In less than three months, I’ll be celebrating ten years in the corporate world. Since 2010, I’ve been working as a marketing professional in several industries and one of the most important things I’ve learned is, well, to learn.
Learn from others, I mean. Specifically, others who know more, have experienced more, and therefore have more to share to an ambitious and career-minded young man such as myself.
Now, I believe that it is my turn to share my experiences, lessons learned, and work philosophies from my decade-young career. But first, I want to acknowledge and highlight the best career and life advice that I received from the mentors I’ve looked up to in my career.
What we have below is a list that condenses and distills the wisdom gleaned from seasoned professionals in the corporate world. Collectively, their experience add up to more than 100 years. I know – sorta mind blowing, right?
I’ve picked the advice that have had the most impact on my professional and personal life. And now, I share them with you in the hopes that you may find in them a compass as I did.
- Your Attitude Defines Your Altitude
I was a young marketer at 23 years old when our division’s Vice President told the five words above to the whole team. At the time, I didn’t know that it was a quote from author and motivational speaker Zig Ziglar but those five words resonated with me on a deep level.
In my career, I have worked hard and worked smart but through it all, I have strived to keep a positive mindset no matter what the obstacle.
Skills, technical know-how, mostly everything that you need to function at work can be learned. But, if you don’t work on having a winning attitude – success will always be hard to achieve.
- Get Your Hands Dirty
One of, if not the most accomplished, marketers I’ve ever worked with taught me that your position is never too high to get your hands dirty.
The scenario: our whole division was deployed and spread thin. We had to man a dozen booths and were undermanned during the peak day of our promotion’s duration. There were still signposts that had to be setup in different parts of the establishment we worked in but the people in charge of putting them up were still tied up in other parts of the building. They also had the push carts with them.
I was at my booth, fielding questions from interested customers, when our Senior Vice President passed by. After I was free from the customers, he called me over and remarked that there were still no signposts in the upper floors. I told him that I’ll get on it. He smiled, literally rolled his sleeves up, and proceeded to lift the metal framed glass signpost.
Together, we managed to put the two posts with enough sweat and effort. Mind you, the guy was in his late 50s and came from multi-national companies in several other countries. It was a very humbling experience for me.
To this day, I practice leading from the front. I can’t expect my team to do things that I’m not willing to, right?
- Don’t Compromise or Lower Your Standards
Three years ago, I was promoted to a positon that held me responsible to lead a team of eight marketers. Up to that point, the largest team that I had handled was a three-man team. There were two obstacles. The first was proximity as the other team was located in a province. And the second, was that half the team were significantly older than me.
Being a people-pleaser, my management style was very diplomatic. Needless to say, those two challenges became harder to deal with as communication, personality issues, and differences in work ethic came to light.
My superior, a great people leader and veteran marketer, told me some cold hard truth: stand your ground, impose your command, and do not compromise your standards.
Don’t get me (or her) wrong, the advice may seem harsh or impersonal but, I needed to hear those words so that I could toughen up. Granted, only stand your ground if the directions do not cross any lines or harm anyone.
That was a turning point in my career because I learned that, sometimes, having fangs is not bad. A wise wolf in the workplace knows when to bare teeth.
- Go Big
I had the pleasure (and pressure) of working with someone who was a crazy genius. He was my superior when I was in the publishing industry and, man, was he so gosh darned passionate about everything. The way he worked, it was as if he was a mad scientist: all lightning bolts for his experiments. He had big ideas and would envision grand things for campaigns for our brands.
I learned the importance of showmanship during presentations as he made a spectacle of everything. Even boring business reports saw us donning outlandish costumes, playing pre-recorded voice-overs following a dramatic script, using props like smoke machines and writing our own team’s theme song for presentation purposes.
The results? The sales people and the executive line were excited for what the Marketing team would come up with next. What’s more, our brands enjoyed stellar performance and exceeded sales targets.
Imagination coupled with passion is indeed infectious.
- The Line Between Personal and Professional
Before I turned 30, I still had yet to learn how to separate my personal and professional regard with people I worked with. I would avoid situations where I thought I would upset a co-worker and went the longer route or even out of my way to accomplish things.
Worse, I found it difficult to reprimand subordinates and co-workers who I was friend with.
My mentor who taught me to “stand my ground and uphold my standards” also taught me the line between personal and professional relationships. She explained and reminded me to treat co-workers as professionals and expect them to act that way.
I asked her “What if they get hurt or offended with what I say/do?”
“Well, they’ll understand that it’s work. Work is work.”
“But, what if they still get upset?”
“That’s their problem, not yours.”
(I promise, she’s the most compassionate mentor I’ve had!)
- Be Open to Possibilities
I had all of four months under my belt in TOTAL when our Marketing Director told me that I shouldn’t be worried about exploring job opportunities elsewhere. She taught me to prioritize the growth of my career – especially as I was so young. Learn what you can in 3 to 5 years from a company, then, see how much other organizations are willing to hire you for.
That opened my eyes a bit and made me feel like a mercenary. In my head: sharpen my swords and then pitch my lot to another merc outfit? Sounds so… medieval!
Kidding aside, what I took from that was not to be afraid to put my career first – even if it meant the next phase was a new workplace.
- On Firing or Letting An Employee Go
Uncomfortable. Awkward. Guilt inducing. Those were just a few feelings that ran through me when I had to let someone go. I had a direct report that wasn’t performing up to standards even after numerous talking-tos. She wasn’t communicative and closed herself off from the rest of the team which frustrated us all.
One incident after another sealed her fate and I had to tell my superior that I did not see her as a good fit in the team. I was asked if I wanted to let her go to which I replied an unsure “yes”.
So, I did the paperwork but when the time came to break it to my direct report – I balked and stalled. Two of my superiors offered to break the news to the person but I declined their offer.
I invited my soon-to-be former co-worker to a sit-down, and explained to her why we decided to let her go. There were tears involved but she took it well.
After that, our Head told me that it was sort of like a “baptism of fire” for me and that they were curious how I would handle it. I said that it made me feel so bad and I felt so guilty. He told me, “Don’t worry Julian, it gets easier with time.” Letting go of people, that is. I walked away feeling a bit lighter after hearing that. And, it made me recognize the gravity of my responsibility as a people leader.
Oh, and that associate I let go? She’s a connection on social media and LinkedIn! And from what I’ve seen, she has indeed blossomed to a promising professional as I told her after she teared up.
- Trust Your Gut
Sometimes, marketers can get too caught up in having thorough research, poring over details, making the perfect fool-proof plan and act too slow or not act at all. Analysis paralysis can bite the best of us.
“You know, sometimes you just have to trust your instincts!” is what I got from one of my first ever superiors and mentors when I started my career. He was a street smart, intuitive, extroverted, and downright creative marketing manager and he brought color to all of our events.
From him, I learned that not everything has to be mapped out and that there is always room for flexibility. Also, if you FEEL like a few flamboyant touches are needed to spice up a campaign or event – go for it!
There you have it. Those are the most unforgettable bits of advice I’ve received in my career thus far. I’m excited to add new wisdom to that list as it is vital to one’s personal development. I’m interested to know what others have learned from their mentors.
Maybe you have some piece of advice that you want to share to the young professionals of today?
WORK-LIFE WARRIOR 