The WAY to WOW Shows
10 Career Building Habits
January 3, 2024
Automatically generated from YouTube captions; names and wording may contain errors.

[0:00] host Kevin bemel and we're here every Wednesday at 10: a.m. Pacific Time 1 p.m. eastern time with an hour in for uh mountain and Central Time and our purpose here is to talk about all things related to professional success and wealth building give you uh in some inspiring ideas on what you can do to um further your own uh Financial well-being so today uh F well first of all um if if this is the first time you've tuned in

[0:35] in this in in the new year so you see we have a new look we're broadcasting now from restream uh rather than uh zoom and uh so that's that's why you can see the ticker down there at the bottom um this is the kickoff to season five of people making money um I I've mentioned this my two previous shows this week it's I I it seems amazing that I've been doing this going into my fifth year started started as a you know covid project actually um working with my

[1:10] longtime producing partner uh Rick Carter and and um we did a a much more elaborate show um back then converting my living room to a studio once a month and we shot multiple episodes that were edited down and um our our longtime uh uh cameraman Steve was there with us and we had a young a team of young um really excellent professionals and uh now you know scaled down since then um but it to this year we're we're I'm I'm scaling back up a little bit so we have I already have some uh some

[1:47] great guests planned for this year so I hope you'll tune in every week and um share this time all all my shows now are at 10:00 uh Pacific time so we can um be together Monday through Wednesday at at the same time each week and you can um uh tune in Live on YouTube or or your favorite social media channel um I know I'm on Facebook I'm on LinkedIn I'm on X I'm on uh twitch um there's there's some other ones dve I think I'm on and uh um a couple of

[2:24] others uh nine channels all Al together and the nice thing one of the reasons I switched to restream is if you want to post comments uh live during the show so you can and they they're all aggregated you can't see this but there's there's a chat section right here on my screen and so no matter uh what social media you're on um if you post a comment I'll be able to see it and and respond to it here in real time so uh do do take advantage of that um and uh you know we'll help make

[2:59] uh the show not only a little more interactive but also my experience um after uh half century of teaching do I want to admit that I guess is um if you have a question in mind um I know a lot of times it seems embarrassing to ask a question um and and yet um you're doing usually several other people a favor by asking the question because very often other people have the same question and for various reasons they're reluctant to to ask it and so

[3:34] they're they're grateful when someone else does so um I I encourage you to um post comments ask questions etc etc so um today we're going to kick off by talking about 10 career building habits so when when I we when we talk about a career it could be a career working for another organization um a for-profit or a nonprofit uh company it could could be working for Academia or the government um and and it

[4:09] could also be a career working in your own organization uh no matter what form it takes so I think that these um these Hab these habits we want to build are Universal so interestingly enough uh this morning when I was checking my email I get a a daily email from a friend of mine named Jeff Krill Jeff uh is is a uh publicist um out of I believe it's Dallas Texas and he sends out um an email literally every day 365 days a a

[4:48] year except on leap year when it's 366 and he highlights three topics that are um in the news or uh topics that are topical you know um that that that have um that that have resonance in what's going on these days and one of his items today um uh had a statistic that said uh 38% of employers don't hire recent college

[5:25] graduates and 58% have five Ed a recent college graduate and the reason for that is um these um companies business owners whatever find that in their opinion um y recent college graduates do not have the basic skills necessary to be successful in the workplace so uh look I I'll take I'll take the

[6:01] article at its word um my experience um in working in in the military which is um in in the last uh what 40 years yeah in the last approximately the last 40 years um the only time I've worked in a large organization was was in the Navy um US Navy and and and like the other branches of the military most of the people in it are 25 years or younger 25 years older

[6:37] younger and um I I found in general um these young people had very good to excellent U professional habits now part of that is the military does instill that through things like basic training and and they they're they teach some of the habits we're going to be talking about um in in civilian life um you know I I can tell you I was um taught how to be how to how to act uh

[7:14] you know in in in the workplace by my father and my mother um but but I had to act that same way at home to a large extent so um there was an expected mode of behavior I think that um is is is different in in society today so um you'll know I'm wearing a tie right I mean this is this is how this is how my father taught me a professional dress and interestingly enough he hated ties I me he got in trouble at work uh for not wearing a tie um and and so he started wearing a bolo tie just to sort of poke

[7:50] a finger in his supervisor's eye which I would argue was was not very professional this was toward the end of his career he had you know kind of kind of gotten more kantankerous than than than usual but uh you know from and you can see if you if you look behind me you can see a picture of my dad right here he's uh he's in a a suit with a shirt and tie actually fairly I just noticed it's a fairly similar comination to what I'm wearing he has his pipe my dad was a pipe smoker most of his life I still can recall the the scent of cherry pipe tobacco um all those years and um and

[8:27] and you know I'm I'm remember um posting something about this a number of years ago what did you learn from your father and my friend bill um mentioned that you know you should always wear a white shirt you know like a collared white shirt um that was something his father taught him okay um I I you know I think that that's how we dress um definitely affects our our performance our behavior and there's there's lots of um research that that confirms that um and um and so

[9:05] I I think there you know things have changed over the uh 40 years that I've been in professional life I guess it it's yeah it was 40 years last year I graduated from college in 83 so um I think that it's this is a good topic to start out with um here at the beginning of of the year and um it I I think it's a good reminder for those of us who um have cultivated um good good professional habits good career habits over the years um you know we we don't need to be told necessarily but we need to be reminded um and um it also uh is

[9:43] is good information for those of us um at the beginning of our professional Journeys um you know how can we set ourselves up for Success so I'm going to go ahead and share my um uh my uh PowerPoint this is this is this is kind of interesting because you can see the the background there and the background there I kind of like that anyway um this is our our new uh uh uh new our PowerPoint for today um so 10 career building habits uh and there we

[10:20] go and and as is um the case and in in all of the way to wow shows they all revolve around this concept of the three pillar of attainment and again if you're new to the shows by all means um uh do check out I I do have an episode on our YouTube channel um you see the you see scrolling below the URL for our our YouTube channel um do check out the um episode on explaining what the three pillars of attainment are all about in general I'm dealing here in the finances

[10:55] realm um however um today you're going to see that we're we're in many ways going to be all-encompassing in terms of we'll be in all all three pillars we'll we'll be hitting on um most of the Realms um in in the three pillars of attainment so off we go and okay so these are the these are the 10 habits um that I recommend we work on developing for um for uh Career Success and let me start out by

[11:30] saying I do not recommend that you work on developing all 10 it's it's too much um the best the best thing I can what I would suggest is pick five or six and spend this year um a couple months um on each one this year and by the end of the year you will have significantly improved um you have I should say significantly habituated yourself to these um uh to

[12:08] these things so um now some people say play to your strengths and build on those um others say uh Shore up your weaknesses so I think we need to look at this as a a combination of the two so so for example let me just go through the list and then I'll I'll give you some examples actually so number one well-being number two relationships number three learning number four Improvement number five leadership six problem solv seven adaptability eight

[12:43] proactive nine respectful and professional intend collaborative now there are certain of these that I think are required even if we're not good at them and those are well-being relationships learning and Improvement so one through four and then also by the way um nine respectful and professional so one through four and nine are are just the um the the the foundational items um and then the rest

[13:20] of them it's it's not that they're not important but they have more to do with um the kind of work that you want to be doing the kind of success that you want to have and the kind of person you want to be okay so um let's um so what I recommend again is is is a combination of um sort of more aspirational ones if you will um improving on your strengths so for example if if you have um sort of

[13:58] natural leadership ability so improving on that and and getting into the habit of improving your leadership will take you far okay on the other hand if you are not attentive to your well-being um most of these other ones are really not going to help a whole lot if you're constantly sick you're constantly tired um you're dragging you you have you know a as a result you have a kind of a bad attitude in the workplace okay so and that's why by the

[14:33] way I have well-being is number one I think that is the foundation uh for all of the others and and just for a minute going back to the uh the uh three pillars of attainment so you see the health realm here in in the self pillar right so health and mindset which are very um directly connected okay they re they serve as a foundation for our identity um but they're also kind of at the tip of the sphere so to speak so

[15:09] um really when we you know when we talk about habits um if if if you're not in the habit of um um um looking after your well-being um 2024 is is the year to do that so all right so let's now let's look at these in more detail okay so we're starting off with well-being so really you know there are three basic components to well-being there's sleep exercise and nutrition and I've talked

[15:44] about these before in in in other shows but I I think that we really need to um we need to focus on this uh triumvir if you will um now let me say that if you are sick if you're struggling with some kind of condition some some kind of um syndrome whatever um that needs to be addressed of course um and um having said that if

[16:19] you are getting good sleep if you are exercising regularly within whatever it's within whatever ability you have to exercise and if you are getting good nutrition so that is likely to help you deal with control overcome um an ongoing illness you know a syndrome that you may have so um let's just say um that you uh

[16:55] um you have um sleep apnea okay so getting good exercise and nutrition is going to help you get good sleep which is going to help you deal with your sleep apnea okay um now that may sound you know very simple um and and and you may need to have some some more um invasive care you may need to have a CPAP machine or something like that um having said that um there's there's little doubt that um that

[17:33] exercise and nutrition good exercise and nutrition contribute to good sleep okay you can you can check out the um website of my friend Dr Michael Bruce he's his website is thesleepdoctor.com Michael is one of the top top top experts in in sleep in the world only 185 people in the world have the level of credentials that he has has um and and I can personally attest because Mike um Michael helped me with with my sleep problems he knows his stuff okay

[18:08] so um you're not going to hurt yourself by um getting good sleep and good sleep generally speaking this is General this is not specific to to you as an individual but generally it means at least 7 hours of asleep time which means you need to be in bed for more than hours because we everyone wakes up periodically um during during the night okay so I know for myself I plan eight hours in bed to get seven hours of sleep having said that for the first three days of of of this year um my sleep has

[18:46] been excellent because I've go I've gone to bed an hour or two early um and because I've I've just been tired they've been uh you know exhausting days and that's that's good um I mean I'm glad I can I I I sleep well um I'm also getting off a particular Med medication and so um that that interestingly enough has been improving my sleep as well okay exercise I I was been talking to my daughter about this um you know heart to be heart healthy you need 20 minutes a day three days a week of um aerobic

[19:24] exercise now that then that's kind of the minimum and that can be something as simple as just walking around the neighborhood just get out into the sunshine okay now and now I I realize in some in some areas you know the sun doesn't come out necessarily if you live in Seattle you can go for days without seeing the sunshine but get outside 20 30 minutes walk around the neighborhood you don't have to jog you don't have to run um you don't necessarily even have to walk particularly fast although um f fast walking is is certain certainly a good a good exercise um that's that's

[20:01] kind of the minimum to shoot for if if you're not doing any exercise at all I I would set that as a goal to habituate or as a condition of satisfaction I should say to habituate um getting that amount of exercise and then build from there and then nutrition this is another um ongoing topic between with my daughter um and me and U yesterday um she was she's we had um kind of salad and potato pancakes lotas in h in Yiddish and and she said you know Dad our our our potato

[20:36] pancakes healthy so I said well um I I said you know they're not unhealthy I said compared to vegetables you know fruits and vegetables they're less healthy than fruits and vegetables compared to uh you know cakes and cookies they're they're better right so nutrition is a Continuum and and and I I know for me I'm not an absolutist in this like you know you only eat fruits and vegetables and no no no I mean we want to eat a Balan diet um but we want to make sure that we're getting proteins fats carbohydrates vitamins minerals

[21:14] getting enough water those kind of things okay and not getting too much sugar I mean some is some is fine I think I mean I tell people you know that the anxiety that comes from being so super strict with your diet that you you get no enjoyment out of eating I think uh outweighs the benefit of being that strict so th those are the the essence of of well-being focusing on these three these three items okay next

[21:49] relationships so it is very unlikely in today's uh business world and and that you are going to be successful without the habit of creating and building relationships and relation the the basis for a relationship is typically some kind of common interest or interests now we sort of naturally do this for our our our friends outside of business because that's why they're our friends we like similar things and and so we do things

[22:25] together Etc the same thing is true in the profession in our professional lives um we want to seek out people with whom we have common interests uh in terms of uh activities in terms of uh goals in terms of information those kinds of things and there is nothing predatory or anything like that about seeking out professional contacts with whom you share common interests quite to the contrary it's it's mutually beneficial to be connecting with people

[23:03] who have common interests okay and and and that is going to be the basis for the relationship so if you want to get into the habit of of starting and building relationships you have to get in the C you have to get in the habit of reaching out to people okay and um a little later this year I'm going to be doing a show on how to use LinkedIn um to uh start and build relationships and with without having to buy the the LinkedIn I for I forget what it's called but it's it's they have a very expensive program that you can buy

[23:38] I think it's $100 a month or a couple hundred dollars a month where you get unlimited searching and all this kind of stuff I mean it's fine if if you can afford it I'm not saying don't buy it but if if if you're on you know a limited budget um then um I'm going to show you a way to um be able to do this on LinkedIn to build professional relationships and really um in my experience LinkedIn is the best social media um platform for building professional relationships so reach out um you know take the initiative if you will to connect with people with whom you have

[24:14] common interests okay and then make yourself available to help these people okay um share your expertise let them know that if if they um have a question they can call you and and you know you're not going to be um you know turning on the you know the the the meter every time you know they send you an email with a question or or or you know call you to talk to you about something okay so be collaborative in that way and and then and then last make introductions so if you know someone who

[24:50] can help out um another person make those connections if you know of an organization that um that supports your common interests uh let them know about that organization even you know it doesn't have to be an organization that you run it could be an organization that that somebody else runs but by all means tell them about it help that other person build um his organization and and and you know we all kind of rais the tide together okay next learning

[25:26] so in in our professional lives and in our lives in general I think we really want to be lifelong Learners yeah when I was when I had my real estate company before I joined the Navy one of my clients um actually got a PhD um I well I think I think actually I think it was a um doctor of education but his Focus was lifelong learning so he had had a long career in banking and now he was retired from that um but he didn't want to retire from Life frankly

[26:01] and his his wife was a was an author um and and so she was still active and so um he helped her as well as pursue this interest he had in lifelong learning and how how to help people um become uh you know lifelong Learners I know I've been saying that uh that F phrase multiple times so why why and how should we um should we pursue learning and and first of all we we should be seeking to grow

[26:36] okay growth doesn't just happen um it's something that we um make an affirmative commitment to do now um life will certainly throw problems in in you know in in in in in our path um we will face hurdles those problems those hurdles are opportunities for us to grow however um we don't necessarily take those opportunities right um we may complain

[27:13] um we may get apathetic um and and and by the way sometimes we we do that at first because um we're tired because we're we're burnt out um so the fact that at times you're tired or apathetic doesn't mean that you know you're bad or you're doing something wrong it just it just means that we you know you you need to reorient your focus your mindset to as much as possible embrace the challenge that's been put in your way and and and seek that growth

[27:49] opportunity okay now in the professional World um we want to have we want to learn academic Mally we want to learn practically and we also want to learn in terms of well learn practically especially in terms of um so-called um emotional intelligence or soft skills okay those are those are equal they're equally important if not more important than technical skills so we can attend classes and workshops um and and in fact um um those can be a great way also to

[28:28] uh cultivate relationships right because presumably if you're in a class or a workshop with someone you have a common interest so some of my earliest business relationships I got in classes I took when I was first starting out on the real estate business and I REM I I maintain those contacts uh to this day so you know decades later read Publications okay online read you know hard cover hard hard copy Publications there's so much available a lot of it is is free that you're you're you're never at a at a loss for

[29:04] finding um good information on on the the industry that you're in on the economy um on topics of personal growth developing emotional intelligence okay I know for me I here here here it is you know I read the The Wall Street Journal every day um especially the um what it's called the uh yeah the business and finance section um to to keep up with what's going on um in in the business World okay um and and

[29:40] it's a I find it's a a relatively well-written newspaper although it has a more casual tone now than it did you know 30 years ago when I first started reading it um but nonetheless uh read Publications and and and by the way a little tip is read public periodically maybe once a month read a publication that has nothing to do with with the things with which you're involved it'll help you open your mind to new ideas that you might then be able to apply to your profession okay so um

[30:16] you know in general we want to be you know fairly focused on our area on our industry on our you know that but um going outside of that periodically can be very very useful in terms of seeking growth and learning and then finally write and speak okay so um one of the best ways to learn about something is is to commit to writing an article about it and again there's with the you know with the internet there are so many opportunities to get published you can publish your own blog you can um reach

[30:53] out to other bloggers and ask if you can guess blog there are lots of online Publications many of them are looking for um for good material uh for good content um so you can reach out to those and and offer to write and and you know you I mean in in the vast majority of cases of course you're not going to get paid um however the experience of researching and writing a piece uh will be ample compensation and also look for opportunities to speak whether it's teaching a class whether it's you know giving a keynote speech whether it's

[31:29] talking to a small group whether it's doing a show like this I mean this is this is one of the ways that I pursue my own learning is um I I started this show as I mentioned in the beginning several years ago now um and I have guests on it from whom I learn and um I I I share information that I've um learned over the years and sometimes I research new topics that I can present to you um you know because I'm interested in the topic and I I think it'll be beneficial for me

[32:04] as well as you know um all all of you viewers so look for those kind of opportunities as as well okay next Improvement so this is another uh topic I I I mentioned my daughter um I think fairly frequently you know a doting father I can can you blame me I mean yesterday we we went on a couple of of uh errands and the two places I took her um the the PE the people we we worked

[32:40] with they were all just so complimentary right like be be still my heart you know if you if if you wanna you know um if you want me to be your best friend tell me that you know my daughter is wonderful right so um but in in in any event um one of so my my daughter is is a writer um she uh aspires to do it professionally um and and I I'm I'm very proud of her for that um I I I I will say that um when I was her age um I wanted to be a professional writer as

[33:16] well and candidly my mother discouraged me from doing that and I and I I I I regret that I let my mother discourage me um because I eventually did become um a professional writer not a writer of Books but articles and and and different things and and and I I enjoy it um and I find it a very useful skill to have developed Etc so I encourage my daughter um to to you know really take her writing seriously and she she um

[33:52] periodically hits what she calls you know writer's block and you know I've told her um in reality there's there's no such for a for a professional there's no such thing as writer block so um actually I was talking to someone else about this yesterday um Stephen King the the the the famous writer of of horror stories and such he wrote a book on how to be a writer and one of the things that that Stephen King um talks about is if you're a writer you write every day

[34:27] okay and he he Maps out a time I I think he I think he writes in the morning for three or four hours or five hours whatever it is and he writes and he says sometimes I get great material and he says sometimes I'll have nothing useful at the end of my writing time but I've still written and that's that's what he does so um he doesn't let um he he doesn't let things like um uh so-call called writer's block um get in his way what he does do is he strives for

[35:04] excellence that's his goal Excellence not Perfection okay striving for Perfection tends to keep us from striving um and that's that's a that's a um a hurdle I had to overcome earlier in my life certainly and it's something that my daughter is working on right now so Improvement means looking to constantly improve constantly strive for excellence the way we we achieve Excellence is by looking okay I I'm at

[35:41] this level now how can I get up to this level not how can I get to this so-called level of perfection because I I don't think we can ever get there and I think trying to get to Perfection is is a mistake um so we want increment mental Improvement that's what we should strive for okay and we do that by being self-accountable okay now that doesn't mean being hyper self-critical it means by holding ourselves accountable for for example if we're a writer

[36:16] writing every day okay or if we have a if we have an objective to become a lifelong if we have a a condition of satisfaction to be a lifelong learner are we fulfilling that condition of satisfaction okay so one of my um conditions of satisfaction is to on average learn for an hour a day or have you learn an hour a day um since I was five okay that's when I started school right and i' I've gone through and figured out how many hours that that is that I've had to have accumulate on average by the way um how many hours I

[36:52] have to accumulate and um you know so it's it's 365 hours a year of course times however many years and I've kept track of how many hours I've spent in school how many hours I've been in trainings workshops all this kind of stuff um and and and I hold myself accountable for being a lifelong learner okay and and and we can do that it it it takes a little bit of time to set it up initially but then to keep it up doesn't take a whole lot of time okay so we need we need to be we

[37:28] need to have some kind of mechanism for self-accountability okay especially in something like um Improvement all right next leadership so leadership is some people say you know leaders are born not made that's not true while there seems to be some people who were born leaders okay and and and my favorite one for those of you who've seen other shows you know one of my favorites is uh General

[38:03] George Patton okay so Patton appears to have been a natural leader but he was not he learned how to be a great leader he learned it through developing skills and taking initiative etc etc etc um he was a somewhat um uh fragile child um he almost for sure um suffered from dyslexia so um he had trouble reading when he was a child and he had to overcome that um and and his

[38:40] his father and his aunt really steeped him in in stories about great military leaders and in Bible stories about great leaders and those those kinds of things and it was through that that he developed a leadership mind mindset that he then pursued the rest of his life through reading through study through taking opportunities to be a leader um and and and also by the way through humility okay I know people don't think of George Patton as being a

[39:16] humble man but but he certainly was he recognized that that he was subordinate to God first and foremost um and L he reflected on his behavior he reflected on um his actions and when he found them to be wrong um he apologized so I invite you by the way to check out um it would be uh a week ago yesterday's um episode of business lessons from the military I believe I replayed um the one on on that

[39:51] I did on Patton or maybe it was maybe it was the week before that um but in any event um I talk about patent and and humility um and and and if you want to know how to become a leader you you can't do better than studying um George Patton um a as well as other great leaders of of of World War II and and you have it right here the four things to do I've mentioned um couple of them already so develop skills for example learn how to delegate you cannot be a great leader if you if you don't know how to prop ly delegate okay a bad

[40:28] leader um assigns uh responsibility but doesn't give Authority okay which which puts the the subordinate in an impossible position a good leader delegates both the responsibility and the authority to get the job done and then even if the subordinate makes a mistake the leader supports that person and helps them learn from their mistake okay so take initiative all right that that in in many cases that is what leadership is so

[41:04] if there's something going on that's not that's not right take the initiative to get people focused on solving the problem okay look to Mentor subordinates okay look to help them grow and develop their skills not just in leadership but just in general okay and finally create a collaborative environment okay now there's there's a lot talked about in terms of um uh you know the inspiration of great leaders and how they inspire people to follow them and

[41:40] while there is some aspect of that sometimes in leadership um more often great leaders are um fostering a collaborative environment where issues and problems can be discussed openly and and the the the best solution um can uh be sused out by by doing that so um that is uh that that creating that environment um where good ideas can be developed is a crucial part of becoming a good leader okay problem solve so if you want

[42:19] to be a problem solver in in any kind of professional Endeavor and that really comes down to you doing your best to identify challenges okay and and and that can be hard because um oftentimes if things aren't going right the tendency is to find out you know who's to blame and then focus on you know that person having done a substandard job etc etc um rarely is is is is that that useful um in fact I I talked about this um um

[42:57] yes in my show yesterday um in in um when I talked about doing a hot wash so while of course sometimes um subordinates colleagues make mistakes and and they they need to be held accountable for those mistakes in the midst of dealing with a problem that's usually not the most productive path to take so and especially not to um hold them responsible in front of their other

[43:32] colleagues their co-workers okay so when there's a challenge or a problem to be solved the idea is habituate focusing on Solutions not blame once the problem is solved if there are people who did not perform well that can be dealt with one-on-one helping them understand what their mistakes were where they fell short and how they can improve next time but in the moment in the you know until the

[44:07] problem is solved until the challenge is identified and dealt with Focus be train yourself to be focused on Solutions rather than um blaming people and and the way to do that is to be very conscious of what you're saying and doing when when a crisis arises okay if you're hunting around for someone to blame you know be aware of that listen to the things that you're saying to yourself to other people Etc okay and and shift your focus wait I say to

[44:42] yourself out loud preferably with not with other people around because they may think you're nuts but say I I need to focus on Solutions focus on Solutions how can we solve this okay say that to yourself out loud okay and then and then cultivate creativity okay now one of the ways of cultivating creativity I talked about a little bit earlier when I was talking about learning and that is um periodically put yourself in an environment that's different where than what you're used to and and see what what ideas are there that I can that I

[45:19] can apply to to my work um you know um that that don't seem to be related but actually um allow me to look at a problem in a different way that may make it easier to solve okay next um adaptability so the the one consistent thing in the world today is that is is that it's changing okay um look we went through centuries in in in

[45:54] human history when things didn't really change much at all um you know from the you know 600 to you know the year 1000 you know not a whole lot of change okay and then you know as technology started to develop um technology um brings more rapid change and it necessitates our being adaptable okay and so we want to create

[46:30] the habit of adaptability how do we do that so first of all we improve our ability to be flexible okay and and and that's that starts with a mindset shift so if we find ourselves resisting something new okay we need to stop ourselves and say why why am I so why am I I so resistant okay at least open myself up to this new thing so you see this right now happening with with AI so there are people going around saying it seems AI

[47:07] is the end of human civilization okay I I I don't I don't know I I I will say that I was in the in the beginning I was resistant to AI I I first first of all it seemed awfully hyped um and and I find myself just bristling when anything is being hyped like that like it's it's it's the Savior or it's the devil um it seemed like those were the two things that were out there rarely is is something either one of those okay um and then uh you know talking with a friend of mine about it who's uh data scientist my friend

[47:44] Michael um I said you know what I I I at least need to try this out and I did and I found that um it's actually a great tool and it's been very very helpful in be in helping me become more productive and and my you know whereas um I would say early in my professional career it took me a long time to sort of break through um the barrier of not wanting to try something new now I I've been able to squeeze that down and by the way just mean just because I try something doesn't mean I adapt it sometimes I do

[48:21] sometimes I don't okay um I I try to be fair measured as I go about um finding new experiences and then habituating to ongoing change so I'm not a first adapter I I'm not it doesn't it does just doesn't work for me um because oftentimes being a first adopter or an early adopter means working through all the problems with getting something to work um and I'm I'm just not interested in in in in doing that so I'm usually

[48:56] kind of like a second adopter um that's you know that's typically how how I do so I will try new technologies but I'm not going to be the first one to adopt some cuttingedge technology generally speaking um I I that's whereas my I think my friend Bill he he loves trying out new technology and and and he it's just it's a passion for him right and so generally speaking what I'll do is I'll let Bill try it out and then I'll hear what he has to say about it and if it sounds like something that'll be good for me so then I'll you know then I'll try it right um and and that's what

[49:32] works for me but I think we have to kind of look at those things and and and improve our adaptability but that doesn't mean um becoming someone that we're not okay next proactive so generally speaking problems don't get better left to Fester now that's not always the case Okay um but um it's much better to anticipate

[50:11] problems have various plans of action one of which may be to consciously decide we're just going to let it sit okay so you may say well wait how can you be proactive while saying I'm not going to do anything the proactivity comes from investigating the situation and making a decision an affirmative decision that now is not the time to try to change course or solve the problem

[50:48] either because you you having examined the problem you think it'll work itself out or by waiting you'll be able to muster more or better resources that will solve it more quickly or there may be some other reason for not addressing it it may be that you have too many other things on your plate that are more important and so this other problem that's just it's just smaller you're just going to have to let it go okay nonetheless when but to be proactive

[51:23] means to be prepared for action in the sense of antic anticipating problems figuring out where can you be effective in addressing those problems okay and in prioritizing how they need to be addressed okay that's where your proactivity can be most effective okay so if if if if your team is faced with five potential problems but only has the bandwidth to deal with three of them the best thing you can do

[52:01] is figure out which are the three priorities and then set to work on those and then if one of those other two does cause a problem well all right caused a problem but hopefully a smaller problem that than what would have been caused by neglecting the three that you chose to address okay one of the ways to do this is to keep keep open lines of communication so if you want to be able to anticipate problems people have to be willing to come to you and talk to you and tell you about things that are going on that may

[52:37] not necessarily reflect well on them or the organization okay so if you're known to be someone who when you get bad news explodes you know like um um oh the whz I love this there's this there's a there's a song in the in the wiiz that the um Wicked Witch of the of the uh East sings don't nobody bring me no bad news right I it's just it's a brilliant song and it is absolutely wrong in terms of how to deal with your team right

[53:13] because um if if if you don't want to deal with bad news your team will make sure that you never hear anything bad from them you know I mean you'll eventually hear about it but it's probably going to be from your Superior you know um and and that's just not good right so we want to Foster open lines of communication so that you know we get early signals that some that a problem may be brewing and then and that way we can you know assemble the team and be prepared for action or at least

[53:48] to prioritize where where it needs to be dealt with where and when it needs to be dealt with okay okay next respectful and professional so um this really relates as I mentioned at the beginning of the show to this issue of um uh um new college graduates um not not being as desirable in the workplace as perhaps they might want to be these are some of the skills excuse me that employers tend seem to feel that

[54:24] they lack um and that is punctuality and reliability um and just a sense of treating everyone decently so um I remember having a conversation with a friend in which I said to him you know I I believe everybody needs to be treated respectfully and he said to me he doesn't think that's true he said everyone needs to be treated decently some people do things that are not respectable and so we don't need to

[55:01] respect them however we need do need to treat them decently so we shouldn't yell at them we shouldn't denigrate them um we shouldn't try to undermine them those are all indecent forms of treatment having said that um if someone is not acting respectably we don't have to um you know say you know oh you know what what you're doing is is is fine um we don't

[55:39] okay so if someone is lying and cheating um we don't have to say to them oh it's it's you know yeah yeah it's really good what you're doing I really respect you um I hope I hope we don't respect liars and cheaters okay on the other hand I hope we don't go around disparaging them um and treating them indecently especially in the workplace because that's that's just not professional to do that okay so that's what I mean by respectful okay you hear that term a lot I would I would encourage you to um to uh shift in your

[56:19] mind instead of when you think of respectful think of decently okay um and how do and some just a couple of other things here avoiding gossip and Intrigue in the workplace okay I mean hopefully in life in general right um and maintain a strong work ethic okay um you know be the kind of person who again is is punctual but also isn't constantly leaving early or if you're working at home constantly um you know not not um taking care of the work that you're supposed to take care of now if you don't have a set number of hours that

[56:54] you have to work but you you know you you you have projects that need to be done so then prioritize getting those projects done okay um I know that's typically how I I work I I'm not an hours person per se although I do work long hours I'm I'm very much project focused so when there's things to be done I PRI prioritize what needs to be done first second third fourth okay that's my work ethic is to prioritize and and then and then complete get them checked off my list okay um rather than you know well let's see I've worked eight hours today so I'm done um and and

[57:31] by by the way if if you adopt my my habit you typically will end up working more than eight hours a day that's just how it seems to go but um but nonetheless a strong work ethic isn't just putting in the hours it's it's getting it's meeting the mission of your business organization okay and collaborative I think this this is actually the last one so um you could you could say that this is an aspect of leadership but if you can be in a

[58:08] non-leadership role and still be collaborative okay so if you're part of a team if you're you know a follower so to speak right um and you've been given uh a task to complete okay um um you can invite other people to help you especially if it'll be beneficial to them so um I'll give you an example um when I was uh stationed in Germany um I was um um uh presenting um

[58:43] uh workshops uh for to help um Sailors uh reintegrate into civilian life okay and one of the I was not the leader of the of of of the of of the team I I mean I was I was an officer but I I wasn't the the person in charge um one of the problems we periodically had to Grapple with was that um when we had large groups we didn't have enough Workshop leaders and the rule was you had to be a chief petty officer or a commissioned officer to lead a workshop and so one

[59:18] day I was speaking to one of our petty officers first class and she was telling me what she was doing in Ian life because she like me she was a reservist I'm like well you should be leading workshops and she's like yeah I I agree but they won't let me and I said well that that's wrong I said the fact of the matter is you're more qualified to lead workshops than most other people here um and so I you know I went and talked to the powers that be and I got that

[59:53] changed at least with respect to her so that she could be a workshop leader because I wanted to be able to cooperate with her um and and get her her input not just you know like looking over the information and that kind of stuff which is fine but you learn a lot more about um what should be in a workshop by conducting the workshop right and so she became a much more valuable um resource to to the team and also she enjoyed her work much more so because she really liked presenting workshops so it was a

[60:28] win-win for everybody um so creating that collaborative environment is is important okay and and part of being collaborative is to let others lead sometimes okay if you can be the leader if you're the leader that's fine but it may be that you know if you want to develop other leaders in your organization so let other people lead okay give them the opportunity kind of step back and say Hey you know on this on this task or this project whatever um you know Sharon is going to have the con and let her do it okay and then most

[61:03] well not most importantly but but very importantly Share Credit okay especially for the successes of of of the team make sure that that you know your superiors know that um you know your team's success wasn't just about you and and say you know gosh you know sharing um really you know you know I offered to give her the lead on this thing and she really you know took the bit in her mouth and she really drove this thing drove this thing and and she was you know largely responsible for the success

[61:39] of this part over here which was a big part of our overall success so that they know and and and and and and then suggest you know please reach out to her and let her know that you know you you were you know you were pleased with how things turned out because you know she was a part of that okay so that's what I mean by share the credit which hopefully is obvious okay and that so that's our our 10 habits for um for uh building Career Success and um if you have any questions um all of these uh links will be in the show notes um so feel free to reach out

[62:15] post them on social media um or send me an email if it's something private okay and here's our our legal stuff okay we're going to close this off go back to there we go okay um still getting a used to some of the details of of restream so so that's our show for today we went a little long um wanted to make sure I covered uh all of them uh well um and and and that's a wrap for this week right uh people making money is our our last show for the week so I I I thank you for tuning

[62:50] in um what very uh hope hopefully you found this um interesting and something that will help you um in um in in building um good career habits okay next week we kick off on Monday at 10: am with trust and Estates weekly Tuesday at 10: a these are all pacific times uh business lessons from the military and then seven days from today we'll be back with the next edition of people making money at 10 a.m. Pacific time um so thanks again for joining me I appreciate

[63:27] it very much wishing you a wonderful rest of the day and rest of the week and signing off as I always do Marie you are my bell all the best folks