Where Do I Fit? Part 3

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Today I am sharing two final job search myths with you. Refer to the previous two blog entries (1, 2) for Myths 1 – 3, and for further discussion on this topic. Again, this perspective comes to us from Po Bronson’s article in Fast Company, titled “What Should I do With My Life Now?”:

Myth #4: There Is One Perfect Thing Each Of Us Is Meant To Do On This Planet:

“Give me a break. Where’d that myth come from? If someone repeats it, throw a glass of water on them. For each of us, there are dozens, hundreds of careers, any one of which could provide you a sense of meaning and goodness. You don’t have to find ‘The One,’ you just have to find any one. The biggest mistake is being seduced by the myth that you’re looking for the right answer, as if there is only one answer. It’s just so damn easy to look upon someone else and jealously think, ‘Wow, he sure got lucky.’ Real people did not have great opportunities fall in their lap. Mostly, crappy opportunities come along, and in the meantime, you make the best of them. But that skill and habit, of making the best of your situation, is essential training. Because one day, a good opportunity will come along. And if you make the best of it—if you’re good at making the best of things – you will turn it into a great situation. A “calling” is not something you know, the moment you see it. For real people, in the real world, a sense of “calling” is something you grow into, over the course of your life, by having an impact on your organization and the community around you. In this way, it provides a sense of belonging and relevance. Or in the terminology of engineers, one enters a phase of ‘positive feedback experience’ that makes you feel good about being where you are.”

Myth #5: You Don’t Know What You Want:

“Don’t tell me you don’t know what you want. Of course you know what you want: fulfillment, connection, responsibility … and some excitement. The real problem is figuring out how to find a path that doesn’t suffocate those natural feelings in you. Which is hard. Of course it’s hard. It’s supposed to be hard. If it weren’t hard, you wouldn’t learn anything along the way.

If you don’t know how to make the best of a bad situation, you will never get there. If you are not willing to put up with some shit work, you will never recognize that a good opportunity is staring you in the face. If you are not willing to be humble and repeatedly be a beginner in new areas and learn the details faster than the next guy, you are not capable of transformation. Only by embracing these realities will you be able to answer the question ‘What should I do with my life now?’ ”

If you have responsibilities coaching people, write these down, and help lead people back to reality. During these down times, people need reality coaching more than ever…

Where Do I Fit? – Part 2

Monday, April 20, 2009

On Friday, I shared the first of a few myths around job search, quoted from articles by famous author, Po Bronson. Here are two more for you to ponder, along with some some thoughts of my own:

Myth 3: Your Dream Job Has No Sucky Parts:

“I call this the Fallacy of Intrinsic Fit. There’s this notion that you should love the mere act of what you do so much that just by virtue of it being Monday morning and you’re at work, neurotransmitters of joy will drip on your brain all day. That is not how real people do it. All jobs have things you hate about them. But real people feel fulfilled enough by the overall purpose that the crummy parts are worth it.”

I’m in agreement with most of what Bronson has to say here. Where I differ is that I feel he makes the assumption that the overall purpose is evident in every job. This is a stretch to say the least. Both the employer and employee need to know what the greater purpose is, and why their “sucky work” will help them achieve something great.

Myth 4: You’ll Love The Job For The Job:

“There’s an old parable about the three bricklayers who are working all morning. When they get a break, one guy asks the other two, ‘Why are you doing this job?’ The first guy says, ‘I’m doing it for the wages.’ The second guy says, ‘I’m doing it for my wife and kids.’ The third guy looks up at what they’ve been building — a church, a place to get in touch with one’s highest self — and says, ‘I’m helping to build a cathedral.’ Most people hear this parable, and they think the third guy has the right answer. But that is not the lesson of the parable. All three men have a sense of purpose — a ‘cathedral,’ if you will, whether it be spirituality or family or self-sufficiency. They’re all good. They’re all ‘right’ answers. The real lesson of the parable: Notice what no man answered. Not one said, ‘I just love laying bricks.’ Doing something for the sheer love of it is not what real people mean when they say their work provides a sense of purpose.”

They may all be “right answers,” but not all the answers will sustain a person’s spirit and soul for a long period of time. To sustain over time, we need to know what greater goals the person has, and what greater goals the company has.

Where Do I Fit?

Friday, April 17, 2009

Everyone wants to know where they fit in life. With work consuming 2/3 of our waking life, the million dollar question is “What job out there will give me the greatest satisfaction and provide the best fit?”

Not too long ago, there was no science of psychology. There was no consistent, accepted way to describe the various kinds of people. There was no validated way to classify and measure psychological illnesses. Only in the past eighty years has there been tangible progress in this arena, and mostly in the treatment of mental illness. We have consistently tested, annotated, characterized and treated mental illnesses with increasing success. However, if your waiting for some assessment to tell you where to concentrate your life’s work, you’ll be waiting a long time…

What I’ve just said may surprise some people, especially since we are in the business of helping companies and job seekers increase the odds of finding a good job match. But in doing what we do, we’ve found people to have several misconceptions that I have had to address over the last few years. Last month while reading Fast Company, I ran across an article that practically read my mind. Po Bronson, author of “What Should I do With My Life” had been bombarded with similar misconceptions, and addressed them in this follow-up article. This guy nailed the misconceptions so well, that I had to pass some of my favorites on to you. I’ve pieced them together from two of his articles and paraphrased his words below:

Myth #1: All It Takes is Passion

Pervasive in our society the last six years is what I call, “The Modern Dream Machine Industry.” Media companies have made a killing selling content to consumers (#1 example: The Secret) that uses the term “passion” loosely and vaguely, and makes false claims that a dream life is right around the corner if you just dust off your fantasies and pursue them. This is what I condemn as “selling transformation irresponsibly.”

I hear it all the time: “I’d love to quit my job to follow my purpose, but I’ve got responsibilities!” This artificial distinction is misleading. Your responsibilities are not keeping you from your purpose, they are part of your purpose, often the very most important part. Envisioning your responsibilities as being outside the circle of “purpose” will lead you to make bad decisions about your life.

The above is just a taste of the misconceptions Mr. Bronson discusses in his articles. Tomorrow I will share more of these career choice myths with you…

Twittcrastination

Thursday, April 16, 2009

In the last 6 months, we’ve received a lot of questions about a micro-blogging service called Twitter. If you’ve not heard of Twitter yet, I am sure you will soon.

The service is similar to social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace, except the posts are limited to 140 characters. It is estimated that Twitter now has more than five million users.

One of the big differences between Twitter and the common social networks is a powerful search engine that allows users to mine others’ postings for useful information. It takes on some Google-like characteristics in that sense. In addition, Twitter can be easily accessed on a cell phone or mobile device due to its simplicity.

We’re not quite sure how a service like Twitter could assist in recruiting and coaching. There are definitely some companies trying to figure this out (ex. www.tweetmyjob.com ). Nonetheless, there are some signs that it may play a significant role in how information is collected and used.

One of these signs is the development of a “language” around the use of the tool. Dominant companies and concepts in our culture tend to figure out a way to control the language. For example, we now “Google” something on the internet. If you need some information on a topic, you pull up Wikipedia. How many people knew what “wiki” meant before Wikipedia?

Twitter users have gone overboard on this concept. There is a whole language developing around the use of Twitter. Here is an abridged glossary found in Business Week:

At Reply, or “@reply”: A direct tweet sent to another Twitter user.
Hash Tag: The “#” sign. Allows Twitter users to group tweets by topic, making it easier to search particular conversations using Twitter Search.
Link: Including a URL in your tweet.
MisTweet: A tweet one later regrets.
ReTweet: To re-post something that’s already in the Twitter stream. Usually preceeded by “RT” and “@[username],” to give credit to the original poster.
SnapTweet: A tweet that includes a photo taken with a cell phone, uploaded to Flickr and posted to Twitter via snaptweet.com.
Twadd: To add someone as a friend or follower.
Twaigslist/Twebay: To sell something on Twitter.
Tweeter/Twitterer: Someone who uses Twitter.
TwinkedIn: Inviting friends made on Twitter to connect on LinkedIn.
Twittectomy: To remove someone from the list of people you follow.
Twitterati: The A-list twitterers everyone follows.
Twitterfly: Twitter’s version of a social butterfly, marked by the extreme use of @ signs.
Twitterlooing: Twittering from the bathroom.
Twitterpated: Overwhelmed with Twitter messages.
Twittfeinated, Twigged Out, Twired: To be so hyped up on twittering that you cannot sleep

So, are you up for the new realities of a Twitter-infested world? On the surface, it seems like Twitter is just another path to “Twittcrastination.” Perhaps I just do not understand the possibilities yet…

Do You Have a Set of Hancuffs Handy? – Part 2

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Yesterday, we discussed the idea of using self-imposed restraints to reach goals and improve performance. There was an interesting study conducted by a doctoral student at Harvard that investigated the nature of how humans tend to act in this regard:

“Katherine Milkman, a doctoral student at Harvard Business School, has studied the way customers wrestle with two kinds of products: ‘wants,’ which are things they crave in the moment, and ‘shoulds,’ which are the things they know are good for them. For instance, Milkman studied the Australian equivalent of Netflix and found that when customers rent a ‘should’ film, such as Schindler’s List, along with a ‘want’ film, such as Die Hard 3, they tend to watch (and return) the want film much faster. We aspire to be the kind of people who watch Schindler’s List, but two weeks later, it’s still sitting on top of the DVD player, unwatched, as we rotate through the entire John McClane cycle.” (Fast Company)

So, even with the best of intentions, we’ll struggle (and often fail) to do the things that are best for us. This is why some restraints are necessary.

With regard to your personal performance, start by asking yourself these questions:

Is there an activity that I could stop doing that would improve my performance?
Is there an activity that I enjoy and naturally gravitate towards doing that I could limit to improve my performance?
Are their restraints that I can put in place to keep myself from falling back into my natural tendencies?

Let me give you an example from my own life: I enjoy learning about politics and popular culture. There are a number of cable news programs that cater to this interest. A couple of years ago, I came to the conclusion that I was wasting too much time watching these programs. I learned that I could get the same amount of substance from reading a 10-minute summary of the news from the Seattle Times. So, I stopped watching cable news programs.

While this was a good start, I soon found that I needed even more restraint. I was still able to waste time, even with my conversion to the news summary. There were times when I would read five or six articles at a sitting. I would look up at the clock and notice that 45 minutes had passed. I definitely needed another restraint. I now limit myself to reading one article that catches my interest from the summary, per day.

I was successful in eliminating one activity from my daily routine. In addition, I found a way to replace it with an activity that has some natural restraints built into it (It’s a summary, rather than a whole show). Even with my scaled-down activity, I hold myself accountable to a simple rule that keeps this activity from detracting from my personal performance.

For most of us, this is hard to accomplish on our own. We need structure, accountability, and relationships to maintain our restraints. We need help recognizing where time is being wasted and how to focus our efforts on the activities that will produce the best results.

If your manager or someone else in your organization is not providing this type of accountability, it is important to understand that you’re the one being hurt most by this arrangement. Ask for some handcuffs during your next coaching session.

Do You Have a Set of Handcuffs Handy?

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

The bestselling authors of Made to Stick, Dan and Chip Heath, write a monthly column in Fast Company. This month’s column caught my attention because it is so counter-intuitive. The premise of the article is that people will pay you to restrain them.

The classic example is the purchase of a piggy bank for a child. Let’s suppose that a piggy bank can hold $25 in spare change. The purpose of the piggy bank is to prevent the child from spending the loose change until the $25 goal has been reached. The piggy bank is really a restraint system that restricts the child from giving in to short-term impulses.

Of course, it is not just kids who lack self-control. Some alcoholics are willing to consume a drug called Antabuse that makes them sick if they drink. Some people who struggle with obesity undergo gastric-bypass surgery, restricting the size of their stomach. In both cases, individuals are investing resources for the purpose of being restrained from their own behavior.

Researchers have gotten in on this as well. The article sites this example:

“In one study, students were told they had to turn in three papers by the end of the semester and were given the option to assign earlier binding due dates for the work. Almost three-quarters of them jumped at the chance, thus saving themselves from a frantic Red Bull-and-Wikipedia bender in the last week.”

How can this principle be applied to both your personal performance and the performance of those you’re required to coach and manage? Tune in tomorrow for more on this topic….