McDonald Rock Your Gig And Get Promoted

Career Growth Strategies
1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-1-0983-7005-3
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet/DL/kein Kopierschutz

E-Book, Englisch, 210 Seiten

Rock Your Gig And Get Promoted offers readers the inspiration, perspectives and tools required to ignite career growth. Its intention is to serve as a guide to help uncover new approaches to career enhancement by providing an evolved, sustainable and highly effective path to greater success. Who is this book for? New Hires and Grads that want to hit the ground running. Experienced individuals feeling like they are stuck and want to reenergize their career momentum. People that like their personal growth with a Rock n' Roll soundtrack.

Autoren/Hrsg.

McDonald, Rich

Leseproben

INTRODUCTION: REFLECTION The genesis of Rock Your Gig was reflection. Not the casual “what did I have for lunch yesterday” reflection. I’m talking about a deep, thoughtful, post-mortem type of reflection—the forensic retrospective that only happens at the big intersections in life. Graduation, your daughter’s wedding, the passing of a loved one, or the passing of time; those stop-drop-and-recollect moments when you try to take it all in and answer the burning questions—what just happened and how did I get here? In my case, the intersection was retirement. The specific catalyst, my yet-to-be-penned retirement speech. An amazing twenty-five-year career at Fender Musical Instruments was coming to an end. It had been nothing short of a dream-come-true for a guitar-crazy kid from Scottsdale, Arizona. Now, it was time to synthesize this incredible journey into some salient perspectives to deliver from the podium. Of course, the primary objective was to try not to bore the heck out of everyone waiting to get to the hospitality bar and keep from crying if at all possible. So, I sat, pen in hand, familiar Moleskine journal at the ready …reflecting. Even in the midst of this technological word processing tsunami, I still prefer the tactile partnership of a Moleskine journal. They aren’t made with mole skin, are they? I sincerely hope not. Sorry, I digress. Poised to begin, I pondered. There were the requisite questions that needed to be answered; “What were my proudest moments in product development?”, “Who were the coolest artists to work with?” I looked over my shoulder at this dynamic, diverse experience searching for the answers to these questions and others. What were the standout cap-stone memories? What defined the value and essence of my career, from the inside out? How did I end up where I did? I rummaged through the past; the innovative, award-winning products that changed the way musicians create, share and curate their music, the disruptive business strategies that propelled Fender into a leadership role in the rapidly evolving retail landscape, the globalization of Fender’s Marketing and Artist Relations divisions, the awards and accolades—both professional and personal—none of them really rose up in the mix. Honestly, not what I was expecting. The first synthesized perspective to surface was privilege. It accurately captured so much of what I was feeling. Privileged to steward a legendary brand that I absolutely adore, privileged to have my fingerprints on its iconic products, privileged for the creative freedom, trust and support I was given. The sense of privilege was quickly followed by a feeling of gratitude. I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunities my career at Fender had afforded me. When I joined, the brand was barely on its feet after suffering a long decline at the hands of former owner, CBS (yep, the television and music conglomerate). It was a small, scrappy, passionate team that was engineering the turnaround. Your job description was “Whatever needs to be done” which created a broad scope of opportunities, if you were willing to step up. It dawned on me how powerful of a motivator desire can be. There were challenging times for sure, but I never had to discipline myself to get up and go to work. Desire beats discipline in the long run I told myself. I was grateful. So, it wasn’t specifically the product or the artists, it wasn’t the world travel or the disruptive business strategies. Yet it was all of that. What was missing was the common denominator. The thread that ran through all those bucket list experiences. Then it occurred to me (even as self-absorbed as I can be) that, rising through the mist of all my memories, were people. Lots and lots of people—the many wacky, talented, passionate individuals I worked with across every division, in every corner of the world. My memories shifted from individuals to the teams they made up. It makes me smile to recall the crazy, cool, unexpected outcomes that occurred when passion and diversity are focused on a common goal. Countless key strategies created by teams big and small; digital engineering teams, sales teams, marketing teams, artist relations teams, trade-show teams, operations teams, budgeting teams, forecasting teams, customer service teams. Intellectual property teams, “You are being deposed, we are here to prep you” teams, culture team, holiday party team-people and teams are what really defined my career. A wave of relief came over me. My retirement speech suddenly had form and dimension. I felt privileged and grateful to serve a brand I had loved since I was a teenager. What stands out in my mind’s eye are all the amazing people I worked with and the teams we served. I imagined I would probably have to say a little more to get the nice watch (I jest), but it was a sincere, authentic perspective on my career that I could honestly share. The retirement events went off without a hitch. Yes, event(s), there were two. One in the Fender Hollywood office and one at the Scottsdale campus. I was terrified that I would be an emotional wreck. As it turned out, everyone else was and, by the time I took the stage, all the tears had been shed. I have never felt as professionally honored, respected and appreciated as I did during those events. Indeed, in my world, it really was about people and teams. As the weeks passed, as I acclimated to life without the yoke of employment, I kept thinking about the people and the team dynamics I experienced in my time at Fender. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. You get such a unique perspective when you come into leadership as I had done—the long way, from the ground floor. You have a sense for what it’s like on both sides of the fence. Like a relentless studio producer, I listened to the sessions over and over in my mind. Who was a little off the groove on this track and what players are sitting pretty in the mix? What songs were doomed from the onset and why couldn’t we see the inherent flaws? I loaded the deck with my career compilation reel and gave it a listen. For years I was getting promoted and I really couldn’t tell you exactly how or why. I started in an entry level position in Fender’s Customer Service department taking calls for replacement parts. I’d see the ten-digit part numbers in my dreams—0064063000: reverb tanks Twin Reverb amp. I was promoted ten times in twenty years, eventually becoming Fender’s Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer. It felt like I was motoring along, working hard like everyone else and, suddenly, like an alien abduction without all the creepy medical stuff, I was picked up and dropped into a new role. I never felt ready, I was always scared I was in over my head—and it always turned out well. Or as Michael (one of my favorite Artist Relations reps) told me, “Dude, what a mic drop career!” Why? What was I doing differently than my peers? What did I have in common with other successful executives? At this point I was absolutely captivated and driven to understand more about human connectivity and team dynamics. Research, case studies, interviews and personal peer reviews all came together organically in the months following my retirement epiphany. That’s what it looks like when desire is driving! My father once told me, “If you really want to learn about something, find a way to fall in love with it” I was falling in love with understanding the mechanics of personal and professional fulfillment. I searched for the consistent traits running through the undercurrents of all these positive, elevated careers. I was looking for Patterns of Success which are defined as, “…the consistent behaviors, attitudes and beliefs that define our personal and professional profile.” Essentially, the positive things we do that contribute to our success. I formalized my approach and started building a “data cube” of sorts to keep track of the variables. Energy, Creativity, Focus, Accountability, Collaboration, Authenticity and Versatility—these attributes were obvious in most high-performing individuals. I’m generalizing for sure, it’s very situational and role dependent, but overall these traits are table-stakes and shared by most motivated individuals. Here is where it got interesting; possessing all these attributes did not guarantee success, or even stack the deck in their favor. There were many individuals that possessed most, or all these traits yet failed to secure trust, happiness and success. What was missing? My perspectives started taking shape when I backed up from the individual’s profile to examine the team dynamic. How did these high performing individuals navigate the team environment? The assumption is easy: energized, accountable individuals with high integrity working together equals a bad ass team. Right? No. Sorry. This was the moment Rock Your Gig came to life. I started to see the universal nature of individual and team success. The successful, fulfilled peers I observed in my corporate career shared the same foundational magic as those from my musical sphere. It didn’t matter if they were a bass player in a ska band or an analyst in the finance division, their long-term success shared a similar motif. It was clear to me at this point. Individuals, teams and businesses, just like bands, sustain a higher level of personal and...