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I recently interviewed Life Success Consultant Miguel DeJesus on my weekly radio show. The topic was How to Get Promoted. Miguel has over 38 years of experience leading organizations to high levels of productivity and achievement, while creating a culture of personal growth, development, and achievement. Here are some of the highlights of that interview:
Ellie: Miguel, to get started, can you tell me a little bit about your background and 38 years of experience?
Miguel: Absolutely. I grew up in New York City on the Lower East Side and spent a great deal of my childhood in the public school systems in New York. I attended the High School of Music and Art in the Harlem area. I majored in Music and from there I moved on to Long Island University at the Brooklyn campus where I majored in Political Science and a minor in Accounting.
I then went on to Columbia University Graduate School of Business for one year and withdrew from the program, because I had the bug to go out and do something and make some money.
From there I moved into my initial phase with one of the two Fortune 500 companies that I’ve worked with, which was happened Xerox Corporation at the time. I spent about 18 ½ years there and another 18 ½ years with a company called Paychex.
Ellie: Along your career path, what would you say are the top two lessons you've learned on becoming a leader?
Miguel: That’s a great question, Ellie.
First, I would say is to ask in whatever environment that you're in. If you happen to be an employee, ask your bosses for assistance toward guidance and the opportunity to perform at a greater level, so you've got to ask. The second part of that first response is, also, you have to put yourself out into a position of wanting greater responsibility.
Nobody in either Corporate America or in the marketplace is going to tap you on the shoulder and say you are the greatest thing since slice bread was invented. You have got to be good at self-promotion and taking greater responsibility, which means standing out from the crowd.
Raise your hand and take a position, however unpopular it may be, because that helps to demonstrate some leadership and then you’ve got to pursue that.
The second lesson, I would say, is equally as important and that is to connect and attach yourself to a rising star in the organization or a rising entrepreneur, somebody who is working in your space that knows more than you do.
That’s important, knows more than you do or has greater responsibility than you do and then through a great personality, which you have to bring to the table, you request mentorship from that individual.
That goes two ways. You can make the request and they can deny, but if you don’t ask you’ll never get attached to the people that can help you rise to the next level of responsibility that you’re seeking.
Ellie: As you’ve mentored emerging leaders in the organizations that you’ve led, what would you say are the top leadership skills that someone needs to develop so they can become promotable?
Miguel: Great question. I would say there are probably a couple of areas that people need to really excel at. I have 12 critical success skills and won’t review them all here because of time, but I’ll review a couple of them.
· The first is communication skills.
To the degree that you have great communication skills, not just good, you have to distinguish yourself in the marketplace and one of the ways you do that is by having outstanding communication skills and that includes both verbal and written.
When you communicate there is no doubt that the receiver got your message. And that message has to be devoid of innuendos, sarcasms, etc. I’ll recall the old commercial. I think it was E. F. Hutton that said when Miguel speaks people listen. When Ellie speaks people listen. You know you’ve arrived when a room goes silent and they listen to your every word.
· The second skill I would say that is essential and important is leadership.
I would define leadership this way– when there is a void or absence of progress or of results in a specific area of endeavor. Whether it’s in education, business or in government, the person who raises their hand, stands up and has a proposal that makes sense to the bulk of the people is demonstrating leadership.
You do not need to have authority, in any sense of the word, given to you by anyone for you to exhibit leadership. You are not granted leadership you take leadership. Leadership is something that is done very professionally.
Again, let me go back to my earlier statement from that E. F. Hutton commercial I think it was: when Miguel speaks or Ellie speaks people listen. That places you squarely in a position of influence and leadership, because you cannot have leadership without followers. And, followers will not want to follow people they consider to be either weak in thinking or weak in their professional experiences.
To listen to the full audio version of this interview, you can listen at http://tobtr.com/s/480739.
Note: This article has been edited from its original version to fit a printed format.
For more info: Visit Ellie's website at http://www.ellienieves.com/ or send her an e-mail at ellie@ellienieves.com. You can also tune in to her internet radio program on Tuesdays at 6:30pm Eastern at www.BlogTalkRadio.com/Ellie-Nieves.
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