Working Out Loud: For a better career and life

by John Stepper

Would you like more out of work and life? Working Out Loud offers you ways to take control and make your own luck. Instead of playing career roulette, you invest in deepening relationships and developing your skills. Instead of networking to get something, you lead with generosity. To further improve your odds, you make your work visible and frame it as a contribution. Combined, these elements form a powerful approach to work and life. In Working Out Loud , you’ll learn about research supporting this approach and read stories of people who’ve changed their lives by adopting it. Then you’ll go through a twelve-week mastery program to put the approach into practice yourself and turn that practice into a sustainable habit.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Personal Development, Productivity, Leadership, Self Help

338 pages, Paperback

First published June 10, 2015

Reviews

[Omkar Pendse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Working out loud is a perfect guidebook for anyone who wants to make their work and themselves visible. The tips and tricks shared by John can be applied easily to create visibility not just at workplace but rather to any project you wish to. Ideas shared by John in this book has helped me shed some of my inhibitions and start sharing my projects in progress to get feed-forward rather than feedback. what i also liked about this book was its approach to networking. The book emphasizes on creating lasting meaningful relationships and not shallow greetings and exchange of visiting cards as networking.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is great! And I am not saying that because I know @johnstepper, but because it embodies so many great thoughts and ideas that span beyond just working out loud. He uses so much of what he read and found useful in this book to help people learn how to build new habits and to help others and to serve others in an authentic way. Thanks John for sharing your insights onto something that I did to some extent but not to its fullest. I am about to start my first working out loud circle.

[JK · Rating 5 out of 5]

My co-workers might be tired of me talking about this book and ways we might implement the steps. Stepper has done a great job of describing a process for reaching goals that is both ambitious and achievable through simple exercises. I also found the Circle Guides on his website useful. I recommend this book and look forward to implementing some of his suggestions.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life changing

[Cesar Guadarrama · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting an easy to implement concept. Wol sounds like an interesting tool to start making meaningful networks.
Looking forward to using these concepts into practice

[Florian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well structured presentation of a mindset. Very helpful summaries at the end of each chapter. Useful tasks for the reader. Fitting examples.

[Aloisia · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s a great book, very practical and actionable to implement in order to work out loud, show your work and to build a network.

[Carmen Schuhmann]

Von Julia Bauer empfohlen

[Frank Calberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Takeaways from reading the book:

Discover your purpose. Set simple goals.
- Page 14: Do you view what you do every day as 1) a job, i.e. work is for you just about getting money, 2) a career, i.e. you put focus on advancing based on your achievements, or 3) a calling, i.e. you take pleasure in the work itself and the fulfillment that comes from doing it. Why do you view what you do in the way you do?
- Page 45: In one minute, write down what you want to learn about.
- Pages 38 and 116: Define a clear and simple goal that you care about and can reach quickly.
- Page 172: Write down 50 facts about yourself.
- Page 211: Sit in a quiet place with your eyes closed. Focus on your breath for a minute. Then try to feel what your future life feels like. Where are you? What are you doing? Who is around you?

Make contributions related to your purpose. Listen to feedback from yourself and others.
- Pages 38 and 149: Make small contributions related to your goal. Document them to show yourself you make progress.
- Page 42: Share with others what you do, for example via Twitter and other social media.
- Page 44: Ask for feedback as early as possible.
- Page 154: Reward yourself for your successes.
- Page 154: Avoid self criticism. Accept what happens. Look at mistakes / missteps as a natural part of the learning process.
- Page 169: Examples of contributions you can make: Ask and answer questions. Share ideas. Share what you learn.
- Page 223: When you feel blocked from making contributions, ask yourself why. What are you afraid of?
- Page 290: Focus on contributions, practice and doing - not on outcome.

Search people with whom you share purpose. Learn from them. Reach out. Thank them.
- xii: Frame what you are doing as a contribution to others and as a way to deepen relationships.
- Page 33: Who do you know that do what you do? When was the last time you communicated with one or more of them?
- Page 50: Be generous. Give without expecting anything in return.
- Page 50: Be vulnerable. Admit to a failure or weakness. By doing that, you demonstrate trust in other people and make it easier for them to be authentic.
- Page 64: Give positive feedback on work you admire.
- Pages 64, 70, 143 and 146: Saying thank you to a person can be among the most powerful gifts you can give.
- Page 64: Listen.
- Page 87: How much of your best work have you published openly in the Internet?
- Page 110: What are the names of the people, who can help you as you try to find and live your purpose?
- Page 123: Follow people, you want to learn from, on social media.
- Page 134: Think of a relationship you have with another person. Ask yourself what you need to offer to improve the relationship.
- Page 175: Write to a person you would like to talk to. Say, for example: I enjoyed the last conversation we had. Would you like to chat over lunch one day?
- Page 250: Share what others, with whom you share a purpose, write, for example through retweets.

Practice / learn / improve / get better
- Page 40: Improve what you do.
- Pages 92 and 98: Focus on continuously learning and getting better / making progress. Worry little about how good you are now or on being perfect.
- Page 93: Attribute failure to insufficient effort or deficient knowledge and skills that you are able to acquire when you make an effort.
- Page 98: Focus on your own progress instead of comparing yourself to others.
- Page 138: Make appointments with yourself. Schedule time to work on your goals.

[Stan Skrabut · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even before I heard Harold Jarche speak at the National Extension Technology Conference, I had been interested in this concept of working out loud. I started working out loud formally when I started a blog for a graduate class. Even before that I was sharing things on social media. I realized early that social media was a powerful place to share things. Recently, I had completed reading two books on the topic of working out loud. The first book is Working Out Loud: For a better career and life* by John Stepper. Read more

[Robert Bogue · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve worked out loud in my career by accident. I started with editing then writing books. I started writing articles (because they required less effort) and I’ve been speaking for years now. In many ways, my life has been what Working Out Loud: For a Better Career and Life suggests – but it was nearly completely by accident. I started my blog in 2005 because the people I knew told me I had to have one. At the same time, I also had content that I wanted to write that no publisher wanted to buy. The blog now has more than 800 posts. However, there’s more for me to learn.

Click here to read the full review

[Kate Kaput · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this one while participating in a "Working Out Loud circle" with coworkers, & it was a great experience. The whole thing is based on this book, which my colleague put into play in the workplace. We each set a goal & met once a week to discuss & to support one another in working toward achieving our individual goals. Reading the book between meetings helped keep my motivation high.

[Mike Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book with easy to implement suggestions for sharing your work to become known within and beyond your organization. The exercises at the back are great ideas for how anyone can improve their work.

[John Westworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice easy read for the start of a new year. Really enjoyed it and wish I'd read it sooner. Takes you through the 5 elements of working out loud with some simple and short exercises to try out.

[Annemie Martens · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has changed my life. And career. Especially my mindset. Grateful for that.

[Leo Exter]

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