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Jeff Perry

The Power of Building Accountable Teams for Excellent Performance

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This is a guest post by Jeff Perry, MBA

When executives are asked what leadership skills they wish their leaders were better at, one of the most common responses is the ability to hold their people accountable. This indicates a red flag, as it is an indicator that the organization as a whole is not very accountable. Rather than a focus on holding others accountable, we should instead be making the shift toward developing people who are accountable.

accountable teams

Wait, What Do You Mean?

Let me explain myself by asking a few simple questions for you to ponder:

  • How would you describe someone who is accountable?
  • How do we hold someone else accountable?
  • How do we hold ourselves accountable?

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TECC 265: Finding Career Fulfillment in Your Engineering Career

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Career FulfillmentIn this episode, Jeff Perry, MBA talks about how you can find career fulfillment. He shares a framework that will help you on your journey and some actions that you can start taking right away to get on the path to engineering career fulfillment.

Here Are Some of the Key Points Discussed About Finding Career Fulfillment:

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Effective Strategies in a World of Remote Work

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This is a guest post by Jeff Perry, MBA

Remote WorkI’ve always been a pretty big fan of flexible work options and remote work. It’s been nice to have the ability to do it when I’ve been sick, traveling, or taking care of other business. While not possible for all job roles, remote work can have a lot of benefits. 

With the coronavirus and its many effects on the working world, we will need to adapt to increased and accelerated remote work. Some people love it, others don’t.

No matter your personal feelings, embracing the advantages of remote work and learning how to effectively communicate in remote settings will become increasingly important for career success.  

Benefits of Going Remote 

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As a Leader, You Must Extend Trust to Earn Trust

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This is a blog by Jeff Perry, MBA

Can you ever write and talk enough about trust? Probably not. Its power is huge at work, at home, in communities, and more.  

Without trust, things just break down. Yet trust doesn’t just happen or magically appear. It is built and shaped over time in relationships by making and keeping commitments to each other.  

But where does it begin?  

With you. 

A Leader’s Job Is to Lead 

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Is Conflict Always Bad? The Answer May Surprise You

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This is a blog by Jeff Perry, MBA

conflictMost of us, when we think about conflict, consider it a bad thing we should avoid. That’s not exactly true.

The right kind of conflict can actually build trust and increase performance in teams! In fact, I would say that one of the best indicators of a team that trusts each other is the amount of conflict in the team.

Positive, healthy conflict happens when we can challenge each other in real ways, be open and honest, and collaborate more effectively.

conflict

Disagreements Are Normal and Should Be Encouraged

There is no situation or team that is going to sail through all projects and tasks without ever disagreeing with each other. Yet one of the things that can build divisions and trouble in a teams faster than anything is when people don’t feel heard and able to express disagreements, especially with leaders.

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Find Your Genius Zone: The Ultimate Personal Brand

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This is a blog by Jeff Perry, MBA

Personal BrandPersonal branding is getting more and more attention as a piece of building our careers, yet many people ignore it or do not even know what it is. Whether you do it intentionally or not, you are putting off a personal brand — but is it the one that you want to have?

Let us dive deeper into how you can take charge and help others perceive you in the way you want to be known.

What Is a Personal Brand?

Put simply, a personal brand is how you promote yourself. It’s the amount of “who you are” that you allow the world to see. It’s your opportunity to tell your story and differentiate yourself from others.

Personal Brand

An easy way to think about a personal brand is to imagine a simple Venn diagram. In one circle are all of the attributes, skills, personality traits, interests, and experiences that you have. In the other circle are all of the ways you show that to other people — online, in a resume, on LinkedIn, personal websites, and more. The intersection of the two circles is your personal brand — how much people actually see of who you truly are.

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Meet Jeff Perry, MBA – the New Host of the Engineering Career Coach Podcast

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The Engineering Management Institute is thrilled to have Jeff Perry, MBA, leadership coach and founder of More Than Engineering as the new host of The Engineering Career Coach Podcast –  a podcast dedicated to helping engineers create extraordinary careers and lives.

Jeff decided to transition in his engineering career towards coaching and training because he saw the amazing difference it makes in the lives of individuals and teams. He finds more joy in helping others be their best selves by developing people, rather than developing projects and services.

His advice to engineers is to not buy into classic engineering stereotypes that can sometimes limit your beliefs about yourself.

“Engineering is a key component to economic growth and world-wide innovation.”
~ Jeff Perry, MBA

Jeff’s goal as host of The Engineering Career Coach Podcast is to bring engineers the latest in personal development ideas from experts all over the world to allow them to improve their personal lives and careers.

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TECC 231: Mindsets Fuel Behavior, and Behavior Fuels Results

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mindsetsIn this episode, I am very excited to share some BIG NEWS with you. The Engineering Career Coach Podcast will have a new host. Many of you might have heard of him on some of our previous episodes or read some of his articles. He is no other than Jeff Perry, MBA, the founder of More than Engineering. In this episode, Jeff talks about how mindsets fuel behavior and how they are the key to career and personal growth. He also shares his goal as a new host of The Engineering Career Coach Podcast.

“Everyone is a mixture of fixed and growth mindsets. You could have a predominant growth mindset in an area, but there can still be things that trigger you into a fixed mindset trait.”
~ Carol S. Dweck

Engineering Quotes:

Here Are Some of the Key Points Discussed About How Mindsets Fuel Behavior:

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Take Action Despite Uncertainty

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This is a guest blog by Jeff Perry

Take Action

“Treat mistakes as learning, not failure” ~ Dan Sullivan 
“Test fast, fail fast, adjust fast” ~ Tom Peters  
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” ~ Thomas Edison 
“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” ~ Winston Churchill 

These quotes, and others like them, seem to be preached more and more, all of the time. Viewing failure in this way is actually quite important; it allows us to move through uncertainty, even though that uncertainty can be a source of great fear. But believing in the principle doesn’t mean it’s automatically easy to actually do it. So how do we deal with fear, move through uncertainty, and take action anyway? Here are four ideas:

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Scientific Laws of Leadership

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This is a guest blog by Jeff Perry
Scientific Laws

As engineers, we learn massive amounts of equations, corollaries, theorems, and laws. These typically apply to mathematics or scientific laws that must be understood in order to make appropriate engineering designs and calculations. However, have you ever wondered if these scientific laws that the natural world follows have applications to our personal growth, development, and leadership? In my opinion, the answer is a clear “Yes!”

In this post, I’ll take examples from some of the most commonly known scientific laws of physics — Newton’s Laws of Motion. I’ll show you how these fundamental laws apply to the movement and progress of people and teams, not just physical objects. Then, I’ll provide suggestions actions, or “motions,” you can take in your own leadership. 

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