The Last Career Guide You Will Ever Need

Daniel Pink, author of “A Whole New Mind”, wrote this fabulous little book, “The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need”. It’s a quick read, practically like reading a comic book! It’s written in the Japanese comic format known as manga. Packed with practical, cut-to-the-chase advice with six essential lessons for thriving in the world of work, I highly recommend it.


Here’s the skinny, in case you want it straight up, like I usually do:

1. There is no plan. Most people think it’s so important to plan out your career for years out, like a life map. The world of work changes. Your job might not even exist 5 years from now. New jobs will appear. Instead, make decisions for fundamental reasons: take a job or join a company because it will let you do interesting work in a cool place, even if you don’t know exactly where it will lead.

2. Think strengths, not weaknesses. I definitely promote this approach. Buckingham and Seligman’s research about discovering your strengths show that the key to success if to steer around your weaknesses and focus on your strengths. Successful people don’t try too hard to improve what they’re bad at. They capitalize on what they’re good at. That’s good news – if you follow this advice, you’ll be involved in work that gives you energy instead of draining it.

3. It’s not about you. Your work is about your customer, about your clients. Using your strengths is not to self-actualize. Your work is to serve. Help customers solve their problem. Give your client something she doesn’t know she’s missing. Have an outward view, not inward. The most valuable people in any job bring out the best in others. Make your boss look good. Help your team members succeed.

4. Persistence trumps talent. Like athletes and musicians, successful people show up, they practice and practice and practice some more, and do well in whatever career they choose. Like compound interest, a bit of persistence builds on itself. Over time, a little bit of persistence improve performance, which encourages greater persistence, which improves performance even more, and so on. Talent isn’t so important; the world is littered with talented people who didn’t persist, who didn’t put in the hours, who gave up too early. Meanwhile less talented people who persist pass them by. That’s why intrinsic motivation is so important – doing something because you simply like doing it, rather than needing to get an external reward like money or a promotion. The more intrinsic motivation you have, the more likely you are to persist. The more you persist, the more you are likely to succeed.

5. Make excellent mistakes. Too many people spend time avoiding mistakes. They’re so concerned about being wrong, about messing up, that they never try anything – which means they never do anything. Their focus is avoiding failure. The most successful people make spectacular mistakes – huge honking screwups! They’re trying to do something big, and each time they make a mistake, they get a little better and move a little closer towards excellence. Excellent mistakes are those that come from having high aspirations, from trying to do something nobody else has done, rather than stupid, thoughtless blunders.

6. Leave an imprint. When you get towards the end of your life, you’ll ask yourself questions like: Did I make a difference? Did I contribute something? Did my being here matter? Did I do something that left an imprint? Before it’s too late, ask yourself those questions now. Think about your purpose, recognize that your life isn’t infinite, and use your limited time here to do something that matters. Truly successful people deploy the other 5 lessons in the service of something larger than themselves. They leave their companies, their communities, their families a little better than before. This is what it means to be alive.



What are your strengths? How are you expressing your strengths at work?

How persistent are you? How can you build your persistence ‘muscle’?

What are you working to contribute? What really matters?

5 Steps To Set Clear Expectations

Why is setting expectations important?  If your staff know what is expected of them, it allows them to focus on results and to monitor themselves against the set standards.  Environments in which expectations are not clear, or change from week to week, seldom create high-performing work groups.


The following are five steps to use to set and communicate clear expectations:

1) Focus on Outcomes; 2) Define Roles; 3) Monitor; 4) Provide Feedback; and 5) Reinforce.

1. Focus on Outcomes.  Expectations should focus on outcomes, not activities. In other words, you achieve clarity when you identify the expected results rather than the method for achieving them. Managers often make the mistake of attempting to direct the process that staff will use rather than being clear about results.

Defining the objective often requires some thought on the part of the manager because it is easy to fall into the "activities trap".

2. Define Roles. Clearly outlining and explaining the role of each team member, including key job responsibilities, is necessary at the outset. When setting expectations for staff, it is important to define your own role as a leader as well. Explicitly state that you expect to be a resource, if you want them to know that you are available to assist with problems.
 
3. Monitor. Monitoring is the follow-up that the manager provides after expectations have been set. It can take many forms, from a formal status-review meeting to a casual conversation in the hallway. Regardless of the form, monitoring is the component that indicates that the project or assignment is important to you as a manager and that you are interested in its outcome. It enables you to assess the progress and assist if unexpected roadblocks emerge.

4. Feedback.  Feedback is the process of communicating what is working well and what needs improvement. Focus on progress, any course corrections that may be required, and the subordinate's view of the project. It is key to allow employees to debrief their experience. As the leader, you will be in a better position to evaluate not only their progress, but also what future responsibilities they may be able to undertake.

5. Reinforcement.  Rewards or consequences come into play to provide either positive or negative reinforcement.

Certainly, you want to reward a positive outcome. Rewards can take a number of forms, but regardless of the type, they should be timely, specific, and relevant to the employee. Consequences also should be timely and specific while focusing on how the employee can improve performance.

While giving negative feedback often is uncomfortable for many managers, on-the-job behavior is shaped by both circumstances and consequences. If there is no downside to poor performance, it is difficult for managers to raise the performance bar for any of their staff.

Work That Matters

Michael Bungay Stanier, who wrote the book, Do More Great Work: Stop the Busywork. Start the Work that Matters., believes that all work falls in one of three buckets:

1. Bad Work consumes time and energy, and makes no difference.
2. Good Work that you do most of the time, and do it well.  The problem -- it's endless, and it's comfortable, which keeps you spinning your wheels in routine and busyness, as you just get through each week.
3. Great Work is meaningful, challenging, lights you up and matters to you. 

What kind of work are you doing, most of the time? 

If you're like most people, on average, you're doing Bad Work 0-40% of the time, 40-80% of your time doing Good Work, and 0-25% on Great Work.

Check out this YouTube video for a quick overview.

How can you do more Great Work?  Here are three tips that I believe in and fully endorse:

• Create Projects.  See all great work as projects.  Abandon your job description and focus on creating projects where you are focusing on your best work.
• Define 3 Things Daily.  Define three high-impact actions you will take each day, and focus on them. Having a long "To-Do" list completed daily isn't effective if you haven't accomplished what matters most. At the very least, define one thing that you really will do. The other two can be gravy, bonus tasks that you'll be happy if you get to them and if you don’t, you won’t beat yourself up about it.
• Create Great Work Space. Great Work requires a different type of thinking, so create a different kind of space for it. The space can be a coffee shop, a meeting room, another office space, the cafeteria, a library. Find another space to do your Great Work.  Changing the context will change the way you work.

I'll be interested to hear about your success doing more Great Work!

Talent Hunt-Getting it Right

Recruiting and getting the right "talent" in organizations is one of the most important leadership abilities.  Whether the buzzword is "talent management" or "human resources", it all comes down to having the right people.

A recent post in Workopolis blog "New Rules for the Talent Hunt" highlighted how the job market is changing, with tips for recruiters and candidates.  From this post, I found 3 key components that I feel are really critical to be aware of, when you are a leader searching for the right people:

a. Hire a person, not a resume.  Spend time getting to know people in interviews: who they are, how they will contribute, and how well they will fit into your organization.

b. Getting it wrong can be costly. "Hiring the wrong person will cost you 2.5 times that person’s salary."* Getting it right is worth the reward of the time you invest in really getting to know people in interviews.

c. Fulfillment is the new corner office. Employee happiness (and productivity) is a result of fulfillment on the job. Engaged employees achieve more. Beyond hiring the right people, invest in keeping each person engaged and thus, achieving results on the job. Find out what is important to each person individually, to maintain fulfillment in his/her career.

* Source: Society of HR Management 2007

Right Livelihood

Buddhists have a view of work as "Right Livelihood".

"According to the ancient scripture, the Dhammapada, Right Livelihood is said to be 'in tune with increasing helpfulness for beings and decreasing harmfulness.'" - from Awakenening the Buddha Within, by Lama Surya Das.

My purpose through my work is to help make workplaces more humane.  I accomplish this in two ways. Through career coaching, I help people find careers that really fit for them, where they can put their strengths to work. Through leadership coaching, I help leaders develop their people-leadership skills, to become appreciative of other's perspectives and strengths, and to deal with others in respectful and humane ways, while accomplishing results together.

When people find work that fits for them, and when leaders evolve their people-leadership skills, it creates a positive ripple effect throughout workplaces.  Unfortunately many people are in careers that don't fit for them, where it is a struggle for them to go into work everyday.  There are also many people who suffer the ill effects of having a "bad boss" who creates a negative ripple effect, which goes beyond workplaces to negatively affect others at home and in the world at large.

Right Livelihood asks us to love our world through our work, instructing us to avoid vocations that harm others.  How do you measure up against this standard?

Are you in a job that doesn't fit for you?

Are you a leader struggling with stresses that cause you to forget about how you are treating your people? 

Have you found your Right Livelihood?

Talent Retention - How to Keep Your Star Performers

Harvard Business Review has awesome Management Tips of the Day; today's tip is about keeping "Star Performers":

"With unemployment rates so high, you may think that your employees have no option but to stay with your company. That is a dangerous assumption. As we move into recovery, employees — especially star performers — are likely to start weighing their options. Use these four tools to keep your stars where they are:

• Praise. It is the most inexpensive and underutilized tool out there. When your stars do something right, say thank you.

• Challenging assignments. Give your top performers the opportunity to work on new projects that build their skills and give them a chance to shine.

• Development opportunities. Find inexpensive ways to deepen your stars' skills such as providing mentors or opportunities to teach others.

• Non-monetary perks. Most top performers crave things that are intangible and easy to provide, such as flexibility, better work/life balance, or more autonomy."

- from "4 Tools to Keep Star Performers During Tough Times", HBR Management Tip of the Day

Your role as a manager is to figure out which of those benefits matter most to your people.  Money isn't your only tool to motivate your employees.  I coach many leaders who view monetary compensation secondary to other forms of compensation.  Fresh challenges, opportunities to develop and grow, and recognition are often valued more by Star Performers.

Coaching Challenge:  Find out what matters most to your Star Performer(s) today by taking time to have a conversation, and show that you value them.

How to Choose Engaged Team Members

As a leader, you may often wonder how to make a decision between two capable employees about which one to hire or retain.

 

I have a racing sailing team and my criteria for selecting those team members is the same as the criteria I have used for hiring (and firing) employees. Here are 3 key characteristics to look for when assessing who you want to have on your team:

1. Commitment. People who are truly committed are consistently present and engaged. They show up fully. They have their heads in the game 100%. You can sense when people are truly dedicated in this way; and, on the flipside, when they are not. Trust your intuition in assessing someone’s level of engagement.

2. Fit. People with complementary strengths form the best team, and may provide a healthy source of conflict. Rather than a homogeneous group of people, having differing opinions and attitudes will create a stronger contribution to the whole. At the same time, you want team members who play well together, to minimize the destructive potential of conflict. Also:

• Consider culture (the way we work around here) and values (what’s really important to us) and how your team member will fit in within that framework.
• Assess the individual’s personality and how well it fits the job.

3. Skill and Aptitude. Of course, you want people who have the ability to do their job. Although, I have engaged team members who did not have 100% of the requirements for the job, but had the aptitude and desire to learn and bridge the gaps. As long as you sense a good fit and high level of commitment, know that attitude and personality often weigh more in the long term since these attributes are inherent in individuals and not learned traits.

• Wouldn’t it be preferable to have someone who shows up consistently, plays well with others and is growing into their role, than someone who is capable of doing the job but is consistently absent and is destructively confrontational with others?

When I am choosing a team member for my sailing team, I assess the racers with these 3 attributes. Commitment and fit are as important as skill and aptitude. Whether you are selecting a new team member, a new board member, or making a difficult decision to let someone go, consider these 3 attributes to assist your decision making.

How do you assess these 3 characteristics? Communication, through active listening, questioning, while focusing on understanding others and always, always, maintaining respect.

5 Tips for Working Successfully in a Group

In Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture", he shared some valuable advice for working well with other people in a group:


Find things you have in common. You can almost always find something in common with another person, and from there, it's much easier to address issues where you have differences.  Sports cut across boundaries of race and wealth. And if nothing else, we all have the weather in common.

Try for optimal meeting conditions. Make sure no one is hungry, cold or tired.  Meet over a meal if you can; food softens a meeting.  That's why they "do lunch" in Hollywood.

Let everyone talk. Don't finish someone's sentences.  And talking louder or faster doesn't make your ideas any better.

Check egos at the door. When you discuss ideas, label them and write them down.  The label should be descriptive of the idea, not the originator: "the bridge story" not "Jane's story."

Praise each other. Find something nice to say, even if it's a stretch.  The worst ideas can have silver linings if you look hard enough. (A related piece of advice: Look for the best in everybody. If you wait long enough, people will surprise and impress you.)

Phrase alternatives as questions. Instead of "I think we should do A, not B," try "What if we did A, instead of B?" That allows people to offer comments rather than defend one choice.

Greatest Strength as Greatest Weakness

Working with career professionals who are engaged in career searches, I often hear that the most dreaded job interview question is: "What is your greatest strength?" followed by the inevitable "What is your greatest weakness?"

Through the coaching process, my clients become quite clear on their strengths, and can confidently answer the "greatest strength" question.  It's interesting how many realize that their greatest strength is, also, their greatest weakness.

For instance, someone who is a detail-oriented perfectionist, has strengths in her attention to detail, thoroughness, and organizational abilities. On the flipside, her attention to detail can become a weakness when she spends too much time on the details, and doesn't produce results.

Someone who, like me, is results-oriented, has strengths in her ability to produce, fast. Remember the adage, when you want something done, give it to a busy person? The downside comes in when she realizes she consistently takes on too much, for her own good. Or, when she powers through projects without attending to details or the big picture.

Someone who, like me, is able to see both sides of a situation, has strengths in her ability to provide objective feedback and a different perspective. The flipside is that she can often be wishy-washy and indecisive.

Awareness is the precursor to choice. Being aware of our strengths can lead to clarity about our weaknesses, and with this awareness, we can choose to balance our approach. 

Coaching Challenge:

Consider asking the greatest strength and greatest weakness questions of your staff, in your next one-on-one meeting, or in a performance appraisal. Greatest strengths and greatest weaknesses can coincide. Instead of focusing on the weakness, see how you can turn it around to see the strength, and harness it for greater results.

3 Success Tips to Stay On Track

I read an article about attaining career New Year Resolutions, related to the recent theme in the Lounge -- taking consistent action towards your outcomes gets results. The advice is to:

“make goals you wish to achieve by the end of the year and strategize the steps you'll need to take in order to get there. Instead of squeezing yourself to 'resolve' things quickly, spread out the commitments and proceed at a manageable pace, with benchmarks to understand and celebrate your progress. Steady progress is made and the stated goal has an excellent chance to be achieved."

I particularly like the following 3 success tips to stay on track in the New Year:

1. Eat the frog! "Mark Twain said if you eat a frog first thing in the morning that will probably be the worst thing you do all day. So, start your day by tackling an important task, especially if it is a task you aren't crazy about."

2. Concrastinate. "If procrastinating means putting things off, concrastinate should be doing things immediately. Work in 15 minute increments. If there is a task you don't like, set a timer and do it for 15 minutes. At the end of 15 minutes, you will be amazed at how much you've accomplished. At that point, either stop or if you have built up some momentum, keep going."

5. Plan it. "A few minutes of planning can save you hours of time. Either first thing in the morning or at the end of the day, take a few minutes to plan. It doesn't have to be a long formal process, just jot down the things you want to do that day (or the next if you do this at the end of the day)."

How have you experienced these success tips in action? Post your comments and share your success.

Measuring Relevant Results to Achieve Outcomes

Reviewing my results from 2009 resulted in an awakening to the fact that what I was measuring was not relevant to my desired outcomes. In one instance, I was measuring the action steps I committed to take to further my progress towards an outcome. However, I was not relating the progress to the overall desired outcome to see if it was actually working.
“Unless you measure your results you don’t know if or how it’s working.”

– from “Coach breaks through barriers”, by Rich Spence, Financial Post

It’s what you do with the measures that is important.

In retrospect, if I had a checkpoint to see how my action was contributing towards the results I wanted to see, I could assess how it was working. If I had refined my action plan, to take additional action steps consistent with my desired outcome, I would have had a better chance of getting the results I intended.

I have now applied this learning and put more thought and effort into defining my 2010 desired outcomes, with relevant measures of success. My intention is to take action steps aligned with my desired outcome, measure my progress towards them; then assess what’s working, and decide how I can align further action steps to be consistent with my desired outcomes, to get results.

Coaching Challenge: 

What results do you want to realize in the year 2010? How will you know you’re making measurable and relevant progress? Personal accountability strengthens when you share your commitment wtih an accountability partner. Share your 2010 commitments by sending me an e-mail to Sylvia at SylviaGoodeve dot com.