opportunity Archives - Dennis E. Gilbert

03
Jun 21
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New Journey, Does It Happen Every Day?

Tags : celebration journey new beginning opportunity

Are you on a new journey? Have you ever felt stuck, or feel like you’re at the end? Perhaps not everything is as it first appears.

Late May or early June is typically about graduation. Young kids from grade school, teenagers from high school and those who have completed certificates or degrees in college. It signals the end.

It might also be true for wedding season. While marriages are a bond and are visionary for what lies ahead, they also include an ending. The ending of the single life and the old ways of navigation.

We see many other endings in life. Selling a car, leaving an apartment, or selling a home.

Most of these things represent a chosen path. A conscious ending point, a milestone.

In some cases, we seem to be more reflective of the end, instead of a new beginning.

New Journey

Is a graduation ceremony a marker for the end of a journey, or the celebration of a new one?

A similar question might be asked about a wedding or starting a new job.

What is the feeling at sunrise or sunset? A new beginning, closure?

It seems that when something signals a perception of ending, we take a breath, we reflect, and then we start to prepare for the next chapter in life.

There may be cause to celebrate, or even to mourn.

Yesterday something ended, perhaps it felt like just another day. Once in a while though, there will be a bigger event. Something that will be recognized as a marker, a turning point, an opportunity for what is next.

For most cases a new journey starts right after the ending of a different one.

Instead of focusing on what is over, remind yourself to focus on what is about to unfold.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. 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.

14
Jul 20
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Just One Chance To Tell Your Story

Tags : future opportunity personal brand story success

Actually, there are many chances but there is only one first chance. If you had only one chance, what would your story be?

Your resume might be a story. Perhaps you tell a story in the job interview. Your reputation is a story and so are the things that keep your friends interested in what’s next.

Your life is full of stories.

There are the stories that you tell yourself as you start your day, the story in your mind before the meeting, and the story you consider as you check your progress on your goals.

Everyone around you has a story too. Some will listen to yours and some only want to tell their own.

The news media has a story. So does the politician, the financial analyst, and the meteorologist.

For every person what happens next depends on their story.

Perhaps the life lesson is to learn how to listen to your own story.

One Chance for Your Story

It is possible that you could tell a better story? How would that shape what will unfold for you tomorrow? What about overmorrow?

The story that you tell depends on you. If you want a better story can you create one? Do good stories lead to more good stories?

When you care about your story it may be important to consider how you’ll tell it better. What will make it more powerful with greater impact. Will it be a catalyst for others on a similar quest?

If you care about what happens next it might be wise to listen to your own story.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. 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.

18
Jun 20
-

Service Value Is Always Determined By The Customer

Tags : opportunity products services value

What is your product or service worth? Service value is not easily defined by the provider, no matter how hard you try.

When you live in a urban area and someone offers you a free lawnmower, or a goat, it probably is not of much value. The same may be true for gasoline engine powered hedge trimmers, a weed whacker, or a rototiller.

None of it really matters, it may be deemed not useful or of very little value.

The same may be true about two plane tickets to Montana via the Dawson Community Airport.

It is true about certain foods, books, or other resources. If there is no connection, there really is no value.

Free sauerkraut and hot dogs do not interest me. Yet, it may interest someone.

A twenty-year-old car in great condition may not seem to be worth much, but replacing it is expensive.

This concept is critically important as you face the challenge of serving your customers. What you offer isn’t always what is viewed as attractive or valuable.

Service Value

The trick for anything or everything depends on its perceived value.

Who would have ever thought that there would be a toilet paper crisis?

American Pickers look for rusty gold. Many people see nothing but junk.

The real opportunity is for the business to see everything through the lens of the customer and not through the lens of the innovator. Sometimes, yes, it could be appropriate for both. Yet, more often it is weighted in favor of the customer view.

An invention with no use is really just a floppy disk.

Or perhaps, a boiled egg squarer.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. 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.

04
Nov 19
-

Understanding Navigation and Where You’ll End Up

Tags : career culmination navigation opportunity workplace

Understanding navigation may be more difficult than many workplace professionals quickly recognize. Yes, it is often about what we do and how we react and that defines how we navigate.

Just last week someone annoyed you in a meeting. Someone else didn’t complete a task, delayed the project, or simply decided not to show up.

This week there are schedule pressures. An update meeting with the boss and a report to complete.

There are countless opportunities to get annoyed in our workplace. Opportunities to see stress, feel stressed, and worry. Was anything different last month, last year, or at your old job?

Navigating The Same Stuff

Some things have probably changed but yet in reality you worried last year about stuff that just doesn’t matter this year.

You worried about sales being off, the budget not being balanced, or that a co-worker was trying to undermine your project.

You worried about what you said in the meeting, how you said it, and when the boss may have hinted (although you aren’t sure) that you aren’t measuring up.

None of those things matter this year. Although now you have an entire new set of somewhat similar challenges.

Are you navigating differently?

Understanding Navigation

Sure you may have grown. You attended the seminar, read a book, and listened to a few podcasts. You’ve chatted with colleagues, asked for feedback, and with some apprehension, listened to the critics.

Being stressed and worried doesn’t accomplish much. Feeling annoyed and getting irritated does not really serve a useful propose.

What happened last week or last month may have some impact but largely our career and the work that we do is about what is accomplished across decades of commitment and navigation.

Last week you weren’t a novice, an amateur, and now you’re an expert. It took you time, lessons learned, and navigation.

Don’t overestimate the impact of a single experience and don’t underestimate the value of the culmination of a decade.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. 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.

28
Aug 19
-

Tested Competence Means More Growth

Tags : competence opportunity professional growth test workplace

You never really know until you’ve been tested. Tested competence may be the difference between just rolling along and achieving something great.

It is easy to eat an extra piece of cake, have the milkshake, or eat an entire bag of potato chips, if you never measure your weight or health.

Your car may be getting great gas mileage, your lawn doesn’t need mowed, and your carpets are just fine, if there isn’t a measurement or test.

It is easy to label your work, your department, or your organization as best-in-class, when there isn’t any measurement or test to prove it.

Professional Growth

Many workplace professionals claim that they want more. They claim they are ready for the supervisory position, the director of a business unit, or to become the CEO, yet they haven’t been tested.

“Often in school we are taught the lesson, and then given the test. In life, we are often tested and then receive the lesson.”
Unknown

Part of my business is professional coaching. It is interesting sometimes to watch really good people struggle, claw, and fight their way for the next professional opportunity, while others just roll along and seemingly achieve more.

I don’t believe everyone is winning in these scenarios, and the true winners may surprise you.

Tested Competence

Be without your utilities in your home for a day or two, you’ll quickly realize how much you take for granted.

Lose a good paying job, where you held a good position, and discover how valuable it really was.

Be forced to compete against other candidates for the promotion or new opportunity, and you may discover the test.

You never really know how good you are, or how well you will hold up under pressure if there is never any test.

Always assume that there will be a test.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. 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.

20
Mar 19
-

Leadership Habit 42: Navigating Leadership Opportunity

Tags : leadership opportunity status quo stuck

One day you are rolling along and things seem to be going well, then you hit a roadblock. This is both the challenge and opportunity of leadership. How are you navigating leadership opportunity?

Change is a process. When we consider employees who are facing a change, that is the external event. How people transition through a change event is an internal process.

Is it possible that people and teams get stuck in the transition? Yes, they sometimes hit a wall or encounter a hurdle that appears too tall.

It may appear easier to just hunker down in place.

Stuck in Status Quo

In a very natural way people often try to protect the status quo. Their thought is, “Don’t change a thing, protect and defend, it took a lot of effort to get here, let’s keep it this way.”

This isn’t the challenge of leadership.

Getting stuck, or especially staying stuck, just doesn’t seem like leading.

In leadership seminars I sometimes witness the frustration of middle or front-line management team members feeling sandwiched. Stuck between process and policy.

They are often almost desperate to find a way to navigate the challenge of productivity while also staying in their lane and coloring inside the lines. In some ways they may feel hypocritical and forced to play politics.

Leading offers new opportunity.

Leadership Opportunity

An opportunity to lead, to find a way, create a path. Not a path of destruction but a path that leads out of stopped, stalled, or stuck.

When roadblocks, obstacles, or adverse conditions occur, this is the time for leadership.

It is easy to observe and say, “Yup, we’re stuck.” The challenge is navigating the situation differently to breakthrough or break free.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. 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.

08
Jan 19
-

Building a Powerful Culture or Watching Things Fade

Tags : culture innovation opportunity

We have much more power today, as compared with twenty, thirty, or forty years ago. Are you or the organization you work for taking advantage of the opportunities to build a powerful culture?

Is it possible? Are the opportunities there?

What’s Changed?

Forty years ago, much of the mainstream view for a career was to secure solid employment with a well-known or reputable company. The idea of job security and working your way up the ladder was prominent.

Forty years ago, people who were mid-career would likely stay for the duration. For many, that was the safe bet and the honorable and loyal way to a well-respected career.

Today, things are largely a bit different. Certainly, there are still pockets of organizations and people who commit for long-term mutually loyal employment relationships. However, many suggest the mainstream view point has changed.

Many organizational cultures are stuck somewhere in the middle. They are stuck between the identity of an image of being a DuPont, Colgate, or JP Morgan Chase, and the lure of a hot startup.

What has really changed is the power of innovation, technology, and opportunity.

Powerful Culture

People and organizations alike have the power to get things moving. They have the power to communicate to the world, one post at a time. The power to make a difference for others, to build something new, or to shape their own future.

What do they do?

More people read posts rather than create them. YouTube has many more viewers than they have content creators.

What is at stake? Is it the risk of criticism, ridicule, or embarrassment? What keeps people stuck, only watching, and seldom engaging? The opportunity is there.

Organizations can break ground, lead the charge, and become a best in class, but instead many choose to stay stuck, follow the competition, and shoot for becoming number two.

Powerful cultures are built by the pursuit of opportunity.

Forty years ago, shopping malls were a bit hit, so were VHS tapes, and landline telephones.

What changed?

What will you do?

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. 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
Apr 17
-

Leaving Your Career to Chance

Tags : career chance growth opportunity risk

So many people are hustling to build their reputation, stand out, and improve their career. Many people are in search of opportunities, or better yet, creating some. Are you leaving your career to chance?

It’s a smart move to put effort into your career. If you are career focused chances are good that you spend well over 2,000 hours per year working on it. The hard pushers might spend more than 3,000 hours.

Career conscious individuals are also probably allocating at least 1% of their time on continuing education. Some will spend much more. They’re learning, growing, and adapting through training, coaching, or even just reading. Do these smart hustlers leave their career to chance?

Career to Chance

Your chance of a lifetime might come today, or it might be tomorrow. Actually, when you’re really focused you can make nearly any day the chance of a lifetime.

Many people work really hard preparing for the big meeting, the deal locking client engagement, or exploring opportunities with a prospective employer. All of that hard work is critical and important. It makes you prepared and conditions you for what you expect to happen next.

The truth is that your next chance, the chance of your lifetime, might just pop-up out of nowhere. Those chances happen when you are open and receptive to change. They happen when you are ready and able to embrace that next challenge.

Pink Volkswagens

A good friend once asked me, “How many pink Volkswagens have you seen?”

Many of you reading this might know this story, but I’ll bust open the plot for you. It is that likely you haven’t noticed many, but now that you are looking, you’ll see more.

At least there always that chance.

Your Next Chance

Be on the lookout for your next chance. Be conscious of your next moves. Get prepared.

Consider who you’ll reach out to or what relationships you’ll discover and build. Think about who can you inspire or who might inspire you?

Make the connections, find new leads. Build a system. Present ideas and transform efforts.

Leaving your career to chance?

Your chance might be right now.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. 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+

Tag Archives: opportunity

Jun 21

-

New Journey

Jul 20

-

One Chance for Your Story

Jun 20

-

Service Value

Nov 19

-

Navigating The Same Stuff

Understanding Navigation

Aug 19

-

Professional Growth

Tested Competence

Mar 19

-

Stuck in Status Quo

Leadership Opportunity

Jan 19

-

What’s Changed?

Powerful Culture

Apr 17

-

Career to Chance

Pink Volkswagens

Your Next Chance

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