Tag: career ideas

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Know What You’re Really Doing at Work

Tech and social media guru Seth Godin just wrote a blog post on who will save publishing…or newspapers. His answer in a nutshell—no one will save things as they are, and therefore no one will save the jobs as they are. He wrote: “We need to get past this idea of saving, because the status quo is leaving the building, and quickly. Not just in print of course, but in your industry too.”

A depressing statement. And flip. And apparently callous as jobs are a bit more than categories to eliminate in the name of social or technological or any other kind of progress.

But his point is a good one—as he concludes, “no saving is needed to save the joy of reading…” In other words, what people really care about will continue and in new, hopefully, more powerful ways.

So what does this mean for you in whatever job or career you have?

Your Main Career Mission–the Big Career Idea

It means you need to recognize what you are really about at work beyond your job title and listed duties. You are not about project management or accounting or in my case, coaching.  Those are convenient labels. But you’re about how you are contributing and love to contribute through work. If instead of seeing yourself as project manager, you see yourself as the person who gets information and people working together in some way for some result, then your career may change, but it isn’t about to disappear. It will only change in the tools you can use and the industries where you may be using them.

If you’re in marketing—there’s been remarkable changes in the tools available and in the entire model of how to engage and reach possible customers or clients. These range from Adwords to Twitter to giving products to people who influence their groups. If you only know about magazine and newspaper ad placement, you are indeed in trouble. But if you understand you are about connecting people to products and engaging people emotionally through creative use of resources–and you keep updating your skills to match that mission, then you are not going to be just kicked out the door as obsolete.

In my case, I help people get unstuck, get motivated, get a vision. I help them solve problems to make their vision real regarding careers. If career coaching becomes a passé idea, I do not necessarily need a new lifework mission. That’s because people have always gotten stuck, lost their way and motivation, and thrived when they have a vision. I just need to continue to help people resolve those problems in a new way that fits the times.

The key to all this is a clear mission, a lifework statement that can act as a rudder so you don’t get away from what you love. That rudder can also keep guiding you to any new skills you need to learn. If you go beyond your job description this way, and understand what you’re really doing and accomplishing, you’ll stay motivated, and you will keep up with technology and changing industries. You won’t need saving, either.

If you don’t yet have a clear Lifework Statement or sense of career purpose and direction, contact me about ways I might help you get there.

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But Is It Realistic? How People Kill Career Dreams

Whether helping people as a career coach or a creativity trainer, one of the most common self-limiting ideas I hear—actually it may be the most common—is that a goal, a career, a job, a solution is unrealistic.

And with that one word, all hope is dashed.   All creativity also goes out the window—you can almost hear it flying off.
 
I find the idea of something being unrealistic is one of the most abused terms, often an unconscious excuse to bail out of something due to fear of failure, rather than an honest and full assessment of what can be done.  That’s one of the many reasons I start out every brainstorming group and every career client by having them put aside what’s realistic (to them) for starters and have them start imagining what they’d really want to do if they could have what they wanted.
 
Be Realistic Later Rather Than Sooner
 
Later, we can see how to make it real and what the real obstacles are.  Even then, I work with clients and groups to look creatively for new ways to get past obstacles, rather than just letting ourselves get us stuck, assuming there is no way because we can’t see it right away.

This way of approaching career dreams is simple but critical. You find your big ideas, dreams and wildest ideas first, and then see try every way to make them work out.  Tha’s very different from the model most people use—assuming their big ideas are unrealistic from the get-go, based on their limited current thinking.

Some people would respond to this approach by telling stories about how reality has knocked down their plans and big ideas when they were being creative and open minded.  That certainly happens at times.  But it just tells me that we don’t really know what will happen in advance until we try things out—until we see if we can achieve the apparently unrealistic goal.  After all, none of us has a big enough mind to see all the ways things can work out—for better or worse.  Since there are always unknowns, it’s best to creatively work towards your goals and see what arises that might help you that’s unknown than to assume things won’t work.  As they say in baseball, “that’s why we play the game.”

–Career changers, jobseekers–Be sure to sign up for free career and creativity ezine and get your career info bonus

© 2009 Leonard Lang. Feel free to reprint or pass on this article as long as you include the copyright notice and the hotlink to http://choosingacareerblog.com

 

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The big MO and Succeeding with Your Career Ideas and Goals

There are lots of things to say about how to succeed with any long-term goals—whether starting a business, choosing careers, changing careers, changing your department’s culture, becoming a lawyer, earning a degree, or even becoming a better skier or dancer. But one thing is particularly vital, relatively easy, and certainly important to keep in mind.

The advice is:

Keep up the momentum. The big MO. Simple really.

That means take steps regularly. Any positive steps.

I’ve seen it with coaching clients, class participants, and yeh, myself too lots of times. Once you start feeling stuck, you tend to keep getting more stuck, feeling more and more overwhelmed and discouraged. It becomes harder and harder to get moving again.

With apologies to Newton and his laws of motion—it’s true that objects (or people) at rest tend to stay at rest.

Fortunately, the opposite is true too: Objects (or people) in motion tend to stay in motion.

My coaching clients make their greatest progress in finding new career ideas or making great plans when they simply complete small steps each week and are held accountable for them. They stay motivated, see at least a little progress all the time, and over time realize they are getting to their career goals.

Even very small steps qualify to keep you moving ahead like meeting with a career Success Partner for 15 minutes for a check in. Or brainstorming with someone about new ways to approach your project. Or reading something inspiring that gets you moving. Or….well, it really can be almost anything as long as it moves you along.

You’ll know if it’s working because you feel relief and energized again.

Even more important, these very small steps can accomplish very big things. Even big, challenging goals must be broken down into smaller ones anyhow. Don’t get overwhelmed by how many steps there are. Just do one of them and keep on moving ahead. Focus on that, and enjoy what you are doing now.

Don’t know what the next step should be? Just follow Lang’s First Principle of Action: You may not know THE next step you must take, but you can (almost) always come up with A next step that will move you forward—physically, emotionally, financially, etc. Each time you move ahead, any remaining stuck point can be seen from a new perspective.

Make sure you don’t wait for some wide open period of time to really move ahead.

Keep on moving and you will keep feeling energized and motivated and open to opportunities that will come your way.

© 2007-2009 by Leonard Lang

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5 Basics Tips to Prepare for Layoffs

A friend of mine just missed getting laid off as 23 of his coworkers were let go with no notice.  In fact, the company had indicated it wasn’t having a tough time.

So how could he or his coworkers have been more ready?  How can anyone prepare for layoffs?

1.  The best preparation is to find ways to avoid them.  Companies can take the first step, so if you are an exec or manager, think of ways to creatively keep all those good employees you have.  Check out this article for more on that.

2. Don’t get caught off guard.  Notice what’s happening– in news reports about your company, in stock prices if your company is publicly held, in loss of clients, in industry trends.  Don’t get caught in a Chicken Little water cooler panic, but do look at the facts. 

3. If you have a decent or good relationship with a boss, definitely have a sitdown talk about your role and your department’s role as the recession lingers.  It doesn’t have to be about whether or not you are getting laid off, but getting a sense of what’s likely (by what the person says and doesn’t say, by the way).  You may also find out how you will have to take on roles you do not want and so it will be time to look for a new job anyhow.

4. People are irrational in interesting ways.  They will look at you as more employable if you now have a job than if you are unemployed.  So if you are thinking you might like another job, or if layoffs seem somewhat likely, then the time to start searching is right now–before the layoff.  Make the decision to find other work.

5.  Starting a job search in advance means doing ALL the things you’d do if you were already laid off, except getting unemployment insurance.

This includes the basics for starters–make an up-to-date resume (see article on visual resumes here), cover letter (or template you can customize as needed), and start expanding and tapping into your networking list, if only to see how everyone else you know is doing and what you can do for them.  If you don’t know about all the online resources, start finding out by searching online, getting help at your library or talking with state support services.

Do not work on these things or store resumes, etc. at work.  Look at this job search as a second after- hours job. 

Finally, as part of your networking, make sure you have a good support community of people to help you keep on track and motivated.  If you do get laid off, don’t waste time blaming yourself for not seeing it coming, just get moving ahead.

 

 

 

 

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Superbowl Career Ad–Emotional Truths, But Don’t Just React to the Negative

I confess I didn’t watch most of the Superbowl ads.  I did see the end of the game and all of the Boss of course.  But I did look later for the career ads just to keep up my career coaching cred in some weird way.

The careerbuilder ad made me laugh with its clever repetitions and images.  But with my coaching hat on, I also saw that it was containing some basic emotional truths about career or job change.  The ad showed a woman screaming in her car when she arrives at work, bosses showing no respect, people crying and punching toy koala bears.  Actually, doesn’t sound too funny when you just write it down.  But it’s through the humor that we can get to the tougher emotional truths sometime.

Most of us do wait until we feel incredibly angry, sad, frustrated, disgusted or dissed before doing anything about our jobs.  Studies show we are more likely to act in response to getting rid of pain that going for pleasure, getting rid of unhappiness than going for happiness.  That can keep us in so-so positions, which eventually will also drag us down emotionally.  It just takes longer, like water dripping until it finally makes a hole in the stone.

I Twittered about this today, how the ad showed some basic situations and feelings that revealed underlying emotional truths we need to notice and deal with.  A colleague, Shaun Jamison, replied that the problem is we often then jump from the frying pan to the fire.  I agree.  In trying to end our pain we might take rash action, having probably waited to

It’s not that the pain we’re feeling isn’t a good indicator about what to do.  It’s just incomplete.  What’s missing in part is our careful thinking about what else we can do, what jobs are better fits–but what’s also missing are the happy emotions.

The happy emotions of joy, peace, contentment, excitement can guide us to envisioning a job we’d really like.  In my coaching, I always start out finding out what really gets people energized, passionate, excited.  Doesn’t matter if it’s nonwork stuff.  First get to that connection with your energy and passion and desire, and we can then use our thinking to figure out how to apply those passions into a better career and job.

And yeh, it doesn’t hurt to be able to laugh at our problems sometimes too, as with the ad.

 

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Career Ideas–Understand Failure

One of the most famous stories about seeing failure in a new light is about Edison.  A reporter is said to have asked how he felt about having failed in thousands of experiments trying to make a lightbulb. Edison replied, I haven’t failed once. I found 9,999 ways to not make the lightbulb.

Einstein too had many failures, including a critique of Neils Bohr’s work which didn’t take into account Einstein’s own theory of relativity. As a career coach (with plenty of my own “failures” along the way, including how I chose my previous career), I often deal with clients who see their careers or their current career as a failure.  Sometimes it’s because they just got fired.  Sometimes it’s because they are stressed out in the wrong job.  Sometimes it’s because they don’t know where they are going in their lives and already middle aged. To deal with such perceptions of failure with my clients, I need to do 2 things.

First, isolate what the failure really is, and see if the person is not overgeneralizing much about a mistake, blowing it all out of proportion, and leading to bad decisions such as suddenly leaving a job. For instance, when they say they never do job interviews right, I want to know what they mean by right and wrong. Maybe they just mean that they tend to answer one question out of dozens during the interview in a way that hurt their chances, something that can happen in the best of interviews. Maybe they mean they offended someone by their view on how things should be done. We can review these answers and see if they were excellent answers that just didn’t match with the particular interview.  These answers do not mean the person is a failure at interviewing and needs to go hide his head. In fact, interviews are two way streets where you are evaluating the employer as they evaluate you. With a two way process, the answer that “failed” with the interviewer may be the one that helped you realize this wasn’t the place for you.

Second, even if the specific “failure” or mistake was real and significant, the next question is not–Are you ever going to get interviewing right, but What did you learn. It’s hard to learn new things if you don’t see something as needing improvement, and when we see failure it really focuses our attention. So failure is success, as Edison realized, in that it is a core component of succeeding and learning.  In coaching yourself, look at your failures to see if you are overgeneralizing (for instance, I didn’t finish the project on time again so I’m never going to succeed in this job). Narrow down to what the problem actually was and then go ahead and see what you can learn and do differently from then on. With all that in mind, check out this video from Honda about failure and how innovation and change depend on pushing things until they fail in order to really learn something new.

 

If you haven’t already signed up for my free biweekly ezine on careers and creativity, go on over here and you’ll also get bonus materials including keys to lifework, the 4 foundation questions for career success, and a way to decide if a coach is the right one for you.

Text © 2009 by, Leonard Lang.  Feel free to pass on this article as long as you include the copyright notice and the link to http://choosingacareerblog.com

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Career Coaching–It’s All About the Questions (mostly)

This week I spoke with a few people about coaching and how problems get solved in career coaching.  People asked how I work or what I would do as a coach if faced with this situation or that.  One wanted to know in detail about my processes.

It’s always great when people have these questions because it forces me to get clear again for myself as well as them about the process of coaching.  It’s also a great chance to overcome misconceptions people can so easily have about career coaching, if they’ve never experienced it.

The people I spoke with this week all got it that coaching isn’t therapy of any sort and knew that it was a tool to help people help themselves get out of ruts, get a vision, make a plan, do the plan.  What I did find myself talking about was how a lot of coaching isn’t me answering questions (though some of it is) but asking them.

After all it’s only by questions that the coach can even know what’s going on for the person in terms of their passions and interests and challengs and difficulties.  It’s also a way to help clients look at things from different perspectives.  My favorite is when someone says something like,

“I like construction except not full time so I’m thinking about some carpentry work which is pretty good.  Of course I’d love to have my own catering business, but that’s not going to happen so maybe what I need to do is…

And I just back them up and ask, “Why isn’t that going to happen?” In other words, I start uncovering the reasoning and feelings and assumptions that led to that resigned conclusion about something they’ve identified as a prime passion.  Usually, they have obstacles, but what they really love to do turns out to be very practical and possible.

Or sometimes it’s not–they aren’t going to play quarterback for the Packers at age 49 (unless their name is Favre and they keep making comebacks maybe), but I can ask more questions about what they love about catering, for instance, and find out that it’s about being involved with creating delightful things for people.  We can then go through questions and discussions to figure out what that might mean besides catering.

It’s really quite fun and engaging for the clients as well as for me of course.

Of course, there’s a lot more to coaching than questions.  It may include examples and models, can include advice, and in my case certainly includes many kinds of creative problem solving processes and activities.

But it’s imposible to do coaching without the question, and the bottom line question people are really asking me when they ask about coaching is this:

 

Can this really help me truly solve my career challenge?  Or is this likely to lead me to my ideal lifework or career?

To answer yes, the coach has to have a very pragmatic orientation, even when talking first about career dreams, as I like to do.   But it’s not possible for the coach to answer yes unless the client also says yes–meaning they have to be willing to commit to solving their problems, and to take the time to do the homework (I give lots of homework so clients move quickly on their own as much as possible). and be open to new ideas for their careers or job searches.

Check out a related career coaching post–I’m Smart, Competent–Why Would I Need  a Career Life Coach?

 

 

 

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The Emerging Social Media–Visual Resume/Portfolio Trend

As with everything else in the career and job search front, the expectations keep rising for what you can or should do online.  That’s apparently becoming true of resumes.  There are many sites to post your resume, usually with a variety of standard but helpful templates.  You also can easily post your resume with a URL that at least includes your name. 

Most sites still offer pretty standard looking examples and templates that seem helpful but not much different from resumes 20 years ago (except they are online).  But there are also newer options to consider like more dynamic pages, with more photos, live links, examples of your work.

Graphics designers and artists have quite a number of sites for portfolios, but to extend this concept to the rest of us is what’s emerging now.

Some call it the social media resume, though this can mean anything from listing your Facebook URL to extensive use of YouTube video links, audio, links to blogs and other profiles, RSS feeds and even the chance to track visitors to your resume through Google Analytics.

They blur the line, if there is one, between a qualifications resume and your own website or blog or page on Squidoo or HubPages.  In fact, people also use social media bios when not looking for work as such, but to have a presence for selling services, products, or just being ready for someone to notice.  People use their blogs soley for this, rather than ongoing posts.

Check out a couple of the visual or social media resume services for yourself here and here, for example.  Here’s a link to a brief blog post about what to be careful about when relying on social media for job searches. 

What do you think?  What’s your experience with online resumes, social media resumes?  Feelings about this trend?  Stories?

Remember to sign up for my free creative problem solving and career ideas ezine for more articles and special offers.

 

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Career Idea–Get Grateful, Get Happy, Get Effective

Eric was 16 and knew it all so had no reason to participate, apparently, in a journaling class I was teaching.  We got along OK, and respected each other, but he wasn’t exactly a great contributor in attitude or ideas to the group.  But after I gave one assignment to the group–he came back the next class and participated instead of just joking or hanging out in the back with his crew and interrupting.  In fact, he wanted to tell everyone the incredibly good experiences he had because of the assignment.  Probably half the class had good experiences they told, and the others just hadn’t done it.

I’ve taught journaling classes to 10 year olds and seniors and most everyone between.  I’ve taught them to improve your health (yes there’s good evidence for that), to be a writer, and to explore your spirituality.  But this exercise that Eric liked is some kind of universal that works with everyone who gives it a try no matter why they are journaling. I also use it sometimes with career coaching clients

The activity is simple, fast, and easy–what more can you want?  In the version I give, I ask people to keep a gratitude journal for 5 minutes a day at least 3x a week for the length of the course, which varies. 

It may sound obvious to some of you or corny to others, but it makes people happier, more relaxed and more energized in my experience.

In recent years, I’m finding support for this very old idea in very new research.  Here’s a nice summary of some of it from PsyBlog.  I was surprised to find that there were better results form doing this just once a week vs. daily or 3x as I had recommended. 

The key I find when I’ve used the exercise (myself and with others) is to make sure to pick things that you actually feel grateful for and don’t get caught up in what others may say you SHOULD be grateful for.  If everyone says you should be grateful you weren’t hurt badly when someone totalled your car and you’re just feeling angry–don’t list that in your gratitude journal.  You might consider it, but don’t put down what you should feel.  Do put down even small things that you are grateful for.  You’ll know the difference.

Why is this a post in my career ideas blog?

Simple–if you’re getting stuck lately (or any time) on lousy economic news, lousy work or personal news and getting pessimistic and unhappy, you are not going to be effective in finding a new job, deciding a career or even being your best at work wherever you are now.   On the other hand, if you can find things that are positive in your life that you actually feel grateful for, you will change your mindset   Or rather, thinking gratefully has a cascade effect and automatically changes your mindset. 

To put it simply–it makes you happier.  But here’s the point even some of the researchers may not be noting–it makes you happier by CONNECTING YOU TO YOUR OWN LIFE.   That kind of happiness will always get you more creative, more engaged, and more hopeful, too–which is what I saw in Eric. 

Who knows?  It might even make you happier with your current work when you thought you had to leave, and that might rub off on that annoying boss or colleague.  Well, optimism is good too.

© 2009 Leonard Lang.  Feel free to reprint if you list the copyright and a link to this site, http://choosingacareerblog.com

 

 

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Keeping Difficult New Year’s Career Resolutions

Here’s a common career question I get as a career coach and an answer I wrote a couple of years ago at that start of the new year that has helped my clients and ezine readers get clearer about what they need to do.

 

CAREER QUESTION:  I tend to pick difficult New Year’s resolutions (begin a new career, double the size of my business, make lots more money, meet a romantic partner, lose a zillion pounds) and wind up just dreading them and feeling as if I have failed.  Do you have a creative way to overcome this stuck point, other than just abandoning these kinds of goals?    

ANSWER:   What’s your deeper goal?  If your resolution was to lose weight, is your deeper goal to be healthier?  Then find many ways to meet that goal, not just the one way represented by your specific resolution.   In other words, give yourself many paths for success in getting what you really want, and with the small successes you will feel encouraged to continue as well with the more difficult original resolution.

The idea here is to meet your deeper, underlying desires and needs and not get stuck with something you feel overwhelmed by, as if that’s the only path to fulfilling your desire.  Get more ways to move forward.  With even small successes, you’ll have motivational fuel to get beyond the stuck point of your original, difficult resolution as well. 

Say you want to lose weight.  Ask yourself why?  Maybe it’s to become healthier.  Then find other ways of becoming healthier that may have nothing to do with weight, such as by taking a vacation (reducing stress, improving health) or meditating.  Or by eating healthier, even if you eat the same number of calories and aren’t on a reducing diet.  Don’t drop the specific weight loss goal if you feel it’s important.  Find ways to make that happen too, but add other small (and large) ways to succeed with your deeper desire.   

Or say your resolution is to switch careers.  Ask why you want to switch careers.  Maybe to do something you are more passionate about.  Then think of new ways to enjoy your favorite passions more hours of the week.  If you can’t incorporate, for instance, your passion for the outdoors and hiking into your work, maybe you can take a walk in a park during lunch or before or after work.  If one passion is making fabulous meals, then do that and maybe even get paid, such as catering your friend’s 40th birthday party.  Continue to look for a better career that you might feel passionate about that includes the outdoors and hiking or includes cooking, but with the idea that this is now just one way to meet your larger goal of feeling more passion in your daily life. 

© 2006–2009 Leonard Lang

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Creative Ideas to Avoid Layoffs and Find Career Niches

The New York Times reports that companies are recognizing the value of retaining good, proven employees even during the recession.  Instead of relying solely on layoffs, some are trying other approaches that cut down on labor costs while making sure that employees can hold onto their jobs.  This also means that the company doesn’t lose reliable workers who know their business.

It’s not from any warm and fuzzy feelings that organizations are doing this but because companies today measure the productivity and value of their employees more carefully (or think they do), and recognize that they can’t afford to lose good workers. 

“A growing number of employers, hoping to avoid or limit layoffs, are introducing four-day workweeks, unpaid vacations and voluntary or enforced furloughs, along with wage freezes, pension cuts and flexible work schedules. These employers are still cutting labor costs, but hanging onto the labor,” reports the NY Times article. 

If you are a manager who’s been asked to trim costs, please consider these more creative options.

And if you are out of work, but understand these kinds of issues, there’s a BIG opportunity for you to succeed if you can carve out a niche as a workforce saver who can still save money. 

In other words, as I tell my coaching clients who want to just hunker down during a recession and avoid working on their real career dreams—with any big changes in the economy (good or bad), comes big opportunities for anyone who knows how to keep organizations succeeding in the new circumstances. 

So if you are creative and alert to the idea of opportunity, this recession, as awful as it’s proving for many people, does also provide new niches to pursue if those match your passions and skills.

 

 

 

 

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Which Career Is Best–Career Ideas for Artistic Student

I wasn’t happy with the other answers I saw to a career question on Yahoo this week, so I answered it. It was from someone apparently just starting to look for a career, someone with lots of artistic interests who didn’t want to be focused just on making money. Since it is the most foundational of all career questions, I thought I’d share my answer, slightly expanded, with anyone coming to this blog too.

Q: How do you know what career is best for you?

As a career coach (in Minnesota but working nationally), I often work with clients who are doing great financially but are just miserable in their careers. They light up when they start following their passions instead. So I can say that beyond the cliché, it’s generally true that following your passions WILL make you a lot happier than following only the money.

So what to do? For now, why not pursue all or many of the artistic passions you mention by taking classes if you are about to go to college (or are in college)? Now is your chance to experiment and learn about these arts and about yourself.

Keep your eyes open–notice what specific things you really love to do, not just dance, for ex., but what kind of dance you like and what role. Choreographer or performer? Part of a group, couple dancing, soloist?

Notice where you are willing to be persistent and not mind “failures” vs things you only like when they are going well. That will clarify which are more likely for day–to-day work and which are more appropriate for your hobbies. I think keeping a log about what you like is great too as you’ll start noticing patterns that will help you decide on a major.

Get help from others while in college or taking classes instead of being a passive student. Talk to teachers, other students, and people in these arts for a living (informational interviews) to see what careers look like from the inside. That way it will be easier for you to decide.

In other words, do follow your passions, noticing what really suits you and isn’t just this month’s whim.