Top 5 Things Ive Learned From My Clients

Top 5 things I’ve learned from my clients Chess by Malias from Flickr You can probably imagine how many secrets a résumé writer and career coach can learn while they are working intimately with professionals at various levels. While, I do learn quite a bit of confidential information about companies, employees, I’m not inclined to share that. Consider, however, how much I get to learn about corporate success from hundreds of people who have achieved it for themselves, and a few that had struggled until they met me. I am sure there are hundreds of thousand tidbits that I have learned in the past decade that are worth sharing. While you were staying tuned for the book, here are the top five, or rather the five that are most top of mind and relevant to me now.   1. Promptness gets you noticed. The go-to guy gets the promotions in the opportunity, most of the time. Deal with people first and things next. Beware of making yourself so valuable in one role, however, that you are solely relied upon. Inspire others to follow your lead. Leaders are so much more critical to an organization than doers or managers.   2. Give other departments a hand. This is beneficial on so many levels. Not only will you be able to build rapport that enhances collaboration throughout an organization, which is always necessary though often missing, but you will also learn new pieces of the puzzle, widen your perspective, and see a bigger picture. Sometimes that leads to opportunities to bring departments together for huge initiatives and sometimes, when your department suffers a layoff, another department sees your value and you create job security.   3. Hire great people, give them what they need to succeed, and get out of their way. I have had many clients who I would consider to be turnaround kings and queens. What they often have in common is their ability to deal with performance issues head-on getting to the true source of them, to put people in positions that set them up for success, and to build a culture of accountability and trust that tends to raise confidence, morale and productivity.   4. Be willing to sponsor and nurture up-and-coming phenomenal talent. Even if they surpass you, they’ll wind up taking you with them. These are also the same clients who abide by the philosophy of hiring people smarter than them, though this does not have to apply solely to direct reports.   5. Get yourself involved in the projects that contribute to profit. Anyone who is a member of a businesses cost center would benefit from adding skills that directly contribute to a company’s top line. It makes you exponentially more visible to executive leaders and board members.