Stop Settling For What You “Can” Do…Find Out What You “Should” Do
I’ve always been fascinated by greatness. In a business management class at the University of Kentucky, one of our assignments was to choose a business book to read. At the end of the semester, everyone in the class would write a two page paper to summarize the book they chose and they’d use that two page paper as the basis of a presentation to the class.
For this assignment, I chose “In Search of Excellence” by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H Waterman, Jr. The next impactful book I remember reading was Zig Ziglar’s “See You at the Top”. Later on I heard about Jim Collins’ “Good to Great” and bought the book as quickly as I could find a copy.
My point here is that I’ve always been attracted to excellence and greatness. Several years ago, someone came along and introduced me to my strengths, the natural hard wiring that makes me who I am. All of a sudden, many things I’d wondered about for many years became crystal clear.
The reason I’ve always been so interested in excellence and greatness is that one of my top 5 strengths is called Maximzer. People who have this strength are driven to excellence. At the moment when this concept was explained to me, light bulbs lit up and I finally understood why I was always driven the way I was driven.
Before learning about my own strengths, I came to a conclusion that most people I’d met along the way through 20 years of recruiting (at that time) were going through life settling for what they “Can” do and they were producing an average performance. Gallup research for 15 years now suggests that year-after-year, 70% of the American workforce is disengaged in their work. That leaves only 30% of people who go to work every day who are engaged and pushing for some level of excellence or greatness.
I've always been attracted to these kinds of motivated people. Now I knew why!
When several people all at once encouraged me to offer coaching services, I immediately started wondering how I could help people move from the “Can” category to the “Should” category. Why would I want to do that?
If smart people like Steve Jobs, Stephen Covey and Jim Collins had already figured out that getting passionate, gifted, smart and engaged people into the right jobs would take care of producing great output, my job was simple!
My job was and is to help as many people as possible to figure out what they are built to be great at. The reason for the cool looking multi-colored frog picture at the top of this article is to illustrate that you and I and everyone else is as unique as that cool looking frog. Every single person on this plant has been created to be great at something. When people figure out what they can be great at, they can stop saying yes to what they “Can” do and they can confidently say yes to what they “Should” do, great things happen.
If you want to discover how to become the optimal you and produce the best output you have potential to produce, I want to meet you and I want to become your personal coach.
Jeff Snyder’s, Jeff Snyder Coaching Blog, 719.686.8810
Do You Have Any Idea How Unique You Are?
This is a flower that is currently blooming in my gardens at 8,500' in the Colorado Rockies. To me, this is one of the most unique flowers I've ever seen. I was lucky to get a picture of this one before yesterday's hail storm or before the deer got to it. The deer can clean every flower off of this plant in a minute or two when they're hungry.
The point in sharing this flower is to demonstrate just how unique it is. Maybe you don't think of yourself as a flower but you're this unique too. Demonstrated through one of the tools I use in my coaching, looking at a list of 34 traits that we all have in common, I would have to have 33,000,000 people take the same assessment in order to find two people whose 34 traits line up in the same order. Now that's unique!
What this means is that inside you right now is enough uniqueness to become great at something. If you haven't yet figured out what you have potential to be great at, what you have potential to become passionate about doing and what you have potential to become great at when you share your giftedness with others, today would be a great day to call me.
This flower is not in my garden. It is in the Pike National Forest near Woodland Park, CO. Is this flower any less interesting than the blue one above it? No! This flower is unique in its own way...just like you! Both flowers serve the purpose of providing beauty and brightening up their surroundings but they're entirely different. This is how you could be if you were to slow down to figure out what you "Should" do with your life rather than settling for what you "Can" do.
This flower is a Columbine. It is the state flower of Colorado. I photographed these columbines very close to the yellow flower shown above. Are they any less beautiful than the yellow or blue flowers shared above? Now! They're all beautiful. They all brighten up their surroundings and they are all unique.
Human beings are just as unique and we're all built do to something special. You may think you know what you were built for and you may think you're in the right professional role. For some people this is true. For most of the US workforce, Gallup's surveys of the US workforce suggest that approximately 70% of people who go to work every day are disengaged in their work.
This group of people goes to work and reluctantly punches the clock to check in. They can't wait to punch the clock to leave for the day. They produce average output and they're only marginally engaged in the work they're paid to do.
The other part of Gallup's year-upon-year survey of the US workforce shows that approximately 30% of the US workforce is engaged in their work. These are the people who keep our economy ticking. These are the people who generally love what they do and they're great at whatever it is that they do. If you'd like to join this 30% group so you too can passionately love what you do and you too can produce great output, there is no time better than he present to give me a call.
I'll lead you to an understanding of exactly and precisely how you are uniquely built. We'll compare the way you're built to the work you are currently doing. We'll compare the way you are uniquely built to what you could be doing to excel in the future. We'll call this your career road map.
There's no better time than the present to call Jeff Snyder at Jeff Snyder Coaching. My number is 719.686.8810
You Should Be In The Driver's Seat Of Your Career Progression
