Embrace Technology: A Career Game Changer

Unless you're really young. We all know people who had to be pulled into using Facebook. Oh, I don't want to mess with that. I don't have time for that. And of course, they all eventually got on Facebook or Twitter. Some of you may be old enough to remember those who refused to use texting or even email. Don't be the last person to use communication technology. Be the first person, be the person in your office, in your organization who knows how to help other people do that. Think of it this way. 100 years ago, someone showed you a toaster. You look at, what is that? I don't know how to use this technology. This is crazy. Where's the electricity? But now, if someone hands you a toaster, you know what to do. You don't think of it as, oh, I'm now using the toaster technology. Let me plug it in, let me. But no, you just toast your bread to you. It's not technology, it's just toaster. Well, increasingly, with so many technology tools used in a career in an office, whether it's Facebook, whether it's Twitter, whether it's the database, whether it's autoresponders for people who use it every day, it's just Facebook, it's just Twitter. It's not fancy technology. You need to really be on top of that, head of everyone else. And guess what? It doesn't require a computer science degree quite often. It just requires a little patience. It requires going to a frequently asked questions section. One young man I hired many years ago, he right out of college, he had no computer skills other than he used email and a word processor to write term papers. But what he had patience. So every single time we got new software for shooting videos or recording or editing, he was the person when I said, how do we do this? He said, I don't know, but I'll find out. What did he do? Did he go to community college and study computer science programs 12 hours a day? No. He simply went to the website read frequently asked questions section. And he had the discipline and the patience to call an 800 number for help. These days, when it comes to most technology that you're going to need in your office and your career, unless you're a computer programmer, it's not about knowing complicated technology. It's not about knowing complicated computer science programs or wildly sophisticated databases. It's just about patience, a willingness to learn, a willingness to call an 800 number occasionally, a willingness to go to a frequently asked question section. So this is an incredibly important skill, too. Many people have the idea, well, I'm not a technology person. I'll tell you what a lot of bosses hear when you say, I'm not a technology person. What they really hear is, I'm lazy. I don't want to learn. I want to be able to sit back and let someone else handle my problems. That's not impressive to anybody. Now, the boss may be the same. I'm the same way. Sometimes I get lazy. But if you want to focus on helping your career, you've got to cut through that. You've got to really get to the point where you might not be the earliest adapter with new technology, but you are going to be earlier than other people in your office, other people than or already in your industry. That's the way you stay ahead. So here's the exercise for you right now. I want you to look at some aspect of technology you already know. It could be how to create a Facebook group page. Nothing very hard, but something you think might be of interest to other people in your office. And then just let them know. Friday at lunchtime, you're going to be giving a little demonstration for 15 minutes. It could be in the office, lunchroom. It could be at your desk. You'll take questions because if you pick the right topic, there will be people who are more senior to you. Your boss, your boss's boss, other people within your organization who want to learn this as well. And they don't have the patience to go to a website or call an 800 number. This way, you start to show you are technologically savvy. You're not the technologist, you're not the IT department, but you're someone who is a little quicker, a little faster at learning things. So it could be how to put up a Facebook page. It could be how to do a simple Facebook Live video, something I teach people on. Doesn't matter what it is, as long as it's using technology some way and you're comfortable using it and you can show others do that. And that's a soft skill that's going to help you for the rest of your career. Hey, that's not my job. Not my problem, not in my job description.