Over the past few months, I have made an exciting transition to a managerial role over the analyst group at my consulting firm (call me Mr. Manager!). It has been interesting shifting my focus from client work to almost exclusively spending time on internal development. The change fits well though. I’ve always loved coaching, and as a project manager, teaching my analysts was one of my favorite parts of the job. So, you can imagine my delight that I now have nine bright minds (and an intern) who have the pleasure of being force fed by advice and ideas.

The process of sharing those ideas has led me to the realization that I’ve developed my own philosophy (at least a rough outline of one) on how to be a successful member of my team. It resembles an amalgamation of my mentors’ advice, research in the literature and my own minor insights. It may have sprouted from my current work, but my hope is that these ideas have wider application to operating as a generally competent human being.

My one-on-one meetings with my team have solidified the philosophy into a core set of statements/ideas/mantras that I find myself repeating ad nauseam (and likely to extreme mockery by my analysts behind my back).

Going forward, I plan on using this blog to explore some of the following concepts further. It would also be exciting to open up some conversations with my reader(s) about their perspectives.

Here are some of the main mantras:

• Acknowledging the four stages of learning
  1. Unconsciously incompetent
  2. Consciously incompetent
  3. Consciously competent
  4. Unconsciously competent
• Always create a sense of urgency
• Client first, then team, then you
• Focus on self experimentation
• Always learning and reflecting on how to change your behavior based on what you learned
• Managing your awareness gap
• Managing the unknowns
• Set yourself up to harness creative thinking
• Always make time for mental and physical outlets outside of work (“No one has ever regretted working out”, Aaron Noparstak)

Which ideas stand out to you? Are there any that you want me to write about next?

What are some of your mantras?

SIDE NOTE: I decided to experiment with stock photos at the top. Eventually, I will source exclusively from Jason Krawetz’s brainchild: businessgifs.com – stay tuned.