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SPEAK FOR YOURSELF!

10.

When you talk, do your boss’s lips move?

“Steve is always saying that we should strive to be the

best, not the biggest.”

“Our goal is to be the best, not the biggest.”

Old story:

Two stonemasons are working on the same project. An observer asks, “What are you doing?”

The first stonemason replies, “I’m cutting stone.”

“I’m building a great cathedral.”

The second stonemason replies,

Using your own voice demonstrates your ability to speak for the company, and that you understand your organization’s goals and objectives.

9. Be the smartest person in the room.

learn stuff

KNOWLEDGE

Identify vital skills that

your coworkers lack, and

then become the expert in those areas.

Be your own best teacher

self-made

Brazenly outshine your peers.

Are you trying to make us look bad?

“ ”

A FORMER COWORKER

Come in earlier, stay later, learn more, do more…in other words, than everyone else does.

7) Be willing to push the stop button.

REASONS PEOPLE REMAIN

SILENT

! They don’t believe it’s their place to voice a concern

! They’re afraid of questioning – and possibly offending – their more experienced co-workers

! They’re worried about impeding approaching deadlines

! They think someone else will step forward

In reality, employees share not only the right to reject

inferior quality, but also to do so.

It’s not what you know, but who...

It’s not what you know, but who

“VOLUNTEER FOR THE

CRAPPY JOBS. ” Tom Peters

“Is it a or is it a – a chance to do

Something Great?”

Tom Peters Re-imagine!

Ask why.

We have a learned intolerance toward questions. Grownups teach us early in

life that

PERCENT of employees say that critical thinking and problem solving

skills are more important in their fields today than they

were two years ago.

Why are manhole covers round?

unspokenassumptions “can only be identified by someone who has not become hijacked by the corporate conventional wisdom and whose career success does not depend on being able to apply it unerringly to all business solutions.”

–Mike Brooks, “The Unspoken Assumption Problem” Accountancy, September 2005

“If we have a cardinal strategy that forms the bedrock for all our practices, it may be this: Ask why. Ask it all the time, ask it any day, every day, and always ask it three times in a row.”

Ricardo Semler The Seven Day Weekend

Ask

group·think Noun. The propensity for people to seek unanimous agreement, even

when overwhelming evidence points to a different conclusion.

GROUPTHINK occurs when the pressure to

conform within a group interferes with the group’s

decision making ability.

CONFORM

A B C Exhibit 1 Exhibit 2

Solomon Asch

Subjects went along with the clearly erroneous majority 33 percent of the time

74 percent conformed to the majority at least once

28 percent conformed more than half the time

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those

who cannot read and write, but those

who cannot learn, unlearn, and

relearn.”

Alvin Toffler

By continuously asking questions, you position yourself to provide the answers, too.

3. Share your knowledge.

Wally who?

“A basic function of leadership is to produce more leaders,

not more followers.”

Ralph Nader

TWO.

SET YOUR STANDARDS HIGH,

AND MEASURE YOURSELF TO YOUR OWN STANDARDS.

Winston Lord

“In that case, now I’ll read it.”

Henry Kissinger

Each person is the best judge of his or her ability, and the only one qualified to answer the question, “Did you do your best?”

Others will eagerly offer their opinions on your efforts and your results.

If you did, and others criticize unfavorably, rest comfortably knowing that you did your very best.

1. Get involved (on a nonprofit board)

Wharton University’s Nonprofit Board Fellows Program matches second-year MBA students with area nonprofit organizations.

Serving on a nonprofit board exposes you to other leaders,

group dynamics, and a high-level view of a business organization.  

Alice Korngold Fast Company

THROUGH SERVICE, YOU HAVE TREMENDOUS OPPORTUNITIES TO DEVELOP AS A LEADER, BECOME A MORE VALUABLE PROFESSIONAL WHERE YOU WORK, AND MAKE A MEANINGFUL CONTRIBUTION IN IMPROVING YOUR COMMUNITY AND THE WORLD.”

LIVE WITH INTEGRITY. THE WORLD IS WATCHING.

ethical misstep

In this age of instant information, any

is just a click away from the world’s desktop.

The barrage of news stories reporting the transgressions of powerful people is creating an overwhelming generalization among the American population:

“A little man may do a great deal of harm; and pray, why not a little man do a great deal of good?”

Cotton Mather, 1825 Essays to Do Good

By choosing to live with integrity, you’ll help to fight

back the onslaught of unethical behavior.

You might not get the publicity afforded business scoundrels and dirty politicians.

But you’ll succeed in proving that there are still

HONORABLE PEOPLE in the world today.

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