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Executive Summary:
The world of startups and small business can indeed be an exciting place to be.  Its commonly characterized as highly collaborative, fast pace, less bureaucratic and wildly innovative.  While this sounds great in theory, in practice the world of a startup can be rife with challenge, including heavy amounts of stress and uncertainty.  It’s vital we as professionals analyze our personalities and professional behaviors to assess whether or not we would do well in the startup world - before we actually jump in. Knowing what you’re up against before you dive in will allow you to determine if it’s appropriate for you to consider the startup space, small business and or entrepreneurship.

​Author: Travis Smith

​Read the full article by downloading the below PDF attachment

 We’re constantly bombarded with a litany of articles, studies and discussions highlighting the generational differences in the workplace.  These discussions often confuse and mislead readers by zeroing in on ‘key characteristics’ which supposedly define a generation while subtly stereotyping it at the same time. One of the topics that comes up often in these discussions is what makes for a good employee.  This topic has permeated the business world for decades long before Gen-Z and Millennials entered the workplace over the last 10+ years causing a current day telenovela in the business world.
 
While the generations entering the workforce, and or exiting for that matter, may have a difference of opinion on what they want out of their careers and what they need in order to be happy in their jobs, there is one common trait which is synonymous with all generations and all employees for that matter.  This common trait, or behavior, defines what a good employee is regardless of the stereotypes and or characteristics which accompany the respective generation.
 
When we take away generational characteristics, race, religion, gender and everything else used to categorize and therefore sort and stack people we’re left looking at people’s actions.  Their behaviors.  What I’ve found true over the years is behavior is indicative of the true nature of a person, not their words.  If we say one thing but then do (act) another, our behaviors become the defining force for who we are, not our words.  This is certainly true for employees and their effectiveness as we look at whether an employee is ‘great’ versus ‘average’, or worse.
 
So, what’s the difference between a great employee and an average one?  An employee who excels versus one who mails it in operating at a mediocre level of performance.  The difference is a little behavior known as INITIATIVE.
 
I know what you’re thinking, “that’s not groundbreaking information.  I’ve known this for years.”
 
While we may know this, or have seen it in person, what’s remarkable are the number of people who actually deploy ‘initiative’ in their jobs. 
 
In my 15 years’ of business experience, of which 13 of those years have been in management, and 4 owning a business, I’ve experienced both first and secondhand the difference initiative makes in an employee and leader.  When we strip away all the categories and demographics, mentioned above, this behavioral trait is the one that keeps rising to the top distinguishing the great performers from the average, mediocre and under performing employees.
 
Initiative is everything! 
 
What does initiative look like in a business setting?
 
When I think of great initiative in the work place the first thing that comes to mind is a situation I witnessed firsthand with an employee of mine several years ago.  We had a client who was flying into Orange County to visit with several suppliers, our company being one of them.  My employee, Megan, took it upon herself to pick up our client at the airport, coffee in hand, and bring them to our office for the meeting.  Talk about service, yet her initiative to provide a great experience for our customer didn’t end there.  She also took the client out to lunch in Laguna Beach (our client was from Idaho and had never seen the amazing beaches of Laguna).  The client had also forgot to pack a bathroom bag for their travels so Megan took him to Target to pick up a couple items.  After all this was done Megan shuttled him back to the airport. 
 
Yes, this was an amazing effort by Megan yet what made it truly remarkable and just as memorable was the fact that she did this all on her own.  She didn’t ask for permission; she just took it upon herself to deliver top notch service.  Memorable service at that.
 
I still think about the initiative Megan displayed during this time and marvel at how impressive it was.  Needless to say the client sent us an overwhelming email of appreciation thanking Megan for her time and willingness to shepherd him around.  He said and I quote “It was the best business trip I’ve been on, I appreciate you [Megan] taking the time to ensure I had a good visit.”
 
While that story sounds great it’s certainly not the norm. 
 
Rather than focusing next on the lack luster initiative most employees display at the office perhaps its better use of your time and mine to discuss the ways an employee can change their mindset and actions to better align with an initiative based work approach.  Consider the following:

1. The next time your company, your boss or the department you work for needs something which you are capable of handling or solving, even if it is outside of your job description, say ‘YES’ and get involved
2. Don’t ever let your boss find you without work to do; always seek out the next opportunity, next project, next chance to advance the company’s interest and therefore your own
3. Be proactive in making your boss look good; when you act with the company’s best interest in mind and make your boss look like a rockstar for having an amazing employee on their team (even if they don’t deserve the accolades) it will inevitably make you look good in the process
4. Speak up or get out – if you are in a meeting make sure people know you were there and had an opinion, if you went through a whole meeting and didn’t offer anything constructive to the conversation you attendance was a waste of time for you and the others in the room
5. Go out of your way to help someone at work, it doesn’t matter who, so long as you can help make them look great, improve their project or council them through a tough discussion
6. Find a problem and solve it, then put a one page executive summary together and present it to your boss; if you managed to save the company money in the process be sure to cover this
7. Find a way to make a memorable impact with an employee, someone in leadership, a client, etc.  Whatever it is you do make sure it’s genuine
8. If you’re struggling with your job ask for help immediately, don’t wait until its too late

 
 
Key Takeaway:
Possessing good initiative at work makes or breaks the quality of employee you are and often times how you are viewed in the organization.  Are you a blessing to your team and company or are you dead weight?  Having good initiative is the one behavior you can 100% control which in turn can directly impact in a positive way your job and career.
 
Action Item:
Stop making excuses for why you don’t act at work.  Next time you see a problem or issue come up at the office which you are directly or close too take a chance and stand up and get involved.  People who say ‘YES’ I can do that rather than ‘someone else can do that’ frequently experience better career 

As a child I dreamt of being a business owner. While the other kids in the neighborhood were talking about being pro athletes I always imaged myself starting a business.  At the spry age of 10 I opened my first business in the early 90's in my parents basement in rural New York selling used skateboard parts.  It was exciting!  I had a business sign which proclaimed ‘Sk8 Parts’, a rack to display my shoddy products for sale and even a chair to sit on while waiting for the sales to come rolling in.  After a summer being in business I had only made one sale a set of dirty and worn out skateboard wheels for a measly fifty cents to a kid down the street.  That sale bought me a pink panther ice cream from the neighborhood ice man.  While the business didn’t rocket me to instant success like I had envisioned I was hooked on the idea of being a business owner in the future so I could buy the whole ice cream factory, not just one pink panther.

As I got older I tried my hand at inventing all sorts of things, products that I thought would get me rich, if I could only figure out a way to sell a few million of them.  First it was a gaming chair, then workout towels and even a handheld flashlight projector.  My entrepreneurial dreams ended at the time with a website I tried to start in 2006 that would allow people to ask questions and get advice based off real life business situations they were dealing with.  That was a $2k boondoggle which went nowhere. 
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It wasn’t until the summer of 2015 that I would find my way, diving head first into entrepreneurship by starting Square-1 Engineering.  Thankfully I had a lot of help from many close people around me (wife, parents, friends) who all were incredibly supportive.  Four years into my current entrepreneurial journey I’ve learned and experienced firsthand many things which have helped me navigate my way to present day.  Of all these experiences, learning lessons and awareness gained there are eight which have brought about the biggest positive impact in helping me weather the entrepreneur start up storm:  

1.Get A Mentor
This is the single second best decision you’ll ever make in business.  The first best decision is to become an entrepreneur.  Mentors have experience which you can learn from helping you avoid mistakes along the way. 

2.Support Gets You Over The Hump
Make sure those close to you understand your vision and support it.  They don’t have to buy in 100% but if it’s you against the world there are going to be some very long nights in store.  If you are married it’s vital your spouse understands the opportunity and supports it, even in the down times.

3.Some Things CAN Wait
Some people will tell you it’s important to write a business plan, vision, mission, blah blah blah, right away.  Unless you’re in a situation where you need to ask for capital to start the business the best thing to do is put those things aside and focus all your efforts on how to make money.  Ultimately being an entrepreneur means you’re selling something to someone so the more time you spend on how you’re going to get paid for the product or service you’re providing the better off you’ll be.  

4.You Can’t Be Everything to Everyone
I failed miserably here.  When I did start to get customers I tried to offer them everything under the sun in order to get their business.  Some times it worked, often times it created a nightmare for me as now I had to deliver the goods.  Never over promise, you’ll most likely end up under delivering.  Find one or two areas you can become an expert in, one or two problems you can solve for your customers.  Do that and only that before you start getting into other areas of opportunity.

5.Having a Plan-B is Dangerous
I’ve read countless articles about “the power of having a ‘plan-B’ ” or an alternative course of direction.  I hate that advice.  As an entrepreneur if you don’t believe in what you’re doing and have a plan-B set up in case you fail you’re almost destined to set yourself up for disappointment.  I’m not saying it’s not important to plan ahead for bumps in the road but if you’re going to start a business that should be your one and only focus.  Anything other than a mentality of success has no place for you.  Visualize to materialize.

6.Outsource Work
The first several months I attempted to handle all the accounting and finance portions of the business only to realize two things: 1 – I’m not good at it nor do I like it; 2 – I created more problems than I remedied.  Best advice I got was to pay the money to get a reliable CPA that understood my business and could help scale it up by making good decisions.  Best money I’ve ever spent was a CPA.

​7.The Power Of Saying ‘No’
Crucial to your success as an entrepreneur is the ability to politely and professionally say ‘no’.  Similar to ‘you can’t be everything to everyone’ saying ‘no’ is harder than it sounds.  Naturally you want to say yes to everyone, making everyone around you happy, especially if it’s a customer.  Unfortunately, when we do this we get pulled in a hundred directions which causes us to deviate from our destined course.  If you are asked to do something and it doesn’t align with your top 2 or 3 priorities politely decline and thank the person for the opportunity to be considered, even if it is a customer.

8.Breathe, It’ll Be Okay
Very few things in life actually have the ability to stop you from moving forward in your new business.  When bumps in the road momentarily derail you (you will experience plenty of bumps along the way) take a deep breath and be thankful for the opportunity to learn and grow as a professional.  Stephen Covey put it best when he gave us the 90/10 principle:
 
“10% of life is made up of what happens to you, 90% of life is decided by how you react.” – Stephen Covey

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Article was written by guest writer Trisha Aure

​Many of us live two lives.  These two lives run on parallel tracks to one another yet few of us understand the dichotomy which exists by having a work life and a home life which operate separate from one another.  We’ve been told growing up these lives need to be mutual exclusive of one another where we don’t bring our personal life and issues to work and vice versa.  
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This inevitably creates a variety of issues for us at both the home and office.  The biggest issue it creates is our ability to grow as people which leads to our ability to grow as professionals.

Have you ever heard that personal growth is necessary for professional growth?  It is, I just didn’t realize how critical this was till about 6 years ago.  Some people believe separation needs to exist between work and home, or ‘work life balance’ as we commonly like to phrase it. 

I’m not convinced ‘work life balance’ is possible, especially not if you are looking to create a long term successful career which your personal life benefits from.

This ladies and gentlemen is where my career ah-ha moment began – the idea of a ‘work life balance’ is garbage.  We look at this phrase typically from the work side of things meaning we should work less in order to enjoy our personal lives more.  Yet how often are we looking at this phrase from the personal side to understand how we impact our professional experience based on who we are outside of work.  It goes both ways and to think a steady ‘balance’ between the two is possible is a dream in fantasy land.

I was in a new company and aggressively working on advancing my career.  I had a lot of personal baggage I thought I was leaving at the door before I walked into the office.  I had some deep heartache within my family dynamic that I never figured out how to live with, so I decided to act as though my life was perfect and I ignored my past.  This act forced me to live two different lives and I will tell you, this was not only one of the hardest parts of my life but it was definitely the loneliest. 

This is where I learned I wear my heart, and therefore emotions, on my sleeve.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because that is where my passion comes from, the heart.  What I learned is when you are essentially living two different lives, it starts to take a toll on both your career and personal life.  I had received some hard feedback and it was based on my attitude because I was aggressively trying to hold my personal struggles back.  If anyone has ever been here before you know that holding feelings back only creates a blow up later down the road and mine happened at work. 

Luckily, I had great people around me that cared about me professionally AND personally.  I obtained a mentor and started receiving coaching on how to deal with my struggles that I quite frankly kept pushing down for over a decade.  It was not an easy nor short process.  Then again, anything worth having or doing right isn’t easy in the first place.  I started working on building a healthy mind, body and soul, and 6 years later I’ve continued this quest not stopping once. 

Growth is an everyday event and I have built some great routines that have helped me merge my two lives between home and work. 

After 6 years of focus, dedication and some really hard work to improve myself I have lost 40 pounds (and kept it off), I’m in a leadership role with a company I’m part-owner in, I’m actively involved in the community and constantly improving my life on both sides.  I honestly do not believe I would be where I’m at today if I continued to try and live two different lives.

To tie this all together, I believe that growth within your career begins at home.  Have you ever heard, you can’t love someone until you love yourself?  I believe that this internal love for yourself will only push you to cross any and all boundaries that you put up yourself.  Stop putting up boundaries, and add some goals to your life.  Once you start pushing forward, it’s crazy how that turns into unstoppable. 

Key Take Away
You must take care of yourself in order for you to strive in other parts of your life.  In regards to work and life, this is an AND, not an OR.  We need to be confident in both in order to grow in both.  I’m continuously reading leadership books and I can relate what I read in both my professional and personal life.  We need to do away with catchy slogans like ‘work life balance’ because all they do is drive us to live a lifestyle which isn’t attainable. 
 
Action Item
If you are stagnant in your career, or struggling with something personally and you see it hindering other aspects in your life, find someone to talk to, find a mentor, find a coach to help you figure out how to get over that hump.  I currently have a mentor which I found on micromentor.org.  This is a free site and it matches you with people that are looking to grow their career in various areas.  Growth is definitely uncomfortable and no one likes change, but building a strong support system will help guide us in achieving our goals and creating a well balanced successful life.  

Leadership is one of the hardest things a person can do professionally.  There’s no manual, no playbook, no cliff notes that give leaders the ‘secret sauce’ to successfully lead the charge.  Sure there are thousands of avenues one could go to learn more about leadership however at the end of the day it’s still a job that mainly rests on intangible actions like care, empathy, intuition and respect for the very people leaders serve.
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Leading is often described as a lonely experience.  Elisabeth Elliott, a famous author, speaker and missionary once said “Loneliness is a required course for leadership.”  The feeling of loneliness at the top is much more common than most of us realize as more than 50% of leaders indicate they have experienced loneliness at one point or another in their career.  The stats are even higher for first time leaders at a whopping 70%.

When leaders experience solitary the impacts can be devastating.  Isolation and loneliness have a direct negative affect on a leaders’ performance which then directly impacts their employees, departments, business units and companies. 

How is it then leaders find themselves down in the dumps on lonely island?  Some of the most common causes are:

1. Forced Isolation- Leaders seclude themselves from the rest of the group by working in an office which can create imaginary barriers between them and their staff.  Closing the door actually creates a real barrier that communicates “I’m not available and don’t have time for you”.  Regardless if this isolation was intentional or unintentional it produces the same results where the leaders’ staff hesitate to communicate with their boss, or not at all.

2. Decision Making- In most businesses decision making is typically left to the people carrying the torch.  When decisions go well all is good in the world yet when decisions produce less then spectacular results the leader is left out in the cold to take the brunt of the responsibility.  It’s part of the job but it can also produce isolation at a whole new level which isn’t typically understood or felt by the company’s employees.

3. Don’t Ask For Help- Many times isolation is self-inflicted as leaders don’t ask for help from their teams or peers.  There’s an unspoken feeling for many leaders which goes something like, “they expect me to know everything because that’s what I get paid for and why I’m in the job”.  Thoughts like this can be incredibly damaging and certainly have no justifiable basis for being correct or healthy.

4. Lack Humility- When leaders act in a way which broadcasts ‘I’m more important than you because I’m in a leadership role’ employees quickly disengage, refraining from putting effort in to build relationships with their leaders or working hard on their behalf.  When leaders act this way many times it can be attributed to ego or overcompensating for a lack of confidence.

5. Poor Treatment of Others- One of the quickest ways a leader can find themselves on lonely island is by treating their employees or staff in a poor manner.  They lack emotional intelligence. (EQ)  When employees feel like they aren’t valued or respected they withdraw which commonly leads to limited interaction and feedback with leadership.  The result is a drift occurs in the organization between what leadership wants and what employees are doing.
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​Let’s be clear here, we aren’t about to throw a pity party for our leaders.  They’re grown ups right, big boys and big girls who have made the choice to enter leadership on their own accord.  So if they’re feeling isolated or lonely than it’s by their own doing, right? 

Not necessarily. 

While we’d all love to think the statement above is accurate the reality is that employees do in fact have some ownership in the leadership isolation situation.  Employees have a unique ability to see things their leaders don’t, hear things their leaders don’t and help in situations where their leaders would otherwise be clueless about.

These five options when implemented help to foster an environment of support and mutual respect, one in which both leader and employee benefits from:

1. Leaders need to develop a servants mindset for their employees
2. Employees need to commit to giving feedback to leadership in real time (anonymously at the very least)
3. Leaders need to develop peer groups and or an advisory group outside the walls of their company
4. Leaders should focus on getting a coach or mentor outside the walls of their company
5. Leaders need to humble themselves and ask their employees for help and feedback

When leaders and employees work together and support one another it significantly reduces the likelihood people of any kind will experience isolation. 

“There is no respect for others without humility in one's self.” - Henri Frederic Amiel

Key Take Away:
If you’re feeling lonely as a leader chances are it’s a result of your own doing.  Sorry to hit you with the brutal honesty.  Loneliness in leadership impacts more people than just yourself.  One of the best ways to overcome it is to join a peer group or get a leadership mentor/ coach. 

Action Item:
Feeling like you’re on lonely island right about now?  Select two people from your company, one of which needs to be a direct report, and ask them for their candid feedback.  Start by telling them how you’re feeling and your desire to do something about it.  Get vulnerable and ask for their help while creating an environment where people feel comfortable telling you how they perceive you and your presence as a leader.  After you receive the feedback – SHUT UP!  Don’t argue about it, don’t disagree.  Just listen, observe and take it all in.  Thank the person for their feedback and take the rest of the day to smolder on it.  With time and patience, you will begin to open yourself up to hearing other people’s perspectives while learning how to take their words and incorporate it into a new you. Now, go get em, champ!

​Working for big business certainly has its perks, there’s no doubt about it.  Stability, direction, benefits, work that is defined – you name it.  For some, this is the ideal work environment.  We plot along through our 8-5 and enjoy the consistent pace that comes with it.
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For a growing number of professionals while the world of big business has its strengths, it also serves to hold us back in our careers which is why we turn to the start-up world.  How do I know this?  I’ve lived it myself.  After more than 10 years of working for a $6B company I left and went into the start-up world.

My story, while it may not be unique, is a growing story many others now share. 

Why do people like the idea of start-ups?

First and foremost, it can be an exciting place to work.  Decisions are often made speedily, there’s typically much less bureaucracy, work is more flexible and of course it tends to be much more creative.  We also have the ability to learn much more about our jobs and the impact it has on the overall company and or business.  Therefore, it is possible to say being in the start up world allows us to become better business people in the process as we get to see the big picture, not just our individual roles and workloads like what happens in big business.

Then it’s settled, everyone should work in a start-up!  I mean, who wouldn’t want to work in that kind of an environment?

Hold up compadres, pump the brakes a moment.  The start-up world is no picnic.  Yes, the start-up world is exciting and full of daily innovation and discovery but it can also be rife with challenge, uncertainty and stress.  Not everyone is built or meant to be in the world of start-ups.  We may think we are however the reality is some of us are just better off being in big business.  Before you jump ship from your large company into the world of a start-up (and or small business) take a moment to check in with yourself on how you land with these five characteristics which are vital to ones success in the start-up environment:

1.Working Outside the Box
When we work for big companies often times our job and daily output is focused on a certain set of tasks.  It’s the opposite in the start-up world as often times the mentality of those who are successful in this space is that they’re willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done and company moving forward.  This includes taking out your own trash!  If you’ve ever said “that’s not part of my job description” in response to work that was requested of you I would recommend taking a hard look at whether a start-up or small company is the right move for your career.  You don’t have an option to be picky in a start-up, the only option is to do it.  Even if that means taking out your own trash.
 
2.Time Requirements
Working 8-5 in a large company can be a great perk.  If you’ve done that for any length of time you may have forgotten how nice it is to mentally shut off at 5PM.  In start-ups working 8-5 is non-existent.  It’s common to work long hours and or be tethered to your smart phone around the clock.  The statement ‘work life balance’ is blurred beyond recognition in the start-up world.  Those that are successful here know and understand that it takes time and effort to create something.  How dedicated are you to making that happen and what are you willing to give up in the process?
 
3.Ambiguous Nature
Working in a large company doesn’t necessarily mean that everything is clearly defined and outlined yet it is typical that SOPs (standard operating processes) are at the very least available for workers who choose to use them.  In the start-up world you may find yourself creating these on your own.  Take a moment to think how you would feel about being confronted with a daily situation where you are supposed to be working hard, hell – harder than ever before, and there isn’t a lot of direction or support to help you in that effort.  If the thought of that excites you than the start-up world may be a breath of fresh air, if not then maybe your 3 foot wide cubicle and plush ergonomic chair your large company bought is the safer bet.
 
4.Leadership
This is one of the most overlooked aspects of a start-up in my opinion.  Leadership.  If you haven’t worked in the start-up world before you may not be aware that people in leadership still do much of the hands on work.  In big business this is hardly the case.  Neither camp of leaders are necessarily better than one of the other, it’s just a very different environment.  In start-ups every person on the team has to give 150% to the cause which means those who don a leadership title still have to get dirty in the day to day work.  The reason you want to consider this as a part of your ‘can I make it in the start-up world’ is because leadership ultimately can have a great or very grave impact on the start-up business.  Seems a bit obvious but when someone is doing both daily work and in charge of strategic decision making their influence and involvement has a much greater impact.  In big business if a company experiences a failure with one of their leaders it typically can be salvaged whereas in the start-up world one or two costly mistakes by leadership will send the company into a grave six feet under.
 
5.Collaboration
Start-ups offer an intimate working experience. Working in a start-up everyone knows everything about everyone.  It’s close quarters with high amounts of communication, partnering and feedback.  Collaboration of course exists in big business but not at the intimate level of the start-up.  When we work for a big company we are often a part of a team but doing work independently, even times on our own little island.  If you’ve come to enjoy your island and aren’t interested in having neighbors up in your grill on the daily than perhaps staying in big business is the right decision for you.
 
A professional life in a start-up can indeed be a rewarding and exciting adventure.  Once we’ve spent some time analyzing what’s most important to us in our career and what we’re willing to do to get it than we’ll have a better idea of how the start-up environment and career fits in with our plans.

Twice in my career I've been in a slump.
 
Statistically I'm not sure where that puts me in comparison to others having to do with 'career slumps' however I can openly and honestly admit those two experiences were incredibly challenging and equally as eye opening in my personal and professional development. 
 
What is a career slump?
 
It can be a lot of things. A career slump can be a period marked with stagnation, little to no growth, periods of failure, challenges with our mindset and passion to succeed.  Career slumps are all of these things and perhaps none of them at the same time, it just depends on your situation. A career slump could include mediocrity, boredom for extended periods. Lack luster attitudes and or a general malaise where we 'mail it in' on the daily. These are characteristics of a career slump.
 
What I've learned from my two career slump experiences was it was near impossible to get out of it until I understood what got me there in the first place.
 
I'm nervous talking about this. Being vulnerable on a stage like social media isn't necessarily an enjoyable walk in the park yet I've learned that many others share my same struggles so I choose to offer my experiences in the hope that it helps others. Sharing also helps me understand myself better and become more confident with who I am, what I'm capable of and what my 'why' is for doing what I do.
 
There, right there. That's the answer! Getting out of a career slump isn't some magical experience or event that gets you back on track, its sharing and talking about what you're experiencing, how you're feeling emotionally and being aware of how that's impacting you and your career. Whether we want to admit it or not all of us at one point or another will experience a career slump. No one is perfect and times of strife in this life, more accurately our careers, are inevitable. 
 
The key is to dealing with a career slump is acknowledging it, accepting that it’s real then acting to change it.  Similar to the psychiatric process called the ‘five stages of grief’ how we handle dealing with a career slump is a process of admittance, understanding and then action.  It's a lot of soul seeking and working through your feelings to try and understand your mindset and what brought you to your present place.
 
Here's what has worked for me:
 
1. ADMIT: Recognize and admit things aren't great. Say it out loud.
 
2. PRESENT STATE: Ask yourself how you feel in this moment. Write it down.
 
3. EVENTS: Trace back the last 6 months to a year and unwind your experiences, successes, struggles to understand the chain of events which brought you to your career slump
 
4. DIGEST: Sit on this information for a couple days. How does it make you feel? Do you now know why you're in a slump?
 
5. SHARE: Go find two people to talk with. Share with them your situation and present feelings on the matter. (I know...this is a lot of talk about feelings and emotions. Sounds awful, right. The quicker you can get beyond that the quicker you'll find yourself on the road to confident successful empowered you)
 
6. KEEP GOING: Keep sharing your experience with people. The more the better. You'll begin to notice the more you talk about it the better you feel and more accepting you are of the situation.
7. TRANSITION: Now that you know what's going on start out every day with 20 minutes of mindset activities to get you on the road to a positive you (workout, yoga, meditate, do your favorite activity, listen to music, sit in silence, etc.)  It’s all about cultivating a positive mindset which drives who you are and your actions for the day in front of you. 
 
8. ACT: commit to yourself that the experiences you had leading up to your career slump don’t define who you are.  In fact, they make you better!  Now is when we need to make some changes to our career.  Implement a new office schedule, get rid of work if you’re overloaded, take on a new project to get yourself out of your comfort zone.  Maybe you need to find a new job!  Whatever it is, the new you, the new focus must be different than what you were doing the past month.
 
If we change nothing about our actions and mindset we’ll continue to be who we were during the slump.
 
This eight step process doesn’t happen immediately but you'll begin to notice a change in your overall outlook and mindset after a couple weeks of this. Keep it up, don’t falter. As positivity and empowerment come back into your life so too will your energy to kick ass and take names in your career.
 

I just got done reading ‘Elegant Warrior’ by Heather Hansen – finished it in an afternoon.  I’m a slow reader, and one who gets distracted easily, for me to finish a book of any size in one afternoon is quite a feat.

​Once I got into Hansen’s stories from the courtroom and how they apply to real life I was amazed at how many of them I had experienced both in my professional and personal life.  I couldn’t put the book down.  As I read on I learned that I made a lot of the same mistakes Hansen has made in her own career, interestingly enough my learning lessons were very similar, just not in a courtroom thankfully.

Doing the right thing at the right time while keeping your class, elegance and respect isn’t easy.  Especially when you’re in a leadership role and everyone’s watching your every move.
“Leadership is easy!” said no one ever. 

Why is it that leadership is so difficult and hard to master?  Well, for starters it’s a role that is largely trial and error, skill learning in the moment on the job.  That means a lot of what we know and learn over time about being a leader comes from mistakes and blunders people have made before us.  We learn from watching others, Hansen’s ‘Elegant Warrior’ talks about this as well.

My career with leadership was no different.  At the age of 23 I found myself in my first ‘management’ role and was scared out of my mind.  Notice I used the word ‘management’, not leadership.  There’s a big difference in the two.  The spark of a great leader is someone who acknowledges and accepts they don’t know it all and asks for help.  Simple, yet incredibly difficult to put into practice.

As the years went by and my leadership prowess developed, I began to grow more and more confidence in my ability to lead others, influence and develop those around me.  Though my confidence grew, I found as time went on the challenges I was faced with grew in size and significance.  Confidence, or an inflated level of confidence, can be a big black eye for managers as it can cause people to overlook basic ways of leading that should never go unattended.

My father has always told me, “You come from the school of hard knocks, it’s in our family, so don’t fight it, just learn from it.”
And learn I did…

Looking back on my earlier years in leadership there were three incidences I encountered that go down as the biggest mistakes of my career.  While they were indeed mistakes on my part, the learning lessons that came of these situations were priceless to my overall learning and education in the art of leadership.

​Mistake #1 - Hiring the Wrong People
I was a couple years into my leadership role overseeing a technical division.  We were growing and seeing some good success and needed to hire people to keep the growth curve climbing north.  After interviewing a variety of candidates I became inpatient (a lifelong battle of mine) in that I had not found the ideal person to join our mob squad of high performers.  Throughout the interview process there was one person, we’ll call him Negative Norm, who had most of the characteristics I was looking for however it was plain as day to see that he had a hug ego and it was all about what Negative Norm was going to get from us, not what he was going to bring to the team.

With my lack of leadership experience leading my decision making I hired Negative Norm and did the ole ‘cross your fingers and hope for the best’ routine. 

Dang it!  What a dumb mistake that was.  I still cringe about that experience today even though it’s been years since it happened.

Not only did Negative Norm come in and create all sorts of disruption to the great culture we had worked so hard to develop on the team over the years but he also soured one of my best employees.  We end up firing Negative Norm six months into him joining our team, which probably cost our company a boat load of money in tangible and intangible costs, as well as gave me a disenfranchised team and culture.  I then had to deal with a declining all-star on our team who had become transfixed with the notion, thanks to Negative Norm, that he was working too hard and didn’t feel like this was the right place for him.  Prior to disruptive Negative Norm entering our team this all-star employee was the quintessential idea of what a great employee should be.

Lesson #1 as a Result of Mistake #1 – if you can’t find the RIGHT person, don’t make a hiring decision at all.  You’re better off waiting and being patient to find the right person rather than settle for someone who could really make a mess of what you’ve worked so hard to build.

Mistake #2 – Not Dealing with Conflict Head-On
Have you ever had two employees get into a WWF battle royale at your office?  If you haven’t, pray you never have to deal with that because what I witnessed was a linguistics slug fest that would make even the strongest people shiver, or send HR running for the hills.

​Two employees, we’ll call them Jack and Mort, worked together constantly.  Both were high performers with a lot of potential and equally disciplined when it came to their work ethic.  Mort had an affinity for talking down to people and really making those around him feel awful at times.  Sometimes it was intentional, other times it was a complete lack of awareness on how he was coming across to others.  Point being, he had a nasty proclivity for making others feel bad which lead to all sorts of not so delightful challenges on the team.  I was doing my best to deal with it and had thought we were making progress.

One day Jack finally decided he had enough of Mort’s verbal shenanigans and after bantering back and forth unleashed a verbal assault, letting Mort have it.  The may lay interrupted the entire office causing employees who were uninvolved to scuttle into corners near the water coolers to talk about the events.  It was a rather big distraction if you catch what I’m throwing down here.

What did I do?  I took action immediately and called each employee into my office, one at a time, to get their side of the story so I could then come up with a solution to the issue.  What do you know, their stories were completely different from one another.  Shocking.  After talking with a variety of people who were ‘expert witnesses’ and my two lovely employees, I finally deliberated on our course of action to move forward with and presented it Mort and Jack individually. 

Big mistake that was!

While I still stand behind my course of action decision, even today, it wasn’t the decision that got me into hot water.  It was the fact that I never brought BOTH Jack and Mort into a closed door office to hash out what had happened. 

Lesson #2 as a Result of Mistake #2 – If you are in the middle of a conflict resolution issue between two employees and their stories don’t add up the best thing to do is bring both of them into a closed door office and get to the bottom of it.  When people are in front of the other person the issue exists between you’ll find that their recollection of what happened changes as they can’t embellish, finagle or distort the truth.  You also then have a better opportunity, in this case Jack and Mort, of talking things through, with you the leader as the mediator guiding the conversion to a safe landing.

Mistake #3 – Allowing Mediocrity
Similar to mistake #1 however this one had a far bigger impact than what I expected.  I had previously written about this particular mistake along with steps on how to deal with conflict resolution which can be accessed by clicking here.  I had an employee, we’ll call him Dr. Evil, who loved to say all the right things yet his actions never amounted to his words.  Dr. Evil would show up consistently late most mornings, would be up from his desk socializing often during the day and enjoyed a consistent ‘sick day’ every other week, typically on Mondays.

Dr. Evil was a smart cookie.  He knew how to play the game well enough to where he wasn’t on the firing guillotine but also wasn’t on the winners’ podium as a result of his work.  Dr. Evil was mediocre.  His work ethic was lack luster, his results were average at best and his participation on the team was, like old worn in wallpaper, almost unnoticeable.

After finally building up the courage to put Dr. Evil on a performance plan, which ultimately led to his demise, I felt good about my ability to deal with him and ultimately get him off the team.  Until an employee said this to me…

“Wow, I’m shocked we fired Dr. Evil, that was long overdue.  I was beginning to think he would be with us forever and I’d have to pick up the slack.”

Ouch.  That hurt.  What hurt even worse was the employee that said this to me was my top performer!

Lesson #3 as a Result of Mistake #3 – allowing mediocrity on any team is a killer in more ways than one.  Not only does it broadcast that you as a leader aren’t willing to deal with underperformers, it also signals that your expectation for the team and culture of your company/ department, etc. are that of averages.  Nothing special.  No pixy dust.  No special sauce.  What’s worse is that the people who are routinely most impacted negatively by leaderships inability to deal with mediocrity are your top performers. 

When in doubt – move them out.  Jim Collins, author of the book ‘From Good to Great’ says, “Get the right people on the bus and the wrong ones off otherwise it will begin to negatively impact the right ones.”

​Leadership is synonymous with making mistakes.  It’s okay to make mistakes, people don’t expect leaders to be perfect, so long as the leader doesn’t try to act perfect.  Owning ones mistake is a powerful move as it shows you are humble, honest and live realistically.  What isn’t okay is to keep making the same mistake, not learning from them the first time around.

Key Take Away:
You’ll never be an expert at leading, it’s an evolving art form that takes practice, tons of patience and a willingness to listen.  Learn from your mistakes and learn quickly.  When in doubt, don’t make a hiring decision.  You’re better off continuing the search for the right person rather than settling and doing the old ‘fingers crossed, let’s hope this works’ routine.
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Action Item:
When dealing with conflict in the workplace it’s best if you’ve had experience with tough situations before they occur.  Lot’s of time the result of a conflict at the office has a lot to do with how management handles it.  If you’re cool, calm and collected you’ll stand a better chance of navigating through the conflict and coming out the other side feeling good about the situation and your involvement.  Practice ahead of time!  Get a buddy or a colleague and role play difference conflict resolution scenarios.  Try being both he employer and the person in leadership.  Mix up the scenarios and really test your ability to be patient, ask great questions and most of all LISTEN.  Practice will help immensely with how you deal with future situations.

This week I’ll have the opportunity to participate in an impactful event here in Irvine, CA covering women in medical device leadership.  With this being the 3rd annual event the team putting it together was concerned primarily with how we would pull off the event and do so while keeping the content fresh and appealing.  Needless to say when you’ve done something twice its really easy to have the 3rd end up on autopilot.  Just ask Al Pacino, he’ll know exactly what you’re talking about as a result of Godfather III. (my first of many digressions in this article)
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While we had a great topic to address, ‘Successfully Addressing Conflict Resolution & Crisis Management in the Workplace’, the team agreed we were missing something from the event.  Missing something to make this 3rd event really special.  It was during this time one of our strategic partners, Society of Women in Engineering, or SWE, suggested we offer a scholarship for female STEM students as a part of the event.

We loved the idea and since our organization, DeviceAlliance, had yet to do a scholarship program it was a great way to give back to the local community we serve while also providing a unique experience for the event attendees.

As we dove into the creation of this scholarship program, which would later be called ‘OC Exceptional Female STEM Student Scholarship Award’, we learned a lot of interesting stats having to do with our country’s STEM education programs.  Some of those STEM stats were good yet many of them were disheartening to say the least.

While I knew what STEM education was I must admit I wasn’t familiar with the actual programs, how it operated and what the results were.  As I began to dig for details to educate myself on this part of academia, I found myself becoming increasingly frustrated with the information I was finding.
STEM education in the US is struggling.

I found this really hard to believe.  How can such an amazing program have such mediocre to poor results.  I learned things like:

1. Of 35 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the US ranks 30th in math and 19th in science, according to Pew Research
2. 78% of high school graduates don't meet benchmark readiness for one or more college courses in mathematics, science, reading, or English, according to the Smithsonian Science Education Center
3. It was projected that 2.4 million STEM jobs went unfilled in 2018, according to Smithsonian Science Education Center

These stats are frightening and only the beginning of the landslide of poor outcomes and frustrating data plaguing STEM education.  One could easily deduce from this information our country’s efforts to produce a successful STEM education program for the up and coming generations is failing.  Perhaps, failing miserably.

I wasn’t willing to accept that.  Just because the stats may not be in our favor doesn’t mean STEM isn’t a good opportunity.  In fact, I look at it the opposite way.  Sure, STEM education reform would almost certainly help our country however in the wake of misfortune opportunity can always be found.

Fortunately, the future for STEM isn’t so doom and gloom, it’s all a matter of how we address the opportunity at hand.  Let’s look at some other stats related to STEM:

1. In 2012, the median earnings for workers in science and engineering occupations (regardless of education level or field) were $78,270, more than double the median ($34,750) for all U.S. workers.
2. Between 2017 and 2027, the number of STEM jobs in the US will grow 13 percent, compared to 9 percent for non-STEM jobs
3. There is a giant opportunity for women and minorities to flourish in STEM related work fields; there are thousands of scholarships and academic programs which have been created to encourage and entice women and minorities to join STEM education; the same is true for many top companies which rely on technical talent and the programs they have to hire and onboard such talent

Yes, the academic side of STEM may be struggling in the US.  Yes, we’re pumping a lot of money into STEM and we’re still behind many 1st and even 2nd world countries in terms of our scoring and performance in STEM.

Yet there’s one thing for certain you just can’t argue – technology is only going to increase as time goes on.  This means the demand for STEM educated students will continue to be both important and a key driver of our economy.  Rather than focusing on the bad, I see it as a chance to focus on the good and the potential growth in STEM education in front of us here in the States.

So how do we address the issue of a struggling domestic STEM education program so that we can get more students through it and into the workforce?
The answer in my opinion is two-fold:

1. Industry needs to get more involved guiding both our government, including its respective politicians, as well as academia to help them understand what is needed in the workforce and just as important how to successfully get students there through robust programs which use heavy amounts of real-world educational applications and not just theory found in a textbook
2. Older generations (in particular parents) need to take the time to educate younger generations at a very early age on STEM and as they grow continuing that education on the opportunities in the workforce which come from STEM educations; our work as parents, coaches, advisors and mentors doesn’t end there, we must stick by them through the process encouraging and supporting our STEM students through to graduation

While those two answers may be wildly simple and perhaps naïve on a big scale it’s hard to argue one key fact: technology is here to stay; the jobs of the future will largely be focused and depend on emerging technology. 

As technology continues to advance it brings us opportunity, how we and the generations to come choose to take advantage of that opportunity, well that’s still yet to be seen.  It’s vital we act NOW to uplift our country’s STEM education programs while encouraging our youth to reach for those opportunities.

I’m proud to be a part of a non-profit team which recognizes the importance of STEM education and just as important is doing something in our local community to encourage and support those students who are chasing their dreams in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math.

Key Take Away:
The US STEM education system is getting the pants beat off it by other countries which have placed a high priority in technology and science based education.  While this seems bad on the surface it also reveals a lot of opportunity ahead of us, with plenty of employment opportunities with nice salaries and upward mobility.  Industry and older generations (in particular parents) need to get involved earlier and more frequent to ensure the up and coming generations are able to take advantage of the opportunities at hand.

Action Item:
Think about how you land within these two areas: industry and adulting.  If you don’t have kids how can you educate people younger than you about the opportunities STEM produces?  If you do have kids introducing them at a young age to these possibilities is crucial, not just for their development but for our country as a whole.  From an industry perspective, challenge yourself and your company to get further involved with the local colleges and universities in your area.  Seek out STEM education programs to ingratiate them into your company, help to drive awareness, sponsor projects and competitions.   The more we get involved the better of we and those to come after us will be.
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