“Often people attempt to live their lives backwards, they try to have more things or more money in order to do more of what they want so that they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are then do what you need to do in order to have what you want. ”
― Margaret Young
Career choices …
People are desiring to look for a new job. A recent survey by Right Management indicates that many people are dissatisfied with the work they are doing right now. This means there is the potential for a substantial shift in what and where people work. While the sample size is relatively small it indicates that the work and amount of work that people have to do are not matching up with what employers want their employees to do.
Are you one of the many who are polishing up their resume and checking out the want ads for a new position?
If you are you might want to look all around you for ways to make that career transition work for you.
1. Search for your name on Google. What shows up? What is your on-line reputation? Will those who are looking for you find the “right” you on-line. What does your Facebook account contain? What do you tweet? What does your linkedIn profile say about you? Know what your on-line presence is and know how others see you.
2. Understand “who” you are. If the job you are in right now isn’t working for your skills and needs aren’t being satisfied by the work you are doing. Know who you are before you start your job search. This is a dig deep process into who you are. Take the time to know your strengths, talents and abilities before you touch up your resume and look for work that you are doing today. Doing the same work in a different location may not be the best thing for you.
3. Create a strategy. Have a plan. Know what you want before you start looking for a new job. Once you have a clear idea of what you want to do, research job positions that align with your purpose. What skills are required? What training is needed? If you need to develop skills make that part of your plan to get the skills needed to transfer to a new role or career.
4. Tune your resume to match the job you are looking for. Often people take adjust their work to match who they are. That is even given a role with a certain set of expectations they will slowly change the job to match who they are, and do what they like rather than do what is expected. If you find yourself changing what your role is in your job then you might be in the wrong job. Do what you like doing and find the job that allows you to do that. Fighting your way through each day is an indication that you may not fit the job you were hired to do.
5. Adjust. Looking for a new job is one of adjustments and tuning. Be willing to make small changes in your resume to match job descriptions and needs. Be willing to adjust where you are looking and how you are looking. Find out what is getting you results and what isn’t.
“Your life has an inner purpose and an outer purpose. Inner purpose concerns Being and is primary. Outer purpose concerns doing and it is secondary. Your inner purpose is to awaken. It is as simple as that. You share that purpose with every other person on the planet – because it is the purpose of humanity. Your inner purpose is an essential part of the purpose of the whole, the universe and its emerging intelligence. Your outer purpose can change over time. It varies greatly from person to person. Finding and living in alignment with the inner purpose is the foundation for fulfilling your outer purpose. It is the basis for true success. Without that alignment, you can still achieve certain things through effort, struggle, determination, and sheer hard work or cunning. But there is no joy in such endeavor, and it invariably ends in some form of suffering.” Eckhart Tolle
As a coach who works a wide variety of people it is important that the client knows “who” they are. In many cases they have an idea of who they are that has been shaped by external influences and over time their belief about “who” they are is merely a mask of their real self. People take assessments to help define better who they are (MBTI, DISC, …) and while those assessments provide value they are often reflections of what other people have declared them to be. Even 360 degree assessment fail to provide the truth about “who” a person really is.
What happens when people don’t know “who” they are is that they fight against themselves in many cases in terms of career choice, conflicts, learning styles, and working with others. If people knew “who” they were naturally they would experience greater career, relational, and personal success and fulfillment. The very things people are looking for are obscured by not knowing who they are.
Jim Collins the author of “Good to Great” writes, “You can’t manufacture passion or “motivate” people to feel passionate. You can only discover what ignites your passion and the passions of those around you.” Research indicates that only about 28% of people in their work love what they do. That means that 72% of the workforce is doing work they don’t really like to do. Companies spend billions of dollars training and trying to get people to fit their roles and can’t. When people are not in alignment with “who” they are and what they do they will attempt to mold the job to their core values and ultimately the both the employee and organization suffer.
For organizations getting the right people in the right seat would make a huge contribution to the bottom line and increase employee satisfaction. Imagine if you knew what your core values were so that you could find a job that aligns with your strengths and abilities. Taylor Protocols is one such company that knows how to get the right people in the right seat. Their “Core Value Index” reliably shows what matters most to people and when they know their core values they are able to:
1. Find out what career is a good fit.
2. Find out how to manage conflict.
3. Find out what creates conflict in their life.
4. Find out their best learning style.
5. Find out how they can make their biggest contribution.
When people are in alignment with “who” they are their level of fulfillment increases, their productivity increase and life gets better. That is what many people want, a better life and yet they struggle with daily fighting against “who” they truly are. The CVI is something that can be purchased and the results can be used to fashion a purpose filled life. It is worth the few dollars to find out what really works in your life. It is far cheaper than therapy or counseling that often takes place after one has fought against their natural values for years.
Do you know “who” you are? Are you living with your “values” or against them?
“To have a great purpose to work for, a purpose larger than ourselves, is one of the secrets of making life significant, for then the meaning and worth of the individual overflow his personal borders and survive his death.” Will Durant
Work … what is it? Why do you do it? Why do so many people hate the work they are doing?
1. Physical or mental effort or activity directed toward the production or accomplishment of something.
So, why do so many people disengage in the work they are doing? What would allow you to engage in work in a way that you were able to produce positive results and enjoy it?
George Bernard Shaw the renowned poet opined that life has a special meaning and that is to say, “This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one.” Not that many people say that their life is filling a purpose never mind a mighty one.
As a coach I come across many people who are less than satisfied with the work they do. For some people their work has resulted in depression. The work is so unsatisfying that they can’t do their work. They feel trapped in doing work that is meaningless because of some benefit that their employer offers that they feel unsure that they can get somewhere else. Who am I to get a better job some think. Asked what their purpose statement is and most people can’t think of one and it is no wonder that they are stuck doing work that doesn’t agree with them. They don’t know how to align their purpose, their gifts, their strengths and their talents with the work they do.
When we are able to use our natural talents and are able to express those talents in the engagement of work we become more productive. When we know what we love to do and are able to do what we love we are happier. It seems to make sense yet close to 80% of people are doing work they don’t like. Perhaps it is possible to say that most work isn’t enjoyable and that something has to be done to make money (earning a living is still important) to live on.
Read what Jim Collins wrote about having the right people in the right job doing the work that they love to do.
Disciplined people: “Who” before “what”
“You are a bus driver. The bus, your company, is at a standstill, and it’s your job to get it going. You have to decide where you’re going, how you’re going to get there, and who’s going with you.
Most people assume that great bus drivers (read: business leaders) immediately start the journey by announcing to the people on the bus where they’re going—by setting a new direction or by articulating a fresh corporate vision.
In fact, leaders of companies that go from good to great start not with “where” but with “who.” They start by getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats. And they stick with that discipline—first the people, then the direction—no matter how dire the circumstances. Take David Maxwell’s bus ride. When he became CEO of Fannie Mae in 1981, the company was losing $1 million every business day, with $56 billion worth of mortgage loans underwater. The board desperately wanted to know what Maxwell was going to do to rescue the company.
Maxwell responded to the “what” question the same way that all good-to-great leaders do: He told them, That’s the wrong first question. To decide where to drive the bus before you have the right people on the bus, and the wrong people off the bus, is absolutely the wrong approach.
Maxwell told his management team that there would only be seats on the bus for A-level people who were willing to put out A-plus effort. He interviewed every member of the team. He told them all the same thing: It was going to be a tough ride, a very demanding trip. If they didn’t want to go, fine; just say so. Now’s the time to get off the bus, he said. No questions asked, no recriminations. In all, 14 of 26 executives got off the bus. They were replaced by some of the best, smartest, and hardest-working executives in the world of finance.
With the right people on the bus, in the right seats, Maxwell then turned his full attention to the “what” question. He and his team took Fannie Mae from losing $1 million a day at the start of his tenure to earning $4 million a day at the end. Even after Maxwell left in 1991, his great team continued to drive the flywheel—turn upon turn—and Fannie Mae generated cumulative stock returns nearly eight times better than the general market from 1984 to 1999.
When it comes to getting started, good-to-great leaders understand three simple truths. First, if you begin with “who,” you can more easily adapt to a fast-changing world. If people get on your bus because of where they think it’s going, you’ll be in trouble when you get 10 miles down the road and discover that you need to change direction because the world has changed. But if people board the bus principally because of all the other great people on the bus, you’ll be much faster and smarter in responding to changing conditions. Second, if you have the right people on your bus, you don’t need to worry about motivating them. The right people are self-motivated: Nothing beats being part of a team that is expected to produce great results. And third, if you have the wrong people on the bus, nothing else matters. You may be headed in the right direction, but you still won’t achieve greatness. Great vision with mediocre people still produces mediocre results.”
There is a company that know how to get the right people in the right seats on the bus. Taylor Protocols can do the type of individual analysis to see if the seats on the bus have the right people on it. It makes sense to have the right people engaged in the work they do. Imagine what would be possible if everyone was able to be engaged in their work. It is currently estimated that organizational output is only at 33% and that means hiring more people to get work done that could be done with fewer people if they were fully engaged in their work.
Shawn Achor has been doing research on happiness, and positive psychology and asking some great questions and getting real answers. Happy people perform better on the job and in the job.
Take a few minutes and listen to the arguments Shawn puts forth.
Now, what are you going to do? Are you going to continue to work at things you don’t enjoy? Are you going to stay stuck in a job that you wish would go away?
Take a few steps and identify what would be better for you.
1. Define your purpose
2. Define your strengths
3. Define your natural talents
4. Create a plan so that your work or your new work, works for you.
William Dubois put down his thoughts like this, “The return from your work must be the satisfaction which that work bring you and the world’s need of that work. With this, life is heaven, or as near heaven as you can get. Without this – with work which you despise, which bores you, and which the world does not need – this life is hell.”
What do you want to do? Work in heaven or work in hell. Most people have chosen to work in hell. Where do you want to work?
“A society in which vocation and job are separated for most people gradually creates an economy that is often devoid of spirit, one that frequently fills our pocketbooks at the cost of emptying our souls.” - Sam Keen
Vocation means “calling”, a call to do something with your life. Now, what most of us do is get a job and work at that job for a number of years. The job becomes a means to an end, a way to pay for the things we want and for many people something rather meaningless. At some point it becomes clear that the work you are doing has no connection to your strengths or desires.
Laurence Boldt the author of “How to find the work you Love” points out the fact that it is more important to do work that matters rather than doing work for the sake of work. For the “boomers” work held the notion that you committed yourself to an organization and the organization provided long-term employment for that commitment. In the 90′s that changed and many “boomers” found themselves being laid off from work they did out of routine more than out of personal purpose. Technology shifted the domain of work from hands to head. Those who were in jobs that were manual in nature found that those jobs were easily exported overseas where the cost of labor was less expensive.
The newer generations know that organizations won’t commit themselves to their employees so they have become much more mobile and shift jobs more often.
Still there is an issue. Do you work for money or do you work because the work you are doing has meaning for you? Does the work you do involve the use of your strengths and creative talents? If it doesn’t the connection to the work you do will be small. Most people start their careers with hope and a lot of energy. If that work doesn’t match who they are then it will take more energy from the individual than they can manufacture and it will result in diminished results over time. We can’t continually do work that has low or no meaning as it takes more energy than we can supply. You’ve seen people who have become tired of the work they are doing. They have lost passion, the energy, the desire and the reason to come to work excited. There is nothing there for them and yet they continue to come to work and they do it because they feel that is the only way for them to make money.
Laurence Boldt claims that “doing the work you love means living your philosophy”. It means that if you are able to do what you love you will be in alignment with your values and that will lead to happiness. If you are living for the weekends then it is likely you are not doing the work that is meaningful for you.
How do you get out of the trap?
1. Define who you are.
2. Find out what your strengths are.
3. Find out what you value. What do you want to contribute?
4. Create a plan that will allow you to do work that matters to you.
5. Execute the plan.
Monty Python takes a unique look at vocations. Through the unique lens of humor we can see that many people are trapped in careers that provide no meaning or joy.
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Are you doing the best thing for you and your life?
