I'm the Boss of Me: A Guide to Owning Your Career, 1st edition
Published by Pearson FT Press (June 27, 2016) © 2017
- Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn
- A print text (hardcover or paperback)
- Free shipping
- Also available for purchase as an ebook from all major ebook resellers, including InformIT.com
Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn left childhood behind when she became fatherless at age 12. From this financially unstable starting point, which she calls contrast, Jeanne developed a philosophy of life based on love and meeting life’s challenges with resilience and a deep willingness to learn. Now with more than 20 years of executive-level experience in the technology industry and having founded the Internet of Things Talent Consortium, Jeanne shares career-building lessons, strategies, and tactics, interspersed with stories about how she and others have used contrast, courage, resilience, and persistence to propel themselves forward into stellar careers in music, sports, real estate, technology, and many other fields.
With a passion for mentoring others, Jeanne offers this guide to developing a self-empowered approach to work, career, and life. The book delivers easy-to-follow instruction on how to
- Build a Vision-Strategy-Execution plan
- Develop a personal brand statement
- Use networking to develop a bench of supporters who will help you bring your career dreams to reality
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv
Chapter 1 You Are Who You Are Because of Your Choices . . . . .1
A Challenged Beginning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Building Resilience and Strength. . . . . . . . . 3
Empower Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
How Successful People Create Their Success. . . . . . 7
Contrast Shows You What You Want . . . . . . . 8
Contrast Doesn’t Need to Be Big to Work for You. . . . . . . . 9
Push toward Change or Shrink from It,
It’s Your Choice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Choose Love When Fear Calls. . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Two Operating Models: Love and Fear . . . . . . 13
Stay Out of the Bubble, Stay Off Autopilot . . . . 15
A Bucket List for Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Build the Self-Empowered Road to Success . . . . . . 17
Happiness First. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Getting Down to Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Chapter 2 You Are a Work in Progress–Challenge
Yourself to Get Better . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
Give Up the Idea That the Way You Are Now
Is the Way You Will Always Be. . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Practice Self-Control Because It Doesn’t Come Naturally. . . . . . . . 26
Use Self-Talk Plus Self-Control to Choose Your Operating Model. . . . . 28
Using Emotional Intelligence Helps You
Connect with Yourself and Others . . . . . . . . 29
Don’t Check Your Feelings at the Door . . . . . . . . 33
Build Self-Awareness So You Can See Where You’re Going . . . . . . . . 35
Avoid Artificial Limits So You Don’t Get Lost. . . . . . 39
Courage and Resilience Will Support You When Things Get Tough . . . . . . . 41
Focus and Discipline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Using Discipline to Make Progress . . . . . . . . . . 49
Getting Down to Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Chapter 3 Do You Know What You Want from Your Career and Life? . . . . . . . .53
Let Curiosity Lead You. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Discovering Your Work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
If You Don’t Know, Experiment! . . . . . . . . 57
Exposure Is the Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
How Parents Can Help Their Kids and
Students Can Help Themselves . . . . . . . . . 62
Understanding the Work Environment . . . . . . . . 65
Outside: The World of Work and
Where It Is Headed . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Inside: Your Strengths and Interests . . . . . . . 74
Finding Your Strengths. . . . . . . . . . . . 77
There Are a Few Archetypal Jobs . . . . . . . . 83
The Need for Both Soft Skills and Technology Skills. . . . . . . . 84
The Future Is Uncertain, But You Don’t Need to Be. . . 86
Creating a Blue Ocean Career Strategy. . . . . . . . 90
What’s Next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Chapter 4 Vision Strategy Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . .95
Vision, Strategy, Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Map Your Career to Make the Most of Your Desires . . 122
How Do You Keep Momentum in a Career? . . . . . 124
Build Next-Generation Skills . . . . . . . . . 126
Driving Awareness and Your Personal Brand . . . 129
Chapter 5 Becoming Your Vision: Aligning Your Behavior . . . .131
Use Contrast to Drive Learning. . . . . . . . . . . 134
The Learner’s Mindset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Learner’s Mindset and Growth Mindset . . . . . 139
Be a Learner to Stay Engaged in Your Work. . . 142
Many Ways to Learn and Work . . . . . . . . . . . 143
How You Hold Yourself Back . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Blind Spots: Overconfident and Under Sighted . . 148
Blind Spots: Under Confident and Over Sighted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Blind Spots: Ego Nurturer . . . . . . . . . . 150
Learning as a Core Skill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Love, Emotional Intelligence, and Mindsets. . . . . . 154
Chapter 6 Becoming Your Vision II: Articulating Your Brand and Building Your Bench. . . . . . .161
Communicating with Others About Your
Vision — Sharing Your VSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Developing a Personal Brand Statement. . . . . 162
Value Proposition and Making the Match . . . . 164
Gathering Information and Writing Your
Personal Brand Statement . . . . . . . . . . 165
Socializing with Your VSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Working Through the Fear and Enjoying the Process . . . . . . . . 171
Purposeful Networking. . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Spheres of Influence. . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Invest in Your Relationships. . . . . . . . . . 181
Building Your Bench. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
The Close-In Sphere . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Mentors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
The Advisor Sphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
The Alliance Sphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Chapter 7 Attitude, Altruism, and Altitude . . . . . . . . . .191
Attitude and Altruism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Living with Intention . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Tame Your Mind, Feed Your Heart . . . . . . . 199
How Choosing Love Over Fear Supports
Altruism and Propels You to the Next Level . . . 203
Taking Flight with Outside-In, Inside-Out Thinking . . 208
The Inside-Out, Outside-In Career Process . . . 210
How to Create Your Dream Job. . . . . . . . 221
Chapter 8 Myths and Murders: Getting Past Roadblocks and Barriers . . . . . . . . . .225
It’s Not About You. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Obstacles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of
Mental Habits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Problem Fighter or Problem Solver . . . . . . 236
Disengaged or Just in the Wrong Job?. . . . . . . . 237
Being Miserable in Your Job . . . . . . . . . 238
Self-Destructive Spirals . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. . . . . . . . . . . . 243
External Limitations: Mailroom Syndrome . . . . 247
Feeling Trapped . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Working with Intention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Chapter 9 Planning and Making Choices. . . . . . . . . . .255
Planning for Balance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
A Case in Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
How Planning for Balance Works on the Personal Side . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
To Plan or Not to Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Blending Your Life and Experiences:
An Older Lifestyle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Saying No Means Not Having to Say You’re Sorry . . . 271
Beyond Saying No. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Saying Yes or No to New Roles and
Stretch Goals: Know Yourself. . . . . . . . . 278
Balance Requires Trust. . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Contrast and Stress Are the Teachers,
Balance Is the Lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Chapter 10 Self-Leadership 2.0: Success in the Face of Obstacles . . . . . . . . . .287
Self-Leadership When Things Don’t Go Your Way . . . 289
-Isms: Sexism, Racism, Ethnocentrism, and More. . . . . . . . . 290
Begin with Understanding . . . . . . . . . . 291
The Need to Bridge Differences . . . . . . . . 294
Self-Fulfilling Prophecies. . . . . . . . . . . 297
Handling Gender Bias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Handling the Cultural Bias Toward Extraversion . . . . 301
What Do You Do When Things Go Wrong or
You Can’t Influence Someone? . . . . . . . . . . . 302
The Benefits of a Third-Party Perspective . . . . . . 302
Working with Differences in Thinking Styles . . . . . 306
Working Around Subtleties in the Workplace . . . . . 308
Build Your Bench . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Do Your Homework and Share It . . . . . . . 310
Volunteering: How Can I Help You? . . . . . . 312
Working Around Cronyism. . . . . . . . . . 312
Being Open About What You Want, What You Can Deliver, How You Want to Grow, and Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Creating Inspired Success for Yourself and Others. . . 320
Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .323
9781587204326, TOC, 6/3/2016
Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn is a recognized thought leader on the workforce of the future and an expert in education, the social enterprise, and knowledge systems. As an expert in the workforce of the future, she consults and presents to business and government leaders across the globe. She was recognized as one of “The 2015 Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology” by the National Diversity Council, which features the most influential female executive leadership across America’s leading corporations.
During her more than 20-year career with Cisco, Jeanne brought the first social education system in the industry (The Cisco Leaning Network) to market in 2008. In 2015, while finishing this book, she founded The Internet of Things Talent Consortium to empower and accelerate a more agile workforce in the digital economy.
At Cisco, Jeanne’s work is best described as helping customers and partners be successful, creating capabilities and innovative new services and solutions, moving through disruptive changes in technology, identifying new market opportunities, and helping others to disrupt business models and create growth opportunities. In other words, she’s on a crusade to move the entire technology industry forward.
But she doesn’t want to stop with the industry. Jeanne has a passion for mentoring people. This book is her way of doing that at scale. Her philosophy of self-empowerment and love fuels her professional and personal calling to help people develop themselves and their careers, work together, collaborate, innovate, and be better together.
Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn is Vice President and GM at Cisco Systems, where she leads several businesses including education. She is president and chairman of the Internet of Things Talent Consortium. She also serves on a number of advisory boards for organizations committed to continuous learning and talent. She lives in Northern California with her husband, Larry, and their four-legged furry child, Hunter.
Need help? Get in touch
Play
Pearson eTextbook: What’s on the inside just might surprise you
They say you can’t judge a book by its cover. It’s the same with your students. Meet each one right where they are with an engaging, interactive, personalized learning experience that goes beyond the textbook to fit any schedule, any budget, and any lifestyle.
Digital Learning NOW
Extend your professional development and meet your students where they are with free weekly Digital Learning NOW webinars. Attend live, watch on-demand, or listen at your leisure to expand your teaching strategies. Earn digital professional development badges for attending a live session.