In Series 1, we explore one principle per episode. The concept and importance of the principle is explained and each guest shares how that specific principle has impacted their career. In essence, each episode is a high-level summary of each chapter of the book. Start here!
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Alison Bodor
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Summary:
The first step in positioning your mindset for an effective drive to success is to want more out of your career and life. More of good stuff, like impact or fulfillment. Not passively “wish” but actively “want”…wanting with hunger that leads to action.
Why should you want more, out of your career and your life? Because “more” is possible and achievable in your career and life. More what? Well, I am thinking more knowledge, impact in your world, responsibility, diverse experiences, happiness, autonomy, control over your life, fulfillment, prosperity, and so on. You define “more” for yourself.
There is a big watch out about wanting more, that I need the audience to be fully aware of. It can cause a lot of frustration if it is not balanced and complemented by thankfulness. When you just focus on the “more” without appreciating the present and the great things you have going on, you risk not enjoying all the benefits of the current stage. But each stage, even if temporary and not ideal, has benefits and advantages relative to other people in your world, and relative to other options for your career.
Wanting more is not a desperate never-ending attempt to change roles, it should be well-thought out and triggered at the right moments—especially when learning and growing slows down.
During this episode we discuss:
- The importance of wanting more out of your career and not getting too comfortable or complacent with the present career stage
- Why wanting more must be balanced with gratitude and enjoyment of the present stage
- The need to define what you want more of in your career and life
- When does it make sense to focus on the present and not act on triggering more
Key quotes:
- “Wanting more is simply about wanting to unleash your potential and improve your situation through professional growth.” – Alejandro Colindres F.
- “Wanting more and being thankful can coexist.” – Alejandro Colindres F.
- “I wanted more—and part of that more is also figuring out what you want so that then you can get more of it and you can continue to grow.” –Alison Bodor
- “I knew I wanted seniority and responsibility, and I wanted a seat at the table for decision-making whatever that table would be.” –Alison Bodor
- “Understanding the total life journey is a big part of knowing when you need to focus on where you are at versus focus on the next step.” –Alison Bodor
Dr. Alex Frano
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Introduction:
When your goal is just an average one, no additional energy beyond cruise control is needed; and the sad part is, it leads to an easy achievement that doesn’t change your life. When you set an ambitious goal for yourself, you will find more motivation when visualizing that future state, and you will find creative ways of achieving it. In the process, you will grow professionally and/or personally, and you will learn to tap into all your potential. However, most people do not do this! Why not? Probably because they:
- Listen to voices around them that remind them normal is good enough. This could be friends, family, coworkers, or their own head
- Want to avoid the sour taste of defeat. Can’t blame them, it is sour and bitter.
- Are limited by their current understanding of what is out there, because they might only see what’s in front of them
- Filter themselves out by believing they are not good enough, and don’t even knock on the door
Aiming high is necessary. When you do it, you are creating the opportunity to take your career and life to another level. Aiming high does not work all the time. Failure is part of the journey, just accept it is a possible outcome, but that should not stop you from aiming high; you will learn and grow because of that failure. Yes, have a Plan B that is more realistic, but it should only come into play after exhausting all possibilities of achieving Plan A.
Do not limit yourself or say NO to your aspirations, let others try to do that. If you are going through the process of choosing how high to aim, either for a job, or school, or acquiring a prestigious customer, whatever it is…go big! Have a plan B, but first exhaust the possibilities of plan A materializing. And if people around you are in that position, encourage them to aim high! Sometimes that is all one needs, someone believing in you and stating it.
During this episode we discuss:
- The importance of aiming high—outside our normal league—to access exceptional career possibilities.
- Entering a new league will require intense effort to deliver to the new expectation level; this stretches you.
- How failure along the way makes you wiser.
Key quotes:
- “There is a very direct relationship between how high your aspirations are and how spectacular your achievements are.” –Alejandro Colindres F.
- “You should not meet all of the criteria, because if you do, then you are not aiming high enough.” –Alejandro Colindres F.
- “Sometimes we need people to help us reset our aim.” –Alejandro Colindres F.
- “If you go to a Plan B–a different version of your goal–it doesn’t have to be lower in ambition or level. You can try another ambitious thing right after, especially if you understand what went wrong and what you could do better.” –Dr. Alex Frano
- “When you aim outside your league, obviously the best-case scenario is what you are looking for. But even if you fail at that, you learn more from a very ambitious goal than do you do if your goals are less ambitious.” –Dr. Alex Frano
Lindsey White
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Introduction:
WIP means work-in-progress, a product that is not yet finished. You need to constantly learn and stretch your knowledge boundaries to unlock professional growth. This thirst for being a non-stop learner will act as fuel for the drive to success. Being WIP is an attitude triggered by your mindset. You constantly want to learn, whether new stuff or going deeper into stuff you already know about.
Why should you be a work-in-progress, in your career and your life? Because doing so unleashes powerful forces that work in your favor. This mindset helps you in multiple ways, I’ll give you 5:
- Increases your probability of reaching your goal (if the topic you are learning is related to your goal).
- Improves self-confidence that you can tackle unknown topics when you encounter them.
- Increases the probability of unseen doors opening.
- Exposes you to discover new passions, hobbies, income-generating topics, even career.
- Ensures you are still growing as an individual
People who are not constantly learning put themselves at risk of becoming obsolete in their field, seeing less doors open up for them, and missing out on huge opportunities that diving into new topics might bring. This is so important; it is one of 13 principles… I could not exclude this.
Always be a continuous learner! The world around us changes very fast, including the topics you might currently master at work. Learn about work-related topics and non work-related topics. Both will positively impact your present and future, in ways you might not even imagine right now.
During this episode we discuss:
- The importance and benefits of being a continuous learner
- If you are a manager, how to help your team learn at an accelerated pace
- How being WIP helps transform your career, sometimes in unexpected ways
Key quotes:
- “Always be WIP (W-I-P means work-in-progress, the state of a product that is not yet finished). Being WIP means being a non-stop learner, both professionally and personally; you are not done transforming yourself into the final version of You.” –Alejandro Colindres F.
- “Independent of where you are in life, you should aim to continuously learn new topics and master new skills. It is key to increasing your scope and getting doors to open; doors you see and doors you don’t.” –Alejandro Colindres F.
- “Providing a space for people to try new things and branch out beyond what they are used to doing—or what they think that they are good at doing—can help all of your team improve their output and accelerate their learning to be a better performing team overall.” –Lindsey White
- “Embracing the work-in-progress principle, to me, makes life interesting and can lead you to all these paths that you never knew—that you could never have imagined were coming for you.” –Lindsey White
Hector Astorga
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Introduction:
I am not talking about saying “yes” to whatever your boss wants, or to mere distractions from an established priority. I am referring to invitations you might get to join a project, be a guest speaker, go with someone to a class about a given topic, an international assignment, etc.
When people are facing such invitation, they fall into two groups: those that are inclined to say Yes and those that are inclined to say No. The only difference is the mindset. Those inclined to say Yes ask “I want to say Yes now, is there anything critical I should consider before I say it?” Those inclined to say No think “Ugh, how many reasons can I come up with to pass, I am busy.”
So, why should you say yes to opportunities that come your way, in your career and your life? Because doing so unleashes powerful forces that work in your favor. This happens through the benefits you create, including:
- You stretch your comfort zone because you are now comfortable in more situations.
- You lose fear of uncertainty because you’re now dealing with uncertain situations more often.
- You increase self-confidence because you confirm you can handle such a challenge.
- You grow professionally and personally because of the new experience you’ll acquire
- You might cause doors to open in the future; doors you might not even consider now.
During this episode we discuss:
- The benefits of having a mindset inclined to say Yes to opportunities coming to you
- How making the benefits of the “yes” materialize requires effort and passion
- How an entire career can be changed by the power of saying Yes
Key quotes:
- “The result of a ‘no’ is more of the same; if you are trying to improve your career or life, practice an enthusiastic ‘yes’ more often.” –Alejandro Colindres
- “These sorts of opportunities will require some level of effort, such as going outside your comfort zone, sleeping less for a few or many days, reducing your free time, etc. But they have the potential to bring amazingly attractive outcomes.” –Alejandro Colindres
- “It has to be an educated ‘yes’—understanding what you are getting into.” –Hector Astorga
- “Work hard at it after you say ‘yes’–there has to be passion, there has to be hard work behind it.” – Hector Astorga
Guillermo Rebolledo
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Introduction:
Today we wrap-up Part 1 on how to Shape your mindset. We’ll explore principle #5: Be Adaptable. Let’s do a quick recap of principles 1 to 4: If you want more, aim outside your league, continuously learn, and say “yes” to opportunities that come to you… guess what? You are welcoming positive changes to come and take you to a new phase. What should you do when such change arrives? You must embrace it! Growing in your career is about change. When you grow, you will have a different scope or a bigger responsibility or a new team or even be sent to a new country. Growing is about change; so you must be good at dealing with change. So good, I would argue, that you should actively seek it out, not just handle it well when it hits you.
When you are adaptable, you enjoy many benefits, including:
- Your professional toolkit grows faster because you are actively exposing yourself to new learning curves and experiences
- Your career paths open up to new possibilities, because you are less bound by the current stage
- You become a better leader, because a leader is expected to help lead his or her team through changes…they set the example
- And your self-confidence grows because you suddenly start feeling comfortable in unchartered territories, unlike before
However, let’s be real. Not everyone is great at handling change. Why do you think this is? I think there are three main reasons:
- Change requires effort. Remember, career inertia is the tendency to stay as is in our career. It is effortless to be still.
- We fear what we don’t fully understand, and we ignore what the consequences of the change will be
- Change affects the comfort of the world we got used to
During this episode we discuss:
- The importance and benefits of being adaptable to change, personally and professionally
- How our careers are unpredictable; going from point A to point B is unfortunately not a short straight line
- How this mindset is key in current times filled with uncertainty and unexpected events
- How you can become more adaptable
Key quotes:
- “Growing is about change, so you must be good at dealing with change. So good, I would argue, that you should actively seek it out, not just handle it well when it hits you.” –Alejandro Colindres
- “Change requires effort. Remember, career inertia is the tendency to stay as is in our career; it is effortless to be still.” –Alejandro Colindres
- “Adaptability is not optional right now; we are living in a world that is unpredictable.” –Guillermo Rebolledo
- “If I want to change, I need to start with a small change every single day.” –Guillermo Rebolledo
- “There is not a straight line from point A to point B. There are several routes. And there will be times when you need to recalculate that route.” – Guillermo Rebolledo
Dr. Jasmin Franz
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Introduction:
Today we start Part 2 on how to Build Your Brand. We’ll explore principle #6: Know Yourself. You see, to build your professional brand, you must start knowing yourself well. I bet you think you have great self-awareness, but what if I told you a Harvard Business Review study(1) (demonstrated 95% of people think they’re self-aware, but only 10-15% actually are? Chances are you will benefit a lot by practicing this principle. Self-awareness is a key component of emotional intelligence… that is very likely what distinguishes the great leaders you’ve worked with from the crappy ones. Strong self-awareness helps you identify the right opportunities for you to shine, avoid the ones where you will fall on your face, understand what might be holding you back from growth based on your behavior, and even helps you minimize stress and anxiety. You can’t be an effective and admired leader without understanding how you are wired and how others perceive you.
Self-awareness is basically understanding how you are wired. It is composed of two parts: internal or how you understand yourself, and external or how you understand how others perceive you. Internal self-awareness is composed of your strengths, weaknesses, emotional response triggers, motivators and stressors, values, and aspirations. When you are self-aware, you can explain accurately each of those components. This knowledge helps you make better career and personal decisions, like which roles and environments better position you to be successful.
OK, so how do you increase your self-awareness?
- You can do assessments online or perhaps at your employer to identify your personality type, values, and strengths. I’ve found them useful because not only did I learn what activities or approaches come naturally to me, and therefore what career choices can better position me for success, but also how to work with other people that are wired differently.
- Another great tool is feedback. This is huge! You must actively seek feedback. 360-degree surveys are great, and nothing can beat a 1:1 conversation with colleagues or clients where you ask them what you are doing well and what could you improve. Of course, you must filter what you hear because not everything is actionable or important, but you will get amazing insights.
An important aspect to consider is that you must create an improvement plan or action plan based on what you learned. You need to define specific actions, with deadlines, for the steps you must take to build on your strengths and to neutralize your weaknesses. Lack of action means no improvement.
(1) Eurich, Tasha. “Working with People Who Aren’t Self-Aware” Harvard Business Review, October 19, 2018.
During this episode we discuss:
- The importance of having strong and accurate self-awareness
- The components of self-awareness
- How critical feedback is in developing your self-awareness
- Why many professionals don’t actively seek for feedback
Key quotes:
- “To be an awesome leader in your field you need solid emotional intelligence; to have solid emotional intelligence, you need sharp self-awareness…the formula is pretty straight forward.” –Alejandro Colindres
- “Strong self-awareness helps you identify the right opportunities for you to shine, avoid the ones where you will fall on your face, understand what might be holding you back from growth based on your behavior, and even helps you minimize stress and anxiety.” –Alejandro Colindres
- “When you want to grow in your career, you have to be conscious about your personality and your behavior. Indeed, you always want to be aware of how you are perceived by others.” –Dr. Jasmin Franz
- “If you are aware of yourself, you gain more professional, personal, emotional, and social control—meaning, overall happiness.” –Dr. Jasmin Franz
Rissa Lawrence
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Introduction:
Today we continue Part 2 on how to Build Your Brand. We’ll explore principle #7: Stick to Your Values. Values are one of the key elements of self-awareness, but they deserve their own standalone episode. As a quick refresher, values are a set of ingrained beliefs that you hold as guiding principles. They help define your judgement and character and very importantly, help you navigate life’s decisions including career ones. Our values were defined by our upbringing, context, and experiences. Every individual has a set of values, but not all are able to effectively express what those values are.
Your values are like a compass that helps point you in the right direction, in your career and life. But when you don’t truly understand your values, it is more difficult to understand the right direction to pursue. Should you go for Career option A or B or C? Should you express interest in project 1 or 2 or 3? Even in daily matters, how should you react to what you heard and saw in that meeting?
When you clearly understand and can articulate your values, you can be more effective at doing a few key activities, including:
- Make the best decisions for your career and life.
- Prioritize between competing choices. We all have demands pulling us in different directions at once, and we must choose who to please and who to disappoint in specific situations.
Understanding your values also helps make quick decisions, because you know if a potential choice is misaligned with your values.
To understand your values, you can rely on available online assessments similar to the ones that gauge your self-awareness, but a good self-introspection with pen and paper can do the trick too. In my book, I suggest the list of values from mindtools.com as a good menu to pick from.
During this episode we discuss:
- The importance of clearly understanding your value set, as part of self-awareness (which in turn is part of emotional intelligence)
- How values should guide our important decisions and day-to-day behavior
- Why being in an organization with values that align with yours is relevant
- How values shape your professional brand
Key quotes:
- “When you don’t truly understand your values, it is more difficult to understand the right direction to pursue: should you go for career option A or B or C?” –Alejandro Colindres
- “Use your values to help you make the best career and life decisions; decisions that are well-aligned with your values.” –Alejandro Colindres
- “Professionally, I want people to think about my values when they think of [me]. I want my values to define my brand.” –Rissa Lawrence
- “If there is any success to be had…I think for me it’s because I was able to apply values to decision-making—and I would encourage everybody to do that.” –Rissa Lawrence
Eric Hemer
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Introduction:
Today we continue Part 2 on how to Build Your Brand. We’ll explore principle #8: Build Expertise. Now that you know yourself better—including your values—you are better positioned to build upon your established or newly discovered strengths and build solid expertise. Why? Because you want to be known for at least one thing you do much better than others. Let’s call such expertise a main spike, because if you were to graph it relative to others, you would score much higher. I propose you need one or two main spikes, or areas where you excel and have credible expertise. That main spike—or two—is what differentiates you in your field.
You should only have one or two, maybe three if you are incredible, because building and maintaining such spike takes a lot of effort. For me my main spike is problem-solving; using a structured approach, I can solve most complex business problems—either strategic choices or business performance improvement. I built that main spike through training and practice in top consulting firms like McKinsey and teaching it in other companies.
Besides a main spike or two, you must have several secondary spikes. These are other abilities where you don’t score as high as your main spike, but you are still pretty solid at them. They help you be well-rounded. Without them, you are not an ideal candidate in your field despite your magnificent main spike. For example, for me, these include leadership, project management, process improvement, communications, and others. These help me be a problem-solver or strategist that brings a nice package of beneficial features, because the alternative is being a great problem-solver no one wants around.
My advice to you is this. Understand the 10 key skills in your field and decide where you should invest time and effort making some of them your core and secondary spikes. Be strategic. Of course, building them will take time and effort…and also maintaining them sharp. If you do this well, you will start creating a name for yourself in your field…in other words, you will be creating your professional brand. We will discuss this in the next episode, but expertise is an essential part of your brand.
During this episode we discuss:
- The concept of main and secondary spikes when building expertise
- The importance of building expertise
- How maintaining that spike sharp takes ongoing effort
- How you should use your strengths and values to choose which areas to build expertise on
Key quotes:
- “I propose you need one or two main spikes, or areas where you excel and have credible expertise. That main spike—or two—is what differentiates you in your field.” –Alejandro Colindres
- “Maintaining a spike requires effort. You can’t build it and then relax because it will erode as information evolves, the world around you continue to change, and peers become better.” –Alejandro Colindres
- “Building your own personal expertise gives you a leg up on your competitors. I just can’t overemphasize how important learning is to your success.” –Eric Hemer
- “There are three words that I would repeat to myself as my mantra over and over as I worked myself though the programs: patience, perseverance, and determination.” –Eric Hemer
- “I could not live without Champagne. In victory I deserve it. In defeat I need it.” –Winston Churchill, 1946
Phil Buckley
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Introduction:
Now it’s time to bring your strengths, values, and expertise into a cohesive story: your professional brand. Like any product you buy or company you deal with, you also have a brand…whether you know it or not. The sooner you are in control of defining what that brand is and what is associated with it, the better: if you don’t define it, other people will define it for you and you might not like the outcome. Your brand helps communicate a message that conveys to people what they can expect from you, what your competencies are, and what you bring to the table. It communicates not just what you can do, but how you go about it as a leader, manager, peer, or follower. It also gives you focus and purpose.
My personal brand as an employee, to give you an example, is the following: an effective leader and thought partner that solves complex strategic problems to deliver tangible value in the food and beverage industry. Note a few things:
- I state my core strengths: solving complex business problems, which is the essence of strategy and business system improvement
- I state being an effective leader, which is very high level as it encompasses the ability to lead, be empathetic, communicate clearly, plan, etc.
- I am showing focus in the food and beverage industry since I have been in it since studying Food Science in Cornell many years ago.
But enough about me, this is just an example of what we mean by professional brand.
One more thing. Your brand will evolve over time, that is fine, but be strategic on how it evolves and towards what direction. My brand more than 20 years ago was: a highly dedicated, fast-learning, results-driven professional focused on managing and improving food quality systems. Although young Alejandro’s qualifiers still apply, I choose to emphasize other traits…and my brand is less technical and more business oriented after business school.
During this episode we discuss:
- What is a professional brand statement
- The importance of having a well-crafted professional brand statement composed of your strengths, values, and expertise
- How to keep your brand relevant
- How being off-brand can damage others’ trust in you
Key quotes:
- “A brand helps differentiate you from those around you (colleagues, classmates, competition, etc.). There are probably hundreds or thousands of people with your academic record or work trajectory—what makes you more attractive or better suited for the mission at hand?” –Alejandro Colindres
- “Define your brand, live up to it, reinforce it, and always invest in increasing your brand equity. It takes time to build a valuable brand: take care of it and think strategically about how it should evolve.” –Alejandro Colindres
- “Start building your personal brand now. I didn’t, I wasted years not even realizing the power of this.” –Phil Buckley
- “Life is too short to have the wrong brand statement; if you have the right one, you feel great about your life and it keeps perpetuating as you continue on.” –Phil Buckley
Prof. Alison Fragale
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Introduction:
In the past 9 episodes, we discussed what is the right mindset to have in this journey and how to build your brand. So now that you are activating those 9 principles, you are gaining momentum in your career. You are no longer stuck in first or second gear on the road to success, you are making considerable progress. This third part is about being in control of your career and its direction and continuing to develop as a leader in your field.
Many people believe all they have to do is deliver results or come up with the best idea for success to come. Wrong! Your idea is worth nothing if it is not implemented, and you won’t get it implemented without convincing the right people it is the best idea. This is where power and influence come in. Yes, I know, these are touchy subjects. You might think of dirty politicians willing to do anything when you hear the word power, and it turns you off. “That’s not for me,” you might say, “my skills will pull me through.” Think again. You must be well-versed in the dynamics of power and influence to grow in your field. What you use power for can be positive or negative, but power itself is not negative. It actually helps you get your genius idea become implemented with little resistance. An effective professional is one that gets the mission accomplished, even in the face of expected resistance.
The more power you have, the more influential you can be. Power and influence help you get things done in your organization; they are your friend. You need to learn how to influence others because success depends on how well you work with and through others.
The benefits of being perceived as influential and savvy in power dynamics within your organization include that you:
- Are less likely to face opposition, therefore you get things done more efficiently.
- Build a reputation of being someone reliable who gets the job done.
- Have an easier time getting allies and followers.
- Become better equipped to bring and lead change.
- Are given more stimulating challenges and opportunities.
There are several actions you must take in order to increase your power and influence, which I dive into in Chapter 10 of the book:
- Understand the political landscape in your organization and field: Which teams have more power? Who makes the big decisions? Who is the CEO or leader listening to? Where are the best growth opportunities?
- Understand the interests of the powerful groups or departments: What are they trying to achieve, protect, or expand? How can I market my idea in a way that aligns with their interests to gain their support?
- Understand where your team falls within the organization’s power rankings: Am I in a group with power? If not, should I move to one with more power?
We can think of power along two axes as shown in The Road to Champagne Power Matrix. One axis is contextual power, which depends on where you are within your organization (team and position). The other axis is individual power, which depends on your abilities. Contextual power sources include: Being in the right team, your position in the communications network, your Authority, and your control over resources. Individual power sources include: Your Awareness of the power dynamic, Reputation and track record, Focused expertise, Emotional intelligence, Marketability, Likeability, Relationships, Tolerance for conflict, and Sharp influencing skills.
What you drive will make your road trip more efficient, right? Well, if you have low individual power in a low power team, you are riding a bicycle on your road to success. If you have high individual power in a high-power team, you are driving a race car! The good news is you can increase both types of power. Personally, I’ve been in the 4 quadrants in different stages of my career. And I can tell, it is more fun to be in the High-High quadrant, driving a race car!
During this episode we discuss:
- That good performance or good results are not enough
- The importance of understanding the power dynamics around you
- The sources of power available to you and how to increase them
- Impact of pandemic on your visibility and power
Key quotes:
- “Your idea is worth nothing if it is not implemented, and you won’t get it implemented without convincing the right people it is the best idea. This is where power and influence come in.” –Alejandro Colindres F.
- “What you drive will make your road trip more efficient, right? Well, if you have low individual power in a low power team, you are riding a bicycle on your road to success. If you have high individual power in a high-power team, you are driving a race car!” –Alejandro Colindres F.
- “There are a lot of things that we can outgrow as we get more senior because we can delegate those to other people. Power and influence is not on that list. In fact, it’s the opposite; you do more of it because more and more of your day is relationship management.” –Prof. Alison Fragale
- “You can’t advance if you can’t get comfortable with power and influence.” –Prof. Alison Fragale
Neeraj Khanna
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Introduction:
Today we continue Part 3 Be the Driver, exploring principle #11: Build Your Village. Success doesn’t come just because you are ready for it based on your solid track record, amazing resume, strong brand, and bright smile. You need an effective level of power and influence—as we just saw in episode 10—plus a healthy and vibrant network inside and outside your organization. Relationships don’t necessarily guarantee you’ll get what you want, but they open the door so your message can be heard. There are three roles you play in networking: the person who has something, the person who needs something, and the connector. You will play each role in different times, and it is important you use that dynamic not only to help you achieve your goals, but to help others achieve their goals.
The benefits of building a strong network include:
- Better access to information necessary to achieve your goal
- Increases your power and influence because you are associated with more powerful individuals in your field
- Provides a sounding board for ideas
- Provides you a sense of security because you are confident you have access to the right individuals who will give you a hand if you are ever in a time of need.
- More friendships! Who says all network relationships are business related?
Good, we established that a good network has value and benefits. However, many don’t make this a priority, for several reasons. Maybe because they feel it’s somewhat unnatural for them (especially true of introverts), it takes a lot of effort, they don’t want to bother others, or they feel they will do it when it becomes necessary. These are all excuses and believing them will only create a disadvantage in your career growth.
Ok, it’s true: building, maintaining, and expanding your network requires time and effort—but worth every minute invested. You should realize you already have a network; you are not starting from scratch (you have high school classmates, neighbors, college classmates, family, neighbors, coworkers, friends, etc.). But such current network might not be robust enough to get you where you want to get, though. You must identify where you have gaps depending on where you want your career to head, in other words, what type of contacts you need more of. Do you know what type of contacts would bring value to your career?
If I want to become a management consultant, for example, I will need current and ex-consultants in my network, including partners who make hiring decisions. Assess how big a gap you have and create a plan to fill such gaps by getting the right introductions. Get creative and proactive on making those introductions happen. And very importantly, figure out what you will offer that is of interest of them. Not all will want to engage with you if they smell a one-sided relationship. Of course, don’t be so structured in your approach, take advantage of new unexpected relationships and cultivate them. Unless you are a natural at building relationships—and most of us are not—it will take effort and time to build your network, and to maintain it.
During this episode we discuss:
- The importance of networking to achieve your goals and help others achieve their goals
- The benefits of having a well-developed network
- How to approach building and maintaining a vibrant network
Key quotes:
- “You must identify where you have gaps depending on where you want your career to head; in other words, what type of contacts you need more of.”–Alejandro Colindres F.
- “You also have an obligation to help others, you shouldn’t just seek to be helped by your network.” –Alejandro Colindres F.
- “I think many people sometimes confuse the concept of networking with trying to ask for favors; it has nothing to do with that.”–Neeraj Khanna
- “Be genuine about the curiosity that you present in the conversation, be genuine about trying to lean about the other person and what they do, have that curiosity be a genuine curiosity. And listen.” –Neeraj Khanna
Lili Ferrarase
Dr. Juan Salinas
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Introduction:
Today we continue Part 3 Be the Driver, exploring principle #12: Grab the Wheel. In episode 4 we explored the power of saying “yes” when opportunities come unexpectedly our way. However, you should not wait until that happens, because by definition they are unexpected and random…you won’t control how or when they arrive. Today we will talk about how you should create your own opportunities. You need to be the one steering the car, deciding when to accelerate, when to slow down, when to change lanes, or change direction. You will be disappointed if you rely on others to properly manage your career—it is your responsibility—start taking control of it now.
When you rely on others to magically bring you good news about your next career move, you run two risks:
- It will not happen at the pace you expect it
- They will take you in a direction that is not well-aligned to your interests, strengths, or professional brand
Either one is disappointing. For example, in a previous company, my boss told me the exciting news he wanted me to take on a global role in Procurement based in Switzerland. It would have been great for him as that would have ensured part of his scope is well taken care of by me and it would have enabled promotions within his team. But I was neither interested in the function of Procurement, not in leaving Miami at that time. That’s what leaving the driving to others might lead to. I eventually left the company looking for something more aligned to what I wanted: strategy in Miami.
Grabbing the wheel means not letting your drive be redirected by what others want, or by what you hope others might do for you. It means turning when you want and even changing roads when you want…as in career changes or for some, or even leaving the comfort and predictability of the corporate life in pursuit of an exciting entrepreneurial phase for others.
During this episode we discuss:
- What does it mean to grab the wheel
- Why great performance is not enough
- Why you must be in control of your own career and not depend on others
Key quotes:
- “Do not fall in the trap of believing your boss will do it for you, or your HR department, or your mentor, etc. Chances are they are busy focusing on their own growth” –Alejandro Colindres F.
- “It is your responsibility to build the right relationships, make your interests be known, knock on doors, take the right risks, and make things happen for you.” –Alejandro Colindres F.
- “It is very important that you love what you do, that you feel you’re growing, that you are learning—this also brings you happiness. You do need to grab your wheel!” –Lili Ferrarase
- “Make sure that you are following your passion during that time that we have; it’s not a long time, so why waste it on things you don’t want to do or that you have to do because you got stuck in a job and you feel like you are trapped. Get out of it! Go and do the things you really want to do.” –Dr. Juan Salinas
Hinesh Shah
Maria Pinelli
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Introduction:
Today we wrap up Part 3 Be the Driver, exploring principle #13: Learn from All Leaders. Once you understand the power sources and increase your own power and influence, and build a healthy network, and become proactive in steering the wheel of the car you are in on your road to success, you are pretty much on a drive to your Champagne! That is awesome. But there is one more thing. Professional car drivers are constantly monitoring and learning from what is happening around them…the feel of the tires on the road, the car’s instruments, and the voices from the pit in their earpiece. You have to do the same. Learn from the free leadership lessons happening around you in a conference call or conference room near you. Learning from poor and excellent leaders will help you shape your leadership style. Wait, did I just say poor leaders? Yep! Poor, weak, and horrible leaders teach you how not to be…they are anti-role models. But they expose you to the effects of such lousy leadership style, so you can learn to do the exact opposite.
As your career takes you to new levels of responsibility, which is a real consequence of wanting more in your career, you will be put in positions where you are leading others. Remember the lessons you accumulated along your drive.
Learning from all leaders seems obvious right? But not everyone is constantly doing it. I believe there are several reasons why, including:
- We believe we already know what it takes to be an admired leader.
- We filter out those leaders who we don’t admire—especially the jerks—and dismiss the possibility of learning anything useful from them.
- It takes attention and energy to be in learning mode.
So what makes a leader excellent or lousy? In my experience, it directly depends on the level of emotional intelligence (EI) they are displaying. Some simply have weak emotional intelligence, but they are there because they bring results or some political reason. Others have high EI, but occasionally lose control and display weak EI temporarily.
In other words, what I am saying is…continue building and solidifying your EI. This is something I left for last, but it doesn’t mean it will happen only after you have good maturity in the other 12 principles. Start working on this now, and never stop.
When you are exposed to leaders leaving a bad taste, learn to do the opposite. It will make you a more effective leader others want to follow. Those lessons increase you EI.
During this episode we discuss:
- What traits define an effective and admirable leader
- Why emotional intelligence (EI) is critical to your growth as a leader
- How learning from both good and bad leaders around you helps you become a better leader
Key quotes:
- “Learn from the free leadership lessons happening around you in a conference call or conference room near you. Learning from poor and excellent leaders will help you shape your leadership style.” –Alejandro Colindres F.
- “All leaders around me were highly intelligent; the key variable that made them awesome or lousy was their emotional intelligence.” –Alejandro Colindres F.
- On emotional intelligence: “If connecting with people isn’t the most important skill you can have—now more than ever—I don’t know what is!” –Maria Pinelli
- “Whatever style you wish to adopt, whatever leader you want to be, whatever leader you admire…it needs to come back and it needs to be authentic to you and who you are, which is grounded in your own personal values and norms.” –Hinesh Shah
