10 Things I Wish Someone Told Me 10 Years Ago
Oh, hello. My career is turning 10 this year, and I have thoughts. A bit about my background, I graduated Industrial & Systems Engineering (ISYE) and within a few years went on to get my MBA and a Master’s in Healthcare Administration. Most of my time was spent in Healthcare consulting, but like most career trajectories, infinite twists and turns led me to where I am today.
On this, the year of my ten-iversary, I give you 10 reflections resulting from those very twists and turns. They are things that helped me and frankly that I wished I’d heard sooner rather than later. Advice columns aren’t for everyone, so I will not be offended if you disagree or eye-roll. I sincerely hope they help or at least cause you to pause and think. That said, I’m realistic about how reflection works. It is highly likely these thoughts will morph in another 10 years, and another 10 years after that, and another 10… and another (wait, I think that puts me in my 70s). Here we go:
Note: This was written for company internal purposes, but I’ve scrubbed it and protect the innocent. The internal advice is aimed at consulting, but I believe it can be applied broadly.
- Ikigai can help you understand “purpose”
- Presentations sharpen you, so suck it up!
- Meetings kill productivity
- Culture rules your career
- Subject matter matters (to a degree)
- Read and write real good
- Attitude carries your further than delivery
- Take care of thyself (pandemic edition)
- Dress thyself for success (pandemic edition)
- Wherever you go, befriend IT
Ikigai can help you understand “purpose”
Let’s start with the most philosophical thought. Our society spends a lot of time infusing thoughts of future successes into our ways of thinking at a very early age. What’s difficult about this, however, is that society conveniently forgets to tell you the difference between passions, missions, vocations, and professions. How many of you had teachers that touted, “You can be whatever you want when you grow up!” Perhaps, you also grew up in an environment where “purpose” was a pre-defined concept. I did. As a result, I dreamed many dreams in my youth. At various checkpoints, I wanted to be a lawyer (took the LSAT), musician (took 2 years off post undergrad), minister (worked for various churches and nonprofits), and ultimately landed in consulting. Big lolz. I was all over the place, and this sort of whiplash can take a tole mentally. At a certain point, I expressed my career confusion/depression to a colleague who immediately showed me the “Ikigai” diagram. I’d never seen it before, but it is a Japanese concept that means “a reason for being”. It combines passion, mission, vocation, and profession in a 4-circle Venn diagram. I’ll let you research the background on your own, but it forever changed the way that I approached my career and the concept of “purpose”. Find your ikigai.
Regardless of where you are in your career, spend some time reflecting on the concept of purpose as it relates to your career.
Presentations sharpen you, so suck it up!
Nobody likes PowerPoint. Well, maybe they do (“You’re a presentation tool!” ~Michael Scott). Regardless, it’s a means to an end. In my tenure as a Healthcare Consultant, I spent four years on the road. My days were filled with wall-to-wall presentations to hospital system c-suite leaders. You haven’t experienced exhaustion, until you’ve done the classic consulting “roadshow”. Up all night tweaking slides, sweating in the same suit and tie, gaining and losing 20 pounds regularly, and constantly under the lens of critique. During this time, however, I noticed considerable growth in myself. In many ways, the experience was like a career pressure cooker resulting in higher performance and value contributions. I learned to admit when I was wrong. I learned how to ask questions. I surrounded myself with people who were much, MUCH smarter than me. Travel isn’t the norm right now, but presentations certainly are. Most people are still in front of stakeholders all day every day, so I say this particularly to those who haven’t had the classic consulting crucible experience.
Find a way to regularly get in front of internal and external leadership and present. Ask for feedback. Do it again. Watch yourself grow.
Meetings kill productivity
This is obvious, but it is crucial to remember. As employees, we are expected to have some sort of output. Yet, in order to have some an output, you must be productive. In order to be productive, you must manage your time. In order to have time, you must … you see where I’m headed. Meetings dominate our lives. Being in meetings every second of every day is neither productive nor good for anybody. First, nobody likes meetings. Traditionally, very little is accomplished. Second, meetings are not where decisions are made. I can confidently say, they are made literally anywhere and everywhere else. Alas, meetings are a necessary evil, and they’re not going anywhere. With that dichotomy, here’s are a few things to keep in mind: nobody in the history of meetings ever got mad when a meeting ended early or was canceled. Start meetings on time. End meetings early. Don’t be afraid to decline (can’t wait to get in trouble for this one). Propose alternatives to meetings. If you’re running a meeting, always have an agenda. Finally, don’t rely on the “30 minute” default in Outlook.
Check out some of these productivity resources for more ideas
- Productivity Ninja
- Essentialism
- Getting Things Done (Note: I’d recommend the other two first — they are modern takes on the GTD methodology)
Culture rules your career
People matter more than work. If you do not believe this, you will not be successful. If you do believe this, don’t forget to periodically assess the culture around you. Beware: I’m not talking specifically about “core values”. Those are important, though I increasingly they are an outward facing tool. What I mean are asking questions like: Do you believe in your team? Do you believe in the work you’re doing? Do you “fit in”? Do you feel “safe”? Do you speak up? If any answer is “no”, burn-out and unhappiness await thee. If your answers are “yes”, remind yourself that this is due to the culture. Culture is the path to career happiness: not salary (which plateaus), not bosses (which come and go), and not even your work product (which sadly and typically goes unnoticed). Culture is so important, in fact, that the psychological aspects surrounding it contribute directly to the success of the business. For example, in the 1970s, planes were dropping out of the sky. Co-pilots feared pilots due to the culture and checks and balances weren’t in place. After the Tenerife incident in 1977, a large shift in “culture” — specifically “human factors” — was mandated. A drive towards improving teamwork, communication, continuous improvement, expectations, and co-pilot/pilot relationships moved the industry towards “zero defects” and “high reliability”. Culture changed the industry.
Improve your culture and protect its positive aspects at all costs. Leaders drive culture — not the other way around.
Subject matter matters (to a degree)
That title is so punny. I’m so proud of myself. * ahem * Once upon a time, I was in the wrong job at the wrong company in the wrong industry. I forced my boss to take me to lunch one day, and he point blank stated, “What are you doing with your life?” I was a little offended, but the truth was I didn’t know. So, I responded with (wait for it), “…I don’t know.” What happened next was an exercise in back-of-the-napkin doodleography, and I’ve carried the advice (not the napkin) with me ever since. Think of your career as three-pronged: field, department, industry. Admittedly, the headers can be re-worded a bit as the world turns, but the point is the same. You need subject matter expertise in one of these areas to be employable and fluid in the others. When you graduate from school, you are typically knowledgeable in a single field. “Great, I know industrial engineering, but I know nothing about the carpet industry,” or whatever. Fast forward. If you have subject matter expertise in two of the three prongs, you quickly become unstoppable. For example (bolded below):
| FIELD | DEPARTMENT | INDUSTRY |
| ----------------------| ------------------ |------------------|
| IT Implementation | HR | Banking |
| Project Management | Quality | Healthcare |
| Data Science | Technology | Telecom |As you grow, be sure to diversify your knowledge across the spectrum. It is incredibly easy to silo oneself. Go too deep in one area, and you’ll subject-matter yourself right out of a job.
Read and write real good
I cannot stress this enough. Reading and writing will carry you further than all other skills in your career. Reading and writing are also like riding a bike. If you do not practice, you will lose these skills. The ability to write clearly and effectively is obviously linked directly to communication in the digital age, and communication is one of the most important self-management skills you can have. The ability to read and process information is 1) the foundation for continuous learning which is paramount in the digital age and 2) serves as the backbone for being a better writer. This was one of my greatest frustrations at Georgia Tech. There was zero emphasis on communication as you progressed in your studies. This may have changed over time, but technical institutes have a track record of pushing graduates into the field without the ability to effectively communicate. So, go forth. Read and write. Find opportunities to commit to reading and writing whether it’s through deliverables at work or through internal contributions: for example, this was one of the reasons I am a huge fan of our Core Values Leadership program. We read. We write. We discuss.
Get an account on a platform like medium. Start reading. Then start writing about how content impacts your day (You’re welcome @medium).
Attitude carries you further than delivery
I believe “caring” to be the catalyst behind our attitudes. What you care about motivates who you are. Honestly, this aspect of our delivery is the most impactful contribution to those around us. I believe a majority if not all of success can be attributed to attitude. Note: I said “attitude” not “delivery”. Delivery follows attitude, and your attitude is on display a very small percentage of any given day. Maybe you’re in meetings four hours every day on average (low, I know). Let’s say you are speaking or reacting for about a third of those meetings (high, I know). Ergo, 1.5 hours of your 8-hour day essentially equates to the Pareto rule. The way you present yourself in that brief period of time will be the primary for all of your future opportunity. Another note: don’t confuse “positive attitude” with “being happy all the time”. This is incorrect. It is more pointedly how you are willing to help and show up for others, willingly taking on undesirable tasks, and putting your best foot forth in all situations.
Look to the people who are successful and assess their attitude. What do they do well? How can you emulate? Start small by changing how you present yourself in meetings.
Consultant, take care of thyself (pandemic edition)
Your mental and physical well-being matter. We, as a society, love to brag about how busy and stressed we are. We wear these words as a badge of honor as if they somehow correlate to success. They don’t. As you get older, your physical and mental well-being can and will start glitching. If you are not proactive about these things, they will catch up with you. I crashed after my years on the road, and I took six months off before joining Slalom. That break was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. That said, we are still stuck at home, and this has drastically affected well-being in unpredictable ways. Home offices are still not great. Gyms are still scary. A million news articles still sell you a million pieces of advice, but there is only a one that matters:
Be proactive about your health, and don’t set yourself up for failure. Instead, create a simple routine with easy success criteria. And above all, get enough sleep.
Consultant, dress thyself for success (pandemic edition)
Yes, we’re at home. Yes, my shirts and slacks are all covered in dust. Yes, I miss wearing sweaters and blazers. Yes, I’m an 80-year-old man. Now, there are a flurry of obnoxious articles touting “work from home fashion” advice. Dumb. The way you present yourself (yes, even virtually) matters. We are still client-facing. Over the years, I’ve been in several uncomfortable situations where a client mentioned to me how unprofessional, tired, or “bad” a colleague looked. It is not a fun conversation, and it’s not hard to proactively fix. Furthermore, the way you carry yourself through the day absolutely affects your performance. So, do a couple things. First, get a simple work from home “capsule” wardrobe. Second, shower, prep, and dress for the day — even in #PandemicLyfe
If you’re still in sweatpants and a t-shirt, it’s time to dust off the business casual or business casual casual. In-person is just around the corner… I think… maybe…
And finally, wherever you go, befriend IT
Follow me. We are knowledge workers. We need equipment. If our equipment breaks, we are screwed. It is shocking to me how poorly some folks take care of their gear considering we sit and use computers all day, literally every day. When gear fails, you fail. So, make sure you know the person who holds the keys and can fix all the things. This has particularly paid dividends in my current role dealing with large teams and large external enterprise IT teams. Piss these person off, and good luck! Let me know how that works out for you.
Encouragement: don’t break stuff (mostly relationships).
Hope these ideas helped. Go try them. Talk to you again in 10 years. K, baiiiiiii.
~jb
