The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - Ten Things That Require Zero Talent | BTS Bonus

Episode Date: July 25, 2019

This show idea came from one of my social media feeds. I added my $.02 for free on how we can all succeed at these things.Full write-up at https://kevtalkspod.com/10-things-that-require-zero-talent/

Please silence your cell phones, hold all sidebar conversations to a minimum, and we'll get started with Between the Slides in 3, 2, 1. Hello everyone, thanks for coming back to the Between the Slides podcast, or if you're a first time visitor, thank you for stopping by. Today is a kind of Thursday thoughts on the popular image of 10 things that require zero talent, which you all have probably seen. If you haven't, go to betweentheslides.com. My latest blog post is called Be Prepared because, well, it's your job, which it is. And what I share is it's always nice to see a motivational image and

a nice list of things we can all do to be better. But then I thought, how can we make these actionable? So I thought I'd kind of share my almost 25 years of experience. And I'm not unique, and I learned how to make these actionable through trial and error and doing good and making mistakes and all that kind of stuff. And so I'm going to go right into this list. And the list is I'll read to you and then we'll kind of break down each one is being on time, having work ethic, putting in effort, energy, body language, passion, doing extra, being prepared, being coachable, and attitude,

right? So a pretty straightforward list. But you know, if you've been around for a while, even if you're just getting into the workforce, some folks don't bring these each day where they bring negative versions of it or something like that. And so I'm going to go through each one of these and provide my two cents on how I think we can all really make these actionable and help each other and help our teams be successful. So the first on the list that I reference in my article is being on time. This is a big one.

There's times when we're late, when there's things we can't control, but largely we can be on time if we leave earlier, right? Leave earlier than you think you need to is kind of the first punchline that I have in there. And that just creates cushion, right? It seems common sense, but it's, you know, it's hard to do when you have kids and you're trying to get them to the bus stop and trying to, you know, get home from the gym and change or whatever you need to do. But start your day earlier, start your trip earlier. If you're

going somewhere, it, you know, if you get stuck behind an accident, you know, you've got time built in. And again, being early is on time, Being on time is late. You've probably heard that with various, you know, iterations of minutes put in there. The other thing for our teams and for ourselves is let's start our meetings on time. Because if we do that, then our folks get out of the meetings on time or a little bit early if you're running a pretty efficient meeting, which is also great for us and our team. It gets you some of that capital and time back. And everybody loves saving time. So gets you some of that capital and time back and everybody loves saving time. So, you know, be on time. It shows also that you're invested in you really that you care about what's going on or what event you're involved in. The second thing on the list,

work ethic, right? Nobody can go 100% all day all the time. Some folks tries, you know, eventually you'll crash and burn. But largely my take on this is if you're working for an organization that is giving you a paycheck, that is feeding you and your family, that is putting clothes on your back, that is putting a roof over your head, then I think it behooves us that we should probably earn that each day. In whatever capacity you're earning it, whether you're flipping burgers, you're in the corner office downtown, you're on the street in your cargo pants, it doesn't matter.

That work ethic is going to reflect on us, it's going to reflect on our teammates, it's going to reflect our organization. And so, you know, just put the work in, you know, sometimes it's tough when you're mentally and physically tired, or you're on a, you know, a tough drawn out project or something like that. But you know, we just got to keep chipping away and get our jobs done. Effort. So doing a good job, generally in most things, doesn't actually require that much work, right? And it doesn't mean it's totally easy, but say, for instance, I'm a project manager now, right? For me to complete my documentation and pull together meetings and, you know, talk regularly with my teammates isn't really that hard, right? So the hard thing is, do I put in the extra effort to get clarity and make the extra phone call or send the extra message? That's where I think,

you know, it differentiates from just maintaining that status quo, which any of us can do and we do to let's put in the kind of extra effort or that real effort to making sure that there's not a gap that I just left, you know, sitting there and I just hoped that I'm just going to be the receiver of all the answers and I don't have to work towards them. That's just not realistic. So, you know, take that extra five minutes, get the clarity, build a relationship and help your team succeed. Energy. If you're tired, go to bed earlier, right? That's, you know, a pretty simple formula. I say that as someone that I like sitting, I like staying up late. I'm just nocturnal. I used to work night shift as a corpsman in the ICU and in other jobs. And,

and, you know, I just kind of like it sometimes too. It's hard to turn my brain off, but I know every time I go to bed earlier and I get up earlier, I feel better. You're more well rested. It just makes sense, right? And so if you're tired when you get up the next day because you stayed up late, then there's really nowhere else to look but yourself. This is, again, this list is things that you can do on your own. And for, you know, that energy also, it doesn't have to do just with having actual physical or mental energy from sleep.

It also is the positive energy, right? So we don't want a room full of, you know, say negative Nellies that throw shade on everyone because they're in a bad mood. And, oh, that's a bad idea. And I'm going to grunt and groan. And how are we supposed to do this, right? That just kills team morale. It kills the dynamic. So, you know, bring that positive energy or just be neutral,

be the gray man or woman in the room, if you're just having one of those days and just soak it in, go to the meetings, do what you have to do, and then get out. But just really focus on not being a, you know, someone that detracts from the positivity in the room. You know, another thing of as far as energy is exercise, right? Whether it's getting up and walking around the floor, if you're in an office environment or in the morning or in the evenings exercise, the bonus you'll get is you'll be more tired and you'll sleep better. Also, you'll actually end up having more energy down the road if you're on a regular exercise program because you'll be healthier, which is also pretty awesome. So number five on the list of things that don't require talent, but I think does require some experience and is worth the study is body language, right? When someone's

slumping, they're not very confident, right? Or you're not in great shape, or they've been sitting or something like that. When someone's just looking at their phone the whole time while you're talking to them, either in a casual conversation or during a meeting when you, you know, we all want eyes up paying attention to what we're saying, because it's for everybody, everyone's benefit. And, you know, rolling eyes, those kind of things, we've seen that right, or, you know, hands on the hips, like Superman kind of close talking with you and, and really trying to portray their power. And so a couple good examples that I share is inc.com had a really good write up on body language. And so it is very well mind.com. So go ahead and look those up or go to betweenweentheslives.com and click on those links and it'll take it

to you. But openness is you're sitting in a chair, your feet are flat on the ground, your hands are just kind of on your legs and you're just sitting there looking, smiling, you're actively listening. And that's another thing is active listening and real listening versus a fake smile and just nodding your head also sends a different message. So body language, we totally control and we should be very conscious of it because it can make or break, you know, discussions, relationships, how we deal with folks. And so just really take some time, I would say for everybody to get used to body language. And,

and part of that has to do with our own confidence and our own comfort in ourselves, in the subject we're talking about, or the environment we're in. So just, you know, consider some of that and do a little bit of the research, I think it'll pay off as well. Number six is passion, right? So for me, my two kind of main areas, if I had buckets would be all hazard incident management and project management, those are kind of the foundations, I've got some medical and other skills, kind of more tactical hands-on stuff, but the areas are those. And so for me, I'm passionate about those because I love when we go from, hey, I've never met you all before, we've never come together as a team,

to we're starting to gel, kind of the forming, storming, norming, all that kind of stuff. But I love when we all start getting in tempo and working together and how good process and good relationship building can really help us all make progress and and whether that's finding a missing person or planning that special big international sporting event or putting a new piece of software in but you have to have some level of passion and really like what you're doing to help, you know, work through some of those uncomfortable scenarios and discussions and, and, and really, you know, give a crap really is a thing. And so one thing I would say is if you're not passionate about what you do, and again, it's, it's hard to,

you know, have that crazy passion every day. And I really admire folks that, that always do that. And I try to is consider doing something else, right? For me, it's why I got out of being on call in emergency management and having to respond and drive a vehicle is you get kind of burnout from that. So think about where you're at, what you do for your job and your career and do you love it? And is there something else that you could do that you would love, right? And take that passion there, But in whatever position you're in, make sure that you're doing it because you are passionate about it.

It makes a big difference. Number seven, doing extra. Extra is pretty easy. And that's kind of straight from the text that I wrote. One thing that I do that's extra, that's a simple thing in Outlook is when I send an email, and especially when I want to send it to a group

and I want to communicate very well, is I put a table in the body of it. I paste things in there and I kind of justify it. So that means that it looks very clean. It's not spread out across the entire email page. It's kind of bottom line up front right there. And it takes like five seconds to do it. Not everybody has to do that. I like doing that. But you know what I mean? So if you put a little more polish on a document, if you put a little more polish on the email, if you put a little more polish on the email you send or the way that you deliver a message or a speech or the presentation that you create or how you connect with folks, that makes a big difference.

And the doing extra will pay off in being recognized by your organization. And not just because everyone wants to be look at me, look at me, but it'll help you advance professionally because folks know that you're doing extra, you're not just stopping when it when the project schedule says, Nope, you shouldn't do anything else. You're still helping pull data for people when you're doing those kind of things. So consider doing extra. It's, it doesn't take a lot of extra effort. Number eight is be prepared. I've been in a few meetings where folks that absolutely should have had answers when they were asked directly and their answer was, I don't know.

And I don't mean the acceptable kind of, I don't know, but I'll find out about that for you because I haven't been involved in that. I mean, like this is an area that I should be primarily focused on and it is my project or my special event or my incident and I can't answer your question. And to me, the first thing I think is, well, you didn't prepare at all for this briefing or this update or whatever's going on. You need to always show up if you're representing a certain position, if you're a project manager, you're a planning section chief, you're a team leader somewhere, or you're a member of the team and you're expected to be the person that has the information,

is you should always be able to give the bottom line up front because that's typically what leadership wants, right? They're super busy. They don't have time. So what's the bottom line up front that you either need for me, don't need for me, what's going on, what's the status? And another way to say that is that elevator speech, right? So can you sum up what's going on in your area or with your project or with this event in, you know, a couple sentences, two or three sentences, maybe, but very shortly. So always show up to whatever you're supposed to be presenting on or be able to speak to prepare. If you don't, it looks pretty bad for you and everybody else on your team. Be coachable. That's number nine. This is tough, right? This is where we have to move our

egos out of the way. And this is where we have to recognize that we're not in the silo. So because I may get feedback from somebody that's in a different division, department, organization, discipline, whatever. But if it's helpful feedback on how I do my job, or how I conduct myself, or how I complete this task, then I need to let that go. And an example for me, when I was a public health emergency coordinator, I'd been in it for a few years and was very confident. And you know, I knew more than anybody else and this and that. And there's a few times where friends and colleagues of mine say, Hey, man, like you're, you know what you're talking about, you're a smart guy, you know, that's for sure. But sometimes it's in your delivery, that's not helpful, or to know that

you need to be open to other folks feedback and so good life lessons learned you know so if you're listening to someone if someone's giving you feedback they're talking about something you just stated and you are already feeling defensive like you already have to argue back with them then you're already you know you need to stop breathe listen and then do that again you know not just be ready to spit out an answer now that doesn't mean that you can't have answers that answer some of the questions that are brought up but not just for the sake of that you don't want to hear it because you don't want to feel like you did

anything wrong or your team did that's a different kind of answer so be coachable it's a learned thing over time but just be open to other folks feedback for sure. So the 10th thing on this list, at least the one that I referenced is attitude. It's similar to energy, but a bit different, right? So the thing for me is nobody wants to hear you complain, me complaints, other folks from the team complain. If there's constructive feedback that we can work together and solve, if we need to ask leadership or other folks for solutions, escalate. Awesome. But when, when you're the one saying, well, they didn't do this or no one told me, or, you know, basically we're all pointing outwards

to external things and it's, you know, there are times when it's on you, right? When it's your attitude, that's bringing us down when it's your attitude or my attitude, that's, you know, not helping the team. So we all definitely have influences and outside forces from our personal lives and professional lives and everything else and how we're feeling a certain day. But again, the attitude we take in any situation that we have any, any time, day in and out is on us. And I say that knowing that my attitude hasn't been the best all the time. Nobody's is right. And I know, Hey, that's me, right? I should have done something else better, should have rested more, should exercise that day should have, you know, whatever it is.

But our attitude is on us. And, you know, how we choose to create our attitude or have it, you know, will affect our relationship with others. So thank you for listening. That's my take on the 10 things that require zero talent kind of image that's out there. Again, that's posted on betweentheslides.com. The write up was a little more detail. You'll hear some similar verbiage. I was kind of looking at it as I went through and then kind of expanding on it. But you know, learning never stops. We always are improving all of us every day at every level of whatever career we're at. I definitely know I am. I'm learning from doing this podcast, from the feedback I've gotten from some of you out there. I appreciate it. Please continue to send that kp.bts.podcast at gmail.com or go to betweentheslides.com.

Also, if you want to be on the podcast, there's a form at betweentheslides.com. You'll see it. It says be on the podcast. Always looking to hear people's stories to share that with others. That's the whole deal here, right? Is help us get better, whether it's through some kind of more formal education, which we did earlier with the incident management stuff, project management tips on how to get certified.

But then really us as people connecting via podcasts. And I look forward to doing that a bit more and lining up more guests as we speak and some more process kind of evaluation. Penelope KG, Twitter and Instagram. I'm on LinkedIn. I'm on Facebook between the slides. Thank you all very much. And Godspeed.