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Praise for Think Like an Entrepreneur, Act Like a CEO:
“Bev is the ideal career coach—full of ideas and inspiration. She encour-
ages and educates people—sometimes with a gentle nudge and sometimes
with a firm hand. But, either way, she gets people to where THEY want to go.
She motivates them to be the best they can be at whatever career they choose.
She also guides people seeking second and third careers in life. She works
under the philosophy that it is NEVER too late.”
— Thomas Hodson, Joe Berman Professor of Communication, Scripps
College of Communication, Ohio University and General Manager of
WOUB Public Media
“This phenomenal woman has blessed me with her knowledge and exper-
tise to become a better manager and a better person. With this book she can
do the same for you.”
— Arlean Leland, Associate General Counsel, Civil Rights, Labor and
Employment Law, U.S. Department of Agriculture
“Reading a career tip chapter by Bev Jones is like having a wise counselor
with a gently authoritative voice sitting next to you offering the best advice that money can buy and that you can realistically follow. A pure pleasure.”
—Ira Chaleff, author of The Courageous Follower
and Intel igent Disobedience
“Bev is an amazing coach who reaches beyond promoting leadership and
excellent management skills to help her clients understand that it’s not just about success at work. She demonstrates that if you take care of yourself and your health and your family, and you work on bringing other people up along
the way, it makes you a ful er, richer, better person. With this wonderful book, Bev brings her insightful coaching to a wide community, including you.”
—Sherry Little, former Acting Administrator of the Federal Transit
Administration, now Partner and Co-founder, Spartan Solutions LLC
“Career coach Beverly Jones will show you how to handle tricky challenges at work, make change your friend and, most of all, have the career you want and deserve.”
— Richard Eisenberg, Work & Purpose Editor, Nextavenue.org
“Bev is an expert coach and a fine teacher who can turn academic research
into sound, practical advice. She is amazing, and we are excited about her
book.”
—Dr. Mark Weinberg, Founding Dean, The Voinovich School of
Leadership and Public Affairs at Ohio University
“Bev is a great coach, and every page of her book is teeming with insight
drawn from her path breaking career in industry as well as her steadfast
support of hundreds of clients as a leadership, executive, and career coach.
Whether you're a client or a coach, read this book and prepare to drink from
a bubbling stream of sound advice and inspiration.”
— Coach Dave Goldberg, President of ThreeJoy.com
and coauthor of A Whole New Engineer
“Beverly’s book offers practical insights and tips grounded in decades of
experience. Her pragmatic, thoughtful observations and commentary will
prove invaluable to young legal practitioners, government and corporate law-
yers starting to step into leadership decision-making. Her sage counsel and
coaching will help make them better stewards of the future.”
— Michael J. Zimmer, senior attorney and ABA Energy and
Environment Section Committee past chairman of two committees
50 Indispensable Tips to Help You Stay Afloat,
Bounce Back, and Get Ahead at Work
THINK
LIKE AN
ENTREPRENEUR,
ACT
LIKE A
CEO
BEvERly E. JONEs
Foreword by Kerry Hannon, author of Great Jobs for Everyone 50+
Copyright © 2016 Beverly E. Jones
All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright
Conventions. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any
form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or
hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher, The Career Press.
Think Like an Entrepreneur, Act Like a CEO
Edited by Roger Sheety
Typeset by Kristin Goble
Cover design by Rob Johnson
Printed in the U.S.A.
To order this title, please call toll-free 1-800-CAREER-1 (NJ and
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www.careerpress.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Jones, Beverly E.
Title: Think like an entrepreneur, act like a CEO : 50 indispensable tips to
help you stay afloat, bounce back, and get ahead at work / by Beverly E.
Jones.
Description: Wayne : Career Press, 2016. | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015037788| ISBN 9781632650177 | ISBN 9781632659811
(ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Professional employees--Psychology. | Interpersonal
communication. | Career development.
Classification: LCC HD8038.A1 J66 2016 | DDC 650.1--dc23 LC record
available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015037788
To my mother, Lorna Jones, who continues to reinvent her career as an artist at age 95.
Ac k n ow l e d g m e n ts
I am so grateful to my husband, Andy Alexander, for his support. Of course, it is wonderful to have a resident expert editor. Knowing that he has read every word of the book and given me a thumbs-up is great for my confidence level.
More than that, the two of us always approach careers as a team effort, and I appreciate his years of patience and support for this project.
I’m also indebted to my friend and frequent brainstorming partner Kerry
Hannon, who wrote the Foreword and shared “Love Your Job” tips. Kerry
convinced me that writing a book can be fun and manageable, and then she
taught me how to do it. Kerry also introduced me to freelance editor Debra
Englander, who helped me find my agent and then did a preliminary edit of
the book. As a first-time author, I needed a lot of guidance, and Kerry and
Debby helped me stay on track.
I love the feeling of being supported by talented professionals. And it has
been such a pleasure to work with an assured, straightforward, competent pro
like my agent Cynthia Zigman at Second City Publishing Services. Thanks
for sticking with me and getting the deal done, Cindy. I already have thoughts about the next project.
I might not have kept going on the book were it not for the years of
encouragement—sometimes even the kindest possible nagging—from a
long list of family, friends, and colleagues. Special thanks to Ira Chaleff, Bob Deans, Emily Emmett, and Merry Foresta, who were kind enough to read
early versions of the proposal and encouraged me to keep going. Thanks, too,
to Sherry Little, Andrea Wilkinson, Gayle Williams-Bye
rs, Bruce Jones, and Libby Vick for being my faithful cheering squad.
Ohio University is my home town and a center of my still continuing
education. I so appreciate the support and enthusiasm of many friends there,
including: Jan and Tom Hodson and many of Tom’s colleagues and fel-
low alumni of the Scripps College of Communication; Mark Weinberg and
his team at the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs; and JR
Blackburn, Ann Brown, Sue Chiki, and the rest of the OHIOWomen crew.
Many of my clients have been part of this process. I won’t mention their
names, and the book’s anecdotes have been substantially changed to hide
personal details. But you know who you are. I’m very grateful for all the suggestions for e-zines, blog posts, and book chapters. Thanks for your interest through the years and for so much enthusiastic support for this and other
writing projects.
Finally, thank you Career Press, for your confidence and professionalism.
co n t e n ts
Foreword By Kerry Hannon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Chapter 1. To Launch Something New, You Need a Good Plan . . . . . . . . 19
Chapter 2. Think Like an Entrepreneur, Wherever You Are . . . . . . . . . . .24
Chapter 3. Listening Is Your Sure Fire, Go-to Career Strategy . . . . . . . . . .28
Chapter 4. Tweak Your Brand to Send Clear Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Chapter 5. Start Now to Build Leadership into Your Brand . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Chapter 6. Power up by Tweaking Your Personal Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Chapter 7. Talk Back to the Voice in Your Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42
Chapter 8. How Do Other People Get Self-Discipline? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Chapter 9. How and Why to Keep Smiling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Chapter 10. The Real Meaning of “Networking” May Surprise You . . . . . . 52
Chapter 11. What to Say When Your Work Is Praised . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Chapter 12. Give Positive Feedback in Smart Ways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Chapter 13. Get Over Your Fear of Looking Like a Suck-Up . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Chapter 14. Use Games to Create Power and Direction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Chapter 15. Be Prepared with Clever Ways to Brag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Chapter 16. Get the “It” Factor: Create Presence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Chapter 17. To Make a Career Shift, Start with One Grain of Sugar . . . . . 81
Chapter 18. How to Take a Career Side Step, One Sugar Grain at a Time . . .87
Chapter 19. Those Annoying Speech Habits May Cost You . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Chapter 20. Does Your Calendar Support Your Success? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95
Chapter 21. Prioritize Your Priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Chapter 22. Getting Your Boss to Listen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Chapter 23. Leading Upward: Manage the Boss, in a Good Way . . . . . . . 107
Chapter 24. The Jimmy Fallon Touch: Good Manners Help You Shine . . 111
Chapter 25. Do’s and Don’ts of Saying “Sorry” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Chapter 26. Find the Magic 20 Percent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Chapter 27. How to Create Mentoring that Works Both Ways . . . . . . . . .122
Chapter 28. Don’t Be Sabotaged by Your Own Frustration . . . . . . . . . . . .128
Chapter 29. Yes, You Can Do Something about Difficult Colleagues . . . . 132
Chapter 30. Find or Build Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Chapter 31. Make Your Meeting Time More Productive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Chapter 32. How to Love Your Work Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Chapter 33. Make Social Media Work for You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Chapter 34. Stress Is Contagious and Debilitating—but Manageable . . . . 154
Chapter 35. Snap Out of It: Coping with Career Rejection . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Chapter 36. How to Foster Great Teams, Even If You’re Not the Leader . . 163
Chapter 37. Celebrate Your Wins and Theirs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Chapter 38. It’s (Usually) Not Okay to Be Late . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Chapter 39. Measuring Progress Makes Your Goals Powerful . . . . . . . . . . 174
Chapter 40. Use Those Amazing Checklists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Chapter 41. Overcome Big Project Letdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Chapter 42. Know When to Forget about Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Chapter 43. To Lead without Authority, Know How to Herd Cats . . . . . . 187
Chapter 44. How Bigger Goals Can Take You Further . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Chapter 45. You Might Hesitate, but Keep Going . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Chapter 46. Ageism Is Real: Deal With It Sooner than Later . . . . . . . . . . 197
Chapter 47. How to Stay Steady When Change Is Constant . . . . . . . . . . .200
Chapter 48. Art Can Boost Your Creativity at Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203
Chapter 49. The Right Way to Move On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .207
Chapter 50. Choose to Be an Optimist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .220
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .224
fo r e wo r d
When I hear people grousing about their jobs or their boss, I want to holler: Suck it up! Do something about it. Stop being a victim.
In my books, columns, and speeches that I deliver around the country, I
dole out job advice for all workers from 22 to 82 and beyond. It’s about finding meaning and joy in the work you do every day. It’s about feeling like you’re relevant and making a difference.
My career advice runs the gamut from helping people make the most of
where they are right now, to finding strategic ways to pivot to a successful
career change, or developing a strategy to reenter the workforce after a job
loss, or perhaps to land a part-time job to earn income in retirement to shore up financial security.
Sometimes, all it takes is making small changes to how we work or view
our work to get our mojo going.
Regardless of our career stage, we all run up against difficult bosses, feel-
ing stuck with no signs of promotion, and feeling like we have no work-life
balance, bored, and burned out.
For nearly a decade, one of my trusted experts, who I have consulted for several of my books and columns, is Clearways Consulting career coach
Beverly Jones. She’s my sounding board and my guiding light on many career
and workplace issues, particularly as they relate to workers over 50.
I’ve found Jones’ advice to be practical, straightforward, and frankly,
doable. It ranges from big-picture soul searching to seemingly simple moves
someone can make to get unstuck,
such as uncluttering his or her office.
11
12
Think Like an Entrepreneur, Act Like a CEO
One keystone of Beverly Jones’ motivational and knowledgeable coun-
sel to her clients is to know that you “own your career.” And in her superb
and enlightening book, Think Like an Entrepreneur, Act Like a CEO, she has woven her concise advice together to offer hope and help to all of us.
When you change your attitude to Me Inc. and think like an entrepreneur,
instead of feeling like a cog in the wheel, you’re the driver. You run your career like a one-person business. You accept that no one else is going to do it for you.
“Most of our workplace blues comes from a sense of powerlessness,” Jones says.
Not only can this shifting of your internal thinking help you navigate
your current workscape, if you’re job-hunting, it can also ramp up your
chances of getting hired.
Here’s why: An entrepreneurial outlook gives you confidence, swagger,
autonomy, and choice.
It works. Having grown up in a household where my father ran his own
business, I was encouraged to think like an entrepreneur and to always have
freelance projects outside of my main job. As a result, I’ve always been nimble and not entirely dependent—even psychologically—on one boss.
I learned to view my primary employer as my “client.” It’s liberating, and it has helped me navigate my career path and remain resilient during rocky patches.
By addressing the tangible challenges workers face, Jones’ compelling
book proves that by squarely tackling these internal and external shifts, it’s possible to find happiness and success in not only our working lives, but in
our personal lives, too.
“Do something every day to work toward your goal,” she urges. “Once
you have some picture of where you want to go, get things moving by taking
small steps toward that vision.”
Jones’ mantra: What really matters is that you do a little something on a
regular basis.
As the saying goes, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Think Like an Entrepreneur, Act Like a CEO starts your personal passage to a better working life. Read this book for the inspiration, guidance, and tools to help you discover smart ways to take control and get your career in gear.
Kerry Hannon, author of Great Jobs for Everyone 50+ and Love Your Job: The New Rules for Career Happiness.