The Business of You: A Guide to Finding, Managing, and Succeeding in Your Career

By Lukas Krause

The Business of You explores an important topic for young professionals, especially in today’s economic climate: how to find and be successful in a career. This bookgathers the practices and approaches that helped author Lukas Krause go from an entry-level job to the C-Suite of an industry leading company in less than 10 years—after he found success taking on a new position as a pitcher and reinventing himself to play professionally in the New York Mets organization. 

Full of practical advice for professionals at any stage of their career with topics like:
• building your personal brand
• identifying the skills you need to advance your career goals 
• growing your communication skills 
• optimizing your daily output

​The Business of You is like an MBA in book form. Let it guide you to and through the career you deserve.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group
• Release date: Jun 12, 2018
• ISBN: 9781626345041

Book preview

AUTHOR

INTRODUCTION

Swing for the Fences—I Did!

The inspiration for this book came many years ago, when I was beginning my career and eager to learn how to manage it. I quickly realized there was little information available on managing your career. Over the last ten years, as I was consuming information from every source possible, I started to compile notes to help create my own personal reference guide. I then started to use some of this content as I helped mentor others who were early in their careers, and I realized that this compilation of information and practices could prove helpful on a broader scale. My goal is to save you the time of compiling this information yourself and, in the process, accelerate your professional development.

As I wrote this book, I imagined the audience—you—may be someone who possesses a go-getter attitude and is looking for an edge to accelerate the attainment of your career ambitions. Or you may be an individual whose career has not progressed as you hoped, and you are looking to jump-start that career ascent.

Regardless of why you are reading this book, if your ultimate goal is to improve your performance and better position yourself for that next promotion, then you have come to the right place.

The important thing to know before jumping into this book is that managing your career is a mind-set. What would happen if you changed your focus and looked and treated your career like a business: the Business of You? Think about it. Your talents are your product, and how you operate and market yourself will determine the financial viability of that product. You are the CEO, CMO, CFO, and COO of your career. Most likely no one else will be thinking about the well-being of your business, outside of perhaps your family. The responsibility for your advancement and the management of your business rests squarely on your shoulders. That’s why you need to treat your career with the strategic positioning and the tactical focus that successful businesses use, so you can maximize your talent and earning potential.

As you follow along through the chapters, we will cover key business principles and apply them to your career and its management. Some of these concepts and practices will come naturally to you and others will not. Don’t neglect any of them. Make sure your strengths are built up to extend your competitive advantages while you address your weaknesses to a point where they do not hold you back.

You should consume the book in whatever way works best for you. If you are looking for a little guidance, there is a ton of practical content in the pages ahead. It would be nearly impossible to implement all of these skills and practices at once. Read through the book and grasp the key concepts. After reflection, refer back to focus on areas of interest or those in need of improvement to go deeper into the content. After achieving your objectives, graduate to another section. The content has enough depth for you to consume it multiple times.

• • •

My journey to this point started with a mind-set of improvement that I picked up pursuing my lifelong dream of playing professional baseball. Deep down, I had a firm belief that I was good enough to play at the highest level because every time I stepped onto a baseball field, I felt at home, and I experienced consistent success. But an ill-fated set of events (playing the wrong position at the wrong time, given my skills; assuming scouts would find me; not proactively trying to find opportunities) led to me graduating from high school without any scholarship offers. Because I didn’t officially play college baseball (except for a brief stint in fall ball my senior year), I needed to develop skills and opportunities outside the normal routes to professional baseball. Without coaches, tools, or competitive games, I was forced to develop a new methodology for my development.

Over several years, I refined the methodologies for growing my talent through trial and error. In addition, I became quite adept at creating opportunities to showcase my newly developed skills. For example, I ended up with multiple private workouts with Major League Baseball teams without having much of a pedigree. This journey toward self-discovery and my consistent and intentional practice helped me fulfill my dream—I ultimately signed with the New York Mets!

This accomplishment forever changed the trajectory of my career and life. When I arrived at spring training my first year, I was in awe of the level of commitment that the other players had to developing their skill sets. Every day players worked on developing their skills. They practiced, bettered themselves, and were laser-focused on putting themselves in the best positions to succeed. Pitchers tinkered with different grips to get more movement on their pitches; hitters worked on keeping their weight back on off-speed pitches. It was all about rounding out skill sets to be as complete a player as possible.

Because of my unorthodox path to joining the professional ranks (spending several years in an office job beforehand), I was able to witness the stark contrast between the workaday office world and the constant—sometimes relentless— commitment to improvement on the ball field. As I observed my teammates’ devotion to personal growth, daily practice, and intricate skill development, I couldn’t help but wonder: Why don’t more people in the workplace work on honing their craft?

After my baseball career ended and I transitioned back into the business world, I embraced a growth mind-set similar to what I’d seen embodied in my teammates. Back in an entry-level job, I was consumed by this mentality of improving my skills and output and sought out learning opportunities at every turn. I assessed my mistakes, learning from the mistakes of others, and sought out mentors. I began taking on projects that stretched me, formally and informally, and researching successful people. In a short amount of time after this hypervigilant focus on trying to find the formula behind success, it became evident to me that there are specific drivers behind those who succeed in the workforce and ways you can shortcut your path up through the ranks.

This book is focused on those drivers, and it lays out a road map for accelerating your climb up the proverbial ladder. It is chock-full of the tips and practices that helped me climb from an entry-level job to the C-Suite of an industry-leading company in less than ten years.

When I started implementing these intentional practices, my skills started to improve consistently and, more importantly, people in the organization started to view me differently. No longer was I a green employee who was not privy to discussions above his pay grade. Decision makers started to seek me out and ask my opinion on issues that would impact the organization. An interesting thing was happening: I was involved in important decisions, and I had not yet progressed very far from my initial entry-level job. This shift in how I was viewed started to create more opportunities for advancement and for both personal and professional growth. Ultimately these successes built upon themselves, and this momentum created a snowball effect on my growth.

Developing your skills while working a full-time job takes a significant commitment. But most people make the mistake of believing it takes countless hours each day to achieve any type of improvement. That daunting perception is one of the main reasons why many don’t take the time to do it. Fortunately, they are wrong. Improvement takes consistent and concentrated practice—not necessarily long durations of time. Thirty concentrated, quality minutes every day will yield progress that can blow away expectations. Over time, these incremental improvements will cover a lot of ground. That is the method I have used to develop the skills that produced my rapid ascent through the professional ranks, and it is the same approach I adopted in writing this book.

The thought of writing a book initially seemed like an impossible task— especially because at the time of writing, I was running several companies and barely had the time or energy to do anything outside of work other than normal life functions. But as with the commitment I made to myself on improving my skills, I developed a schedule and cadence that I stuck to religiously so that over time I was able to produce my manuscript.

As you read through this book you will feel my passion for the content. My favorite thing in the business world is professional development. These principles and practices have changed my life, and I’m excited to share them with you in the hope that they have a similar impact on yours.

Thank you for finding my book. This book is a product of the many great people I have been blessed to know and the lessons I have picked up during my nontraditional career. I’m genuinely excited to share my insights and practices and play a small role in your achievement of your career objectives. Dream big and enjoy your journey.

SECTION ONE

IDENTIFYING THE MOST COMPELLING PATH FOR THE BUSINESS OF YOU

Everybody comes from somewhere, and some of us take rather unusual routes to get where we’re going. I am often asked how a guy like me—of regular intelligence and without built-in advantages, such as family dynasty, nepotism, grooming at a young age, or elite education—could catch lightning in a bottle not once, but twice? The first time was signing with the New York Mets—at a position I had rarely played growing up. The second time was when I went from an entry-level job to the C-Suite of an industry-leading company in less than ten years.

The shortest answer to that question is: the old-fashioned way—through hard work and strategic planning. The problem is that these paths are not easily distilled down to a couple of sentences. However, if you stick with me to the end of the book, I will take you step-by-step through the practices, approaches, and strategic elements that fueled my journey.

First things first. You are a business. You produce income for you and your family. Your skills and talents are viewed as a product that employers choose to purchase through employment, choose not to purchase by extending the job offer to someone else, or worst of all, use as rationale in terminating your employment. The more valuable and desirable your talents and skills, the more likely you will have gainful employment, and the higher the price companies will pay for your services.

YOU ARE A BUSINESS. YOU PRODUCE INCOME FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY.

Your career and its management need to be viewed through that lens. To operate like a high-producing business, you will have a clear mission; make cal- culated, strategic decisions to accomplish that mission; invest time and energy toward improvement and growth; and market your business effectively.

In this section we’ll walk through the business-planning process for the Business of You. We’ll help you establish a clear direction on where to focus your development effort. From there, you’ll fill in the framework for assessing and prioritizing your skills and development opportunities necessary to get to that next level in your career.

Understanding the Business of You

You’ve obtained a lot of business knowledge over the years—through a combination of schooling, osmosis, or work experience. Now it’s time for you to start using it to your benefit. You’ve been exposed every day directly and indirectly to knowledge and strategies that can be applied to your career’s advantage. Starting out with a basic from Business 101, it’s important that you have a firm understanding of what drives the Business of You—its strengths and its weaknesses.

The most successful businesses have a strong sense of identity and stay true to their character. They know who they are and, just as important, who they are not. It doesn’t matter whether you’re starting or even restarting your career journey, your success will be built upon the foundation of how well you understand yourself as a business asset. The better you understand this idea, the better you can support and position yourself for a highly productive career.

WHAT DRIVES THE BUSINESS OF YOU AND WHAT ARE THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF THE BUSINESS OF YOU?

Jim Collins outlined a theory in his classic book Good to Great in which he concludes that businesses are more likely to succeed if they focus on one thing and do it well. By doing so, they can beat their competitors and become truly great businesses. Collins’s Hedgehog Concept illustrates a simple idea that flows from an understanding about what you are deeply passionate about, what you can be the best in the world at, and what most effectively drives your economic or resource engine.

Like the great businesses Collins studied over a twenty-five-year period, you can take your career from good to great by making a series of sound decisions that consistently leverage these principles.

To apply these principles to your career, you will need to start by conducting some personal assessments to know yourself better. During these personal assessments you should:

Find out where your preferences and passions lie.

Identify your strengths, weaknesses, tendencies, and skills.

Define your optimal work environment.

Understand the macro environment and trends that could impact your career path.

LOOK INWARD AND UNDERSTAND WHAT DRIVES YOU

We’re all capable of performing a wide variety of different career functions. However, that doesn’t mean that we should be performing all of them. Take me, for example: I can manage debits and credits (basic accounting activities). But the thought of being affixed to a desk crunching and organizing numbers all day makes me want to pull my hair out. I crave interpersonal interaction and love to help people learn and grow. I know that for me to be successful, my primary job functions must feed these passions.

Let’s look at a serious of questions designed to initiate the process of finding out about your preferences and passions. Find a quiet place, free of distractions, and seriously think about the questions below. Take your time and think deeply about your answers. The deeper you go with each question, the closer you will get to your core feelings and preferences.

Our childhood memories provide important clues about what our consistent core values and preferences are. Ask yourself:

What are some of my favorite memories? What activities were involved with these memories?

What was I doing?

Was there anyone else involved?

Why was I so happy?

What personal accomplishment am I most proud of?

Just like in your childhood, your educational or career experiences thus far can serve as a reference point for the types of activities and responsibilities that you enjoy and are skilled at—and vice versa. Even the worst work experiences can provide value in terms of identifying functions, environments, and activities that you would like to avoid or, at the very least, minimize in future roles. Now think back to previous roles or jobs and answer the following questions:

In previous jobs and/or during your studies, what types of activities and responsibilities made you feel energized and made time fly?

In previous jobs and/or during your studies, what types of things seemed to zap your energy and make time stand still?

Looking back at your career, what accomplishments are you most proud of?

Now think about your personal time. Your choice of hobbies and how you fill your free time are great indicators of your preferences.

What are the types of things you gravitate to in your free time?

Why do you enjoy these activities?

What are the elements of this activity that give you joy?

What motivates you to pursue this hobby or activity?

You may need to repeat these exercises a couple of times to dig deep enough to find your answers. But if you take the time to answer all the questions thoughtfully, you will start to gain a better understanding of what drives you and a conscious awareness about what types of attributes your ideal role and work environment must possess.

ASSESSING YOUR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

Strategic leaders for top-performing businesses assess the strengths, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities of their organizations annually. There are many different frameworks out there, but one of the most commonly used is the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis.

The SWOT framework provides a well-rounded analysis of the key elements at play in a company that leaders need to understand in order to make informed strategic decisions.

It allows leaders to assess the organization as a whole, along with the competitive landscape, and use that information as a guiding force to drive the business in coming years.

To ensure a thorough analysis, strategic leaders collect input from internal, external, and quantitative data sources. Internal sources are those within different levels of the organization; external sources are a company’s customers and suppliers; and quantitative data sources are industry statistics, customer research, and competitive research.

Take a cue from these businesses and look internally, externally, and quantitatively at your own personal organization, so you can establish a wellrounded personal assessment that will help guide your development priorities and strategic decisions around your career. For the qualitative elements of your assessment, you will look inward for resources (in the form of conducting a self-assessment) and outward for other resources (in the form of a 360-degree review) to gain a stronger grasp of your strengths and weaknesses.

Internal assessments

First, look inward and list your strengths and weaknesses as they relate to your career pursuits. The strengths side of this list should consist of the things you do well and the activities that come easily to you. For weaknesses, think of skills and activities that are challenging for you and require additional effort and time for you to complete. Be straight with yourself. This exercise is for your benefit, so you must be brutally honest about where you are strong, as well as the areas in which you need improvement. The goal is to obtain a realistic picture from your own perspective of where you are today regarding your strengths and weaknesses. Keep this self-assessment because you will refer to it later when you are evaluating and comparing the feedback you have received from your personal and professional network.

External assessments

External feedback is the backbone of a well-balanced assessment. Collecting feedback from your manager, peers, direct reports, and friends can be an eye-opening activity, because they each have a different vantage point. If they know you well, they can give you valuable insights and round out some of your potential blind spots.

First, identify a wide-ranging mix (professional and personal) of three to five trusted individuals to provide you with an external assessment. You can use the 360 Review template in the appendix as a guide on what to send over. Prior to sending the exercise to your colleagues and friends, meet with each one personally to explain its purpose, which is to calibrate the feedback provided by each participant. Also, share that you are open to receiving direct and honest feedback because you realize that is the only way you will be able to improve. Remind them to provide specific examples whenever possible, regardless of whether they are providing praise or criticism. These specifics will help anchor you back to tangible events when you are evaluating and taking corrective measures.

THE NEGATIVE FEEDBACK MAY HURT A LITTLE AT FIRST, BUT REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE GAINING KNOWLEDGE ABOUT HOW YOU CAN IMPROVE AND GROW.

Remember to approach this process with an open mind. If you conduct it correctly, you will hear both positive and negative feedback about yourself. That’s a good thing. The negative feedback may hurt a little at first, but remember that you are gaining knowledge about how you can improve and grow. Even if the feedback is delivered poorly, resist the urge to get defensive or make excuses. Instead, accept the feedback and share your appreciation to the person providing it. They offered you a gift: an additional data point. Review it objectively. Some of the feedback will be accurate and some of it will not. As you conduct this exercise more often and gain a true understanding of your skills, you will be able to quickly and accurately assess the quality of the feedback and your progress on professional development.

Quantitative data

The last element to round out your initial assessment is to use at least one of the great personality and skills assessment tools out there. These tools provide a different perspective for your analysis. Through the use of a survey mechanism, they collect data points and produce a summary of your preferences, your style for shaping your environment, and how you like to engage with others. These types of surveys have been growing in popularity lately, and the types of insights they provide add a valuable piece to a well-rounded personal evaluation. Two of my favorites among the personality profile tools are the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and DiSC.