Transcript #140. The one thing every successful executive has in common. (Rebroadcast)

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How many times do I remember feeling like my career was not going anywhere, but then I remembered I wasn't actually paying any attention to it. Anyway. Welcome back, everybody. I hope everybody is doing well. It is a Friday evening here in Melbourne as I record this podcast, I've been thinking about this so much, and I know people get back to me and think, oh, you know, I wish I could do it, but you know, the times don't suit me.

I don't have the time. It made me want to record this podcast today. And I guess you can tell what it is about. The one thing that every successful executive I know has in common. Yes, you guessed it. It's time. It's the realization that if you want to succeed in your career, you have to make that a priority in your day.

And the first investment that you have to make is investing in your time. Your time management and how you spend your time during the day is really important for the success and the speed of the outcomes of your job hunt or, in the long term, your career success. So let's, talk about what that means exactly because, you know, it's very nice for me to just come and tell you, you know, you need to invest in time.

You need to manage your time, but I want to dissect this and give you four. Let's say efficient approaches that you can apply tomorrow. If you're going to make those changes and make that investment in time, count for you. and you know, I, I have a quote here from Andy war. They always say time changes things, but you actually have.

Change them yourself. You can't just wait for time to go by so that things will change in your life. You need to take control of that time and use that time and invest that time to make the changes yourself. That's how it happens with career progression, promotion, job search.

And I know. Many of you listening may be thinking, but I am. I'm here sitting, investing in a job search. but let's see how we can maybe best use that time. You know, I'm obsessed with this. If you've been listening, if you've already accessed my workshop from a few months ago, the optimized job search was all about the best use of your time doing a job search, but it's really about the ongoing time management.

 Let's talk about time and time management and how important it is to be successful in your career to manage your time really well. What are the four things that I recommend that you do? First of all, make a date with yourself once a day, once a week, once a quarter. Whatever suits you and the stage of your career that you are right now.

So, for example, if you're. Fully employed, very happy where you are. You're not necessarily looking for a job right now. You don't need to book a time to, you know, manage your career once a day. It can be once a quarter. But I would say once a quarter is a good thing to do when you don't need a job, if you are actively job hunting, once a day is great.

You know, if you're job hunting, but also in the middle of a pandemic, you're, managing kids. Studying at home and very tired from exiting your previous job, then do it once a week. but schedule it, look after yourself. Look after your career. How many times, you know, I remember feeling like my career was not going anywhere, but then I remembered I wasn't actually paying any attention to it.

Anyway. so no wonder. I felt like it was out of control and not going where I wanted it to go. I wasn't really attending to it. I wasn't giving it any of my attention. So if you want to go in a specific direction, You would like to spend time planning and reflecting, writing things down, flow chart, and understanding what the steps are that you need to take to achieve your career goals.

If you need a push to do this, and some people do, that's how I operate, you know, at this point in time as I'm recording this podcast, very bad news, and I cannot. Fix them myself. I need help. So I have just started a very sort of comprehensive exercise routine that was designed for me by a coach.

And it's the sort of thing that you would invest in if you were, you know, a sports person, but. Frankly, I need my knees to work. I'm only. 49 and, I. Don't want, to sort of do all the guesswork of what is it that I can do or can't do to improve my muscles, my legs so that I can have better knees.

I don't wanna do all of that guesswork by myself. I want professional help. So I engage the. If your career needs that sort of care, considered either signing up for the group coaching or at least book a consultation with me, you know, so many people, book a consultation with me really to reflect on their careers and, and see where they're going next.

Get my advice and intelligence on what's happening in the job market so that they can make the best decisions for them. So even if it's that sort of smaller investment, it still is very important for you. The researcher career program that I have is an Onde on-demand workshop that really helps you identify areas of improvement.

So all of these different tools are there for you. If you need a push, go to my website and see what suits you right now. If you like group setting, then I would strongly recommend that the job hunting made simple program because you know, the results have been really, really great for the people that have done the program.

And you can see the testimonials on the website. Have templates to support your career. You don't have to know everything by heart. So that's my second advice for you, right? My second advice is you don't need to have everything falling off your tongue, especially if you're new to thinking about your career in a strategic way.

Spend some time preparing templates that you can use to support your career plans. They could be emails that you might send out regularly. They could be your professional pitch. People often tell me they don't know how to answer questions. Like what do you do? Or why are you interested in a promotion?

Why are you interested in a job? Have those things written down and cheat, cheat by looking at those notes. If you're with somebody on the phone, or if you're with somebody on a video call, read them before you walk into a meeting. So spend the time with these things that are important to you and that sometimes in hindsight, you look back and you think, oh, I could have said this in a better way.

I could. Being better prepared if you have that feeling often, it's worth investing time on the left side of that equation. So before, before the event happens, spend time preparing for them. So that's tip number two, and tip number three is to test the waters when you actually don't need a new job or a new promotion.

So that example that I used of the, client that's signing up for the group coaching is a great example. He doesn't need a job right now. He. Quite a long lead time. His contract ends in the middle of next year. So it's almost 11 months of, You know, time to plan, to test things, test the waters network with people without an agenda, without needing anything from them, without the anxiety of being without a job that networking ongoing in your career is really important.

If you can help somebody else, it's even better, you know, just catch up with people for the sake of. Getting to know what's happening to them, getting news from them, seeing if there's anything that you can do to support them. That will also allow you the opportunity to test your pitch, you know, and let them know that 11 months from now you're, you might be out of a job and looking to work somewhere else.

It's important to let people know because they will keep you top of mind if they find that there's an opportunity for you to. Speak to somebody they know, and apply for a job that they've seen advertised. If they don't know that you need help, they will not come to you with opportunities, and applying for jobs when you don't need a job is actually really good too, because, whichever way it goes, you are a winner.

And you then practice skills that you haven't used in a long time. So the anxiety of walking into a meeting will still be the same, even if you have a pretty good job, you know, you're not, you're not interested in actually moving on. But just the fact that you called a recruiter to find out information about an opportunity that you're testing the waters.

I have a client that has done just that this morning. He saw a job he was perfectly well employed. He's not actually looking to go anywhere, but he's seen a job, and he thought. This is great. He sent me the details. I'm like, yeah, this is great. You know, maybe that's something that you might want to consider.

Not that you need anything. I know you're not looking, but give the person a call. And that's exactly what he did. There was a number there for him to call. He called and figured out that that wasn't an opportunity for him, but it was great to connect with that recruiter. The recruiter actually really liked it.

He as a candidate for that job. But I, I have a feeling, it was a short-term job. It wasn't a permanent role. And he said, you know, not this time, but can we stay connected? And the recruiter was interested in being connected. So I think that this is important because those Jers that you have before you call a recruiter, that anxiety that you have before walking into an interview, if you can become more resilient over time, Doing these things when you don't need, a new opportunity, then, you will become accustomed to that stress and, perform better when that super great job comes around.

The fourth tip that I'm going to give you today to manage your time better is to be in the moment when you are at meetings. When you are talking to people, when you are at work, be mindful and slow down time. Unwind. Don't think about the other things you have to do that day. And the other things that you haven't done yet, be present and take a few minutes even to reflect on how you want the outcome of that next meeting, to be how you want to present yourself in this next zoom call, you know, spend a few minutes reflecting on that and what you really need to get out of it.

and then walk into that meeting and be present in that meeting. I'm good at doing that. I was didn't. I don't know how else to put this, but I have always done that. And I think I had done this because English is my second language, and I had to prep myself a little bit before I walked into a meeting.

Sometimes I am not thinking in English; I'm thinking in Portuguese or especially on Mondays. I felt real, off at work because I had spent the weekend speaking Portuguese, and I would go to work, and I, felt rusty, and I had to. Be mindful and be present in the moment and maybe dot down some notes.

Before, I walked into a meeting to make sure that I had my mind where it needed to be for me to perform at my job, but even in Brazil, when I had my business, I was such a newcomer. I was so young. And I had my own business, and I was working with people that were twice my age. I needed to always be present in the moment and learn.

And I felt like I was a sponge. I was absorbing everything all the time, and I would strongly recommend that you try to do that later in life. I found Buddhism not. I'm not a Buddhist, but I, read books and, I know about mindfulness and mindfulness meditation, which I trained for when I was at Monash University.

There was this opportunity to be trained to teach mindfulness meditation. So I did that training. It was so good. Even though I don't teach people how to meditate. Mindfulness training has helped me become present. And at the moment. I am doing my work as a professional. So those are my tips on managing your time better.

And I hope that these four tips can make a big difference in your career. Let me know what you think of what I've proposed today. And let me know if you have enjoyed this podcast. It's pretty strange that two and a half, three decades ago, time management was a big thing. It was such a trend back in the nineties.

If you're my age, you may remember a time when time management was everything. Now, nobody talks about it anymore. And it's so important. Those sort of. Skills that we learn with time management, like planning, making decisions, prioritizing, setting boundaries, you know, learning how to delegate and outsource learning, not to be perfect.

Perfection is, uh, procrastination. And if you want to listen to another podcast about that, that's an issue for you. It can undoubtedly affect the way you manage time. If you are aiming for perfection and feel like you're a bit of a perfectionist, I have interviewed an expert on this, Lynn Kaza.

She has a book about it, and I will link the episode where I interview Lynn below. So you can watch that one next. If this is something that is important to you, but builds the system. That works for you; use those four tips to design a time management system that works to support your career and be diligent in following that system.

And if you follow off the wagon one day, one week, or a few months, you return to it. Don't feel like you failed in any way. It's absolutely fine to get off track. You just get back on the wagon again and carry on. All right. Because that's the thing about time, once it's gone, it's gone. You're not gonna get it back, but you can always make the most out of the time ahead of you.

So don't forget that. All right.  If you have any questions, of course, reach out to me. You know, I'm everywhere in social media. I'm assuming that by now, you are,

subscribed to my newsletter. So if you haven't subscribed yet, why not make sure you do that will be a link below for you to do that as well. And if you subscribe, of course, all you need to do is just reply back. , make sure you make the best decision for your career.

Bye for now.