I'm the Boss of Me: A Guide to Owning Your Career

Description

If you’re like most people, you’ve had good bosses and bad bosses. Some bosses have inspired you. Others have caused you to scratch your head and think, “How did this person get to be in charge?” But you might not realize that you have one amazing boss, someone who’s capable of incredible accomplishment and legendary leadership, probably the best boss you’ll ever have…YOU! Yes, you. There will always be bosses, teachers, parents, and others to whom you are accountable. All those people will influence and guide you. But only you can choose your ultimate course—and I’m the Boss of Me will show you how.

Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn left childhood behind when she became fatherless at age 12. From this financially unstable starting point, which she calls contrast, Jeanne developed a philosophy of life based on love and meeting life’s challenges with resilience and a deep willingness to learn. Now with more than 20 years of executive-level experience in the technology industry and having founded the Internet of Things Talent Consortium, Jeanne shares career-building lessons, strategies, and tactics, interspersed with stories about how she and others have used contrast, courage, resilience, and persistence to propel themselves forward into stellar careers in music, sports, real estate, technology, and many other fields.

With a passion for mentoring others, Jeanne offers this guide to developing a self-empowered approach to work, career, and life. The book delivers easy-to-follow instruction on how to

• Build a Vision-Strategy-Execution plan
• Develop a personal brand statement
• Use networking to develop a bench of supporters who will help you bring your career dreams to reality

Visit Jeanne at jeannedunn.com and https://www.facebook.com/jbeliveaudunn

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Table of Contents

    Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv

Chapter 1 You Are Who You Are Because of Your Choices . . . . .1

    A Challenged Beginning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

        Building Resilience and Strength. . . . . . . . . 3

        Empower Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

    How Successful People Create Their Success. . . . . . 7

        Contrast Shows You What You Want . . . . . . . 8

        Contrast Doesn’t Need to Be Big to Work for You. . . . . . . . 9

        Push toward Change or Shrink from It,

        It’s Your Choice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

    Choose Love When Fear Calls. . . . . . . . . . . . 12

        Two Operating Models: Love and Fear . . . . . . 13

        Stay Out of the Bubble, Stay Off Autopilot . . . . 15

    A Bucket List for Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

    Build the Self-Empowered Road to Success . . . . . . 17

    Happiness First. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

    Getting Down to Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Chapter 2 You Are a Work in Progress–Challenge

    Yourself to Get Better . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

    Give Up the Idea That the Way You Are Now

        Is the Way You Will Always Be. . . . . . . . . . . . 25

        Practice Self-Control Because It Doesn’t Come Naturally. . . . . . . . 26

        Use Self-Talk Plus Self-Control to Choose Your Operating Model. . . . . 28

        Using Emotional Intelligence Helps You

        Connect with Yourself and Others . . . . . . . . 29

    Don’t Check Your Feelings at the Door . . . . . . . . 33

    Build Self-Awareness So You Can See Where You’re Going . . . . . . . . 35

    Avoid Artificial Limits So You Don’t Get Lost. . . . . . 39

    Courage and Resilience Will Support You When Things Get Tough . . . . . . . 41

    Focus and Discipline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

    Using Discipline to Make Progress . . . . . . . . . . 49

    Getting Down to Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Chapter 3 Do You Know What You Want from Your Career and Life? . . . . . . . .53

    Let Curiosity Lead You. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

    Discovering Your Work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

        If You Don’t Know, Experiment! . . . . . . . . 57

        Exposure Is the Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

        How Parents Can Help Their Kids and

        Students Can Help Themselves . . . . . . . . . 62

    Understanding the Work Environment . . . . . . . . 65

        Outside: The World of Work and

        Where It Is Headed . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

        Inside: Your Strengths and Interests . . . . . . . 74

        Finding Your Strengths. . . . . . . . . . . . 77

        There Are a Few Archetypal Jobs . . . . . . . . 83

        The Need for Both Soft Skills and Technology Skills. . . . . . . . 84

    The Future Is Uncertain, But You Don’t Need to Be. . . 86

    Creating a Blue Ocean Career Strategy. . . . . . . . 90

    What’s Next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Chapter 4 Vision Strategy Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . .95

    Vision, Strategy, Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

        Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

        Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

        Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

    Map Your Career to Make the Most of Your Desires . . 122

    How Do You Keep Momentum in a Career? . . . . . 124

        Build Next-Generation Skills . . . . . . . . . 126

        Driving Awareness and Your Personal Brand . . . 129

Chapter 5 Becoming Your Vision: Aligning Your Behavior . . . .131

    Use Contrast to Drive Learning. . . . . . . . . . . 134

    The Learner’s Mindset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

        Learner’s Mindset and Growth Mindset . . . . . 139

        Be a Learner to Stay Engaged in Your Work. . . 142

    Many Ways to Learn and Work . . . . . . . . . . . 143

    How You Hold Yourself Back . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

        Blind Spots: Overconfident and Under Sighted . . 148

        Blind Spots: Under Confident and Over Sighted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

    Blind Spots: Ego Nurturer . . . . . . . . . . 150

    Learning as a Core Skill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

    Love, Emotional Intelligence, and Mindsets. . . . . . 154

Chapter 6 Becoming Your Vision II: Articulating Your Brand and Building Your Bench. . . . . . .161

    Communicating with Others About Your

    Vision — Sharing Your VSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

        Developing a Personal Brand Statement. . . . . 162

        Value Proposition and Making the Match . . . . 164

        Gathering Information and Writing Your

        Personal Brand Statement . . . . . . . . . . 165

    Socializing with Your VSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

        Working Through the Fear and Enjoying the Process . . . . . . . . 171

        Purposeful Networking. . . . . . . . . . . . 176

        Spheres of Influence. . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

        Invest in Your Relationships. . . . . . . . . . 181

    Building Your Bench. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

        The Close-In Sphere . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

        Mentors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

        The Advisor Sphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

        The Alliance Sphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Chapter 7 Attitude, Altruism, and Altitude . . . . . . . . . .191

    Attitude and Altruism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

        Living with Intention . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

        Tame Your Mind, Feed Your Heart . . . . . . . 199

        How Choosing Love Over Fear Supports

        Altruism and Propels You to the Next Level . . . 203

    Taking Flight with Outside-In, Inside-Out Thinking . . 208

        The Inside-Out, Outside-In Career Process . . . 210

        How to Create Your Dream Job. . . . . . . . 221

Chapter 8 Myths and Murders: Getting Past Roadblocks and Barriers . . . . . . . . . .225

    It’s Not About You. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

    Obstacles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

        The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of

        Mental Habits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

        Problem Fighter or Problem Solver . . . . . . 236

    Disengaged or Just in the Wrong Job?. . . . . . . . 237

        Being Miserable in Your Job . . . . . . . . . 238

        Self-Destructive Spirals . . . . . . . . . . . 241

    Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. . . . . . . . . . . . 243

        External Limitations: Mailroom Syndrome . . . . 247

        Feeling Trapped . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

    Working with Intention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

Chapter 9 Planning and Making Choices. . . . . . . . . . .255

    Planning for Balance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

        A Case in Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

        How Planning for Balance Works on the Personal Side . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

    To Plan or Not to Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

    Blending Your Life and Experiences:

    An Older Lifestyle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

    Saying No Means Not Having to Say You’re Sorry . . . 271

    Beyond Saying No. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

        Saying Yes or No to New Roles and

        Stretch Goals: Know Yourself. . . . . . . . . 278

        Balance Requires Trust. . . . . . . . . . . . 280

    Contrast and Stress Are the Teachers,

    Balance Is the Lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Chapter 10 Self-Leadership 2.0: Success in the Face of Obstacles . . . . . . . . . .287

    Self-Leadership When Things Don’t Go Your Way . . . 289

        -Isms: Sexism, Racism, Ethnocentrism, and More. . . . . . . . . 290

        Begin with Understanding . . . . . . . . . . 291

        The Need to Bridge Differences . . . . . . . . 294

        Self-Fulfilling Prophecies. . . . . . . . . . . 297

    Handling Gender Bias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

    Handling the Cultural Bias Toward Extraversion . . . . 301

    What Do You Do When Things Go Wrong or

    You Can’t Influence Someone? . . . . . . . . . . . 302

    The Benefits of a Third-Party Perspective . . . . . . 302

    Working with Differences in Thinking Styles . . . . . 306

    Working Around Subtleties in the Workplace . . . . . 308

        Build Your Bench . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

        Do Your Homework and Share It . . . . . . . 310

        Volunteering: How Can I Help You? . . . . . . 312

        Working Around Cronyism. . . . . . . . . . 312

    Being Open About What You Want, What You Can Deliver, How You Want to Grow, and Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

        Creating Inspired Success for Yourself and Others. . . 320

Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .323

9781587204326, TOC, 6/3/2016

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