Job Promotions Come From a Few Right Words From the Right People

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Employee Colleagues

You see, right now, private conversations are taking place in secret sessions. Behind closed doors with shades drawn, management muckity-mucks sitting in high-back leather chairs are thinking hard about you and a smattering of your competitors. One person is enthusiastically singled out with the confirmatory statement, “He’s different.” Someone asks, “What do you mean?” and the muckity-muck answers, “He fits in, but he stands out from the rest too. He does more, gets more out of others, knows more, cares more, and is more.”

Those few words carry significant ramifications in your work life, usurping the university you attended, companies you’ve worked for, titles you’ve held, and any other personal or professional pedigree attached to you.

A few of the right words from the right people spoken at the right time can make or break your career. You and I do what we can to make that happen, but sometimes we are “the windshield” and sometimes “we are the bug” and all we can do is continue to put more effort out.

 

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Debra Benton’s latest book, The Leadership Mind Switch: Rethinking How We Lead in the New World of Work (McGraw-Hill, June, 2017) is available on Amazon.

Picture of Debra Benton

Debra Benton

D.A. (Debra) Benton has been helping great individuals and organizations get even better for over 20 years. Just as exceptional athletes rely on excellent coaching to hone their skills, Debra's clients rely on her advice to advance their careers. She focuses on what is truly important to convert what you and your organization want to be from a vision into a reality. TopCEOCoaches.com ranks her in the World's Top 10 CEO Coaches noting she is the top female. And as conference keynote speaker she is routinely rated in the top 2%. Her client list reads like a “Who's Who” of executives in companies ranging from Microsoft, McDonald's, Kraft, American Express, Merrill Lynch, United Airlines, and PricewaterhouseCoopers to the Washington Beltway and U.S.Border Patrol. *She is the author of ten award-winning and best-selling business books including The Virtual Executive and CEO Material. She has written for the Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Fast Company. She has been featured in USA Today, Fortune, The New York Times, and Time; she has appeared on Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, and CBS with Diane Sawyer. To learn more Debra advising leaders, coaching, facilitating a workshop, or speaking: www.debrabenton.com

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