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Great Way to Start 2018 – Summary of Insider Tips for Every Career Situation

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stack the deck

Whatever your career situation is today, I can help you “Stack the deck” in your favor.  Job search and work are never fair.   It will favor those who know how to play the game.  I am here to help you with insider tips on how to play the game to your advantage in any career situation.  If you are in any of the four situations below, I can point you to the insider tips I have gathered in the last 20 years, so you can work smart, get what you want in your career, and live more. ...  read more

Are You on the Right Career Path? Ask Yourself These 4 Questions

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right career path

I just found out a close friend has cancer.  I was shocked by the news.  Although her cancer is highly treatable, it was a complete surprise.  She will need to go through 6 months of chemo and hell to recover.  I share this with you to help you step back from the daily grind and see the big picture.  Life is short and finite.

  • Are you on the right career path?
  • Are you doing what you are suppose to be doing?
  • If you were told you have cancer today, would you make different choices in your career and life?

Our life is a gift.  Don’t wait until you have shocking news in your life to reexamine.  It’s never too early to reassess or take a different direction altogether.   Today, I want to help you answer these questions.

Many of us work long hours, forgo time with family, friends, and skip vacations, so we can get ahead in our career.    But do we know why we do it?  The superficial answer is to make more money, or get promoted, or be recognized.   But I would argue none of that really help us feel fulfilled.

Our career path must have a deeper meaning for it to be worth the effort and the time away from our families.   That meaning will also help ground us if we receive sad unexpected news like this from a friend or from a doctor about our own health.

Here are 4 questions to help you examine your current career path and trajectory?

Question 1: Does my job & career make a difference somehow?  I have shared the definition of success before.  It’s not about material status, and much more about our level of contribution to others.  Making a difference comes in all forms.   For example, it can be about

  • earning money so I can support my family and my kids’ education
  • making a positive impact to the customers my company serves (whether with a new product I launch or solving service issues painlessly)
  • coaching those on my team so they can learn from my experience and skills

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    How to Become an Extraordinary Leader – 3 Unexpected Lessons

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    When I was nominated for a leadership training at work, I was honored but skeptical I would learn anything substantial.   I am glad however to be proven wrong.  In the last five months, I have learned more about my leadership style and leadership brand than I had ever expected.   Even better, I am already applying what I learned at work and seeing results.  Here are the three unexpected leadership lessons I learned about how to become an extraordinary leader.

    Lesson #1: Extraordinary leadership is about strengthening our strengths vs. fixing weaknesses

    Growing up Asian, I always thought to become extraordinary I must eliminate all weaknesses – i.e. score 100 on tests, get all As, and be a perfectionist at work.  In the last 20 years of work, I learned to stop being a perfectionist.   However, I still heavily focus on learning what I am not good at as a leader and put a lot of energy into fixing those.

    It was refreshing to learn at this training from Zenger Folkman that becoming an extraordinary leader is about strengthening my strengths vs fixing weaknesses. There is no perfect leader.  Steve Jobs is a great example of this – a dynamic, visionary leader and a terrible people manager.    The whole concept actually makes a lot of sense, as no one really can be good at every aspect of leadership.  Just like a company must focus on its core strength vs trying to be all things to all people, a leader also needs to follow the same concept.  It’s better for me to pick a few leadership qualities that I am already strong at and make that stand out above all else.  That’s what will differentiate me as a leader.

    This leadership lesson is quite freeing for me.  I realized I don’t have to change who I am or overwhelmed myself with “fixing everything.”  All I have to do is tweak a few things in my leadership style to make it even better.  For example, I am already a high achiever and gets results wherever I work.  I also collaborate well with teams and partners.  What I need to tweak is my communication style in some difficult situations.   I know how to do this in some circumstances but not all.   Selecting this as something to focus on is both achievable and will make a significant difference in my leadership effectiveness

    Lesson #2: It’s okay for an extraordinary leader to announce ourselves and show vulnerability

    I learned this from one of the leadership speakers at our training.  I really appreciated her direct communication style, confidence, and simple wisdom.   She shared that it’s okay to announce yourself to your team and partners.   For example,

  • Let them know what I expect from them as they newly join my team (e.g., I expect you to ask questions if you don’t understand something.  Otherwise, I will assume we are on the same page)
  • Let them know If i am having a challenging day (e.g., I am feeling impatient today)

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    Soft Skills Workout – Who is More Confident – Cindy or Jack?

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    workout

    Workout Objective:  A lesson in self-confidence.
    Prerequisite: None.
    Recommended Frequency: Just once.
    Workout steps:  Read the scenario below and vote.

    Who do you think is more confident in this scenario?  Let’s assume that Cindy and Jack are equally qualified and capable .

  • Well educated – Cindy graduated from Berkeley with a 3.4 GPA and majored in electrical engineering and Jack graduated from SF state with a 2.7  GPA and majored in marketing.
  • Extensive work experience – Both have worked for 15+ years.   Cindy worked in consulting and now for a fortune 100 company as a product management leader.   Jack worked mainly in started up and is in his 8th start up as director of marketing.
  • Had some setbacks – Cindy has been laid off once in her career.  Jack has experienced about 4 lay offs so far.

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    What Makes Us Happy & Motivated at Work – Three Ways to Gauge

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    happy and motivated at work

    More than a year ago, I changed jobs and managers within the same company.  I went from having one of the worst leaders I have ever experienced in my career, to having one of the best.  On my first day with this new leader, she asked me a simple question – what make you happy at work?   What was different about her is I realized she really cared and wanted to know my answer.  I remember being a bit unprepared and told her what came to mind quickly

  • Supportive, trusting leader
  • Meaningful, impactful work
  • Great people to work with
  • Work life balance

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    5 Most Common Regrets in Life & How to Avoid Them

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    no-regrets

    Last month, I heard this great talk by Jyri Engestrom, a successful Internet entrepreneur on the topics of happiness.  He said, most people have five regrets in life – all of which resonated with me.  And you probably would agree these are the most common regrets as well.  If so, then I ask you – why not address them now before you are dying so you can live life with no regrets.

    Here are what these five regrets mean to me and what we can all do to live life without them today!

    I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me – It’s amazing how hard this actually is.  The more of an overachiever we are the harder this is.  This is because we instinctively like to compare our achievements and career progression with that of others (e.g, my former classmates, siblings, even friends) or what others we care about may expect of us (e.g, my dad).  While common, the act of comparison is destructive and the more we do it the more we move away from knowing how to live a life true to ourselves.
    What to do to live life with out this regret:  Stop comparing!  Whenever you catch yourself comparing, stop and move on to more important things in life.
    I wish I didn’t work so hard – I worked my butt off the first 12 years of my life and it affected my health.  So I already got this message from the universe that working too hard may not be worth it.  Luckily my healthy issues were temporary.  I think I grew up with the concept that if I am not working hard, then I am lazy and that’s bad.   It sounds a little ridiculous when I write it down.
    What to do to live life with out this regret:  Create a new concept that replaces the one above – Working hard will lead me to miss out on life, so don’t miss out. Work smart instead and make time for life as well before it’s too late
    I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings – Many times we repress our feelings only to hold on to the hurt, frustration, etc.. too long.  It’s not good for us.  I am glad to say this is one that I actually do often at work and in life.  I hope you do too.  It’s liberating.
    What to do to live life with out this regret:  Learn to express yourself and then let it go.  This does not mean blurt out whatever you think.   Express yourself in a constructive way takes practice and finesse.   The first step is to let yourself do it and overtime, you can improve on the finesse.  This also doesn’t mean expecting others to agree with you.  It’s about feeling complete. Once you had a chance to say your piece, accept that you at least tried whether the outcome is what you expect or not.
    I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends – As I get older and have a family, I am finding less and less time to stay in touch with friends.  It just seems like a year would go by and I would be busy everyday with work, family, blog, etc..   Well, I decided to change this and make keeping in touch with friends a priority as well.
    What to do to live life with out this regret:  Here is how I am doing it without too much effort.

  • I created recurring lunch meeting requests on my work calendar to stay in touch with friends and contacts.  They may be every 4-8 weeks and sometimes gets cancelled or pushed but at least it’s set to reoccur, block out my time on the work calendar, and ensure that I take a decent lunch break once in awhile.
  • I call friends when I am walking to or from work.  It takes me about 10-15 min each way.  I am sure you can think of other ways if you put your mind to it. 🙂

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