Noone wants to be seen to be making a stupid career-limiting move or jump into a worse situation etc.

But what happens when you turn up to the other side, is the grass greener?

I have one friend whom left a long term employer for a bold gamble which turned foul when the new company, a global player, decided to make my friend and 20 other people redundant after 3 months due a change in direction.

I have another friend whom after winning sales rep of the year and operating at 140% of target was also made redundant due to a change in leadership wanted to refocus on his route to market.

Looking at these two examples you would likely prefer to hide under your bed.

I have recently taken the big move of leaving my employer after 13 years, in the end the thing that was hard to leave was the people. I was ready for change and I was excited about the opportunity.

In many respects my new employer seems very similar to my previous – people are professional, gracious, focused and confident. I have good resources and there a big issues to solve.

On the positive plus side, they are more liberal with things like tea, coffee, fruit, soft drinks, juice – which makes a difference. They are more social and regularly hold get together’s. The work space is great and you walk between floors which is nice. The environment is less management and inspection heavy which is wonderful.

So right now the grass feels a little greener but there are still tough challenges to be over-come and problems to solve. So I guess that means that green does not equal easy street. Cheers,

I don’t know anyone who thinks business is easy right now. There is no corner of my company or our partners and especially our competitors who is finding things a breeze. Everyone is having a rough ride.

Further, any sign of turnaround is some way off, likely years in fact. Europe 2018?  North America 2016? Asia Pacific likely sooner but not until 2014.

So we are therefore facing a sustained rough ride in the corporate world. This is important to understand on a number of fronts.

Firstly it is likely not your job, your manager or your situation that is awful, hard, stressful and/or high pressure – it is everyone’s job.

Secondly, if you are feeling stress and anxiety about your ability to succeed, your job security, your finances and your future – remember everyone else around you is feeling the same.

Thirdly, if you are to make it through the next few years then there need to be some home truths and some longer term plans:

1. Changing jobs or companies will probably not reduce stress and anxiety, it may make it worse.

2. You need to set yourself up for the best possible success during this period and realise it is also an opportunity to shine.

3. You need to ensure you have a plan in place to treat stress and anxiety, reduce pressure and be generally resilient through rough times.

When you change jobs or companies you will actually increase your stress and anxiety levels. You may lose your important networks and as you ramp up if your results aren’t there it can lead to even worse fates.

When times are good, ‘all boats rise together’, but when times are tough it is the really capable performers that shine – that can be you. Therefore, don’t accept your fate like your peers around you but create a plan to outperform your expectations. Be creative, be highly focused, use mentors and decide you are going to create a turnaround.

Make sure you have done some research and reading on managing stress and anxiety. Eating well, drinking lots and lots of water, avoiding alcohol on work nights and plenty of exercise are great ways to address these but also talking to someone close about how you are feeling can make a real difference. As always, if you are feeling depressed – go and see your Doctor ASAP.

We can be a victim of rough times or we can put our best foot forward. We can run away or we can stay and fight. We can crumple into a heap or we are our best self.

All the best to you in rough times, write to me about how you are handling yourself and what works for you. Cheers,

“ Richard, I try to only focus on three things at once – my three things are….”

In discussions with another Vice President and mentor in the last month he said to me:

“ Richard, you can’t do it all – just pick your three things that are going to make a difference and that is where you place your focus. “

Finally, another Director and mentor described to me:

“ Richard, you can’t be driving down the road at 100 miles an hour and change four tyres at the same time – pick your three things you are going to focus on and let that be your impact “

By now I had a clear message and guess what – I had my three things defined and this has started to provide greater personal direction and focus for my energy in busy times.

‘Your Three Things‘ for me really falls into the realm of things that I have forgotten and needed to re-learn. We all know this right? If we try to do too many things and if we don’t delegate or drop some then we will be running ourselves into the ground.

I have started talking to my managers about what their three things are. One of my managers told me that after we had our discussion a month ago it has made a huge difference. He has stopped doing a whole bunch of things and has become very focused on what matters and it really shows in his results.

For you – my advice would be:

1. List what your measures and objectives are.
2. List all the things you are trying to do.
3. Identify the things that are your real top three things
4. Drop or delegate the rest

Try it for a day, a week, a month – as long as you can. It should make a huge difference. Keep it going.

I read this week that a key thing senior executives do is to only look at their email three times a day, say 9am, 12pm and 4pm – if you create this habit then you become much more efficient and productive.

Good luck with defining your three things, write to me in comments below and tell me what you think or how you went, I would love to hear. Cheers,

What got me thinking is that sometimes in our careers we need to place ourselves in high risk situations. We are not going to be sent to certain death but may be there is a high risk of failure. Failure is a very big and bitter pill to swallow. However, where there is high risk there is also high reward, praise and promotion. Therefore there needs to be a balance between the risk we maybe facing versus confidence in our ability and skills to succeed and rule the day.

Several of my mentors have said to me consistently, ‘ Richard, you want the biggest and ugliest role you can find ‘, so in some sense this is what I look for when I am considering new roles.

I was asked to take on a high risk role in 2006 which terrified me due to the two predecessors having been seen to have failed. I took this role and used my ability and skills to implement some semi-radical changes in approach and thinking, I didn’t know what would happen, but I succeeded.

I have found myself in the same situation recently where I was presented with two roles which were excellent except they were high risk. It would have been very easy to remain in my current role which I enjoyed immensely. I took one of these roles, the biggest and ugliest role, and whilst it is early days and nothing is assured – I need to have confidence in my abilities and skills with rule the day. Cheers,

Write to me if you are facing a forlorn hope!

Sponsors may come in a number of forms. Often they are previous managers or 2nd Line managers who have observed you closely and seen your potential and performance over time. Other sponsors may be your current formal or informal mentors. These can be great sponsors because they know your aspirations and they can keep an eye out for you. Finally, sponsors may be other seen executives whom you’ve not worked for but have heard highly positive feedback, seen results, and had multiple people comment on you – they have formed their own view and it’s a good one.

Can you develop sponsors? The answer is yes, in fact you should be looking to build and maintain sponsors several years before your intended big move. One way is to list the people that fit the influence profile, that you know and have either worked for or been associated with the work you’ve done. If you are on the ‘way up’ then you should know many of these people, at least to say Good Morning and have a brief hallway chat.

Once you have identified these potential sponsors you should request an informal meeting under the topic Executive Interest Discussion or similar. Your meeting may be in their office or meeting room or could be over a coffee. You create a list of points you would like to cover for example:

-    how you are connected with them
-    why you wanted to meet with them
-    the role types you are trying to target
-    ask them what is their story
-    ask them for advice as to how to go about your next move

Senior executives are generally very familiar with this type of approach and if they already like you then it will make matters that much easier.

Once you have established your sponsors you need to maintain them by finding ways to interact with them – in meetings, hallways, events, follow-up discussions etc..

If you are able to create enough sponsors with influence then you should be significantly advantaged when it comes to securing that position. This isn’t about nepotism or favouritism as you need to understand all candidates being considered for ‘that role’ are similar to you. This is about giving you an edge. Cheers,

P.S. If you don’t subscribe to my blog – please do, it’s only monthly.

P.P.S. If you have any thoughts or comments, please write below or rate this post. Thanks,

I may have started others which have then stalled (cue guitar &  German lessons…).

I was at a new year’s day BBQ on the 1st and a friend Michelle asked me. “what are your new
years resolutions for 2012?”. I paused a beat and thought and said “none, I have just turned
40, I have just graduated with my Masters Degree and we have just survived the first 10
months with my 2nd child – I think I have done pretty well.”

This year is the first year in the last ten years where I just don’t feel like I need
to set any resolutions. Yes, there are quasi goals I have set for myself in the back of my
mind which are:

- guitar lessons
– German lessons
– ride bike (road bike)
– be fitter
– surf more
– try for a skiing holiday

Whilst if you read my blog you know I believe in goal setting, I write about it alot, but for me in 2012 I am going to go easy (he says on the 3rd January). Maybe I will change my mind (…there is more study to be done) or maybe I won’t.

I wish you the very best for your contemplation of new years resolutions and all the very best for 2012. Cheers,

P.S. If you don’t subscribe to my blog – please do, only monthly.

P.P.S. If you have any thoughts or comments, please write below or rate this post. Thanks,

What comes up when I reflect? I reflect on my performance, what went well, what didn’t go so well, can I re-trace my steps and improve the weak areas? I reflect on encounters with people in the workplace, relationships that are in sync and those that aren’t. I reflect on key performance metrics like targets, did we implement and execute to strategy? If we missed targets was it because we missed a step?

Early in my management career I used to think that setting your strategy and then sticking to it was the right way. Whilst I appreciate at a high level that may still be true in actual fact I think you need to be assessing and changing the detail of your strategy constantly through reflection.

I took on a high risk role several years ago and whilst I had an over-arching strategy which I implemented I would actually end up changing the detail every few months. You see I was reflecting and responding. What this meant was that our business stayed on a constant growth trajectory for 2.5 years until I moved to a new role. This role was my big reflection role and it has stuck with me since.

If you consider personal relationships then reflection is equally as powerful. Around the same time as my high stakes role I was working through some make or break relationship areas with my then girlfriend now wife. Through reflection I worked out that I was being pretty pig headed and rigid in my thinking. I determined that if we were to thrive then I needed to let these former truths go – and it made all the difference.

For me reflection is a powerful tool that I used in my personal and professional working life and I have certainly found that it leads to a better corporate life. I would love to hear from you if you have pondered or you use reflection. Cheers,

You see my friend had very recently moved from a role which he was extremely comfortable and competent in and he was considered a subject matter expert to a role where he needed to apply a new knowledge set. His learning curve wasn’t as great as he perceived it to be. It would however take him some time before he would feel like a subject matter expert – and that’s to be expected.

There are lots of events in our corporate life that can lead to busted self confidence:

1. we lose our job
2. we fail in a critical task
3. we miss our target
4. we receive poor feedback
5. we can’t see how to turn around a failing business

There are of course many more. What we need to acknowledge is that there will be light at the end of the tunnel, it may be a long tunnel, but there will be light.

There will be a time when my work friend feels like he is the master of this work universe again; he will feel like a subject matter expert, he will feel confident.

So what can we do if we feel our confidence collapsing?

 1. stop and reflect –

• Is it entirely reasonable to feel this way?
• What are my skills, talents, capabilities, where am I expert?
• What are my gaps either perceived or communicated?
• What would my friends & mentors say about above?
• What can I do to address these?

2.  Make a plan to recover

• Define an action plan
  • Read some books, papers, do a course or two
  • Get recommendations from mentors or manager
  • Consider a lower pressure version of same role you can grow into it and build expertise
  • Check in on personal life – health, diet, exercise, relationships

3. Realise the sun will be shinning some day very soon

Certainly if you suspect your collapse in confidence may be placing you in a depressive state then go and see a Doctor ASAP. The faster you start working on depression the shorter the time you stay in it (…and it is very common).

We have all found our self confidence peak and wane during the course of our corporate life. The important thing is to acknowledge it when it happens and to reflect and plan around it. I would love to hear from your own stories so please write to me. Cheers,

Why wouldn’t we fear failure? Failure can have many negative ramifications – wealth, career, liberty, relationships and the list goes on.

A famous Australian billionaire and gambler, Kerry Packer (deceased), whom once was lauded to having offered a brash Texas millionaire whilst gambling in Las Vegas to flip for the Texan’s $150m fortune, was once approached by an entrepreneur whom was seeking financial investment from Kerry – his response was “Have you ever failed? “ and the entrepreneur said “ No “ – to which Kerry said, “Come back when you have!”. You don’t get to be a billionaire without having a few failures.

Another story I heard recently was that a Google Mid-Level Executive had to admit to his boss that he had lost or wasted $1 million in a failed venture. His boss’s reaction was, “good” – this is because his boss knows that you can’t grow and innovate unless you take risks and he also knew this executive probably wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

Finally, a friend of mine – Paul – whom currently runs his own software company turning over more than $10m per annum – recently told me that his first three ventures were total failures and the last one he was left with only $10,000 in his pocket. Paul believes he wouldn’t be where he is today if he hadn’t experienced his failed ventures.

So why is it OK to fail? Why may failure actually be good for you?

Reflection

• Failure allows us to reflect on what went wrong and what went right, we can reflect on what we will do different – we learn an incredible amount.

Resilience

• Failure allows us to be more resilient to the peaks and troughs, handle stress more effectively. It gives us an edge as we know what failure looks and feels like.

Determination

• Failure can lead to increased determination. We’ve all heard that a problem is just an opportunity. If every athlete that lost didn’t try harder they wouldn’t be much of an athlete. The world is full of entrepreneurs who came back twice as strong after their fall.

Creates opportunity for change

• Failure creates an opportunity to clear the slate for a fresh start. This can allow for a change in mindset and allow you to approach life and business in a new way that you may have never had been willing to before.

Expands your comfort zone

• One thing in life is that if we only ever live within our comfort zone then we can’t really grow. Failure can take us way outside our comfort zone therefore making it larger and leading us to new opportunities.

One thing I always ask myself as I am approaching a ‘danger of failure ‘ situation is, “What’s the worst thing that can happen?” If I invest $5,000 and lose it can I recover? Yes! “If I totally screw up this job can I get another one? Yes!”

I know that sometimes failure means painful residue like long term debt, broken relationships, busted career plans and many others. Failure also gives us opportunity and sometimes if can lead to a better life than we ever expected. Cheers,

David was pumped, he said that he had been really inspired by the event and it had given him the idea that he wanted to created a ‘Positivity Council’ within his business division that could meet and organised events and activities that would lead to creating a more positive workplace environment – “great!” I said.

Tony and I had worked very hard and thoughtfully, both being ‘event novices’, on making this an impactful event so it was great to get such feedback from David. I thought I would challenge him to take his idea one step further.

I said, “David, I have personally made the decision to be positive about work. This means whenever I engage with someone I drive to the positive and I don’t let myself get dragged down by negativity. “

“ I don’t mean I am all dreamy and ignore that this can be a tough place and there can be tough issues but I just now refuse to join the club which is all about ‘how hard things are around here’.”

I suggested to David that he should recruit his council members into the positive movement as a daily activity not just a great event once a month.

I said imagine if you had 10 to 20 people who made it their mission to be positive and uplifting within your business division what a difference that would make every day.

If we reflect, we can see that we all have the opportunity to choose to be positive in our workplaces and about our work. This can filter through our engagements, our many daily conversations, our general posture and tone.

Choosing to be positive can make you into a force for good and can create a movement you can invite others into, you never know – it may just lead to a better corporate life.