Hi,

I hope you are having a wonderful week, and you’re safe and well.

It’s been a mad few weeks at Lambert HQ. We’re getting ready for Christmas and the tree has gone up. 

My contract is also coming to an end at the close of the year, so I’ll be on the hunt for something else in 2025. Don't hesitate to get in touch if you need some management coaching, workshops or energising talks!

In today's newsletter:

1. Digital version of Zero to Keynote
2. Climbing the career ladder
3. Editorial Desk

For those new to the Meeting Notes newsletter, welcome, I’m Rob, Chief Festivity Officer at Cultivated Management. This newsletter is about learning, communication, leadership and the art of being effective at work. Welcome.

Digital Zero to Keynote

I’ve been busy fettling the digital copy of Zero To Keynote.

I’m pleased to say the printed copies have sold very well but I didn’t ship globally due to the hassle with customs.

Hence I've added this digital version. I still reckon the printed book is more useful as you can carry it with you though 🙂

If you’ve previously bought a printed copy and would like a digital copy also (for free of course), then drop me a reply to this email and I can send you a code for a free download. 

Climbing the career ladder

At a conference someone asked me how I was able to ascend the career ladder, essentially going from software tester to Manager and onto Vice President (three times) and now a consultant for the last 8 or so years. 

The person who asked me had been working hard but was always overlooked for promotions and couldn’t get on the ladder at other companies above his current level too. 

It got me thinking. 

At first I put my trajectory down to my winning charm. Then realised I probably don’t have that much. So what else was it? 

Well, I spent a few weeks pondering this and came up with the following ideas.

Please note, this has not been tested, or proven and it may not work for you. And of course, this masks the immense amount of hard work and micro-decisions that underpin each idea. 

(1) Decide the thrive

First and foremost is to decide to thrive. Importantly, define what thrive means to you too. 

For some people it is climbing the career ladder to executive level. Other people will want a better work-life balance. Some people may want more time to do epic work for their community.

It’s personal. It’s also heavily tied to our seasons of life.

Until we decide to thrive, and define what that looks like for us, we’ll be pushed, pulled and nudged along by other people. And there is nothing wrong with that - if that’s what you want. 

I didn’t decide to thrive until my first son was born. I was 30. 

In Take A Day Off I share how Colin didn’t have a catalyst to truly thrive in life, until he had a heart attack. 

We don’t need to wait for magical or mortifying momentous moments to thrive, we can decide right now.

But we must define what thrive means to us.

After all, climbing the career ladder is not right for everyone. Paint a picture for the future, set some goals and define what success means in your life. 

(2) Is the ladder leaning against the right wall

We’re told to climb the ladder, or run the race, but what if the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall, or we’re in the wrong race?

There is no point climbing a ladder that is leaning against the wrong wall.

Many companies have a career ladder that leads to management, and then executive level. There are naturally fewer places as you climb the ladder - competition will be fierce. And is it what you want? 

In good companies there are alternative ladders to climb that come with bigger titles, more responsibilities and better pay. These could be technical routes, or other specialisms. 

Is the company you’re working for the company you want to climb the ladder in? Why do you want to climb the ladder? Trust me, it’s not all roses up there.

Do you need to take your own ladder to another company? Or build your own company, with your own ladders?

All personal questions to ask and answer.

Climbing the ladder in the wrong company can be soul destroying. And management isn’t a route that suits everyone. 

If you’re clear on what it means to thrive and you’ve identified a ladder that leads to executive level (which is what this newsletter is about), now is the time to start demonstrating value, building the right habits, growing relationships and ascending the ladder of accountability and responsibility. 

(3) You are a cost

One of the most unknown basic principles misunderstood, or missing in business people, is that everything inside the business is a cost. It took me a few years to realise and understand this basic premise. 

Value (at least financial value) is only created outside of the company, typically by customers buying your products or services. Everything done inside the business to generate that value is cost.

Learn this and everything becomes clearer for career growth.

It’s easy to look at your own work and ascribe value to the things you do, but unless you have connected the dots all the way to the outside of your business (typically a customer buying something), you’ve not tracked the real value you add. In fact, it could be the case that you have not added any value at all. 

It’s important therefore to understand how what you do contributes to the value of the business. This value is external. 

You, your salary, your team, your IT equipment, your travel, your training, your rewards and almost everything else about you (and your team) is a cost to the business. 

To climb the career ladder you need to work out what part you play in creating value - and unlock other ways to increase this value.

It goes without saying that if you can increase value without increasing costs at the same rate, you increase profitability too. 

Many people believe their work is valuable because it helps someone inside the business - and that may be true, but you must follow the path of activity until it creates some true business value external to the business. 

When I was a software tester, I would hear people in the community say that my role was to stop software going out of the door. But, unless software does go out of the door - and someone buys it - I have merely added cost. Yes, getting the right software out and delivering on our promises is key, but my goal is not to stop it. It’s to ship it. And ship the right stuff. 

Everything inside the business is cost. Value is created outside. 

The more you can connect the dots and understand how activities, decisions and your role contribute to the value for the business, the more you can make changes to increase that value.

With this insight you can look for ways to optimise work and systems to increase the value you and your team add. Now you’re starting to sound like an exec. Of course, you need to keep your good people too - managing that tension is really important. Don't chase costs too much - chase value. And don't do this at the expense of the people who create that value - employees.

(4) Work on systems

Career growth is predicated on adding value to an organisation.

If you want to earn £1500 a day as a consultant, you must be able to articulate what return the business will get for that investment. You are a cost. If you want to earn £200,000 a year, you need to understand how you’re going to add that to the business. 

Many people focus entirely on their own work and where they sit in the organisation - ensuring they do their own job really well. This is needed - very much so.

To progress in your career to a higher level on the ladder requires you to know how to pull levers that result in big value adds or cost reductions, or improve other people's ability to add value.

The big levers to pull to add value (and reduce cost) are typically always at a systemic level - as in, across the organisation.

Problems that exist solely in one function are easy to fix and are unlikely to make big advances in value and cost saving. 

The major challenges facing an organisation's ability to get valuable stuff out to customers is usually systemic - it’s across functions. Think lack of clarity, red tape, competing goals, egos, poor quality work etc.

Therefore, to add more value to the business - and to put yourself in a position for promotions (in line with your painted picture and definition of thriving) you must be able to look at problems systemically - and then know how to work across functions to get them resolved. 

Most of this comes down to stapling yourself to work, understanding other people and a fair amount of critical thinking too. 

Of course, you’ll need expert communication skills to articulate what you’ve found - and convince others that these problems need solving. And yes, you will need to move people into action, deal with conflict, deal with politics and make decisions too.

If you get this right - and pull an almighty systemic change lever - you will make a big, positive difference to the value generated by the organisation. 

This may be reducing costs, avoiding duplicate work, unlocking a seamless path from idea to customers, or doubling customer satisfaction and retention - just some of the ways you can make sweeping change by pulling systemic levers.

Of course, with this comes the risk you get it wrong and make things worse.

(5) Develop Communication Skills - a super power

It goes without saying that effective communication skills are helpful if you’re to ascend a career ladder. 

As you grow in responsibility, impact and accountability you will need to move others into action, deal with conflict, grow a thick skin and learn how to make decisions. All of these require expert communication skills.

As I have said before, 99% of problems in business are communication related, so knowing how to communicate effectively prevents you creating many of these problems in the first place - but also puts you in a great position to spot these problems and resolve them

(6) Learn how to shift your own behaviours

I talk a lot about the 10 behaviours of effective employees - and I wouldn’t change any of the 10, even ten years on from defining them. 

However, as you grow and climb the ladder you will need to learn a fundamental personal trait that underpins the 10 behaviours - the ability to grow, adapt and learn - and ultimately shift your own behaviours. 

Changing our own behaviours can be very hard. We must want to change them. Nobody can make us do it. We must do this ourselves. 

Developing the ability to nudge and shift our own behaviours, with relative ease, is a powerful ability to have. 

• When we’re not showing up our best and people aren’t listening to us - what do we need to change? 
• When we’re not moving people into action despite talking to people - is there a behaviour that needs working on? 
• When we present to the team and it lacks conviction - is there behaviour to change?
• When we take everything personally and it deflates our confidence - is there something we need to do differently?

In a nutshell this is learning how to learn. When we learn it should always result in some form of behaviour change. 

Knowing how to gather information is one thing - learning how to put it into action (and change our own behaviours) is a wonder power. This is knowing the difference between task and information acquisition. This is bridging the gap between knowing and doing.

Don’t lose yourself in the process though - but don’t stay the same either. 

Don't burn out - seek a way to manage the tension of personal change and delivering results. 

You’ll need to grow into each role. You’ll need to adapt. And learning how to learn (and shift our behaviours) is fundamental to that.

There’s a reason I called my blog Cultivated. Cultivate means: To tend to, to nurture - it’s what we must learn to do for ourselves. 

(7) Relationships for the win

The world of work is all about relationships. Politics is about relationships. Getting things done is about relationships. Garnering support is about relationships. 

You’ll need to nurture and grow professional relationships. Don’t lose your values, don’t lose yourself, don’t become a tyrant, don’t be machiavellian. Grow relationships and help other people - and they will help you in return. 

(8) Be specific

As you grow in your career, and climb the ladder, you will need to learn to be direct and specific - and to ask for what you want. 

This is not about being unreasonable, nor about trampling on other people, nor being arrogant, nor about being difficult to work with, nor bullying, nor demanding. 

It’s about clarity and assertiveness. 

As you climb the ladder you tend to find people who are clear about what they want. They may not always be right, but they are often clear - and the best ones listen to trusted people and are open to change their mind - but at some point they decide - and they're specific about that decision.

Clarity gives people direction and focus. Clarity helps with decision making. Being clear about what you want is important, you can then develop the assertiveness to ask for it. 

Being clear about your own painted picture, values and direction stops you being pushed off course. Being clear about what you stand for and what you’re trying to achieve in the world helps you galvanise your energy and attention. 

Being clear about how you add value is essential. Being clear about who you’re trying to become helps you get there quicker. 

But most of all - almost every problem in business is due to a lack of clarity which creates confusion, duplicate work and waste.

Getting to the heart of the matter, getting to the truth and getting clarity on direction is what people want. 

People want to know where we’re going, how they play a role and who is there to support them - this comes from leaders.

I often say that low engagement (and burnout) is due to two things. Two things that leaders (and managers) create through a lack of clarity :

1. Complexity and confusion in the workplace - the logical reaction is to switch off from the mayhem.
2. Work that lacks any meaning - why would I bring anything more than I have to to work that has no meaning?

The further up the ladder you go, the more you need to be clear about what you want, where you’re going, who you are, what your values are, what you stand for and why others should choose to follow you. 

Leaders have followers. People choose to follow a leader. Clarity helps people see whether what you’re leading towards is really something worth caring about. 

Editorial Desk

1. Why cycle time is such a helpful measure to improve the business
2. Ideas for solving problems in the workplace
3. What are we saying no to?
4. The failure of customer service

If you enjoyed this newsletter then please consider:

1. Sharing this content with others you feel would get value from it.
2. Downloading the free ebook 10 Behaviours of effective employees.
3. Buy a copy of Zero to Keynote
4. Buy a copy of Take A Day Off
5. Sitting the online Communication Super Power Workshop to develop your super power in work

It means a lot. Thank you.

Until next time

Rob..