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Episode 84: Maintaining Your Career: From Dress Codes to Performance Reviews · Voices for Voices®

0:00
Justin Alan Hayes: Chapter 6.
0:02
Justin Alan Hayes: House Maintenance.
0:04
Justin Alan Hayes: Congratulations.
0:07
Justin Alan Hayes: You have interviewed for and accepted the job of your dreams.
0:11
Justin Alan Hayes: Way to go.
0:13
Justin Alan Hayes: While you are excited, for good reason, you are not quite finished.
0:17
Justin Alan Hayes: Although you now have fully constructed the house of you, it may come tumbling down if proper maintenance is not performed.
0:27
Justin Alan Hayes: So let us now begin with a question.
0:29
Justin Alan Hayes: What would happen to a house, no matter how beautifully constructed with the best materials, or how visually appealing it is, with a color scheme that pops, if the floors are not swept, food is not cleared from the kitchen after each meal, air filters are not changed, or even if the doors are not locked or security system is not engaged when you and your family is not home?
0:57
Justin Alan Hayes: A house that is not secure or properly maintained will turn from an asset, which is a positive, to a liability, which is a negative, or, in other terms, from a blessing to a curse.
1:11
Justin Alan Hayes: We do not want your house to be a liability or a curse.
1:16
Justin Alan Hayes: We want it to be a great asset and a wonderful blessing.
1:21
Justin Alan Hayes: To be able to achieve the latter, you and your family will need to work equally hard, if not harder, maintaining your house as when you were building it.
1:32
Justin Alan Hayes: These analogies are meant to paint you a picture to show that, even though you have secured a job, which is one of the goals of this book, you still have to continue to sustain your worth or add value to the organization you have just joined.
1:47
Justin Alan Hayes: Let us consider for a minute that you are the hiring manager.
1:52
Justin Alan Hayes: You are in high spirits because, as the hiring manager, not only did you choose the job candidate that was perfect for the open position, but the job candidate also felt they were a fit for the open position.
2:07
Justin Alan Hayes: Fast forward to the day the new hire is scheduled to start at your company.
2:11
Justin Alan Hayes: On that first day, the newly minted employee shows up to work at 9am, when it was clearly communicated that 8am was the work start time.
2:22
Justin Alan Hayes: When the new hire finally shows up, they are wearing an untucked Hawaiian shirt, shorts and a pair of flip-flops, when it was clearly communicated throughout the interview process that the expected attire was business casual.
2:38
Justin Alan Hayes: As the hiring manager, what is running through your head about the new employee?
2:44
Justin Alan Hayes: Probably some of the same things that are running through my head and have so in the past, such as curiosity as to why the new hire showed up to work an hour late without contacting you or the HR rep.
3:00
Justin Alan Hayes: Another thought may be.
3:02
Justin Alan Hayes: Why would your new direct report show up to work in clothing fit for a beach vacation rather than a pair of dress, pants, collared shirt and dress shoes, which is the expectation for all employees at your organization?
3:17
Justin Alan Hayes: All of the hard work this new employee had successfully completed up until now may have all been for naught.
3:26
Justin Alan Hayes: I wanted to share this hypothetical new employee with you as an extreme of what not to do.
3:32
Justin Alan Hayes: I am aware that new organizations, which some of you may end up employed by, are forming each and every day and that each has their own philosophy on work attire and start time.
3:45
Justin Alan Hayes: Maybe the company you land a job at views work attire completely differently from the company in our scenario.
3:53
Justin Alan Hayes: In that case, please make sure that, before starting your new job, that you have a clear understanding of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable work attire in starting time.
4:06
Justin Alan Hayes: If the HR rep and or hiring manager has not covered or answered one or more of your questions, make it a point to ask and receive an answer to alleviate any stress you may have about doing something that could be viewed negatively by your new colleagues and company as a new hire.
4:28
Justin Alan Hayes: Some companies are even taking steps to combat some of the uncertainty by including frequently asked questions FAQs in their offer packet.
4:38
Justin Alan Hayes: Other organizations may share this pertinent information during orientation which, depending on the company, can occur anywhere from an hour to a couple of weeks after the start date.
4:53
Justin Alan Hayes: We're all new hires.
4:54
Justin Alan Hayes: In a given period of time for example, weekly or monthly Spend time together in a conference room learning about the organization, the different departments, key contacts across the organization, benefit enrollment, such as health insurance, 401k enrollment, etc.
5:17
Justin Alan Hayes: And other important topics hand-selected to give you a smooth start at their new company.
5:24
Justin Alan Hayes: Next, we will review a series of key attributes that would be in your interest to understand and prepare for to ensure that you are properly maintaining your house job.
5:37
Justin Alan Hayes: All of the following attributes I have experienced throughout my career.
5:42
Justin Alan Hayes: One thing I found out early in my career was that, whether I liked it or not, I would be asked on a daily basis to introduce myself on a teleconference, videoconference or in person.
5:55
Justin Alan Hayes: Growing up, I was an introvert, which the Oxford Dictionary defines as a person predominantly concerned with their own thoughts and feelings rather than with external things.
6:09
Justin Alan Hayes: So how does this apply to what we are discussing?
6:13
Justin Alan Hayes: Although I tended to be more concerned about my own thoughts and feelings.
6:18
Justin Alan Hayes: The workforce was pushing me to grow more towards being an extrovert, which, according to Oxford, is an outgoing socially confident person.
6:28
Justin Alan Hayes: Whether or not you're comfortable talking about your educational or professional experience to others, you will, in most instances, have to face and conquer that hurdle on a recurring basis.
6:41
Justin Alan Hayes: Beginning during my college years, although I found myself relating more as an introvert, I took opportunities to lead class projects which forced me to get comfortable standing in front of speaking to and conveying a message to an audience of business owners, professors and classmates.
7:02
Justin Alan Hayes: I am a competitive individual that is always looking for an area to grow in.
7:08
Justin Alan Hayes: For me, this was a way to force myself out of my comfort zone and into a place of personal growth, which is uncomfortable at first.
7:18
Justin Alan Hayes: So when it comes to you and your comfort level of introducing yourself to your colleagues, vendors, prospective vendors or to a job candidate, the first thing you should ask yourself is do you relate more as an introvert or an extrovert?
7:36
Justin Alan Hayes: If you are naturally an extrovert, I would spend some time crafting and practicing an elevator message in front of a mirror or with a friend or family member.
7:46
Justin Alan Hayes: An elevator message, also called an elevator pitch, is, in my opinion, a 15 to 30 second introduction of yourself to a high level employee of a company, such as a CEO, chief Executive Officer.
8:03
Justin Alan Hayes: Why the short period of time?
8:05
Justin Alan Hayes: You may have ridden an elevator at one time or another in your life, such as at a hotel, a business or an apartment complex.
8:15
Justin Alan Hayes: Some of you may have not been on an elevator, but if you were to ride one, there is a very short period of time from when you step onto an elevator until you reach your intended floor and exit.
8:29
Justin Alan Hayes: If you step on an elevator that the CEO of your organization is on in the short period of time before you or one of you reaches your intended floor, you would want to introduce yourself briefly, detailing what you do at their organization.
8:47
Justin Alan Hayes: If you are an introvert, I recommend following the same steps as someone that is traditionally an extrovert, but rehearse with a friend or family member until you feel 100% confident you can perform.
9:02
Justin Alan Hayes: If, given the opportunity, you may be wondering how likely it is that you will find yourself in an elevator with a key figure in your company.
9:11
Justin Alan Hayes: The probability of this occurring is higher if you work for a smaller company and lower if you find yourself working for a larger organization.
9:21
Justin Alan Hayes: So why do I bring this up if there is only a moderate likelihood of finding yourself on an elevator with a key figure from your company?
9:30
Justin Alan Hayes: One reason is that you want to be prepared in case that opportunity arises, because first impressions mean a lot, and what bigger impression can be made other than having an opportunity to introduce yourself to a key figure in your company?
9:47
Justin Alan Hayes: The second reason is you will find yourself in the position of introducing yourself to others, albeit maybe not always a key figure, in your organization, on a daily basis.
10:00
Justin Alan Hayes: What the elevator pitch exercise does is prepare you for the most common situations, as well as those less likely to arise.
10:09
Justin Alan Hayes: Think about this for a minute.
10:11
Justin Alan Hayes: Let's say that you are an introvert that develops your elevator pitch.
10:16
Justin Alan Hayes: You have rehearsed until you are 100% confident you can deliver it.
10:22
Justin Alan Hayes: One day you step on the elevator, as you do each morning, and the CEO of your organization is already alone on the elevator car.
10:30
Justin Alan Hayes: He smiles, makes eye contact with you and says good morning, I am Tom, the CEO of your company.
10:39
Justin Alan Hayes: So what do you do for us?
10:41
Justin Alan Hayes: You respond with your carefully crafted elevator pitch.
10:45
Justin Alan Hayes: Tom smiles, shakes your hand and thanks you for your service, telling you to keep up the good work for the company.
10:53
Justin Alan Hayes: How would that make you feel?
10:55
Justin Alan Hayes: It should make you feel awesome.
10:57
Justin Alan Hayes: It makes no difference whether you are an introvert or an extrovert.
11:02
Justin Alan Hayes: What matters most is that you put forth the required effort.
11:06
Justin Alan Hayes: If you are an extrovert and want to practice in front of an audience, or an introvert that wants to practice and refine using a different method, there are many organizations out there that give you the opportunity to practice your speaking skills.
11:22
Justin Alan Hayes: The one organization that I am familiar with that fits into this boat is called Toastmasters.
11:29
Justin Alan Hayes: Toastmasters International is a world leader in communication and leadership development.
11:35
Justin Alan Hayes: Our organization has more than 345,000 memberships.
11:41
Justin Alan Hayes: Members improve their speaking and leadership skills by attending one of the 15,900 clubs in 142 countries that make up our global network of meeting locations.
11:56
Justin Alan Hayes: When building your elevator pitch, you should focus on three specific areas One, what department do you work in, for example, marketing finance.
12:08
Justin Alan Hayes: Two, what do you do in your department at a high level?
12:12
Justin Alan Hayes: And three, share the excitement and gratitude you have for the work that you do and what your interests are.
12:21
Justin Alan Hayes: This may sound like hi.
12:24
Justin Alan Hayes: My name is Justin Hayes.
12:26
Justin Alan Hayes: I work in the accounting and finance area.
12:29
Justin Alan Hayes: Currently, I execute the profit and loss statements for product line X.
12:35
Justin Alan Hayes: I would love to someday manage the team that executes the profit and loss statements for all of our product lines.
12:44
Justin Alan Hayes: You should craft your individual elevator pitch in the manner you are comfortable speaking, because you do not want to sound robotic while delivering your message.
12:53
Justin Alan Hayes: An easy rule of thumb that I have found to be helpful is that if you are unsure how to pronounce a word and or its definition, do not use it, because what would be more embarrassing than to be asked to explain right there on the spot?
13:09
Justin Alan Hayes: Also, you can elaborate further at your discretion, especially when you are introducing yourself in a teleconference or video conference or in person, as it is common for individuals to have at least a minute or two to introduce themselves.
13:26
Justin Alan Hayes: The key here is to be comfortable and confident in yourself and your abilities, because you are a smart, sharp individual who is allowed to offer a company, which is why a hiring manager should make the decision to hire you and not another job candidate.
13:44
Justin Alan Hayes: Since these areas partially relate to a meeting setting, we will continue by reviewing meetings and proper meeting etiquette.
13:53
Justin Alan Hayes: A meeting setting can seem overwhelming for a new hire and even a veteran due to a variety of reasons, for one.
14:01
Justin Alan Hayes: You may be more of an introvert, and the thought of exhibiting extrovert qualities in a meeting room full of coworkers send shivers down your back, especially those coworkers we have not met before.
14:14
Justin Alan Hayes: Two other reasons may be that the layout of the conference rooms does not follow a logical order, for example, alphabetical or numerical order, or that the meeting leader, the individual who has set up or called the meeting, did not circulate a meeting agenda prior to the meeting.
14:35
Justin Alan Hayes: Let us now take a deeper dive into each of these scenarios.
14:39
Justin Alan Hayes: Try your best not to let being more of an introvert by nature interfere with a meeting.
14:45
Justin Alan Hayes: Sounds easy enough, but how exactly do you work through introvert qualities in a meeting?
14:52
Justin Alan Hayes: With any given meeting, you'll either be a meeting leader or a participant that has been invited due to your expertise on one or more topics the meeting leader wishes to discuss.
15:05
Justin Alan Hayes: If either case arises, you will be prepared, and while you may be nervous about meeting participants you do not know, you should not be nervous about your areas of expertise because you already practiced and executed similar discussions in your interview.
15:23
Justin Alan Hayes: While you may be a nervous wreck thinking about some meeting variables, you will not be nervous about your confidence because your education and or previous work experience is fueling your participation in the discussion.
15:38
Justin Alan Hayes: You will not be asked to respond to or provide somebody else's viewpoint.
15:43
Justin Alan Hayes: If you're the meeting leader, you should be the one who defines the subject, the date and time, duration, location, participants and the agenda of the meeting.
15:55
Justin Alan Hayes: When should you undertake the task to set up a meeting?
16:00
Justin Alan Hayes: There may be instances where your manager asks you to set up a meeting on a specific topic.
16:06
Justin Alan Hayes: If that happens, you should ask your manager what the meeting topic is and who should be invited.
16:12
Justin Alan Hayes: That is the easiest route for a meeting leader, because someone else provides you all the information required to set up a meeting.
16:20
Justin Alan Hayes: Another question you may also want answered is the timeframe your manager wants the meeting completed by.
16:27
Justin Alan Hayes: It is important to nail down the timing of the meeting, because the deadline for the topic to be ironed out in the meeting may come and go before you are able to set up the meeting with the required participants, although this is beyond your control.
16:44
Justin Alan Hayes: Asking your manager ahead of time shows that you are being proactive instead of reactive, which is a preferred trait in the workforce, regardless of field or industry.
16:57
Justin Alan Hayes: The second route for you to be a meeting leader may come from encountering a daily task or project roadblock for which it is essential for you to uncover specific feedback from at least one other department to continue.
17:11
Justin Alan Hayes: In some cases, an email response may be sufficient to continue a daily task or project.
17:18
Justin Alan Hayes: But while an email might give you a specific answer or assumption, it usually does not explain how and why the specific answer or feedback came to be.
17:29
Justin Alan Hayes: This is important because there will be a point in time, possibly during a project checkpoint meeting with your superiors, where you will be asked why you chose a specific path.
17:41
Justin Alan Hayes: From my experience, you do not want to find yourself in a meeting with your superiors or colleagues being asked why you are proceeding in a given direction and do not have the why, because your credibility will be in question as to whether you can complete further tasks in or projects in a full and comprehensive way.
18:04
Justin Alan Hayes: There may be times where a question is far reaching and it may be tough to recognize or speculate on an appropriate answer, but you will want to try to limit those experiences as much as possible by staying on your areas of expertise, for instance, if you are in the marketing department and come to a point in your project where you need to project costs on a product for the next three years and you do not have that specific information to move forward, then here a business need has arisen for a meeting.
18:40
Justin Alan Hayes: In this example, you may want to list a member of the finance team as required in the meeting notice, and do not know other stakeholders in the project as optional, so they are kept in the loop as to the progress of the task or project.
18:56
Justin Alan Hayes: This notice provides each stakeholder in the project a status on an area that needs addressing.
19:03
Justin Alan Hayes: Also, there may be a stakeholder that already has some of the information you are looking for if they completed a similar project in the past, which may lower the likelihood you would need to hold a meeting in the first place.
19:19
Justin Alan Hayes: But the only way you will find this out is by including them on the meeting notice.
19:25
Justin Alan Hayes: If the need remains, move forward with scheduling a meeting on the specific topics needed for you to continue your project.
19:33
Justin Alan Hayes: Then it is up to you, as a meeting leader, to create a new meeting notice including important information such as the meeting subject, day time, duration, location, participants and meeting agenda.
19:50
Justin Alan Hayes: The subject of the meeting, for example, could be something to the effect of Project X Finance Touch Base.
19:58
Justin Alan Hayes: The meeting is not a checkpoint.
20:01
Justin Alan Hayes: It is rather a touch base to discuss and solve a question or series of questions in order for you to continue your task.
20:10
Justin Alan Hayes: The body of the meeting notice is where you want to be sure to include an agenda including each of the meeting participants and their expertise, or you can choose to include the meeting agenda in a separate attached document, such as Microsoft Word or PDF.
20:29
Justin Alan Hayes: The timing of a meeting should be chosen based on when you need the feedback to continue, the availability of your participants and the availability of conference rooms in your location.
20:41
Justin Alan Hayes: There is an emphasis on increasing productivity and decreasing the amount of time in meetings, so try your best to limit the duration of the meeting.
20:52
Justin Alan Hayes: When you first enter the workforce, I recommend asking your manager or a colleague of yours how long a meeting on your chosen topic should last.
21:02
Justin Alan Hayes: Sometimes, a meeting may be as short as 15 minutes or as long as a whole day.
21:08
Justin Alan Hayes: It is up to you to use your best judgment, along with the feedback from your manager and or colleagues, to define the duration of the meeting you are in charge of setting up.
21:20
Justin Alan Hayes: The location of a meeting is dictated by how many individuals will be invited to attend.
21:26
Justin Alan Hayes: If two people in addition to the meeting leader in this case you will be participating, then you will only need a conference room with three seats, not a larger conference room that holds 20.
21:40
Justin Alan Hayes: Your manager, colleagues and or HR rep will be able to help you learn how many conference rooms are in your building, their locations and what the range of attendees is for each.
21:53
Justin Alan Hayes: For example, at some organizations you are able to view the number of attendees that will fit in each conference room when booking, for example, conference room A one to five seats as the meeting leader.
22:10
Justin Alan Hayes: The final key topic to tackle is the meeting agenda.
22:15
Justin Alan Hayes: The meeting agenda should be either included in the body of the meeting notice or attached to the meeting notice in Microsoft Word or PDF form.
22:25
Justin Alan Hayes: Meeting agenda elements to be included are subject, date, time, duration, location, participants and the topic or topics that will be discussed and completed.
22:41
Justin Alan Hayes: In today's fast-paced business world, the meeting agenda is becoming an old art form, meaning that meeting agendas are not used correctly or even at all, which leads to more meetings and lower meeting satisfaction for employees at those companies.
22:59
Justin Alan Hayes: But for the sake of meeting efficiency, which includes leaving the meeting having completed all meeting agenda items and respecting all meeting participants.
23:09
Justin Alan Hayes: Time having and following a meeting agenda is the number one way to increase meeting efficiency.
23:16
Justin Alan Hayes: Another recommendation to increase the focus of the meeting and the meeting agenda is to include the names of the departments and respective individuals that will be responsible for solving or helping to solve each agenda item next to each agenda item.
23:34
Justin Alan Hayes: For instance, if the agenda item is projecting future product cost, an appropriate notation would be projecting future product cost.
23:45
Justin Alan Hayes: Dash finance colon Justin Hayes.
23:49
Justin Alan Hayes: If you are unsure which individual or department will be able to cover the meeting topic, it is okay to write all next to that particular agenda item or a specific department, such as finance.
24:04
Justin Alan Hayes: You not only need an emphasis on creating and including the meeting agenda within the meeting notice, but as meeting leader, it is critical that you follow the meeting agenda once the meeting begins.
24:17
Justin Alan Hayes: The last thing you want to do is not to follow the meeting agenda and have the meeting time run out without completing each meeting agenda item.
24:27
Justin Alan Hayes: This would mean wasted time for everyone involved because you most likely will have to schedule a follow-up meeting to finish discussing the items on the agenda.
24:38
Justin Alan Hayes: An easy way to think about this is research and execution.
24:42
Justin Alan Hayes: The research part comes when you are setting up the meeting, and the execution piece is ensuring that you do not leave the meeting without each meeting agenda item being completed or, at the very least, addressed, along with identifying those individuals responsible for following up.
25:03
Justin Alan Hayes: Not only will you feel good about the meeting because you are able to obtain the information to continue on your project, but the meeting attendees will thank you for valuing their time and staying on topic.
25:17
Justin Alan Hayes: Now there are the customary greetings of hi, how are you today, how was your weekend?
25:24
Justin Alan Hayes: But those pleasantries do not need to take out 15 minutes of a 30-minute meeting.
25:29
Justin Alan Hayes: I have witnessed this too many times to count, where only 15 minutes are left in a meeting and a meeting leader has not even started the items on the meeting agenda.
25:41
Justin Alan Hayes: I have also witnessed too many meeting leaders not including a meeting agenda in the meeting notice.
25:48
Justin Alan Hayes: Some people think that the subject is all that is important, but if you are a meeting leader, take it upon yourself to set an example for yourself, your department and your organization.
26:02
Justin Alan Hayes: The second way you can find yourself included in a meeting is as a participant.
26:08
Justin Alan Hayes: The meeting subject, day time, duration, location, participants and the agenda have already been identified and set out electronically by the meeting leader.
26:23
Justin Alan Hayes: It is imperative for the meeting leader to include an agenda in the meeting notice because, as a participant, you otherwise may not have a clue as to why you are being invited to this meeting.
26:37
Justin Alan Hayes: If you are invited to a meeting and there is no meeting agenda on the meeting notice, do not hesitate to initiate a call or email with the meeting leader to ask specifically why you need to attend.
26:51
Justin Alan Hayes: If the meeting leader still does not include an agenda with their meeting notice.
26:56
Justin Alan Hayes: With that information, make sure at the very least you know why your meeting attendance is being requested, so you can document exactly why you are attending and what expertise you are being expected to provide at the meeting.
27:12
Justin Alan Hayes: You want to show the meeting leader and other meeting participants that you are well prepared.
27:18
Justin Alan Hayes: I have witnessed meetings where all meeting participants prepared and others where one or several meeting participants were not prepared.
27:28
Justin Alan Hayes: Whether you think so or not, people do notice Up until the meeting.
27:34
Justin Alan Hayes: It is your responsibility to know exactly what the expectations of your meeting attendance are, because once the meeting starts, all participants are under the impression that everyone is fully prepared.
27:47
Justin Alan Hayes: I have been on both sides of the coin at different points in my career.
27:53
Justin Alan Hayes: Take my word and do your best to make sure you are prepared for all meetings you're requested to attend, because if you thought being nervous and embarrassed during a job interview was tough to handle, imagine being in a meeting with your manager and colleagues and ask to answer a question, well within your area of expertise, and not providing an adequate response due to a lack of preparation.
28:20
Justin Alan Hayes: Preparing for meetings is well within your control, so always be ready for meetings you are asked to attend.
28:28
Justin Alan Hayes: Regardless of whether you are the meeting leader or a participant, the actions you take in a meeting are the same.
28:35
Justin Alan Hayes: In a meeting where you are not familiar with the participants, I suggest that, if seated, stand up and introduce yourself and shake the other participants' hands.
28:46
Justin Alan Hayes: You do not need to do this in successive meetings with the same individuals, but I do suggest this approach in the first meeting with individuals you have not yet met.
28:58
Justin Alan Hayes: This is not mandatory to follow, but is regarded to be respectful and professional.
29:04
Justin Alan Hayes: Also, some of you will be in positions that conduct business with outside vendors.
29:10
Justin Alan Hayes: An outside vendor is an outside company that does or wishes to do business with your company.
29:17
Justin Alan Hayes: In a meeting that includes outside vendors which you presumably have not met previously.
29:23
Justin Alan Hayes: You should not only stand up, introduce yourself and shake their hands, but also exchange business cards in a similar way to an in-person interview.
29:34
Justin Alan Hayes: Business cards should be exchanged so that all individuals have the current contact information for each meeting participant, which makes it easier for after-meeting follow-up.
29:46
Justin Alan Hayes: The company name, employee name, title, physical mailing address, email address and fax number are some of the most common information included on a business card.
30:00
Justin Alan Hayes: You have learned how important it is to exchange business cards in an in-person interview and meeting setting, but how do you actually go about ordering your own business cards?
30:12
Justin Alan Hayes: Ordering your business cards is something that may be covered during your new hire orientation or a topic that you can ask your manager about.
30:22
Justin Alan Hayes: Depending on the company you work for, you may be able to expect to receive your business cards in a couple of weeks to a month or more.
30:31
Justin Alan Hayes: The timing is based on the frequency and quantity your company orders business cards in.
30:37
Justin Alan Hayes: If you are invited to a meeting before your business cards have arrived, do not panic.
30:43
Justin Alan Hayes: Merely communicate to meeting attendees that you are new to the company and have not yet received your business cards.
30:50
Justin Alan Hayes: Business cards do not necessarily need to be exchanged with individuals within the same organization, but it is a nice gesture, especially when you first meet in person.
31:02
Justin Alan Hayes: When my first business cards were delivered once I was out of college, I remember thinking to myself that I wanted to give all my friends and family one to show that all the time and energy I exhausted in college was starting to pay off.
31:17
Justin Alan Hayes: You may have a similar feeling when you are handed your first business card.
31:23
Justin Alan Hayes: Some technology-driven organizations are moving away from business cards and are using social media, such as LinkedIn and its place.
31:32
Justin Alan Hayes: If you encounter this in the workplace, I would be sure to ask which social media platforms that individuals and their respective companies use and connect with them on those platforms.
31:46
Justin Alan Hayes: Whether you work at a small or large organization, the logic to the conference room layout can be confusing unless you designed it yourself.
31:55
Justin Alan Hayes: If you look at a floor layout from left to right like a rectangle, with the long side of the rectangle at the base, the mind of an individual tends to logically believe that the conference room floor layout progression should be 1, 2, 3, 4, a, b, c, d or a combination such as 1A, 1b, 1c and 1D.
32:30
Justin Alan Hayes: Sometimes the layout of conference rooms follows this progression and sometimes it does not follow any rational progression at all.
32:39
Justin Alan Hayes: Why is this important?
32:41
Justin Alan Hayes: What if, on your first day, you have a meeting scheduled in 1A at 9AM?
32:47
Justin Alan Hayes: The building your employer is located in only has one floor, so you do not need to take multiple floors into account.
32:56
Justin Alan Hayes: At 8.55AM you begin to walk to your meeting at the end of the building that would, in theory, house the conference rooms with the number 1 and letter A.
33:09
Justin Alan Hayes: You arrive to the area in the building you logically concluded that the conference room should be at 8.59AM, only to find that the conference room nearest to you is actually 1C.
33:22
Justin Alan Hayes: So now you start frantically searching around the first floor for conference room 1A and you finally end up locating conference room 1A in the middle of the first floor, not at either end, let alone the logical end, of the building.
33:39
Justin Alan Hayes: By now it is 9.03AM and you enter the meeting late on your first day, with all the other meeting participants noticing your late arrival.
33:50
Justin Alan Hayes: I give this extreme example because it could happen to anyone and it is my job to prepare you for such a situation so that you do your due diligence to prepare and understand where each of the conference rooms are located in your building, even if their layout makes little or no sense at all.
34:10
Justin Alan Hayes: How should you conduct your research and due diligence on conference room floor layouts?
34:16
Justin Alan Hayes: Search your company intranet for a layout of the building with each of the conference rooms clearly labeled.
34:24
Justin Alan Hayes: Often the conference room floor layout is in a Microsoft Word or PDF document form.
34:31
Justin Alan Hayes: Next, print this document out for the times you are requested to lead in or participate in a meeting being held in a conference room.
34:40
Justin Alan Hayes: Sometimes your office floor layout and arrangement may put you near other meeting attendees, so another action you can take is to walk together with another meeting attendee to the meeting.
34:53
Justin Alan Hayes: This way, you will be covered by paper and by brain power.
35:00
Justin Alan Hayes: Dinner etiquette can seem overwhelming if you have never had an experience to fall back on for reference.
35:06
Justin Alan Hayes: The context of dinner etiquette that I am referring to occurs after you have been hired at a company, not interview dinner etiquette, although many of the recommendations are easily adaptable between the two scenarios.
35:21
Justin Alan Hayes: An invitation to attend a business dinner can come from any number of sources.
35:27
Justin Alan Hayes: Some of the more common sources are your manager, one of your colleagues, administrative assistant, administrative assistant at a vendor or supplier company, counterpart at a vendor or supplier company, or a representative from a conference or summit you may be attending.
35:48
Justin Alan Hayes: The information that is generally included in a dinner invitation is the invitees, the restaurant name, an address, reservation time and associated time zone.
36:01
Justin Alan Hayes: The time zone is important because if you are located in the Eastern time zone, your vendor or supplier organization is located in the central time zone and the dinner invitation is at a conference or summit you both are attending is in the Pacific time zone.
36:22
Justin Alan Hayes: A lot of confusion could ensue.
36:24
Justin Alan Hayes: I have had experiences where this exact scenario has played out, making this point vitally important for you to consider, especially if you have been charged with setting up the meeting.
36:36
Justin Alan Hayes: Let's assume you are not the individual scheduling and sending out the dinner invitations, but rather are on the receiving end of a business dinner invitation.
36:48
Justin Alan Hayes: After you receive the dinner invitation, it is important to identify what the required dress will be for the dinner.
36:54
Justin Alan Hayes: The dress attire for a business dinner will be dictated by the restaurant selection.
37:00
Justin Alan Hayes: For example, a fine dining restaurant will require business professional to formal and so forth.
37:08
Justin Alan Hayes: This is not always the case, however, so it is vital for you to reach out to the dinner organizer and or your colleagues attending the dinner to gain a clear understanding of what the expected dress will be.
37:22
Justin Alan Hayes: Showing up to the dinner in appropriate attire is a great first step, whether you are a new hire or a seasoned veteran.
37:31
Justin Alan Hayes: Always remember that.
37:33
Justin Alan Hayes: Just as it is important to wear proper attire to a job interview, the same goes for a business dinner.
37:40
Justin Alan Hayes: A business dinner should not be treated like you and your friends are going to the bar.
37:45
Justin Alan Hayes: Rather, a business dinner is directly tied to your livelihood.
37:50
Justin Alan Hayes: Making the mistake of treating the business dinner any differently could turn it from a blessing to a curse in an instant.
37:59
Justin Alan Hayes: The next area to focus on with the business dinner is what to order from the menu.
38:04
Justin Alan Hayes: It has been my experience that the dinner organizer company representative will be the first to order, and so it is important to gain a sense of what the organizer is ordering.
38:18
Justin Alan Hayes: For example, if the dinner organizer orders the most inexpensive entree on the menu, it would not be wise for you to go ahead and order the most expensive entree on the menu.
38:31
Justin Alan Hayes: If appetizers are ordered, the dinner organizer will be the one to order them.
38:37
Justin Alan Hayes: Remember this is a business dinner, not a personal dinner.
38:41
Justin Alan Hayes: My experience in this capacity has also been that the dinner organizer will gain a consensus from the dinner attendees before ordering any such appetizers.
38:54
Justin Alan Hayes: I have been invited to a number of business dinners over my professional career and there have been instances where appetizers were ordered for the table and others where appetizers were not ordered for the table.
39:07
Justin Alan Hayes: So it is not a foregone conclusion that appetizers will be ordered for the table.
39:14
Justin Alan Hayes: If you always order appetizers, when you are out to eat and encounter a business dinner where appetizers are not ordered, do not comment to anyone at the dinner that someone is being cheap by not ordering them.
39:28
Justin Alan Hayes: Employees who make comments along those lines are often not invited to additional dinners while with the company.
39:36
Justin Alan Hayes: To be crystal clear here, the one rule I always follow in a business dinner setting is that I never order an entree more expensive than the dinner organizer and or the highest ranking individual manager, director, vice president, etc.
39:55
Justin Alan Hayes: At my company, both when the dinner organizer is and is not from my company.
40:01
Justin Alan Hayes: Why?
40:02
Justin Alan Hayes: Because, while you may not conduct future business with the other company at the dinner, you will be seen in working with those individuals from your company.
40:13
Justin Alan Hayes: It is not worth ordering the most expensive entree on the menu just because you will not have to pay for it out of your own personal monies or because your friends always do when they attend a business dinner.
40:28
Justin Alan Hayes: I had an experience where, as a manager, one of my direct reports decided that because the employee was at a business dinner, it would not be held financially responsible for the cost of the dinner.
40:41
Justin Alan Hayes: The employee could go ahead and order anything off of the menu.
40:45
Justin Alan Hayes: What this goes back to is quality decision-making.
40:49
Justin Alan Hayes: Is this the type of individual that you want on your company work team, one that maxes out the amount his company or partner company has to pay for dinner?
41:00
Justin Alan Hayes: Can this individual be trusted with balancing a budget or completing assignments and projects accurately and on time?
41:09
Justin Alan Hayes: Trust me that you do not want your manager or someone else in management to start questioning your integrity as an employee.
41:18
Justin Alan Hayes: It goes without saying that this employee of mine never attended another business dinner I was responsible for and caused me to question his integrity.
41:29
Justin Alan Hayes: For this reason, I follow the aforementioned advice regarding business dinners and suggest that you do too, so you do not end up jeopardizing your job and livelihood.
41:41
Justin Alan Hayes: We have already covered the importance of networking through vehicles such as LinkedIn.
41:47
Justin Alan Hayes: Networking can also take another route that can either be formal or informal.
41:52
Justin Alan Hayes: This route is referred to as mentorship Mentorship as defined by the Oxford Dictionary is the guidance provided by a mentor, especially an experienced person, in a company or educational institution.
42:08
Justin Alan Hayes: Mentorship is a great way for you to network within your company with an employee who has experience and longevity.
42:17
Justin Alan Hayes: I recommend identifying a couple of potential mentors at your organization who are at least one level higher than you and located in another department.
42:28
Justin Alan Hayes: For instance, if you are a tax analyst, you'd want to identify potential mentors outside of the accounting department who are at least a senior tax analyst or higher.
42:42
Justin Alan Hayes: It is important to follow these two criterion, since one of the main benefits of a mentorship relationship is to learn about other departments and their function within the organization, because you will have an interest to advance your career at some point, and what better way to help you identify whether or not that particular area could be a potential fit for you than to network with someone that is living and breathing that type of work on a daily basis?
43:14
Justin Alan Hayes: Selecting a mentor who is at least one level higher than you will give you the ability to learn what it takes to advance in the company from someone who has already lived it.
43:26
Justin Alan Hayes: You may learn from your mentor that your company is big on training or employees who look to further their education, such as valuing a master's degree over a bachelor's degree.
43:38
Justin Alan Hayes: While most companies will have a mission statement and values, seldom do they cover this level of detail.
43:45
Justin Alan Hayes: One of the best ways to gain this level of detail is to network within your organization and learn from those individuals through a mentorship relationship.
43:56
Justin Alan Hayes: Lastly, by taking advantage of a mentorship opportunity, you may find yourself interested in the department of your mentor when you may not have otherwise discovered your interests in that department.
44:09
Justin Alan Hayes: If, down the road, you choose to apply for an opening in your mentor's department, your mentor would become that much more of an asset for you.
44:19
Justin Alan Hayes: For example, what could be better than having your mentor write a recommendation letter for you to join their department?
44:28
Justin Alan Hayes: I recommend that you find, start and maintain a mentor relationship with at least one individual from your company.
44:36
Justin Alan Hayes: This is what I refer to as an internal mentor, because the mentor is working at your company.
44:43
Justin Alan Hayes: Each company has a different philosophy at a top level, some companies have a formal mentorship program where you're required to complete assignments at different points of the mentorship, while others may have a less formalized approach.
44:59
Justin Alan Hayes: You will want to touch base with your HR rep and or your manager for more information on if they do offer a mentorship program and, if so, what the requirements are to join.
45:11
Justin Alan Hayes: I also recommend that you find, start and maintain a mentor relationship with at least one individual outside of your company what I refer to as an external mentor.
45:23
Justin Alan Hayes: Why is it important to have both an internal and external mentor?
45:29
Justin Alan Hayes: As life events, such as marriage and the birth of children, occur, they may lead to a potential shift in your interest.
45:36
Justin Alan Hayes: You may be faced with making decisions that may take you away from your current company.
45:42
Justin Alan Hayes: For example, if you get engaged and your fiancee lands a great job that doubles his or her pay and or increases responsibilities in a different city or state that you currently work in, you may now be in search of a job closer to where your fiance's new job will be geographically located.
46:03
Justin Alan Hayes: If your company has a presence in that new city or state, you could explore open opportunities to see if there is a match.
46:12
Justin Alan Hayes: If not, you will be taking your job search externally, for example, outside of your current company, and this would be a topic that you would not want to share with an internal mentor.
46:25
Justin Alan Hayes: You could, however, share this information with an external mentor who would qualify as an external mentor for you.
46:33
Justin Alan Hayes: An external mentor maybe a former coach, a teacher or other individual who does not work at your current company, who you respect and would value honest, critical feedback from.
46:47
Justin Alan Hayes: Again, this is your decision and, as such, you will be the one to evaluate whether or not your external mentor will meet your needs.
46:57
Justin Alan Hayes: It is important to show up to all of your mentorship meetings with an agenda, the same as when you are a meeting leader.
47:04
Justin Alan Hayes: As the mentee, it is 100% up to you, not the mentor, to create the agenda.
47:11
Justin Alan Hayes: If you show up to a mentorship meeting without an agenda, then the meeting becomes a general conversation about topics unrelated to your work, your organization or your career goals, which is not the goal of mentorship.
47:27
Justin Alan Hayes: Another one of the benefits of creating and following an agenda is that you will be able to check off all the agenda items once they are covered, creating a sense of accomplishment and maximizing the mentor-mentee relationship.
47:43
Justin Alan Hayes: Mentorship relationships have been valuable to me and will continue to be part of my professional growth and development, and so too, should it be for you.
47:55
Justin Alan Hayes: The topic we are going to conclude with pertains to aggregating all of your accomplishments into one easy to find and updatable document for performance review, assessments and resume building.
48:09
Justin Alan Hayes: I like to call this aggregation a brag sheet because it is truly a reflection of what you have completed and is a form of bragging.
48:18
Justin Alan Hayes: The importance of a brag sheet is two-fold performance reviews and resume building.
48:25
Justin Alan Hayes: Unless you own your own company, you will most likely be subjected to a form of performance review at your company.
48:33
Justin Alan Hayes: At a summary level, a performance review is how you perform against your goals for a given period of time, for example, 90 days, six months, annually.
48:46
Justin Alan Hayes: You should be able to see how a brag sheet can be helpful here, because, as you complete daily tasks and projects throughout the year, you can quickly jump over to your aggregated document and extract that important information, such as each daily task or project completed, the duration, the individuals or departments included and a takeaway, such as analysis was completed that revealed our pricing was much higher than our top competitors.
49:17
Justin Alan Hayes: So I worked with X individual and Y department on our pricing, including lowering our input costs so we could be more competitive.
49:28
Justin Alan Hayes: New pricing implemented on XYZ date.
49:32
Justin Alan Hayes: You may think that you'll remember each and every detail of each project you complete, but we are all human and the best method I have found to ensure I remember successful tasks when performance review time rolls around is to have an electronic file that I can quickly refer back to.
49:52
Justin Alan Hayes: This exact method has been helpful to me after finding that even I was prone to forgetting every detail over the course of a year.
50:01
Justin Alan Hayes: The brag sheet is something that is easy to do and within your control, so it is a no brainer for me and should be for you too.
50:10
Justin Alan Hayes: The second way you can maximize your brag sheet is for building and updating your resume.
50:17
Justin Alan Hayes: Whether you utilize the career services department at your college or request help from an expert in resume building and writing, they will all ask you to identify and explain your accomplishments and areas of expertise, with examples to support each, in order to build or update your resume.
50:37
Justin Alan Hayes: Instead of having to carve out one or several evenings trying to remember and document all of this information, wouldn't it be nice to turn your computer on and open up a file and print?
50:50
Justin Alan Hayes: You can save yourself a lot of time and energy if you follow my recommendation and create it and maintain your very own brag sheet To help prepare for your first or next performance review.
51:03
Justin Alan Hayes: Please practice by filling out the performance review preparation worksheet.
51:08
Justin Alan Hayes: Performance reviews preparation worksheet Directions.
51:13
Justin Alan Hayes: Answer the following statements and questions to the best of your ability.
51:18
Justin Alan Hayes: Name three to five of your top projects, assignments, high profile requests from director or above from the previous time period, such as three, six, nine, 12 months, depending on your company's performance review cycle, the different areas or departments, such as accounting, legal or marketing you worked with.
51:49
Justin Alan Hayes: The main task or ask, such as profitability, new product development, research, etc.
51:58
Justin Alan Hayes: For each.
51:59
Justin Alan Hayes: The time spent on each top project assignment, high profile request, what your contributions were for each, what the outcome was of each and how the task or ask were tied to the mission or goals of the company.
52:18
Justin Alan Hayes: What job training have you completed over the prior period?
52:21
Justin Alan Hayes: This can include both company sponsored and or job training that was administered by a third party, such as the American Marketing Association Market Research Bootcamp.
52:35
Justin Alan Hayes: The job training can be training completed on site, off site and or online.
52:41
Justin Alan Hayes: Conversely, what training do you wish to complete over the next time period that will help you do your job more proficiently and or is a stepping stone in your future career plans with the company?
52:56
Justin Alan Hayes: Companies most likely will not support or sponsor such as pay for and allow you to be away from work without using pay, time off or vacation time, training that is not directly tied to your current job or a job interest at your current company.
53:15
Justin Alan Hayes: This practice is implemented in order to deter current employees to use a company to pay for and allow time away from work only to leave the company and receive a benefit, such as higher starting base, salary, job title etc.
53:33
Justin Alan Hayes: From the training from a previous employer.
53:36
Justin Alan Hayes: What other areas or interests do you have with your current company in which you may want the opportunity to shadow and or learn more about during the upcoming time period?
53:48
Justin Alan Hayes: What three areas do you feel your strengths are that may be able to help other areas or other departments at your company?
53:58
Justin Alan Hayes: Maybe you can offer to hold a lunch and learn where you can teach another area or department about your strengths and how they benefit.
54:07
Justin Alan Hayes: The company Managers love to see employees that are engaged, proactive and willing to help others.
54:14
Justin Alan Hayes: What three areas would you like to improve on during the next time period?
54:19
Justin Alan Hayes: Everyone has things they can improve on.
54:22
Justin Alan Hayes: I know I do.
54:24
Justin Alan Hayes: This is the time to swallow your pride and continue to grow as an employee and as an individual.
54:31
Justin Alan Hayes: The best way I have learned and gained experience over the years is with and through hands-on practicing, and I have included the following five case challenges for that very reason to give you another way or method to read, review and answer the associated questions with building your house.