Lots of stuff to talk about today, the NCAA basketball tournaments and a great new career advice book from a very dear friend, Sylvia Montero.
Basketball first. Butler is in its second consecutive championship game. I love the Bulldogs. They’re from a small school – 4,400 students — in a mid major conference. Yet they’ve been able to get into the championship game two years in a row due to their tenacity. And you know that I think that tenacity is a major contributor to life and career success.
On the other hand, there is UConn, the University of Connecticut. Both their men’s and women’s teams were in the Final Four this year. The men are playing for the championship tonight. The women lost to Notre Dame last night. I thought it would have been pretty cool to see them both win the championship like they did in 2004. But that’s not to be. No other Division 1 school has ever won both the men’s and women’s basketball championship in the same year.
Cathy had UConn winning the men’s tournament in her bracket. I had them in the final game losing to Kansas. Neither of us had Notre Dame and Texas A&M in the women’s championship game.
Who do you think will win the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball championship?
On to career success advice and a great new book. Sylvia Montero’s new book Make It Your Business: Dare to Climb the Ladder of Leadership is a must read if you are interested in creating the life and career success you want and deserve.
Sylvia and I worked together in the Pfizer Management and Organization Development Department many years ago. She was a great colleague, energetic and fun to work with. We moved in different directions in our lives and careers. I went my way, becoming a career success coach and speaker. Sylvia stayed with Pfizer, eventually becoming the Executive VP of HR for the world’s largest pharmaceutical company. We’ve maintained our friendship over the years.
Make It Your Business is a great book – part memoir, part career advice. Sylvia, now retired, shares her life story: born on a sugar cane plantation in Puerto Rico in a house with no running water or electricity, growing up in the projects of the Lower East side of New York, getting a scholarship to Columbia University, marrying young, getting divorced and raising a child on her own. She also tells the story of her rise up the corporate ladder.
While her story is inspirational, I find the career advice she sprinkles in to be valuable – not only to young women, but for anyone interested in creating their career success.
Sylvia says that if you want to create your career success in the corporate world, you need to:
- Build your self confidence.
- Become an outstanding performer.
- Become organizationally savvy.
- Present yourself in a positive manner.
- Be generous.
In addition to these five keys to career success, Sylvia adds a section called “Working Woman, Working Mother” that is a must read for women professionals. She discusses how she managed to raise a child, who went on to become a loving husband and father—and a career success, while making her way up the corporate ladder.
Sylvia and I agree on a lot of things when it comes to creating your life and career success. I devote 20 tweets to the importance of self confidence in my career advice book Success Tweets. And, while I often tell my career success coach clients that good performance is not enough to guarantee their life and career success, it is the price of admission to the career success sweepstakes.
Sylvia says “Present yourself in a positive manner.” Tweet 68 in Success Tweets says, “Be well groomed and appropriate for every situation. Always dress one level up form what is expected. You’ll stand out from the crowd.”
Sylvia advises her readers to “Be generous.” Tweet 127 in Success Tweets says, “Pay it forward. Build relationships by giving with no expectation of return. Give of yourself to build strong relationships.”
Sylvia and I think alike when it comes to life and career success. And I don’t think this is by accident. She spent over 30 years building a successful career inside a very large company. I’ve spent over 30 years consulting with very large companies. We’ve come to similar conclusions about career success from our work. As I like to say, creating the career success you deserve is common sense. But you have to apply your common sense for it to do you any good.
The common sense career success coach point here is simple. There are a few common sense principles that, if you apply them, will lead to your life and career success. Sylvia Montero presents these with great clarity in her new book, Make It Your Business. Sylvia suggestions for career success — build your self confidence, become an outstanding performer, become organizationally savvy, present yourself like the professional you are, and be generous – are very similar to the common sense ideas I present in Success Tweets. She and I are not only friends, but kindred spirits about what it takes to create the life and career success you want and deserve. Use your common sense and you’ll become the life and career success you deserve to be.
That’s my thinking on the NCAA basketball tournaments, and more important, the career advice in Sylvia Montero’s new book Make It Your Business. What do you think? Please read Sylvia’s book and share your thoughts with us in a comment. As always, thanks for reading my thoughts on life and career success. I value you and appreciate you.
Bud
Don’t forget, you can download a free copy of Success Tweets at http://www.SuccessTweets.com
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