Be Real: The Art of Creating Your Exceptionalism: BE REAL, #1

By Julian M. Allen

The Art of Creating Your Exceptionalism presents personal performance concepts and techniques based on generations of mover and shaker mentoring experince. It provides valuable insight for those considering a career in management, or as a development guide for team leaders, supervisors, and managers who wish to improve their effectiveness. We start with the basics of motivating others to support rather than oppose your leadership and management efforts. Career development milestones and personal advancement paths are visited. A discussion of political, bureaucratic, and power grapevine organizational interaction builds understanding that advances your personal career objectives. You will either laugh at or be repulsed by the ridiculousness that creates the need for those who accept responsiblity for others.

You are encourage to investigate BE REAL: The Art of Creating Team Exceptionalism, and BE REAL: The Art of Overcoming Exceptionalism Roadblocks. You may find BE REAL: The Art of Creating Exceptionalism in Modern Business which includes all BE REAL titles by this Author a more cost effective choice. It is a collection of "cheats" in the business game that can refine and accelerate the career of someone who is responsible for others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Julian M. Allen
• Release date: Nov 7, 2016
• ISBN: 9781540105301

Book preview

BE REAL

The Art of Creating Your Exceptionalism

Julian M. Allen

N B S Press

NBS PRESS

CONTENTS

DEDICATION

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1 - Be Careful What You Seek

Chapter 2 - Basics Of Interpersonal Communications

Bad Breath

Natural Gas

Case Study - Ben and Jerry

Written Communication

Perception Is Reality

Communication Credibility

Case Study - Unlucky Strike

Chapter 3 - The Power Of Decision And Indecision

The Mover and Shaker Boogie

Chapter 4 - Holding The Umbrella

Chapter 5 - Establishing Professional Relationships

Case Study - Trimming For Growth

Chapter 6 - Closing Doors

Case Study - Bodiddle

Case Study - Hot Means Hot

Chapter 7 - Frame Of Reference, Audience, And Temperament

Chapter 8 - Motivating Others To Support Or Oppose You

Actions That Motivate Mentors to Support You

Actions That Motivate Mentors to Oppose You

Chapter 9 - Changing The Picture

Chapter 10 - Identifying Root Causes

Expected Root Cause Frequency and Timing

Pure Design Root Causes

Pure People Root Causes

Pure System Root Causes

Hybrid Root Causes

Chapter 11 - The Most Powerful Person In The Room

Attributes Of Those Who Are Part Of The Solution

Chapter 12 - The Power Of Team Decision Making

Chapter 13 - Heard It Through The Grapevine

Case Study - Jason

Case Study - Josephine

Chapter 14 - Butt Chews And Chewing Butts

Chapter 15 - Managing Personal Stress

Chapter 16 - Reading The Tea Leaves

Case Study - The Golden Ring

Case Study - Corporate Restructure Crunch

Case Study - Surfing Dysfunction

Case Study - The Burn

Case Study - The Global Etiquette Emergency

My Headhunter, My Mentor

Chapter 17 - What I Wish I Had Fully Understood

POSTSCRIPT

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

RECOMMENDED READING

COPYRIGHT

DEDICATION

I WANT TO THANK all who taught me to handle responsibility in such a way that the individuals who came under my umbrella would find their lives improved.

My Father pounded the importance of morals, ethics, experience, empathy, commitment, perseverance, and teamwork through my thick skull. His desire was that each of his five children become decent, God-fearing, productive, and law abiding citizens.

My First Mentor was the master of finding humor in the simplest communication. If you fail to laugh every chance you get, you will always be less effective with people than you should be.

My Headhunter convinced me that I was cocky and that I tended to motivate others to oppose me.

The Bloodline Prince confided Every word spoken by a superior carries the risk of becoming reality—whether it is good, bad, right, or wrong.

The CFO Ninja drove home the importance of signatures for every expense approved by a superior.

The Turnaround Artist insisted I keep everyone in the loop when working at the edges of my responsibility. The broader your reach and the faster the rate of change, the more important it is to keep those above you informed about what you are attempting to do.

The Prophet pointed out that even the worst superior has at least one great attribute: If you make it your own, one day you will be a combination of the best of all your superiors.

The Big Cheese was adamant: Just because someone is your superior in rank or wealth, it does not mean they should be.

My Literary Mentor made me promise to give her the opportunity to read my work one day.

My Vermont Touchstone demonstrated exceptional intestinal fortitude by guiding me through the editing process.

To each of you, I hope the investment you made in me generated satisfactory returns.

fo·ment

verb \ ˈ f ō - ment \

To cause or try to cause

The growth or development of …

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That which has been is that which will be,

And that which has been done

Is that which will be done.

So there is nothing new under the sun.

-Ecclesiastes 1:9

PREFACE

OUR SOCIETY CONSIST OF three groups of people: those who lead, those who follow, and those who depend on the first two in order to survive and prosper. We inhabit each of these groups during our life; some for an extended period of time, and others only briefly. Within each group you will also find individuals who are either part of the problem or part of the solution. Your commitment to improving your soft people skills indicates your desire to transition from a follower into a leader while, attempting to avoid becoming part of the problem. Accepting such a challenge brings a lifelong commitment to exceptionalism and mastery of soft people skills.

Unfortunately, interpersonal interactions are not always pretty, politically correct or edifying. The only truth about humanity is that we will eventually figure out a way to ruin all of God’s creation. This is my attempt to support those I may never meet in life who are striving to step forward as my generation begins the transition into one that is dependent on the leaders and followers to survive and prosper. Thank goodness there are people who aspire to accept responsibility for the well-being of others and who willingly tackle the unending human-based problems that plague society. Those who are most successful will be thrust forward into greater responsibility by followers who recognize their gift, and willingly follow them wherever they choose to lead.

I was blessed with an unusually broad selection of mentors and experiences during my private sector career. I never found an organization without at least one crippling problem; the only question was where the problem was located and how severely it hindered the organization’s journey toward success. The real world experiences of those who have already carried responsibility can help lay a strong foundation to support the forward progress of others—your forward progress. My greatest hope is that you leave the world a better place than you found it by building on the experience of those who came before you, instead of wasting your lifetime just learning what to avoid.

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You are what you repeatedly do.

Excellence is not an event

- it is a habit.

- Aristotle, 384-322 BC

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INTRODUCTION

THANK YOU FOR YOUR interest in this book over those more seductively packaged and touted by experts compensated by those who choose writing as their primary focus in life. I have attempted to include only what is important, because we are all far too busy to waste our precious time. Most chapters are self-contained discussions that you can finish during a five minute break. You will find the soft skill tools that deal with those who deviate from the common good stern, but as respectful and humane as possible. Things you will be exposed to as you read will remain relevant until humanity has run its course.

You should know that I consider myself to be a management generalist since I’ve been a team member in four major facility startups, as well as multiple cutting-edge business expansions and advanced manufacturing technology revolutions. We were always tasked with achieving things that were unreasonable or at least yet to be demonstrated, and in the face of challenging odds, all of which forced an ongoing development of my personal leadership skills. My experience in managing change was gained over fifteen industries and nineteen individual sites. I worked on the transition from push to pull operations, the integration of computerized systems in business, and the adoption of formal certified quality management systems.

This taught me to utilize everyday, real world examples that anyone can comprehend and some may find amusing. I admit my plan was to make you laugh as often as possible, in order to keep you focused on your personal exceptionalism development. My sole objective is to pass on information that will give you a leg up if and when you take on responsibility for others. Nothing you find between these covers is a new or original revelation. It is simply a combination of bits and pieces I have gathered and then reshuffled in a way that makes them more effective than each would have been separately.

It has been said my ability to reach solutions to problems before others and become impatient was actually my biggest disadvantage in life. My body language telegraphed my irritation and my choice of words tended to motivate others to oppose rather than support me in order to protect their fragile egos. I had to learn to convert this irritation into a skill by planting idea seeds and covertly steering progress as others nurtured their understanding, eventually arriving at the right solution. This resulted in a soft skill that built analytical capability in others by utilizing leading questions or suggested considerations while enhancing patience in myself. That tool has been polished by years of use, and yet it still has rough edges that will wound on occasion when I am not paying close enough attention. I hope you do not become the next victim.

Do what you can to move the ball down the field as fast as possible without incurring interpersonal relationship penalties. They slow everyone down while generating extra work to overcome the opposition you created to yourself. Keep in mind that any natural gift can and will be turned into a curse if it is not used in a way that moves the entire team forward at the same pace. And most importantly, your family deserves who you really are when you are with them, not who you must be in order to be successful in your career. Interpersonal penalties inside the family can develop into unrecoverable dysfunction that must be avoided at all cost.

CHAPTER 1 – BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU SEEK

WE HAVE ALL WITNESSED the fallout from those who place their personal interest above everyone else’s. These individuals embody a trait which has been the catalyst for major wars. I have frequently followed behind them, challenged with repairing the damage they inflicted on people, assets, and organizations unfortunate enough to be duped by their resume, interviewing skills, or beguiling charm.

These individuals usually fell into one or more of the following categories:

They had never achieved a life involving people who depended on them

They had made a conscious decision to ignore the people who depended on them because they were a failure at home

They were driven by an overwhelming greed for things and could only be happy if they had more than, outranked, or out-earned their peer group

They were simply bad, dysfunctional, or mentally unstable people who enjoyed exercising control over others

They had striven for and secured a position that exceeded their level of competence

They were part of the owners family and held a position base on bloodline

The only things they could claim to justify their miserable existence were physical trinkets, personal income, how far up the food chain they were, or joy in the pain they had inflicted on others. The truly sickening part of their success was that it had been achieved by forcing others outside their own personal boundaries at a particular point in time. High quality team members refusing to be forced outside their personal boundaries will always leave for greener pastures. Those who stay became