Are you doing work that matters, or just work that keeps you busy?
When you’re a mid-level executive, the rush of daily tasks often drowns out the strategic moves that actually propel your career forward.
If you’re feeling uninspired or stuck on a plateau, you don’t need more willpower—you need a better operating system.
Today, I’m giving you five counter-intuitive rules to immediately re-engineer your career and personal life.
These are the approaches you won’t find in the employee handbook. Instead, you’ll find them right here.
Most professionals jump on bandwagons and nod along to avoid discomfort.
The problem? People forget boring.
To stand out in a herd-like corporate culture and build certitude, you must have a clear, well-thought-out, contrarian opinion.
Start small: Challenge a low-stakes cultural trend (e.g., Taylor Swift should stop attending NFL games because the distraction hurts the team’s focus).
Then, work your way up to higher-stakes issues (like using AI to replace celebrity influencers in endorsements).
Remember, the power is in your reasoned conviction, not volume.
We avoid tough conversations (with a client, a partner, or your CEO) because our brain treats social rejection as a physical threat.
To override this fear, you must practice speaking truth to power in low-stakes environments.
Here is a radical, effective exercise: Walk into a high-end coffee shop and politely ask for a 20% discount on your latte.
When they say no, ask again.
This is not about getting the discount; it’s about conditioning your nervous system to accept “No” without panic.
This simple discipline builds the mental armor you need for the crucial negotiations ahead.
Many executives who job-hopped early in their career carry the regret that they weren’t “straight-line” successful.
This is a myth that holds people back.
Stop framing your past as, “My non-linear career path held me back.”
Start framing it as, “My non-linear career path propelled me forward.”
Switching roles when you were younger was the most valuable market research you could have done, teaching you two priceless things: 1) exactly where your core strengths lie, and 2) the environment that fuels your passionate engagement.
Your diverse experience is your competitive advantage.
Most executives are drowning in sideways energy—tasks that keep them busy but don’t move the needle.
To escape this trap, apply a financial principle to your time: the 28% Rule.
Carve out 28% of your available time (e.g., 90 minutes of your workday) and dedicate it ONLY to mission-critical strategy or new business development.
Do this first thing in the morning when your prefrontal cortex is freshest, before administrative noise takes over. This small structural change will transform your business outcomes.
We all have conversations we avoid—the difficult performance review, the client renegotiation, or the crucial boundary-setting chat. Avoiding them triggers anxiety and keeps your brain in a low-grade state of alert.
Pick one conversation you’ve been avoiding this week and commit to scripting it out.
The tough conversation you fear is the same one that will ultimately pay the highest dividends in career clarity and stress reduction.
You cannot grow if you refuse to confront the necessary friction points.
Were these rules helpful? These are just some of the topics I cover in my Unspoken Rules of Leadership workshops.
If you’d like to learn more about my keynotes and workshops, reach out to me via email at Jamie@JamieTurner.Live or via text at 678-313-3472.
Or, you can simply hit reply to this email and we’ll open up a dialogue that way.
About Jamie Turner: Jamie Turner is an internationally recognized authority, author, and professor. He was also recognized as one of the top 10 best speakers in the world by CareerAddict (along with Arianna Huffington, Daymond John, and Gary V). His roster of clients includes The Coca-Cola Company, AT&T, Microsoft, Verizon, SAP, T-Mobile, and Holiday Inn.
On CNN, CNN International, and HLN, Jamie is their go-to expert on subjects ranging from the Super Bowl to the latest issues impacting business leadership.
His next book, titled Better: Discover a New and Improved You will be published by Vibrant in March 2026.
If you’d like to find out more, visit JamieTurner.Live JamieTurner.Live.
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