can’t tell you how many of them have expressed their frustration in finding, hiring and keeping good employees. They want people who will think, take the initiative, recognize problems and create solutions. They want people that can share the company vision for the business and help contribute to success. They want people that can think like an owner. I call it is Personal Entrepreneurship™. These skills and strategies will be welcomed and valued by employers. The ability to look to the future, anticipate opportunities and threats have always been critical skills for Entrepreneurs and now they are critical skills for those that work for others.

Before the Industrial Revolution, most people worked their farms or worked in cottage industries. There were some people who had jobs like the waitress in a restaurant or the clerk in the market. But most people didn’t leave the home and go to work until the factories sprung up in this country during the Industrial Revolution. We used to be the epitome of Personal Entrepreneurship™, trying to support our families and way of life on what value we had and could share with the marketplace. In the last 100 years, we have unlearned these skills and have become dependent on having a job. It is time to re-learn these skills.

What if the concept of the job disappeared? We have started to see this happen in manufacturing because of technology and cheaper labor elsewhere in the world. We saw it happen in professional jobs in the big recession of 2006. It is more common to work from home now. We have more and more online stores and even check out our own groceries or buy them online and get them delivered. The concept of the job is changing.

Imagine how you would make a living if there were no jobs. I’m not saying that will happen, but I am saying you have to learn to think like a Personal Entrepreneur™ so you can continue to meet your life goals no matter how the economy or the job landscape changes.

So how do you get from where you are to where you want to be, a place where you can make the money you want, have the security you want, spot the opportunities you need to be successful? You need that clear picture of where you are, where you want to go and the gap you have to cross to get there.

Take the time to make a short, middle and long-range plan for yourself. We don’t consider what we WANT to do, just what we can do, should do, must do or how what we have done matches up to what’s available. We put ourselves last. We don’t align what we do with our values, our wants, our needs, we just keep plodding forward looking for the money and that is the main reason many of us are unhappy and lack motivation at work.

That is why in my work with clients we develop their Personal Power Profile™, to help you get clarity on what the market sees in you, to open up the possibilities you may not have seen before and work on getting your “product” (the value you bring to the job) defined and give you new ways to talk about it that will resonate with employers, including your current employer.

That is the mindset that I call Personal Entrepreneurship™ and it allows you to stay gainfully employed in a lucrative career that serves you and your employer.

If you would like to learn more about Personal Entrepreneurship and the course I have developed to help employees gain those skills, schedule a time to connect by clicking here.

Join our FREE, Private Facebook Group, The No Fear Career Club for tips, ideas, and conversation about career advancement. Just click this link: Join the No Fear Career Facebook Group

Articles

You Made A Great 1st Impression But Is It Holding You Back?

1st Impressions Are Lasting

1st Impressions Can Prevent Others From Seeing Your Other Talents

1st Impressions Can Label You Forever