Cheetah Learning Newsletter May 2023

This recent article from NPR talks about how Productivity is at an all-time low. It's not surprising as quiet quitting has become the norm. Quiet quitting means the employee puts in the minimal effort required and even less enthusiasm for the job while continuing to collect a paycheck.

This makes sense as many are increasingly disillusioned with the idea of being let go suddenly and with no warning. Others are forced to accept less pay while high-level executives reap large bonuses regardless of the tough economic conditions or the company's performance. In addition, there is often a lack of meaningful career development opportunities and work that fails to provide an inspiring challenge for people. Its clear why so many opt out by quiet quitting and productivity is in the tank.

Who would willingly stay in this situation unless they didn't feel like they had other options? When you've checked out, it's time to create an exit strategy. While quiet quitting might be justified, it can tarnish a personal brand and impact the ability to network with people from this time. Plus think about the person (sometimes a friend) in the difficult situation of having to terminate employment because performance of the quiet quitter is no longer cutting muster. There is a better reality than dreading your job.

The question is "move on" to what?

First, think about your passions. What gets you excited to get out of bed in the morning? What do you dream about doing someday? A friend went to college with the plan to go on to law school. In her senior year, she was no longer interested in a career in law. But what was she going to do?

At this time in her life, she was going to a yoga class every morning at 5:30 - talk about commitment and passion for a senior in college. She didn't think she could make a career in yoga, but became a yoga teacher to test it out. She went on to make 50 short 8-minute yoga videos for her own mobile app. She became Agile Certified and took a 3-month intensive program to learn how to program mobile apps, to help her yoga business. She sold the yoga mobile app and parlayed her experience into a senior engineering management position for a large media enterprise.

You don't have to stay in a job where quiet quitting is the end game. I have experienced this myself. The signs are often clear when it's time to move on - even when the decision is difficult. An untenable employment scene was what motivated me to start Cheetah Learning. The path to self-employment is certainly not easy. I prefer the challenges and rewards of uncertainty. It keeps me on my toes, and I'm far more productive, invigorated, engaged, and enthusiastic.

The person you need to create more value, faster for, is first and foremost - YOURSELF!

From a Cheetah Agile Certified Student - "Being part of your beta group for the Cheetah Agile Certified program back in September 2021 gave me a hunch that improving my project-completion speed would benefit my career. But I was surprised to find out that it was also an immense help in my private life. As part of the class demonstration project, I took on a personally meaningful task - preparing an estate sale - something I had been putting off. Thanks to my diligence during the course, we discovered an additional $450,000 worth of assets in the estate!"

John W, PMP, CAC

Chief Cheetah Insights
By Michelle LaBrosse, PMP, CCL, CAC, PMI-ACP, RYT
Lately, I've been extolling the virtues of Project Management to the C-Level Suite in a variety of Health Care Operations. Leaders play a crucial role in selecting the right projects for their organizations. They are also responsible for ensuring the support and governance are in place for doing those projects right. Certified Cheetah Leaders play an important transitionary role between the strategic focus of the executive level and the operational focus of project managers. When you want to create better results, faster, you need both good leaders and good project managers. Read More Here...

Cheetah Referrals

"There will be a global need for 25 million new project management professionals (PMPs) by 2030. The Project Management Institute warned the gap could result in a possible loss of up to USD$345.5 billion in global GDP." Read More

The power of the Cheetah community is strong and successful students routinely refer others to Cheetah programs. Together, we can answer this challenge by encouraging more people we know to become PMP certified.

We recently updated the Cheetah Referral program to better appreciate the effort it takes to refer people to Cheetah. See the Press Release

There are two easy ways to access the referral program:

1. From the front page - the image just like the one above is on the upper left of the page. Click on this and it brings you to the referral program.

2. From within your Cheetah Account - click on the Referral tab on the top list of tabs. You can also track how many Cheetah Points you have earned.

Find out More

FYI - The PMP® Exam is No Longer Based on the PMBOK®

Since the PMP exam changed Jan, 2021, pulling questions from over 200 references, we created our own Cheetah Pedia for Project Managers that synthesizes these references. The Cheetah Pedia uses proven accelerated learning design to make the material "stick" much better. The results speak for themselves. Cheetah students take the actual PMP® exam the day after their class ends to validate they have mastered Accelerated Learning.

We just had another 100% pass with a Cheetah Exam Prep Class. The majority of students passed the actual PMP® exam on Friday, the day after their class ended. Several waited until the following week to test and one had a technical glitch and just took the test again (at no cost) on Friday and passed.

We have hundreds of reviews from successful Cheetah Students on Cheetah's Trust Pilot Sit.

See the Reviews

Certified Cheetah Leaders Make a
Big Impact

Many people who become PMP certified, advance in their careers. Most Cheetah's aspire to advance into leadership positions. One recent Cheetah Leadership candidate said the reason they wanted to advance into a higher level leadership position was: "to get out of the weeds of day to day fire fighting." Cheetah Leadership helps PMPs move up the corporate ladder, Cheetah FAST.

We recently though had a student, already in the exec ranks take the Cheetah Leadership Program. When asked what they got from the program they said: "A number of PMPs report to me and I wanted to learn more project management skills. I figured a company like Cheetah had to have a strong Project Management component to their leadership program. I feel like I can better communicate with my team now."

By Becoming Certified Cheetah Leaders, students elevate others in the pursuit of creating more value faster. Rising quickly up the corporate ladder is the byproduct of excellent leadership.

Find out More