The Career Audit

Pretty soon, I will be gathering the receipts of 2010 and starting on my tax return.  Some folks dread the process, I actually enjoy looking back at my expenditures for the year and identifying places for improvement and growth.

The end of the year causes me to do the same with my life.  I break down my life into personal and professional.  I am particularly interested in my career.  I can easily fall into the trap that where I am at currently will remain the same or that I have somehow arrived at the destination.  I find that an audit of last year will help inform the next year in terms of planning.

Just like the financial statements help inform what has passed in a concrete way, your career tends to be much less concrete.  So, I am using a basic positive / negative or plus / delta.  Here are my questions:

• What is working really well? 
• What are the work activities that have given me spirit? 
• What are the work activities that have been draining?
• How would my colleagues answer those two questions?
• As I review the transcript of my mind, what am I saying to myself each and every day? Words that bring courage or words that bring anxiety?
• Did I reach my goals? Did I have any goals? 
• Where will I be in five years? Where do I want to be? 
• Does my current situation allow me to see that picture?

I have enlisted my career coach to walk me through this process to complete the audit.  Oh and by the way, no doubt I will be using my CPA this year to complete my taxes. I can only get so far on my own.

Passion

As I completed the values exercise, I pondered how I discovered that passion was on the top of my list.  I know that I am attracted to passionate people.  I know that I want and long to be person living a cause of passion. It hit me, there were two key moments in my life where a portrait of passion struck me.

The first was the antithesis of passion.  As a 7th grade boy struggling with self-esteem, I recall an angry teacher telling me that I was a loser and would not amount to anything. You never forget those words.  The second was my experience at Cathedral High School.  I was expected to become more than I thought I could ever be and I was surrounded by teachers of passion. Lisa Ford was the portrait of passion.  She expected more and believed in me.

Recently, I went back to Cathedral to honor her with a scholarship in her name and have invited others to join with me in celebrating who she is.  It is that passion, that helped form this key value in my life.

Emotional Commitment

Stan Slap provides a great illustration regarding the importance of being emotionally committed to your work.  How do you get there?  It is more than just basic management techniques, tracking performance milestones and accountability. It is bringing your values to your work place.  How do you discover your values? Well, the values exercise in the book is one of the best I have seen.  The kicker is going back into your story to see how your values were generated.  This is where it became real for me.  My story has great moments of values being unleashed and also hardship, which pushed me to have values.

My top three are accomplishment, compassion and passion.  I will share how I arrived at these and how some key life moments helped build and shape these.

Emotional commitment is critical for true work passion and for your cause to take life.

1 Year Later

I cannot believe that one year ago, I ventured off on my career exploration process.  I was determined to find a sense of "cause" about my life.  That my work and my cause would collide.  A year later I realize that you have to make the best out of your current situation.  You have to find ways to contribute your passion or cause to your work or you can easily allow situations to control you.

You also have to fight the voices in your head that are telling you that it is not worth it.  I realized again that only I can go after the cause.  It is my torch that I am carrying.  No one else can really carry what I care about.  Most of the content in my posts have come true.  You have to go to the place where you can contribute the most, that the cause is found in giving to others, that being present is a big part of this and that I can work where my true self is an outflow.

I have no regrets.  I seriously contemplating going off on my own.  I do not think I was ready for that.  I really like the situation I am in now.  As long as I am detached from the outcomes things seem to go well.  When I over own the outcomes, I get really tired.  Today, the outcome was just ok and I became discouraged.

Hyper-Motivation

I am reading the Upside of Irrationality by Dan Ariely on my Ipad.  It is more fun because it is on the Ipad, but that is not the point of this blog post.  During a week where I was feeling intense work pressure, I happened upon the chapter on hyper-motivation.  In times of intense pressure, most individuals will actual perform worst.  They are so focused on the outcome, the need to impress others and themselves that they actual psyche themselves out.

What does this mean for you and I?  Well, part of the solution is tricking your mind into believing that the pressure is really off.  Most of the time, the situation requires you to be present in the moment, not blow people away.  You may blow people away by just being yourself and engaging.  That is the internal part of this.

The other factor is that there could be externalities in your organization, which may cause you to feel over-stressed in various situations.  It could be the pay bonus is too high or a boss that says you better perform or you are out or someone below you is threatening for your position.  The solution here in my mind is to find or maintain that sense of personal cause in your work.  Your organization needs you to bring what only you can bring to the work place. YOU!

Practicing the Present

I can still see my father moving his lips without words to hear.  I would look over and say to him "Earth to dad."  He explained to me later that he was thinking about a math problem or some other type of work issue.  Two nights ago, my youngest daughter caught me talking to myself in her presence.  The key word "presence"  I was with her physically, but emotionally thinking of work.

So what does it take to be present in the moment you are in?  Obviously, this is a work in progress, but this has helped me:
1) Trusting that where I am at this very moment is where I need to be right now.  In other words, let go of what has occurred in the past and focus on what you can create now.
2) The people you are with deserve you being with them in that moment.
3) If you are alone, practice observation.  What do you see? What do you hear? How does it feel?
4) Challenge that voice in your head that is screaming for your attention.
5) Imagine yourself enjoying each moment when you are alone.

Life is made up of the moments.

Hierarchy of Needs

If you get a chance, I would not spend a ton of time reading the book Organizational Man, but if you have a long attention span go for it and read the whole thing.  If you have a short attention span, read the chapter on belongingness and togetherness.  If you don't like to read, then don't read.  Do something else more productive.

Anyway, it occurred to me while reading this book, that an organization and its people have a hierarchy of needs.  Picture a house with a strong foundation, call it "Sense of Personal Purpose", without a sense of personal purpose, you will struggle to build the strong organizational house.  Then build the walls, call them the walls of "Belongingness." If you do not feel strongly connected to the organization you cannot go far with your "Sense of Personal Purpose"

The beams across the top of the house, call those the "Beams of Togetherness"  You can feel a sense of "Belongingness" with those around you for all kinds of reasons, but without a common organizational purpose, the walls will eventually collapse.

Finally, the roof, call it the "Roof of Results"  Seems like a pretty basic hierarchy of needs, but a model to help you as you navigate the wonders of the organization.  It can become wonderful or collapse right in front of you.

Evaluate the four:
1) Sense of Personal Purpose
2) Walls of Belongingness
3) Beams of Togetherness
4) Roof of Results

How are you doing with the foundation?  You gotta fight for your own sense of clarity around this.

The Cause of the Kennedy's

I enjoyed a terrific four day getaway with my wife Tricia this past weekend. We had never been to Boston and decided on the last day to head off to the JFK Presidential Museum.  I would highly encourage a visit.  I found the visit very inspirational.  I was surprised because I would not say I am particularly intereseted in politics. 

We happened upon a documentary of Bobby Kennedy.  I found him to be a man of great cause.  He shared "You get one round at this life and you may as well find a cause you can contribute to wholeheartedly." Bobby found his place as Attorney General on his brother's cabinet during the Cuban Missle Crisis.  JFK later discussed how important Bobby was during this process. To each meeting Bobby brought something of value to the table.  JFK trusted his brother implicitly and they had a bond.  Bobby was the right hand man during this crucial period.  His cause was to support JFK and he had many others.

A story of cause from antiquity

I have been reading the book Flow which has been a fantastic read.  There is a story of Democritus a deep thinker sitting around the stone bath deep in thought. This guy actually sat around thinking for days at a time.  They even brought in the famous Hippocrates, the doctor to see if he was psycho or sick.  He was neither.

Our friend Democritus found great pleasure in meditating on the deeper realities of life and created his own reality of cause.  I greatly appreciated his quote regarding cause and happiness.  "Happiness does not reside in strength or money; it lies in rightness and many sidedness"; "I would rather discover one true cause than gain the kingdom of Persia."  (Page 127 Flow)

Case Studies Of Your Life

I was with an IT/Accountant/Financial Analyst yesterday and he used the phrase: "Case studies of your life."  I loved the use of those words.  We all have some very natural case studies in our lives to reflect back on.  The school age years, the junior high days (Yikes!), the high school years, the college years, the single days, the married without kids days, the married with kids days, the empty nest phase, the retirement years and the golden years.  

In reality, these 4 - 15 year segments contain important chapters in our lives.  We can look at each chapter and glean powerful insights and connections about our existence.  We may have regret or feelings of inspiration.  No doubt you can find some themes in the midst of each case study and no doubt use the past to inform your future.  

In your search for a sense of cause and purpose, I would suggest a review of your life's case studies and reflect on your moments flow, energy and purpose.  Let those inform you of your future.  As you are doing this, might I suggest you enlist some friends at each phase and ask them to tell you what they saw in your life.  See if it matches up!

Reformat your life, routines and computer...

Even as a Mac user, every two years I wipe my hard drive and start over.  Ah yes, a fresh clean hard drive, which yields the wonderful experience of having faster load times and quicker start times.  It feels great to have your desktop salvaged. Certainly, the greatest challenge is putting all your important data back onto the new hard drive.  Apple has a great program called Time Machine to help with that.

Sometimes it is helpful to reformat some of the routines of your life to build refreshment into the soul and out into the world.  I plan to reformat my Saturdays.  I wake up with a huge sense of urgency to get everything done.  It is like I want the house picked up, the dishes done, reading to be completed and kids rooms scrubbed before 10:00 a.m.  This is not working and not surprisingly so.  It is really a bit insane.

I need a bit of cause to my Saturday.  My intention will be to wake up eat breakfast collaborate with my wife on a checklist and walk through the day with some clarity.  I will choose to filter the undone things with a new filter.  The filter of enjoying the process, confidence and relationship.

I look forward to sharing with you more about my Saturday next Sunday.

Creating your opportunity

I had lunch with an informal mentor yesterday who shared his personal success story.  It was inspiring. This gentleman was transferred here from Detroit and eventually his role was removed.  He was apartment shopping and realized that many of the local apartments were poorly managed.  He felt that he could be of help to the property owners who were in need of someone to oversee the property managers.

He went on to tell me that he wrote a letter to one the property owners indicating that he had the skill set and desire to help clean up the properties and would like the chance to interview for a position.  Little did he realize that his future boss had a meeting earlier that week stating that they had a huge need for this type of position.

The rest is history.  30+ years later this gentlemen completed a very successful career.  He learned about philanthropy, customer service and community involvement.  He shared that he was given the opportunity. I think in many ways he created his own.

Not Making Mistakes Is Not The Goal...

The outcome of pursuing the goal of not making mistakes can lead to great unhappiness and a lack of purpose. If you seek the safety of doing the easy you may experience the following:

* A lack of joy in the adventure of trying something new
* A potential missed opportunity of trying something new and it turning into gold
* Overanalyzing each decision, which leads to indecisiveness
* Fun
* Attachment to certain outcomes that you cannot control
* The opportunity for greater impact in those around you

Perhaps the goal could be to take more risks and watch the results unfold.

5 Ways To Find Your Cause

It is not easy to track down your cause.  I thought it time to share a few ideas that helped me gain some clarity.

1) List out the moments in your life where you felt like you were in the zone.  The moments where you were engaged, enthused and most importantly brought about positive results.  This will help you identify the places where you have been and what you might need to explore.

2) Talk to those who you consider people of cause. It is inspiring.  Ask them "Why they get up in the morning?"

3) Read everything you possible can by the people who write good stuff and by people you see who have cause.

4) Have you ever done a "Waving the Magic Wand Exercise?" Simply put, find a quiet place, focus  your energy and write down everything you want out of your personal life and your work life.  Pick the top three and create a plan to obtain.  For example: You wanna go to Europe?  Price it out. Cut out pictures and visualize yourself in Europe.  Even better set a date and a budget so you can go!

5) Look in your current environment for ways to contribute in areas of interest.

Good luck!

Off and running...

It has been fantastic to sit across the people I have linked arms with for the past five years and be able to move toward more intentional conversations.  The challenge I have been faced with has been this idea of what I can control and what I cannot control.  I can control how much time and thought I do to prepare for each meeting.  I cannot control their response to the suggestions and feedback I have for them.  I can control how well I listen to them and how well grounded I am before each conversation.  I cannot control how they feel about me after it is over.

I am still in search of some good training in this area.  The folks at Hogan have been great to this point, but it is time to go a bit deeper.  I have that on my next 30 days agenda.

Great quote...

On my very first exploratory interview, I asked the following question, "Do you have any suggestions for me as I start this project?"  She replied, "I simply thought about where I felt that I could make the greatest contribution in life and go there."

This sounds to me like leverage.  How do you most greatly leverage your interests,skills, relationships for the good or purpose?

Caused leaders...

The statistics are staggering.  One study I read recently by the folks at Hogan, indicated that 65% managers will fail.  Said another way, these leaders who are leading corporate America will fail.  Hogan indicates that you must have a strong ability to build a team, to be a strong leader.  In my past experience, the key to successful team building includes the following:

* Clear vision of what the team wants to accomplish, so people can plug in.
* Strong set of goals for the team to accomplish
* Team norms, which allow folks to feel safe and secure.  Norms like fierce conversations, vulenerability, trust and dependence.
* Team denotes everyone is a contributor, everyone on the team needs to know how they contribute.

These are significant steps toward building strong leadership in your organization.

Revisiting the Magic Wand exercise...

A few monthts ago, I wrote about waving the magic wand.  The exercise was about listing off everything I wanted in my job and life.  I went back through the document I put together and realized that my new role has the potential to hit everything on my list.  It is testimony of the importance of documenting goals and revisiting goals.  In reality, this is really a life vision and a vision for work.

If you do not risk dreaming about a preferred future, you greatly reduce the chance to reach that vision.  If you are adrift in the daily activities with no clear picture of the future, you slowly find yourself backed into a corner or in a ditch.  I am thrilled about the picture of the future.  There is five year potential for advancement, for linchpin like realities, to excel and to really be engaged in my work. 

My challenge is to revisit this magic wand exercise every month to see how things are coming along.

The conversation I was looking for ...

Yesterday, I enjoyed the conversation of a lifetime.  For some reason, I connected with a potential mentor and business partner.  The stars were aligned and for the first time in over 6 months I have a very clear sense of clarity and the next steps to take.  There is not much more to say in this post other than I have a new path and am looking forward to taking the next steps.

Remaining Clear

I have shared many times that it is challenging to keep the sense of what you want as a clear picture in your mind.  It is very easy for me to get bogged down in the details and forget why I started this process and where I want to end up.  I would like to share a few tips or my plan for remaining clear through this process:

1) Go back to the visualization exercise I did at the beginning of the process.  I remember that I saw myself 1:1 and that my heart was engaged in my work.
2) Practice sharing what I want to do with others several times a week.
3) Take a risk and put it out there. Again, take the risk and go practice what I am visualizing.  In other words, I have been seeking 1:1 conversations and I am loving it.

My plan is to remain clear even on the cloudiest of days like today.

Thoughts on Detachment

I have been thinking through this idea of detachment a great deal. As I have gone through the exploration process, I realized that these meetings were very productive because I was like a journalist or a third party observer looking for an exciting story to report back on. This process provided clarity or as Seth Godin discussess, I found truth.


As I moved into part 2 of this process, I realized that I lost sight of the truth in that I was no longer a third party investigator, but someone looking to receive. I became attached to an opportunity or a job. This pulled me down into the weeds. There have been various moments of lost perspective.

I love what Seth Godin shares, Page 175 of Linchpin referring to Prajna " A life without attachment and stress can give you the freedom to see things as they are and call them as you see them" He goes so far to share that trying to change what we cannot change is really not our job.


2 Signs of Attachment
* If we are trying to control what others think of us. We expend tons of energy here.
* If bad news changes your emotional state, then you are attached. Godin suggests saying "Isn't that interesting." Move on

Time for travel...

I am looking forward to my trip to Atlanta here in the coming weeks.  I plan to attend the Hogan certification program.  I have been so drawn to this tool and their style.  For one, they seem like the smart ones, who get that personality has great impact on job performance and leadership.  I love their tool as it is comprehensive.  Second, the folks that use it are at the top of their game.  That is where I want to be one day.

Another reason I am excited is that I need a change in scenery.  I think it is time for a new focus and time to move toward the next season in my life.  I really see this next adventure as a hybrid of my first nine years of work and my next five.  The ethereal and the tangible living in a dynamically tense reality, with a cause to help people each and every day!

More thoughts from "DRIVE" : Mastery

This idea of control and engagement is fascinating.  I can look back over my work career and recall times when I felt controlled vs. engaged.  Even those wonderful days at McDonalds as a college student where I was fraught with McCompliance.

I like the phrase that "autonomy leads to engagement." Is it really true that 50% of employees are not engaged at work.  Basically, if you are engaged then the person next to you is not.  Or said another way, 20% of people are actively disengaged.  Monetarily we are looking at $300 billion in lost productivity.  Page 111 of Drive.

My favorite quote in the book was "Figure out for yourself what you want to be really good at, know that you'll never really satisfy yourself that you've made it, and accept that that's okay." p.121 Robert B. Leich Former U.S Secretary of State

Mastery hurts...It takes 10 years of intense practice to become great. Painful, excruciating effort...

Transition Thoughts

Today I was able to process some of the emotional realities of a career transition:

* It is real that you are really in three places at once: your current job, your present feeling of being in the job and out of the job, and finding the future opportunity.
* It is real that this is tiring.  You are meeting new people to help you find the new opportunity, while doing your current position.  That is a great deal to manage.
* It is real that it takes energy to stay very positive during this process.  I am constantly saying to myself that my preferred reality is close at hand and within reach.  I am imaging myself in the new reality daily.
* It is real that when I am about to meet a potential hire, I can sometimes get ahead of myself and think that I am there to get a job.  I am there to be there with that person, not get a job.  That could come if synergy is created and mutual benefit found.

Exciting times for sure and tiring.

What drives you?

I have always been fascinated by individuals who have great drive and motivation toward a cause, purpose or mission.  I think as human beings we are just naturally drawn to people with confidence and purpose.  That is not an overly profound statement, but look at the opposite.  Are you drawn to spend time with individuals who are negative?  What if you favorite sports team is losing?  Sure you will stay with them, but it could be rather painful to watch them week after week. 

What drives people to greatness?  Or said another way what is it that truly motivates human beings each and every day to head off to work and put in 10 hours a day? It could be fear, the boss, the paycheck, a mission, the people you work with, your children, or it could be your parents.

When Dan Pink released his latest book "Drive" I was immediately captured by the title.  It fits so perfectly with this bit of my current journey.  Just to give you a sneak peak, Pink suggests that intrinsic motivation is critical to sustainable success over time.  The traditional extrinsic motivators could actually cause great harm and will not produce the results we want in our lives or businesses. 

Stay tuned for further posts about the subject of drive...

Anybody got a flashlight?

My friend Kris Taylor sent a great Christmas present to her colleagues and contacts.  It was a flashlight sent in a round postal tube.  It was the kind of present that created enough curiosity for me to actually read the enclosed letter.  She shared a great story about how as humans we are naturally drawn to the light, but our greatest fears reside in the darkness.

 "Total darkness is not knowing - what lurks there, where obstacles may be, and the uneasy feeling that there may be something that is a threat. It is in darkness that we exaggerate our fears, make things up, and imagine the worst."


It is important to stay positive and engaged in the light. Enjoy the light that is in front of you and focus on the positives.  Part of the fun is in the journey and in finding new opportunities.

New Satisfaction Study

I am personally tired of the negative press related to unemployment.  I look at the numbers in reverse by saying to myself, "90% of Americans are going to work today."  That just feels more positive.

Anyway, this link in today's Indianapolis Star provides some interesting information regarding workers satisfaction with their employment.  The study found that 45% of Americans are currently satisfied with their work.  I think this might be a little high.  The reasons cited included low wages, bad boss and health insurance costs.  Another reason was the fact that workers found their jobs uninteresting.

Americans need to take risk, follow their interests and strengths and consider their hearts when pursuing their next career.  I might suggest that the growth of America is dependent on this and your personal happiness, growth and life engagement is at risk as well.

Viktor E. Frankl

My friend Mike Donahue suggested I read the book "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor E. Frankl.  I loved it.  It seemed like a good place to start as I pursued taking a break from my "project" and take some time to reflect.  I am so glad that I did.  There were several great items I took from this book.

1) Page 108 paraphrase: The meaning of your life is being "present" in the moment you are in currently.  I would say that I can be very distracted.  The idea of just enjoying the moment was a great reminder.
2) Page 110 paraphrase: The more one forgets himself by giving to others, the more likely to realize one's cause.  I love this.  So true.
3) Page 110: The three parts of a purposeful life include the following a) creating a work and doing a work b) experiencing something or encountering someone c) attitude toward something like suffering remaining positive and abundant

I would recommend reading this book if you have not already.