Book review: Career Intensity
This book reminds me of airplane fuel. Back in my undergraduate days, I had a friend who drove a 1967 Mustang. It was kinda beat up on the outside, but he had a fast engine under the hood. That car was pretty fast anyway, but whenever he could afford it, my friend would go buy airplane fuel for the car. That made it go a bit faster. :-)
David Lorenzo is a business blogger and one of those smart cats who work at Gallup. He’s paid his dues in the hospitality industry and he’s also paid attention to what’s worked for his, and others’, career success. The book isn’t released yet, though you can preorder on Amazon.
This is the second career focused book that I’ve read recently (the other had something to do with being radical) and though it isn’t as flashy as the other one, it is by far the most grounded and practical of the two. In addition to laying out the tenets of his philosophy, Dave often uses stories to illustrate his points. I found this to be a helpful technique for me–especially when I wasn’t quite sure I agreed with something he wrote, he’d illustrate the point with a story from his experience or someone he knew.
The book is broken into ten chapters: Take Charge of Your Career, Compete in the Individual Economy, Channel Your Passion, Embrace Strategic Thinking, Attack Your Goals, Create Your Own Luck, Prepare for Every Interaction, Master Perception, Generate Buzz, Become a Master Persuader and Maximize Your Career Value. Each of the chapters is pretty well packed with good information about adding fuel to the fire. Predictably, some of it is stuff you’ve probably heard before, albeit with a new spin.
One example is his idea of “accelerants.” He defines accelerants this way,
An accelerant is a tool that will help you progress more quickly toward the achievment of your goals. There are four major accelerants that can help expedite your progress toward goal achievment: people, technology, experience and time.
Nothing super new there, but I really like the pragmatic approach to these four, often overlooked, domains in the context of managing a career. Lorenzo goes on to expand on these four concepts to make it clear how he envisions their use in adding some octane to your career trajectory. Good stuff.
A lot of this book rings true to me, but in particular the descriptions of the four basic archetypes of people in the workforce. Lorenzo lists Intrepreneurs, Entrepreneurs, Workplace Warriors and Management Mavericks. The way he describes these four, you’ll likely end up seeing yourself reflected in at least one. I get the feeling that I’m more of an Intrepreneur than anything else, though I’ve certainly engaged in the behavior that defines Workplace Warriors and Management Mavericks.
On the whole, I liked the book. Lots of tried and true advice, lots of new spins on old favorites and a few great war stories. Taken as a whole, and integrated into your overall career plan, I don’t think you can go wrong with this book. Though the tone often feels like it’s aimed at recent college grads, or new managers, there’s enough fresh material in the book that even seasoned pros will find some value.
Free stuff alert! free stuff is all gone now, but feel free to keep dropping in your hints! If you’re interested in reading an advance copy of your own, drop a note in the comments of this post, telling me your favorite slacker-style career advancement tip, or tell me your best general purpose “do less, get more done” tip. The first 10 (ten) non-duplicate tips (don’t just say “ditto” to the person before you) will get an advance copy of Career Intensity. Don’t leave your contact info in the comment, just your tip. But be sure to leave a functional email address–I’ll catch up with you to get your shipping address.
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POSTED IN: book reviews, career, management, work life
16 opinions for Book review: Career Intensity
Sharif
Feb 20, 2006 at 6:07 am
Simply put, work faster. In the time it takes to get one project 100% perfect, you can usually fly through 90% of a handful of projects. Then, when you have more time, go back and finish them all with a fresh mind.
Jeff
Feb 20, 2006 at 6:08 am
Tip: Be an avid reader, especially of blogs. I read a lot of Blogs and am almost always in the know with respect to current trends, industry buzz, etc. Always nice when a conversation with the CEO or VP comes up about X and you have insightful info to share…
Jeff W.
Feb 20, 2006 at 6:23 am
My best tip is to stop when something is done. Often the extra work doing the last 5% of a project is wasted anyway (no one ever notices). Focus on the bulk and save many weekends!
Career Intensity Blog - David V. Lorenzo
Feb 20, 2006 at 6:34 am
[…] Bren at Slacker Manager posted a book review of Career Intensity this morning. He liked it. In fact, Bren compares it to airplane fuel for a car – even if your car goes fast, a richer mixture of fuel will make it go faster. That’s just what I was going for when I wrote the book. The ideas are designed to accelerate your career. Bren says: […]
Jeff
Feb 20, 2006 at 6:39 am
Organization is my silver bullet. They key has been to organize information in a way similar to my thought process. In the past, I have struggled to maintain an efficient system of organization because I was forcing my brain to think like my filesystem. The reverse works much better, and consequently so do I. Now I can get more done with less effort as everything I need is just a few keystrokes away.
Rob
Feb 20, 2006 at 6:51 am
Tip - whenever anything new gets thrown on my plate, the first thing I ask myself is, “Who can I delegate this to?” I was getting buried because I assumed that everything someone asked me to do was something I had to do personally. Now, I look for ways to maximize what I facilitate getting done, rather than trying to do everything myself. Definitely not earth shattering, but forcing myself to answer this question has made worlds of difference in my work life.
Jon
Feb 20, 2006 at 6:53 am
Hopefully this will count as a tip: Switch to the Dvorak layout. I plateaued out in QWERTY a while back. Furthermore, if I typed full blast for a long time my wrists would start hurting.
Although I felt like at first, I was up to a usable speed after a month, and probably passed my original QWERTY skills in about a year. Now I type faster, and it actually feels good. Dvorak seems to have a flow to it, which can actually make typing a joy (as corny as that may sound)
Requires significant initial investment, but will pay off in the long run for most people.
Wikipedia:Dvorak
Chris
Feb 20, 2006 at 6:54 am
When ever you are asked to do a “one-time” task, be sure to record the steps, ideally automate as much as possible.
If the task is not successful, you’ll have to fix and repeat until it is successful.
Once it is successful, you will be asked to repeat it.
Also tasks tend to grew from previous work, so the seeds for your next challenge are in the current one.
Gordon
Feb 20, 2006 at 6:59 am
When you have a superior assign an urgent task with an impossible timeframe, your reply should be, “it’s my first priority, I’ll get it done as fast as I can.” Often if the tone is right, you’ll be able to glide past the fact that you haven’t bought in to the schedule. When the inevitable slip happens, just repeat the mantra: “It’s my first priority and I’ll get it done as fast as I can.” There’s no comeback to that that doesn’t sound insane.
tully monster
Feb 20, 2006 at 7:01 am
If I’m having trouble getting started on a task, I do two things: break down the task into its simplest components (and this can get idiotically simple!) and then sit back for a few seconds and visualize starting the task. Most of the time, it provides enough momentum for me to get the job done–often, before I know it.
Matt
Feb 20, 2006 at 7:10 am
For larger writing projects, e.g. a project’s final report, I recommend the practice of brief daily writing sessions over the course of the project. Instead of waiting for the last week to cram in all the write-up, spend 30 minutes or even 15 each day preparing for that final write up. During one session you may just write a few paragraphs, during another you may only outline a summary of previous work that needs to included in the final report. However, once the report deadline reaches the near time horizon, you’ll have a draft already complete and just in need of editing and clean up.
Bren
Feb 20, 2006 at 7:31 am
These are great! Thanks, everybody. I’ll be contacting you for an address…
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james s
Feb 26, 2006 at 2:02 pm
career “accellarant” no.1:…….HONESTY. (if practiced religiously on a sincere/daily basis….will change life forever beyond the “scope of words”)
I’d continue on to no.2……but it would really start to shake you up…exactly.
Career Intensity Blog - David V. Lorenzo
Mar 7, 2006 at 2:39 am
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