Eric P. Butts

09/03/2024

🙃 my dogs have been up at 4am every day this week, so that gives some forced thinking time. Here is the the quote I keep playing in my head the last couple of days...

“In other words, all of the benefits of higher performing teams are direct results of feeling safe among their own and believing that their leaders have their well-being at heart.”

- Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last

I agree with this statement but, like anything else, it’s rarely that simple. I’ve seen too many times where people take advantage of a good hearted leader… but I can also say the same of the reverse.

My thoughts on the solution as a leader? Honesty, especially when the news may not be good. And with that, add some compassion to recognize that real humans are involved in these discussions, not just numbers on a spreadsheet.

No solution is ever perfect, but ij my experience this works for both sides far more often than not.

09/24/2023

Sunday thought…

I was on here the other day and saw this quote that said, "Everybody wants to shine but no one wants to be polished." This sounds like something that may have been around for a while but I'd not heard it before and I kinda love it.

Here's why... it's a solid reminder that it's easy to want things -- get promoted to manager, get admitted to a partnership, make black belt in Tae Kwon Do -- but all too often people turn their nose up at the steps it takes to make it happen.

Maybe it shouldn't be so hard... but it is. And like I always say, you'll save yourself a lot of headaches professionally making moves based on how things are instead of how you wish they were (until you're in a position to change them).

06/07/2023

My accountants and finance consultants are definitely going to want to pay close attention to this one.

Every year around this time, I hear about people quitting jobs they “love” because they didn’t get promoted. And usually after sacrificing significant time with their loved ones and/or neglecting their health.

It doesn’t have to be this way though, and this year I decided to do something about this trend by offering a free training.

I’m doing this because I started my blog more than 10 years ago as a way to help as many people as possible learn from my successes and mistakes.

Right now, it seems the best way to help people is to go beyond videos they can binge watch like Netflix and add a focus on implementation. This training will be exactly that.

How To Determine The Exact Steps You Need To Take To Demonstrate The Right Skills and Have The Right Relationships In Place To Land Your Next Promotion...Without Having To Work 80+ Hours A Week!

05/07/2023

Do you have a career mentor in your life? If not, you’re going to want to address that asap.

Here are 12 reasons why:

“I get by with a little help from my friends” is more than a catchy theme song for one of the most memorable shows of the early 90s. It’s how you need to think about managing your career.

01/19/2023

Today I learned the name of this thing that measures your feet in shoe stores 👇🏾

How the Brannock Device revolutionized the shoe industry

After it was invented in 1925, it became a fixture in shoe stores and an unlikely hero in World War II.

08/27/2022

I’m down to less than 24hrs before dropping my daughter off to start her new journey at a school thousands of miles away 😳

And while it hurts my heart a little bit thinking about how we came as 4 but are going home just 3, I can’t help but to also think about how important it is for girls to be charting their own paths.

It’s not about being forced down a specific path but having the confidence to make choices that fulfill them and to know they belong in ALL the spaces.

That’s the world I want to live in…

So I put my 💰 where my mouth is by donating to GirlTalk and I hope you’ll join me in doing so here 👇🏾

https://mygirltalk.networkforgood.com/projects/166922-eric-butts-s-fundraiser

07/19/2022

I don’t know if I’m just paying attention more now or if it’s always been this way but there’s one question I seem to be getting all the time now…

Any guesses what it is?

This is hands down the question I see the most often. The question is telling but the answer is even more important.

04/30/2022

Mission accomplished! My son and I are officially certified first degree black belts.

This certification means as much to me (or more) than my diplomas from undergrad and mba because of the work and discipline that went into it.

Discipline > Motivation.

04/16/2022

A quick share on our recent milestone. My son and I are less than a week away from testing to become certified first degree black belts. This brick break is one of the qualifications. 🧱

Wasn’t sure how long we would do this for when we started but this journey has been one I will always cherish.

01/03/2022

Have I introduced you to my friend Big Mo yet?

Big Mo has been a key part of some major milestones for me — passing the CPA exam, crushing the GMAT, and landing a 73% raise to name a few.

But maybe the most important thing to know is Big Mo is the reason I hate new year resolutions (you should too) but love having goals.

Here’s what I mean…

I came home November 29 after learning I could have died on Thanksgiving…

With Hanukkah and Christmas around the corner, the easy thing to do would’ve been to say I’ll worry about making big changes after the holidays.

The thing is major changes generally take time to see results.

Learning new skills, losing weight, finding a new significant other — all of them take time.

In my case, the doctor told me when they discharged me that I should be targeting a minimum of 30 minutes of exercise each day.

The picture above is a chart of the days that I got on my bike. And as you can see, I failed 8 times in the last 30 days. Where I won, though, is seeing that while carving out time to put myself first is hard, it’s not as daunting as it was in my head.

And guess what that means for January?

It means I’ll be that much further down the path of where I want to be. 22 days closer, to be exact.

And what does that mean for you?

If you’re reading this today on new year’s eve, or new year’s day, or a month from now… today is the day to start that thing you’ve been avoiding because you KNOW it’s going to be hard.

The best way to do it? Figure out what tactical steps are that you can execute. Ones that are achievable on a daily basis if you can. And ones that if you miss a day, you can restart or catch up the next and not beat yourself up over it.

In other words, give yourself the structure to build up major momentum toward your goals… or as I like to call it — Big Mo.

If you need help on how to get more Big Mo in your life, you can grab a coaching session with me and I’ll help you get out of the gate strong in 2022.

12/06/2021

WOW… CEO fires 900 employees over Zoom https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/05/business/better-ceo-fires-employees/index.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=fbCNN&utm_content=2021-12-06T00%3A30%3A04&utm_term=link&fbclid=IwAR31lEFMVJA4bvTYxYTaHP80VQ-Dt3q-fYHUQSSQctxp3_8cBaKRZjX_5hs

Better.com CEO Vishal Garg announced the mortgage company is laying off about 9% of its workforce on a Zoom webinar Wednesday abruptly informing the more than 900 employees on the call they were being terminated just before the holidays.