The Working Ant

Inspired by a former manager, an over 15 year mentor, and a prominent technology leader here in the San Francisco Bay Area, this statement is perhaps one that lingers most with me as it has with hundreds of others I have had the privilege to coach. Often one cannot find the words to structure thought when thoughts are currently battling for our attention. What do we do? Do we take the path of greatest risk and resistance in pursuit of our passions in a profession that may or may not yield profitability? Or do we stay put, head down, sacrificing so much of what we desire for stability and certainty. Do stability and certainty promote sanity for you or do they not? Marcus Aurelius once said, "You may leave this life at any moment. Let that then determine your thoughts and actions..." Alas, we discuss a topic that will constantly be in the background before it surfaces to the foreground from the recesses of our mind. Understand: Often what we want most may not be what is best for us and yet, what should prevent us from pursuing what we love even if the destination is unknown? Realize: Allure of the unknown and the desire to pursue our professional passions can elevate our happiness just as much as it can torment our souls. Therefore you must act decisively. What will it be? How will it be? Where should you be? Who is it you want to be!?

Who ever said you needed to be in a position of power to influence a team, an organization, or your manager? Most of us feel we need to show up wearing a white robe or have a specific title so people can listen to us when it couldn't be further from the truth. Maybe you want your voice to be heard more often or feel you want to be fully respected and appreciated for the value you bring. Perhaps you have some great opinions that you wish others would take more seriously. If you find yourself constantly wondering how you can stand out, be more respected, and be heard, this is an episode your ears wouldn't want want you to miss. Understand: Mastering the art of influence without authority is possible. When decisions are made at the top, it's the ears of your leader that are lended to those most trusted. Know this: Those that are masters of influence are often not visible to the public eye. Don't shy away from the spotlight when you can also choose to maneuver around in the shadows.

You see it all the time. Managers and leaders demand excellence. Your KPI's, OKR's, SMART objectives, and so on, keep you on your toes and in the know of what gets you to the next level. What's not measured is heart, passion, and intent. There seldom is enough time to identify rising talent because we're too in the weeds trying to stay afloat. There is a way forward through this - if not through you than it's with those around you. Working to promote your colleagues, even your mid-level manager to a higher position will do you an enormous amount of good for your career. Know this: Your accomplishments can take you only so far - your relationships can take you further. Bet on the right people to help progress in your career and you'll find enormous rewards in the long-term. An incredible deep dive into the psychology of creating winners so you too can win. That's in this week's episode of the Working Ant.

We all strive for a level of stability. We wish for a sustainable, predictable lifestyle. The hustle requires too much muscle and we tire out quickly expecting results, which when not apparent, make us default back to predictability and sustainability. Getting through the day is the obstacle in the way when you know things could be different for you. What's worth the effort? The paycheck? The weekend? The house over your head? Understand: All of these goals are noble and necessary, but they lead us to operate at what is sustainable whereas if we adopted a mindset of sustenance, our wheels would be spinning differently, our outlook would have more rigor, and our pursuit would be overflowing with passion. Know this: Sustenance is what carries you to new heights. Sustainability will not. That's in this weeks episode of the Working Ant! Love my channel? Do you feel inspired by my content? Connect with me on LinkedIn and let me know your thoughts! Your Host and Coach, Ramy.

Need I say much more? We work so hard to get ahead and some of us can't seem to rise above the surface for air when it's already performance review time. Wiping away the sweat, sitting upright in our chairs, deep breaths and in an instant the year has gone by. It's performance review time and with a stroke of a pen we're marked, graded, laddered, evaluated, and formally given a category of associated measured value. And yet all this time we've been closing things out, whacking error moles, fielding support, presenting, managing, leading, sacrificing and so much more - we find ourselves evaluated not over output, but outcome. Dazed and frayed we freeze into a numb state unknowingly realizing that outcome is what truly mattered and what gets measured all along. Know this: You will be measured (and more than likely remembered) by your outcomes, not output. In this week's episode of the Working Ant, you will walk away enlightened (at least temporarily) knowing what is truly important in your role.

*Know this: Whatever job or role you currently have that you don't believe adds any significant value to the company can in fact be transformed into an integral role that many depend on. *Understand: Perception matters. *Realize: Most people will benchmark you off of feelings, not facts. If you're loving the Working Ant, please connect with me on LinkedIn and let me know!

What comes through habit, seems completely natural. If we tell ourselves something over and over again, it probably may start sounding more true even if at first we called it into question. So why rationalize instead of accept a reality, even if temporary? It's hard to see the truth of our situations, but harder to accept it. Our quest to grow and progress is marred with temporary appeals and diversions from meaningful change - and yet in moments, when the time is right, we embrace what is necessary to move us forward. Rationalization is different from being rational. One is responsible while the other is reckless. That's in this week's episode of the Working Ant.

"He who is self absorbed may temporarily protect himself in his mental castle of preserved self image, letting no one near his sphere to penetrate influence - but when exposed to the ocean of abundant possibilities and alternative thought, the barriers of the mental castle become nothing more than sand washed away by water." The Working Ant. The mental barriers of your fortified mind may appear to give you the peace of mind and ease of fortified solace, but solitude which will occur as a result serves you no other purpose but solidified justification for everything you have while preventing you from achieving your true potential. Long term satisfaction then, demands a new harvest! No shying away from challenging topics here on the Working Ant. Have a fabulous week and stay safe!

Our "Undisturbed Inner Voice" (UIV) exists in each and everyone of us. It may surface, but only when called on, only when asked to deliberately be activated. Like any mental muscle that is rarely ever flexed, it is difficult to really understand and utilize our UIV when in reality, the progression of our career is so dependent on it. That's in this week's episode of the Working Ant. Connect with me on LinkedIn and share your thoughts! Your work, life, and circumstances inspire me.

"If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished?" Rumi. In this bonus episode of the Working Ant, let's combine what we know and do not know (and choose to ignore) in order to achieve our goals. When we're in this mindset, this aloofness and innocence breeds the mental bridge between what are just mere retained facts to true learning. We'll do this through self-revelation where we don't just admit what we do not know but instead use our ignorance as an actual tool to pursue our goals! Have a great week! :)

You have just one boss, but your boss has many direct reports. You have infrequent scheduled 1-1's with your boss, but your boss has several 1-1's with his directs each day. Such limited interactions on our side, and such an abundance of interactions on our leader's side means we must be more deliberate and intentional about these very infrequent conversations - our career progression depends on it! With such limited time with those who hold power over our progress, I'm going to coach you on how to build stronger, more meaningful, and deeper conversations with your boss. Be the one to bell the cat! That's in this week's episode of the Working Ant.

“Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.” Marcus Aurelius. When we think about building relationships at work, we often don't think about the future, we think about the now. How can this person accelerate my career today vs. how can I grow with this person to partner with for an unknown opportunity tomorrow. Will this person remember me more for the quality of my work, or the joy in working with me? Self consumption with what we believe is a benchmark for success is often far from the reality. It's no wonder why most of us don't keep in touch with former colleagues when in fact they are an equal (sometimes greater) asset than those we work with today. The secret is that positive associations with ourselves need to be strong and they need to be compelling - making others not know precisely what your vocational value add will be, but sure as day and certain as light of the value your presence alone brings in an organization. Invest in positive associations now and secure your career in this ever so uncertain world - that's in this episode of The Working Ant!

"Constant misfortune brings this one blessing: to whom it always assails, it eventually fortifies." Seneca As we progress in our careers, many of us find ourselves inevitably in leadership positions commensurate with our hard earned experience. Naturally, we become better at solutioning while directing others from our team to solve. Yet when we've reached the precise level we aspired for early in our careers, we find ourselves struggling in interviews to execute on, let alone comprehend why we are asked to solve for such granular level problems of the individual contributor role we successfully transitioned from years ago! Are they hiring for a manager/leader or an individual contributor?! So what then becomes of us at this level? Do we stick around longer in the certainty of our current company despite our yearning to transition? How do we prepare for the circumstances ahead of us while staying relevant and effective in our day to day? In this week's episode of the Working Ant, I'm going to coach you on how to avoid the trap of becoming what I dub, "Date Rich, Execution Poor." You'll thank yourself years later for listening to this episode! Like what you're listening to? Have an idea for a future podcast? Connect with me on LinkedIn and share your thoughts.

“You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can't control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone.” Marcus Aurelius. Give an opinion swiftly and you turn out to be right, you'll be praised. Give an opinion too fast and you're wrong, you'll be thought of unfavorably, the "peak end rule" will become activated, and you'll have a very tough uphill climb ahead of you. Remember: Opinions are inescapable. You must have them in order to progress professionally and the reality is that opinions are necessary for our lives to function. On the outside, it may appear as if giving your genuine opinion only has an upside, but does it really? On this week's episode of the Working Ant, let me coach you on what to consider the next time you're asked to give your opinion!

Understand that people's deepest desires are not only to be appreciated, but to be understood. The faster you can get past the formalities of the fortifications of the facade in front of you, the more opportunities you'll have for reaching the outcome you're often yearning for. Use your ears, eyes, and focus much more than just what comes out of someone's mouth. That's in this week's episode of The Working Ant! Love what you're listening to on The Working Ant? Connect with me on LinkedIn and let me know!

"In your actions, don't procrastinate. In your conversations, don't confuse. In your thoughts, don't wander. In your soul, don't be passive or aggressive. In your life, don't be all about business.” – Marcus Aurelius In one of my most compelling coaching sessions yet, learn how to become a supply and demand epicenter connector. Making this a priority for yourself will elevate you to professional heights worthy of legends!

What are you focusing on today? What will the goal you have your mind fixated on, mean to you once you've achieved it? These two questions seem quite obvious, but a third more critical question is where we spend most of our time: What are you going to be doing about achieving your goals? This of course means your actions! If you choose to measure something as a metric of success, won't your actions then bend to that metric? You may not realize this, but you might have to reconsider (or reaffirm) how you define the measurement of success first, so that your actions align to the person you truly are! Remember Passion + Purpose + Profession --> yield Profitability! That's in this week's episode of the Working Ant! Loving the Working Ant? Let me know! Add me to LinkedIn or send your feedback to hello@ramyballout.com.

Your words shape your reality. Your reality is shaped by your words. To succeed in elevating yourself to new heights, you must understand the significance of the words you choose, the analogies you use to avoid misspeaking and losing out on opportunity in your journey. Acquiring knowledge and experience over the course of your career is not enough. Language is the key - that's in this week's episode of The Working Ant. Loving The Working Ant? Let me know! Add me to LinkedIn and give me your feedback.

Make no mistake about it, you are an emotion in human form - an idea, a thought, a truth. Take the ultimate perception you want others to have of yourself and create it from within! Let me coach you on how to manage the perception you want others to have of you in your next meeting, formal conversation, and interview. That's in this week's episode of The Working Ant.

Want to appear as if you were naturally gifted at your craft? Did you ever consider not sharing how long it took you to complete an assignment instead of communicate how hard you worked to achieve your goals? In this week's episode of "The Working Ant," I'll coach you on rethinking your strategy when it comes to your perception, impression, and association both in the workplace and in your next pitch or interview. Perhaps the practice of Sprezzatura can give you the appearance of what you wanted all along - a natural talent born of the ages!

Perhaps it's your language, the sound of your tone, your personability, or your approach altogether that needs some fine-tuning. In this week's episode of "The Working Ant," I'm going to coach you on how to become more accessible to those you'd like to target and hear back from. Become more accessible, by appearing more approachable!

In every transaction, persuasion of some form is the primary driver. No action is ever possible without it. Let me, your Host and Coach show you how to master your next interview or pitch by focusing on the elements, not the outcome - The Alchemy of Persuasion. Get to a YES faster than you thought possible. That's in this week's episode of The Working Ant.

Imagine you could view Time purely as an emotion. What would that do for you? Would you generate it more often if you needed it? Time can feel fixed or infinite. It can also feel limited or managed. As we get the wheels moving in 2021, let's use time as an ally in pursuit of our goals. In this week's episode of The Working Ant, I'll talk through how time, if accepted as an emotion, will immediately liberate you from the confines and limitations you view of it as you pursue your aspirations in the new year.

You push. You sacrifice. You strive to get ahead. "The only way up is by taking action," they say. Ah, your rigorous and noble pursuit for better days ahead! All this action can be your biggest distraction - apply here, reach out there, create a use-case here and try to get on someone's schedule there. Don't take a spray and pray approach - take a deliberate and intentional approach! I'll coach you how to do just that in this week's episode of "The Working Ant."

Endless possibilities await at the gates of your mind, ready to flood it with fantasies and alternate realities of yourself. It seems so crystal clear - what you need to do, how things must be different this time around, and the actions you will partake in to make it so. Soon, with interruptions of obligations you'll find yourself against an uphill battle again. In this episode of The Working Ant, let me coach you on how to psychologically ready yourself to steer clear of "the land of if only" but rather a reality filled with possibilities into the new year.

Thank you for making The Working Ant such a resounding (and early) success in 2020. Just a short message of love and support from your Host and Coach.

Just like you only see one side of the moon at night, you too only show one side of yourself at work. And so, it's no surprise that others only show their deliberate (or best) versions of themselves to you as well. Your ability to influence others must then be somewhat equivalent to your ability to understand others. In this episode of The Working Ant, I'm going to coach you how to deepen any conversation while simultaneously observing emotions. The power, is YOURS!

Certainty breeds an ego that appears strong and enduring, but at its core, is fragile and often false. While it may appear that certainty is rewarded, in the long term, it falls flat when called out or questioned - it breeds ignorance, quells debate and innovation, but most importantly, it'll probably keep you an individual contributor for life. Let me coach you on how to transition from a "certainty mindset" to that of a "confidence mindset." A subtle difference that pays massive dividends in your career (and life). That's all in this episode of The Working Ant.

Like a Honeybee that lost its sting, a lizard who lost its tale, as we mature in our professional careers, our emotion expressions are more prone to tone down, even become stale. Most of us confuse this with emotional maturity, but the reality is that our inability to experience emotions (and express them) prevents us from capitalizing on professional opportunity, when ironically its precisely that professional opportunity that we seek! In this episode of The Working Ant, I'll coach you on how to bring back those emotions, practically and authentically.

More than your skill set and your expertise, your Social Capital is the truest and surest gateway to your success. If you don't have it, let me teach you how to create. If you think you have it, let me coach you exactly how to expertly (and authentically) utilize it in today's digital world. That's in this week's episode of The Working Ant!

“He shows a greater mind who does not restrain his laughter, than he who does not deny his tears.” Seneca. Rarely would you get a statement more powerful than that. Why so serious? Don't take for granted the power of associating yourself with positivity and humor. In this ever so serious world, it's not the smartest person that wins but the person who associates himself favorably with the audience. You see it everywhere, but rarely does that feeling transcend into that of your own. This Career Holiday Season, allow me, your Host and Coach to inject some humor into the conversation in this week's podcast on The Working Ant.

In this session of The Working Ant, I'm going to walk you through some incredible statistics on impressions that will baffle you but will now know how to navigate around (and use to your advantage) with me on your side! Let's talk through them together and let me coach you on my strategies to up-level the next impression you'll make at your next meeting and during your next interview. So excited to share this with you!

Liberate your mind from narrated nonsense. In this episode of the Working Ant, I'll coach you through common Cognitive Distortions that divert us from reality and away from our ability to flourish as a progressive professionals. Cognitive distortions exist everywhere and they can kill dreams by conflating, confusing, and conditioning a fabricated reality. Remember, we are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality (Seneca). Do not yourself fall into an abyss of monsters and goblins that don't exist.

Conformity can only go so far. If you lose too much of yourself (your identity), you'll inadvertently blame more of yourself later in your career. Stop this now by using the most amazing things about yourself and amplify their application elsewhere. What can you do with these fundamental elements of your personality other than find an environment and a career (or passion) to apply them? A mindset of deficiency and a habit of colossal misguided consumption is what stands in the way of a favorable outcome. In this session of The Working Ant, I'll coach you on a little known alternative on how to practically and authentically begin to take accountability for your future (and professional happiness). Let's do it together.

Deliberateness unsupported by intent is like a shield without its sword. Although sturdy and compelling, the inability to strike leaves the other party only dazed, slightly phased, and more than likely to walk away. In this episode of The Working Ant, I'm going to coach you how to be preemptive in your next crucial conversation. It's not enough to be deliberate, you must be intentional. Yes there is a clear difference between the two! Seize your next bounty through preemptive intent.

Narrate your own story. Seeking validation? Create your own! Do not seek permission and learn how to be great at being your own source of inspiration. This week, I'm a little unabridged in how I feel about becoming your own hero. In this episode of The Working Ant, expect motivation aligned with aspiration because I'm going to coach you (and push you) into practically becoming the version of yourself you've always aspired to be. Enough already! BE YOUR OWN HERO.

Most of us default to speaking like operators, talking up our process when in fact we're losing out on massive opportunity when we don't speak in terms of benefits. Want to play the game well? Learn to speak the language of impact - the language of BENEFITS. That's what I'm coaching this week on The Working Ant.

In this episode of The Working Ant, I'm going to coach you on how to RADICALLY differentiate yourself in a way most of your peers would never even think of and it ironically starts with using our past experiences (and memories), as assets rather than liabilities. This is practical stuff. No fluff. Let's do this!

Don't wait for the positive signs in the interview, CREATE them! Want to ascertain live feedback in your next interview and deliberately showcase the compellingness and consistency you intended? Well, these are just a few strategies of what I'll be coaching in this episode of The Working Ant.

Your professional future should never be defined by the fear of a new path! In this episode of The Working Ant, I'll coach you on an alternative way of thought - a mind shift through narrative and practical tips to start your week. Learn how to let go of bad past experiences and free yourself from the emotional shackles that hold you back.

Is it a gift or a setback? You choose. Is the silence deafening, or is it an awakening? You choose. Should I pursue it further, or is the writing on the wall? YOU choose. This is all about the power of beliefs - the beautiful creations they make and the destruction they inadvertently cause. The power of beliefs are yours. YOU choose. Choose wisely.

Society imposes much on us. It's stressful initially, but we've gotten so used to masking it and living out an alternative image of ourselves that we fail to recognize the power we have to use a lost self-consciousness, resurrect it, mold it, and shape the true character we were destined to have. An aligned character gets us closer to an aligned life - one of awareness and necessary agility, but one that never compromises the secret you hold, your unique character. Either you learn to master your image or others will do it for you.

Overcoming the mental block that tells you you're not good enough, not qualified enough, not ready to make the most out of this short life. Not for you and not on my watch!

Do you want to improve the perception people have of you? Are you clear about the impact you have on others? The only way to truly respond to this question is to know what other people perceive you as already. The reality is that you need to take an active approach rather than one of passivity in how you build an image of yourself and for yourself. If you don't want to follow your fellow working ant whose only security is that of colony, you must differentiate yourself deliberately and mindfully. Let me teach you how through the power of feedback.

What is the ultimate perception you want others to have of you? Did you ever think about this question and how it has impacted your career? In this episode I'll teach you how to find what truly empowers you to brand yourself deliberately and genuinely with practical methods you can put to use immediately in the most compelling and authentic way.

There's a big difference for those that feel constrained and confined with that which they cannot control and those who seek to seize what they can control and maximize its yield. Do not fall into the folly of the fainted heart! Determined and deliberate you can master a narrative through the on-going mastery of yourself.

I've been asked this question a lot lately. It turns out this was a long time coming. I prolonged the inevitable, but inevitable is now here, and I intend for it stay.