What Your Boss Wants You to Know to Accelerate Career.

I recently sat down with Lee Wilburn, Regional Director for Casey’s. I have known Lee for five years and am a big fan of his leadership approach. When I first met Lee, he was a District Manager with 16 years of experience with two different retail companies. During our conversation, I asked Lee what he felt allowed him to go from being a District Manager, to Category Manager, to Regional Director in the last 5 years.

5 Tips to Accelerate Career

Find good leaders.

Lee's career took off when he started working with leaders who invested in his potential. They helped him develop new skills, see things from new perspectives, and explore new opportunities. Your growth as a leader will accelerate when you work for individuals that invest in your professional development. This can include the leaders you work for, sponsors, mentors, or coaches who push you to be the best version of yourself.

Be clear in your goals.

Lee set a clear goal for wanting to be a regional manager. He habitually communicated this goal to others and asked them what it would take to get there. Using this guidance, he devised a plan to build the skills and gain the experience he would need to qualify for regional manager positions. To accelerate your career growth, define the type of job that you want, and solicit the help of others in working toward your goal.

Build Emotional Intelligence.

Lee feels that improving his emotional intelligence has helped him to be a better leader. Early in his career, Lee says that he was not as versatile as a leader. His approach worked well with some employees but not all. As he has worked on listening better and being more empathic, he has found that he is able to connect with more employees, meet them where they are, and better inspire them to be the best version of themselves. Higher levels of leadership require you to influence a diverse group of stakeholders. Mastering emotional intelligence will level up your leadership ability allowing you to be effective with a broader range of people.

Take a calculated risk.

Relocating two times in the last 5 years has contributed to Lee’s quick advancement in his career. In hindsight, he thinks he might have been able to progress quicker in his career if he had been more willing to take risks earlier in his career. He did not express regret in his decisions because, as a father, he knows that progressing in his career is not his only goal. He also wants to provide the best environment for his family to thrive and grow. In advancing your career, you must balance new opportunities' rewards with the risk of failure and unintended consequences. Only by weighing the risk and rewards can you confidently take actions that align with your values.

Know when to exit.

Lee has worked for 3 different companies over the last 18 years. He feels he learned important lessons from each company. His final advice to emerging leaders is to follow their gut and seek new opportunities when they feel their learning is slowing down. To be the best version of yourself, you need challenging assignments, so continue to seek out career moves that will allow you to stretch yourself and grow.

Summary

Building a successful career requires you to be confident in your abilities, humble enough to learn from others, and open enough to build relationships with people that can make you better. The five tips Lee provided are great suggestions for any leader aspiring to grow their career. By defining career objectives, developing goals, and creating action plans, you can better position yourself to establish the skills, relationships, and experiences you need to achieve your professional goals.

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Thank you for reading this blog

Dorian Cunion is an Executive Coach and Business Consultant with Your Path Coaching and Consulting. He is a former retail executive with over 20 years of experience in the retail industry. He is a Co-Active coach who focuses on helping professionals and small business owners overcome insecurities, knowledge gaps, and lack of direction. He does this by assisting clients to tap into their values, recognize their strengths, and develop actionable strategies for growth.

Have you been trying to improve your career or business on your own but are not seeing success as fast as you desire?

Book a free discovery call to discuss your goals and how I can help you accelerate.

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3 Skills You Need for Managing Organizational Change.

Are you facing changes in your workplace that make you feel uncertain about how to navigate your career? You are not alone. Organizational restructuring and management turnover are happening at rates not seen since the last recession, creating heightened uncertainty in the workplace. As companies seek to keep up with AI advancements, rising costs, and tightening capital markets, more pressure is being put on employees to deliver higher results without incurring incremental costs.

Three skills you need to master

If you are in a situation where your role is changing significantly, there are three skills you need to master to position yourself for success.

Clarifying Expectations

Leveraging Your Network

Securing Resources

Clarifying Expectations

Everyone must be on the same page regarding expectations when roles and responsibilities change at work. Sit down with your leader, and ensure you understand what they want you to accomplish. Getting clarity on desired outcomes and operating parameters can help you to understand what is important and the actions you are empowered to take to deliver against expectations.

If you are taking on an expanded role, understand if any tasks will be deprioritized or completely divested. As a rule, if you are currently working at capacity, you can only take on additional work if some of your previous work is removed.

When collaborating with clients, I frequently use a full teacup as a metaphor for capacity. If a teacup is full to the brim, and you add a tea bag, the cup will overflow and make a mess.

To make tea without creating a mess, leave some room for the teabag. By sitting down with your leader, discussing your current duties, and aligning with them on what tasks will be removed, you create the capacity to accomplish your goals without making a mess.

Leverage Your Network

The second skill you want to leverage is accessing your support network. Take a 360-degree look at those around you. Who might have skills, knowledge, or insights to help you navigate your new environment successfully?

Employees frequently struggle with change because they are unwilling to communicate to those around them that they need help. Part of the benefit of working within an organization is collaborating with people with a shared mission. Connect with others within your organization, share your challenges, and request assistance.

By casting a wide net and taking in feedback from multiple sources, you can gain clarity on the actions you need to take to thrive within your organization. You can also establish strategic partnerships that will allow you to exchange value with your co-workers for mutual benefit.

Secure Resources

The third skill you want to use is securing resources. You can do this by starting with the end in mind. Define the ideal end state, and craft a plan to take you from where you are today to where you want to be. Then devise a strategy for gaining what you need to accomplish your goals.

When change occurs, it is vital to determine resource needs. For example, if you were planning a road trip to the beach, you would take the time to decide how you would get there, along with what items you

would need to bring to have a safe trip. You would take time to plan the trip to ensure you have enough gas, drink, food, sunblock, and other niceties necessary to make it to your destination and enjoy yourself once you get there.

Similarly, pausing to determine what resources you will need to navigate organizational change will help you reduce stress and find success. A few resources you may need are

• more frequent meetings with your leader to align on priorities

• additional training so you can effectively take on new tasks

• extra budget so that you can deliver against raised expectations

• more autonomy to make decisions without having to talk with leadership

The better you can articulate what you need to succeed and advocate for those resources, the better positioned you will be for success.

Summary

One constant thing in business is change—your ability to flow like water when your organization changes will position you for success. One of the things that makes water so unique is its ability to take on the shape of whatever it is in. Employees who can metaphorize themselves to fit into whatever environment their organization puts them in position themselves for long and successful careers.

Peter Drunker once said, "One can not manage change. One can only be ahead of it." The best way to stay ahead of the changes in your organization is to clarify what your leadership expects from you, leverage your network, and get the resources you need to succeed. This will allow you to stay ahead of the curve and be prepared for what is coming next.

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Thank you for reading this blog

Dorian Cunion is an Executive Coach and Business Consultant with Your Path Coaching and Consulting. He is a former retail executive with over 20 years of experience in the retail industry. He is a Co-Active coach who focuses on helping professionals and small business owners overcome insecurities, knowledge gaps, and lack of direction. He does this by assisting clients to tap into their values, recognize their strengths, and develop actionable strategies for growth.

Have you been trying to improve your career or business on your own but are not seeing success as fast as you desire?

Book a free discovery call to discuss your goals and how I can help you accelerate.

Talk with Dorian

Have Feedback Send me a note at

Email: dcunion@yourpathexecutivesolutions.com

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How can better communication reduce workplace anxiety?

Anxiety is a common problem for many business professionals, especially when they feel like they are not getting timely feedback from their coworkers, boss, or employees. This anxiety can be heightened when a company is not meeting financial goals or after organizational changes like downsizing or restructuring.

Common Sources of Workplace Anxiety.

Senior leaders I work with frequently communicate frustration because their employees do not seem to understand what is important and fail to prioritize and execute the things that would provide the most value to the employees and the company. They harbor anxiety around having difficult conversations about performance and what will happen if employees decide to quit and leave them understaffed.

Conversely, employees I work with frequently feel overwhelmed and unsure of where to focus their attention. Often they think there is a disconnect between the work they are being asked to do, their professional goals, and the company's mission. Occasionally I also hear insecurity around not having the knowledge and skills to do a job and a fear of communicating that insecurity because of the perceived risk of vulnerability.

In both cases, fear and insecurity get in the way of candor. The uncertainty around being honest about needs, expectations, and wants gets in the way of communication and collaboration that would improve business performance and reduce anxiety.

Poor Communication is the Problem

In a world where employees and bosses communicate through emails, texts, messaging apps, group meetings, and one-on-ones, lack of communication is not the root of the problem.

Overcommunication and micro-managing do more to create anxiety in the workplace than nearly any other force. If you want to reduce anxiety and improve effectiveness, it is crucial to identify ways to improve the economy of communication by having less but more effective communication.

How would you describe the level of communication at your workplace?

• Perfect
• Under-communication
• Over-communication

7 Tips for Reducing Workplace Anxiety

Initiate regular check-ins. Having quality one-on-one discussions can go a long way to improving communication. Establishing a regular schedule for discussing current priorities and checking in on needs, expectations, and wants can strengthen relationships and reduce uncertainty.

Using a shared document to capture wins, obstacles, options, and commitments is a great way to ensure both parties are aligned coming out of the meeting.

Be honest and respectful. The people you work with have multiple responsibilities, competing priorities, personal lives, and their own anxieties that they are dealing with. Strive to be clear, direct, and considerate in your communication. Focus on being candid about problems, but also do your best to collaborate on solutions. The better you are at helping the people you work with, the more value they will see in you. When you are kind and helpful to others, they are more likely to mirror those behaviors back to you.

Listen actively. Pay attention to words, tone, and body language. This is especially important if you are on a remote team. Ask questions to clarify and confirm your understanding. If you feel that things are not going well, be direct and ask. Assumptions can be dangerous. Always seek facts.

At the end of conversations, summarize what was discussed to help avoid miscommunication. This is a great way to demonstrate that you care about getting things right and are invested in pursuing alignment.

Be brief. Everyone has limited time and energy. Be considerate of how you use the time that people give you. Before you meet with people, take a moment to determine your purpose in the meeting. Writing down key points or goals for the conversation can be helpful.

Demonstrate gratitude. You will not always receive the information you want to hear during conversations. When you encounter a different perspective or difficult feedback, show gratitude to the person for being candid. Then use the information to learn and grow. Anything that is not of value to you ,disregard it. It is better to be aware of other people's thoughts and perspectives than to be mis or uninformed.

Ask for support when needed. Be vulnerable and communicate what you need to be successful. Hiding problems is never a good long-term solution. When issues are not surfaced, they tend to fester and become more challenging to solve. Identify and communicate issues early, and seek assistance finding solutions.

Seek solutions, not blame. Multiple people are typically involved whenever things do not go as planned at work. Quickly identify why things did not go as planned and identify ways that performance can be improved in the future. There is more to be gained from solving a problem than avoiding being blamed. The heroes of stories are not the ones that make excuses but the ones with the courage to name and take action against a problem.

Putting tips into action

Communication is vital for any successful working relationship. Following these tips can improve communication and trust within your organization.

Now it's time to put them into practice. Start by choosing one tip you that will help you to reduce your anxiety. Then, plan how you will implement it in the next week. For example, you can

• Start holding one-on-one meetings

• Communicate an obstacle that you need help with

• Request training on a new technology that has been challenging for you to use

Whatever action you choose to take, make sure you follow through with it and observe the results. You will be surprised by how much better you feel once you improve communication with the people you work with.

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Thank you for reading this blog

Dorian Cunion is an Executive Coach and Business Consultant with Your Path Coaching and Consulting. He is a former retail executive with over 20 years of experience in the retail industry.

He is a Co-Active coach who focuses on helping professionals, and small business owners overcome insecurities, knowledge gaps, and uncertainty. He does this by helping clients to tap into their values, recognize their strengths, and develop actionable strategies for growth.

Have you been trying to improve your career or business on your own but are not seeing success as fast as you desire?

Book a free discovery call to discuss your goals and how I can help you accelerate.

Talk with Dorian

Have Feedback? Send me a note at Email: dcunion@yourpathexecutivesolutions.com

For daily tips on leadership and professional development, follow me:

LinkedIn

Facebook