As you Navigate Your Professional Growth through these competitive times, It's imperative that you have a grasp and awareness of your professional growth direction. To do this you must have a strategic focus on that direction. What you concentrate on, whe

FOCUS Strategy

Navigating Your Professional GrowthBy John Canavan

Balboa Press

Copyright © 2012 John Canavan
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4525-5449-5

Chapter One

Manage Your Time

Time management is something that's easier described than done. How many times have you attempted to budget your time and failed? It takes a lot of focus to keep from going over or under—and either way, you do not achieve what you want. Time management is essential to your ability to progress in a deliberate and organized manner.

If, for example, you're working on a project and do not have a grasp of how to budget your time, you'll find yourself actually wasting it. Time is a perishable commodity—you will never get it back. Not only will that particular project be slowed, but so will your overall progress.

This is not to say that some things don't take time to work on or complete. But having a strategy and focusing on time will make a difference. Think of some of the people you work with who you must constantly revisit or contact for additional information or other things. They are wasting your time because they are not managing theirs.

Chapter Two

Be Decisive

Making decisions sounds easy enough, but it's not always. A situation often comes up in which you're either afraid to make a decision or you think you need to check with your supervisor, directors, board members, and so on—when, in reality, others want you to make the decision. Why? Because it saves them from having to make it and allows them to focus on more pressing issues. Of course, there are matters that require some deliberation. Your judgment is important here. Ultimately, though, there's nothing more impressive than someone taking the initiative to make a decision.

Chapter Three

Run Meetings Efficiently

Keep meetings to the point and get them over with quickly because no one likes them. Preparation is one of the keys to running meetings. An agenda can help you stay on track, but because variables always present themselves, it's difficult to hold a meeting within a concise timeframe. This shouldn't stop you from trying.

Understanding what you are trying to get out of a meeting and what points you are attempting to make allows you to set the pace. Everyone has his or her own style and management techniques, so creating a consistent and predictable format allows others to be more prepared.

One thing you don't want to do in meetings—especially with six or more attendees—is get bogged down in discussions that pertain to only a few. Discussions headed in that direction should be cut off, and a separate, more focused meeting on that topic should be scheduled.

Chapter Four

Get to Know Potential Employees

Hiring is a trip into the great unknown, no matter how much research and background-checking you do. If the potential employee is going to work directly for you, the best thing you can do is converse with the individual. His or her mannerisms will give you the core information you need to make an assessment on a personal level. This doesn't mean you're going to go out clubbing with this person, but you want him or her to have your interests in mind. We are not cyborgs; we are social by nature, and we need to feel comfortable enough to manage, delegate, and work through issues without personality conflicts.

Testing for specific answers within a hiring matrix is good, but it shouldn't be the complete basis for hiring. Some people know how to work the answers, and those are the kind of unnatural and deceptive individuals you really want to stay away from. They may become derailers or outright troublemakers who will lower morale and stifle creativity. The saying "One bad apple spoils the bunch" didn't come out of nowhere. There's a reason for it.

Now, how do you go through the process of hiring? Yes, have your hiring matrix prepared and complete the scoring in the traditional manner. Once you've completed that, though, lighten up the interview. Some people are very nervous in interviews and actually perform much better in a less formal environment. There's nothing wrong with that. Other people perform well under pressure. Either way, it's good to have both tracks available to assess the candidate and bring in the right person.

Initiate a more personal conversation within the context of the business, something to the effect of what the candidate is proud of, what his or her references and people close to him or her would say, and what kind of passion the person has for business or the position. What kind of details are involved in what the candidate is describing? Having the potential employee elaborate will give you insight into how he or she sees things, and hence how that person may perform on the job.

Chapter Five

Encourage Innovation

If you're not innovating, you are falling behind. There's much to say about this topic, but the bottom line is that the ideas must keep flowing, and whether you implement many or few, you must at least be discussing potential innovations. Many companies will simply copy another's innovation. Honestly, there's nothing wrong with that; they save a lot of capital. And that in itself can be a form of innovation—perhaps to enhance the product or service.

In any event, if you don't have the imagination or creativity yourself, find those who do and discuss ideas with them. Imagination, creativity, innovation—these are what keep things moving.

Create a culture of innovation within your company. It's one of the first principles of having a successful business. The leaders of a company, department, project, and so on need to foster a creative environment. Without it, you have the normal, mundane, day-to-day, business-as-usual mentality that simply oppresses and suppresses any kind of motivation to generate ideas and innovate. It's deliberate persistence. It's the difference between Apple and everyone else.

Chapter Six

Avoid Micromanagement

One of the worst things you can do is micromanage. It's an ego-driven process and a setup for failure. Type A personalities are good, but they are the best candidates for making this mistake. Okay, you know everything, but you don't know everything. Bring the details to the surface, but don't overanalyze to the point where the bigger picture becomes obscured because you're obsessing over something that someone else should be handling. Micromanaging is an annoyance to others and actually stifles growth by minimizing contrary ideas, which is never a good thing.

CH7[ Look Out for Leaders

There's a saying that being critical of a situation is a sign of intelligence. My guess is that this comes from the difference between a leader—someone who thinks—and the led—a sheep, basically, accepting and moving through situations without much thought.

I'm not saying this is true in every case, but if there's an employee showing some unhappiness with the status quo, chances are that employee is smart and ambitious. This is the type of person you want pushing things through. Sometimes these people need training and refinement, but the cost is worth it. Would you rather settle for sheep who are more interested in maintaining than producing? ]CH7

CH8[ Understand the Particulars

When meeting with subordinates, it is important that your executive committee and managers—whether in private meetings, group meetings, board meetings, or executive-committee meetings—listen to and understand the particulars of...