My new book “The Future of You! Creating Your Enduring Brand” is now available through Kickstarter. As a result, I am so very excited to share with you the following excerpt from my book, and encourage you to be one of the first to receive a copy along with some pretty amazing gifts once it begins shipping.
A moment of personal reflection….
Do you underplay or undervalue that which comes most naturally to you? If you don’t work hard for it then it must not be great. It must not be a specialty.
Unfortunately, far too many people either ignore or dismiss their unique ability, limiting their career opportunities by focusing on weaker areas that are oftentimes best delegated to others. (NOTE: refer to Promoting Your Genius Diagram.)
When I began my career, I aspired to spend it in fashion retail management. I was accepted into one of the most intense and thorough retail management training programs in the industry. The downside of such an honor is that it created the illusion that I was suited to manage people. As a result, and for several years in addition to running the business side of retail, I was also mandated to build a solid sales force. This included being responsible for hiring, firing and motivating a sales team.
If the truth be known, I was just mediocre at managing staff. I certainly knew it and perhaps my team did as well, especially given the fact that my passion for the assigned task waned when I had to push them to exceed their sales goals.
In this regard, my experience with one particular company stands out.
Due to construction, a parking lot that was adjacent to the store was closed for several months. Consequently, traffic was reduced by more than 60 percent. Despite the circumstances, leadership continued to set high sales targets. I vehemently disagreed with these “unrealistic” targets and commiserated with the sales team for being placed in a no-win situation. Despite my misgivings, I was nonetheless mandated to fire low producers and pressure top performers to move the merchandise with high pressure selling. Perhaps if I was highly competitive, I would have risen to the occasion.
However, my personal focus was on building my own clientele based on establishing a strong rapport and trust, and ensuring that customers were purchasing styles that best complimented their body shape and lifestyle.
After some deep soul searching, I had to admit that the “disconnect” between leadership’s objectives and my personal values and goals meant that I was a lousy manager; in that I didn’t know how to motivate a frustrated sales force. It took a couple of years more to finally acknowledge that management was not my strength and that my discontentment was being transferred to my staff. My work was at best mediocre and the days felt like they were getting longer and longer. My passion no longer existed and my energy level hit rock bottom. I became a mechanical manager in an energy-robbing role.
In retrospect, that should have been a warning to me to leave. I was doing a job, not living my dream.
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The entire book is filled with great insights that provide you with practical, easy-to-implement tools that will help you to create your enduring brand. I am particularly excited about the 9th Chapter which features industry leaders and celebrities who personally took the time to share their expertise within the pages of The Future of You!
Remember to click on my Kickstarter image below to watch my brief video, which provides a more detailed overview of my book, and to check out the wonderful gifts that are available as a token of my appreciation for your decision to support this exciting new project.
Click Here To Pledge . . .
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