Be Different or be dead

April 4, 2020

What is ‘imposter syndrome’ and is self doubt slowing down your career?

What is ‘imposter syndrome’ and is self doubt slowing down your career?

Do you ever feel like a fraud when talking in meetings? Or maybe that you feel way underqualified for landing the job of your dreams?

If so, you may be dealing with an extreme case of self-doubt called imposter syndrome. Turns out, 70 percent of millennials are going through the same things as you.

Not to mention, some of the highest achievers are hitting these roadblocks. Serena Williams and Tom Hanks being a couple of them.

This fraudulent thought may stop you from chasing your biggest goals or allow you to feel pride when achieving others. Recognizing these thoughts and pushing past your self-doubt is one of the essentials to success.

If you think you may be dealing with imposter syndrome, Mint created an infographic explaining the different types, how each type may affect your finances, and tips to overcoming it.

Push past your self-doubt and push past to conquer anything you put your mind to!

— Kayla Montgomery is a digital content marketer who helps Mint create helpful and compelling stories worth sharing. Her background in digital marketing and creative writing has led her to cover unique topics ranging from business to lifestyle. In her spare time, she enjoys working out, writing for her own blog, traveling, and exploring all the in’s and out’s Austin, TX has to offer. To learn more, connect with Kayla on LinkedIn

• Posted 4.4.20 at 07:47 am by Roy Osing
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March 16, 2020

Why the most important ingredient to a successful career is ‘doing it’

Source: Unsplash

Why the most important ingredient to a successful career is ‘doing it’.

There has been much written about how to be successful; how to build a résumé that will knock the socks off a prospective employer, how to manage conflict, how to “dress for success”, how to develop amazing interpersonal skills, and how to make yourself indispensable are examples of the angles the experts present as the ingredients to a rewarding future.

The problem is there are too many slices of success advocated by too many pundits; an individual looking for help and guidance doesn’t know which expert to listen to one and how to prioritize the many opportunities to improve they have in front of them.

And they’re all looking for that ONE slice that will make them successful; the silver bullet that explains why one person succeeds and another doesn’t.

The other problem I see is that everyone wants to spend a lot of time studying the slices of the success pie. They want to be absolutely sure that when they decide to act on any specific course of action, it is the right course of action for them in terms of their future.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “How do I know this opportunity is consistent with my long term career goals?” from a young professional asking for career guidance.

They want a guarantee that if they take a particular action that it will end up being the exact ingredient they need to be successful in the long term.

And of course while they ponder the answer to the question, precious time passes and others take the opportunity.

In my experience, there is one thing that has a major influence on whether someone succeeds or not, and it’s pretty simple.

Do something, learn from it, do something else (and repeat).

1. Do something

First of all, pondering and intellectualizing the possibilities in front of you doesn’t accomplish anything other than burn precious time and energy cycles that you can ill afford to waste.

Performing detailed analyses and trade-off assessments on the number of options you have available may make you feel like you’re making progress, but you’re not.

All you’re doing is trying to make a perfect decision which is pretty well impossible in today’s environment of rapid change, uncertainty and unpredictability.

The best way to see if a course of action is right for you is to take it (if it feels right for you) and find out.

If, for example, it seems right to take a lateral move into sales for the experience, then do it. Sooner or later you’ll discover if it was the right call — you will never be able to predict the outcome if you don’t.

Or, if you’re wondering whether or not taking a course in the environmental sciences will help you, take it; eventually the wisdom of your decision will reveal itself to you.

2. Learn from it

If you don’t learn from every experience you have, you’re depriving yourself of what is needed to move forward.

I have observed throughout my career many people who were exposed to opportunities never learned from them.

They accepted a temporary assignment as a member of a new product introduction team, for example, and failed to take away any new insights on how to manage conflict.

Or they were enrolled against their will in a finance course (as part of their personal development plan) and got buried in how to construct an income statement rather than see how the elements of it could be used to diagnose organizational problems and therefore help improve performance.

In my experience I have never found an adventure that didn’t teach me something; there is always some redeeming value in anything we are exposed to.
We just need to be open to the possibilities and absorb them when you discover them.

3. Do something else

Learning must inform action.

The secret is to figure out what the new found knowledge means in terms of the next step you take.
To be meaningful learning must either reinforce that you are on the right track, or cause you to change your course in some way.

But learning needs to force something to happen, not linger as an emotion and then evaporate leaving no trace that it occurred — learning must leave a trail; an imprint on your journey’s pathway.

“What are the implications of what I have learned in terms of my next steps?” must be asked at the end of every new adventure if learning is to have a productive role to play in your success.

Do something, learn from it, do something else (and repeat) — the one thing you need to know about success.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 3.16.20 at 06:47 am by Roy Osing
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March 2, 2020

6 stunning reasons why you can’t complete your project successfully

Source: Pexels

6 stunning reasons why you can’t complete your project successfully.

This is an issue I am often asked by the young professionals I try to help develop their career.

And it’s an important one, because unless someone is proficient in delivering results in their current position they won’t likely get serious consideration for other opportunities to advance.

They can’t understand why results aren’t forthcoming — they can’t deliver what’s expected nor are they able to meet the deadlines imposed on them. And yet they put in countless hours on their projects and they feel they work harder than their peers.

Throughout my career I was assigned project after project with numerous objectives, and learned how to consistently complete each one of them on time and on budget.

These 6 factors I learned were critical risks to the success of any project.

1. There’s too much noise around you

There is so much noise and clutter out there waiting to distract you from your prime purpose. A text from a friend or colleague to help them out with a project they are working on or a request from your boss to take care of something that suddenly came up.

Over-the-transom activities that you get pulled towards that redirect your attention and consume time that otherwise could be spent on your project.

Project success comes from being focused on what you have been asked to deliver, which means filtering out the stuff — the smoke — that will divert you.

2. The client hasn’t been clearly defined

Quite often it is unclear who the main client — the project acceptor — for the project is. Or there may be a number of stakeholders and the primary one isn’t defined for you.
The result is that you are dragged in a number of directions due to the different interests and agendas of the various interest groups.

To successfully complete a project, the acceptor of the deliverables must be defined and agreed upon before the project work begins; never launch into action before this is done.

And get it in writing. I always had a terms of reference document prepared for every project I was assigned, and an integral component was the signature of the project acceptor (as well the signatures of other stakeholders who agreed to provide support to the project but recognized who the owner of the results was).

Lack of senior ownership of the project results will not only jeopardize the results, it also provides others with the opportunity to blame the project manager if results don’t meet expectations.

3. I’m trying to do it myself

Sometimes there is a tendency to try and do it all yourself rather than reach out and take advantage of the expertise and interests of those around you.

After all, it’s time consuming negotiating with others what their specific role will be and it’s a sensitive matter when you are in a position of attributing the good results of the project to your peers and colleagues as opposed to receiving all the glory yourself.

Very early on in my life as a project leader I realized that success only comes through engaging others — it needs to be a team effort.

My blueprint for any project was to get the brightest and the best on your team, help them play their role and lavish them with praise when they delivered what they promised.

4. The deliverable isn’t clear

The expected output of the project must be specific and granular; lack of clarity generally means the project is dying from its launch.

The success and value of any project is directly related to the specificity of the expected outcomes.

So spend the time upfront with the project acceptor on EXACTLY what constitutes success — specific deliverables and timeframes.
Document these in the project terms of reference and have them signed as agreed upon by both you and your acceptor.

If this work isn’t done well enough at the start of a project, generally what happens is that acceptable deliverables are defined (and revised) on the run as the project is in motion.

The result: the project team is run around wasting their efforts, the acceptor is not satisfied because they’re not seeing the results they want (but didn’t identify accurately up front) and the project team takes the hit.

5. I’m relying on my text books

When I began doing project work, I relied on my education for guidance on how the problem should be approached and what the appropriate solution could be. I dug out my text books on statistics, probability theory, economics and business planning and tried to pull from them any insights that would help me derive the right solution to the problem I was given.

To a young professional just starting their career in business, this was the only way to attack the challenge I was given, as specific direction from a project acceptor on HOW to proceed was rarely handed out — you had to figure it out yourself.

What I learned a few years into project work, however, was that success — defined by outcomes that could actually be implemented in the organization — was more a function of CULTURE than theory.

I discovered that results that were grounded in solid academic theory didn’t work if the people in the organization didn’t accept them as having any personal benefits. The best result “on paper” I learned was not a solution at all if it ignored the cultural context of the organization.

So my project approach changed to one which took into consideration what good theory suggested, but which concentrated on finding a solution that fit the culture of the people in the organization that has to live with it.

This process worked amazingly well because the receivers of the project outcomes not only understood the solution proposed, they embraced its implementation because it benefited them personally and as an employee group.

6. I don’t have a backup plan

A project never turns out the way it was originally intended; it’s an amoebic “beast” that is always under pressure to morph to a different form.

The organizational environment changes, internal policies change, markets change, customer demand changes, competitors attack and project team members move on.

Even though you did the right thing and developed a signed terms of reference document for your project, things will happen during the course of your work that will change your agreement in some way.

And when this happens, the wrong action is to stay the course; stick to the original project plan even though you know the changes that have occurred are significant enough to warrant a project “time out”.

The right action IS to take a time out and review the project in its entirety — intent, expected outcomes, team membership, ownership and timeframes — and reset the terms of reference for your work.

A successful project is one which produces value to the organization in the current set of circumstances it faces; when those circumstances change the project must as well if it is to succeed.

Perhaps there are other reasons why certain projects succeed — luck and serendipity perhaps — but if you manage to address these 6 factors, your performance dashboard will show many more winners than you could have imagined.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 3.2.20 at 04:48 am by Roy Osing
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February 17, 2020

5 simple ways to keep your cool

Source: Pexels

Everyone’s looking for ways to chill out these days in the face of increasing stress and chaotic unpredictable times.

“ Don’t worry about a thing, ‘Cause every little thing gonna be alright.”  — Bob Marley, is the mantra that underscores the importance of not taking stuff too seriously.

I’ve never really been a person who has been obsessed with elimination of stress.

As an ok boomer I believed that pressure and stress was just an expected part of doing my job and living my life. In any event, I had no choice to deal with it alone, because my employer didn’t offer the stress management programs offered by some organizations today.

But for those of you who want to reduce the level of stress in your lives here are a few simple things that took me to a more chilled place even though I wasn’t looking for it.

Breathe in the moment

The pause is the most important piece of the chill-out puzzle; and it’s the most difficult to do.
You have to resist the impulse to react to and strike back at the stimulus that has you poised to be uncool.

It’s really as simple as literally stepping back and taking a big deep back breath. The breath itself will force you to pause because you will automatically focus on the breath rather than the stimulus that is pressing your button.
Try it. You’ll be surprised how it will help.

Stop chasing cars

Look at whatever you call your to-do list. How long is it? If it’s more than 5 items, it’s way too long and you are entering stress-out city.

The irony is that no one is good enough at multitasking to do an effective job at many tasks simultaneously and something has to give.

When you multitask, the quality of any single task is low and the stress is high. Yup, you’re busy but the cost is out of proportion to the performance achieved.

Get control of your stress levels by purging your activity list of the tasks that have lower payback. Focus on the critical few things that MUST get done and not the 20 things that COULD be done.

Chasing the art of the possible only pumps up your stress levels.

No two tasks create the same value. Find the 2 or 3 that are amazing value creators and do them well.

Worry about what you can control

I get it. Today there are many variables that affect us; the issues are plentiful and complex.

Climate change, the environment, economic growth, gender identity, minority rights, carbon reduction, housing costs, education costs, career expectations, transportation costs and job availability are but a few of the factors that plummet the minds of young folks these days.
And no wonder the cumulative affect of these causes stress.

The question I have is: “What can you personally do about these issues?” — I can hear an “ok boomer” out there already: “Just because I can’t make a significant impact personally on climate change, you’re saying I shouldn’t be concerned about it, right Roy?”.

No, that’s not what I’m saying. What I AM saying is that if you are really serious about reducing your stress you absolutely MUST reduce the stressors in your life.
And for me, stressing over what I actually influence in the short term was an effective way of reducing my stress levels (btw, getting stressed out over an issue with a decade-long time horizon — or longer — may stroke your ego, but it extracts it’s stress toll on you TODAY with serious results).

I just think that too many people take on too many issues. It’s nice to see but it takes a personal toll which I believe is unnecessary.

And btw millennials and gen Z’ers: why do you think you’re the only generations who are faced with a confluence of difficult issues? NEWSFLASH! You’re not; those who came before you had their own as will those who will come after you — can I hear another “ok boomer”?

You have nothing to lose — but stress. Try and focus on stuff you can influence; invest your emotional time on those issues and let the rest go by having opinions but minimize your emotional investment in them.

Segue to my next point…

Leave your ego at the door

My takeaway from conversations with many millennials is that they feel obligated to dive into the controversial issues of the day; that it’s their mandate to try and fix things that have been screwed up by the “ok boomers”.

And so we get the Extinction Rebellion promulgating a doomsday narrative because past generations have mismanaged the environment so badly.

Notwithstanding that the need for climate change remediation is real, I really think these activists want to strike fear in the heart of people; this stirs their juices and feeds their egos.

How else can you explain shutting down traffic in major cities in the world because they say carbon emissions have to be reduced to zero in two years or there will an armageddon-like disaster?

Of course it’s a bogus claim that science doesn’t support so why are they making the claim? Must be because they feel good getting heard and the media attention soothes their “ok extremist” ego.

Ego feeds that stress cycle because it pumps the adrenaline and the body gets ready (fight or flight).

Maintain ego equilibrium and your stress will be assuaged.

Stay the course

Stay with your cool regimen. It will be almost impossible at times to hold back and do the healthy thing, but be confident that if you “stay with the program” you will survive the cool boot camp for the long term.

Stress isn’t a new concept; it’s not something that strikes any one demographic or societal group more than any other. The stressors may be different but that’s about it.

How to deal with stressors hasn’t changed much over time. The stuff that worked for the boomer crowd will work for millennials and Z’ers because cool remedies address human behaviour at the most fundamental level.

It’s about breath not technology; focus not multitasking; selection not chasing and honesty & respect not ego.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 2.17.20 at 03:08 am by Roy Osing
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