Great Time Now To Add Value

More career thoughts. It's never just "book learning". 

Your job: Figure out the way to add maximum value to your organization. Never ever stop learning. Use what you know.

Good is the enemy of great, as Jim Collins has written in his books.

Al Ferreira was born in Brazil and came to the U.S. with his family when he was four years old.

I remember some of the surveys he did in my classes and always remember him having a book in his hands. One of the books that had the most influence on him was Peter Drucker’s Managing the Non-profit Organization.

He read it, re-read it, and let it sink in as he took on increasingly challenging jobs.

When he was appointed as Director of a YMCA Camp, it would have been easy for him to continue doing what had always been done at the camp. The couple who had run the camp had been there for 18 years and were not changing.

When they retired, he was the first to step in as the new director. He wanted to use what he knew about organizational communication and culture. He wanted to add value and make a major shift in the culture of the organization.

He began by making choices that were different from his predecessors. The most important question to consider was: What would have the most positive impact from the perspective of the youth in the programs?

This approach paid off.

By his third year as director, the camp had such explosive growth that they had to rent out space in a nearby camp and add different camping options to accommodate the numbers that were flocking to their program. 

Al tells me that he started with a goal centered mindset which morphed into a growth centered mindset. This was the way he was able to add maximum value.

Adapted from my new book NO REGRETS: How To Kickstart Your Career and Your Life. https://amzn.to/2Xo9Xfh