Get Globally Calibrated
April 23, 2008
“All mankind is divided into three classes: those who are immovable, those who are movable, and those who move.”
Benjamin Franklin
This is an interesting time in American History. It’s a time when the masses are fueled with a fear/anger over jobs being sent overseas, mixed opinions over the role of the military and political parties displaying the type of in-fighting that is associated with 3rd world countries. However, through all of this turmoil, the strategic-minded are walking around with gigantic smiles on their faces.
The reality is that there is a window of time upon us that will allow Americans to amass wealth as never before. However, there is a “Caveat.” Education has never been more critical to success than it is today. While Asian Students study long and hard for the opportunity to attend elite American Universities, complacency is a main characteristic of mainstream pop culture in American youths.
Recently, I was at the checkout line at a supermarket in The United States and overheard two of the cashiers discussing their experiences with a standardized test. As an educator, my curiosity got the better of me and I asked if they were discussing the SAT or possibly the GRE. They didn’t seem to have any idea of what GRE meant and the response that I received about the SAT was “Yeah right, sitting in a classroom for 4 hours taking a test just isn’t me.” I don’t even know how I would explain this comment to the thousands of executives and students that I’ve trained over the years in Asia.
Luckily, there are enough superstars produced in the U.S. each year that bring about the innovation that the world needs. In agreement with Bill Gates, these superstars are a mixture of Americans and the much-lauded foreign talent that is attracted to study and work in The United States. The road to wealth in the globalized world starts with creating value within your position, business unit, small business or large organization.
Below I’m listing some telltale signs that you are creating indelible value at your job:
Creating Value
- Your accomplishments are known across various business units and by some competitors. For example, you are consistently above your sales target or have strong customer relationships that yield consistent transactions.
- You have created, augmented or effectively implemented the company’s sales or management system and added to its efficacy by monetizing efforts to help strengthen or create its legacy.
- You can articulate your company’s strategy in 35 words or less, and are able to expand upon it using examples, testimonials and personal experience.
- In one quarter you can easily recall 3 instances when you extended yourself for the betterment of another employee, hence the organization.
- At the end of every month, you can honestly discuss one concept or practice that you have learned from another professional in the value chain or industry experts that has impacted your performance and in the future those on your team.
Below I’m listing some telltale signs that your position can be easily replaced:
Easily Replaced
- While working 8-10 hours per day, you find more than 1 hour (other than lunch break) during work to check your fantasy baseball league stats or forward joke emails to colleagues and friends.
- You are in a commoditized business and are completing rudimentary tasks assigned to fulfill the status quo.
- You are in a telephone or Internet based business and involved on the service side only.
- You are unaware of whether you generate revenue or reduce cost for the company, ideally an employee does both, but at least one is expected.
- You have reached your level of incompetence (search Peter Principle), where you become “Untrainable.” At this point people stop taking in new information and stagnate and/or decline very quickly.