The Finance and Accounting professionals who stay in their comfort zones and only do their daily tasks, will not get the same opportunities as those who get on high visibility projects and who are constantly improving themselves. You may be seen as reliable and trustworthy within the tasks you are given, but you will not be given additional responsibility or a promotion unless you can prove you can do more.
I have something for you. Consider joining The Finance Leader Podcast Community Facebook Group, where we can talk leadership and the other topics I present here on the podcast. https://www.facebook.com/groups/financeleaderpodcast This is a good time to jump in and start sharing ideas and thoughts about leadership so we can help each other.
For more resources, please visit stephenmclain.com. On the website, you can download the Leadership Growth Blueprint for Finance and Accounting Managers. You can use this guide to develop your leadership by focusing on communication, and growing and empowering your team.
You can now purchase a course to help you advance your career from financeleaderacademy.com. It's called Advance Your Finance and Accounting Career: Developing a Promotion Strategy that Sets You Apart.
Please follow me on:
1. Instagram: stephen.mclain
2. Twitter: smclainiii
3. Facebook: stephenmclainconsultant
The Finance and Accounting professionals who stay in their comfort zones and only do their daily tasks, will not get the same opportunities as those who get on high visibility projects and who are constantly improving themselves. You may be seen as reliable and trustworthy within the tasks you are given, but you will not be given additional responsibility or a promotion unless you can prove you can do more.
I have something for you. Consider joining The Finance Leader Podcast Community Facebook Group, where we can talk leadership and the other topics I present here on the podcast. https://www.facebook.com/groups/financeleaderpodcast This is a good time to jump in and start sharing ideas and thoughts about leadership so we can help each other.
For more resources, please visit stephenmclain.com. On the website, you can download the Leadership Growth Blueprint for Finance and Accounting Managers. You can use this guide to develop your leadership by focusing on communication, and growing and empowering your team.
You can now purchase a course to help you advance your career from financeleaderacademy.com. It's called Advance Your Finance and Accounting Career: Developing a Promotion Strategy that Sets You Apart.
Please follow me on:
1. Instagram: stephen.mclain
2. Twitter: smclainiii
3. Facebook: stephenmclainconsultant
Hi, this is Stephen McLain, the finance leader podcast. This is bonus episode number 25. How's everything going this week, I hope your team is executing well, and you're getting things done to a very high level. This week I wanted to talk about stop playing it safe in your career. Next Season and Season eight, it will be about achieving CFO to rise to the position of Chief Financial Officer, you will need to take some career risk, you will need to get out of your comfort zone, you will need to do something different and you need a plan. The finance and accounting professionals who stay in their comfort zones and only do their daily tasks will not get the same opportunities. As those who get on high visibility projects and who are constantly improving themselves. You may be seen as reliable and trustworthy within the tasks you are given. But you will not be given additional responsibility or promotion unless you can prove you can do more. So if your strategy is to just be the reliable person who gets their tasks done to a high level and not taking on some risk, I don't think it will work and you'll be disappointed. I am working on preparing season eight, which will be about the position of Chief Financial Officer and I can't wait to share. season eight will debut on October 12. I want to share an encore episode from Season Five, which is Episode 40. Stop playing it safe in your career. Please listen closely to the advice in this episode. Please enjoy this encore episode. Thank you. Are you playing it safe in your career by not pushing yourself to reach your potential? When we stay in our comfort zone, we are oppressing ourselves by preventing our own advancement. You need to own your career and own getting out of your comfort zone. You are responsible for your success. So don't fear asking what you need to develop. Don't let an opportunity to get away on your career and own your future. Stop playing it safe. Please enjoy the episode. Welcome to the finance leader podcast where leadership is bigger than the numbers. I am your host Stephen McLain. This is the podcast for developing leaders in finance and accounting. This is episode number 40. And now we'll be talking about stop playing it safe in your career. And I'll talk about the following. Number one, are you a people pleaser? Number two, have you created a set of rules for yourself which limits you? Number three, you are responsible for your success. And number four, shift your mindset so you accomplish your goals. Harry grey CEO of United Technologies said no one ever achieved greatness by playing it safe. Over the last few episodes, I have been working with you to have a plan and to overcome what is going to stop you from achieving your big goal for Episode 36. At the beginning of the year, we talked about doing deliberate goal planning, where we have a written down plan that is scheduled on our calendar. And we did this instead of whimsical New Year's resolutions. Following that I talked about becoming more coachable, plus limiting beliefs that are trying to stop us. And last week, I talked about defeating perfectionism. If you have not listened to those episodes, I highly recommend them. The last three are episodes 3738 and 39. This episode is about you taking care of yourself in a very competitive environment. I want you to start playing safe with your career and with your goals. Now, last year in Episode 17, I talked about taking risk in your career, and I focused on the following number one, you must do more than your daily duties. And number two, becoming comfortable means you have become complacent. Number three, you have to develop courage. And number four, know what you want to accomplish so you know which risks to take. Now those talking points are still very relevant this year. So it's important that you also get a chance to go back and listen to Episode 17. Along with what I'm going to discuss today, stop playing it safe is about getting out of our comfort zone. When you consider taking some risk. Are you often worried about what could happen regarding the downside instead of the great rewards with the upside. I believe that any downside is always temporary and often forgotten quickly. For example, let's say you asked to present the results to senior leaders but Made a slight mistake, or didn't know the answer to a question. But that's okay. Not the end of the world, people will not even remember it. They are way too busy and deep into their own issues to think about what you did or didn't do. To me, taking risk is all about the upside, it's all good. Because you are learning, you're doing something different, that will elevate you in the long run, I believe that every time you take a little bit of risk in your career, or a little bit of risk in growing your skills and abilities, it's all going to be good, you're going to be learning something different, you're going to be learning something new. And you're going to be able to apply that next time, and you're going to continue to grow and develop, every time you get a chance to go present the numbers to senior leaders, you're going to get a little bit better. So you have to get comfortable getting uncomfortable. You have to get comfortable doing something different, doing something bigger, doing something bigger and better than what you did yesterday. Because every time you do that, you're going to get better, and you're going to improve, and new opportunities are going to open for you. When you take risk. It's all growth, growth will challenge you, and maybe even scare you at times. But that is what happens when you start to go bigger than what you are now. And this is good. It will bring great reward in the long run. Are you in a comfortable position and don't want to upset others or afraid to push yourself? Want to ask you this question, we're going to talk about it again in a few moments. Do you tend to make everyone else happy, but you haven't insured your own success. Now I get on fire for people who get out of their comfort zones, and who take a risk to improve themselves and to improve their chance at success. When leading teams I'm always drawn to people who work hard to improve as a leader. When I knew my team members goals, I would encourage and coach them to achieve it. leaders need to be involved in every aspect of improvement for their team, especially how to help people out of their comfort zones. It is one of our greatest responsibilities as leaders is to grow other leaders is to help others achieve their goals is to help others get themselves set up for success. And I want to make sure if you're a leader out there, if you are leading a team, if you are making an impact, if you have influence and you are leading change in your organization, I expect you to help others grow and to elevate themselves out of their current positions out of their current comfort zones. That is what we do as leaders, we make others great around us data is one of our most important responsibilities. So let's get into a few points about let's stop playing safe in our career. Number one, are you a people pleaser? a people pleaser serves the needs of others at their own expense, or conducts themselves to bring approval from others. This is often out of an insecurity to be accepted or liked. People pleasing is detrimental to our chance to advance because we value what we perceive as approval from others, versus what will be if we start to focus on our own career and development. Now I want you to do your job. And I want you to do your job well. But I also want you to find opportunities to improve and to push yourself. Are you afraid to ask for things like PTO sometimes because you think it will put someone else behind? Or you're worried about what your boss is gonna say? If you ask for your PTO? Do they worry about you when they take their PTO? Probably not. So I want you to be asking for all the benefits that you have. And not to be worried about approval. Because you asked for something that's already entitled to you or the people you are pleasing giving you the same attention. No, they're not at the end, everyone who you pleased, moved on and they moved up without you to break that habit. I want you to start saying no, I want you to state a differing opinion and express yourself a little bit more. So you gain more confidence. And you start to focus on your goals. You start to focus on your career. And you're not always worried about making everyone happy that's around you. I want you to do just a little bit more. So you have some improvement, and you have a chance to go achieve your goal. Not necessarily making sure everyone else is happy around you while they achieve their goals and you're not achieving yours. Number two, have you created a set of rules for yourself that limits you and when I'm talking about rules, these are rules that you have created in your own mind rules that you have set yourself. We all usually have a variety of friends from across the risk spectrum. On one end, we usually have our A friend who believes rules are meant to be broken, often flaunting their desire to do whatever they want. And on the other end, we have a friend who is terrified of breaking any rule. They are aware of what signs say they are afraid of confrontation, they're afraid of making anybody upset. And they remind you that you are not supposed to do that. Does this sound familiar? Do you say that to yourself? Do you see a sign that you're not supposed to go in? And then you don't go in? Even though you should be able to go in? What kind of rules have you set for yourself? Are you operating by a set of rules created by yourself? And this is about creating extra rules for yourself creating extra rules that limit your advancement? Are you afraid to ask for things that could benefit your career? Like training? Or being on a high visibility project? Are you following imaginary rules that stops you from taking risk? comfort zones are really oppression zones, but we become our own oppressor, we are stopping ourselves from reaching our potential. How many of you are creating rules in your mind that you can't do something that you can't ask for something that you can't advance yourself that are limiting you to the same role and the same responsibilities that you have right now, I want you to really think about that. What rules have you created in your mind? And why are you continually following rules that only you have created? Number three, you are responsible for your success. So you have to own it. Only you can accomplish your goals. I want you to be open and proactive during one on one sessions with your supervisor. Now it's up to you to grab an opportunity instead of waiting for it. How many of you wait for something to happen? Instead of taking it sort of going for when you see an opportunity to get on a high visibility project? Do you wait to get assigned to it? Do you stay away from it because oh, well, I don't want to have that stress. These high visibility projects give you a chance to advance they give you a chance to get in front of people to show off what you have and what you can do and what impact you can have. Don't wait on your supervisor to give you a project or a chance to show what you can do. Once you to go ask for it. I want you to be very aggressive in getting on one of these teams, or doing something that will get you in front of people, or will get you a recognition for doing something great because what every time you get on one of these things, or every time you get a chance to do something that gets out of your comfort zone. This is something you can highlight on your resume and highlight to a future employer. And to highlight where you can accomplish one of your goals in advance in your career, I want you to get the training and development opportunities that you need. Don't wait, I want you to own your individual development plan, I want you to ask for training money. So you grow your knowledge and skills, I want you to ask for it. Don't wait for it. There's money out there. There's money in your organization that will train people, I want you to get a piece of that I want you to get the same opportunities that other people are doing. You probably notice other people on your team and your in your organization that are not afraid to ask about getting training money, about getting development money, so that they can get a class or attend something that's going to grow them, I want you to also be asking for the same thing, your development, and your advancement is very important. It's important to you. But sometimes you don't ask for it, you just wait for it. And I don't want you to do that anymore. I want you to attend training sessions that become available. Because every time you go to one of these sessions, you may be able to pick up one more thing that's going to help you grow. And I always want to make sure that you are doing a great job so that when an opportunity opens up, your leadership will support you. I want you to live excellence in everything you do, including your attitude. And your maturity level is nothing wrong with helping people but helping people above and beyond where it has detrimental to your own advancement can't be happening anymore. Number four, I want you to shift your mindset. So you accomplish your goals. What limiting beliefs are holding you back. Now if you want to think about and look at and review limiting beliefs. Go back and listen to the last few podcast episodes that I've done about limiting beliefs and defeating perfectionism. Do you not believe in your own abilities? Do you have a growth mindset versus a fixed one? I want you to recognize the obstacles that may be stopping you. And then so you don't let them name the obstacle and have a plan to overcome it. And you may be very well your own obstacle. So you have to overcome yourself to your own attitude and your own way of setting boundaries on yourself that prevent you from moving forward. I want you to visualize yourself winning. What does winning look like? What does it look like for you? To win, and I want you to visualize that, and I want you to live that out, I want you to go for it. I want you to visualize yourself winning, to achieving, to finishing that goal you have set for yourself. And I also want you to dig deep inside yourself, dig deep inside yourself to find that courage to when you have to find it. You have to bring it, you have to live it. You have to bring it every day, every task that you do, you bring excellence, you bring that courage to do something you didn't do yesterday, or weren't able to do yesterday. It's deep down inside you that courage to win that courage to overcome those obstacles, that courage to do something you weren't able to do yesterday. And I want you to find that courage to ask for the things that you need to advance in your career, I want you to find that courage, dig deep down inside yourself. It's there, pull it up to the service. And I want you to live it live excellence go over things that you haven't never done before. You've got to you've got to own your career, you've got to own your success. You've got to own your future. Now I do have a challenge for you. For your next one on one. I want you to find the courage to ask what's your pathway to advance is how can you grow from your present role, this will be a good discussion. Or it could be eye opening to see if you even want to stay where you're at. The reaction and level of support from your supervisor will reveal much do you have a pathway, this is what getting out of your comfort zone is all about. If you don't have a pathway to advance, then you can start planning your next steps. Now for an easy win today, I want you to ask yourself, what rules have you said in your own mind that are stopping you from succeeding? Are these rules and I'm talking about quote unquote, rules real, or something you have created? I'm going to say it again? Are these rules real or something you have created. Now we all have rules in the workplace. I've talked about that before, too. But I'm talking about extra rules you have created for yourself that box you in to your comfort zone and don't let you do something great. I want you to start taking down these rules and start planning your career. What small steps can you do today to get you out of your comfort zone? I want you to think about that one on one session that you have next. And hopefully you do have one on one sessions. If you're not having one on one sessions with your supervisor, if they're not scheduled. I want you to even consider that and why you're staying in that same place. Does your leadership care about your advancement? Does your leadership care about your pathway? I want you to really think about that. Why would you stay in an organization that doesn't want to see you grow and develop beyond what you're doing right now. I have a free guide for you. It's called the leadership growth blueprint for finance and accounting managers. In the guide I talk about three leadership areas communication, team growth, and empowerment. Plus a few recommendations around challenges with the systems you are probably using to complete your work. The link to the guide is in the episode description. Or you can go to Stephen McLain Comm. Please use it to help you with a few leadership wins today. Thank you. This episode is sponsored by my new online course offering through finance leader Academy is called Advanced your finance and accounting career developing a promotion strategy that will set you apart. Are you having difficulty getting recognition from your leadership, despite all the hard work you pour into your job and your organization? This course helps you analyze what you bring to the organization. How you can set yourself apart from your peers through high visibility work and developing your leadership skills. Plus how you can devise a strategy to move ahead. You can go to Stephen McLain calm for more details. Today I talked about stop playing it safe in your career, and I discussed the following points. Number one, are you a people pleaser? Number two, have you created a set of rules for yourself which limits you. Number three, you are responsible for your own success. Number four, you need to shift your mindset to accomplish your goals. You can take small steps to help you get out of your comfort zone. our comfort zone seems safe but is actually a place of self imposed coercion and convincing yourself as you better not get better because maybe something horrible will happen. Don't live a life of regret that you didn't do everything possible to live out your goals and your dream. Next week I will be discussing about planning and preparing now. For a senior leadership role. You need to develop a new set of skills and shift your mindset for a senior leader role. I hope you enjoyed the finance leader podcast dedicated to helping you grow your leadership. I hope you enjoyed the show. You can get this episode wherever you find podcasts. Until next time, you can check out more resources Is Stephen McLain calm, and sign up for my updates so you don't miss an episode of the show. And now, go leave your team and I'll see you next time. Thank you.