success Archives - Page 3 of 6

07
Nov 19
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Capture Attention or Face a Bigger Challenge

Tags : attention career marketing success technology

For the majority of the people in the workforce today, the World has changed. Some suggest we are in an information overload society and we filter much more than we consume. What are you doing to capture attention?

When I was a kid, after school I would jump off the school bus and run as fast as I could to my house. It was an exciting time. I couldn’t wait to get started.

Get started on what? What captured my attention?

Whatever it was that a few friends or one of my siblings may have established for what you do after school. At times I played alone. It may have been with a ball, a matchbox toy, or throwing around a few sticks in the nearby woods.

Pace of Technology

Consider this, just a little over a decade ago there were no smartphones. Text messaging really started to take off around 2005-2007. YouTube was founded in 2005, and didn’t start to become largely known until a few years later.

What does this technology history lesson indicate?

If you are in the workforce today and you are more than 25 to 30 years old, things have changed dramatically. It has all happened, right in front of you.

If you lean towards the younger side of the workforce scale you may not really remember much difference. If you are in the middle to older side of the scale, change is very noticeable.

The challenge today for every career conscious workplace professional and every business endeavor is not so much about change as it is about attention.

How do you capture the attention of your marketplace?

Capture Attention

We’re all selling, whether it is our expertise and why we are the right choice for the job or promotion, or whether it is our products and services, or a third category is perhaps, both.

When I was a kid, on a lucky day I had just a couple of friends to play with.

Technology hasn’t made us more reclusive; it has opened up the World.

The challenge then, is being interesting and valuable enough to get the attention of your market.

-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.

22
Oct 19
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Is an Educational Illusion Stopping You?

Tags : college degree education learning persistence success

It seems that there are always two sides. On one side people worry that they’re not enough and do nothing about it. And on the other, they never stop trying to prove their credibility. Are you suffering from an educational illusion?

It is quite simple really. People make decisions about the reasons why. They decide on the placement of blame.

Why you weren’t hired, promoted, or respected by peers. Many blame education, and throw their arms up in disgust, or are constantly enrolling in the next degree program.

Make no mistake that education matters. It matters a great deal and often, especially in an on-line World of “punched cards” coming up short can be problematic. If you can’t check the box, you’re not getting in.

A medical doctor isn’t going to be able to practice without the degree. A lawyer needs a degree and to pass the bar exam. Most university professors need a doctoral degree.

Educational Illusion

Outside of specific professions there is wiggle room. Some career opportunities, good paying ones, only require a high school diploma.

Which camp are you in?

Are you working hard, taking advantage of gaining experience while also exploring opportunities for additional education?

Or, perhaps you are working hard and have tried to explore advancement, yet have come up short? Are you convinced that the reason you didn’t advance was because of a lack of education?

In either case, additional credentials may not be the obstacle.

There are many cases where the advanced degree, the credential, the certificate, or the card punched is not the real obstacle.

Sometimes the real obstacle is a lack of persistence, determination, and courage.

Sometimes there is a difference between reality and where you place the blame.

-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.

11
Oct 19
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False Start and the Lessons You Learned

Tags : false start goals initiative motivation success

Have you ever experienced a false start? No, I’m not talking about football although that could apply. Have you ever started to jump forward only to jump back?

In your workplace there are often questions about motivation. Does motivation come from within or can you inspire motivation in others?

A closely connected cousin is, initiative. Are you willing to take initiative or are you more withdrawn?

Often there is an expectation for jump. Yet, the rules aren’t clear.

Perhaps there is a time from your past when you took the leap only to be later be criticized for the outcome.

Anticipation of criticism causes people to hesitate, step back, and withdraw. A leap may feel within reach yet as quickly as you spring forward, you hesitate and jump back. That’s a false start.

False Start

Have you ever let past experiences or teachings from a younger age hold you back or create a false start?

We’re often taught about patience. We’re told not to jump in line, let others go first. Hold doors, make room, stand back, and that, “life is not only about you.” Valuable lessons on courtesy, etiquette, and patience. Yet, sometimes patience results in lost opportunity.

Are you missing opportunities because you aren’t taking initiative?

Do you believe that you can and should take more initiative? If so, what is holding you back?

Could it be a childhood lesson?

Past Lessons and Learning

Perhaps it was show and tell, and people laughed when it wasn’t intended to be funny. Now, you fear the presentation.

Maybe you weren’t picked for the team, so you’ve decided you won’t raise your hand in an offer to join. It is too risky to expose yourself to that vulnerability.

Maybe you started eating dinner before a prayer was said, or ate all of the potato chips when you got home from school. You were instructed not to do it again.

We’re often taught to hold back, get back, or stand back. Probably meaningful lessons at the time.

As adults, we sometimes have to shake off some of the things that we’ve learned.

-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.

07
Oct 19
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Workplace Opportunity and Small Ponds

Tags : big fish coaching success workplace opportunity

What is your workplace opportunity? Does opportunity exist or are all things leveled up and there isn’t space or time for more?

It is an age-old story about big fish and small ponds. You know the one. The one that tells us it is easier to get noticed in small pond as compared to an entire ocean. Old news.

Yet, the small pond theory is certainly relevant.

Big Fish, Big Ponds

Does Apple really have to market the iPhone 11 Pro Max? Many would suggest that they’ve captured the market. If they own the market, is marketing necessary?

The easy answer is, “Yes.”

Apple sells the first iPhone 11 Pro Max to someone, perhaps after throwing a few prototypes to VIP’s, and creating a lot of marketing hype. They may even forecast production runs at more than 45 million in a quarter.

Yet, it all starts with that first sales transaction. After all of the marketing, the hype, and the brand reputation sets expectations. Sales begin.

They are a big fish.

It may be true for your workplace too. It may directly apply to your career.

Often it is assumed that people will go to the well-known resource. There is often a presumption of trust. In addition, people believe that they know exactly what they are getting.

Workplace Opportunity

There are two paths connected to workplace opportunity. One suggests you follow the known path. Assuming it has been tested and explored, there is an expectation for outcomes.

The second or alternate path suggests you know the shortcomings and limitations and as such, you must seek an outside expert. Bring in new blood. The known must be worse than the unknown.

Navigating workplace opportunity has its challenges. Being in the right environment (right pond) is important but should never be taken for granted.

Being the big fish in the smaller pond seems overwhelming attractive. Yet, the big fish wasn’t always that big. Either that, or the pond was smaller.

You’re branding and marketing yourself everyday. Costs are higher for larger ponds. Even for big fish.

One step at a time without any shortcuts.

Every fish has the opportunity to choose their pond.

-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.

03
Oct 19
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Giving Your Best Effort More Often

Tags : best effort confidence fluidity results success

What happens when you give your best effort? Does something change, does a spark ignite, or does your confidence grow?

Your first day on the job and you may not even be sure where the rest room is located. After a few weeks, which quickly turn to months, you start to find a rhythm and you get more comfortable.

Finding your rhythm as an individual, a team, or an organization is often the game changer.

Improving Confidence

Confidence is built through two primary channels, self-efficacy and self-esteem. Each small successive win and your confidence grows. Make a mistake and learn to improve for the next time.

The very first time we do anything is probably not going to be our best. When we try it again, and again, things start to improve. More results pour in, more discovery, and adjustments.

It is the fluidity of the process that helps us tweak things by drawing ever closer to building it better and better.

The first time we cook a steak is hard. The twenty-fifth time and things seem easier.

It is the same for giving a presentation to the board of directors, developing a process for closing the sale, or making a cold call. Practice seems to make it easier. Success also seems to come easier.

Confidence improves.

Best Effort More Often

This is exactly why we have to give our best effort more often.

Doing so creates more demand. More demand means you’re having more opportunities and more opportunities to practice and hone your craft will make success look easy.

There really aren’t any shortcuts. The overnight success often occurs across five, ten, or twenty-five years.

On-lookers believe it was luck, fate, or personal connections. They can always help, but they aren’t as compelling as the story you write on your own.

Best effort matters. It matters more.

-DEG

Originally posted on October 3, 2019, last updated on September 10, 2020.

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.

25
Sep 19
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Workplace Currents and Getting To The Other Side

Tags : career navigation success workplace workplace politics

Do you find navigating workplace currents a challenge? Are you fighting upstream, going with the flow, or simply trying to get to the other side?

What strategy for navigating workplace currents would you recommend?

Survivalists Message

Survivalists claim that the best way to cross a stream in waist deep water is to face directly across the stream. They suggest you shouldn’t face upstream, or downstream, but you should stay focused on an exit point on the other side.

The logic seems to be that facing upstream could cause you to slip, lose your balance, and topple backwards, possibly drowning. Facing downstream may get you across but not where you need to be as you would slowly be drifting away from your exit.

Is this similar to navigating workplace currents?

Workplace Currents

Certainly, confidence and approaching obstacles head on has its value. Yet, going with the flow feels like the easier route.

Perhaps it depends on the goal. For many, career growth is very important, yet it may feel like a catastrophic failure will seal your fate.

Sometimes surviving the workplace current is the most important aspect. You still want to thrive, but first you have to get through the current.

Much of what happens next depends on how you choose to navigate. Our belief systems and what we tell ourselves will have a significant impact on the outcomes.

So will the idea of keeping your eye on the prize.

Sometimes the hardest part is not the obstacle itself, it is the concentration and focus required to stick with your goal.

-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.

24
Jun 19
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What Do You Know About Workplace Success?

Tags : communication definition success workplace

How would you describe success? Does everyone describe it the same way? Workplace success may be as individual as soda, pop, or cola.

Communicating in your workplace has its share of challenges. We are all experiencing things like too much, too little, and misunderstood communication.

Are the words you use effective?

Choose Wisely

We use words to communicate meaning, yet there are times when we blur those lines.

Someone says, “I need a pencil.” Then someone hands them a pen.

“I’m stopping for coffee.” May be as different as hot and black is to
mocha caffe latte, iced.

Most people wouldn’t dare to think about wearing (only) underwear on the beach. (I know I wouldn’t.) Yet, a bikini seems just fine. There seems to be something visually different, is there?

We use words to convey meaning. When we are thinking about the meaning of workplace success, there is more than one meaning.

Workplace Success

Success, respect, and good, all depend on your individual definition. We attempt to use the words to convey meaning, yet the image in everyone’s mind may differ.

Prepare for the meeting.

Arrive early.

Make sure you do it right.

We think communication is easy. We talk, we write, someone listens, and someone reads.

All our words, phrases, and especially our body language and tone matter.

When you suggest that your team should engage and communicate to create more success what is the meaning?

Success for some people is about a position, a title, or their paycheck. Still there are others that view success as the completion of a task, a reached milestone, or appreciation from the boss.

Sometimes the difference between what you want and what you get is based on the words you chose.

Define success. Do it carefully, descriptively, and with the correct image.

-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.

06
May 19
-

Recognition For Doing Good Work

Tags : famous getting promoted good work popular success

Popular, famous, or good, which word is the most descriptive of your reputation. It is true for the business, the non-profit, and individual performance, are you known for good work?

Our society is riddled with opportunity for marketing. Social media, traditional media, and the world-wide web, opportunity is everywhere.

One problem spot is, how do we know what is really good? What is hype and what is the real deal?

Popular and Famous

As buyers, subscribers, and consumers, it is easy to confuse popular, famous, and good.

The Fyre Festival became popular, and now even though it was a big failure, it is famous. Was it any good? No, it is noted by most as a disaster.

There are automakers who invest heavily to advertise their product, it may create a feeling of being popular, does that also make them good?

In our workplace we have people who stand out, get promoted and are recognized. Are they really that good? Perhaps, yes, they are, and perhaps no they are not.

Sometimes our visibility is what makes the difference. Many workplace professionals feel that merit is the method to success. Do good work and you’ll be recognized, promoted, and grow in your career.

It does still happen that way, believe it or not. It just doesn’t always happen that way.

Good Work

Achieving recognition for doing good work sometimes also means you have to become more visible. You must do the work of the marketer, advertiser, and have good faith sponsors.

We know there are musicians, artists, rock bands, restaurants, chefs, engineers, authors, actors, and sports talent that go unnoticed, unrecognized, and that are underappreciated. They may be good, even exceptional, but they never become popular or famous. We shouldn’t confuse popular and famous for good.

When you’re doing good work, make sure your efforts are visible.

-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.

10
Apr 19
-

Organizational Success, Roof Repair, and the Mechanic

Tags : expert expertise leadership success

What is the connection to creating organizational success, making a roof repair, and a fixing a car? Likely not much, and there probably shouldn’t be since each require different types of expertise.

One of the biggest mistakes I often observe with small businesses (less than $35.5 million in annual revenue and 1,500 employees) is that they can’t get out of their own way.

Field of Experts

Theoretically, small businesses are led by experts in their field. Engineers lead engineering firms, attorneys lead law firms, and the landscaping business is owned and operated by those who are experts in landscaping.

This seems to make sense, it is practical, and likely an appropriate pathway for success.

What happens when the landscaper needs legal representation, or the widget manufacturer needs an advertising campaign? What if the convenience store needs a new roof or the local insurance agency needs car repair?

If you are the executive leader of an advertising agency, city mayor, or the director of a thriving non-profit humanitarian organization you are likely not also a computer engineer, tree trimmer, or carpenter.

Are you going to fix the bug in the software? Cut down the 85-year-old maple tree that is threatening the office, or build an additional room for your expansion?

Organizational Success

Creating organizational success comes from your expertise.

Just because you had a college class in psychology or business law, does not make you an expert.

Because you once participated in a strategic planning session you are not an expert at facilitating strategy.

Reading a book, watching a video, or attending a seminar to expand your knowledge on any topic is valuable. Becoming an expert requires hours and hours of pounding on your craft.

Organizational success develops from focus. Know your lane, leverage and outsource everything else.

As an organizational leader your job is not to do everything. It is to create the best of everything.

-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.

27
Mar 19
-

Workplace Endurance or Getting Through the Day?

Tags : career endurance focus success workplace

People often say, “I just have to make it through this day.” Does this feel like a challenge you’ve faced? Do you have workplace endurance and what is most important?

Funny, I often ask seminar participants about workplace motivation. Somewhere the obvious initial response is about money, “We have to pay the bills.”

Another question, or rabbit hole, is related to focus. Focus is critical, focus on the wrong things and you get poor results. Focus on nothing and you may get nothing.

Getting Results

In order to make it through the day people often break down their tasks or duties. Shorter vision, get through the hour, past the lunch break, and now you are more than half way through.

However, the organization often measures results across more than a single day. Results are the outcomes of each minute, hour, and day, repeated across time.

Making it through the toughest of days often conditions your success. The day we feel most challenged is the day we either decide enough is enough, or we make it through, adding to our continued contribution.

The challenge of all of this comes down to vision and focus. Often the frustrated employee has a very short vision. They believe in just making it through the day.

Workplace Endurance

What is important to keep in mind is that while making it through the day is critical, their workplace life or career is really about a bigger vision.

The contribution that you make today may be assessed, but it is your endurance, the long-term, that ultimately has the most impact.

One thousand jelly beans get in the jar, bean by bean. Your glass of water fills from the bottom up, one drop at a time. A tree grows each day, but we seldom notice, only gaining appreciation after years of making it through each day.

You’ll do something today. It is important, yet your endurance will matter the most.

-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.

Tag Archives: success

Nov 19

-

Pace of Technology

Capture Attention

Oct 19

-

Educational Illusion

Oct 19

-

False Start

Past Lessons and Learning

Oct 19

-

Big Fish, Big Ponds

Workplace Opportunity

Oct 19

-

Improving Confidence

Best Effort More Often

Sep 19

-

Survivalists Message

Workplace Currents

Jun 19

-

Choose Wisely

Workplace Success

May 19

-

Popular and Famous

Good Work

Apr 19

-

Field of Experts

Organizational Success

Mar 19

-

Getting Results

Workplace Endurance

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