The Power Move: Accelerate Your Professional Advancement Through the Power of Knowledge

Copyright © 2010 by David E. Ziton

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ISBN: 978-1-4502-5181-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4502-5182-2 (dj)

ISBN: 978-1-4502-5183-9 (ebook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010917268

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev. date: 11/19/2010

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1

SURVEY THE CORPORATE LANDSCAPE OF YOUR EMPLOYER

a. THE COMPANY’S ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

AND YOUR ADVANCEMENT OPPORTUNITIES

b. KEY PLAYERS OF THE COMPANY

c. STATUS OF YOUR BOSS

d. COMPANY’S CURRENT STATUS AND FUTURE OUTLOOK

e. HOW TO INTERACT WITH

KEY PLAYERS OF THE COMPANY

f. WHAT ARE THE COMPANY’S KEY

SOURCES OF REVENUE, TOP CUSTOMERS,

AND CRITICAL VENDORS AND PARTNERS?

g. WHAT IS YOUR COMPANY’S

CAPACITY AND ABILITY TO MITIGATE RISK?

h. WHICH INDUSTRY AND MARKET

SECTOR DOES YOUR COMPANY FIT INTO?

i. WHAT IS THE REPUTATION

AND TRACK RECORD OF YOUR COMPANY?

j. THE ABILITY, PROCESS, AND

SPEED OF YOUR COMPANY TO TAKE AN

INNOVATIVE IDEA FROM CONCEPT TO MARKET

Chapter 2

DEFINE THE COMPANY’S PSYCHOLOGY, PERSONALITY, AND CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATION

k. THE PERSONALITY OF YOUR COMPANY’S LEADER

l. WHAT IS YOUR COMPANY’S

VISION (THE REAL MESSAGE)?

m. DEVELOP A NETWORK WITH

INDIVIDUALS WHO GET THINGS DONE

n. EXTERNAL OPINION OF YOUR COMPANY

o. HOW DOES YOUR COMPANY OFFER YOU THE OPPORTUNITY TO ADVANCE TO THE NEXT LEVEL?

Chapter 3

HOW ARE YOU DEFINED WITHIN YOUR COMPANY AND HOW DO YOU WANT TO DEFINE YOUR FUTURE?

p. HOW WILL YOU ACHIEVE YOUR

PROFESSIONAL GOALS IN THE NEXT SIX,

TWELVE, EIGHTEEN, AND TWENTY-FOUR MONTHS?

q. WHAT ARE YOUR PROFESSIONAL

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES?

r. ASSIMILATION OF CRITICAL FINDINGS

s. EVALUATE YOUR PERFORMANCE

AND CONTRIBUTION TO YOUR COMPANY

t. IDENTIFY AN OPEN POSITION OF INTEREST

u. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS/DEVELOP KEY UNDERSTANDING FOR OPEN POSITION

v. MODIFY YOUR CURRENT ROLE

IF AN OPEN POSITION DOES NOT EXIST

Chapter 4

ASSESS YOUR COMPANY’S STRENGTHS AND OVERALL CAPACITY FOR EXCEPTIONAL SUCCESS

w. SNAPSHOT OF YOUR COMPENSATION AND

ABILITY TO ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

x. EVALUATE YOUR COMPANY’S STRENGTHS

AND OVERALL CAPACITY FOR SUCCESS

Chapter 5

AFTER THE POWER MOVE: DID YOU SUCCESSFULLY ADVANCE YOUR PROFESSIONAL CAREER?

y. FINAL PREPARATION

TO EXECUTE YOUR POWER MOVE

z. DID THE POWER MOVE

PROPEL YOU TO ADVANCEMENT?

Chapter 6:

CHAPTER OVERVIEWS

Appendix

Introduction

YOUR SUCCESS TO BE ACHIEVED BY READING THE POWER MOVE

As we are propelled into the global labor force, I firmly believe a massive majority lose their footing in taking active control in defining their professional development, career, and marketability to capture promotion and advancement. I believe each individual must calculate his or her total value professionally speaking in the eyes of their employer (business owner) and global marketplace. By understanding your value, one is able to identify key areas of strength that translate to compensation while understanding one’s limited or underdeveloped competencies, which directly relate to your pay grade and capacity to logically forecast your ability to increase future compensation. We need to grasp this concept because it is a factual observation and has been proven by the recent economic recession negatively impacting all countries and associated labor forces.

I wrote this book to express a common occurrence experienced by all professionals in one form or another. The concept of attending some form of schooling which may include high school, vocational training, college, and possibly graduate school, which takes us to the same arena, the labor force, a cast of billions. The path we follow to enter the labor force varies, but this destination is shared by the majority. Our colorful journeys vary due to diverse upbringings and cultures, but we all are required to discover a way to make a sustainable living. I suspect the folks of royalty and overnight success may not relate to this book, but the remainder of us are faced with the need to survive and provide.

The motivation of this book is focused on assisting each reader to successfully achieve the following:

• Clarity of their employment status;

• Ability to identify and capture a career advance opportunity to reach the next level; and,

• A dynamic yet simple methodology to building a knowledge base and action plan to achieve a Power Move to the next level.

Overall, this book is for the motivated professional that follows key principles of business: professional veracity, transparent ethical business practices, and fiduciary duty that maintain a high level of integrity and balances conflict between employees, shareholders, and customers. Therefore, this book is for the business professional who will succeed due to their merit, intelligence, social IQ, ingenious creativity, and sense of community that embraces capitalism with a well-developed ethical foundation to exercise reason.

MY EXPERIENCE AND BACKGROUND TO WRITE THE POWER MOVE

I have elevated my career, skills, and personal wealth throughout my career following the Power Move methodology outlined within this book. I have been able to challenge myself professionally to work within a creative and innovative manner while advancing my skills and professional development, all the while building a tremendous network consisting of business owners, channel partners, and numerous individuals at various management levels and companies that have made my life fulfilling and rewarding.

I have successfully led and worked with cross-functional teams in developing and implementing business strategies that achieved revenue growth while maintaining a high level of customer service. My professional experience incorporates working in more than fifteen countries while living abroad in Colombia, France, England, Mexico, and Germany. I have analyzed more than four hundred companies from a corporate finance and internal human behavior perspective. As a result, I have developed a unique knowledge base incorporating career development, business management, direct sales, business development, business strategy implementation, and corporate finance.

As a proven business leader, successful revenue generator, founder of zVision Corp., and founder of a emerging business association, Executive Q&A, I have taken the time to step back to gain perspective and view the realities of life regarding the work environment and how we all function within this competitive environment. For most of us, an enormous amount of time is spent working, thinking about work, and talking about work.

Today and in the future, the employer/employee relationship is requiring business operators to base their decisions on a long-term plan that establishes a successful competitive strategy while balancing the conflict between employees, shareholders, and customers.

• Are we doomed to be casualties (within a worker matrix), or do we have the opportunity to overcome and live active, enriching lives outside the pressures of work?

• How do I excel and make a positive contribution while maintaining honest and sincere business principles?

• How do I overcome pressures that stop me from compromising my principles, which are based upon a fundamental belief toward ethical and humane business practices?

• How do I move up the corporate ladder and surpass a boss who is crippling and offers no advancement? Alternatively, how do I become established within a company that fully leverages my capabilities and advances my professional development?

• How do I overcome my personal pride and superficial lofty ambitions and follow a clear and consistent career path that is rewarding and fulfilling?

The Power Move takes a realistic approach to the questions above. This book provides you ways to excel within the work environment while maintaining a personal identity founded on integrity, ethics, and professionalism.

PERSONAL COMMENT FOR YOU—IF

If you are content and lean toward laziness, put down this book, step away, and find some feel good book. Or better yet, go to McDonald’s and enjoy a supersized Big Mac, fries, and soda. If your ambitions are laced with deceit, insincerity, and unethical business practices, put this book back and find some get rich quick book. I recommend the magazine Wealth Opportunities for the Incapable and Soulless. Better yet, devise a plot to blackmail your boss for an unforeseen amount of money and retire in the tropics. If you take offense to my comments, just go about your day and forget you ever read this preface. Let’s not waste each other’s time.

MY FORETHOUGHT ABOUT THE FUTURE OF EMPLOYMENT

We live within a global economy, and we are all impacted by the decisions and actions of our bordering and distant neighbors. I believe the basic economic principles of supply and demand, combined with fiscal responsibility, is the epicenter of each individual being empowered and armed with technology, information, and resources to shape his or her professional career as desired. Participating within the global labor force today, and more so in the future, requires people to be in control of the progression of their professional career—directly aligned with and supporting the achievement of their desired personal lifestyle.

Business and environmental sustainability is the overall sound of reason that will correct our looming global economy and environmental troubles through the collective force of individual consumers and decision makers, by consciously making spending decisions that support business and environmental sustainability. I believe we are all equal contributors to the economy and environment due to the availability of information and inventive disruptive business models that support the creation of new businesses and industries fueled by the unique creativity of an individual. Anybody anywhere can contribute, and the passing of each day is proving this reality.

The composition of the labor market today will be entirely different in the not-so-distant future. The traditional and outdated concept of many individuals migrating to a centralized location to work is fading away. Each individual needs to understand his or her real value and contribution to a company and determine if the time invested is worth the monetary return and professional development. Is the ability to perform alternative work valued more, and does it provide a greater contribution toward professional development? The Power Move™ is your guide to evaluating your current employment standing as valued by company ownership and leaders while mapping your desired professional progression and accomplishing such through the power of knowledge.

Why spend time at a company that will never get you closer to your personal and professional aspirations? This is my motivation in writing this book: to hopefully assist others in accepting reality well before too much time has been invested with no return on such an