Career Angles | Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

Sweet Nothings | Career Angles

April 22, 2019April 22, 2019 by Jeff

We spend a lot of time yelling . . . at ourselves and little time whispering “sweet nothings” in our ears.

If you aren’t familiar with the term, sweet nothings are the words of affection shared by lovers.

You see, we have fallen out of love with ourselves and act as though we want a divorce from the person who makes all the mistakes, the person we criticize relentlessly, the person we act with so much hatred or, at best, indifference toward.

Can you fall back in love with yourself?

Start by whispering sweet nothings and notice how you feel.

Let your love flow for yourself.

ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a career and leadership coach who worked as a recruiter for more than 40 years. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 1200 episodes and his newest show, “No BS Coaching Advice” and is a member of The Forbes Coaches Council.

Are you interested in 1:1 coaching, interview coaching, advice about networking more effectively, how to negotiate your offer or leadership coaching? Please click here to see my schedule to book a free discovery call.

If you have questions for me, call me through the Magnifi app for iOS (video) or PrestoExperts.com (phone)

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Inertia | Career Angles

March 17, 2019April 19, 2019 by Jeff

Figuring things out before starting to take action seems so logical but rarely do “the best laid plans of mice and men” work out as planned.

Usually, we miscalculate some aspect in our plan (including when the right time is to launch) with the result being we fail because we never took action.

I heard a wonderful expression the other day. “You can’t steer a parked car.” You can pretend to steer it but you aren’t really moving until you start to act.

Let’s get going!

ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER

If you have questions for me, call me through the Magnifi app for iOS (video) or PrestoExperts.com (phone)

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Get Off Fast! | Career Angles

April 19, 2019April 19, 2019 by Jeff

When sports teams start their season, they always try to get off to a fast start. Why? They create positive momentum for themselves that makes it easier to succeed.

The same is true for you in the workplace. Take on a new assignment and get off to a good start and you feel great about yourself and your ability to execute.

Get off to a slow start and you may file it will be hard, difficult and feel like drudgery.

Get off to a great start every time.

ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER

If you have questions for me, call me through the Magnifi app for iOS (video) or PrestoExperts.com (phone)

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Earthquakes | Career Angles

April 18, 2019April 18, 2019 by Jeff

I was listening to Cal Fussman’s podcast, “Big Questions,” where he talks with Amy Morin. In it, he mentions that he saw one of Amy’s quotes.

“You can’t build a mountain without an earthquake,” and found it inspiring.

Can you get ahead by going along?

Can you get ahead by being like everyone else?

Will you be satisfied if you are “nice?”

Everyone’s career and lives are different. To me, some people have gotten ahead by being a “suck up.”

Some people have gotten ahead by being nice or being like everyone else.

And I want to remind you that some people have gotten ahead by creating an earthquake that shakes the earth and causes mountains to rise.

Is that what needs to happen?

ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER

If you have questions for me, call me through the Magnifi app for iOS (video) or PrestoExperts.com (phone)

Connect with me on LinkedIn. Like me on Facebook.

Join Career Angles on Facebook and receive support, ideas and advice in your current career and job.

Halfway In | Career Angles

April 17, 2019April 17, 2019 by Jeff

I attended a workshop many years ago where a man stood up and spoke about a he was having with his girlfriend. As a result of these problems that he never spoke to her about he found it hard to really feel close to her.

“How often are you there with her 100% of the time?”

“About half the time.”

“So, you’re a 50% kind of guy?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do the math. If you only act committed and caring half the time, you are there fully 50% of the time.”

Are you a 50% kind of person… Or less?

What keeps you from being fully committed to what you are doing? Is it really them or is it really you?

You can be fully committed and engaged even when things are not perfect… And they rarely are perfect.

Have you tried changing things. Have you tried to be a one-man revolutionary? Have you tried being a renegade who does great things?

Being a revolutionary or renegade requires that you be fully committed.

You may fail but you are failing now.

Which way would you rather go out?

ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER

If you have questions for me, call me through the Magnifi app for iOS (video) or PrestoExperts.com (phone)

Connect with me on LinkedIn. Like me on Facebook.

Join Career Angles on Facebook and receive support, ideas and advice in your current career and job.

Deadlines | Career Angles

April 16, 2019April 16, 2019 by Jeff

Deadlines work. They create urgency and focus. Like athletes trying to win the title, people rally around the idea of completing the task or tasks and meeting the deadline.

If you overuse the idea of deadlines, they will become ordinary and diminish in effect.

The same is true of contests. If you run a contest to spur sales or particular behaviors in your firm, they will work. However, if you do them every month, benefits will diminish quickly as people learn that there is nothing special.

Using these tools in a sparse manner will help you get results. Using them all the time will seem like motivation to your staff and do nothing to inspire them after the first time or two.

If you need to constantly motivate your people, a number of things are possibly wrong.

They are bored.
You have done something or leadership has done something to take the joy out of what they do.
There is some kind of friction that is interfering with them feeling a sense of accomplishment that you need to remove.
You are hiring the wrong people

Items two, three and four are clearly in your control. Item number one begs the question of why they are bored.

Inspired people are never bored.

If leadership is getting in the way and doing things to either create friction or take the joy out of the work environment, things need to change.

ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER

If you have questions for me, call me through the Magnifi app for iOS (video) or PrestoExperts.com (phone)

Connect with me on LinkedIn. Like me on Facebook.

Join Career Angles on Facebook and receive support, ideas and advice in your current career and job.

4 Mistakes People Make That Hurt Them Professionally | Career Angles

April 15, 2019April 15, 2019 by Jeff

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tVmRGaNPIc

These are 4 mistakes that people make to hurt themselves professionally

Summary

I thought it would do a video talking about a few of the mistakes people make professionally. I'm doing this as part of my Career Angles series that you can catch in my facebook group. Again, look for Career Angles in Facebook.
Now, we all sometimes lose ourselves in situations and make mistakes. But these four are fairly big. heT first one I want to call attention to is forgetting to be courteous. You know, and, in effect, as a result, you take for granted certain basic social interactions.
Did your parents teach you about the importance of please and thank you? Of course they did. And when you teach your children, you teach them the importance of please and thank you and, then, you, yourself, work in situations where you want people to do things for you and you never say, "Please," and never say, never wind up thanking them afterwards. There's no excuse for it. Forgetting to say it will cause them to never forget that you didn't say it.
I don't care how senior you are (And frankly, the more senior people are, they wind up always saying it) they wind up being courteous. Why aren't you?
Another thing people do is they get way too serious about things and stress out over them. In doing that, what winds up happening is they miss on things in their relationship with other co-workers.
You know, I worked in sales organizations for many years, and we had an almost gallows humor amongst ourselves about things that occurred. I know that's true in the securities industry. I know it's in many other areas as well. The result winds up being that you miss out on relationships with others.
Third thing--you talk too much, and don't listen. Listen more. You've got two things to listen to what other people want and the more they talk, the more they like you.
Which of course leads to the opposite of that--You overshare. You tell people too much about your life, and it winds up coming back to bite you.
So those are four that I want to call attention to. I hope these are not your sins that you're committed. But if they are, it's time to change your habits and be more effective. I'm Jeff Altman. If you'd like me to coach you, connect with me on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/thebiggamehunter. Mention that you saw the video because I like knowing I'm helping some folks. Once we're connected message that you're interested in coaching. I'd frankly love to help you.
I join on my Facebook group. It's called Career Angles. And there's a lot of content released daily that will help you professionally Have a great day. Take care

ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER

If you have questions for me, call me through the Magnifi app for iOS (video) or PrestoExperts.com (phone)

Connect with me on LinkedIn. Like me on Facebook.

Join Career Angles on Facebook and receive support, ideas and advice in your current career and job.

The Confusing Lesson from Tiger Woods | Career Angles

April 15, 2019April 15, 2019 by Jeff

When Tiger Woods won the Masters in Augusta on April 14, 2019, the commentators celebrated his determination. It had taken more than 11 years for him to claim a Masters victory and 14 years since winning his last Masters, years in which he dealt with very public marital infidelity on his part, 4 surgeries on his back, over use of pain pills and, perhaps, marijuana overuse (THC was found in his system when he famously fell asleep at the wheel of his car when stopped at a light, along with other pills).

I celebrate and rejoice in his win at the Masters.

And we need to celebrate the women and men like Lindsay Vonn, for example, who know when it is the right time to surrender to the inevitable.

What’s the difference?

Each person’s story is different so I am not going to categorize. What I have told friends before is that if you have never heard the voice in you encouraging you to quit, pay attention to it and see if it has a good enough reason for its’ opinion. If the voice nags at you, it may be time to pay more attention.

Tiger didn’t and we admire him and his victory and the hugs with his children, just like one he received from his father when he won for the first time.

Just don’t ignore the other voice if it becomes loud enough to interfere with your success. Listen to it or shut it down.

ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER

If you have questions for me, call me through the Magnifi app for iOS (video) or PrestoExperts.com (phone)

Connect with me on LinkedIn. Like me on Facebook.

Join Career Angles on Facebook and receive support, ideas and advice in your current career and job.

What’s Holding You Back? | Career Angles

April 14, 2019April 14, 2019 by Jeff

Someone contacted me recently lamenting that they were not getting promotions because they lacked a 4-year degree.

“Why don’t you get a degree?”

“It’s been 15 years since I was in school.”

“It was 30 years when I went back to get my Masters degree. What other excuses do you have?”

“I don’t know if I can afford it?”

“Maybe your company does tuition reimbursement. Maybe you can afford it. Why don’t you find out? What other excuses do you have?”

“Well . . . “

We went back-and-forth like this for a while where I asked questions and I heard excuses. Ultimately what this person needed were answers to their questions.

Often, we put so many roadblocks in our path and never take the time to step around them and avoid them.

What’s holding you back? What’s the risk to at least getting the answers to your questions and getting into motion?

I know in my case, I need to give up my excuses. What’s your story? What are your excuses? What’s holding you back?