Make More of Your Job

Exercise to Improve Your Performance at Work

Scientists have long spoken about the importance of diet and exercise for those of us that want to live a long and happy life. It even seems like as time goes on, science is proving more and more that good diet and exercise have almost limitless positive affects on our lives. Last week, a Duke researcher even proved that regular exercise is just as effective on depression as medication is! While it goes without saying that eating right and staying fit should have a direct impact on our health, I’ve been shocked at what a considerable impact a little bit of exercise has on my ability to maintain a high energy level on the job.

When I hit my mid twenties, I noticed for the first time that my physical world was starting to change. It’s the same old story that most of us go through at some point: I would eat less and still gain weight. I wasn’t bouncing back as fast from illness or a night out as easily. My body was telling me that I wasn’t a kid anymore. It was even beginning to affect my work.

I’ve never required a great amount of sleep, but as I've gotten older, the more prone I've become to  listlessness at work at some point during the day. I tried sleeping more, to no avail. I even wondered if that was just the way I’d feel forever, if life really was just a slow downhill slide to the grave. Then I started to exercise.

It actually started out as a weight loss program, but long after I ended the diet, the regular workouts have remained a part of my weekly life. Within days of starting to exercise, I could feel a difference during my working hours. Not only was I back to my old energy levels, but I generally exceeded them. The amazing part to me was that I wasn’t participating in a comprehensive personal fitness program. I was just running a handful of miles per week and spending some time on the elliptical machine.

Over the years, I’ve figured out a bit more about what kind of activity level I personally need to keep energized throughout the day and even a few tricks to stay energized when time is limited. I can’t say I look forward to working out, but falling off the wagon every once in a while (often when I’m traveling a lot) is more than enough to remind me of the importance of exercise to my productivity. If I miss out on even a week of exercise, I lose about 30% of my steam during the day. When I finish up in the evening, all I want to do is relax and not work on other projects or even my hobbies. I don’t like feeling that way, so I inevitably head back to the gym to get back on track.

If you aren’t a regular exerciser, it may sound intimidating to think about making this change for your life, but it’s one you owe it to yourself to try. You don’t have to join a gym or even buy any expensive equipment. Just get moving. Walk the dogs, take a bike ride or even try 15 minutes of yoga in the morning before you head to the office. Whatever you choose, commit to 30 days of exercise and then compare your energy level throughout the day to what it was before. Not only will you be happier and healthier, you’ll get more done at your job and still have energy left over for your friends and family. All of that for just a few minutes a day of work. Now that’s a great return on investment!

Readers: what do you do to keep yourself physically primed for work?

Get More Done by Going Public

I love public transportation. I know, I’m probably the only person living in a major American city that would say that out loud, but it’s true. I’m not a big fan of dirt, stench or public drunkenness. What I am is a huge fan of making the most of my time, and in my life, public transportation is one of the greatest tools I’ve got.

I don’t live too far from my office, but in big city traffic, it can easily take me an hour to get to work when I drive. Public transportation takes me only about 40 minutes. You may be thinking that 20 minutes isn’t enough of a personal savings to make it worth while, but let’s take a look at some “lifestyle math” to see how much taking the train contributes to my life on an annual basis.

• Commuting 20 minutes each way is 40 minutes a day. With 5 work days a week, and about 50 working weeks a year, that boils down to 166 hours and 40 minutes (almost exactly one full week of waking hours) that I can spend with my friends and family, or doing things I love, instead of in a car white-knuckling it through traffic.
• My train ticket costs me $6.20 per day. Driving, I use 2.5 gallons of gas (at a $3 average that’s $7.50), plus between $15-20 a day for parking. That’s an average daily difference of $19. Again, multiply that by 5 work days, 50 weeks a year, and I end up with $4750 a year! If I invested that much money every year directly in the S&P 500 (using the last 30 years average growth rate), over a 40 year career I’d end up with an extra $2.3 million dollars at retirement. You read that right: $2.3 million!
• On top of just saving the 20 minutes a day in travel time, the 40 minutes I do spend on the train, I can spend reading - something you can’t (or at least shouldn’t) do in a car. It takes me an average of 4 hours to read a book (assuming about 350 pages), so with 80 minutes a day freed up for reading, I can read an extra 84 books a year or an extra 3,320 books over a 40 year working career. I know I read quickly, but even at a pace of a page every 2 or 3 minutes, the extra reading time freed up is amazing.
• Last, but not least: the difference it makes to the environment. By taking the train, instead of driving alone in a car I can help save about 2.8 tons of carbon emissions a year. It may not change the world, but it’s a simple way I can do my part to protect our environment.

Now do you see why I like public transportation so much? When I get on a train in the morning, even if it’s dirty or crowded, I’m not thinking about the downsides. I’m thinking about all the ways that taking that train contributes to my life. The goal of this post isn’t to make everyone rush out and start using public transportation (though that would be great), but to illustrate how a little flexibility in your life can create great value. We may not be able to wave a wand in our lives and create piles of money, or more hours in the day. But with a little agility and some creative thought you can make a huge difference in the quality of the live you live, and the world you live it in.

Winning the Career Lottery

I spent some time at a work event in Las Vegas last week, and during my time there I managed to hit a small jackpot on a slot machine while I was playing alongside some of my co-workers.  Nearly the second the machine hit the jackpot, one of them said, “Of course it would happen to you! You have to be the luckiest person alive.” Now, I don’t deny that I have an incredibly fortunate life.  In fact, I wouldn’t trade places with a single person that I’ve ever met. That being said, however, I’m not sure that the life I have is based entirely on luck. 

I love Las Vegas and go there multiple times a year. I truly enjoy gambling, and will play during almost every moment of downtime I get. It’s not that I expect to win, because I'm a realist. I simply view the money spent on gambling as entertainment cost, just as I would a concert ticket or dinner out.  One of the basic concepts of gambling, which is based on odds, is that if you play long enough, you’ll lose.  However, if you play long enough, you will also undoubtedly hit a jackpot or two along the way. It’s just the odds at work.  So the truth is, when I hit that jackpot (which just happened to be in front of other people), I wasn’t so much lucky as I was living up to the odds I had created for myself.

The reaction that this coworker had, assuming I was "the luckiest person alive," got me thinking about how often we ascribe luck to the actions of successful people in the workplace as well.  When we see someone make it big, move up quickly or even strike it rich in the corporate world, one of our first instincts is to call them “lucky." Just like in gambling, I've found that achieving such results is more about taking advantage of the odds, rather than leaving the results up to luck.

Is there some good fortune involved?  Probably.  Let me use another example from the world of gambling: the lottery. You can't win unless you buy a ticket, and you're very unlikely to win unless you buy a lot of them.  Successful people look at life as a controlled lottery, and their objective is to buy as many tickets as possible at every opportunity they get. When we suggest that these successful people are merely “lucky,” we’re letting ourselves off the hook. We're chalking others' wins up to luck, rather than considering the things that we could be doing to appear as lucky as them.

Here are a few areas where you can buy tickets in your own career lottery to increase your odds of winning:

• Working Hard: Are you always going above and beyond your duties?
• Constantly Learning: What skills are you attaining, both on the job and off?
• Opening Up: Are you always meeting new people and opening yourself up to new experiences and viewpoints?

So, what career lottery tickets are you buying right now?  Are you staying late to finish an important job when everyone else bails?  There's a lottery ticket.  Using a weekend to take a class that improves your skills?  There's another. Networking at a non-work function?  And another. The opportunities are endless.

If you really want to make more of your job, I suggest you start collecting those lottery tickets.  Of course, it's sometimes necessary to be in the right place at the right time. But if you’re always using your time, always growing and pushing, it's only a matter of time before the odds you've created for yourself reward you. You’ll guarantee that you’ll be in the right place at the right time in the not-so-distant future.  By always buying career lottery tickets, you will expose yourself to many more opportunities than you would if you just keep doing the bare minimum with your job or life. The more opportunities you expose yourself to, the better the likelihood you will have that you will find the right one.

Thinking back to what my coworker said, I now realize he's partially right. Some people can be very lucky, but it takes a lot of hard work to stay that way.

Every Day is a Job Interview

Perhaps the best advice I received early on in my career was to think of every day at work like a job interview. I still run into instances today where I know this advice can be put to use in other people's careers.

A majority of the time, I take a suburban commuter train to my office in downtown Chicago.  Because these commuter trains run on a consistent schedule, you end up seeing the same group of people day in and day out on your train.  Over time, I’ve gotten to know a few of the passengers I ride with. One of the passengers on my train is a nice young guy, probably early 20s. Let’s call him "Joe." Occasionally, Joe and I end up on the same car and converse casually about current events and the like.  We don’t speak extensively about work, but we’ve talked enough for me to know that he’s an entry-level securities analyst for one of the larger firms here in Chicago.

He’s had the job for a little over a year, and in that time I’ve seen quite a change in Joe, and not for the better.  The funny thing is, his attitude hasn’t changed much at all. He still goes to work early, is always upbeat and generally energetic.  What has changed, and quite dramatically, is his appearance.

When I think back to the first few times I spoke with Joe, he was always well put together in a suit and tie.  This was around the time he started with his firm and it appeared he was doing his best to send a message to his employers that he was professional.  Over time, however, Joe lost the tie, then the suit altogether, and now it often looks like his shirts aren’t even ironed.

I don’t get the sense that he’s disillusioned with his job, but I definitely get the sense that he’s comfortable. That can be very dangerous.  One day last week, I ran into Joe on the train and he hadn’t even bothered to shave that day.  We have a lighthearted rapport, so I joked with him and asked if he had a rough night. 

To that, he said, “No, I never drink on a work night, but it’s not like I’m going on a date. Who do I have to impress?”

His nonchalant reply struck me. The truth is, if you’re trying to make the most of your job, you have everyone to impress. From the second you arrive at the office until the moment you leave at night, you are constantly being assessed by your peers and superiors. You never know who might notice your work ethic, behavior or even your appearance.  Despite seeming like a model employee, the fact that Joe implying that he doesn't need to appear professional for his role may end up hurting him in the long run. Especially in big firms where the higher-ups don’t even know everyone’s names, it can’t hurt to make the extra effort to be noticed and send the message that you are a consummate professional.

This was a golden opportunity for me to pass on the same advice I had been given at the same time in my career. I told him to think of his appearance as part of his everyday job interview and that he might want to consider picking the up the razor each morning. Don’t get me wrong, I’m certainly no fashion plate myself, and I know that dress codes do vary widely depending on the office environment. But putting on a tie, a belt and a matching pair of socks, and shaving my face every day is the least I can do to show respect to the job and company that I love. Though I have my on days and off days like everyone else, I always try to treat my job like an ongoing interview and send the message every day that I am deeply committed to what I do.

I haven’t run into Joe again since our chat on the train, but I'm curious to see next time if he took any of my comments to heart.  If nothing else, it reminded me of how important the messages we send to others can be in our careers.  Just the simple process of thinking about these messages can help us to find ways to make the most of our jobs every day.

It’s not about being perfect. It’s about demonstrating your commitment through actions, appearance and attitude.  If you do that day after day, you will be noticed and rewarded.

Declare Independence at Work

In honor of this Independence Day week, I decided to focus this entry on creating ways to become more independent at work.  If you’re looking for a raise or promotion, it’s important that your employer sees you as someone who can add value on your own at all times.  In order to do this you need to display independent thinking and proactive behavior.  All employees should be able to get their basic job done, but great employees should be able to address deeper problems and optimize their ROI (return on investments) to the company at all times.  Here are some ideas for adding that kind of independence to your resume:

• Never ask a question without a proposed solution – A common complaint from managers is that their employees ask them too many questions that have readily available answers.  Falling into this category will guarantee that you appear dependant and unmotivated to your boss.  Every time a question comes up, or a problem needs solving, research the issues before you bring it to your manager.  Come up with the best solution you can and then speak with your manager.  When you’re able to say “Here’s the problem and I think what I should do is _____. Is that what you’d do?", it shows that you’ve put in the time and thought even if you’re solution isn’t perfect.  This will help your employer see you as proactive and interested in growth.
• Always stay active – Just because your boss hasn’t given you an assignment doesn’t mean you should be sitting at your desk twiddling your thumbs or surfing the internet.  Keep a checklist of all of the activities you perform for the company and when you have down time look over the list to find something to do.  As a manager, when an employee comes into my office and says “I was finished with my other work early, so I went ahead and prepared ______,” it always makes me smile.  It’s a great way to prove you’re committed to delivering value for the firm.  If all else fails and you can’t come up with anything to do, just ask.  Chances are your employer will be pleasantly surprised by the extra help.
• Provide suggestions for improving the business – Once or twice a quarter, hand your boss a written sheet with a couple of suggestions for how to improve the productivity of the business.  These ideas should not be about how to improve your life, but how to drive profits, save time or reduce expense.  Don’t limit your observations to your role, but make suggestions about any area you think the company could get better.  This will prove that you care about the company’s best interests and are constantly thinking about ways to make it a better organization.  Make sure you stay humble with your suggestions, since you may be commenting on other departments. However, you're well within your bounds as an employee and steward of the company if you make an informed suggestion that could improve the business in the long run.

The Employee Who Cried Wolf

On this blog, the process of being promoted is serious business.  Sometimes vying for career advancement the wrong way can come with serious consequences.  One of the quickest ways to sabotage your upward mobility at work is to become the employee who cried wolf.

A while back, I had a well-liked employee who consistently voiced his desire to take his career to the next level.  This employee was good (not great) at his job, but was so well-liked and committed to the company that there were many people interested in helping him achieve his personal advancement goals.

Over a period of six months, this employee met with nearly a dozen departments to discuss opportunities they might be able to provide him. He kept his manager in the loop about the process and was frank about the fact that he wasn’t necessarily looking to leave immediately. He was, however, getting to the point where he felt he was ready for an additional challenge.

At first the process went well, as the employee was good at networking and was able to easily make connections with colleagues in other departments.  With a reputation as a solid individual, people were excited to speak with him about becoming a part of their team in the future.  Before long, however, the situation turned sour.

At each of these meetings, the employee would show considerable enthusiasm about the department he was meeting with.  He was an optimist and his excitement was genuine, but the other departments consistently took his reaction as proof positive he wanted to be a part of their team when a position opened up. 

Every time a role appeared, however, he declined the offer.  There was always a different reason: not his cup of tea, too risky, not enough upside for him, etc. Unit by unit, he began to burn bridges across the company with groups that felt he had led them down the aisle and left them standing at the alter.

As he continued interviewing around the company, his own employees began to question his loyalty to them.  He interviewed for so many different, unrelated jobs that they began getting the message that he was looking for anything as long as it wasn’t managing them.  Of course, this made them wonder if there was something wrong with them, or the unit they worked for, and the morale began to decline. Before long, the situation reached critical mass. The team he managed deserved a leader who was committed to them and checked into his daily job. In order to salvage the morale of the team, his manager was forced to let him go. 

Despite the fact that this employee needed to move on, his manager still felt the employee was valuable and well-liked and was willing to help him find a new role rather than terminate him from the company. When the word was sent out that this employee needed a new role, there were no takers.  All of the other divisions had been through this process before and felt that now he was willing to look at their job only because he needed it. 

Because this employee had cried wolf so many times before, there was no one left to listen when the situation was serious.  The employee had made the chronic mistake of talking a big game, but never pulling the trigger. In the end, the opportunities had totally dried up.

Nobody wants to be treated as a last resort. Employers want employees that have a desire to work for them, not employees who would merely settle for their role.  If you’re looking to move ahead in your career, don’t become the employee who cried wolf.  It’s important to realize that once you state that you’re ready for a change, the clock starts ticking and time is limited before the goodwill runs out.  When it’s your time to move up, be ready to act decisively, as failure to do so could find you out of a job altogether.

Follow Your Career Overseas?

As I've mentioned before, it is important to have the flexibility follow career opportunities wherever the circumstances are the best.  That flexibility should include the option of working overseas.

Not only are their great jobs and thriving economies looking for skilled employees, but it’s a great chance to expand your horizons, build your cultural knowledge and network on a whole new continent.  For instance, the European job market is recovering and is predicted to become a growing hot spot for talented foreign employees.

Speak for Yourself

If you’re trying to drive your career to the next level, it’s vital that you are always improving your skill set. But beware: not all skills are created equal.  If there is one skill that virtually guarantees that you rise through your organization like a rocket, it's public speaking.

It’s no coincidence that this valuable skill is also the one that abjectly terrifies most of us.  Developing your public speaking skills is not easy to learn and can be a frightening process for some.  When it comes down to it, however, there’s no more valuable skill that you could master.

Think about your company for a moment. I’m sure you can call to mind someone in your organization that is dedicated, brilliant and a team player, but is a horrible public speaker.  In almost every case, this person will be employed at a level that is well beneath the true value of their cumulative skills. Why? Whether at a company retreat, a small group meeting or even a one-on-one with a boss, a poor public speaker never does himself justice when it comes to the impression that is left behind.

True, some jobs don’t require public speaking, but yet all jobs require us to interface with at least a few peers and superiors.  Public speaking is about a lot more than giving speeches in a lecture hall. Public speaking is also about being comfortable and confident communicating your point of view, whether it’s to one person or one thousand.  Good organizations are always short on great communicators, and if you can prove that you are one, your future is bright.

Now for the scary part. Improving your public speaking skills isn’t a process you can do with a book or a video. It can’t be done without consistent practice and exercise and must be done in public.  If you’re committed to improving your public communication, try out a few of these tips to get started:

• Contribute: At the next meeting you attend, choose at least one issue to weigh in on with the group.  As time passes, increase the frequency of your contribution.
• Propose a Toast: The next time you’re out with friends or family, try giving a short toast at the beginning of the meal.  These people are a “safe” audience and there’s no downside to doing a less-than-perfect job.  Over time, you’ll see your skills develop.
• Join a Club: Public speaking clubs are available in every major city and are often very cheap.  Speaking publicly in front of a group of people who are also trying to polish their skills guarantees you a supportive and constructive audience.

In The News: Disruptive Innovation

Ever been accused of being disruptive? Turn it into a positive.

Authors Clayton Christensen and Scott Anthony over at Forbes.com explain how the concept of “disruptive innovation” completely shifts the paradigm of a given industry. In business, there is no greater employee than one who can help you change ahead of the curve and drive your company into new markets ahead of the competition.

The stakes are high - some companies, like Vonage, haven't fared very well in their disruptive efforts. Because of the risks, however, most millionaires are made through the process of disruptive innovation. Taking a page out of the disruptive innovation book may help you look at your job in a whole new light. It may even help you take your company to places you’ve never dreamed of.

Workplace Myths: "There is No Such Thing as a Stupid Question."

Whoever first said “there is no such thing as a stupid question” certainly proved that there is such a thing as a stupid statement.

There are many myths that exist in our modern workplace, and a lot of them teach us to behave in a way that is counterproductive to the goals we have for our careers.  The statement above is one of the worst offenders.

I am a firm believer that people looking to move up in the corporate world should be relentless questioners; aside from active work experience, it is the single best way to educate yourself about your profession.  But let’s face it, folks. There is a huge difference between a great question and a stupid one.

The statement should be changed to: "The only stupid questions are ones you could answer on your own."

Just because you have a question about how something works or how you should proceed does not mean that it is a question you should ask someone else.

Over the years, telling people that there are no stupid questions has become an excuse for people to ask all sorts of things that they shouldn’t need help in answering.  These questions aren’t asked out of true interest, or the inability to answer them independently, these questions are asked out of laziness.  If you tell me that there are no stupid questions, what’s to stop me from asking you what I should do at every turn of my daily activity?  Asking a lot of these questions is just an excuse to not learn, or at the very least to have someone else do your work for you.

As a manager, if I answered every one of the questions that an employee asked me, I would be crushing their ability to become independent.  My goal as a manager should be to make my employees so good at what they do that they need me less and less each day.  The day I’m completely obsolete is that day that I’ve really done my job.

With every question you encounter, your first goal should always be to get the question answered on your own.  The world today is full of amazing user-accessible research tools, from books to blogs, and going through the process of discovery is a vital part of educating yourself.

Sure, it can be frustrating to try to answer your questions without assistance, but it can also be amazingly interesting. Even the process of researching your questions will guarantee that you will end up with much more information than if someone else just gave you a shortcut to the solution.  Trust me when I say that the employee who asks only difficult questions and even then has clearly thought about and experimented with potential answers is always the one on the fast track.

Every one of us has been in a meeting where someone embarrassed themselves by asking something idiotic and it doesn’t take a fortune teller to predict how those instances affect people’s careers. 

So the next time you get the urge to ask something in a meeting ask yourself:  "Is this something I could answer on my own, is this an opportunity to learn and expand my knowledge base?"  If the answer is yes, you probably just saved yourself from asking a stupid question!