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Dee Ann Turner worked at Chick fil-A for thirty-three years where she served as a senior leader. In this her third book following “It’s My Pleasure” and “Bet on Talent”, she provides a road map to navigate your way to finding a job, keeping a job, and growing a career. Beginning with developing your resume and maximizing your online presence, all the way through leading others and thinking about retirement, the author gives valuable advice you would expect to receive from a trusted coach or mentor. She writes that the expertise in the book was born somewhat of successes, but more so in the failures as we learn much more by our mistakes than we do by our successes.
Among the subjects that the book addresses that I found most helpful were our purpose, mission and core values, character formation, how to ace the interview, building solid relationships, growing trust, listening, giving and receiving feedback, preparing for an opportunity, resilience, mentors, responding to change, self-development, growing as an emerging leader and problem solving.
The book includes a helpful “What’s My Story” section with probing questions at the end of each chapter, and a list of helpful resources (books, podcasts, etc.) at the end of the book.
Reading this book was like sitting down for a personal mentoring session with the author in a favorite coffee shop on how to find a calling that is fulfilling and work that will help me reach my personal and professional dreams. I highly recommend this book for those who are looking for a job and wanting to grow their career.
Below are ten of my favorite quotes from the book:
- Understanding our calling is critical to finding a career that gives our work life meaning. Without a calling, a job is just work.
- Organizations committed to developing their staff will be the best places to grow a career.
- The first ninety days of any new job are critical. You never get a second chance to make a first impression, and that is exactly what the first ninety days are – a first impression.
- The relationship with your new boss is the most critical element of success in your new job.
- Of all the reasons I have seen people fail in their career, by far the most common is the inability to build positive and productive relationships in the workplace.
- An organization with a lack of trust among its members is often characterized as competitive instead of collaborative. Such conditions are a threat to a healthy future.
- Anyone who wants to keep a job and grow a career will face negative feedback at one time or another. The most successful people understand how to receive it and respond to it in productive ways.
- Resilient people overcome rejection by grounding themselves in an identity deeper than merely a role at work.
- The most important role of a leader is developing more leaders.
- Allowing our identities to be consumed by our professions sets us up for a crisis when the identity is no longer our vocation for whatever reason.