I have heard terrible things about Steve Jobs. I have actually met a couple of people who worked with him closely at Apple HQ. They both agreed that, with his bad temper and mood swings, he could give anyone a heart attack....rumor has it he actually did. Regardless of his flaws, his contribution to the world of business and technology is undeniable. My Ipod and I are truly inseparable.
I came across this video of his 2005 Stanford Commencement Address. This is a guy who never finished college and chose to follow his intuition to achieve his dreams. Fired from his own company and having defeated cancer, he came back swinging and stronger than ever. It has been said many times and probably at every commencement speech, yet here is a living example of someone who followed whose gut feeling told him where to go to achieve success.
My next installment: Why New Year's Resolutions Don't Usually Work
Monday, December 28, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
The Road Not Taken
I majored in English and education at uni. As an English major, writing and reading filled my days. Having had to read hundreds of books and literary pieces, one of the pieces of writing that really inspired me and that has become my mantra was a short poem by Robert Frost called The Road Not Taken.
The Road Not Taken (also known as The Road Less Traveled) describes a traveler that coming to a fork on the road, had to make a decision as to whether to go right or left, one way or the other, choice A or B, sort of speak. The traveler decides to go where less had gone, the least traveled road. Years later, he or she remembers that having gone where others had not made a much greater difference. The deduction here is that that crucial decision proved more challenging, fulfilling and ultimately rewarding.
In your career or life mission, what if the road less traveled? What less explored route, idea, experiment or challenge could you try today that will make a difference in your working life?
The poem:
The Road Not Taken (also known as The Road Less Traveled) describes a traveler that coming to a fork on the road, had to make a decision as to whether to go right or left, one way or the other, choice A or B, sort of speak. The traveler decides to go where less had gone, the least traveled road. Years later, he or she remembers that having gone where others had not made a much greater difference. The deduction here is that that crucial decision proved more challenging, fulfilling and ultimately rewarding.
In your career or life mission, what if the road less traveled? What less explored route, idea, experiment or challenge could you try today that will make a difference in your working life?
The poem:
Monday, December 14, 2009
Predictability: Blessing or Curse?
Marissa Mayer is the Vice President of Search Products & User Experience at Google. She said in a recent CNBC documentary on the company that what enticed her to join Google (she was the 20th employee to be hired out of the current 20,000) was the every day challenge of doing something she was not prepared to do.
You get ready to go to the office, get there and, the whole time, on the back of your mind you probably know what 90% the day is going to be like. Your day, your week, your month, quarter or even your year may be filled with predictability, certainty and fixed routines. A day may be pretty much a carbon copy of the next.
What Marissa meant is not that she was not prepared to do the job, but that, Google, as probably one of the most ground breaking companies ever, set the stage for her to have days filled with challenges and unpredictability. This may be encouraging to some and equally disturbing to others, especially the type of people who need to know what they are having for dinner next Thursday night. I know a few people like this. I`m sure you do, too.
Indeed, there has to be some kind of structure: Meetings, reporting and the like and some big picture type frame work to guide us daily toward a goal, be it key performance indicators, quarterly goals or budgets to meet regardless of what your day looks like. We do not want chaos. The Google headquarters in California have pool tables, a gym, a cafeteria, a swimming pool and even a place where employees can drop off their laundry...they don`t even need to go home. Yet no employee escapes the ultimate goal or the reason for them to be there in the first place: To produce quality products and services that will generate a profit.
Simple advice: Find new ways of doing things for better results. Locate that one activity that, if you did a bit differently, may give you better and bigger results.
You get ready to go to the office, get there and, the whole time, on the back of your mind you probably know what 90% the day is going to be like. Your day, your week, your month, quarter or even your year may be filled with predictability, certainty and fixed routines. A day may be pretty much a carbon copy of the next.
What Marissa meant is not that she was not prepared to do the job, but that, Google, as probably one of the most ground breaking companies ever, set the stage for her to have days filled with challenges and unpredictability. This may be encouraging to some and equally disturbing to others, especially the type of people who need to know what they are having for dinner next Thursday night. I know a few people like this. I`m sure you do, too.
Indeed, there has to be some kind of structure: Meetings, reporting and the like and some big picture type frame work to guide us daily toward a goal, be it key performance indicators, quarterly goals or budgets to meet regardless of what your day looks like. We do not want chaos. The Google headquarters in California have pool tables, a gym, a cafeteria, a swimming pool and even a place where employees can drop off their laundry...they don`t even need to go home. Yet no employee escapes the ultimate goal or the reason for them to be there in the first place: To produce quality products and services that will generate a profit.
Simple advice: Find new ways of doing things for better results. Locate that one activity that, if you did a bit differently, may give you better and bigger results.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Self Proficiency
Dave Olson Ulrich, author of “The Leadership Code: Five Rules to Lead By,” has been ranked as the #1 management educator and guru by NewsWeek magazine. He touches on some of the points I have covered earlier in the blog.
In a recent Harvard Business Ideacast, Dave talks about 5 key proficiencies of a leader or manager. Listening to his advice, I realize that these qualities not only apply to leaders, but also to all professionals regardless of the type of work we do or position we hold in our organizations. I also realize this applies to those looking to make a transition or already in the process of changing jobs or careers.
According to Dave, as your job pressures increase and the business world gets even tougher, especially now, it is essential that we work to improve our self proficiency with focus on 5 areas. Here they are briefly:
1.Physical: Take care of yourself! Watch your nutrition, exercise and get enough sleep. Feel better.
2.Social: Build a network of friends or professional contracts, people you can rely on. Have a best friend at work (and of course outside work as well). It’s not just about you and your job.
3. Emotional: Know your strengths and weaknesses, what motivates you or drives you. Be willing to work on weak areas, keep and further grow key skills.
4.Intellectual: Develop your capacity to learn. Be curious about the world. Analyze what has worked for you in the past and what hasn’t. Get better.
5.Spiritual: Find meaning in your work, your mission or purpose in life. This is not necessarily about religion (could be if you practice a religion), but spirituality and the intangible, the bigger picture.
Any thoughts? I will leave it here and just invite you to think about what you are doing to improve in each of these areas.
In a recent Harvard Business Ideacast, Dave talks about 5 key proficiencies of a leader or manager. Listening to his advice, I realize that these qualities not only apply to leaders, but also to all professionals regardless of the type of work we do or position we hold in our organizations. I also realize this applies to those looking to make a transition or already in the process of changing jobs or careers.
According to Dave, as your job pressures increase and the business world gets even tougher, especially now, it is essential that we work to improve our self proficiency with focus on 5 areas. Here they are briefly:
1.Physical: Take care of yourself! Watch your nutrition, exercise and get enough sleep. Feel better.
2.Social: Build a network of friends or professional contracts, people you can rely on. Have a best friend at work (and of course outside work as well). It’s not just about you and your job.
3. Emotional: Know your strengths and weaknesses, what motivates you or drives you. Be willing to work on weak areas, keep and further grow key skills.
4.Intellectual: Develop your capacity to learn. Be curious about the world. Analyze what has worked for you in the past and what hasn’t. Get better.
5.Spiritual: Find meaning in your work, your mission or purpose in life. This is not necessarily about religion (could be if you practice a religion), but spirituality and the intangible, the bigger picture.
Any thoughts? I will leave it here and just invite you to think about what you are doing to improve in each of these areas.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Career Lattice or Career Ladder?
Work harder, get promoted, make more money. Go up the corporate ladder, sort of speak. Keep climbing and, if you slide down the ladder (or get pushed off or the rung if pulled from under you), start over or go somewhere else. This sounds like the rat race in vertical form. Move up or move out. If you snooze, you lose. Well, welcome to the business world!
What if you realize there is more to life than work? Or that you may not need to be locked up in a office under the watchful eye of the boss to produce the same or higher level of results? Or that there is no such a thing as work/life balance? Or that striving for more flexibility or a different work arrangement may be the answer to your career crisis? Or that you may not always have to move only up, but sideways as well?
In their book, Mass Career Customization, authors Cathy Benko and Anne C. Weisberg, responsible for Deloitte US`s Women Initiative (WIN), argue that, with today`s changing lifestyles, communication technologies and views of men`s and women`s role in business, we should think of our career path as a lattice, not a ladder. The ladder is narrow, straight with nowhere to go, but up. A lattice allows intermittent growth, side moves, peaks and plateaus like a vine going up a wall.
In reality, careers are not perfect A to B to C to D etc. paths. I have been reading dozens of resumes daily for the last 6 years and have rarely seen what we would expect to be a perfect career trajectory. In fact, some of the most interesting professionals I have met, changed jobs or industries or took the less road taken for the sake of learning, personal growth or to add other new skills.
The authors argue that companies should allow employees to customize their careers to improve loyalty, productivity and well being. Read about Mass Career Customization and take the exercise below:
http://www.masscareercustomization.com/about_mcc.html
http://www.masscareercustomization.com/interactive.html
Enjoy!
What if you realize there is more to life than work? Or that you may not need to be locked up in a office under the watchful eye of the boss to produce the same or higher level of results? Or that there is no such a thing as work/life balance? Or that striving for more flexibility or a different work arrangement may be the answer to your career crisis? Or that you may not always have to move only up, but sideways as well?
In their book, Mass Career Customization, authors Cathy Benko and Anne C. Weisberg, responsible for Deloitte US`s Women Initiative (WIN), argue that, with today`s changing lifestyles, communication technologies and views of men`s and women`s role in business, we should think of our career path as a lattice, not a ladder. The ladder is narrow, straight with nowhere to go, but up. A lattice allows intermittent growth, side moves, peaks and plateaus like a vine going up a wall.
In reality, careers are not perfect A to B to C to D etc. paths. I have been reading dozens of resumes daily for the last 6 years and have rarely seen what we would expect to be a perfect career trajectory. In fact, some of the most interesting professionals I have met, changed jobs or industries or took the less road taken for the sake of learning, personal growth or to add other new skills.
The authors argue that companies should allow employees to customize their careers to improve loyalty, productivity and well being. Read about Mass Career Customization and take the exercise below:
http://www.masscareercustomization.com/about_mcc.html
http://www.masscareercustomization.com/interactive.html
Enjoy!
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Bet on Your Strengths
If you had extra money to invest where would you put it? Would you buy stocks in a company or industry that has not performed well or given favorable results? Or would you invest in a thriving industry with innovative promising products? If your answer is that you will bet your money on the successful company or industry, you may heading in the right direction. Common sense, right?
The same thinking applies to our work skills when it comes to strengths and weaknesses. I shamelessly confess my Japanese could be better. It is my 3rd language and I am weak at it. If I really made an effort and studied hard, would I see improvement? I think I definitely would and I have improved, but, to be honest, studying Japanese does not turn me on. Do not hate me for this. I am leading to the following: Should you be focusing on getting better at something you're good at or working in your areas of weakness?
Marcus Buckingham in Go Put Your Strengths to Work, says you will see much higher incremental improvement working on those activities you enjoy and are good at than at trying to work on a skill or activity to do not enjoy. Does this mean you should remain mediocre and weak at a specific work skill? Not at all. There is always room for improvement in any area and despite your level of expertise or interest. Corporations spend billions and billions of dollars on training programs to help employees go from good to better, better to best, best to great and great to Guru. It is part of your job to seek to remedy performance issues by improving your performance.
In a nutshell, yes, do work on areas you may need to work on. That is your professional duty to always seek to improve and evolve; however, by far, you will for sure see better results and get more job satisfaction by focusing on further improving on the tasks that your love: Your strengths.
Have a good Sunday!
The same thinking applies to our work skills when it comes to strengths and weaknesses. I shamelessly confess my Japanese could be better. It is my 3rd language and I am weak at it. If I really made an effort and studied hard, would I see improvement? I think I definitely would and I have improved, but, to be honest, studying Japanese does not turn me on. Do not hate me for this. I am leading to the following: Should you be focusing on getting better at something you're good at or working in your areas of weakness?
Marcus Buckingham in Go Put Your Strengths to Work, says you will see much higher incremental improvement working on those activities you enjoy and are good at than at trying to work on a skill or activity to do not enjoy. Does this mean you should remain mediocre and weak at a specific work skill? Not at all. There is always room for improvement in any area and despite your level of expertise or interest. Corporations spend billions and billions of dollars on training programs to help employees go from good to better, better to best, best to great and great to Guru. It is part of your job to seek to remedy performance issues by improving your performance.
In a nutshell, yes, do work on areas you may need to work on. That is your professional duty to always seek to improve and evolve; however, by far, you will for sure see better results and get more job satisfaction by focusing on further improving on the tasks that your love: Your strengths.
Have a good Sunday!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
And What Turns you Off?
Let's be honest: There are work activities you do not enjoy, you despise...that you totally hate...that make you want to stay in bed or call in sick. The prevalence of these activities at work make your life miserable and will quickly lead to burnout or a career crisis, the theme of this blog.
In my previous post, I suggested that you identify those activities that turn you on, that when you do them you are "in the flow" and time flies without you noticing. Do the opposite now. Give examples of specific activities (long meetings, expense reporting, responding to complaints, report writing...whatever) that turn you off. These tasks leave you tired, angry, dissatisfied, unfulfilled, just drained.
By the way, be realistic and accept that even what you may consider to be dream job may have its downsides. There is no such a thing as a perfectly happy job or work environment. There are way too many external factors that positively or negatively affect your work. Even highly paid top fashion models complain of the endless travel and grueling work schedules. The grass will always be green on the other side of the fence.
Your own weaknesses and interests may cause these feelings. Should you just stop doing those activities altogether and risk penalties? Most definitely not. Task swapping with a colleague, re-assignment, changing the timing of the activity, team members or location, intensity, process, training or re-training, changing positions or working on your own attitude toward these tasks (I highly recommend Don't Sweat The Small Stuff at Work by Richard Carlson, PH.D.on this last point)are possible solutions. The list is endless and depends on the nature of the issue.
What should you be doing then? See my next installment.
Enjoy your Sunday.
In my previous post, I suggested that you identify those activities that turn you on, that when you do them you are "in the flow" and time flies without you noticing. Do the opposite now. Give examples of specific activities (long meetings, expense reporting, responding to complaints, report writing...whatever) that turn you off. These tasks leave you tired, angry, dissatisfied, unfulfilled, just drained.
By the way, be realistic and accept that even what you may consider to be dream job may have its downsides. There is no such a thing as a perfectly happy job or work environment. There are way too many external factors that positively or negatively affect your work. Even highly paid top fashion models complain of the endless travel and grueling work schedules. The grass will always be green on the other side of the fence.
Your own weaknesses and interests may cause these feelings. Should you just stop doing those activities altogether and risk penalties? Most definitely not. Task swapping with a colleague, re-assignment, changing the timing of the activity, team members or location, intensity, process, training or re-training, changing positions or working on your own attitude toward these tasks (I highly recommend Don't Sweat The Small Stuff at Work by Richard Carlson, PH.D.on this last point)are possible solutions. The list is endless and depends on the nature of the issue.
What should you be doing then? See my next installment.
Enjoy your Sunday.
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