The Cranky Middle Manager Show #008 - Should You Stay or Should You Go?
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #008 (MP3 31.3MB, 34:13 Min)
Every middle manager at one time or another has gazed over the tops of our cubicles at people who work for themselves. We also know plenty of people who made a break for it and came scurrying back. Sure, the coffee is worse where you are, but the benefits are there and the checks don’t bounce.
Should you stay or should you go? (I would usually not quote The Clash for business purposes but since they’ve already sold their souls to advertisers I’m not going to sweat it. That sound you just heard was my last shred of idealism going up the vacuum cleaner). Today we talk to career coach Vickie Austin about the choices we make to stay or go. She will also give us a summer reading list of good books, if you can step away from your computers long enough to crack them.
0:00 Welcome to the show. We jump right in to the quote of the week, from a Stoic philosopher. Next time you come across that boss who tells you to quit whining, remember, she’s not a hard-case, she’s a stoic. It will help you cope and you’ll know what you reallymean when you say it.
4:00 Say hi to Vickie Austin from Choices Worldwide. She’s been there and made the leap to working for herself.
8:30 Not everyone is cut out to work for themselves…”freedom” is a misnomer. It’s also another word for nothing left to lose, but why drag Kris Kristofferson into this?
10:20 The first book on the list-The E Myth Revisited, by Michael E Gerber. Are you ready to be technician, manager and entrepeneur?
15:50 The 4 components of a career marketing plan: Goal, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics.
18:20 Can you have a foot in two canoes? Staying employed while planning to make a break for it.
25:00 A moment of “heaviosity”- networking is not about walking up to strangers with business cards.
27:30 More books: “Callings”, by Greg Levoy Poe Bronson’s “What Should I Do With My Life?”,
“What Color is Your Parachute? ” “The Brand You 50″ by Tom Peters- yes him again. “Love is the Killer App” by Tim Sanders from Yahoo. “Behind the Bottom Line- Powering Business Life with Spiritual Wisdom”
Happy Reading and don’t let the weasels get ya down.
Wayne
August 1st, 2005 at 11:58 am
G’day, Wayne. I loved the show as usual. Between you and the productivity show, I’m slashing my business book budget, getting a lot more out of the books I do buy based on your plural recommendations, and thoroughly enjoying the weekly kick back into action. Keep up the good work!
If I could ask a favour, though: I listen to podcasts with one earbud so I can keep an ear on the kids. Could you mix yourself and your subject 10% left and right rather than 100% left and right? I’d much appreciate it.
Yours,
Garth.
August 1st, 2005 at 12:19 pm
If I had the foggiest idea how to do that I sure would….. let me check with the wizards at TPN….can’t promise it though, you can only get so fancy with free software. you can’t just switch ears side to side as we speak????? Seems just lazy to me.
August 1st, 2005 at 1:02 pm
You got it right by accident in show #6. If you need to do it deliberately, Audacity (which is free), can stamp down to mono in about three steps. Just don’t encode to MP3 before you run Audacity, otherwise the double-encode will destroy your audio quality.
August 2nd, 2005 at 8:05 am
Can’t wait to listen to the show once I get iPod-listening time! I’m so pleased to see Vicki mentioning The E-Myth Revisited, which I believe should be required reading for entrepreneurs. As you know, this book provides much fuel for thought, some of which I mused about in my own blog:
http://talkitup.typepad.com/weblog/2005/07/what_are_the_to_1.html
http://talkitup.typepad.com/weblog/2005/07/he_wasnt_hiring.html
As far as career books go, I would humbly add to the list my personal favorite and the one that launched my current career, I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was by Barbara Sher.