Thank you for the wonderful feedback on Designed for Success. The response to the interview with John Hagee has been remarkable. What an honor it was to be with Pastor Hagee on the set of John Hagee Today, airing around the world. If you missed the two-day interview, it will air again next week, February 21-22.
I appreciate each of you who have taken the time to comment. Your questions are also right on the mark. Many of you have asked about mentoring specifically, and I am delighted to address those questions here. First, if you don’t have a mentor, make 2008 the year to find one! Mentoring is by far one of the most powerful things you can do for your career (and your sanity). We are designed for success, but we are not designed to go it alone! Our lives should come with that disclaimer. Do not attempt any of this alone! A good mentor is a sounding board, a trusted advisor, and visionary. This is someone who can help you sort it out, find opportunity inside challenge, and craft your professional development. Ask the most successful people; they can point to mentors who have helped them achieve the level of success they currently enjoy. Several of you asked how to choose a good mentor, or what is the ‘criteria’ you should consider when selecting a mentor. Here are a few things you may want to consider. Good mentors:
Who in your personal or professional life meets these criteria? I encourage you to ‘test drive’ a mentor. Run a challenge you are currently facing by them. Ask their opinion about an opportunity. Learn from their experience by asking questions. What has been their greatest career lesson or most notable achievement? What skills did they consciously work to develop and master? What challenges have they faced, and how did they overcome those? What do they value, and how do they reflect and honor those values in their work? How has mentoring impacted them? As you look for a mentor, remember to be one. As you reach forward with one hand, reach back with another and bring someone along. You may have the answer someone else is looking for. Invest yourself in others. It is such a pleasure to watch another person ‘become.’
Designed for Success officially released on January 2, and I’m thrilled to say that it’s building tremendous momentum on all levels! Currently, it’s sitting in the top five bestsellers at Amazon.com for women in business, education and counseling and vocational guidance. This success has shown what we’ve always known: women in the workplace are a force to be reckoned with. Designed for Success has opened the dialogue with women in the workplace and around the world. The discussion is marvelous and I’m excited to have you join us. I am constantly fascinated by the differences between men and women in the workplace – how they approach opportunity, respond to obstacles, and use resources.
I am always looking for examples of these differences and the current television series “Celebrity Apprentice” is rich with them! If you are following the series, you know that in each episode a team of female celebrities is competing with male celebrities in a marketing contest. As of last week the women have lost 4 out of 4 contests! Why are the women losing so consistently? I’d love to hear your take on this, and to start the discussion, I’ll toss in this observation:The men are good at engaging and leveraging their network. In the first episode, only one of the female team members consciously leveraged her contacts. She was personally responsible for most of the money raised “marketing hotdogs” on the streets of NYC. While her teammates were selling hotdogs for $1, she was dialing her contacts asking for $5,000! The real insight comes from a teammate’s comment, “Thank God! Not all of us have contacts like that!” Bingo! That contest ended with one of the women hearing Donald Trump’s famous line, “You’re Fired!” with the reason being that she had consciously refused to use her contacts. She wanted to ‘save’ her resources!! Designed for Success encourages you to develop a strong network. It also asks the very important question, “Will your net hold?”I encourage you to think about your network and how to make it bigger and stronger and more powerful. Who is on the list (and what have you done for them lately)? More importantly, who should be on the list (and what is your plan to make that contact)? What are your thoughts on all of this? Careers, networking, even the Celebrity Apprentice! I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to drop me a line with feedback, support, or questions at www.dondiscumaci.com. I’ll look forward to hearing from you.