NOTE: This is a book excerpt with minor edits from Mandatory Greatness: The 12 Laws Of Driving Exceptional Performanceby J.T. O'Donnell and Dale Dauten.
Fear is your friend.
Yvonne rolled into a topic she called Big Leadership, which was a term meant to differentiate the discussion from one-on-one leadership. For this she turned to the case of Kim McWaters who heads UTI (Universal Technical Institute, a for-profit education company training auto mechanics and other technicians).
McWaters started at the company right out of high school. After 18 years she was made CEO and announced this startling revelation: UTI was pursuing the wrong customer.
Back in fiscal 2001, UTI had six campuses and 5,900 students. They also had losses of $2 million on revenues of $92 million. That’s when McWaters took over the CEO job and started insisting that, despite losing money, “Not often do people have the chance to help shape a company, an entire workforce and an entire industry. We have the unique ability and responsibility to change people’s lives for the better.”
Yvonne said, “Picture it: A young woman who started out answering phones, telling the employees of a company losing millions that they were going to change an industry by changing lives. That’s Big Leadership.”
They did it by no longer thinking of the students as the customers – the people paying to be there – and instead focusing the organization on the companies that she wished would hire UTI graduates, companies like BMW and Mercedes. McWaters said they went from “filling seats” to “filling jobs.” That meant she had to build the organization for “the needs of industry not the wants of students.”
(The industry folks, for instance, said they wanted dress codes and drug testing and other things that are definitely NOT on the “wants” list of young students.)
Here’s the denouement of her story: In a decade, UTI went from 6 campuses to 11, from 5900 students to 18,000, and from losing 2 million to making 22 million. Over most of that decade they’ve placed more than 90 percent of their graduates and even in the two years of the auto meltdown, it was over 80 percent, leading graduates into solid jobs with Porsche and Harley-Davidson, Honda and Freightliner, even NASCAR.
“Isn’t that marvelous?” Yvonne asked.
“Is it. I don’t know how she pulled it off. I can picture all the resistance she must have gotten from both sides, the students and the administration.”
“One of her mottos is ‘Progress, not perfection.’ When I last spoke with Kim, she mentioned that even now, after all their success, one of her executive still hates that line and every time she uses it, he shakes his head and says, ‘That kills me.’
But she had the Big Leadership and kept saying ‘Progress, not perfection,’ and all the while she insisted that everyone pay attention to the metrics - there are six numbers discussed in every Monday staff meeting. That’s how you create a great turnaround and an organization that does, indeed, change lives.
“I’m sure she heard ‘Are you crazy?’ many times – or maybe it was just whispered behind her back – but you know she was second-guessed. And I suspect people who didn’t believe in her Big Leadership found other places to work. She’s very likable, but she had to tell people things they didn’t like hearing. That didn’t matter to her; she showed everyone the Big Goal and the metrics to get there."
Mandatory Greatness is presented as a conversation between a high-powered business coach, Yvonne Wolfe (described as having “skirts of steel”), and a young manager who won a day of her coaching in a charity raffle. She observes him in his work, then offers a stark and startling analysis of him and his approach to his job: By imitating other managers he is making himself “a commodity product” destined for “inadvertent mediocrity.” She then teaches him to remake himself into a highly-valued teammate and a true leader using The 12 Laws of Driving Exceptional Performance.
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The leaves are changing, the kids are back in school, and that familiar chill is in the air. You think it's the perfect time to look for a job, and it is! But are your job search fears preventing you from making that leap?
It's not uncommon to feel lost when embarking on your job search journey. After all, school teaches us everything except how to get a job. What should you put on your resume? What questions should you ask in an interview? How can you stand out in the hiring process when there's so much competition?
Are you feeling spooked yet?
Believe it or not, there's no need to be afraid of the job search process! You can land your dream job with the right tools and strategy. You can find a job that won't give you nightmares. Here are three spooky secrets every job seeker should know as they look for a job this fall.
1. An Effective Job Search Starts With An Interview Bucket List
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Despite your fears, you've decided to take the plunge and look for a new job. You might be asking yourself, "Where do I start?" The answer is simple: start by creating an interview bucket list.
An interview bucket list is a list of 10-20 companies you'd love to work for. Are you passionate about a company's products or services? Do you feel connected to its mission? Can you relate to its values and beliefs as an organization? If you answer "yes" to any of these questions, that company probably belongs on your interview bucket list.
Once you create an interview bucket list, you'll be able to conduct a targeted job search, one with direction and a foundation upon which everything else will be built. An interview bucket list helps you focus your job search and networking strategies on the right opportunities, making it easier to get your foot in the door at one of your dream companies.
2. Your Job Application Needs To Disrupt Hiring Managers
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In order to stand out in the hiring process, you need to disrupt recruiters and hiring managers. You accomplish this by doing two things: optimizing your resume and writing a disruptive cover letter.
A well-optimized resume includes keywords from the job description. This ensures your resume gets past the ATS and into the hands of the hiring manager. Once it's in front of the hiring manager, it needs to grab and keep their attention. Quantifying your work experience—adding numbers to your bullet points—will make you stand out from other applicants. Hiring managers will want to know more about you and your accomplishments, and that's how you land a phone interview.
Before that, though, a hiring manager will read your cover letter. To disrupt them, you need to write a disruptive cover letter (obviously!). A disruptive cover letter gives you the opportunity to tell a story about why you feel connected to the company you're applying for. It's that storytelling aspect that will stand out to hiring managers and compel them to pick up the phone and give you a call.
3. Employers Hire You Based On 3 Things
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You can't get hired unless you know what employers are assessing you on in the interview process. While your skills and expertise matter, companies actually hire for three things: personality, aptitude, and experience (in that order).
Most job seekers don't realize how important it is to demonstrate their personality, aptitude, and experience in an interview. You could have the right experience for a job, but if the hiring manager doesn't think your personality is a good fit for the company culture, you probably won't get a job offer.
Make sure you demonstrate your soft skills and learn how to answer behavioral interview questions to prove you're the best candidate for the job you're applying for, not just the most qualified.
Want To Learn More Job Search Secrets?
As you look for a job this fall, it might be helpful to know some more spooky secrets so you can get over your job search fears and finally take control of your career.
We know the job search process can be scary. However, it's important to get clear on what you want to do next and focus on conducting a strategic job search, or what we refer to at Work It DAILY as job shopping. This is the only way to effectively market yourself to employers. If they can't see exactly where and how you add value, then that's going to decrease your chances of landing the job.
The competition is fierce, and there are a lot of factors that are out of your control. But the one factor you can control is your job search strategy, the tools and tactics you use to land a job.
If you want to learn the secrets to conducting a strategic job search, sign up for our Job Search Bootcamp, a two-hour, on-demand video workshop that comes with a free workbook.
In this video workshop, you'll learn:
- How to use backchanneling to get directly to hiring managers.
- The secret to using a connection story to stand out against the competition.
- How social media can be your secret weapon to get job interviews.
- The resume format that is getting job seekers more job interviews.
- And, a lot more hacks for job search success!
Let us show you the secrets to getting a new, better-paying job you actually love. Sign up for our Job Search Bootcamp today.
Are you ready to land the job of your dreams (and leave the job of your nightmares)?
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