Fearing Mediocrity

By Michael S. Seaver

Transferrable skills and values required for the 21st century emerging professional. Learn how eight practical skills will allow you to unlock your potential and truly develop personal and professional well being.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael S. Seaver
• Release date: Jun 23, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476094335

Michael S. Seaver

Michael S. Seaver is an award-winning executive coach, author, keynote speaker and podcast host. He’s on a mission to unlock human potential to help people uncover and live their purpose, and live a more meaningful and authentic life. Crashing through conventional boundaries, Michael thrives at the intersection of next generation business strategy concepts, positive psychology and conscious capitalism. His unique methodology has revolutionized how leaders can live authentically and how organizations engage employees. Michael leverages eye-opening statistics, emotional storytelling, humor and audience participation to deliver a memorable message with clear takeaways. He offers no-nonsense strategies to help people find confidence in their life’s narrative, commonalities across generations working today, and ways to communicate with emotional intelligence.

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Fearing Mediocrity

Transferrable skills and values required for the 21st century emerging professional.

Michael S. Seaver, MBA, SPHR

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient, If you’re reading this ebook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the work of this author.

Copyright 2012 Seaver Consulting, LLC

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

To my father, mother, and Coiya, the driving force behind me fearing mediocrity

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1. Work Ethic

Chapter 2. Integrity

Chapter 3. Excellent Customer Service

Chapter 4. Humility

Chapter 5. Relationships

Chapter 6. Accountability

Chapter 7. Continual Learning

Chapter 8. Listening

Concluding Thoughts

Introduction

If you’re like most emerging professionals with a desire to achieve purpose beyond your existing role, it’s very likely your career path will bring you to a fork in the road. When you reach that fork, you face two options. One of the most common paths is to pursue a long-term career working for someone else. This scenario enables you to pass the burden of managing expenses and risk onto your employer while you reap the rewards of a steady paycheck, some stability (depending upon your industry and the economic climate) and maybe even company-paid benefits for you and your family.

You may or may not enjoy the work, and you may struggle to derive intrinsic value from the repetitiveness of your job. It’s also possible the work may be meaningful and fruitful; maybe even the most meaningful and fruitful you’ve ever wanted. The only challenge is that you will never fully own it.

When you’re employed, you trade the benefits and risks of ownership for the partial security of a steady paycheck. I say partial security because whether you are blue or white collar, the harsh reality is that your W2 job is constantly being measured and marginalized. You always face the possibility that the position could be eliminated or outsourced.

The second option looks even more scary and undefined. The road isn’t a four-lane highway in every direction; it is a metaphorical trail with footprints left by the few. Down this path, the risks are different and the intrinsic rewards are more likely greater than the extrinsic. The less traveled route enables you to become a vital component of the community you occupy. As a central figure and owner in your community, you connect people, drive business, and help create meaning that is life-long.

The hard part about choosing the second option is that we fear the unknown. It is comfortable to work for someone else and be told what to do while collecting a paycheck that allows us to make ends meet and take a vacation once or twice a year. Being different, whether as an entrepreneur or as what Seth Godin calls a linchpin, is difficult because standing out requires that you take risks.

Individuals who take risks fail more than they succeed, yet our society is just starting to accept failing as a way to learn and drive innovation. Being unique and driving innovation allows you to create stories and experiences that will survive long after your time on earth has passed.

Additionally, our world is rapidly changing. America is struggling to hang on to the title of world’s hegemon. Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa are all growing rapidly and producing products and services that rival, if not exceed, what is being produced in the U.S. Technology is advancing so quickly that print media is second fiddle to many other communication tools and spending money to increase your Klout score is money better spent than on mediums not producing a return on investment . In lieu of traditional advertising, people desire recommendations from other like-minded people providing honest assessments of a brand, its product, and levels of customer service.

Younger generations are not interested in cradle to grave employment. They are interested in well being – professional and personal well being. The Baby Boomers were taught that they were supposed to get a job, start a family, and let the company take care of them. A strict focus by the company on the shareholder, as exemplified