advancement Archives - Dennis E. Gilbert

02
Nov 18
4

Career Moments, Building it Inch-by-Inch

Tags : advancement career moments opportunities promotion

Careers often feel like they are a title, a spot, a position, or a place in time. They are more often the sum of many moments. What are your career moments and how much do they matter?

Inches Matter

I watched my favorite football team lose their game. They were down by one point. A field goal for three points or a touchdown for six? Field position with only five seconds remaining in the game called for a field goal attempt.

It was missed by inches. The game lost.

It is similar for the photo finish at the race track, or the basketball that goes through a hoop (or not) just slightly larger than the ball. We see it on the golf course, the ball ever so close to tumbling into that tiny hole.

Do inches matter?

Career Advancement

It often feels like your career is getting the big job, the larger salary, or special perks. It is the perceived feeling of being invited to the next level of meetings, having a role to supplement the conversation, and working with a bigger departmental budget.

All those things matter. They do make a difference. Are they really the defining moments for your career? Unlikely.

A career is the sum of many defining moments, moments added up across time.

Career Moments

Your career, just like the game, seldom goes into overtime where you have more chances for another moment. The time is fixed. Your career is finite.

The race won’t go for another lap. The hoops aren’t going to get bigger or closer. The golf ball once tapped, is on its own trajectory.

Getting the new job, the promotion, or landing in a new career may be a moment, but it is just that, a moment. One of thousands and thousands of other moments which inch-by-inch are either making a difference, or missing the opportunity.

All those moments add up to become your brand, your reputation, the view of your career.

Inch-by-inch.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

04
Oct 18
-

Understanding Accountability Changes Your Position

Tags : accountability advancement fault leadership responsibility

We often wonder about accountability. Is it the missing link for teams? Does it affect morale? Understanding accountability has much more to do with success than many employees realize.

Nobody is held accountable.

It wasn’t my responsibility.

That’s not my job.

You have probably heard all three, and have likely said at least one. Is this a problem with accountability?

Who is Responsible?

Accountability has a direct impact on culture. If few are willing to take responsibility, even fewer will be accountable.

Responsibility is a big job. There is much more risk involved with being responsible. Without responsibility no one really cares when the project gets delivered. No one cares about the quality, and why should anyone care about the customer?

The root of accountability starts with responsibility. A bad outcome may not be your mistake. It may not be your fault, that doesn’t mean you’re not responsible.

Unlearning the Escape

As children we may have gotten off the hook by claiming, “It wasn’t my fault!” We learned that when the blame shifts so does the responsibility. When we aren’t responsible we can’t be blamed.

It may have worked in your childhood because playing was probably more important than leading. You were fed and cared for regardless of the outputs of your actions.

Ready to make a difference in your career? Understanding accountability is critical for your advancement. It is critical for culture.

Understanding Accountability

Certainly, you can take more than one path. What you’ll need to realize though is that taking responsibility, even when it is not your fault, is being accountable.

When you are in a leadership role, you have responsibilities. Hold yourself accountable.

If you supervise other employees, lead committees, or make recommendations that guide outcomes, understand that people who accept responsibility will be much more likely to be accountable.

Accountability changes your position.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

05
Jun 18
-

Job Demands and Getting What You Asked For

Tags : advancement career job demands paycheck

There are certainly many different approaches to work, a job, and your career. Some care little about a career, only seeking a means of income to pay the bills. What are your job demands? Are you looking for a career or just a paycheck?

People sometimes call it Karma, others just a bad twist of fate. Do you get back what you put in? Is your connection with your job paying off?

What You Asked For

Most would like to work at an organization where the boss is energetic, farsighted, and encouraging. Most hope for future opportunities, to do the right thing, and are willing to put in the extra effort.

On top of that many seek camaraderie with co-workers, they want to be around others who are interesting, who help inspire, and those who are productive.

They expect the work to be challenging, to grow and learn because of it, and to create or do work that really matters. These same people don’t seek the easiest job, but the path that will help them grow and to build something bigger or better.

They probably also expect future opportunities, a chance to make a greater difference, and to increase their income across time. They are willing to work hard for respect, to be a trusted adviser, and to make a positive impact.

When this defines you, you probably aren’t looking for the stick in the mud, the person who hides and cowers, or the bully who threatens anyone who challenges the status quo.

Job Demands

What are your job demands? What are the requirements that bring you back day after day to take on the challenge of work that makes you proud?

When your purpose is to make a difference, build something together, and fulfill the obligations of the customer it may not be hard to get what you ask for. Your biggest challenge may be to find the community of co-workers who are seeking the same.

When people are focused on exceeding customer expectations and are doing it together, the job demands feel worthwhile.

More importantly, you’ll always get back what you put in. It is exactly what you asked for.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

06
Mar 18
-

Extra Effort Will Advance Your Career

Tags : advancement career effort growth

Many people have spent their life, up to now, deciding on how they will advance their career. The advice to work harder seems impractical and working smarter feels more welcoming. For the career minded person, it may be about understanding the norms. Will you advance your career?

Life is full of averages. The things that we feel, see, and experience are always based on our expectations and perceptions.

Averages and Norms

Fifty years ago we couldn’t carry a telephone in our pocket, access information or data by sliding and swiping, or watch a video on a three inch by five inch electronic device. Today it is expected.

In the workplace, we deal with average people. They are the people who do what is expected. Their contributions are normalized on the bell curve. It is where most of the mass is located. Certainly, there are people on both sides of the median, but what is expected is something close to the middle.

The other ten to twenty percent are different. They are either failing in their attempt to be acceptable, or they are on the side where their performance is well above the norm.

Extra Effort

Above the norm is rare. Expectations drive output, even the hardest workers sometimes relax because doing more than the norm doesn’t often feel like it matters. People blend in, fill gaps, adjust, slow down, and deliver less.

Extra effort will advance your career because it represents a surprise.

The person who delivers exceptional customer service does so because it represents a surprise. Can you recall one of your best customer service experiences? When you do, it is because it was a surprise. It was more than what was expected.

Advance Your Career

Extra effort and the surprise represent what you may need to do to become visible, memorable, and to keep moving. It isn’t about showing up, it is about showing up with a surprise.

Extra effort doesn’t cost nearly what it is worth. Having similar or even less pay in some cases isn’t the point. The point is that your extra effort will advance your career because it isn’t about what you are paid for it, it is about what you become for it.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

19
Jan 18
-

What is Emotional Labor and Does It Matter?

Tags : advancement career emotional labor leadership

Are you tired of doing things that you really don’t want to do? Have you been patient with your career goals and are now growing weary of putting in the time? You may still have some emotional labor to endure.

Enduring the Work

The boss asks you to follow up on the delinquent accounts, but you suggest you don’t have time.

A project team member asks how the work is coming with your assigned task after the meeting last week, but you say you didn’t get to it yet.

Unfortunately, it is common that people drag their feet about projects or work that they aren’t really interested in doing.

Ask the mechanic if he wants to do an oil change on the eight year old minivan.

Ask the mechanic if he wants to do an oil change on the hottest model with the big engine.

Do you think the mechanic would spring into action for both of those scenarios or just one?

Many employees feel like they are asked to pick up the pieces for work that is not that desirable. It is common for people to feel like their career has stalled, that they have put in the time, and now they want more.

Emotional Labor

Emotional labor is a condition that exists when we are putting in the time. It is doing the dirty work, the crappy jobs, and picking up the pieces for others. It may be doing things we find boring, monotonous, or below our pay grade.

Have you been putting in the required amounts of emotional labor?

If there is one thing that every employee can do to make a difference for their career it is putting in large quantities of emotional labor. Certainly, no one wants to be taken advantage of and no one wants to do work that they have advanced beyond.

However, the best employees are putting in a lot of it. It requires the persistence, discipline, and grit to get it done, and they do it.

The employee may easily forget about emotional labor, but the boss usually remembers it.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

Tag Archives: advancement

Nov 18

Inches Matter

Career Advancement

Career Moments

Oct 18

-

Who is Responsible?

Unlearning the Escape

Understanding Accountability

Jun 18

-

What You Asked For

Job Demands

Mar 18

-

Averages and Norms

Extra Effort

Advance Your Career

Jan 18

-

Enduring the Work

Emotional Labor

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