Abstract
Many years ago, Stephen Covey said, “Nothing Fails Like Success”. While many have been given credit for the quote, Covey offered his explanation. He explained how people and organizations will find success, and then believe that they will continue to be successful doing the same thing into the future.
Tell this theory to Blockbuster Video, Circuit City, and Radio Shack, to name a few. These were companies that were extremely successful but chose not to grow with the rapidly changing world. They are now just a memory to many of us. They could not sustain greatness.
Jerry Weinberg said, “No matter how it looks at first, it’s always a people problem”. Great organizations do not fail alone. These failures result in people that develop a sense of complacency that allows solutions, which once gave positive results, to no longer be enough for success in the future. Each of us has the opportunity to help drive our lives, our careers, and our organizations to stay ahead of the success curve.
In my presentation, I want to share many situations within my career and experiences where I learned that I needed to grow to keep up, to stay relevant, and ultimately, succeed.
We will discuss the following:
- You must consider the audience & context of greatness – WHO ARE YOU COMPARING WITH?
- Being successful and achieving honors and awards is awesome – but WHAT DO YOU DO NEXT?
- Establishing a roadmap from “Good” to “Great” and, ultimately, “The Best Version of You”
- Understanding what you want to be “when you grow up” – ARE YOU WHERE YOU WANT TO BE?
Bio
Mike Lyles is a Director of QA and Project Management with over 25 years of IT experience in multiple organizations, including Fortune 50 companies. He has exposure in various IT leadership roles: software development, program management office, and software testing. He has led various teams within testing organizations: functional testing, test environments, software configuration management, test data management, performance testing, test automation, and service virtualization.
Mike has been successful in career development, team building, coaching, and mentoring of IT & QA professionals. Mike has been an international keynote speaker at multiple conferences and events and is regularly published in testing publications and magazines. His first published motivational book, “The Drive-Thru Is Not Always Faster”, was released in 2019. His book site is www.TheDriveThruBook.com