July 3, 2010

Intentions, not habits, make parades!

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Spent part of the morning at the Upper Arlington (UA) Fourth of July parade:

Janine Moon

it’s an annual staple and the biggest non-commercial parade in the U.S. (or at least it used to be) My daughter and I have walked 3 blocks to the parade route every year for 21 years, and sat on the same corner: Northwest Boulevard and Barrington Road.

UA Golden Bear

Some things surrounding this event are so familiar: timbits from Tim Horton’s before we go; chairs on the same street corners, set out at least 2 days before; little American flags distributed by Boy Scouts before the parade; the tattered-looking fife and drummers leading the parade; everyone standing as the American flags pass by; veterans of every war since WWII riding in vehicles driven by younger vets; class reunion groups on flatbed trucks; neighborhood floats; the huge UA “golden bear” pulled and turned by Civic Association members; and bands, bicycles, Shriner’s cars, and an OSU Alumni TBDBITL. Such makes the Fourth a celebration at home. It’s comfortable, easy and–for my family–what makes the day an event. It’s become our habit to attend.

Habits are familiar; are they intentional?

While the Fourth comes around each year, the floats, bands and other entries take a special effort and don’t come around without considerable effort. Someone–likely many–make the decision and special effort each year to be part of the parade. My point is that it’s a conscious decision. The “date” is the familiar, the automatic; the “parade” and the resulting celebration is the intentional.

So much of life and especially work is like that–work weeks come around one day at a time–and we go, habitually and timely but with little or no intention. We put in the time, do what we must and then leave–only to do the same tomorrow. Wouldn’t it be cool if there were more celebration–every day?


To whose drummer do you march?

So which part of your (work) day belongs to the drummer in you? When do you do those things that tap your talents, that make you proud of the work you do? How do you ensure that at least some of every day you intentionally use your talents? That you contribute your best that day because you’re using the strengths you’ve developed and honed? This takes intention.

Or, are you marching to a drummer with a beat you don’t recognize? So you can pay the bills at the expense of your pride, satisfaction and efficacy? This takes habit.

Satisfy both

Contrary to much popular belief, you don’t need to give up one for the other. You can earn a living while doing work you love–that is, work that uses your talents–when you approach it intentionally.

The intentional part takes some work, too. It won’t happen when you wait around for your manager to recognize the great job you’re doing and promote you out of the department. It won’t happen when you wait for someone to give you a career path. It won’t happen by staying low so no one will notice you during times of “expense control.”

It does happen when you stay alert to changes in your organization’s strategies. It happens when you volunteer for projects where you can learn new things. It happens when you approach an experienced colleague who can show you some new ropes. It happens when you try something different with a customer that works better than the old way. It happens when you become responsible for being intentional.

So when will you choose to lead the parade?

Janine’s recent book, Career Ownership: Creating ‘Job Security’ in Any Economy is now available on Amazon.

 

February 8, 2010

Are you part of ‘The Elephant in the Room’?

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Janine Moon

Over separate lunches during the last week, I met with two of the most delightful women: bright, engaging, talented, energetic, professional–what smart business leaders would label as “talent we don’t want to lose.” But that isn’t the only thing these two young women have in common.

Both have been stymied, stopped, put off, turned away, and politically discouraged from doing anything that would “rock the boat,” step up their game, or be perceived by the powers-that-be as anything other than programmed robots waiting for direction. Their leaders like white bread, and their thinking doesn’t go beyond ‘how we’ve always done it,’ ‘now is not the right time’ and ‘we need to ride this out.’ This is head-in-the-sand, water-treading at its best within a Fortune 100 and a Fortune 200 organization. Individual ambition and interest in contributing has been discouraged and belittled as untimely and inappropriate, and–whether spoken or unspoken–employees are expected to “trust us.”

This is probably a rant most accurately focused on large, heavy dinosaurs of organizations, but if it fits, and you’re not large, please step up and claim it. At least be honest with yourself.

I talked with a woman this morning about how employees are discounted as creative resources and shuffled like chess pieces while decisions are made around them; they are ignored, kind of like ‘The Elephant in the Room.’ Rather than utilizing the intelligence and expertise of people in the organization, leaders are using old-style “hunker down and wait this out, cut-our-losses” kind of thinking. They’re leading and feeding the uncertainty.

Every organization in existence is proud to claim that “people are our most important product,” or that “our people matter,” or “we’re nothing without our human capital.” And the dirty little secret (and it’s not even a secret!) is that those human resources are only expenses to be curtailed in order to make the next quarter’s financial expectations or minimize losses. Most capital is maintained and improved so the value increases, but not human capital.

Rather than using this time of economic uncertainty to regroup, develop these resources, realign and retrain, many organizations are pulling back, cutting the “expense” of honing the brains that make the business successful. Employers are sitting on their resources, all of them: time, money & people, waiting for the economy to come back. Well, news flash here: it’s not coming back! At least not the way most people are thinking. We are way beyond the 20th century when a recession was followed by something stronger that looked like more and better of the same.

We will see something stronger, but it won’t be more and better of the same…whatever the same is to your organization. The something stronger that we’ll see on the other side of this ‘downturn’ is of our own making, not of our own hiding…hiding under the radar, using the same tired industrial-era strategies to ride out the storm.

So organizations that don’t wake up sooner rather than later and deal with the Elephant in the Room, all employees who drive the business–and not just the ones in the executive suite–are losers in this economy. The Elephant that no one addresses is the collective brainpower going to waste, and the recognition that resources put toward sharpening that talent is the only intelligent way to create the future of the organization, at least any future worth having.

So you’re part of the Elephant…now what?

1. Stop waiting.
2. Start doing.

If your organization is like the one I’m describing, do you really think you’re safe if you do as you’re told, stay within your job box and wait? For what…for things to improve on their own? Do you think that keeping your head down will help you avoid the next round of expense control? Come on, open your eyes!

Get moving: look around and see what your company needs, figure out what your customers want. Where are business growth opportunities? What’s happening in the industry and with your company’s competitors? Where can new products or services increase customer loyalty? Who can you collaborate with on a project that can use your talents? Where can you step up and take ownership, increasing your value and partnering to strengthen your organization? What new training or learning will make you even more valuable to the business? Here’s a radical idea: pay for it yourself! It’s an investment in both your present and your future, and it won’t be wasted.

What’s holding you back? Fear? Of being a survivor and having your job plus those of three others who lost theirs? Or, leaving and knowing that you really don’t know your own value? Either way, stepping up and taking action is your only choice: waiting to be picked is an old-fashioned approach that won’t get you ahead and won’t keep you safe. Really: what do you have to lose?

 

December 21, 2009

Time for a Career Resolution?

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Janine Moon

During lunch with two friends recently, we caught up on current work mindsets. Sue was feeling great—she just returned from a four day renewal in Vegas; I was eager and energized by a new project; and Laurie was up in the air. She was about a month into a new position and was OK with it but not excited. Turns out that she was moved into a position that doesn’t use her strengths, and she was making the best of it. Her question: what do you do when the organization moves you in a direction that isn’t where you want to go?

Laurie had actually interviewed for a position a few months ago that was aligned with her desired direction but didn’t get it. It was one that would have taken her back to the field, where she is experienced and has done great work. So she’s stuck in her thinking: she wanted to go one way and the organization moved her in another; she is looking at her current spot as “a learning experience,” but that’s putting her best spin on a challenging situation. Thus, her question.

She’s been with the organization for 15 years, so has accepted the culture and how things get done. She knows her talents very well, and knows where she can make an impact. She has, maybe, 60% engagement in the work she’s doing…and it’s at that level because she’s still on the learning curve. Once she gets more comfortable with the work, her engagement will decrease and she’ll still get the job done. It works that way with most employees every day.

What kind of contribution could she make if she were completely connected to her work, if she were using her talents and aligning her intellect and her commitment to the organization?

Laurie knows very well and is going after that very thing.

She is re-energized about defining her path inside the organization…she loves the industry and knows how she can make a difference. She is reviewing her professional development agenda created several years ago during her MBA program. She is looking around to see how and where she can use her strengths, and is focused on doing so. She is renewing connections with past mentors and looking to clarify her knowledge of the organization’s growth plans. She is seeking to identify a sponsor or two, and get included in projects that will challenge her, grow her skills and use her talents to make a difference. Along the way, she is building and making her business case for strategically-defined career moves.

Laurie has the beginnings of a plan for invigorating her career direction, one that is a true learning experience…where her emotional connection will intensify the learning such that the organization will reap tremendous results. She is electrified by the possibility that she can own her career, that she can set direction and see positive results for both her and the organization.

How about you…are you stuck? Going in a direction that doesn’t quite fit, or that you don’t care about? What’s holding you back, keeping you from going after your best work? Let me know and we’ll take a look at what’s getting in your way and, if you’re willing to do the work, how to intentionally move beyond it.

Everybody makes resolutions, and more than half of you out there are dissatisfied with your current job and you’re just “waiting for the economy to improve” before you look for something better. So do something while you’re waiting: follow through with your resolution, determine your best direction and intentionally create your best path to get there. I’m here to help you do just that!

 

November 2, 2009

Careers: Ready to get intentional about yours?

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Many of us have careers that we’ve fallen into: you’re doing work that’s OK, but you didn’t plan to be here, doing this, right now. You took a position, then another one; then yet another opportunity came along and you moved there. Sometimes the work is satisfying, other times it’s boring and without challenge. Sometimes you wonder how you got here, other times you’re pleased to just have a job.

But there’s often a question niggling at the back of your mind: is this what I’m meant to do? Is this my purpose in life…how I’ll contribute while I’m here? Is this it?

Getting intentional means defining the path that fits you, feeling comfortable with that fit, exploring all the options for that path and then choosing consciously how to take it. A simple enough process, yet without a strong guide, few of us ever take it. lifepurpose fish

What gets in our way? It’s most often old beliefs and outdated feelings about “how things should be” with our work and careers that stop us. We actually sabotage ourselves without really knowing it.

Over the next few posts, we’ll examine some of the beliefs that block your way to the career path that belongs to you and some initial actions you can take to get around, over, and beyond them!

Let’s begin with these two very outdated beliefs:

1. Employers determine careers since employers have the jobs; and

2. I’ll “wait to be picked” since that’s how I’ve always done it.

Employers no longer drive careers: You must drive yours!
Yes, during the last half of the 20th century, employers had career ladders and paths; employees were often put on paths and trained for particular positions. Employment was stable and it served the organization to have a plan in place to move people up and around and up again, then out for retirement.

Organizations are no longer this way–the 21st century economy has much less certainty and little employment stability. The only stability at work today is created by you–as you take responsibility for defining your best work direction and do what’s needed to get there. Here’s how to get started:

>>Know your Foundation: take an inventory, a really thorough one, of what makes you, you: your talents, skills, interests, engagers, motivators, values, best work environments, successes and any other “feel good” activities. When you’re clear on these areas, you’ll discover “themes” winding through them and those themes are clues to work that fits you best. There are lots of self-help books that will help you surface these things, and of course a great career coach can help you, too!

possibilitiesWith your themes, you’re able to explore work directions and families: many areas exist in 2009 that didn’t exist even 5 or 6 years ago. So, the exploration will open you to lots of possibilities! Which possibilities match up with your Foundation? That’s the direction(s) you can begin to explore. You are now taking responsibility for your career direction and being intentional!

>>Take the initiative: When you have defined a direction (or even several), determine what you need to do to move toward it. You have no reason to “wait to be picked” by someone else. If the direction takes education, go after it. If it takes some new skills training, find it and take it online or at a local college. Find a mentor, or 2 or 3, and explore it, learn from their experiences, and ask for counsel and suggestions on how to best move in your chosen direction. Find an internship program or volunteer at a non-profit organization to get relevant experience. Or, work with a career coach trained to be a guide on the journey.

You have no reason to wait, except that your Gremlin voice (those outdated beliefs in your head) is holding you back. It’s talking to you with a voice from the 1960s or 80s or even the 90s…none of which fits with the business environments of today. It’s a voice that tells you to play it safe, keep your head down, that good (quiet) girls are rewarded and other people (important people, bosses) know you better than you know yourself. That’s bunk. Nobody knows you better than you: when you have consciously defined agoforitballoonsnd stand upon your Foundation, you make decisions that no one else can make.

So quiet the voice: talk over it; examine it logically; talk with trusted advisors to get clear about today’s business realities; and replace the Gremlin with truths about how your career can really work. Take your first steps today toward intentionality and the work you contribute to the world!

Let us know what you think: drop a response with your questions, how these suggestions work for you, what additional info would help you take charge of your career! Whatever question or issue you want to discuss will be shared by lots of other readers…promise. And stop back: in upcoming posts, we’ll look at additional actions you can take to become intentional about your career direction.

Best wishes for an Intentional week…

Janine

JAM 0406 straight on resizeJanine Moon, a Master Certified Career Coach, has spent over thirty years mentoring, growing, developing and coaching people—both individually and within organizations. Visit her on the web at CompassPoint Coaching, Workforce Change, and her blog for career owners.