Look Out Above!

I congratulate Bob and Nick Slater on their book “Look Out Above!” and recommend it to young and old alike navigating the professional work environment. The book’s subtitle is “The young professional’s guide to success;” however, even though I am in the later part of my career I found it enlightening and full of advice I will use. I wish it had been written and available to me thirty years ago.

The authors address a menu of skills required to survive an thrive in the professional world: 

·     Contributing

·     Writing

·     Presenting

·     Pitching (ideas, projects and yourself)

·     Leading

·     Advocating (for both yourself and others), and

·     Transforming (yourself and your organization). 

It approaches these skills from the perspective of what your supervisor or your client might expect and provides options for the correct approach for the situation. From experience, they provide examples of how you will likely use the full range of options over your career and why. 

Appropriately humorous and enlivened by anecdotes, it was a pleasure to read and my copy is now filled with dog-ears, underlines and margin notes. Thank you both for sharing the experience of a seasoned professional as well as the healthy skepticism and views of a young professional early in his career.    

In the spirit of full disclosure, I know Bob and worked with him at a prior role, and I was not surprised that the book was well written and informative; however, upon completing it I was compelled to share these observations and recommend it to anyone who is beginning a career, in mid career or nearing the end of a career, but still striving to improve their skills and contribute in a more meaningful way.