Podcast appearances and mentions of ben fanning

In this reflective episode of Wisdom on Tap, Simon Gwilliam welcomes Ben Fanning for a thought-provoking conversation about the power of asking the right questions in life. Together, they explore how simple but profound inquiries like “What do I truly want?” and “How am I getting in my own way?” can drive meaningful change. From uncovering the subtle signals of imbalance, like skipping the gym or neglecting small joys, to using metrics to track personal growth, Simon and Ben share practical insights to help listeners take ownership of their lives. Tune in to discover how curiosity, honesty, and accountability can transform your mindset and inspire actionable steps toward the life you want to live.

Join Simon Gwilliam and Ben Fanning for a raw and reflective conversation about taking responsibility for your well-being. In this episode, they unpack the challenges of modern health—from the pitfalls of ultra-processed foods to the importance of reconnecting with nature and prioritizing quality sleep. Drawing on personal stories and hard-earned lessons, Simon and Ben delve into how small, consistent changes can dramatically improve your mental and physical health. Tune in for a blend of humor, insight, and practical tips to help you break free from unhealthy habits and start living intentionally.

What happens when two friends from opposite sides of the country unite over a shared love for Americana music? Ben Fanning and Zach Schultz share the incredible tale of how the show started and how it begun to shape the world of music over six months..You'll explore the power of music to inspire change and connect people across divides. From unforgettable concerts to the artists who've shaped their lives, thee stories in this episode will make you laugh, reflect, and rethink the way you experience music. Join us as they celebrate the music too important to stay in the shadows.You'll also discover:A spark that started it allWhy Americana is THE underdog musicThe moments that change everythingThe magic of a live performance.How you can join the journey.AND follow Americana Curious on Instagram for the latest interviews and the behind-the-scenes with your favorite artists! https://www.instagram.com/americanacurious

In this heartfelt episode of "Wisdom on Tap," Simon welcomes back his co-host, Ben Fanning, for a deeply personal conversation about navigating one of life's toughest challenges—loss. Ben shares the emotional highs and lows of losing his mother and the impact it had on his personal journey, touching on how his resilience was tested and ultimately strengthened. The two explore how grief, when embraced fully, can become a powerful catalyst for growth and self-discovery. Join Simon and Ben as they dive into the importance of prioritizing oneself amidst adversity, and how pain can serve as a profound teacher in finding meaning and purpose. Prepare for an inspiring discussion filled with raw vulnerability, practical wisdom, and reflections on family, legacy, and the strength to carry on.

No stranger to change, Aeromexico CIO Fernando Rocha has been in the enterprise information technology driver's seat, leading digital transformation across industries. In this discussion with host Ben Fanning, gain perspectives that can help you succeed, like building teams based not on experience but on a willingness to venture into the unknown to learn and develop. A turning point for Rocha was the realization that because he was afraid to fail, he was “playing small games to win” rather than playing big games that came with more risk but had more impact.  

If God is real, why is there so much suffering? Ben Fanning leads the class.

This is part 2 of If God is real, why is there so much suffering? Ben Fanning leads this study.

Tired of feeling like you're working hard but not getting anywhere? I've definitely had moments like that too when I was stuck in a rut.Here are the five work hacks you can use to boost your productivity, focus, and motivation. These are the ones that I've found most useful to accelerate my progress and gain better work-life balance this year. Many of my own clients have benefited too!If you're ready to make a change and transform your performance in 2023, these five work hacks could be exactly what you need. Message and connect with me directly on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/benfanning/ -----Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben FanningSpeaking and Training inquiresSubscribe to my Youtube channelLinkedInInstagramTwitter

Without a strong leadership vision, you doom your team and company to a meaningless and meandering path. The consequence is little impact, a transactional employee-manager relationship, and elevated turnover. This damages sales and ultimately the bottomline.I host Ludovic du Plessis, CEO and President of Champagne Telmont, part of the Remy Cointreau Group. He shares the key to strengthening your leadership vision and sharing it with the world to drive innovation and growth.Telmont is a century-old Champagne House. Founded in 1912 in Damery and Ludovic's vision is now leading the green revolution for the champagne industry.Ludovic has dedicated his career to luxury wines and spirits for over twenty years, spending 10 years at Dom Pérignon and Moët & Chandon, Ludovic joined LOUIS XIII Cognac until he identified Champagne Telmont.He made Telmont's introduction to the Rémy Cointreau group which shares the same values as Telmont: Time, Terroir (tear-WA), People. Rémy Cointreau, welcoming the initiative, purchased a majority share in Telmont champagne in October 2020.Ludovic is passionate about protecting Telmont's master craftsmanship and sustainability, focusing on organic agriculture at a time when only 4% of champagne vineyards are certified for organic production. Through this passion, the brand created the initiative Au Nom de la Terre, “In the Name of Mother Nature”, pushing the limits in champagne in order to reduce carbon footprint.LinkedIn Profile https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/ludovic-du-plessis-50aa542/Company Link: https://champagne-telmont.com/What You'll Discover in this Episode:The surprising moment when he fell in love with wine and champagne.The important lesson he learned from the “Pope of Champagne” at Dom Perignon. Master storytelling secrets from the wine industry.The day a bicycle ride from Paris resulted in the greatest opportunity of his career.What's it like having Leonardo di Caprio as an investor.The importance of leading the champagne green revolution.The best time to drink champagne.His top champagne and wine recommendations for any business dinner.Why he looks to Serena Williams when he needs a dose of motivation.Champagne and Wines for the Ultimate Five-Course MealChampagne #1: Telmont Réserve BrutChampagne #2: Telmont Blanc de BlancsRed Wine #1 - Château Smith Haut LafitteRed Wine #2 - Château AngelusDessert - Passion fruit soufflé with carrot ice by Chef Akrame Benallal with LOUIS XIII Cognac-----Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben Fanning

Stuart Crainer, Des Dearlove, Steve Goldbach, Stacy Janice and Geoff Tuff marshall their thoughts and make sense of our podcast episodes from the year. What have they learned? What has surprised them? Which guests really made them re-think and re-set?  There are plenty of inspiring stories to choose from. We have had some amazing guests: Valerie Rainford, who has championed talent and diversity in the banking world and now for her own company; Debbie Bial, the founder and president of the Posse Foundation; the board member, author, and now member of the UK's House of Lords, Dambisa Moyo; the former CEO of Best Buy, and author of the Heart of Business, Hubert Joly; the trailblazer for Leading for Girls, Julie Carrier; Nobel Laureate, Bob Lefkowitz; astronaut, Charlie Camarda; the Dutch entrepreneur and pioneer of new ways of working, Tom van der Lubbe and the author of The Quit Alternative, Ben Fanning. In this special episode the Provocateurs hosts share their memories, insights and conclusions. And the results are as inspiring as the people who inspired them.  Listen to learn more about flipping failure for learning, the virtues of transparency, humility's role in leadership and how to really maximize diversity in teams. Be provoked!This podcast is part of an ongoing series of interviews with executives. The executives' participation in this podcast are solely for educational purposes based on their knowledge of the subject and the views expressed by them are solely their own. This podcast should not be deemed or construed to be for the purpose of soliciting business for any of the companies mentioned, nor does Deloitte advocate or endorse the services or products provided by these companies.

Getting frustrated because your team doesn't care?You're finding too many errors in their work, slow response times, and missed deadline with no explanation. I once hired someone with amazing credentials. They were highly recommended by multiple leaders that I still trust today. They nailed the interview and their brilliance and potential were so obvious to me that I knew I needed this person on my team.The nuance was that they worked remotely in a couple time zones away. I quickly started noticed issues ..They ended up getting fired, but it was a long difficult process. Took so much longer than it should have."Caring" is impossible to hire for and it's even harder to fire for. Caring is something you must instill.When your team cares, they go the extra mile and takes care of the details...without you having to ask.If I'd been able to instill "care" who knows how far that person may have risen in the organization?In this episode, you'll discover three strategies to get your employees to care and increase their loyalty and commitment. -----Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben FanningSpeaking and Training inquiresSubscribe to my Youtube channelLinkedInInstagramTwitter

What is peanut butter and jelly leadership? And why does every business leader need a podcast? Ben Fanning is the host of the top ranked Lead the Team podcast, where he interviews world-class CEOs about their everyday success strategies that can apply to businesses of 1 to 100,000. In this fascinating episode, Ben, who is also a professional speaker, #1 bestselling author, and corporate trainer, explains the unique power of podcasts to communicate a leader's authentic self. By showing vulnerability and intent, podcasts allow the leader to get the ear of followers in a new and exciting way that is ideally suited to today's challenges. Listen and learn.Check out Ben Fanning's podcast Lead the Team: https://www.benfanning.com/blog/ This podcast is part of an ongoing series of interviews with executives. The executives' participation in this podcast are solely for educational purposes based on their knowledge of the subject and the views expressed by them are solely their own. This podcast should not be deemed or construed to be for the purpose of soliciting business for any of the companies mentioned, nor does Deloitte advocate or endorse the services or products provided by these companies.

Your team is unmotivated, disengaged, and burning out. You're noticing them showing up late to meetings and taking more time off...without fully having a plan for their responsibilities while they're out of the office. They are getting distracted by kid's soccer practice, grocery shopping, recruiters...leaders at other companies! It's beginning to damage business results...less proactive/more reactive behavior,  no sense of urgency, and leaving details unfinished.  You need a way to rally the troops! The reality is that you can't be everywhere at one time. so you need a simple strategy to rally your troops when you're not there. Rally means to "come together to keep fighting". Who is doing the rallying when you're not there?  The default become Social Media, which is rarely a motivator for what you're trying to get down inside your company. That's like depending on a LinkedIn and Instagram algorithm to motivate your team. Check out this episode today, where you'll discover three simple strategies to rally your troops when you can't be there in person. ----- Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben Fanning https://www.benfanning.com/speaker/ (Speaking and Training inquires) https://followbenonyoutube.com (Subscribe to my Youtube channel) https://www.linkedin.com/in/benfanning/ (LinkedIn) https://www.instagram.com/benfanning1/ (Instagram) https://twitter.com/BenFanning1 (Twitter)

Are you ready to quit your job?  Well, before you do, you're going to want to hear what today's guest has to say.  Ben Fanning, author of the Quit Alternative, believes that sometimes your Dream Job is hiding right under your nose and it's up to YOU to find it!  Sometimes, a job description (if you can find yours) is more flexible than you think and the opportunity to design the job to fit your unique skills and strengths is more available than you might believe!  For help finding the work that fits your unique strengths and skills, enroll in our free 8-day video course at figureitout.co!

You're missing out on the most powerful way to communicate your leadership message, and your company is wasting thousands of dollars trying to build its brand and reach your customers. You and your team are putting in the time and effort and could be leveraging THE tool to effectively work smarter, not harder. ----- Podcasting isn't just for sports, comedians, star trek fans, and personal development personalities (Joe Rogan/Tim Ferris). In fact I had a conversation literally last week where an executive shared his company generated $500,000 in sales from one podcast they launched! They aren't a tech or media company. They are an old-school legal company.  That's right....  Business podcasts make a profitable impact for both new and old-school companies. Now is THE time for companies to start one. It's the boom time for business podcasting, and companies are getting enormous results. Podcasting will be a $4 billion industry in two years (PWC). Here are four reasons why your company needs a business podcast now ... 1. Your customers, employees,and suppliers are already listening. - Each week, more Americans listen to podcasts than have https://www.businessofapps.com/data/netflix-statistics/ (Netflix) accounts. - One-third of the American Population listens to podcasts regularly. - 51% of monthly podcast listeners have a full-time job while 25% have a college degree. 2. It's the best way to sell. - Podcast ads are the most recalled type of ad, with 86% of respondents saying they remember seeing or hearing an ad. (Super Listeners 2021 report) - About 62% of listeners consider new products and services from hearing about them through podcast advertising. - And https://blog.podbean.com/podcast-advertising-in-2020/ (80% listen to most of a podcast episode) without skipping ads. 3. Inspire them where they already are. - 59% of people tune into a podcast while doing something else simultaneously. It's the only media that they can multi-task and consume. - 79% of people in the USA listen to a podcast from their smartphones. THEY DON'T HAVE TO BE IN FRONT OF THEIR COMPUTERS OR EVEN LOOKING AT THEIR PHONE TO ABSORB YOUR MESSAGE. 4. Join the "Great Podcast Acceleration" and stake your claim. - Podcast awareness is accelerating, - In 2006 only 20% of the American population was aware of podcasts. Now 16 years later the number has reached to 78%. (Sources: Statista, Edison Research, The podcast host.) ----- This is your best sales, marketing, and employee retention investment of the year and at a bare minimum you need a strategy for business podcasting...even if you don't formally launch one right now. You can use this post to kick start the conversation around podcasting inside your company, AND ... We'll walk you through our 5-step Podcast framework and share with you what kind of results you can expect. Just message me directly, and we'll set up a 15-minute conversation. ----- Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben Fanning https://www.benfanning.com/speaker/ (Speaking and Training inquires) https://followbenonyoutube.com (Subscribe to my Youtube channel) https://www.linkedin.com/in/benfanning/ (LinkedIn) https://www.instagram.com/benfanning1/ (Instagram) https://twitter.com/BenFanning1 (Twitter)

Most of us know how it feels to be "burnt out." I mean, think about the number of emails you receive each day! However, are we creating more productive employees by allowing them to work from home versus working in the office? Is there less burnout when people work at home? Our friend, Ben Fanning, joins us this week to discuss employee burnout and ways for employers to get ahead of it.

Join Kelly and Steve this week as they discuss turnover with #1 Best Selling Author, of the “Quit Alternative”, Ben Fanning. Turnover is rapidly increasing, primarily because job-hopping is rewarded. On average, employees receive an 18-20% pay increase by changing jobs and only 3%, on average, as an annual salary adjustment with current their employers. There is also a growing negativity towards organizational loyalty, due in large part to employer layoffs, or downsizing, at the slightest hint of a bad economic quarter ahead. Turnover costs can be very high and according to Ben consist of four buckets: 1) Rehiring and training 2) Lost productivity (average time to fill is 68.5 days) 3) Increased base salary rate 4) Ramp up period Ben says that on average the cost of turnover, per employee, is $235,975. HR must first be a business partner to help resolve this issue. They also need support systems and must be prepared not getting caught flat footed when employees leave. HR must have a plan. This week's podcast addresses this issue. If you want to know more about Ben, order his book, listen to his podcast (CEO Podcast), or schedule him to present at your organization, he can be reached at: https://www.benfanning.com/ Thanks for listening to Survive HR and please rate us on iTunes!

In each episode of “Good Faith Stories,” we bring you a collection of different stories tied to a theme -- unique, true and short stories as told by the people who lived them. Episode Two -- themed “Gifts” and hosted by author and minister Starlette Thomas -- features four stories: -- “Okemah's Hands,” by Mitch Randall, CEO of Good Faith Media -- “White Sheets,” by Joy Jordan-Lake, author of the No. 1 bestselling “A Tangled Mercy” and the award-winning novel “Blue Hole Back Home.” Just out: “Under a Gilded Moon,” a work of historical fiction set at Biltmore House -- “Louisville Apocalypse,” by Erica Whitaker, senior pastor of Buechel Park Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky -- “The Corporate Jet,” by Ben Fanning, president of an international training company, No. 1 bestselling author, an Inc. Magazine columnist, and host of “The CEO Sessions” podcast “Good Faith Stories” is a production of Good Faith Media. Host: Starlette Thomas. Producer: Cliff Vaughn. Music: Pond5.com Interested in telling a story for the podcast? Producer Cliff Vaughn would love to hear from you. E-mail him at cliff@goodfaithmedia.org.

In each episode of “Good Faith Stories,” we bring you a collection of different stories tied to a theme -- unique, true and short stories as told by the people who lived them.Episode Two -- themed “Gifts” and hosted by author and minister Starlette Thomas -- features four stories:-- “Okemah’s Hands,” by Mitch Randall, CEO of Good Faith Media-- “White Sheets,” by Joy Jordan-Lake, author of the No. 1 bestselling “A Tangled Mercy” and the award-winning novel “Blue Hole Back Home.” Just out: “Under a Gilded Moon,” a work of historical fiction set at Biltmore House-- “Louisville Apocalypse,” by Erica Whitaker, senior pastor of Buechel Park Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky-- “The Corporate Jet,” by Ben Fanning, president of an international training company, No. 1 bestselling author, an Inc. Magazine columnist, and host of “The CEO Sessions” podcast“Good Faith Stories” is a production of Good Faith Media. Host: Starlette Thomas. Producer: Cliff Vaughn. Music: Pond5.comInterested in telling a story for the podcast? Producer Cliff Vaughn would love to hear from you. E-mail him at cliff@goodfaithmedia.org.

Are you thinking about quitting your day job to become an entrepreneur? In this episode, Ben Fanning -- Founder and CEO of The Fanning Group, Executive Coach, Speaker & Host of The CEO Sessions podcast shares his stories to help you navigate the road to e

It's episode 69! NICE! What would you know, it's also time for the 2020 INDIANAPOLIS 500 preview! We got our IndyCar specialist, Phil Clark, back on the podcast to talk all about the Indy 500, the guys to watch, an Andretti on the pole, and what to watch for the rest of the IndyCar season and beyond! We also had technical difficulties, yay! So What in Carnation and Benjamin Fanning show up to talk Dover, conspiracies, and Kyle Larson! Anthony also finds out the sun is hot, the F1 minute returns, and the boys discuss what to do with Daytona! Follow us on twitter @LTLNpodcast, and make sure to subscribe for new episodes!

Lead Through Strengths Facilitator Strother Gaines - Helping You Figure Out What To Do When You Don't Like Your Strengths This episode is all about the situation when you don't like your strengths — or you don't think you like someone else's strengths. It's easy to stereotype one of the CliftonStrengths talent themes, good or bad, when you only take a cursory glance at it. It's also easy for your talent to masquerade as a weakness if you have the volume turned up too high for the situation. Here's the transcript of the interview with Lisa Cummings and Strother Gaines as they explore the nuances: Lisa: You're listening to Lead Through Strengths, where you'll learn to apply your greatest strengths at work. I'm your host, Lisa Cummings.  I'm always saying it's tough to find something more energizing than using your strengths every day at work. And today, the topic of the podcast episode is about those moments when you're asking yourself ⁠—  “Oh, should I not use my strengths at work?”  “Are these not good ones to have for a given job?”  Or, “I don't know that this talent theme is going to be well appreciated in the work culture that I'm in, so maybe I should just bring it down a little bit because I don't think people at work are going to appreciate it.” This will help you figure out whether it should go into hiding when you don't like your strengths. The format is going to be a little bit different in the following series coming up for the podcast here. I actually have Strother Gaines joining as a co-host, he's one of our facilitators here at Lead Through Strengths. So many times now people are experiencing facilitators other than me when they do training classes on CliftonStrengths, StrengthsFinder, strengths leadership development, etc. And so I thought, wow, our customers and our podcast listeners need to get to know these amazing facilitators. So, coming up over the next weeks and months, you will be getting to meet many of them.  In the next six episodes, you'll meet Strother, where I'm having a conversation with him. Having A Case of ‘Bad’ Talents? Don’t Like Your Strengths? We Get You Lisa: We're talking about that thing today, where you get your list, and you're loving a few of them, but one of them is leading you to think ⁠—  “I don't know about that one... I don't think I would call it a strength... I think I want to get that one back.”  “Can I see my #6, 7, 8, 9, 10? Can I choose from some other ones?”  So when I jump into this interview with Strother, you'll see that we are cracking up a little bit because I had just been a klutz in the office and caught my pocket on the table in the office. And so we're busting a gut a few times in these episodes. I'm going to do an intro for each one, I'll do a closing for each one. And if you hear us jump right into some laughter, well, yes, some shenanigans are probably going on me being a klutz, or us goofing around. If you want to see some of the shenanigans and silliness - things we were doing where we're playing around in the office - then make sure that you go to YouTube and look at the video version. At the end, I'll include some of the outtakes so that you can see them there.  So let's jump right in to talk about what to do when you don't like your strengths. Shifting Perspective When You Don’t Like Your Talent Themes Lisa: Let's say you take the CliftonStrengths assessment, and four of the five of them you're like ⁠—  “Oh, yeah, these are so me... I love that, but that one -- well, I mean, it's kind of me, but I don't really like one of my strengths…”  Or, “I don't really think that in this workplace they're gonna love it. I don't want to be seen like that... I don’t know if that would be valuable here or even accepted here if I let that one out.”  So what's your opinion on that? What do you do with it? Strother: Well, I totally had that happen in mine. I have Significance in my Top 5, and to me when I read Significance, it came across as like, “Tell me I’m pretty… Tell me I did a good job..." I need everyone else to tell me, like, “This is a good thing.” And one of my greatest fears in my work is that I required external validation. Everyone tells you to find that joy, find all of that inside of you. And then my StrengthsFinder came back and it's like, “No, you actually need people to tell you what’s good. And I was like, NO.  But then, after I sat with it for a long time ⁠— you encouraged me to, like, “Stay with it for a little bit...”⁠ — I started to find that it influences so much of the types of projects that I take on, and it helps me actually delineate what I would be good at, what I would be excited about, and what I'm not.  I'm not great at something that I'm not passionate about, and I don't like creating something that doesn't have that feedback loop where I get someone else's opinion or other people are collaborating with it. It's re-visualizing how you conceptualize that strength. Find a way that you can tilt that so that it is still you... Your ‘Bad’ Strengths Are Good Enough To Make You Stand Out We've talked a lot about “basements and balconies.” Do you have a strength that's in the basement, and that's where you're viewing it from? What does it look like when it's fully actualized, when you're actually taking control and being intentional about it, instead of letting it run the show underneath all of the things, that when you look at it, you go, “That's the thing I want.” Then it's a lot easier to bring it out, even in a culture that might not support it, because that's your unique offer. This is a tricky situation - training participants will often say that you save a talent for your home life because you don't like your strengths for work purposes. If it's something that doesn't show up a lot, if you have a rare strength, you're going to stand out. And standing out can be challenging sometimes, but it's also the thing that's going to get you noticed. Most of the time, anytime you want to move forward, first you have to get noticed. So use it, like leverage that weird thing and make it your strength. From ‘Irrelevant’ Strengths To Workplace Impact Lisa: I love how Strother framed this one out for you, as a way to bring your unique offering to the workplace. We always talk about your differences being your differentiators. So, instead of thinking of a strength as something that you need to squash down and say, “Oh, maybe I have a bad strength...” ⁠— which is an oxymoron ⁠— use your strength fully, figure out how to mature it, and get the most out of it.  Now sometimes people feel like they have skills that aren't relevant on the job. This is definitely a case where you might wonder what to do when you don't like your strengths because they don't feel helpful in your current role. For talents, we're talking about something different. We're talking about how you naturally think, or feel, or act when you are at your natural best, and you wouldn't want to squash those out ⁠— because it would be squashing down the best of you.  With that, thanks for listening to Lead Through Strengths. You've been getting to meet Strother Gaines, one of our facilitators from DC. In the next episode, you will hear us talking about how to not feel arrogant when you're talking to other people about your strengths. We'll see you there. Want More Ideas For What To Do When You Don't Like Your Strengths? A while back, Lisa interviewed Ben Fanning on what to do when you think your job isn't a good fit for your talents. Ben was funny and insightful. He gave lots of ways to reconnect with what you like about work, build a personal brand around strengths, and to mold your job in that direction. Ben wrote a whole book on the topic called The Quit Alternative. The book is excellent, and it hits on a common situation where people think they might need to quit their job to be content again. If you read Ben's book, you'll almost certainly think that the grass isn't greener on the other side — it's greener around the corner of the same company. Another episode you might like to explore is the one where Lisa answers the question of what to do when you only have 2 of the colors in the CliftonStrengths lineup. This is another situation that makes a typical training attendee say that you don't like your strengths.

Ben Fanning is a fitness professional, entrepreneur, and family man. In this episode, we discuss:Ben's difficulties from the very beginningLessons learnt from a prison cellHow he went from personal trainer to businessmanThe importance of self-careHow to win the morningBe sure to reach out to Ben on Facebook or Instagram (@benjaminfanning).

In this episode, Lisa answers the question: How can you share your awesomeness without sounding arrogant or entitled? Have You Downloaded Your Manager Tool For Strengths Conversations? If you’re a manager and you want to help your team members feel less awkward about speaking positively about the contributions they can make to the team, please please please, open these conversations and make them a regular part of how you operate with each other. And since it’s tough to put this into practice, we actually have a 12-week series made just for people-leaders. You’ll get 12 weeks of conversation starters for strengths-focused 1x1s and quick team meeting topics so you can keep learning more about what puts your team members at their best.  Resources of the Episode Manager Activation Course ”More Of” Resource The Quit Alternative: Instead, Take That Job And Love It – With Ben Fanning You'll find lots of other StrengthsFinder, leadership, and team tools on our Strengths Resources page Awesomeness Without Arrogance Today you’ll explore a question that came up in a strengths workshop I did with a group of high potential team members who want their talents to shine, yet they don’t want to seem like braggadocios jerks. Their question was, “How can you share your awesomeness without sounding arrogant or entitled?”   What an important question. I hear it from all levels, and even from every cultural background I’ve experienced so far. For example, Australians will tell you about the tall poppy syndrome. This concept is about cutting down someone who is higher in stature or prominence to bring them down back to size. Of course, many Aussies are reluctant to talk about their standout areas because it has been such a cultural faux pas to try to stand out.  My Japanese clients tell me about the saying, “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.”  In Western cultures I hear things like, “Don’t rock the boat” or “Don’t make waves.”  Regardless of the country, most of these sayings are meant to keep you humble and remind you to not run around being an arrogant jerk. Yet, unfortunately, they also keep a lot of people from sharing their gifts with the world. So, back to thinking of this in a self-reflective way, how do you begin to offer your personal strengths to the world while also staying humble and being perceived well? Here are three steps to becoming known for your talents without having to brag about them. Step 1 - Know What You Want To Be Known For First, take some time to imagine what you want to be known for. Yes, this can be knowledge, skills, or abilities. If you’re thinking about natural talents, think about how you would be getting work done if it brought you energy — if you were totally in flow — and things even felt easy. Imagine the kind of work you’d be doing and how you’d get work done. To help you with this, try the "More Of Inventory" where you’ll see a list of phrases to spark your ideas. You’ll can imagine that someone who picks “give advice” and “poke the bear” as the two things they’d want more of — well, they would be more of a status quo busting person who wants to push the team forward and get people on the edge of discomfort — maybe even someone who loves living risk-taking mode. And you can imagine another person who wants to “ensure quality” and “work carefully” — well, they would be way more excited about a project or role all about operational effectiveness or safety or compliance. That’s why it’s important to do this step first. If you don’t know what you want to get known for, you’ll get known for what you did well last. I’ve seen way too many people become known as the quality assurance guru or the best team notetaker or the one who delivers the quarterly ops review presentation — and they’re only known for it because they did it well last time.  When actually, it may have sucked the life out of them. It may have taken up all of their mental energy for days. It may have drained them and felt dreadful, but when you’re a highly accountable high achiever, you’ll try to knock it out of the park. Even on work you hate.  You’ll use brute force to become competent, even in your weaknesses so that your performance is solid. And if you’re not a complainer, no one will ever know you don’t like that work. That’s why you need to spend a bit of time thinking about what you’d really love to be known for. In your ideal world. Then you can start aligning to that reputation over time.  Step 2 - Focus Outward This is all about taking an outward focus. It’s thinking about a business outcome your talent can serve. It’s thinking about a person you can help. Since your talents will help you feel ease, energy, and enjoyment on the job, people will see the enlivened version of you while you serve another person or a team goal or business outcome. For example, if you’ve been nerding out on the peer-reviewed Journal of Applied Physics literature on the understanding of dark matter — and you happen to have the Clifton StrengthsFinder talent theme of Input — you could move toward the enlivenment scale by sharing your findings with the team rather than just reading the journals for your personal education. You could summarize the key findings and mention a team goal that it applies to. This would be fun for someone with the Input talent and it would also help the team. They’d see your awesomeness and would appreciate it.  And if you offer your talents this way, you’ll often uncover where one person’s trash tasks are another person’s treasured tasks. That can lead you to task swapping opportunities where you can do a task-switcheroo with teammates to get more of the work you love.  You can also volunteer your talents. You may have heard my interview with Ben Fanning where he talked about finding all of the things you look forward to on your to do list or your calendar. Then he encouraged you to find the trend in the things you enjoy. He also suggested seeking out more of them by volunteering to help a teammate in one of those areas. Or offer a Lunch and Learn to the team on something you get jazzed about. Offer data or articles on topics that would be helpful to the team. It’s basically sharing things with others that would be fun for you to do anyway.  This is all about finding ways to offer up your talents as a contribution to the team — and not waiting for someone to offer you the golden-ticket job. It’s more about creating small moments for yourself that put you in a state of flow or energy or enjoyment so that over time you can become known for that. And once you build a reputation for it, the offers for project work and roles and assignments (even at small task levels) will begin to match up with your strengths. Step 3 - Talk To Your Leader About It This is an important step, of course, because your manager has a lot of sway when it comes to the tasks and responsibilities of your role.  Here are three flavors of conversations that work well when you want to put your strengths on your leader’s radar. These are great for 1x1s. Or you could tweak them for email. Put them in your own words, and you’re on your way. Flavor 1: I Want To Support A Team Or Company Goal   "I’ve been thinking a lot about how I can personally support [goal], and wanted to volunteer some help around [talent or thing you want to build a reputation around]. Are you game to hear an idea?” So an example might sound like, “I’ve been thinking a lot about how I can personally support [our goal to increase customer retention by 15%], and wanted to volunteer some help around [our contact center coaching]. Are you game to hear an idea?” And then, once this conversation opens, you could volunteer a small or large contribution — anything from the creation of a quick cheat sheet resource, all the way through spending one day each month coaching contact center reps in your area of expertise. Flavor 2:  I Want To Bring My A-Game To The Company “As you know, I’ve been digging into StrengthsFinder and thinking about how we can amp up our performance. It got me thinking about what puts me in A-game mode, and one of them is [talent or thing you want to build a reputation around]. Next time you’re assigning a project like that, would you consider me for it?” So an example might sound like, “As you know, I’ve been digging into StrengthsFinder and thinking about how we can amp up our performance. It got me thinking about what puts me in A-game mode, and one of them is [that I’m really on fire when I’m pushing my limits of learning]. Next time you’re assigning a project that has a steep learning curve on a short timeline, would you consider me for it?” Managers in my training sessions tell me that they’d love it if they knew what kind of projects their team members want to be considered for. A simple “please consider me …” request increases the chances that when they’re making decisions in the future, they’ll think of you. Flavor 3: I Will Be Applying Self-Development To A Project And Would Love Feedback “This has been a year of big development for me. I’ve been thinking a lot about how to amp up the contributions I make to the team. One talent I’ve decided to consciously leverage more is my [talent or thing you want to build a reputation around]. It’s different from the way I’ve approached my projects in the past, so wanted to mention it to you for feedback purposes. If you see or hear comments (both good or bad) about me, I’d love to hear them. I’m going in thinking that it will be well received, yet it’s different from how we normally do it so wanted to get your antennae up for it.” So an example might sound like, “This has been a year of big development for me. I’ve been thinking a lot about how to amp up the contributions I make to the team. One talent I’ve decided to consciously leverage more is my [natural ability to build an use a network]. It’s different from the way I’ve approached my projects in the past because we’ve stayed pretty siloed on this project, so wanted to mention it to you for feedback purposes. If you see or hear comments (both good or bad) about the new collaborations, I’d love to hear them. I’m going in thinking that it will be well received, yet it’s different from how we normally do it so wanted to get your antennae up for it.” Three steps for bringing awareness to your awesomeness without sounding braggadocios. And if you’re a people manager, as many listeners are, you can see why these strengths-focused conversations are so tough. They’re awkward for people. Yet if you initiate the conversations, you give them permission to unleash their talents. Ask them what puts them at their best. Ask them what their most favorite and least favorite elements of the job are. Ask them what they would love more of.  Extra Help For Managers Remember to grab the strengths-focused 1x1 and team meeting series. You’ll get 12 weeks of conversation starters for strengths-focused 1x1s and team meetings. It’s super simple in format. It opens up topics like recognition, motivation, and their favorite elements of the job. Each week, it gives you one question to ask in a 1x1 and one question for the team. That way, you can focus on learning more about them rather than spending a bunch of time coming up with new strengths conversations. Enjoyed The Podcast? To subscribe and review, here are your links for listening in iTunes and Stitcher Radio. You can also stream any episode right from this website. Subscribing is a great way to never miss an episode. Let the app notify you each week when the latest episode gets published.

On this episode of the podcast, Mike speaks with Ben Fanning. Ben is a "burnout specialist," the author of The Quit Alternative. Ben and Mike spend time discussing how to create to-do lists that work and really dive into how Ben helps people stave off overwhelm and burnout. Relevant Links http://benfanning.com/ (Ben Fanning | The Burnout Specialist) http://benfanning.com/a-to-do-list-that-works/ (Three Steps to Create a To-Do List that Actually Works | The Burnout Specialist) http://www.amazon.com/QUIT-Alternative-Blueprint-Creating-Quitting-ebook/dp/B00O39C2PA/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1449596702&sr=8-1 (The QUIT Alternative by Ben Fanning | Amazon) http://worlddominationsummit.com/ (World Domination Summit) https://twitter.com/benfanning1 (Ben Fanning (@BenFanning1) | Twitter) Liked this episode? Leave a rating a review in iTunes so more people can discover the show and so that we can learn from the feedback. Thanks for listening!

This Episode’s Focus on Strengths Ben Fanning shows you how to take the job you’re already in and shape it into something you’ll love. He says to think twice before quitting your job. He cautions you to look carefully before you fire a team member. Why? Well, it’s because both actions can cost as much as buying a new car. That’s a lot of money! And often, the role can be tweaked in a way that brings your talents (or theirs) to the forefront. You’ll find this episode especially useful if you’re not in your “dream” job. Even if you are - things change - and you need to know how to steer those changes toward work you can truly enjoy and thrive in. If you have team members who aren’t performing…well, look closer. Their low productivity might be caused by their job responsibilities not lining with their natural talents. In this episode, you’ll get three cool angles for lining them up: Tool: the StrengthsFinder survey. Books: both the StrengthsFinder 2.0 book and The Quit Alternative. Tips: Ben’s ideas and examples will help you make the best choices for your personal career and your company’s productivity. Since we’re expanding our StrengthsFinder team in Austin, Texas and around the world, this interview was helpful for us too. It reminds us to match each team member to work they are energized by. I can say from personal experience that this feels like magic when it is done well. Seriously. I get giddy several times per week when I see how well matched we are for certain responsibilities. My position as Director of Client Experience at Lead Through Strengths is a perfect partnership for Lisa and me. While she run the delivery side, I run the operations side. I get to curate articles using my Input talent. I combine my Achiever and Responsibility to be sure that every project step happens accurately and as promised. And we’re even re-matching talents as we speak as it relates to podcast duties. Ben’s tips were hitting home for both of us as we recapped the show.   What You’ll Learn Ben starts this episode by telling his personal story. He was miserable at work. And it was literally making him sick. His advice: Start journaling. Writing in a journal helps you notice how you really feel about your job. And look, Ben is not a touchy-feely woo-woo guy if you’re thinking that journaling is for the soft. He’s a practical guy who wants outcomes—and journaling gave him a huge shift. Make the change. Advice he would give to his younger self – Dear Ben… “Your job is to create the job you love” Make it yours. Continually molding yourself to the job erodes your personal mold and you forget who you are. Ben’s steps to create the job you love: Ask - Why am I working in the first place? Knowing the answer to this question can help you during the tough times. Ask - What are the work activities I’m doing that I truly enjoy? Ben calls these items “soul-filling” work. He points out the more you fill your day with these things, the happier you will be. And as you might guess, the happier everyone else will be too (cough cough, ahem, I think Ben’s wife will agree based on the sticky note she left him). TIP: To figure out what you enjoy doing, pull out your calendar and circle the things you are really looking forward to doing. Plan – Assemble your personal game plan. TIPS: Look at the conversations you have, and think about what you’re saying. Look at the trends. Stop advertising the tasks you do well, but don’t enjoy. Why get type cast into a character you despise? Lets say you are great at cleaning toilets. You think it’s gross, and you hate every second of this duty. Would you put it on your resume? No. Surely you wouldn’t. Yet this happens every day because people are in the habit of listing a skill inventory. Start mentioning the things you really enjoy. Tell your manager. Put them on your resume. Add them on LinkedIn. And bring them up in conversations with teammates. Ask clients and teammates to send you comments about things you’ve done well (that you enjoy), and then show those to your boss. After showing these good reviews, ask for the task to be added to your job description. You’ll be surprised at how often you can change your “official” responsibilities if you take on projects that you love—especially when you figure out how to tie that to business outcomes. Listen for the business challenges your company is facing, and find ways to solve those issues. Solve these problems using the activities you love. This way, you’re helping the company while making yourself happier. When you’re feeling stressed or you’re thinking about quitting your job, remember that you can improve your existing job. With some effort, you can shape it into what you want it to be. So go claim your talents, and share them with the world!   Resources of the Episode Ben has made it easy for you to get even more tips to improve your current job. Click here to go to his website, benfanning.com, where you can also grab a free copy of his report, The Catastrophic Cost of Quitting: How Organizations and Employees Pay the Price. Click here to purchase The Quit Alternative on Amazon.com. Other ways to connect with Ben are Twitter, Google Plus, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Ben mentions he was motivated by Simon Sinek’s work, The Golden Circle, which is available for free by clicking here.   Subscribe To subscribe and review, here are your links for listening in iTunes and Stitcher Radio. You can also stream any episode right from the website. Subscribing is a great way to never miss an episode. Let the app notify you each week when the latest episode gets published.   Here’s A Full Transcript of the 30 Minute Interview   Lisa Cummings: [00:00:04] I’m your host, Lisa Cummings, and I’ve gotta tell you, whether you’re leading a team, or leading yourself, it’s hard to find something more energizing and productive than using your natural talents every day at work. [00:00:15] Today, you’re going to love this guest. If you think your job is just, “Bleh,” or if you dread your commute, or if you beat your alarm clock a little too hard when you pound on the snooze button every morning, if you just feel bored and apathetic at work, today’s guest will help you change all of that. [00:00:33] His advice about not quitting your job inspired today’s theme song. Do you remember that old one from Johnny Paycheck “Take This Job and Shove It?” There are also a couple of versions by the Dead Kennedys and David Allan Coe. Well, today’s guest will tweak those lyrics for you. [00:00:49] Ben Fanning will forever change that song for you into “Take This Job and Love it.” Ben Fanning: [00:00:57] Whoo. Thanks, Lisa. Heck of an introduction. I did not know that the Dead Kennedys had a version of that song. I’m making a note and I will check that out immediately following our interview. Lisa Cummings: [00:01:07] Yeah, just make sure it’s not first thing in the morning because their version is pretty intense. It’s like, “Take this job and shove it!” Ben Fanning: [00:01:14] Fantastic. Lisa Cummings: [00:01:15] [laughs] So, Ben, I invited you to this show after reading your book The Quit Alternative and I just love how you help people create and reshape their work inside of their existing job without having to quit. Now, before the audience hears how to recreate their job, I want to know how this all came to be. What drove you to figure it out? Ben Fanning: [00:01:38] Yeah, Lisa, I’ll be happy to share that here. I grew up with big dreams with a corner office. I really envisioned myself in a big city in this office surrounded by glass and having that moment where I’ve gotten on my personal jet as a CEO, I flew back to my hometown in Alexander City, Alabama, and they would actually name a road after me, right? I had this big vision of that. [00:02:01] And so four different cities, four companies, four different jobs, I finally ended up in Manhattan and so I always was sort of taking the job for the next promotion opportunity. But once I had the job in Manhattan, in a corner office, it wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. The hours were longer than ever, there was more pressure and stress, and every night I would find myself coming home feeling totally exhausted, drained, burned out, and just unloading all these complaints about work and my boss and my clients on my wife. And she was just sort of my sounding board, and I think it was starting to drive her a little nuts. [00:02:41] One day she was out of town and the stress was really mounting, in the middle of the night I woke up with a pressure of a bowling ball in my chest. I have a family history of heart attacks, I thought, “Oh, my God, I am having a heart attack. I’m in my 30s, how could I be having a heart attack?” But I ran in the hallway, gotten a cab, went to the hospital, and the doctor comes out and says, “Relax, Mr. Fanning, you’re not having a heart attack. You’re having a panic attack.” And I thought, “A panic attack? What in the world?” [00:03:15] And he said, “Ben, you need to learn to relax a little bit, and take some time and learn to laugh a little bit too.” Now, I was like, “This does not qualify as medical advice,” and I just walked out, never return to that office. And, honestly, things didn’t get much better, Lisa, after that. But my wife, in her intuitiveness, one day I woke up and she had left a Post-It note on my bag that had the name of a therapist and a phone number, and an appointment time, proactively set an appointment with a therapist. [00:03:48] Now, I don’t know how many of your listeners are from the southeast and are male, but if you’re a Southern male, the idea of a therapist is pretty close to the enjoyment of maybe being stung by a thousand bees. So it’s not a very fun experience. I was like, “Thank, God, it wasn’t a Dear John Post-It note,” you know. It’s like, “Okay, this is a little help that she’s just trying to reach out and give me here.” I actually went to that appointment, and I would trudge from our place on 86th Street in the Upper West Side uptown and I would go see this therapist once a week. [00:04:21] And, Lisa, I would walk in there and the guy would just sit there, he barely said anything. He would just listen to me, and I would just rant and just complain at this guy about how bad work was, and I actually would walk out feeling pretty good. I would feel a little bit better when I walked in but as soon as I walked in the office I just felt sort of pulled back in to this mire and this dread and just really this resentment and anger, and then still feeling exhausted at the end of the day. [00:04:50] And then one day, something really big happened, I walked in to see my therapist, sat down and I started just complaining about everything, and he stopped me mid-sentence, and he said, “Ben, you know what your problem is?” I just felt myself, just like my draw dropped, just in shock because this guy is finally going to earn what I’m paying him, he’s going to tell me what my problem is. And I’m just sitting there, and he says, “Ben, you hate your job. There’s no pill for it. It’s not a place for me to work with you anymore. You need to go off, and you need to figure this out for yourself.” [00:05:27] And I looked at him square in the eye and I said, “Are you firing me?” And he said, “Yes.” Lisa Cummings: [00:05:33] Wow. Ben Fanning: [00:05:34] That was the wakeup call for me that day, and that day I didn’t go in to work. I just walked around Manhattan all afternoon. And sitting there in reflection of what he’d said, what I really discovered was that I went and thought about all the different jobs I had, all the different companies I worked for, and the common element was me. For some reason, that was a real shock. I was the common element. And the quote came to me, and it’s something I’d read somewhere along the lines, was, “No matter where you go, there you are.” Lisa Cummings: [00:06:09] Oh, yeah. Ben Fanning: [00:06:11] That the problem, ultimately, started with me and so I had to make some personal changes and start thinking through this. So I started journaling, and one of the things that came out of that when I was working through The Quit Alternative, I was going back to my notes, and I discovered this note that I had written to myself back in college. Like, if I was to talk to Ben before he got his career started, what would that tidbit of advice have been? And it’s this, “Dear Ben, your job is to create the job you love.” That’s the whole thing. Lisa Cummings: [00:06:46] Interesting. Ben Fanning: [00:06:47] When I left college it was all about finding a job. And this mindset of finding is actually a really big distraction because you’re fitting yourself into the job out there. So you’re sort of molding yourself to the job. Once you mold yourself enough, you start to lose yourself in your career and your job, and so it’s a really important thing to, just as this podcast says, really understand what your strengths are, understand the work that doesn’t feel like work for you. If your listeners doesn’t know what that is we can talk more about that and maybe get more into that. [00:07:25] But it’s important to know that everyone has work that doesn’t feel like work. And whatever that is for you is a direction that you want to start steering your career, and using that is really the backbone of creating the job you love right where you are. Otherwise, you’re just going to be playing the lottery as to what work ends up getting on your plate. [00:07:47] And another question that comes up about this a lot, Lisa, is this whole idea of, “Well, I took a job that I really like and they sold me on it,” or, “It was like this when I started, and now it kind of stinks. Now, I don’t like it anymore.” Lisa Cummings: [00:08:01] Right. Ben Fanning: [00:08:02] “And things have changed.” And the usefulness of this creating perspective is you expect that, right? You expect the environment to change, you will get a new boss, but if you’re always in this mindset of creating the job you love, you’re always going to be fine tuning your work activities, negotiating on your own behalf, campaigning for the work you love, just start to bringing it back to sort of net neutral in a positive-career direction for yourself that feels authentic. Lisa Cummings: [00:08:32] I really love the personal accountability in it because no matter the business situations that change around you, if you’re always shaping your career toward your strengths you’re going to feel more energized and engaged with your work. So let’s say someone’s listening to the show, Ben, and they’re digging this idea you have, yet it feels like a farfetched idea to them. Say it seems like too big of a ship to turn the way their career is going today. How do you break this down? How do you start taking action? Ben Fanning: [00:09:03] I like to think about sort of the Simon Sinek approach starting with why in the first place. So I usually just try to ask the question, “Well, why are you working in the first place?” That can really reveal a lot of powerful insights for people. Probably the most important thing that I find is when you’re burning the candle on both ends, or you’re really stressed out, it is so helpful to have a reminder to yourself of why you’re working in the first place. [00:09:34] Are you working because you’re in a position where you’re developing yourself in skills and you’re planning for this to lead to something bigger and better for yourself down the road? Are you working to pay the bills for your family? Have you been working in the same job for a long time and you really love your co-workers, and you know maybe one of them is sick and out, and you’re pulling the load on behalf of the team? Now, you remind yourself of why you’re working, and that can help you get through some really hard times. And so I think in a very fundamental level, understanding why you work in the first place is really important to explore. [00:10:12] When I was talking about Simon Sinek, just sort of like the CliffNotes version is Simon Sinek sort of thought through this thing called the golden circle, and his idea is, “Well, hey, maybe you know what you do, you may know how you do your job, but almost no one is thinking about why they’re doing their job in the first place.” And then I think, really, like a second helpful thing to think about, and it’s a little bit different than why, is, “What are the work activities you’re doing?” One thing on their calendar during the day that they actually really enjoy doing. And I like to talk about that as soul-filling work. [00:10:46] So that’s the work that you invest yourself in, and after you invest your energy and focus on that, you actually receive that back, so it’s sort of like a positive or return on investment. The more that your day is full of those kinds of activities, the better you’re going to feel after work, the more energy you’re going to have to work out, to cook, to be with your friends and family, to not conk out in front of the TV, to actually feel like you want to do something after work. And this sort of compounds and leads to positive results in your career, as well as for the organization, the boss, and the team that you work with every day. Lisa Cummings: [00:11:23] What a great visual. It makes me think of soul food. I’m thinking of okra right now. Ben Fanning: [00:11:30] Oh, yeah. Well, I live in Charleston so we really like the soul food concept. Lisa Cummings: [00:11:34] Yeah, and I like how you could take your career okra in small bites. Your approach really makes it digestible and realistic for people. I joke around with my clients all the time and tell them that they look like they’re waiting around at a passion lost and found counter, like one day someone will magically recover this thing in them and say, “Oh, here it is. Here’s that passion you’ve been longing to find all this time. It was here all along.” [00:12:02] And what I tell them is, “Look, stop that madness. You are a complex human being, and you’re good at a lot of things, and you would enjoy a lot of things.” And instead, to use your soul-filling idea, Ben, “Your soul can be filled by lots of things, so stop beating yourself up because you weren’t born with the clarity that you’re a prodigy who knew from the age of three.” Ben Fanning: [00:12:22] You know, I’m totally with you on that, because I used to believe that. I’m like, “Man, I want to find my passion.” I know once I find out that I’m passionate about walking around in a Mickey Mouse suit around Disney World everything will be right. Lisa Cummings: [00:12:38] Are you going to dress up like a princess? Ben Fanning: [00:12:40] Umm, you know you never know. I mean, maybe. That might be a way to be passionate, too Lisa Cummings: [00:12:45] You have to stand correct through the whole time. Ben Fanning: [00:12:47] At Disney World recently, those people as princesses seem to be very passionate about their work standing around. If you don’t even want to go through that, pull out your calendar for the next two days, and just put a red circle around the ones you’re looking forward to, as simple as that. Just put it on the ones that you’re looking forward to, because that’s a clue of something that maybe you could be passionate about. Maybe if you have more of that work in your job to look forward to you’d be more excited to get to work. [00:13:15] So that sort of clueing you into that important self-awareness, and then once you thought about why you got these motivating work activities identified, then you can start to assemble your personal game plan, or playbook, from moving more in that direction and taking action. Lisa Cummings: [00:13:32] What a great technique for paying attention to the things you’re looking forward to on your calendar, and rather than just doing them, like you usually would, actually thinking about how you can shape your job with those responsibilities. I talk a lot about this in my StrengthsFinder training, as well. It’s part of paying attention to what fuels you so you can get more of it. Ben Fanning: [00:13:53] I like it. I like it. It is the best investment of time. Most research, self-assessments, I try to be a little bit careful because sometimes people can sort of over-rely on them, just like looking at their work activities, that’s just sort of practical. But I think you can be such a great kick-start for like where to look. And if you’ve already put some of these pieces together, it can be a real validating thing. [00:14:17] One of the things I like about StrengthsFinder is that quick assessment that’s printed out at the end, it gives you ideas for who you might be great collaborators with, that have different strengths. That, for me, is Disney magic. It’s like, “Hey, Pooh Bear, you need to work with Pinocchio, or you need to work with Tigger, because Tigger can bounce up high and get honey out of a honey tree.” Lisa Cummings: [00:14:44] Ben, you are cracking me up. Okay, guys, you’re probably listening, thinking, “Wow, this guy really likes his Disney metaphors.” So now I’ll let you in on our inside joke, and tell you why he’s using Pooh Bear to demonstrate who you should partner up with at work to tap into your complementary talents. See, Ben recently went on vacation at Disney and I challenged him to work a Disney character into the interview without it feeling too off the wall, so that’s why he found his passion in dressing up as a Disney princess and teaming up with Tigger because their talents were complementary. [00:15:20] So even though you heard our silliness here, this is an important place where everything comes together. Ben started with that Simon Sinek concept where you identify your “why,” then you do things like his super practical calendar exercise to consider “what” activities energize you at work, then you use StrengthsFinder to dig into the “how.” It shows you how you think, how you execute, how you relate to people. So combine all of those and you’re tapping into a seriously powerful start to creating, or reshaping, the job you’re already in today. Ben Fanning: [00:15:51] Yes, I love that. That’s a cool combination. Lisa Cummings: 00:15:54] Now, what if you’ve been locking yourself into other people’s molds for a lot of years, and you don’t even know what it feels like to design your career for yourself? What if you’re executing on old belief patterns that will take you back into a rut and you don’t even know it? Ben Fanning: [00:16:12] Yeah, a really simple way to do that is stop advertising your accomplishments, doing the work that you don’t like to do, or the draining work. Lisa Cummings: [00:16:20] Yeah. Ben Fanning: [00:16:22] It’s funny, I have a friend that’s an accountant and he was bragging that he got notified by LinkedIn, he’s like, “I’m in the top 5% of viewed profiles on LinkedIn.” “Okay, well, cool. Well, congratulations on that.” But I knew he doesn’t really like being an accountant. Lisa Cummings: [00:16:42] Uh-oh. Ben Fanning: [00:16:43] And so I’m like, “You realize all these people are coming to your LinkedIn profile because they’re searching for accounting people.” And I’m like, “You don’t sound like you’re really happy doing traditional accounting work.” He’s since made some changes, but I think we all can fall into this trap so easily. People are sharing at staff meetings, or wherever, all these accomplishments on stuff they don’t enjoy doing. And what ends up happening is it’s like you’re a burnout work magnet, and I was like this for a long time. [00:17:15] One of my specialties early on in my career was managing this customs compliance team, and I was doing some logistics and supply chain work, and that group just sort of fell under the group I was managing. I was just amazed at the amount of work that that would attract. And the more results we had, the more work we had to do in that, and it wasn’t really helping my workday very much. [00:17:39] So I really thought through again the work that I was advertising that I enjoyed, and started to share some of those wins. The first step is to start to minimize that, and the first is – for everybody listening to day – to think about these few work activities that you enjoy and then start highlighting them, whether it’s your resume, your LinkedIn profile, or whether that’s in your weekly staff meeting, start to share it. [00:18:05] And, for me, years later, I discovered that one of the soul-filling activities for me was around presenting and training and mentoring other people, and that was not part of my job. It was a small facet but not a very big part, and certainly not mentorship. But what I did was, I started doing some mentoring of employees and then I would ask them to send a quick email to me and say, “Hey, that was helpful,” or, “Thank you for your insights on that.” And that teed up an excellent email that I would share with my boss. Lisa Cummings: [00:18:38] Oh, very clever, Ben. Ben Fanning: [00:18:40] Like, “Hey, here’s third-party validation that this other work that I’m doing that’s not really part of my every day job description is adding value.” And the next year I was able to get mentoring added on my annual review, so that was something I actually got evaluated for and so it became part of my job, and then I applied a very similar thing. And this is sort of expanding, but I’ll roll with it here. [00:19:11] So there was a situation where I was presenting and enjoying this stuff, but I didn’t really know what to do with it other than just presenting at my weekly staff meeting. So what I did was I listened to the problems that our group was struggling with which was getting closure on projects. These projects our group was involved in, they were stretching out way past the deadline and costing everybody money and getting the boss really ticked off. [00:19:36] And so I said, “Hey, what if I do a little lunch-and-learn training program around getting closure on big projects? Just like, how do you finish that project that has been hanging out there forever?” And I thought my boss was going to kiss me, he was so excited. He’s like, “That sounds great.” And so, suddenly, it’s my job to present ideas that I’ve been thinking about to our group. And the beautiful part was after that he shared those four modules that I did with somebody else, and so I got to go present it to a different team. And, literally, it started just to take off from there. [00:20:15] The funny thing is I would say that was one of those big inflection points where it sort of steamrolled into, “Well, hey, I’m going to blog a little bit. I’m going to share that blog.” And fast-forward years later, I’ve got a number one bestselling book that involves a lot of these stories and strategies that all came out of that experience. [00:20:37] That is the sort of thing, I think, that can happen if you start really small, acknowledge what’s motivating you, start to highlight those accomplishments, and then have that attract more of the work. And, really, that’s what happened for me and a lot of my clients, it’s the more you advertise the stuff you like, it is like a magnet. You start to get more of that work in your workday and you can sort of watch the evolution and build more momentum in that direction for your career. Lisa Cummings: [00:21:06] Oh, yeah. This is so practical. And it’s going to be a huge insight for people because it’s not just about finding things that energize you, it’s also about tying them to a business problem. If you can solve something that’s causing someone’s pain and enjoy the work at the same time, you’re going to get that kind of work thrown at you. No wonder your boss wanted to kiss you, Ben. [00:21:28] So, now, okay, flip it around. Here’s a dark side of that, I think, people might worry about when they’re listening. Do you think there’s a risk that you can get so much more work thrown at you, even if it’s good work, that you end up working an extra 10 hours a week, and kind of kill the upside of it all by piling on more and more? Ben Fanning: [00:21:51] Yeah, and I think it’s so important, like you said, people could say, “Well, I don’t want to do more work,” or, “That’s too much.” If it feels like too much, I mean, in my opinion, is not to do it, because that’s going to come across to whoever you’re working with on this, and it’s going to come across as a have-to-do versus a get-to-do. So carve out a really small action or small lunch-and-learn, 30 minutes, on a topic that’s useful to the company, and the team, but that you actually want to do. [00:22:20] Good grief, if you don’t want to do it they’re going to know. And it works in other ways too. I thought of the lunch-and-learn because that’s a really personal example but if that’s not your bag then let’s think of something else. Maybe you like doing financial analysis and you really are passionate about that. You can offer to show somebody how to do an analysis, or do it for someone. Or maybe you like to automate tasks in Excel. If that’s you then, first, please call me. I like that. [00:22:51] But you can just start with what you like to do and what’s interest to you and start to sort of bring that into work in some capacity and just watch what happens. Watch the magic. Lisa Cummings: [00:23:04] Ha-ha, watch the Disney magic. And, okay, as you’re creating these new responsibilities in your job, as long as you’re solving a business problem, you can negotiate it so that as you add two or three new responsibilities that solve a big business problem you’re also deleting other ones. That way people won’t feel like it’s becoming an out-of-control workload. Ben Fanning: [00:23:29] Yeah, and you can go deep. I love thinking about how these things can help the organization, and because that’s really an important thing, I think a lot of employees when they think about this stuff, they’re thinking about “me,” right? They’re not thinking about the organization, and so the art and the real trick is to make sure it is impacting the organization, because that’s how you can even go further with your career and your job and the benefit to the company. There’s really always a way to tie it back in some positive form. Lisa Cummings: [00:23:59] All right, everyone, you heard it here. Now it’s your turn to go solve a problem that lives in your strengths zone. So go find some soul-filling work like this Southern have been, who got fired from his therapist in Manhattan because his work was sucking his soul away, and he turned all that situation into something great. If he can do it, you can do it. Ben Fanning: [00:24:21] [laughs] Lisa Cummings: [00:24:23] So when they want more of you, obviously, they’ll read your book The Quit Alternative. Also, tell them how to get more Ben Fanning in their lives. Ben Fanning: [00:24:33] You guys go on over to BenFanning.com, and right now you can go over there, I have a report, it’s called The Catastrophic Cost of Quitting. Don’t fire another employee or resign your job until you’ve reviewed this report. Basically, it’s a really quick review on the cost of quitting. If you’re thinking about quitting your job, it breaks down the cost, it actually shows you how the uncovered costs for them can equal more than the cost of a new car. [00:25:02] So it’s not that you shouldn’t think about quitting ever but if you’re ever going to do it make sure you take the same calculated risk and go to this calculations like you would with a big financial investment, and from a company side, decreasing disengagement. Disengaged employees are two and half times more likely to quit, and you look at a 10,000-person organization, you could buy a couple of Super Bowl commercials if you could have other impacting engagements. So think about that. This reports walks you through that over at BenFanning.com, and I invite you to get it and enjoy. Lisa Cummings: [00:25:38] Enjoy, you guys. Go grab it. You’ll love reading Ben’s work. It’s such good perspective. It’s not about quitting the job, it’s about taking accountability for your career and creating one you love. So get on out there, go claim your strengths, and share them with the world.  

Author and corporate coach and trainer, Ben maintains his corporate job while building his business helping professionals create the job they love without quitting.

Ben Fanning is Chief Burnout Officer and the world's leading authority on creating the job you love. He helps professionals create the job they love without quitting. Quitting isn't always an option, or the best option and the grass is not … Continue reading →

Ben Fanning is Chief Burnout Officer and the world’s leading authority on creating the job you love. He helps professionals create the job they love without quitting. Quitting isn’t always an option, or the best option and the grass is not … Continue reading →