Don't Let The Environment Hold YOu Back!

Don't let bad environments limit your ambitions for your career, for your family, for your quality of life. Start your week. Great. Start your week with a coach. I'm your host, certified high performance coach Sean Butner, and we're going to talk about something that will help you advance in your life this week. So let's go. Hey, it's Shawn. And welcome to the blog, or welcome back to the blog, wherever you're at here today we have a really, really exciting topic on how to really speak up in an environment where maybe you don't feel like you can, right? And that's usually the sign that the environment maybe isn't the most supportive, that the environment isn't really the best at cultivating those honest conversations. So the question becomes, like, what do you do if you're in one of those positions and if you're at that job where you don't feel the support that you really need to succeed? Or how do you go and find that environment if you're looking to shift? Because as we know, you know, the last two years we've been trying to play it safe. We've been coping with working from home or working with how the world changed. And the people that are really gonna win are the people that can focus on their performance, that can focus on being great at their crafts, at their professions, in their businesses, making the biggest impact, adding the most value, all that kind of stuff. So we want you to be that person and we don't want your environment to be limiting your ambitions, your goals, your dreams, the things that you want to accomplish out there. So that's what we're talking about today. So if you've ever had an environment where you didn't really trust your management or the people you worked with, so you knew that there were a lot of problems, but you didn't want to stick your neck out to say, hey, like, we need to fix this. That's one side that maybe you're working in a poor environment. So another sign is maybe you're afraid to try anything because you have co workers that, that are looking to publicly shame every little mistake you make in order to make themselves look good. And I've had both situations where, you know, you have a job that's very top down or a boss that's very top down. And, you know, working in tech, you know, it's pretty common, I think, for inexperienced managers that were engineers to really focus on being right and not focus on leading the team. So that's a really important distinction on what you need to be doing out there is engaging and figuring out and making sure that the people that aren't speaking up are invited into the conversation because they usually have insights on ways to be more efficient, on ways to be more productive as a team, or people that maybe aren't living up to what they need to do, just things that a manager needs to do. So if you're a manager, you have that hat on. How do you build a high performance team? How do you create an environment where people feel open and can really share what's going on? Right. That, that's super, super important. But you know, there are other, like another experience that I've had is I've had co workers that were looking to move up, you know, the ladder climber, as some people in corporate America might call it, who are solely focused on advancing their careers at the cost of everyone around them. And the thing is, you do that, you don't make a lot of friends and you only get so high in an organization before that lack of support or creating enemies really limits your career growth. So you don't want to be that person either. And you probably know that person in your organization. So how do you maybe handle that a bit more? So I have five ideas to really help you either try to fix or evaluate an environment. So that's the hat I want you to have. And hopefully you have some notes ready to take here just to jot down what you're thinking and kind of capture some of those, because I think it'll really help you. Right. So how do high performers help improve their organizations despite bad work environment? Right. And these five strategies are loosely clumped over how do you lead in whatever position you want, whether you have that, you know what I want to say? Authentic, it's the not authentic authority, it's the formal authority. You know, you're the manager, you're the business owner, you're the boss, you know, that kind of thing. Or you're someone that's just really great at their job as an individual contributor. And you are able to lead because people respect your opinion. People know that you know what's going on. So for, you know, any position you can really lead, you don't have to be the best on the team, but you can be the person that is facilitating these types of things. Right. So the first thing to do is to raise expectations, right? Speak to the highest common denominator. Now I worked at Apple and I worked at Walmart. And the difference between the two is an orientation at Walmart. They have this phrase from Sam Walton, that says ordinary people doing extraordinary things, which is kind of inspiring, but it's kind of also, you know, cutting you down and, but like that expectation that you're going to do great things was there and they've done, they've been able to pivot years and years and years and remain one of the biggest companies ever. So, you know, that phrase by the founder really kind of sets the tone. The first day you're there, you're expected to do great things, even though you're just a normal guy. Right. Like I said, not super inspiring. Apple, I think, gets the inspiration and the expectation. Kind of married together pretty well. Where you walk in the auditorium where they used to give the iPhone, you know, the original iPhone speech that, you know, changed tech, and you sit down and they have a slide up that says something roughly like, we hired you because you're smart and we're looking forward to you doing your best work in your career here at Apple. Right? And just like that, that feeling of like, oh, I've joined a group of people that you know are smart, right? So it's kind of acknowledging that they're acknowledging that you're smart and they're acknowledging that you're going to do really great work. And so, and that's that framing. As an employee, you're expected to, you know, you might be a lot, or not a lot, you might be pretty independent in what you're doing, but you're expected to do great things. You're expected to do the right thing. You're expected to be a leader in your field and it's right off the bat. So that's, that could be the difference in environment. If you're working with people that are at their best, that are the best in the game. And so you're playing on the A team, right? Then you know that, you know, you can do some of the other things we'll talk about, but you should be the person that's holding people to account too. When you see, you know, a star athlete slacking, the coach gets in there and is like, hey, what's going on? You know, what's going on in your head? What's going on in your life? You know, why are you not performing here? How do we, you know, get you back in the game? And so raising expectations is gonna get people back in the game. Especially after a lot of people holding back, you know, like, we've had a rough two years, so three years, however long this stupid pandemic's been. And on top of the war, inflation all the other factors that are causing people to hold back. We need. If we're going to win in this environment today, we need to be pushing. We need to be, you know, making sure that we want to level up our skills. We want to be making the biggest contributions that we can to our families, to our organizations, to our communities, to our sense of self. So it's super important to raise expectations. So that's why we're starting there, folks. Okay? Second idea to help evaluate or, you know, help improve or evaluate your work environment is to focus on performance, right? So we're raising expectations, but we're not just saying like, you should do, you know, 120 hours of work a week, right? That's gonna burn people out. And I think we convolute sometimes this conversation on performance with hours put in. But we want you to be doubling your output. We want you to be thinking about how can you be doing things quicker? We want you to be thinking about how can you be more effective at the job, working on the team. How can we, you know, cut red tape? How can we, you know, again, prevent ourselves from being in this, like, holding back and waiting mode and get into action to get into making things happen, make, you know, finishing those projects, getting those big results for customers, whatever that is. But that conversation of performance, that conversation and focus on performance is going to help differentiate people that just want to take advantage of you, right? It's one thing to be like, hey, I want you to again, to work double. And there's another thing to be like, hey, you're working smarter. How can we, you know, help the other team or help the others on the team use the processes, using your methods or using the insights that you have on your process to make us all more effective. So focusing on performance, too, also, if you're playing with those A players, the people that are on the top of their game, the high performers, it isn't something that they're going to take personally, right? If you're an A player and someone's like, hey, you could do a better job, you're like, okay, like, why do you say that? You're gonna. You're gonna. You're not gonna take it personal. You're gonna be curious. You can be like, okay, why did you say that? And then you'll probably be honest. You'll be like, yeah, I think you are correct. Or you'll be like, no, this is the part you're missing. Okay, I get it now, and you move on. But it's not a personal attack. It it's in service to the bigger goal. Right. Which is the next strategy. Right? So focus on performance is number two. Think big picture is number three. So that is being connected to the value you're adding. It's being connected to how you're helping people out there. It's being connected to, you know, how the work that you do puts good out into the world. And that if you're a janitor, you know, or a CEO, right, it doesn't matter. Like, being very clear on how your role right now adds value to the organization, helps your family put food on the table and a roof over your head, like, it's all the same in that regard. Maybe the compensation is a bit different, but if you want to get higher levels of compensation and be noticed as a leader, like being, you know, constantly communicating the big picture, what we want, right? And like, my theme today on what I think most people want and will need to win in these times is that performance edge that again, that conversation focused on how do we give more, how do we go for it, how do we take bold actions towards our maybe audacious goals, but super important. So constantly be talking and connecting people with the big picture, what you're doing. You know, Apple, again, was really great at this because you could see everybody's work every year when, you know, Tim Cook would announce the new OS or the new things and all that stuff, you know, you could, from talking on the team and talking with your manager, like, I, you know, made sure that that particular feature that's being highlighted now didn't mess up on stage. And you could hear people talking about it like on airplanes and stuff. It's pretty nuts, but it was really awesome experience. So that's being connected to, like, oh, people use this thing every day in my particular, the case at Apple, and people generally like, the thing, you know, is really cool and will keep you motivated and keep you on task and keep you from taking things personally when you know you're making a difference with what you're doing. And that's kind of, you know, connecting. I think big is connecting the big difference to your day to day. All right, so the next thing to do is to be a weapon at whatever you do. And what does that mean? That means you want to make sure that if you're a software engineer, if you're a doctor, if you're a mental health professional, that you have the skills that you need to be the best. You're constantly trying to grow and, you know, the biggest measure isn't who's Number one in my field. But it's like, how well did I do yesterday? You know, you want to continually be improving and eventually you'll be a beast. And so focusing on your career development, focusing on what's going to help you get to the next level, is going to help those around you. They'll inspire people. People will trust you for your opinion, especially if you have enough perspective to have the right one often and you start to really focus again on, you know, what is the right thing, right? When you're trying to improve, when you're trying to be a weapon in your job, it's not just that you are the best coder, but you're also the best learner at the new methods of code and in, you know, software or you're the best doctor because you're up to research on all the current research for your particular thing or field or whatever that is so super, super important. So, yeah, always just focus on sharpening your saw and being the best at what you do. Because the world needs more people that are great at what they do. And then the fifth thing is move to the right place. You know, sometimes you are in an organization and management changes and the environment shifts and there's only so much you can do yourself to change things, to make sure the environment's great for the people you work with, the people maybe that you lead on, your team, upper management, all the folks that are involved. But you know, there's, there's only so much you can do. And if people aren't on board for that, that's when maybe. And then I think this is the part of the great resignation. So people are wondering, why are people leaving jobs at record numbers? And it's like people are leaving bad environments, bad bosses, bad jobs, you know, things that aren't really paying them for the contribution that they're putting into the organizations. So it's super important to be cognizant of that. If you're a manager or leader, that people will leave if you're not compensating them enough, if you're not providing that collaborative environment, if you're not speaking to performance, if you're not helping them, you know, improve and become a weapon in their job. So this checklist that we were talking about, if you're not talking to the highest common denominator and speaking to the people that are doing the best and pushing people and showing people how to get into that high performance mode, you know, people are going to leave. So if you're in that position and you're like I, you know, put my heart into making this team great, making this part of my organization great. It's still not awesome. Maybe that's when you shift laterally to a more productive part of your organization or maybe that's when you shift jobs altogether, or maybe that's when you shift careers. Maybe you start that business because, you know, you're just sick of the politics. You're sick of being poorly managed or a poorly managed organization. You're like, I can do it better and you're gonna go put your money where your mouth is. So those are my five strategies again to go over it. It's to raise expectations and then to focus on performance, to think big picture and connect the difference maker that you're connect your daily work to the big difference you're making, be a weapon at what you do and then to move to the right place and don't be afraid to move to a place that will support your ambitions and goals and dreams and abundance and financial and all that kind of stuff. If it's going to, you know, help further that, don't let the environment limit you on any of those. So. All right, guys, that said, you know, again, the past few years have been really playing it safe or coping with how the world's changed, but the people who are going to advance the quickest, that are going to get people, the promotions that are going to, you know, really succeed in this new phase of the world are going to be ones that are finding the right environments or creating the right environments that support them in their pursuit of awesomeness. Right? So if again, if you can't speak about problems at work openly, it's probably environment problem as an example. But you know, don't let that lousy environment hold you back in your career or life. Right? There is so much opportunity out there. There is so much for so much that you can do to make sure you're in the right spot as we move forward. And so if you are interested in a, you know, discussion with the coach, with someone that has a proven scientific process for helping people get breakthroughs, I'll have a link below on where you can sign up for a free one hour strategy session with me on high performance. And again, you know, high performance is just how do you beat whatever consistent in your life. So if you're like, I've been working at this job, I know I there's a new next level for me, but I don't know how to get there. It's a great opportunity to consult with a coach or consult with me or any other coach, career coach, life coach. Good thing about high performance is it's holistic. So we'll talk about your career, personal relationships, health and well being amongst other things. But we like to take those different angles because they're often interrelated. So if you are interested in that, you know, there's the link below in the blog. If not, no worries. We'll see you guys next week on Start your week with a coach. And this is Sean saying, live with more joy, more personal growth and more impact in your communities today.