Nora Denzel

Nora talks about war stories by describing ten ways to shoot yourself in the foot in corporate life.  She’s a great presenter, very engaging, candid and humourous.  IMHO she’s the kind of exec you want to work with: blunt, fair and someone who will encourage “the right stuff” and kill off the bindweed.

It’s about an hour long to cover her ten ways to mutilate your corporate career, plus Q&A.  She cracks plenty of jokes to the MBA audience about “I was the High Priestess of storage, which I’m sure makes you all jealous.”  Classic engineering humour.

Note that all of these are about human to human communication, nothing to do with what you know, everything to do with who you know and what you say to them.

1. Control your own PR agent (yourself). Every time you open your mouth you are issuing a press release about yourself.  You are your own brand, so make sure you’re “on message” about your career.  Don’t be negative.  It’s ok to keep your mouth shut.  Accept praise.
2. Aim high. If you’re asked “what do you want to be in five years” make sure you have an aspirational, but not ridiculous, goal.  Step 1 is having a goal, and Nora just made one up (love it!).  Step 2 is communicating it.
3. Learn how to ask. Don’t wait to be asked, tell people what you want.  Life is not fair, and people get assignments because they are top of executive minds.  Don’t wait for that job to be posted.
4. Lighten up. It’s work, not play, and in a corporate world of unlimited wants and limited resources it means you don’t get everything you want and it doesn’t mean someone is trying to kill you.  Separate yourself from work, it’s just a game.  If you can’t do this, you’re a bad employee as seen by execs.
5. Kill Miss Congeniality. As a British man this was over my head, but in a nutshell the nice guy/gal never wins the top spot.  Miss Congeniality is the second prize, and nobody gets anything for second place, right?  The time you spend being nice is time you could spend being successful.  Nice people do what others ask.  You don’t want to be the water boy – or in the UK, the bucket and sponge bloke with the beer belly!
6. Learn how to act. <my story> Bet Lynch was a famous fictitious bar maid on Coronation St, and she famously put on a smile before every bar shift. </my story>  If you’re a consultant, it means acting like you’re competent, and eventually you will be   Nora even had acting training.
7. Get out of your comfort zone.  Like sport, if you’re comfortable you’re not learning.  If you’re uncomfortable, give it six months and if you still hate it then make a change, but otherwise stick with it.  This means you should be a the dumb end of the room most of the time.  Ask smart people to teach you.
8. Embrace criticism.  It’s the gift that keeps on giving! (Nice one, Nora!)  If just one person criticizes something, then they might have a grudge.  If three people criticize the same thing, then that pattern needs to be listened to: hear the message, do something about it.  Seek it in the right environment, don’t just wait for it to hit you.  And give the criticizer 48 hours before you go back with a response, or you’ll stop the criticism feed and it gives you time to think.
9. Leaders make the rules. Rules are important for herding the masses, but a leader’s mindset breaks fresh snow by bucking the trends and breaking the rules.
10. You’re measured on results. Whining about how you failed is not an option.  Use (9) to set your own results if possible, and make sure you hit them.  Your track record of results is your way to secure employment.  There’s no smooth path to the goal, so get on with it.

Watch Nora Denzel’s 10 Ways to Shoot Yourself in the Foot on http://youtube.com

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