264 Take Charge of Your Career: Interview with Brian Ahearn

I really appreciate that you shared that.

And my dear mentor and co-author Marshall Goldsmith has said that credibility needs to be earned twice.

So it used to be that expertise was enough.

We would be getting results.

We would be dependable and everybody would notice that and they would promote us and essentially a career long success.

These days, that's not enough.

We need both the expertise and And we need to build credibility the second time by visibility through principles like authority, social proof, and other things that we'll talk about.

Because the reality is we need to stand out.

There's so much noise.

There's so much competition.

We need to figure out how to help people, as you did, see who we are, what is our brand, and really see that that is credible, to give evidence that it's not just words on a voicemail or on an email or on a LinkedIn post.

It is authentically who we are and how we are in the eyes of others who have been working with us or served by us.

So this mindset is at the heart of this, because I think that the first thing people need to realize is if they want to succeed, it is up to them.

It is up to them to realize what they need and to ask for what they need in a way that is going to help them get the best results.

And this is what this conversation is all about.

So what do people need to know about how to take charge of their career, whether they're in transition or employed and want to rise in that organization?

Well, another thing comes to mind, and I did not do a good job of this early in my career, but this wasn't a big thing.

I started my career in July of 1986, so 40 years ago.

And at that time, when I was working for the travelers insurance companies, nobody was talking about mentors.

and even early in my transition over to state auto insurance which is now part of liberty mutual nobody was really talking about mentors that's a much bigger thing now i would encourage any young person you want to start taking charge of your career you identify some people in your circle maybe there's one person within the office where you work or part of your organization and then maybe somebody who's outside that organization to get a different perspective and make it a point to the be a mentee of these people for maybe six months to a year and then rotate out and get other perspectives.

And so just make that part of your discipline so that throughout your career, you're engaging dozens of people to get different perspectives.

And you never know, If you are an impressive individual, they may say, hey, here are some opportunities because you took the bull by the horn, so to speak.

So that's another, it's just got to be you.

You can't wait for people to come to you and say, I'd love to mentor you.

That happens very rarely.