Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter's Blog
Coaching People to Job Search, Hiring and Business Life Success
Most managers tend to use a whip.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been coaching people to play their professional and personal games BIG for what seems like 100 years.
For more No BS Coaching Advice & encouragement, visit my other website.
Ready to schedule your first coaching call?
In his book, “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There,” Marshall Goldsmith points out that often what makes someone successful are the very qualites they will need to modify to take their next step up.
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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.
Follow him at The Big Game Hunter, Inc. on LinkedIn for more articles, videos and podcasts than what are offered here and jobs he is recruiting for.
Visit www.TheBigGameHunter.us. There’s a lot more advice there.
Pay what you want for my books about job search
Subscribe to TheBigGameHunterTV on YouTube for advice about job hunting and hiring. Like videos, share and comment.
Trying to hire someone? Email me at JeffAltman@TheBigGameHunter.us
Do you need more in-depth coaching? Join my Coaching program.
Want to ask me questions via phone, Skype or Facetime? Have your job search questions answered.
In this periscope, I talk about the easiest way to take a big action.
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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.
Follow him at The Big Game Hunter, Inc. on LinkedIn for more articles, videos and podcasts than what are offered here and jobs he is recruiting for.
Visit www.TheBigGameHunter.us. There’s a lot more advice there.
Pay what you want for my books about job search
Subscribe to TheBigGameHunterTV on YouTube for advice about job hunting and hiring. Like videos, share and comment.
Trying to hire someone? Email me at JeffAltman@TheBigGameHunter.us
Do you need more in-depth coaching? Join my Coaching program.
Want to ask me questions via phone, Skype or Facetime? Have your job search questions answered.
Originally Published on LinkedIn
Dictionary.com offers these definitions for the term, “manage:”
I don’t think there is much relevance to the first or fifth definitions; the second can fall within the two relevant ones; I’ll simply say to many people feel like they are a situation like the 6th definition because of the second and third definition.s
Before I go further, let me acknowledge my opinion that forms the undercurrent to this article.
From the time we enter school as young boys and girls, we are conditioned for the world of being “managed.”
“Sit at your desk.”
“Memorize facts.”
“Get 100% on a test.
“Unless you do this, you won’t get into a ‘good college.’”
Then you repeat much the same behaviors because you are told, “Unless you get good grades in college, you won’t get a good job.”
Then we enter the workforce and, again, we are told to sit at a desk and do what we are told “or else you won’t advance in your career.”
It is no wonder that when people are fired (or “laid off,” to use the more popular HR vernacular), they are angry followed the rules they were conditioned to follow and were still “let go.”
What can replace management?
Here’s an alternative—being coached.
Again, using the relevant definition in dictionary.com, a coach is “a person who trains an athlete or a team of athletes.”
Great athletes are coached. They all know what the result is they want to compete for (a title, championship, a crown, a cup) and work with a coach who teaches them how to win.
“A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment,” said UCLA coach, John Wooden, the man who coached multiple collegiate basket ball champions including a team who, over multiple seasons, won 88 consecutive games over multiple seasons, won 7 NCAA championships in a row and 10 in 12 years (yes, he knew something about recruiting, too, and that is part of building a champion).
He was clear about his system and his expectations. He was a great recruiter of talent. He trained his people well, set expectations for each athlete and insisted they meet them.
Was he “a yeller?” Here’s what some said about him:
“He wanted to win, but not more than anything … My relationship with him has been one of the most significant of my life … The consummate teacher, he taught us that the best you are capable of is victory enough, and that you can’t walk until you crawl, that gentle but profound truth about growing up.” ~Kareem Abdul Jabar
“Wooden was a role model, not just as a coach and a wise man, but also for his modesty and character, and on how to age successfully. He was a legend in ways that go far beyond basketball. His personality, positivity, wisdom and attitude toward aging played important roles in his cognitive vitality. He also had a great sense of humor about life, and even death … One of Coach’s famous quotes was, ‘When I am through learning, then I am through.'” ~Alan Castel, UCLA assistant professor of psychology.
“[He] has a heart, brain and soul that have enabled him to inspire others to reach levels of success and peace of mind that they might never have dreamed possible on their own.” ~Bill Walton
There are many models of great coaches, all men with flaws who saw a way to win through coaching. Alabama football coach “Paul “Bear” Bryant was incredibly successful.
He said, “You must learn how to hold a team together. You must lift some men up, calm others down, until finally they’ve got one heartbeat. Then you’ve got yourself a team.”
For those of you who are “managers,” you will usually get better results if you coach your team.
Don’t know how to be a coach? Hire one for yourself and experience the difference.
© The Big Game Hunter, Inc. Asheville, NC 2016
Do you really think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.
In this periscope, I discuss the two actions you need to take in order to help you succeed in everything you do.
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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.
Follow him at The Big Game Hunter, Inc. on LinkedIn for more articles, videos and podcasts than what are offered here and jobs he is recruiting for.
Visit www.TheBigGameHunter.us. There’s a lot more advice there.
Pay what you want for my books about job search
Subscribe to TheBigGameHunterTV on YouTube for advice about job hunting and hiring. Like videos, share and comment.
Trying to hire someone? Email me at JeffAltman@TheBigGameHunter.us
Do you need more in-depth coaching? Join my Coaching program.
Want to ask me questions via phone, Skype or Facetime? Have your job search questions answered.
You took the wrong message from school. You decided that you could not fail or do anything wrong. That was unrealistic. In this video I talk about failure and recovering from and how important that is.
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Do you really think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.
What do I mean by, “run your race,” in the context of job hunting and your career?
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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.
Follow him at The Big Game Hunter, Inc. on LinkedIn for more articles, videos and podcasts than what are offered here and jobs he is recruiting for.
Visit www.TheBigGameHunter.us. There’s a lot more advice there.
Email me if your firm is trying to hire someone.
Pay what you want for my books about job search
Subscribe to TheBigGameHunterTV on YouTube for advice about job hunting and hiring. Like videos, share and comment.
Trying to hire someone? Email me at JeffAltman@TheBigGameHunter.us
Do you need more in-depth coaching? Join my Coaching program.
Want to ask me questions via phone, Skype or Facetime? Have your job search questions answered.
Originally published on LinkedIn
“When you’re down and troubled and you need a helping hand
and nothing, whoa, nothing is going right.
Close your eyes and think of me and soon I will be there
to brighten up even your darkest nights.
You just call out my name, and you know where ever I am
I’ll come running to see you again.
Winter, spring, summer, or fall, all you have to do is call and I’ll be there, yeah, yeah,
you’ve got a friend.”
I remembered those lyrics as I spoke to someone recently. He was a successful leader in his organization, well-regarded, encouraged and mentored but wrestling with demons that were becoming pervasive in his thinking.
As someone who has wrestled with my inner voices and was now serving as his coach, I was well-equipped and without the baggage of friendship.
The baggage of friendship?
Friendship should come with the privilege of being able to say anything to someone and not fear retribution but, too often, people hold back on their advice or are not skilled enough to listen carefully for the subtleties to offer anything useful.
The result is advice that does little to help and causes people to feel criticized by what feels like a betrayal.
In addition, being a friend allows people to dismiss wise but difficult advice too easily.
“She doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” when she really does.
I am fortunate to have learned at an early enough age that I need to seek help from experts to help me overcome challenges. At a time that I struggled with a hard choice with my career, I sought out a therapist who spent weeks with me sorting it out. Each week, I would march it, angry, and walk out relieved, having released all the pressure in my emotional teapot.
“Lie down,” he would command.
“No, I’ll fall asleep. You’ll just have to keep looking interested even when you aren’t.” I was very angry and took it out on him.
But, with time, I realized this bickering wasn’t useful and sought support to remember to play
I had breakfast with several therapists and coaches recently and asked about why people don’t listen to their friends’ advice.
“No skin in the game,” one said. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, there is nothing invested to receive the advice.
“So you’re saying that paying someone makes a person more committed to acting in their own interest,” I followed up.
“Without a doubt. Paying them is the anointing of expert status upon someone. Without that status, people tend to ignore the advice.”
It explains some of the problem but not all of it.
I have noticed people hire coaches and not speak with friends.
“Why didn’t you just speak with a friend,” I would ask.
“I didn’t trust my friends to keep our conversations confidential.”
I wrote an article a few months ago called, “If you want a friend, get a dog” based upon a line Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) says in the movie, “Wall Street.”
It’s clear from peoples’ behavior that having friendships doesn’t cut it in the advice game. We just don’t trust our friends enough.
© The Big Game Hunter, Inc. Asheville, NC 2015
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.
Follow him at The Big Game Hunter, Inc. on LinkedIn for more articles, videos and podcasts than what are offered here and jobs he is recruiting for.
For more No BS Coaching Advice & encouragement, visit my website.
I tell the story of two dragons, one domesticated and one wild, as a metaphor tor talking about the importance of taking a break.
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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.
Follow him at The Big Game Hunter, Inc. on LinkedIn for more articles, videos and podcasts than what are offered here and jobs he is recruiting for.
Visit www.TheBigGameHunter.us. There’s a lot more advice there.
Email me if your firm is trying to hire someone.
Pay what you want for my books about job search
Subscribe to TheBigGameHunterTV on YouTube for advice about job hunting and hiring. Like videos, share and comment.
Trying to hire someone? Email me at JeffAltman@TheBigGameHunter.us
Do you need more in-depth coaching? Join my Coaching program.
Want to ask me questions via phone, Skype or Facetime? Have your job search questions answered.
THE LAST WEEK in professional football was consumed with the tag line of a commercial:
Does he or doesn’t he (cheat)?”
I will leave it to investigators to figure out whether cheating occurred in New England and, if it did, how it was done. I will say, however, that there is a lot we can learn from watching sports on tv that can be applied to our careers and our lives. Now to be clear, the examples I will offer are from a fan’s eye view, not from any personal knowledge of the athlete.
1. We are what we repeatedly do.
I interviewed Chance Taureau for Job Search Radio (the show went live in February 2015 and is available in iTunes, Stitcher and on WebTalkRadio.net). Among his coaching clients are professional athletes paid amounts equal to small government programs to execute. Do you think they are not practicing their skills until they become second nature in every circumstance? Whether it is interviewing or performing your job, are you practicing to make your ability to perform second nature.
2. Winners find the way to win. Losers have excuses.
Have you ever noticed how often a bad team leads early in a game only to lose in the end? have you ever seen an unknown tennis player win the first set only to get trounced and lose. Winners know how to summon up the muscle memory to win. One of the ways they do that is that they know that losers will summon up a similar muscle memory to lose at the end. It takes time to turn around a losing culture. It is often better to get rid of mediocre performers and rebuild. Mediocre performers work to lower the standards of new people to their level because they are threatened. Cut them rather than let them contaminate others.
3. You are what your record says you are.
This quote from Bill Parcels, former head coach of several great pro teams, is one of the most important things people need to accept. It doesn’t matter how close you get to success. You lost and the number in “the ‘L’ column” has increased by one. In life and in business, you are judged by results far more often than not. Companies may tell you they want to hire team players but they are lying. Ask any CEO whether he or she would like to hire a nice mediocre performer or the next Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg or Larry Ellison and I suspect you know the answer. Start aiming higher in your aspirations.
4. There is a price to pay to excel.
The corollary to this is that it is the things we do when no one is looking that make an enormous difference. Ask any pro athlete about the work they do to get ready. Do you think Derek Jeter just decided to do that cutoff play that cost the Oakland A’s a game the series to the Yankees? No, it was something practiced out of site. How about that incredible stamina that Jerry Rice had? No, he did work on a 2 and a half mile hill as part of his training that became the admiration and model for other pros.
5. We are in control of our choices.
You say you want to be successful but will probably go home tonight and watch tv and do nothing to implement any changes to your life or routines. Pick one thing. Change your diet for tomorrow. Ask a friend to support you with making a change. Research online courses. Maybe the change you need to make is recognize that you are a workaholic and spend time with your wife, husband, partner, boyfriend, girlfriend or kids a little more often. Do something different. Again, pick one thing and make a change. Do it repeatedly until it becomes a habit.
6. Hire a coach.
Most people think they can make changes by themselves. They take off 10 pounds and put on 12. They learn to play an instrument and put it down and never pick it up. They aspire to promotions but do little or nothing to earn them and complain when their nominal effort is not instantly rewarded. Falling off the wagon and going back to an old habit is not the path to success. Successful athletes all have coaches. What do they know you don’t? Act like a pro and not like an amateur. Make a commitment to yourself and hire a coach to help you improve.
© The Big Game Hunter, Inc. Asheville, NC 2015