The Manager - Edition 46 - Thrive in your career - by Rob Lambert
Cultivated Management Newsletter
Hi,
I hope you've had a cracking weekend and are all set for the week ahead. There was no newsletter last week as I was travelling to Hungary to present a Keynote and Workshop at the HUSTEF conference in Budapest.
What a delightful conference with plenty of wide-ranging topics around the world of software quality. The future of testing looks very bright indeed and there were plenty of talks about management, leadership and passion.
My Keynote was on How To Thrive In Your Career. Bizarrely I was ridiculously nervous before the talk. The night before I'd woken up with panic attacks and for some reason I felt like a real fraud before the talk. I've not felt that way before and hope it was a once off. I always get nervous, but nothing like that. I put it down to a stressful and busy few months at work, the tiring flight and the fact I'm getting older :) As usual though, once I hit the stage, I was fine. The practice always makes permanent. Practice is preparation. It all came good in the end.
If you're interested in the 10 ways to thrive then I'll be doing a video and associated free mini-eBook after Christmas. Here are the 10 ideas:
Decide to Thrive - you have to decide you want to do something in your career
Relationships are critical - work is a series of relationships
Have fun in your career - after all, if you're not having fun with it, be done with it
Trade your freedoms wisely - when we join an organisation, we must trade some freedoms - ensure the organisation isn't asking you to trade too much
Ship value - find out what business results you need to obtain - and then deliver on this. Help others solve their problems too
Embrace the fact we are all different - try to align around differences rather than work against them
Learn - learn anything and everything that can help you, interests you or you're curious about
Define a strong WHY. When the going gets tough you'll need to know why you're doing it
Step outside of your job role - don't let your job description or job role define you - you can add more value than that
Family First - always put your family first. When you need them the most - they'll be there for you
And yes - I'm still writing The Squirrels Who Ruined Everything. It's proven a harder book to write than I first thought. I'm getting through it though.
Until next time - I hope you thrive in your career.
My week in pictures
Cool Stuff To Click On
1 - I always ask lots of stupid questions. Sometimes it's just for myself, other times it's because I can see others in the room may not be comfortable with asking obvious questions. Sometimes, it's to get others to explain their ideas better. It seems others ask stupid questions too.
2 - Really enjoyed this short essay on the future of car safety and how to design software/interfaces for future cars. Really good.
3 - How to create a great cover letter from a designer at IDEO.
4 - Quality time versus clock time. Very similar to maker time versus manager time. Always worth a revisit to the topic.
5 - I've started to journal more and I'm really getting value from it. It helps to clear my mind and work through problems. Seems there is some science to it - and it's also not necessary to use a notebook and pen - digital seems fine too.
6 - Downside to office perks. Hint - they make you stay at work more :)
Book Of The Week
This week's book of the week is a confusingly written and frustratingly boring book - but the message seemed so important that I figured it worthy of a mention.
The book is called Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Now. It's a clever set of ideas, all geared around the need for us all to walk away from the current incarnation of social media. I agree with almost everything in the book and there are some enlightened insights I'd never considered before.
But I did find the book insanely hard to read. It felt like it didn't flow, with lots of repetition of the same points and I personally found it quite dull. However, I am close to deleting my social media accounts anyway, so it's a timely book that is helping me weigh up my decisions.
If you're close to deleting your accounts or are somewhat jaded by the relentlessness of social media, then it might be a book for you. If you have a spare few hours in your life to read it, and don't mind wading through a heavyweight book, then it might be a good book for you.
So far I haven't actually deleted my accounts, but I have used them a lot less recently. And I've stopped checking them every day. I feel fresher for it.
Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Now
Thanks for reading this week's edition of The Manager.
Thanks
Rob..