Smart Exit Blueprint Video Week 3

Note: The Smart Exit Blueprint program is no longer available but you may still watch the video series and take steps toward your own smart exit. To explore private coaching opportunities with Farnoosh, please apply here.

Now that you have watched the video, you should be fully aware of the 3 biggest worst corporate career mistakes you could make and avoid them at all costs. Do that now and watch for the next video in your Inbox.

Video Transcript #3

Hello and welcome. My name is Farnoosh Brock and this is our third educational video today. I want to talk to you about something personal,. I want to talk to you about my three worst career mistakes.

I was in the corporate world for eleven and a half years and I was young when I started. I want to tell you about these mistakes because no one is going to tap you on the shoulder when you enter the corporate world and say, “Don’t do these” or “Do all these things in order to advance.” There is no road map. I want to share them with you because I hope that you don’t make them. I regret making these mistakes; they cost me in time that I can’t get back and in other areas of my life.

Are you ready? Let’s get started.

These are ways that I want you to avoid the mistakes. Let me first tell you what the mistakes are. The number one mistake was I was too naïve. I was too afraid of my managers and my bosses and I used to think that as long as I worked really, really hard I would be successful. I grew up in a culture where working hard equals success and that’s all I knew about being successful. So, I worked hard. I was the hardest working person I knew on my team and nothing happened; I didn’t get raises, I didn’t get promotions, I didn’t move on. People around me in my team were moving on. Things were happening for them and I had a pretty good relationship with my boss so I couldn’t understand what was happening. I was naïve, I was young and it took me a number of years to understand how the system works, how the process works, how the whole corporate decision making works or doesn’t work.

I learned to be on equal footing with my managers and with my bosses. I learned to say what I expected in return for all of my services for the company. I learned to have those conversations. It was very hard at first because if you are afraid, if you doubt yourself and if you are naïve then you are not able to do that. My advice for you is to really think about the way you present yourself in your team in your company. Everyone is always watching you.

Also, it is really important to learn to be on equal footing with that boss and with that supervisor. They’re not above you; they are right there working with you. When you learn to speak up about the value that you are bringing to the organization, if you really learn to set expectations, then things are going to start happening for you. So that’s my number one lesson: don’t be naïve and think that just by working hard that everything is going to happen for you. You need to speak to your work. That was my number one mistake that I hope you don’t make.

Mistake number two: I was in a Customer Support role and I was too loyal. By that I mean I stayed there and I stayed there and I just kept staying there. I stayed there too long. I could see other people moving on to different roles in the same organization or around the company but I was too afraid to move; I got too comfortable and it hurt my career because it stagnated my growth.

My advice for you here is to always ask yourself: Am I learning something? Am I challenging myself? Am I growing in my career? Am I doing something new and hopefully exciting? If the answer is “no” for a long period of time, you really need to look at your options even in the same company. No one is going to hate you for moving on. In fact, if you have a really good manager then the role of a manager is to help you manage your career. Remember in number one we established you’re the one that manages your career; you can’t rely on your manager to manage it for you but you can help him by telling him what it is you want and they help you. Don’t stay in one place too long. If things are getting too easy and too simple, that’s not going to help you career growth. You need to be doing things that are challenging and adding value to the company and to the organization. That’s my number two mistake that I hope you avoid.

Mistake number three: after a while that I was in my position and things weren’t happening for me, I was starting to have a change in attitude. Sometimes the corporate culture around you has a negative attitude and it starts to grow on you and I noticed much later that I was having a really poor attitude and this hurt me more than anyone else. I understand the anger and frustration that goes into being at a job that you’re not happy with. I totally get that, but the one thing you shouldn’t do is to show that. When you go into work you don’t want to have a poor attitude. You don’t want to have a poor relationship with the people around you because that’s not going to serve you in anyway whatsoever. You need to learn to watch your attitude because everyone is watching you even when you don’t think they’re watching you; every communication that you have with people around you, you’re being watched.

If you have the right attitude, if you’re professional and still ask for what you want and do everything else that I mentioned – then it’s going to work out really well for you. If you’re pleasant and somebody that’s really nice to work with and you know how to speak through your frustrations in a professional way – that’s going to work out so much better for you. If you have poor attitude, the worse thing about that is that you can’t take it back. Once you have a display of anger and frustration, it’s really hard to recover from that. That’s one of my greatest regrets because then it’s going to hurt you. You’re doing all this hard work and that’s going to hurt you. Remember to watch your attitude. Be smart about it and you’re going to get what you want a lot better when you have a better attitude. That was my third mistake.

These are really personal mistakes that I made and these mistakes have cost me. It took me a long time, years, to look back and to learn and then to shift gears and pivot and make up for the mistakes. So, I hope that by listening to this you learn to avoid them.

If you want to learn more about how to put together a step-by-step plan to help you navigate from where you are to a better place in your career, whatever that maybe for you, then make sure you sign up for the Smart Exit Blueprint course and I look forward to working with you there.

As for your homework, I want you to just be thinking about yourself. Do a self-assessment. How do you rank yourself in these areas that I talked to you about today? Are you doing really well? Are there any changes you could make so that you do the best favors for your career?

Thank you for watching and I will talk to you in the next video. Bye!