Go to law school, my dad told me.  My career was long underway, now I was looking for new directions.  Why law school?  My dad admired the legal profession, and had used attorneys many times.  My little sister was an attorney, and I think I have the right mental discipline to do well in a study of law. Tempting. 

One little problem:  Law school was not my goal.  It didn’t interest me. My choice committed me to a doctoral program for the next five years; really, I have never regretted my choice.

Has anyone ever given you bad career advice?  If I could live my life as another person, I might be a great lawyer.  People with advice may be pushing their friends to fulfill their dream. Here's my advice, for what its worth:  Go ahead and listen.  Some people with advice may be convincing, knowledgeable, and wrong.  When you act on advice, you will need to know that the advice works for you. Some advice may be excellent.  Check it out anyway.

What really scares me about advice-givers is being directed by someone who has never taken my kind of risk.  A majority of people in the world don't take career-shaking risks.  Without some "roll the dice" risks, a person will never get to their personal victory. 

Leaders live consistently with their values.  Integrity is that quality we celebrate in a person who makes their values a priority.  We know that leaders are reliable with their values.

Leaders may hold different values.  When we think about leaders, we may not even like or agree with their values, but we know that the values define the leader.  For a person of integrity, the values are more than just talking points – the leader consistently acts in accord with the principles of his life.  Values guide a person of integrity in small decisions and large.

Some people are cavalier with their values; they are convenient qualities used to make the person sound good in talking points. For a leader with integrity, it may be completely irrelevant if anyone else understands that the values are important to him or her.  What is consistently important to a leader is the close connection between personal values and the many choices of life.

For a person with integrity, we should be able to review a person’s behaviors and acts and list the values that they represent. The values come alive by the things we do. 

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Be a leader. Use imagination, career experience, and awareness of your world. Take action.

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Make yourself more valuable at work by being a source of fresh ideas.  Train your mind to see fresh options, and offer new ideas as a flexible thinker.  Distinguish yourself as a person who can identify the possibilities.

Far too many people practice a quiet conformity.  The idea person takes risks.  The idea person gets noticed. You may be vulnerable; however you can practice a fleetness of thinking that keeps you in motion. Don’t be one of the conformists who mimic what other people have said.  Look for useful new ways of thinking that set you apart.

Continually ask yourself, “What else is going on here?” Look for patterns that surround the object. The conformist thinker may be content to measure what is known.  On any big project, has the thinking been complete?  Is there more that will affect the outcome? Perhaps there are other forces that push or pull your project.  Perhaps these forces will only be felt under moments of transition.  How can you demonstrate what might be going on?

The conformist thinker often works in straight lines.  When a situation is considered, the ordinary thinker will think “A, B, then C, D, and E.”  The person with fresh ideas may start with A and B, but will then ask about numbers, colors and physical dimensions.  Explore the subject beyond what is known and presented.  Ask and consider.  Let your mind play. 

Think quantity of ideas.  Be abundant in generating the possibilities. Not all ideas will be useful.  Good ideas tend to be surrounded by other ideas, not all are dressed in working clothes.  Let your idea generation be a process of experiencing a flow of possibilities.  Record them all.  Don’t stop to evaluate the best ideas, simply feel the flow and be grateful to be the mouthpiece for a fresh perspective.

Do your generating privately, unless you are taking place in a brainstorming session.  Others may not respect or value the work that you put into generating ideas.  Give yourself the luxury of ample idea generation, without the judgmental eyes of others. 

I think that creativity works like a muscle – we are all capable of it, but when the muscle is exercised regularly, it is stronger and more effective.  Creative thinking happens faster with a person who uses this muscle.  Keep in shape; practice your alternative thinking regularly.

Even if your career is going well, you need a strategic career plan.  Our world is in constant flux. The good conditions of today may change in another season. Where will you be in five years time? Here are some elements to consider for your sustained success.

Exploration. What questions are you asking yourself? If you could place yourself someplace better in one year’s time, where would be? Explore the possibilities you have in the coming future.  Learn to think of the many choices that you have available to you. Every choice you make will open new possibilities, and close others. Reflect on what you will choose. Pause before you take action.  Increase your informed level of responsive action. 

Expand your dream. Do you remember the dream that got you this far? I had put my dream far behind me, until I couldn’t stand the distance.  I was at a distance from my energizing essence! I was disconnected from my dream. Finding my dream helped me restore personal energy.  Now I have launched new directions and see new places.  I’m keeping my dream alive; more than that, I’m expanding it!

Review your strengths. Read one of the books about career strengths by Marcus Buckingham, and learn more about your vital energy.  Why would you want to work in weakness?  Once you know what your strength areas are, you can include more of them in your future. When you work in your strength area, you enjoy your work, and accomplish more with ease. Choose your strengths, and include them in your strategic career plan.

Networking. We expand our potential by surrounding ourselves with effective people.  Include networking in your plan.  Consider well:  who are the people that can help you succeed? Few of us achieve anything great by ourselves.  Expand the circle of people who trust you, and whom you trust. Perhaps you should work on a new networking skill, such as a social media application.

A learning plan. Have you noticed that the rate of change is continuing to pick up?  Reinvest in your knowledge base. You don’t have to earn a new degree.  You don’t have to even take a class. Become master of your field by reading and talking to people who make a difference in your work. Build your specialized expertise.  With study and meaningful work, you can be the person that everyone thinks of when an expert is needed.  Invest in your intellectual capital!

Launch the next phase of your future. Your career strategic plan helps you review your potential gains, and overcome threats to your current position. This is important. Your strategic plan should be used in times of relative security to help you make the best decisions in the coming crossroads of your life. A victim waits until he or she is at risk. A great career plan will keep you in the game at a high level. When you design your own career strategic plan, you have participated in creating the game of personal success!

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Be a leader. Use imagination, career experience, and awareness of your world. Take action.

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Call me at 602-993-6070 if you would like to explore your inner leader.

Are you a productive person?  Even if you say “yes,” I believe you can press the accelerator for your inclination to action.  Productivity demonstrates that one has intelligence, action, and a will to move. The right “friends” will help you get going, and increase speed.  

Here are your friends for getting things done:

1. A sense of urgency
2. A vision of where you are going
3. A burning need to create change in your life.

Here are your enemies for personal productivity:

1. Sleeping late
2. Lack of discipline
3. Willing to avoid action
4. A pattern of procrastination

Want to get things done?  Your power to think original, inspiring thought can take you to completion faster.  Dynamic thought combined with a commitment to action can lead to remarkable results. Applied consistently over a period of time, dynamic thought will change the landscape of work.  Personal productivity will lead your forward.  A discipline must be applied to the thought, discipline that converts mental consideration into action.

Mental power can also bog one down in a swamp.  Mind power is tremendous when it is coupled to action, however many people don’t convert good thoughts with action.  A productive leader will ask, “what needs to be done?” and use mental power to go further with minimal effort.  A slouch will start thinking, move into dreaming, and then wander into a land filled with distraction.  Without a commitment to action, original thought will be unfulfilled.

Spend time in intelligent thought.  Then get moving.  You don’t have to have a complete roadmap.  You probably won’t have all the resources you need to complete a major goal. It doesn’t matter.  The person committed to action combined with mindpower will attract all the resources needed.  If there are bridges to cross, you will find the toll as you move forward.  A sense of momentum generates a powerful feeling of value for any productive effort.

Do you believe that synergy exists at work? Synergy is that quality of energy when two components come together and generate more vitality than existed separately.  In order for synergy to work, YOU must contribute to the meeting, you must give of yourself, and you must add to the magic of the moment.  

Give the performance review a kick – help your subordinate discover the magic.  To do that, you must believe that great things are possible, and you also believe in your colleague.  Set the expectations up before the meeting – this is the chance for your subordinate and you  to become mighty champions in your organization working together. Train your mind to see the positive in the possibility – its there, yet you may have to look for it. Shine the light of intention into the meeting before you ever get there.

Get to work preparing.  Understand your subordinate.  What is his or her most outstanding characteristic that contributes to your business success? Begin with this point; identify the outstanding quality that will lift your direct report.  Find three good reasons why this quality makes a difference for the business.  Link it to what you need doing.  Make it real with detail.  You are going to help your subordinate take this quality and go even farther with it, so start by describing how this quality serves your business.

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Be a leader. Use imagination, career experience, and awareness of your world. Take action.

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Do you believe that synergy exists at work? Synergy is that quality of energy when two components come together and generate more vitality than existed separately.  In order for synergy to work, YOU must contribute to the meeting, you must give of yourself, and you must add to the magic of the moment.  

Give the performance review a kick – help your subordinate discover the magic.  To do that, you must believe that great things are possible, and you also believe in your colleague.  Set the expectations up before the meeting – this is the chance for your subordinate and you  to become mighty champions in your organization working together. Train your mind to see the positive in the possibility – its there, yet you may have to look for it. Shine the light of intention into the meeting before you ever get there.

Get to work preparing.  Understand your subordinate.  What is his or her most outstanding characteristic that contributes to your business success? Begin with this point; identify the outstanding quality that will lift your direct report.  Find three good reasons why this quality makes a difference for the business.  Link it to what you need doing.  Make it real with detail.  You are going to help your subordinate take this quality and go even farther with it, so start by describing how this quality serves your business.

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Be a leader. Use imagination, career experience, and awareness of your world. Take action.

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Coming up next week – a performance review meeting with five of your key employees.  You would like to make the most of the meeting.  You know that your thoughts and words in the meeting are important.  By preparing intelligently for the coming performance review sessions, you will have a chance to see your people work harder, possibly even commit to doing more for your unit.  However if you fail to make a positive impact, your employees may leave feeling discouraged, and their work performance may degrade.  Your own rating in the company may suffer?

How do you prepare for performance review meetings? Don’t wing it; take the time to prepare for your feedback sessions. Spend the time to look at each employee, and put your thoughts in writing.  This process may take several sessions.  Treat each private review as an iteration to help you motivate and create positive change – a big demand, but certainly possible if you prepare properly.

Begin by deciding on the top three things that you want your employees to know and understand. Organize the information this way before you get started. First consider the positive news that you have to deliver.  Secondly, point out the biggest area of change that you expect from your direct report.  Third, point out to your employee, an area of opportunity that this employee can do which will exceed your expectations. This third area should be something beyond simple expectations.  Roughly considered, this plan of review is positive, negative, and possible.  You will deliver good news, hard news, and open the door to doing even better.

By following this process you will first open the heart of the employee to be positive too.  The employee will expect negative feedback, and you are going to deliver it quickly, without hesitation. Then you are going to surprise the employee by showing that it may be possible to do an exceptional job.  Open the door to possibility, and get the employee to be a bit inspired.  You may want to tell the employee that you see potential to go even further, and convince yourself that you really mean it!  The realm of the possible is the direction that the employee can take to get the attention of all the leaders in your company.

Most managers won’t offer the realm of the possible to their employees.  They will offer positive and negative feedback, and leave it there.  Show your employees that much more is possible – and you believe in them.

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“How did you become a leader after changing your career?”

I asked this question many times over the last few years.  I met colleagues at Starbucks, and asked them while we both had warm caffeine.   I created an online survey.  I tweeted the question, and talked interesting people who were willing to share their stories. I asked other friends, “Who do you know who became a leader after they changed their career?” I found many interesting answers.

I am a fan of leaders.  I believe leaders contribute to making this a more satisfying world.  Sure, there are bad leaders out there.  However, the leaders I know are all trying to improve themselves while they change the world around them. Many people are just getting started as a leader, and they are trying out new skills tentatively, like a baby bird leaving its nest.  I call these people “emerging leaders.”

I’ve talked to a sales executive, an elected official, and the executive director of a church.  I talked to an NCIS agent.  I’ve had coffee with several writers, and a healer. Their situations were quite different.  Some of their stories were compelling.

I never got tired of asking people, “How did you become a leader?”  I put some of the best answers in this book. I hope you enjoy what I’ve heard.

I have prepared this book with emerging leaders in mind.  I know that many people have lost their jobs in the last few years, and some readers are ready to launch careers.  To these people, I say, “proceed with confidence and joy!”  Consider becoming a leader in the process.  This book may help you get there. 

I also believe this book will help coaches, people considering a change, and anyone who counsels career changers. In addition, anyone interested in becoming a leader ought to be interested in what I’ve heard from others. 

We need more leaders.  We need people who are willing to take a stand, work with others, and create a positive change for the community and world. In Leaders in Transition, the reader will discover five principles that have made a difference for emerging leaders.  From my knowledge of published research on leadership, these principles are universal.  These ideas will help anyone looking to practice the art of leading others.

One friend of mine claims that leadership is love.  Anyone who cares enough to assume responsibilities to make the world better for others is serving in love.  We offer love to the people we know, and the world beyond, by acting as a leader.  Being a leader doesn’t mean we have all the answers, or that one is always right. Leadership is about daring to do the right thing.

Scholar Warren Bennis has taught that leadership is an art form.  It is a performance act that involves other people to permanently transform the world around us.  Leaders may not have certainty, but with vision and values in mind, leaders know what is right.  The art of leadership is finding the best way to get there.

To all of you changing careers or thinking about it, I hope you choose to be a leader. You may bring love and art into your world.

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Express your creative talents as a leader. Send a note to DrSteve@mycareerimpact.com

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Going to shake things up?  Make it positive.  If you are going to challenge the process, get people excited about the journey. Tell people, “We are going to make this so much better!” Use words of excitement, dynamic energy, and rewarding to enlist people in your cause.  You have an important destination in mind – now launch the journey with excitement in your heart!

Make the Challenge Meaningful - Recent studies in motivation tell us that people want meaningful challenges.  They want to more than earn money; they want to contribute to something that will last.  People seek to lead a meaningful life!  One they can talk about, dream about, and even brag about.  A life invested in meaning is one that captures the essence of the soul.  People work harder for meaning.

How can you make challenges meaningful?  Show people the big picture.  Show people that they are not just building a wall; they are building a cathedral that will stand for centuries and will provide a place for spiritual teaching. Then show people how each one makes a difference on the effort.  Not only is the change meaningful, but YOU play an important part in it – and we’re counting on you!

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Be a leader.  Use imagination, career experience, and awareness of your world.  Take action.

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