A Different Kind of WorkNew Work Pioneers | A Different Kind of Work

3 Little-Known Factors That Could Ease Your Transition From Corporate Job To Solopreneurship

Christine — Mon, 16 May 2011 17:10:36 +0000

It’s a question I get asked a lot.

How do you extricate yourself from a corporate career?

One that you’ve known very well.

I’m not talking about how you get your head round what to do next. I’ll leave that subject for other posts. I’m talking about navigating your way through your exit.

There’s lots of stuff out there about giving two-fingers to the corporation, and how to do it. But what if you don’t want to use anger and rebellion to fuel your transition?

Here are three things I get my clients to focus on when they’re at the point of becoming conscious freelancers.

Tipping Point

A key myth in thinking about setting out on your own is that you need a ton of courage to do it and that you’ve got to psyche yourself up before jumping off. You hear folks giving the advice, “make a decision and just go for it”.

Well, yes and no.

Of course, there’s a decision-making process that needs to happen.

But, I think it’s less about using control to work yourself into a state that feels unnatural, and more about going with the natural order of things.

Consider the words of the Tao Te Ching:

Less and less do you need to force things,
until finally you arrive at non-action.

When nothing is done,
nothing is left undone.

If you’re working on purpose, your current work will serve you until it doesn’t. If you trust this process, there will come a point at which you know it’s time to act. A point at which it’s right to pull away and move on, in a way that allows you to do so without resentment or regret.

If you can adopt that mindset, you can rid yourself of any feelings you’re holding onto about being a failure because you haven’t yet been able to act.

You can also get curious about what it is in your current set up that you still have to learn in order to move beyond it.

Stakeholders

But when leaving becomes a reality, how do you take people with you? Especially if there’s any possibility you need your company’s good will for references, future employment, or possible consulting gigs?

Well, like any form of influencing, you need to consider just who needs you to have a conversation with them and what they need and want to hear from you.

Your boss will be on that list. But who else? Who has advocated you in the business and will want to feel that you’ve connected with them about your decision. An internal mentor? An HR person?

And what about folks outside the company? Who in your network do you need to talk to and get on board? Maybe even long before you push any final buttons.

Story

And what are the words you are going to use to tell folks of your decision? Indeed, to tell yourself about your decision?

You may have any amount of reasons running around your head for wanting to leave and move on. But you need to harness them, and you need to focus on the positives.

Instead of thinking about what’s been bad about your employed career, consider instead what’s been good about it. What it’s taught you about yourself. What it has given you in concrete terms. How it has enabled you to come to this transition point. Find gratitude in your soul for these things, because then you can thank them and move on.

What’s great now about this next phase? What is it offering you in terms of opportunity and learning? What positive challenges is it throwing out for you?

Spend whatever time getting really clear.

Your clarity then allows you to communicate your exit in a good, whole way, and for others to experience you being okay about your move, which in turn amplifies the good feelings about it.

Which of course sets you up feeling great about stepping into your soloprenuership!

These are simple ideas. But if you can see how they work, and work with them, not only with they smooth your exit when it’s time, it’ll free up your thinking about what’s possible thereafter. Because the unimaginable act of quitting, has suddenly become doable.

As always, let me know how this post strikes you. What insights does it give you? How might you use some of the thinking?

photo credit: aithom2

The Conscious Freelancer’s 5 Big Questions

Christine — Fri, 13 May 2011 12:00:08 +0000

Self employment is gaining status as a legitimate career path.

Now, there are a ton of bloggers out there who encourage you to quit your day job, like doing so was your ticket to a new religion. (Many of them, by the way, are still themselves in day jobs and hoping that, if you buy their quit-your-job services, they’ll be able to live the kind of lives they’re telling you to have.)

However, solopreneurship isn’t utopia.

The mortgage and petrol still have to be paid. You have to fund your holidays, maternities, and sickness absences. And there’s no big bad company to blame when the market shifts and your income drops.

Still, working for yourself brings a certain kind of freedom. And a way of working with a level of personal consciousness that I have yet to see matched by a corporate gig.

So it’s a serious option for New Work Pioneers, if you can take a grounded, big-picture perspective on it.

Today, I want to talk about the five big questions that come up in my work with folk on this path. Not to deter you. But to start laying things out in a real way.

So that they are normalised. So that you become more resourceful in confronting them positively.

I hadn’t set out to write a series on this, but if you’d be up for that, let me know. The muse can always use a little inspiration!

How to quit structured employment?

Whether your career is stagnating or on the point of accelerating, you’ve got a regular income and whatever additional stock, bonuses and benefits come with your package. And you have the lifestyle to match. It’s big shit to imagine cutting off that oxygen supply.

Add to the equation that you’re well regarded, and seen as being a vital part of the fabric of your company and profession. Folk around you assume you’re going to stick with it. You may be included in long-range staffing plans or succession charts.

How do you break free of all of that and not doubt your sanity?

How do you take the inkling of a self-employed career and breath enough air into it that it starts to take on a viable life of its own? Where do you get the faith to believe that you can make a go of things in a way that allows you to support the kind of income you need?

What are the conversations you must have with yourself, your family, your bosses and colleagues that allow you to withdraw and feel good about your decisions? Without feeling that you’ve failed in some way? And that doors remain open, if you need them to be?

How to do meaningful work?

Working for yourself means developing products or services that you promote and exchange in return for money. What are yours?

How close will they be to what you do now? How different will you allow yourself to be?

You hear a lot of talk about working on purpose. How much conviction must you have about yours before you voice it? How much clarity about it do you need before putting a foot in the water?

Can you believe that you’re worth having a purpose? And what’s the process towards becoming someone who lives “on purpose”?

How to get balance?

One of the biggest push factors from corporate work is the desire to have a better quality of life. To be able to listen to yourself, and feed your soul with things like special interests and family time that would otherwise go by the wayside.

Yet, becoming wholly responsible for your own work demands its own attention and takes energy and focus. How do you boundary time you give it versus time you take for you? How do you square that off with a world that expects you to be always plugged in?

How do you manage your fears that if you’re not always there, you won’t get work?

What old, ill-fitting feeling and beliefs come up for you as you assert your wish for a life? How will you choose to overcome them so that you don’t just reinvent your corporate experience?

How to support career development?

In good times, big companies spend fortunes on your training and development. They’ll often allow you to expense your professional qualifications or memberships. How will you keep your skills sharp when you’re self-funding?

Who will you lean on that gets what you’re trying to do? Where will you find the time and space and keep the work coming in?

How to enable a shift in business focus?

And what if you decide, as happens, that although you started out offering this, you now what to switch to that?

How do you walk the line of rethinking your game, figuring out how to, and keeping your cashflow coming?

How do you deal with times of deep soul-searching and personal reinvention, and stay commercially relevant?

How to know if it’s ever right to go back?

Popular mythology says that when you quit the corporation, there’s no going back.

But is that for real? And would there be instances where, in complete conscious awareness, it would be right to take a freelance mindset into what’s contracted as a payroll job?

How do you navigate that in a way that feels like moving forward, not back?

How would you know when to quit again and what for?

How does all of this strike you? Does any of it sound familiar? What do you resonate with? What would you add to the list?

photo credit: EliJerma

Warning: More Government Insanity About Jobs On The Way

Christine — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 12:52:36 +0000

You’ve got to love the UK coalition government. A couple of weeks ago they were expressing disappointment that the private sector may not, after all, be able to pick up the slack on public sector job losses. And today Iain Duncan Smith pronounced that the unemployment issue is really one of inefficient job matching.

“It’s not the absence of jobs that’s the problem. It’s the failure to match the unemployed to the jobs there are.”

Priceless.

The naivety that even in an environment of price and tax increases, the private sector would have buoyant employment itself beggars belief. But quite separate to the economic concerns, the number balancing myth being espoused shows a complete lack of understanding about organizations and people.

The whole thing is being looked at as a pseudo-logical, two dimensional problem. And it isn’t.

First, public and private sectors serve different purposes. The organizational cultures between, and among them vary widely. I’m not saying that one is better than the other; they are just different, and no account is being taken of that. Nor of people’s ability or readiness to adapt between one and the other.

Second, the skills, talents and mindsets that people need to be successful across the piece vary widely too.

This dehumanizing stand of trying to force-fit people to job vacancies, even by providing retraining, pays scant attention to what best brings people alive. Sure there are jobs out there. But how many of them are jobs that would make you happy to get up in the morning? And there’s still a war for talent raging that even retraining is not going to assuage.

Beyond everything else, the whole approach is being looked at and managed from an increasingly outmoded concept of work.

It’s ignoring that underneath all of this government imposed mayhem, there’s a quiet revolution afoot about what work is and how it should be brokered. It’s taking a status quo attitude to something that’s already changing at a deep level.

Which means that the whole thing just feels more and more crazy. And I see only more craziness on the horizon.

What if you’re stuck in the middle of this?

I speak to people across public and private sectors who are in the middle of big upheaval around work right now. Particularly in the public sector, it’s so difficult not to feel a deep sense of betrayal and confusion about what’s going on. The contract you had – the psychological contract – around your work for the government has been unilaterally rewritten. And you are left wondering what’s happening.

It’s difficult not to take on the government’s insanity and think it’s yours; to see yourself as being somehow disappointing or to be failing in some way. And to feel disempowered at a time when you need all your creative resources supporting you.

But that craziness isn’t yours. It’s theirs, although they’ll never own it. And you need to believe this in your heart of hearts to get yourself through the impending “work crunch” ahead.

How else are you staying positive in the current mad times? What can you share here that would be of benefit to others in helping them get a great outcome from a difficult moment?
photo credit: ronada

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Why Freelancers Hold The Key To Happiness At Work

Christine — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 12:00:12 +0000

Did you know that there are now 1.4m freelance workers in the UK, and 42.6m in the US?

That’s around 8% of our full-time working populations taking responsibility for their own livelihoods.

Interesting?

Even more interesting, freelancer workers are among the happiest.

Reasons for being happy?

They have more control over what work they will and won’t do.

They orient their work in the direction of the things they most enjoy.

They work outside the constraints of the normal “9 to 5″.

And they also believe that they have more control over what they earn, and when they earn it.

They are role model New Work Pioneers: brave, courageous folks, intent on giving themselves a more livable business experience.

And I wonder what their example says to you?

What lessons can you learn from them? What do you notice about their approach to things that differs from yours? What changes could you adopt, even in your full-time job, that might allow you to be a little happier?

I’d love to get your take on it.

photo credit: a4gpa

How Safe Is Your Career From Extinction?

Christine — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 12:27:10 +0000

With temperatures reaching 20 degrees centigrade, it’s been summer again over the weekend here in the South of England. But, with David Cameron’s call for us to pull together to get Britain back on track, at the same time as Civil Service Unions were negotiating redundancy payment terms that could allow up to 100,000 job losses, there’s no doubt that winter is on the way.

Some of my people are right in the middle of this, already feeling destabilized and wondering what it all means.

Others are working for firms who have made a living from selling to the public sector, and are feeling a draft as budgets for IT, consultancy, recruitment, advertising and other services are slashed.

I’m imagining that the UK government believes the slack they’re about to pump into the system will be picked up by the private sector. But that’s certainly not what’s happening in the US, where 64,000 new private sector jobs, were significantly outweighed by 159,000 US Government job losses in September. And although there’s upturn in some UK companies, I’m still hearing stories of folks having just survived third and fourth rounds of cuts.

With all of this going on, I fear that we’re about to live through the death of certain traditional professional, administrative and support service jobs. It’s the twenty first century equivalent of the demise of the mining industry. But it’s likely to be even more insidious because the skill sets involved are associated with less obvious or tangible outcomes. There will be no silent pit heads; no derelict mines. The wastelands will be more virtual and emotional.

And I suspect too that my focus here on the public sector is only the tip of an iceberg. That we’ll only understand the full impact of our respective governments actions on the shape and nature of jobs and careers as their whole economy-saving measures unfold.

Still, it’s a very real and current problem. How confident are you that you can take your years of highly specialized training and experience and find a home for them elsewhere?

Dinosaur or phoenix?

I sure don’t have all the answers, but it seems to me that as the world of work morphs from the known to the unknown, we each have an individual choice about how we frame our response to the challenge.

Will we be dinosaurs, doing nothing other than keeping our heads down and imagining that the problem will blow over? Or that catastrophe is inevitable?

Or will we be phoenixes? Will we choose to understand that life may indeed be burning our current way of working to a pile of ashes. But that we can use a metaphoric death to give us new energy, vitality and sense of direction?

Assuming you choose the latter, there are things you can do now to ride with the tide of reinvention.

Conventional solutions

For a start there are some conventional things you should be doing as standard. Like doing a stock-take of yourself, your skills and your personal qualities, and putting together a compelling CV or resume. My friend Julie Walraven is a phenomenal resource in helping you get market-ready. She’s also brilliant in supporting you to pitch for things you decide to target, and in helping you use social media in the process, especially LinkedIn.

These things help to build your confidence and get you thinking about how you might reorient yourself for different jobs that use your current skills set.

Unconventional solutions

But these are unconventional times. So, in addition to having good basics in order, let the threat of change give you the permission you need to think laterally and creatively about what you do for a living.

So, you may be a department manager in the civil service right now, and could apply for general management jobs elsewhere. But what else could you do?

What else would you love to do?

What areas of growth do you see opening up that could allow you to use your talents in radically different ways?

What’s small now that’s going to get bigger?

How could you think about work differently than you have in the past and what does that unlock for you?

And don’t just think about what you’d do. Consider how you’d do it.

If you were working your notice, with a threatened layoff now about to become reality, what would you be doing differently? How would you be prioritizing work versus family, friends and interests?

How would you manage your time differently to give you more of the balance you’ve been looking for?

How would you play political games differently so that you felt less taken for granted by your bosses?

Even before the latest scenario on public sector jobs, I was talking about a band of folks who’d already taken it upon themselves to recreate their relationship with work. This most recent development is but another catalyst in a sea of change.

Don’t wait till the economy or the government decide that your career is extinct to act. Get your own plan and start bringing it to life today. Even if you end up keeping your job, you’ll feel a hundred times better about it if you’re in the driving seat.

What changes are you seeing in your area of career expertise? What’s the challenge in that for you and how are you responding?

photo credit: Radio Saigón

What If There IS No Work?

Christine — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 11:00:31 +0000

So, here’s the thing: some of my clients are in the unusual-for-them position of having no work right now. They’ve either been made redundant from their firms, are watching their businesses hit the skids, or are just generally less well employed than they’d really rather wish to be.

Their hearts tell them they’d love to buy in to the New Work Pioneer ethos.

But to a greater or lesser degree the fear of becoming the proverbial bag lady brings them back to doing what they know how to in this situation: get on the market and hustle for another of the same kind of job.

They can pay attention to this “doing what you love” stuff in the future. When things are sorted. When they feel more secure and stable.

You know how it is.

And with more redundancies looming here in the UK, at least in the public sector, even just getting more of the same is not the cakewalk it once was. Here are a few tips for staying street-savvy, without giving your soul over to the whims of the economy.

Don’t panic

Easier to say than to do, perhaps. But, seriously, panic drives you to take action and make decisions that you may regret later. That’s because, when we’re anxious, we’re cut off from the most confident, resourceful parts of ourselves.

So, first things first, do what you need to in order to nail down key concerns.

The biggest one is usually money. Face this fear head-on, and early on. Figure out what you need and what you want, budget and keep a tight reign on things. If you need to talk to banks about refinancing or having mortgage payment holidays or whatever, do it proactively.

Knowing that you’re in control of your money, rather than it being in control of you will give you personal and psychological breathing space.
Listen to your heart and your head

It’s tempting to let your head rule at times when work is tricky. It can definitely help you figure things out and do things cleverly. But it won’t always take account of your intuitions or feelings. They need attention too.

What do you really, really want to do in this situation? What opportunities do you see that your logical mind wants you to ignore? What does your gut tell you about interviews you’ve gone for, or not? What if you paid attention? Where would that take you?

Now, how might you use your mind to logic the next steps?
Focus on what you can do

There’s a lot of “can’t” around at the moment. Can’t work. Can’t afford. Can’t progress. What if you shift your attention off of these things and onto where you can direct your energy ?

Networking is a pretty obvious one. You can do this on or offline. And, since things seem to be changing around you anyway, what do you have to lose by pushing the barriers and experimenting with new networks or new media that you haven’t tried before?

Updating your skills is another. As, indeed, is taking them in a completely different direction again. Money doesn’t need to be an obstacle. There’s a ton of resource online and either free or relatively inexpensive.

If you’re looking for a similar job, get yourself the smartest CV and the best support you can buy to position yourself well in a crowded market. Julie Walraven is a fabulous resource on both fronts.

And if you really do want to use this opportunity for bigger change, find yourself a coach that understands this space and invest in your own transformation.
Be pragmatic

I’m seeing folks take months right now to find work they are happy with. It all depends on what level you’re at, how much you’re earning, and how much networking you’re prepared to do for yourself.

Meantime, you may still want to put cash in the bank.

I’m counselling people to take a long term view of things now, separating out what they need to do to earn the money to support themselves, from finding work that they will be happy with ongoing.

That could look like choosing to take a job that you know is a compromise of some sort for you in the short term, but using it as leverage for future endeavour.

Or taking interim contracts, if you can find them, to tide you over.

The trick comes in making these decisions consciously and tactically. You do not need to imagine that a short term solution defines you. It doesn’t. It just keeps your spirit alive in the longer term.
Don’t beat yourself up

Finding paths forward in the current economy is fraught with challenge and set-back. Clients tell me of writing emails for jobs and never getting response. Or, of headhunters who were gushing and warm in getting them to interview never following up with the outcome. It shouldn’t be like this, but sadly, sometimes it is.

Don’t, whatever you do, take it personally. It’s really not about you.

Times are tough, but keep the faith. Keep your sense of direction and take action you can believe in. That’s what’s going to see you through.

photo credit: Robert S. Donovan

Workshops: The Most Powerful Form Of Coaching?

Christine — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 09:56:32 +0000

This week I’ve been talking to a number of people who are attending the Work Life Balance Workshop I’m running on September 24th. Besides asking me about what to expect, the conversation has often moved into questions about my motivation for creating the event, and why I chose a workshop format at all.

I decided to write this post to share why I think that workshops are such a powerful form of coaching.

Work Life Balance Workshop

I created The Worklife Makeover because everything tells me that “work life balance” is something people are struggling with more and more these days.

Particularly in the current economy where people – assuming they’re working at all – are working harder for the same or less money than before.

Where many things that folks once took for granted about the security of their jobs has disappeared. Including in the relatively more “safe” public sector.

Where business owners are having to really hustle for their livelihoods.

Where expected career paths are evaporating in front of people’s eyes.

Where once certain retirement plans have become unclear.

In corporate speak, while the government plays the game of digging the country out of its black hole of debt, consumer confidence is tanking. And, unsurprisingly, employee engagement measures are hitting the deck.

People are understandably feeling the pressure. Something my good friend Judy Martin wrote about just this week.

Companies are offering their own solutions to these challenges, as Judy clearly points out. But this isn’t universally true.

Besides, I wanted to offer a service, an event, that allows people to look at their lives more broadly than to what extent they help fulfil a corporation’s agenda of them.

I wanted to support people find their own voices, and retrieve a sense of personal power in the chaos that’s going on around us.

Workshops: The Power of the Group

In one to one work, I endorse and support people to find their own path.

But with certain topics, getting a small group of kindred spirits together has enormous value of its own. People, who don’t know each other from Adam in the beginning, meet around a shared concern, and become one another’s sounding boards.

Of course it takes strong facilitation and coaching to quickly create the safety that allows people to share. And highly focused content and coaching exercises to help people hone in on what’s right for them.

But beyond that, as I help people rethink their lives, see new possibilities, and shift old mindsets that keep them stuck, the power of the group plays a role too.

It mirrors back to you who you really are. It witnesses your casting off of stuff that no longer suits you. It amplifies for you the positive decisions you make in going forward in your life.

Workshops: You are not alone

With skilful leadership, the group develops its own energy. People come to understand that they are not alone in things. A community emerges that supports itself.

Often, that community extends beyond the workshop in ways of its own. I just have to watch my Twitter feed these days to see the interconnections that go on between the online folks who attended my last workshop, and that’s not to mention some of the off-line stuff I am part of too.

So, don’t underestimate workshops. Well run, they can be transformational.

What workshops have you attended, or indeed run, where the power of the event and the group rocked your life?

Here’s How New Work Pioneers Navigate Their Journey

Christine — Fri, 21 May 2010 11:39:19 +0000

There’s a very real community of people choosing to rewrite the rules of their professional and personal lives. For some that means leaving the corporation to design their own lifestyle. For others it’s about evolving a way of being that allows them to thrive in employed roles.

If you’ve been reading this series, you’ll know I call this community The New Work Pioneers.

And so far we’ve talked about what prompts them to take a different tack; how they think differently about success; the hallmark milestones of their journey; and why they really bother.

But what really, really sets successful New Work Pioneers apart from those who’d aspire to this path, but fall short?

Self direction

Successful New Work Pioneers see themselves as powerful agents in setting and steering the course of their own lives.

In psychology the jargon is that they have an internal locus of control. This means that on balance they attribute their successes to their own effort, and failures to more variable, often external factors. Which allows them to keep moving forward self-assuredly.

Positive outlook

Adrian Swinscoe wrote earlier this week about optimism. People who are successful in carving out different ways of working and living tend to adopt a positive lens in looking at the world.

They’re no Pollyannas. Nor do they feel the need to adopt any inauthentic persona of the always upbeat person.

They have a realistic view of the world. And it’s one that sees the good; the possibilities and opportunities in each situation.

Life goals

Goals give shape, purpose and direction to life. Successful New Work Pioneers set themselves life goals which they actively pursue. If they’re in a committed relationship, they’ll often set these goals jointly with their partners.

Interestingly, while their goals are often explicit about the material and practical things they want from life, the goals to which they give most attention are those they can imbue with meaning and purpose. For example, they may think of how their work ambitions foster the positive development of their target market; or of how their desire for children will enrich their experience of family.

The deep sense of positive emotional engagement they make with these goals gives them an energy that sustains them.

Flexibility

Even if goals create a map, the terrain once you reach it can look quite different. Successful New Work Pioneers understand this and are not too wedded to a fixed sense of themselves, or of the world. They take bumps in the road as experiences they can learn from.

They don’t allow themselves to be so controlling about things that they get stuck in their own minutiae.

Self knowledge

Smart New Work Pioneers have clocked the importance of understanding themselves. They tend to be committed to their own personal development, seeing it as a life-long pursuit.

Many of them will have an intimate awareness of their personal values and will see how putting them positively into practice not only makes them happy, but gets them great results.

And they’ll unfathom any limiting beliefs they’re holding onto that may threaten to derail them.

Engaging with others

Successful off-piste career folks take satisfaction in good connections with others. Whether it’s in the context of a special love-relationship; with children; with family and friends; or with colleagues, they value the sense of themselves they get from being intimately engaged. The energy they get from this boosts them and supports their onward journey. Particularly if those relationships are mutually respectful and supportive.

Meaning at work

The happiest New Work Pioneers are those who find flow experiences in work. Of course, it helps if they naturally love what they do. But for many that’s not where they’re at. At least not yet.

Still, successful ones will find meaning in whatever form of work they’re doing. Contributing to something that’s bigger than them. Giving something back. Making a difference.

With a felt-sense of purpose, work can feel inspiring, which in turn can fuel the New Work Pioneers endeavours.

Making the most of most things

Sometimes times are good. Sometimes they’re bad. Sometimes just so. Being a New Work Pioneer isn’t a recipe for an incident-free life. Still, the successful ones are those who tend to take life as it comes and make the most of all situations. This equanimity; the finding of satisfaction in what is, allows them just to be.

And just being is in essence what they are seeking to achieve.

So, does this resonate with you? What strategies do you adopt to keep yourself on a different path?

Finally, thanks to the community of readers that has been reading these posts each week over the last couple of months. I really appreciate your having stuck with the series. Now for the task of turning it all into an eBook!If you don’t want to miss out, subscribe for regular updates here!

Photo credit: Steven Durbin Photography

Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life – What Monty Python Can Teach Us About Life And Business

Christine — Mon, 17 May 2010 11:00:39 +0000

Today I’m delighted to welcome Adrian Swinscoe. A couple of weeks ago, he shared some thoughts about optimism in a comment to my Why New Work Pioneers REALLY Bother post. I invited him along to tell us more. Enjoy!

Many of us will have heard of Emotional Intelligence over the course of the last few years. It was popularized after the publication of Daniel Goleman‘s best seller Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ in 1996.

Daniel Goleman’s research into Emotional Intelligence (EQ), where EQ designates emotional intelligence and IQ represents academic, intellectual or technological knowledge, quantified the importance of developing EQ. He found that EQ was between 2 and 5 times a better predictor of success (see chart below).

It doesn’t matter which field you’re in whether it’s medicine, law, engineering, journalism, the arts, one of the trades or any other career as the most successful individuals in each area are not necessarily the ones who are the smartest people or those who are the most technically gifted. Instead, the top stars in each field are the ones with the highest EQ or best ‘people skills’.

More recent work on EQ and its relationship to success in leadership roles by Martyn Newman and described in his book Emotional Capitalists described 10 different traits of high-performers. Their highest scores were on:

Self-reliance – the ability to take responsibility and back one’s own decisions when things get tough;
Self-confidence – the ability to maintain self-respect and personal confidence;
Relationship skills – the ability to develop relationships with a wide variety of people;
Empathy – the ability to understand the view point of all parties and develop resonant connections with others;
Self-awareness – awareness of how feelings and emotions impact on personal opinions, attitudes and judgments;
Self-actualisation – the ability to effectively manage their work/life balance;
Assertiveness – how to express feelings, thoughts and beliefs openly in a straightforward way, while respecting the fact that others may hold a different opinion or expectation;
Flexibility – adaptable and open to new ideas in the face of change;
Self-control – the ability to stay calm in stressful situations and maintain productivity without losing control. And, finally;
Optimism – the ability to look on the brighter side of life and sense opportunities in all situations.

Now, some people find the final trait (Optimism) quite challenging as they would say that you are either an optimist or a pessimist or a realist or whatever and that’s they way you are. It’s an age-old debate but research has shown that optimistic people are happier, more effective and more successful than pessimists. And, Martin Seligman in his book Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life argues that optimism can be learned as a skill and that we can train ourselves to become more optimistic. Check out Dr Seligman and his definition of optimism here:

Why Learning to be More Optimistic is Important

Think about it this way: If something bad or negative happens, optimists tend to view it as temporary whereas pessimists tend to do the opposite. Obviously, its not as black and white as this and people will be more optimistic or pessimistic in different areas of their lives depending on their experiences. However, developing a sense of optimism in all areas of ones life will not guarantee but will contribute positively to better outcomes.

Why is this? Because, like Henry Ford once said:

“Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you’re right”

So, optimism or pessimism tend to be self-fulfilling prophecies. It’s as simple as that.

If you want to have less negative stuff happen to you and want to generate more positive outcomes then learn to be more optimistic and you will be taking a more active role in defining your future and happiness. Monty Python captured the essence of all of this in their song: Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.

I hope that made you hum and smile

Finally, now that we’ve established that optimism is important to your future success and happiness. What things do you do to stay optimistic in the face of challenges?

Adrian Swinscoe is a consultant and coach from the UK who writes about customer-focused business growth at Ideas for Business Growth. He has a strong belief that optimism is an essential part of any culture, whether business or personal, and that if more people were more optimistic that the world would be a better place. Why not connect with him on Twitter @adrianswinscoe, LinkedIn or if you liked this article then why not subscribe to his RSS Feed?

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Work life change: event or journey?

Christine — Fri, 14 May 2010 11:24:04 +0000

This is the sixth in The New Work Pioneer Manifesto series. Today we’re talking about the landmark stages navigated on the way to work life freedom.

Many coaches sell seminars and bootcamps where they promise transformational life change for a couple of hundred quid in a weekend.

I’ve often wondered what hopeful planet they live on, because my years of experience of helping people radically change their lives tell me that work life change is not a one off event.

It’s a process. And indeed it needs to be.

The good news, however, is that, although everyone’s journey to living and working on their own terms is unique, there are some typical milestones along the way.

The prompt

The whole thing kicks off when something within us or beyond us causes us to consider that how we’re living and working right now needs to be different. The desire for change can arise by itself, often from a sense of boredom, dissatisfaction, or lack of fulfilment in what we’ve been doing. An inner feeling that there needs to be more. Or that we could be more.

Or, it can come from outside of us, propelled by some force for good or for bad. The arrival of a baby unexpectedly resetting our expectations of what we want from work. The economic downturn resulting in us losing our job or our business, forcing us to question what we really do want from work and from life.

Or a serendipitous happening causing fate to offer us a possibility for change of which we may only have dreamt. A conversation offering freelance work, when we’ve been toying with how to broker an exit from salaried employment.

The prompt needs you to listen, and to not discount it.

Accepting the call

Even if the prompt has come from an exciting life event like a new relationship, or a move to our dream home, it’s often met with uncertainty. We are moving into uncharted territory, and the losing of control that’s associated with letting go of the shore of our existing world view can be as frightening as it is thrilling.

We need, however, to accept the call for change or risk stagnating.

Accepting the call needs you to see the rich choice you have and to make a conscious commitment to moving forward.

Frustration

Assuming we’ve decided that we’re up for change, the next milestone we tend to confront is frustration.

As we change our way of life and work, we’re fundamentally changing our way of being.

It’s unusual to have reached this stage and not to have learned significant new things about ourselves, and our self-awareness begins to shift and open.

Old ways of thinking and behaving feel outgrown. Still, we haven’t yet inhabited what’s right now.

I think of a top lawyer client whose single status had enabled her total dedication to an enormous portfolio and workload. But mid-thirties, a ticking biological clock awakened her desire for relationship and children. Allowing herself this was the first step. Adopting the mindset, skills and behaviour of one who would have a different kind of success took time.

Frustration requires your patience. It needs you to honour the deep learning that you’re doing; to trust that profound life change is afoot.

Stuckness

Many people reach a point where there’s just so much change going on for them, and it’s so unfamiliar, that they feel out of their depth with it all.

You know you’re here when you find yourself asking, “what on earth have I done?” Or, “what have I let myself in for?”

It’s not unusual at this stage to simply feel lost.

One of my friends had been the proverbial “yes” person at work and, having become completely fed up with always being dumped on, decided that she wanted her life back. But, being more assertive with her boss and colleagues didn’t initially go down well. In fact, for a few months, she sat in a frosty environment at work, being berated for daring to say “no” to things. She’d call me in tears about how bad this felt. Still, she couldn’t see how to change it. On the one hand, she could not go back to being a dogsbody. On the other, she didn’t yet have skills in her behavioural vocabulary that allowed her to break out feeling so bad.

Stuckness needs your empathy and understanding. It needs you to constantly remind yourself of your vision and of all the positive reasons you decided to take a different path.

Experimenting

Stuckness is dissolved when you start trying new ways through things.

Typically you get so annoyed with feeling that things aren’t coming together that you explore new different possibilities.

The lawyer moved to this stage when she joined an online dating agency and began putting drinks and dinner dates in her diary. These prompted her to consider new possibilities around how she would focus her work time, and what standards she would be comfortable to set for herself now.

My friend got here when she became so pissed off with her colleagues whinging that she shifted her mindset to seeing that what they thought of her wasn’t her problem. This freed her energy to focus more on proving to them that she could deliver even better results by honouring her own values.

Playfulness is an important factor to experimenting; testing things out without needing them to deliver any particular outcome.

Integration

Finally, the things you’ve been trying out and adopting as new become your norm. They begin to feel natural to you. Indeed, they are “you”.

You can look back and see that you’ve negotiated a big change in yourself. And that it has been for the good.

Integration requires acknowledgement, gratitude and celebration.

Interestingly, as much as that integration is the ending of one major round of change, its also the beginning of another. Next time around, the call will be different, as will the lessons you’ll learn and the integrations you’ll make. But with every round of change come new insights, and new shifts in your growth and development.

Which just adds to the magic of the whole thing!

But what’s your experience? I’d really like to hear. Do you recognise these big milestones? Where are you in your journey? What have you accomplished, and what’s yet to come?

Next Friday, we wrap the series up, talking about the tools New Work Pioneers uniquely use to fuel their success. Make sure you don’t miss out! Subscribe here..