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?

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?

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.

Weekly 1 Hour Time-Outs for Leaders

Check out this advice from the Behavioural Coaching Institute:

"All leaders, especially today, need to develop the discipline to engage in a weekly 1 hour time-out meeting with themselves and a leadership/executive coach.

With leaders dealing with all kinds of internal and external challenges, many consider themselves too time poor to stand back and consider today's serious issues deeply and to honestly appraise their leadership. Yes, leaders find this difficult and many also claim any time spent on such reflection is a luxury that they cannot afford. However, this is a huge mistake if they take this posture. These leaders are failing themselves, their teams and their organizations.

The invaluable 'time out' from their 'game time' should be used with their coach to reflect upon their actions, what they have learned, what they have not been doing, what more they could do and how they can achieve that end."

Carving out an hour each week to reflect, refocus and re-engage is a discipline I know works, from personal experience.  When I take the time for it.  Whether it is with a professional mentor coach, or when I self-coach. What works for me is to use an hour at the end of each week, to reflect on what has worked for the last week, and plan where to focus my efforts for the next week.  With time-outs, I am much more productive and focusing on what really matters.

Coaching Challenge: What "time-out" discipline will help you become a better leader?

Welcome to the Lounge!

Visit here often to learn about:

• leadership tips;
• career development tips;
• coaching challenges;
• recommended tools and techniques;
• brief synopses of recommended resources like articles, books, and websites.

I love feedback, so do let me know what you appreciate, what impacts you, and any suggestions for improvement.


Post your musings. Ask questions. Hang out and enjoy.


Cheers,
Sylvia