Malcolm O. Munro - The "Career Fitness" Coach

With Will and Focus, You Can Fix Anything!

Take these three items, some WD-40, a vice grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone.

Walt Kowalski (portrayed by Clint Eastwood) - Gran Torino

This past week I had the privilege of working with a great group of working managers in Irving, TX.  Most were long term employees with this company that had been promoted to a management role just two years before.  These 12 men, on a daily basis, faced down a myriad of problems ranging from a changing customer base to difficulty screening and hiring qualified employees.

As I worked them through three days of fundamental management skills training, I couldn't help but notice how they soaked all the information in.  They did this while handing crisis after crisis from their workplace and still managed to have a great sense of humor.  When their HR manager asked me on the last day how it went, I commented on how well they responded.   After talking with him about what they faced as managers, we agreed that these guys could indeed fix any problem with the managerial equivalent of WD-40, vice grips, and duct tape. 

You probably know I crisscross the country teaching and facilitating management and leadership development workshops in a wide range of industries.  My workshops vary in size and scope but I have the most fun working with groups like this one in Texas.  They have the will to do the job and they are certainly focused, they just need more skill.  With the skills I taught them, they left with the mindset they could handle anything.  I know they can!

What does this mean for you?

Training is great if all you need is skill.  There is much more to great performance than just skill however.  If you read my book The New Rules of Engagement: How to Keep Your Superstars Loyal to You, you'll find out how important having skill, will, and focus is.  Skill can be taught, but will has to come from within.  Focus follows, but you have to WANT to do well in order to become effective.

Think about that this week as you watch your boss in action, or better, as you lead your own team.  Are you in the role to become the best or just taking up space, flaunting your positional authority.  If you don't attempt to fix problems without tools, how will you expect to do it when you get some good ones?  Skill can be had...you better find the will and the focus!  My friends from the workshop last week certainly did!

The Not-So-Secret Formula for Job Security

Always give a hundred percent, and you'll never have to second-guess yourself - Tommy John

This past weekend, my mom ecstatically shared some very good news with me.  Her company had just given her a 5% raise which was much more than the 3% given to the other employees.  Her boss shared that "insider" news with her because he wanted her to know how much he appreciated her doing her job AND anything else that needed to be done.  The interesting thing was that this 5% raise only came out to 60 cents more an hour but it was all the small company could afford.  For my mom, who used to pull down a big salary working in HR at a large defense contractor, the raise was very small but for her, the recognition made all the difference in the world.

While some say our Great Recession is coming to an end, there are still a ton of people out of work and others who still fear the dreaded pink slip.  What if I told you the secret to keeping that job or showing you're qualified for a better one was a simple formula?  Would you implement it?  I hope so.  Here it is:

Do the job you were hired to do to 100% completion and then look for something else to do.

Simple isn't it?  Then why don't more people do it?

Most people I speak with view work as an entitlement.  When something is an entitlement, it also becomes something that we take for granted.  When something is taken for granted, our attitudes toward it change to one of expectation.  Before we know it, we look at our job or employer as our adversary and it's our job to do as little as possible to get by and then live for weekends and holidays, only to dread the aftermath of returning to the job.

Before we know it, work is a politically-charged environment where a subjective boss rewards everyone else but us (and of course nobody works as hard as we do right?) so that now we do even less - just enough to get by.

How do I know this?  It used to be the way I looked at work.  It's also what I see as I travel around the country, working with lots of different organizations in both the public and private sector.  It's depressing listening to all the stories, but seldom do I hear anything but whining.

Maybe it would help to focus on the things we can change and not on those we can't. 

• We can't control what our boss does, but we can work as hard as we can.
• We can't control the reward systems, but we can work as hard as we can.
• We can't help that others slack off and get rewarded, but we can work as hard as we can.
• We can't change subjective performance management systems, but we can work as hard as we can.

Do you notice a theme?

We're only a couple of weeks into the new year.  Why don't we all make a resolution to give 100% in everything we do.  At worst, we can sleep better at night.  At best, we'll be rewarded for our effort.  I'm in...are you?

Successfully Navigating the "Red Zone"

As we near the end of the year, many of us are thinking about the new year to come and some of the goals and aspirations we want to accomplish.  I'm also sure many of you (and me included) are lamenting the fact some stuff didn't get done.

Most people I know start out a year with some short and long term goals and then get busy, pretty quickly, getting them done.  Personally I've often noticed that most goals are easy to achieve up to a point.  Then for some reason, I get ground to a halt.  This seems a lot like the American football phenomenon of the red zone defense.

One of the biggest challenges a football team faces is when they get down into their opponent's "red zone."  This is the area between the 20 yard line and the end zone.  Of course the goal of the offense is to move through the 20 yards and score, but these are often the toughest yards to get for the following reasons:

• The defense has to spread less - there isn't as much field to cover
• With the thread of the immanent score, defenses tend to tighten up
• If the defense is playing at home, it's hard for the offense to hear the signals of the quarterback due to the crowd noise
• Protecting your own turf is a basic human survival skill

With all this stacked against an offense, they have to work extra hard.  The best defensive teams have a remarkable ability to really lock down the red zone and thus get scored on very little.

Now this is a bunch of football speak and if you're not a fan, I've probably lost you by now but let's liken this to our own quest to score (and not in the singles' bar sense ok?).

Setting goals and making early progress is pretty easy.  I've worked with plenty of coaching clients who swear they're ready to write that book, get that job, or achieve that dream.  Most do pretty well to a point.  Then, as success is almost realized, they freeze.  Of the dozens of folks I coached on writing a book, only three managed to get it done: Pat Kastner, author of Caring to Change, Teresa Rome, author of MindOverGolfBall.com, and Bonnie Burnett, author of Halfway to the Moon.  How do you explain?

• Success means you have to set new goals.  There is a potential letdown
• Success means you open yourself up to criticism.  Everyone is excited when you say you're writing a book.  When you write a book, people then feel compelled to criticize it.  I know from experience!
• Success may not live up to the expectations you thought as you get close to reaching it.

In other words, the red zone defense tightens up on you!

What should you do?  How about putting in more effort as you near the finish line?  Realize that early success doesn't guarantee and easy finish.  The final stages of your quest may be the toughest, but keep in mind you're almost there!

I'm excited for some big breakthroughs this coming year.  Knowing the red zone will be there later in the year will help me formulate a winning strategy.  How will you break through the red zone?

Are You Really Prepared for Success?

Pray that success will not come any faster than you are able to endure it.
Elbert Hubbard

Last night my son and I were out buying some last minute Christmas (yes, "Christmas", not "Holiday") decorations when he asked me a very important question.  You see, while we were driving, we were listening to my Sirius XM radio station, The Boneyard which features classic metal from the 1970s.  The DJ mentioned the band Aerosmith was breaking up again.  Dustin asked me about it and I told him Aerosmith, like a lot of bands, went through periods of success and failure all through the years mainly because they got caught up on drugs.  In other words, they weren't mature enough to handle success. 

That same scenario plays itself out in professional sports and usually in the lives of lottery winners.  All of us long for success, but what happens when we actually get it?  Will we be prepared for it?

We're getting close to the end of the year and the big do-over that is January 1 is just around the corner.  I'm betting nobody wants to be less successful next year so if you want more success, are you preparing for it?  Here are some questions to ponder:

Do I have a strategy for attaining success? 
Everyone I know wants success, but do they have a plan to get it?  Wanting and doing are two different things.  I want to expand my business this year and do less traveling but making more money per day.  That won't happen unless I take active steps to get it done.

What will I do if and when success happens?  Do I have a plan to leverage it? 
Imagine if you were a farmer and had a "bumper" year.  You'd have to store all that extra produce right?  You'd need a process for selling the extra.  Are you ready for success?

How will you duplicate success? 
If you've done something innovative that has great results, can you recapture the magic?  Carefully track what you do so you can repeat the process next time.

Success, when properly prepared for, is what we all want and need.  Getting takes work but keeping it is the real heavy lifting.  I'm putting my plans in place for next year now.  I hope you are too!

Opportunity Knocks for Everyone...

Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. Thomas Edison

This week I'm in Orlando, FL on two different projects.  The one I did today was a workshop on social networking for the National Association of RV Parks & Campgrounds (ARVC).  It turned out great and I had a lot of positive feedback, but the one thing my attendees need to do now is to implement a strategy.  In other words, this opportunity will take some action. 

I'm convinced that everyone has equal access to opportunities and luck.  This is encouraging to me because I've run into a lot of people that complain that the only luck they get is bad luck.  Now keep in mind that some circumstances are bad.  Not a whole lot we can do about that.  The part we can control is the actions  we take in spite of them.  Most of you are familiar with Kentucky Fried Chicken.  You may not know that a set of bad circumstances for its founder, Harland Sanders was the very reason for it's success today.

Sanders had a very successful restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky and achieved a lot of fame and money from it.  However, in the 1950’s a new interstate highway was planned that would bypass Corbin. Recognizing that his business was doomed, Sanders sold off his restaurant operations and after paying his bills, was reduced to living on his $105 a month Social Security checks. Confident in the quality of his fried chicken, at 62 years old, Sanders devoted himself to franchising his famous chicken. He drove all over the country, cooking batches of chicken for restaurant owners and their employees. If the reaction was favorable, he entered into a handshake agreement on a deal that stipulated a payment to him of a nickel for each chicken the restaurant sold. By 1964, Colonel Sanders had more than 600 franchised outlets for his chicken in the United States and Canada.  Ironically, he was turned down 1,099 times before he finally found a buyer.  That's what you call making the most of circumstance and taking advantage of an opportunity.

So what about you?  What are you struggling with that could be turned into a great opportunity?  Another famous person, Thomas Jefferson, was said to have  remarked, "the harder I work, the more luck I seem to find."  We live in a time where, with the leverage of technology, everyone has a fair shot at greatness.  You can publish your own books, create your own record label, run your own virtual radio station, or pretty much anything else you'd like to do.  The future is for each of us to create, not to become victims of.

I'm excited for the opportunities ahead.  I hope you are too!

What's Underneath Your Mask?

This past weekend we celebrated my favorite holiday, Halloween!  I'm not sure why I enjoy it, maybe it's all the skeletons (you probably know I love skeletons - just look at my clothing line at www.greyskullattitude.com) out there or perhaps just the huge amount of candy my kids bring home. 

It seems I'm not alone.  The average family in the U.S. spends about $40.00 on just candy.  Then there are the adults who really get into the season by donning elaborate costumes.  People seem to enjoy wearing masks and being somebody different if just for one night.

I find in my line of work that many people wear masks each and every day at work.  Martha Beck, in her  book Finding Your Own North Star speaks of these as a person's Social Self.  It's the part of us that does the sensible thing rather than what our desires and wants tell us to do.  Now don't think this means without the Social Self we'll do a bunch of deviant things, it means we often hold back what's really important to us in favor of what we think the others around us want us to be.  If you're wearing this kind of mask, life for you can be even more frightening than a bad dream with Freddy Krueger in it!

Sunday night I did a workshop with a bunch of high school students using a personality instrument.  My purpose was to help them discover early on, what their personality preferences were.  If they can figure this out early in life, before making career and relationship changes, I think it will help them make choices that will eliminate the need to wear the mask later in life.  We had a great time!  I hope they can take the information they learned and put it to use.

So what about you?  What mask are you wearing?  More importantly, what is under the mask that you wish you could show every day? If you're not sure, maybe the following questions can help you sort it out:

• What motivates you besides money?
• What kind of activities recharge your batteries?
• When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
• What types of people are you drawn to?
• Where do you see yourself (realistically) in 20 years?
• What will you want people to say about you at your memorial service?

These are the kinds of questions that reveal what's under the mask.   I believe you can operate as the REAL you on a daily basis if you become familiar with the REAL you and work to align that with the career you're working for.  I've been able to do that and I no longer dread Mondays.  

Why not take the time this week to do some self discovery?  If you succeed,  you can proudly proclaim that you've experienced a "Halloween Miracle!"

Lessons Learned from the Marine Corps Marathon

As you may know, this past Sunday I completed my second Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC.  As I did two years ago, I thought I'd share some of my lessons learned that of course can be applied to  everyday life (unless of course you're planning on running a marathon, then you can apply them there too!).

I didn't finish as fast as the first year, but actually felt a little better as my knee didn't bother me like it did before.  My finish time was a slow 5 hours and 19 minutes.  Not bad considering I was about 19,000 out of 30,000 so there were still runners crossing the finish line when I was on that sardine can we call the Metro on my way home.

So here are my lessons learned:

1. Once you've accomplished something, you'll always have the confidence you'll do it again.  Having done this two years ago, it never crossed my mind that I couldn't do it.  That's pretty nice to have the internal voice of confidence!  Are you looking to previous victories to boost your confidence?
    
2. Keep learning!  During and after my 2007 marathon, my left knee was really hurting me.  I thought my distance running days might be over.  Fortunately, my daughter's soccer coach at the time was a personal trainer and got me using a foam roller to loosen the muscle around my knee.  It did the trick!  No knee pain this year and a new lesson learned.  What have you learned lately?
    
3. Let people know your goal so you can be accountable to achieve it.  This year I posted a link on my Facebook page allowing my friends to track my progress.  Each time I was tired or  discouraged, I remembered that people were watching me and expecting me to finish.  It really helps to be accountable.  Who else is aware of your goals?  Are you accountable to them?
    
4. Never pass on an opportunity to promote something.  This year I launched my clothing line:  Grey Skull Attitude.  It was my milestone when I turned 45 this year.  The premise is that age is just a number, it's the attitude that makes the difference.  You can view my site at http://www.greyskullattitude.com.  I wore my shirt during the run and that too kept me from stopping.  No worse advertising I'm "Not too old to run 26.2" if I'm crashed on the side of the road right?  What are you doing to creatively promote your business (or yourself?
    
5. Continue to set new goals.  Training for marathons is grueling, but it certainly can keep a person in shape.  Rather than do it just once a year, I think I'll tackle a Spring marathon just to keep me training during the winter.  Maybe it will become a lifestyle?  Just don't expect me to wear those  skimpy shorts the Kenyans wear.  I don't want to scare people off the course.  What new goals are 
   you setting right now?

So it's a few days off to recover now and then back to some light running.  I hope these lessons learned are helpful as you begin thinking of some goals for 2010.  It's only a few months away!

Career Lessons from Ants

As you might imagine, coming up with a posting for my blog or Career Fitness Tips each and every week can be somewhat challenging.  Most of the time, I have some strange observation from my travels that seems post-worthy, but on other weeks, like this one, I'm absolutely (figuratively) speechless. 

To help me out, I thought I'd just pick a random quote or statement from the media, books, or other places, and expound on it as a Career Fitness Tip.  If you can guess who the quote was from, I'll email you a electronic copy of one of my books.  How does that sound?

Here's this week's Words of Wisdom:

Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and be wise! Even though they have no prince, governor, or ruler to make them work, they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter. But you, lazybones, how long will you sleep? When will you wake up? I want you to learn this lesson:

A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest--and poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.

So what does this mean for us here in the 21st Century? 

Well, you don't have to read to far into it to figure it out.  Basically, it's a call for us to work harder!  Now I know most of you would tell me you already work hard, but are you working on what matters?  If ants just build tunnels to nowhere, would they really add value?  Don't confuse hours at work with accomplishment.  If you can't tell your boss at any given moment what you're working on and WHY it matters, there's probably no value in it. 

I know this sounds harsh, but I'm absolutely convinced that a lot of people do the absolute minimum to get by and treat work as an entitlement.  If you've been laid off in this Great Recession, I know you'll never look at work as an entitlement again.  In a strange sense, it's a privilege to work. 

What do we learn from the ants?

1. Ants work hard without somebody telling them what to do.  If you're like me, you hate micromanagement.  Are you doing something that causes your boss to micromanage you?  If so, STOP DOING IT!  Be proactive and look for things to do.  Do a good job at what you do.  Don't cut corners.  Show how you're adding value.
   
   
2. Ants are proactive.  Are you anticipating what's coming down the line?  You know, it doesn't take a whole lot of inside information to figure out upcoming changes at work.  Just keep your ear to the ground and listen.  If you see something major coming your way and have the power to leverage it to your advantage, do it!  Being proactive means anticipating and then acting.  Ants don't wait for invitations do they?  Why would you?

Final thoughts?  A little extra sleep, a little folding of the hands to rest -- and poverty will pounce on you.  Hey how about not taking your job for granted and putting into cruise control?  I can't tell you how many of my career coach clients told me "I never thought they could lay me off!"  If you're not adding value, you're expendable.  Let's all commit to putting 110% into our worklife if we want it to be there for us.  And, if you're not willing, it may be time to find a different career.  No shame in that - and I'm happy to help you with that!

Now, if you can guess who the quote is from, contact me using the "Contact me" button at the top of the page and let me know.  The first correct response gets a electronic copy of my book Endeavor to Persevere: 10 Steps to Create Breakthrough in Your Personal and Professional Life!

Accept Overwhelming Change - Then Move On

Last week I wrote about leveraging change.  Maybe one of the most helpful pieces of advice would be to accept change - embrace it and move forward.

I'm always intrigued by men who are bound and determined to prevent hair loss from happening.  I noticed a guy at my son's football game yesterday who was bald, save for the "power donut" on the sides and a little patch of hair transplants right above his forehead.  It reminded me of what it looked like when my daughter cut all of the hair off her Barbie a few years ago.  I'm not sure the look fooled anyone, least of all a guy like me who long ago declared "Mission Accomplished" on hair loss and just shaved it off.

Certainly we all need to push forward to accomplish goals but when all indicators point to a loss, it's time to accept it and move on.

Some of the most popular men in Hollywood are "Bic Heads" while the guys like Donald Trump valiantly but futility try to wage war on thinning hair.  Accept defeat and move on.

I once heard a story about a child who tried as hard as he could to make the school chorus.  He just didn't have the voice.  Fortunately he had a teacher who introduced him to playing a musical instrument instead.  He became the best clarinet player in the school band and went on to become a music major in college and is now a music teacher. 

All of us have talents and gifts.  If you find yourself futilely trying to make something work and just can't make progress, reassess where you're at and find another avenue in another area.  By leveraging what we do have, we'll find the satisfaction we want in an area we may never have considered.  I had an unremarkable career in the Navy and as hard as I tried, I failed to achieve any of my goals or promotions.  My current career is a much different story.  It makes much better use of my talents and I've been able to achieve far more than I imagined and exciting opportunities and challenges come to me almost every week.   It would have never happened if I chose to slog out a full career in the Navy.

Albert Einstein said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  He was a pretty smart guy.  Maybe we ought to follow that advice.

So this week, do a deep assessment of where you are.  Take an honest hard look at your career direction and see if you're really leveraging your gifts and talents.  If not, why not do a serious course change? 

Survive and Thrive in Times of Radical Change

One of my favorite new gadgets is my Kindle.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's an electronic book reader that stores up to 1,500 books which you order with one click from Amazon.com.  As an avid reader, it's absolutely the best gift I've ever gotten (this was for Father's Day this past year). 

Now the interesting thing is when I tell some people about it, they swear up and down they'd never use one since they like the "feel of a book in my hand."  Well I do too, but it's great not having to lick your finger to turn the page.  You just push a button.  It doesn't get much easier or more convenient.  Maybe it's just the thought of a change that derails these folks.

How do you react to changes?  Are you the kind of person who embraces change or do you run screaming from it?  Change is one of those things that you'll always run up against.  When it comes knocking at your door, what will you do?

As a young boy growing up in Southern California, I used to spend some of my summer vacation at nearby Newport Beach.  One day I remember getting dragged out a little too far from the shore and began to panic as a wave begin to build.  Not knowing what else to do, I tried to swim in to the shore but the force of the wave was too strong and it knocked me forward.  I remember coughing up sand and salt water the rest of the day.

In that scenario, I had some choices:

1. Run from the wave.  Bad idea.
2. Tell the wave to stop.  It probably wouldn't listen.
3. Dive under it.  I would just wind up further out to sea.
4. Bodysurf it in.  Use the power of the wave to bring me gently into shore.

When scary changes present themselves, look for the positive in it.  Only by leveraging that will you have what it takes to survive and thrive in times of change.

In about 10 years, people will view traditional books like we do now when we think about scrolls and chiseled tablets.  Technology is only one constant change.  What will you do when faced with personal or professional change?  Will you run?  Show defiance?  Avoid?  Why not look for ways to leverage it and you'll be much happier and far more productive.