How To Be Real

March 18, 2013 by 6 Comments

Jurassic Gargoyle, DorsetTwo weeks ago I was at the memorial service for Ben, a friend of mine who’d died of cancer, aged 46.

I’d loved him and it was harrowing to be there.

Still, I was heartened by the sheer number of friends, colleagues and clients who’d turned up to see him off.

At the get together afterwards, we all spoke of what he’d meant to us. I’m sure if he’d been there to hear our words, he’d have cried too.

Ben knew his stuff. He worked hard. He was courageous. He was naughty. He was funny. He was caring. He was loving.

But beyond all else, in a world where so many people hide behind an invented version of themselves, he was real.

Real.

And that stayed with me beyond Ben’s Do and into the past days.

Legacy: what do you want to leave behind when you die?

You’ve probably read the same stuff I have about legacy. Maybe it’s something that’s come up for you in some of the courses, or weekend workshops you’ve attended.

What do you want your life to have been about? What is it you want to leave behind when you die?

Often the emphasis is on tangible things. Money, a business, a novel, a work of art, a movement. I must admit that’s how I used to see it.

But I’ve begun to reframe it since Ben died.

I’ve begun to feel that, like Ben, the biggest thing I could leave to others is the sense that I’d been real. That, for good or bad, I’d lived a life, true to myself and my values. And that, in the process, I’d given others implicit permission to do the same.

The big job opportunity and the myths of self-employment

Maybe I already had a sense of that emerging earlier this year when I said no to an opportunity to take my work in a different direction.

A group of friends and former colleagues are setting up a new consulting company, and I was involved in some exploratory conversations. They are great guys, and from time to time we hook up to do some great facilitation and coaching work. I got really excited about the opportunity that emerged for me, which was to lead part of the business.

If you’re a regular reader here, it might surprise you to know I’d been tempted by what was, after all, a job.

But, you know, there’s a whole lot of mythology out there about how easy it is to work for yourself. How it’s an escape from the drudgery of corporate life. How you can make up your own rules and create your own game and it’s light and happiness all the way.

You absolutely can create your own life.

But that has its own set of challenges. You have to turn up for yourself every day. You have to be very disciplined about what you will and won’t give focus to in order that you stay viable, profitable, and not working all the hours God sends.

You have to decide for yourself the bigger sense of purpose and direction you’ll follow – there’s no big organisation, or brand, other than the one you create.

Sometimes that requires you to dig into yourself and to confront and challenge yourself in ways you’d really rather not.

Even if you are successful today, there’s a whole stream of tomorrow’s success you have to enable. After all, there’s no-one other than you putting a salary in your bank account every month, or whenever you decide to pay yourself.

It’s also tough sometimes to stand outside the norm and to be the person who is playing a different game.

To be the one who challenges the status quo, says things that no-one else will and trust you’ll still be profitable.

Sometimes I just ache to fit in. To be part of something bigger.

I think that consulting group caught me at a moment of questioning all that. Of believing that maybe I’d got it wrong.

I was ready to buy some new power suits, get behind a brand that was bigger than me, and go sell it.

But I began to have doubts.

I began to look past my self-criticism of the last couple of years – the fact, for example, that I’d almost given up on this blog – and see what I’d actually created.

The truth? I’ve created a life on my terms. I do wonderful work – a mixture of corporate and individual coaching. I tend to do no more than three paid days a week. Last year I had twelve weeks holiday, traveled to six different long haul destinations, and still earned well.

Last summer I moved house and love where I’ve ended up. A city style house in a friendly village, and within easy reach of a few nice towns.

Perhaps most important of all, I have a fabulous relationship with a man I love and whose company I adore.

And I began to see the value in having created all of that.

For me. For my clients. For the world.

Yes, this takes work. Yes, I want to achieve even more and different. Yes, this takes me back to myself time and time again.

But, for me, it’s real.

Because, being real is about being who you are.

Sure, a former me could do power suits and all that stuff. And part of me still does. But she’s not all of me. And so I really saw that I couldn’t shut the creative, maverick, different kind of me out.

I took courage in both hands and spoke to my friends. I had some concern that, in deciding to be real, I’d lose their love and friendship. I’m sure that fear’s not uncommon. In fact I know it’s what often keeps people trapped.

Still, I told them that as much as I’d love to work with them, a “job” wasn’t me.

To my surprise, if anything, I think they’ve ended up respecting me even more.

What’s really worth it in the end?

I don’t know about you, but when I die, I won’t be thinking about power suits or corporate identity or whether I was an ace at this job or that. I’ll be asking myself whether the people I love knew it beyond it beyond any doubt. Beyond that, was I happy? Had I lived well? Was I true to myself? Did I do the things I wanted in life? Go to the places I wanted Spend time with the people I wanted to spend time with?

These are the things that to me are worth living and working for.

These are the things that are real.

What about you? Where do you allow yourself to be real? Where is it more difficult? Share your thoughts in the comments and let’s talk about it some more there.

 

photo by: flatworldsedge
Filed Under: Reinventing work, Self Development Tagged With: , ,

Community Rocks: How Julia Briggs’ Interimity Is Shaking Up The Recruitment Game

March 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Julia BriggsWinning these days is more than just beating the competition.

It’s changing the game.

Which is why Julia Briggs’ company, Interimity, has recently caught my attention.

At a moment in time when traditional recruitment companies – including their interim management practices – are struggling, Interimity threatens to change the playing field.

As I shared a couple of weeks ago, Interimity takes a community based approach to finding and sourcing HR Interim assignments.

But where did the idea come from and what does anyone get out of it?

I caught up with Julia in London the other day to hear more:

Why

“I started the group after a shocking 3 months of dealing with interim agencies as a candidate. I’d rarely been impressed with recruitment firms during my previous 15 years on the client side. But it was being on the other side of the fence that made me see it was no wonder things were so bad.

“Due diligence, understanding and basic manners were in short supply.

“So, how could it be done better?

“Not just for clients and prospective candidates, but also for HR independents like me. How could I harness the trusted talent network that I knew was potentially out there?

“The solution was Interimity – a recommendation only network of HR interims and consultants – never more than 150 to 200, with an ‘up or out’ policy to keep the focus on quality and collaboration.”

But you’ve invited me to be part of this high calibre, exclusive group, and I’m not an interim

“It was a deliberate choice to mix consultants and interims and it has really paid off. Broad brush stroke, but the former tend to be more collaborative by nature and have encouraged a contributory mindset from those who tend to be more focused on individual assignments.

“I have also included ‘friends’ in the community – people in our space – like you – who would never look to us for work, but who we rate and vice – versa. They include editors, employment law specialists, branding experts etc. even specialist accountants who can answer some of our personal business questions.

“Our friends have provided us with some great PR – for one of them we produce 6 articles a month (www.hrbuzz.com) – they get content and the individual and Interimity gets exposure.”

Sounds great. But are you really a business? Do you really make money?

“Yes, it is a business. And was set up as such, so your comment about community based organisations ‘not setting out to make money’ is interesting. And you may be right.

“However, the idea was always not just to have a network (we share on line and off-line) but to market us to potential clients. So far, we have clients in outsourcing, retail, utilities, professional services and IT. More would be nice. And as well as running the community side of things, it’s very much my role to build client relationships and win assignments.

“That’s made easier with potential clients coming both from the group and from referrals from group members. I also ask for recommendations of who we should be speaking to, or if I am targeting a particular client, for any insight or connections. And I usually get a good response.

“However, it’s not about me making loads of money – I have always said there will be profit share……(and we are now in profit) and one day, I might even turn it into some sort of co-operative, or widen the ownership in some way. Just a thought at the moment, but…….”

So, what’s in it for clients? What’s different?

“As well as turning around assignments incredibly quickly (being on line, knowing the members well) an added layer within the group is that you cannot be considered for client work unless you have passed an in-depth, four-stage assessment process which currently has a 30% fail rate.

“As a client I wanted really well qualified candidates put in front of me. That’s the agency’s job – to do the hard work.

“About one third of the group have completed the process even though they have not necessarily gone forward for a role – but because you get detailed feedback, it is attractive from a personal development perspective. Members see it as a badge of honour as well, and post in the group that they have passed, or mention it to others at our bi-monthly drinks sessions.

“Members also recommend potential candidates for roles who might not be in the group yet, but seeing the assignment details reminds them of someone they would like to have recommended. The rule for candidates (and indeed members) is one degree of separation. If they are not already group members, they have to be recommended by someone I know (and opinion I trust) who has worked with them.”

And what do the members get?

“They get a new (thoroughly vetted) network which they should be able to trust.

“If they are savvy they can use that network to raise their profile amongst a group of potential commissioners or recommenders (HR people tend to commission HR services for clients). They get great input from members on all sorts of different topics – from coaching questions to recommendations on which providers to use (or not).

“And of course they get access to assignments.

“We filled one job from the group that had also been on other recruiters’ books; recruiters who had not contacted some of the excellent folks in the group, because their experience didn’t have specific key words or labels. Because, if you have loads of people just on a database, how else can you sift?

“So, through the community, we’re able to give a much more targeted and personalised service all round.

“And people get masses of feedback. On things like their CV, marketing, how to present themselves etc. From me as part of the accreditation process, and from other group members as they connect. And they get a chance to pay it forward, to make a ‘small’ contribution which may help someone else initially, but each small contribution from every member, if harnessed properly, ultimately provides a really big opportunity for all of us.”

What lessons have you learned in the process of setting all of this up?

  • It’s bloody hard work running a community and you have to try (and fail) at a lot of things

  • It’s hard to generate client work – it’s a very tough market and getting a message out needs a lot of help from others

  • People contribute in lots of different ways – and it takes a while for some to get the confidence to do it.

  • Some people don’t and will never contribute. Or they’ll contribute in ways that don’t jive with the group – so you give them back the gift of time. It’s not fair on the other members

  • But most of all……people are incredibly generous (and good fun)

So, as you can see, Julia and Interimity really are shaking things up in recruitment. And I wonder, how does all of this land with you? How might it inspire you to change your game?

Filed Under: Reinventing work Tagged With: , ,

An Alternative Look At Last Week’s Employee Burnout Statistics

March 4, 2013 by 1 Comment

Bad times! What have I done!?Been feeling a little burnt out recently?

Turns out you’re not alone.

New research published last week by accountancy recruitment firm, Robert Half, suggests that three in ten UK HR Directors (that’s 30%) say employee burnout is an issue. This figure rises to 35% when you look just at London and the South East.

The research also concludes that:

  • Workload is the primary reason for burnout in 67% of situations. (This rises to 75% in large, and 73% in public sector organisations.)
  • More than half (56%) blame long working hours.
  • 37% talk about “unachievable expectations” and “economic pressures”, and
  • 27% cite worklife balance challenges.

8 in 10 HRDs say they’re concerned that their best people will leave because things have just become too pressurised.

Hardly surprising.

When asked what they’re doing about all of this, some say they’re launching initiatives to make working life more liveable. They include “promoting a teamwork-based environment (50%), reviewing/restructuring job functions and tasks (45%), encouraging team–building activities (34%), providing flexible working options (34%) and encouraging employees to take time off (31%).  One in five businesses (19%) plan to hire additional temporary / interim staff to help manage burnout.”

The point about hiring additional staff is good news for Robert Half, and job-seekers generally.

“Initiatives”

But I have to wonder whether these other “initiatives” aren’t actually a huge red herring.

Sure, they’re very logical. And if you look at your people as being another resource that you can control at will, they make a lot of sense.

But, when are more companies going to get beyond these big global solutions, and understand the real, individual, human nature of the people who work for them?

When are they going to be proactive in supporting their people’s well-being, rather than waiting till people burn out before acting?

When are they going to understand that if someone is showing signs of being beyond stressed, that they are are having a healthy response to an unhealthy situation?

Of course, the UK economy is struggling, companies are under more and more pressure first to survive and second to make a return on investment to their shareholders.

But people are  increasingly the thin edge of the wedge. Expected to do more with less, and to integrate work changes without proper training, much less the emotional support to withstand the upheaval.

And we’ve become a much more “on” society.

Laptops, tablets, mobile phones… Social media. We’re all under pressure to act 24/7.

Recent research even shows that 53% of us check our phones before we’ve even got out of bed.

No amount of traditional team building is going to fix that. It’s no wonder more people are burning out.

The answer for businesses?

Believe, really believe, in your people’s well being. That starts with a business’s leaders supporting their own well-being.

Modelling the ability not to work all hours and be successful and productive.

Not demanding things last minute and/or in a way that requires late working or weekends; respecting that to be at their best, people need down time; they need rest and other non-work interests to revitalise them.

Taking proper holiday themselves and not expecting their people to be available when they are on holiday.

And you? What if you’re caught in the burnout trap?

Well, first, stop buying into a system that is harming you.

Don’t wait for your company to give you permission to do something for yourself. It’s easy to get caught up in deliverables, and all the value judgements around whether you’re doing enough or not, and to think that you have no choice. But you do.

Create boundaries for yourself.

Walk out of the office at six – or whenever – and get to the gym, or go home to your family. It may be painful to leave colleagues sitting there or to see your boss do a watch-check as you leave. I’ve been there myself. I know. I’ve had bosses who should know better take me aside at such times and say “what is your problem?”

When bosses give you last minute things that compromise your personal life, push back. Say no.

And if you find yourself unable to free yourself from what feels like a crazy situation for you, get help. Find a counsellor.

Don’t rush to escape. The chances are you’ll recreate your situation elsewhere.

But, whatever you do, don’t just become another statistic.

So, what about you? Have you experienced burnout? Do you see it in your colleagues? What have you done to support yourself? I’d love to know!

 

 

Filed Under: Corporate jobs, Reinventing work, Thriving @ work Tagged With: , ,

5 Things Sarah Robinson’s Fierce Loyalty Taught Me About Community

February 22, 2013 by 10 Comments

FierceLoyalty_FRONTcovSo, I was off social media for a few months.

More about that anon.

While I was gone, my friend Sarah Robinson published a book, Fierce Loyalty.

Apologies, Sarah, to be such a slow adopter, but I finally read it last week.

It’s a pithy, Godin-esque volume.

In it, she shares her wisdom on the qualities and dynamics of successful communities.

In a world where much is currently spoken and written about community, Sarah’s book stands out because it gets down to the building blocks and how-to’s.

Go read it for yourself. Meantime, here are my key takeaways:

The potential benefits of building community are immense

Sarah’s book gives examples of the benefits of community, particularly in a business setting. Take Harley-Davidson, the legendary motorcycle brand, whose owners unite in sharing core values of freedom and non-conformity.

They could have tried to control, contain, or put some spin on all the spontaneous tours and experiences Harley-Davidson bikers were arranging around the world.

Instead, they encouraged and enabled them. Embraced them as a core part of the brand.

So, sure, these bikers, who’ve developed friendships with other Harley-Davidson owners through “euphoric” tours, adventures and other experiences, are unlikely to opt for some other kind of machine when it’s time to buy another bike. In the meantime, they’ve also had a heck of a lot of fun.

So, there’s more to it than traditional ROI.

You can adopt a community approach to a wide range of scenarios

With all the hype around community at the moment, you could mistake it for being primarily about business building and marketing. But, again, there’s more.

For a start, businesses can use it inside their organisations to inform the way they manage their people. It has the capability to be the foundation for a whole new way of thinking about employee engagement.

Also, it’s becoming a business model all of its own. Instead of traditional limited company structures, with employees, and command and control ways of working, some businesses are now adopting a much looser way of going about things.

One that strikes me as a great example from my own connections, quite beyond the book, is Interimity, the UK based HR interim management company created by Julia Briggs. It offers a really agile way of putting “the best HR talent in touch with the best clients”. There’s a “by invitation only ” membership organisation.  Also on- and off-line forums for members to get together and talk about the kind of HR things that are meaningful to them. The quality of people, and the level they’re able to work at shines through from their contributions. Meaning that trust and respect are generated in the group.

Which all makes for the kind of sticky community, that uses its enviable shared connections to open doors to potential clients, and crowdsources candidate shortlists.

In fact, Interimity is such a good example that I’m going to feature it in a separate post all of its own. Again, watch this space.

You need to be clear of your why

Sure, it’s an of-the-moment way about going about things. But if you’re trying to create a community for your business, you should really start by asking, why?

What do you want it to achieve? Is it the raving fans? Is it to help you shape your offering? Is it to give your brand some buzz? Or, if not, what is it for you?

Hint: if your real and only agenda is to make money, your community won’t be sustainable.

Community sounds easy, but does hard

Sarah is someone who really gets “community”. It’s her thing, her passion. She understands the whole organic, emergent process that community is.

That takes a particular type of person or team with a whole particular skill set. Among the qualities I see it needing are: vision, confidence, trust, patience, a real interest in whatever catalyses the community, and a genuine interest in people and connecting.

How many traditional businesses do you know who would get their head round that?

The time is now

Although it’s tough, community is a “now” thing. Our society is shifting. People are getting smarter and wanting more. Whether that’s as a consumer, an employee, or a stand-alone professional. We want to belong. We want to be connected to something that’s bigger than us, where we can experience our little contribution contribute and magnify.

And the whole internet, social media thing is providing ways to enable community to exist and congregate on- and off-line. So many of the enabling tools are there if we just choose to use them.

Ignore it and its message at your peril!

So, Fierce Loyalty has certainly given me lots of food for thought, and I’m sure will continue to do so.

Meantime, tell me how you imagine you could harness the power of community better. What would you wish that to achieve for you?

Filed Under: Reinventing work Tagged With: , ,

What Would You Do If Money Were No Object?

February 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment

It’s a question I often ask clients.

Or even friends when they’re going round in circles, clearly unhappy about the work they’re doing right now, but so enmeshed in it – the targets, the deadlines, the people, the politics, the minor and not so minor injustices – that they can’t see the wood for the trees.

“What would you do with your life if money were no object?”

It’s amazing how that makes people sit back and think.

“I’d love to write a book,” they might say.

“I’d like to be a photo-journalist.”

“I want to do voluntary work. It’d be great to give something back.”

Not that what emerges is necessarily “the answer”. But I love the way it can open things up and take people beyond their current stuckness.

“Indulge me,” I might say. “I’d love to know what it’d be like to do (whatever).”

And they do.

I love to watch what happens at those points. Where their energy goes. What happens to their mood. How they sit. Their mood. What happens to the tone of their voice.

And to reflect that to them.

Then to invite them to think about how, instead of putting off their joy, they allow themselves some of it now.

Even while they’re still doing this job that’s troubling them.

Getting past logic

Why do this when people clearly need to be earning right now?

Well, I think it’s easy to stay in the realms of logic when we’re trying to solve a career type problem. We assume that we can analyse our way out of it, like it was a another business problem. Brainstorm solutions, evaluate and rank them and make a plan of action. Not that there’s no value in going that route. There’s loads.

And sometimes we need to trust that we’re more than logic. That other forces are at work too. Our own deep nature and knowing being one.

I’ve seen people who’ve allowed themselves to build a little of what they’d “love to do if money were not object” into their current lives. Even if they’re doing it in the evenings or weekends after busy jobs.

Sometimes it takes them to places in themselves they could never have imagined. Sometimes it just lets them put some of the people and things they thought were problems into perspective.

Too many people defer doing what they really want to do until some mythical future day when they’ve earned enough. Meantime they mortgage their lives and their happiness to jobs they think they should do.

Don’t be one of them.

Live your own life.

Have a look at the wonderful Alan Watts You Tube Video above. It’s old, but good.

And, then come back here and tell me:

What would you do if money were no object? How can bring even a tiny piece of that into your life immediately? 

Filed Under: Reinventing work, Thriving @ work Tagged With: , , ,

The Shocking Truth About the Origins of Your Inner Work/Life Battle

June 10, 2011 by 10 Comments

Such a simple conversation.

I could have missed it in amongst all the others going on in my coffee shop one morning last week.

But I was sat pondering work/life issues for some new stuff I’m planning and was attuned to what went on.

A mother had come in with three children and was sitting chatting to another woman, with the youngest on her lap. The other two, on half term holiday, were playing around the baby’s pram, parked up a few feet from the shop door.

What struck me first off was just how well behaved they were in comparison to some of the café’s regular kids who can make the place look and feel more like a badly run crèche.

Just then a man who’d come in for a takeaway walked past and recognised the eldest child, a little boy. I make up the story that he was a school teacher. Or maybe the father of the child’s little friend.

“Hey, Thomas,” he said. “How you doing?”

“Fine,” Thomas said, clutching at the pram handle for confidence.

“You having a good holiday?”

“Yes,” the wee boy said.

“What you doing today?” said the man.

“Shopping.”

“You’re shopping, Thomas? What do you mean? For food, for…?”

“Shoes,” said Thomas. “I’m getting new shoes.”

“Lovely,” said the grown up. “What for? School, or play?”

Thomas mumbled the answer into his sweater, so I didn’t hear it, but the man did.

“Play?” he said “Oh, that’s great, Thomas. Well, enjoy your shopping.”

And with a smile and a wave to Thomas’s mother, he opened the shop door and off he went.

I sat there for a while and thought. The child couldn’t have been more than six years old and here he was already having work and life polarized for him in something so everyday as the shoes he was wearing.

I understand the need for children to be educated. I understand why, in the UK, for the most part at least, they wear uniforms.

But I’d never really thought before about how shoes could be so defining.

Yet we’ve all been there as children. Shoes for school; shoes for play. The styles required for one, not always okay for the other. Bits of ourselves getting locked away as we learn to conform, as we learn to compartmentalize ourselves into our various sub-components.

No wonder when I sit with coaching clients decades later, helping them unravel their work/life dilemmas that they struggle with the prospect that work and life are not indeed different things.

“It’s about your whole life,” I say. “Of which work is part. It’s about integration. Not separation.”

And sometimes they get there. But often, too, it takes time. That split between who and how you can be in one setting versus another is hard-wired from the beginning.

Which now has me thinking about all the other subtle ways in which we set up work/life splits. And what we can do to make it different.

What kind of things do you notice? How would you make things different to allow more work/life integration?

Photo credit: Richard Tenspeed Heaven

 

Filed Under: Reinventing work Tagged With: ,

How Safe Is It To Use The “S” Word At Work?

June 2, 2011 by 2 Comments

No, it’s not what you think.

It’s the word “soul”.

But that’s the question Phil Bowermaster, of The Transparency Revolution was asking me about the other day when he interviewed me for BlogTalk Radio.

It’s pretty common in career parlance to talk about the self, or the whole self. But using the word soul, as I have done in my eBook, The 7 Most Soul Sucking Career Mistakes Ever (And How To Avoid Them), takes things to a different level.

And is that okay?

In Phil’s interview we touch on all kind of career related things. Like the major disconnects we can experience between our values and how we live and work, and how we can begin to close the gap.

Oh, and also, the role organisations play in cutting through what I call corporate mythology. And how their getting real is in everybody’s interests.

Anyway, without giving more away, here’s the link to the interview.

http://www.transparencyrevolution.com/2011/05/your-life-your-career-your-soul/

I’d love to get your reactions in the comments!

Filed Under: Reinventing work Tagged With: ,

How Throwing Up May Be Good For Your Career

May 30, 2011 by 2 Comments

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Adam Rico from WorkYouEnjoy.com

Recently I had an exchange with someone that went like this.

“How was your fifty mile run?’

“It went really well.  After I finished the run I threw up for three hours.  It was great!”

It was great?  I thought about that statement for a couple of days afterwards.  Here was a seemingly lucid man I’ve known my entire life.  He’s never been crazy before.  Poor guy, I wonder what happened?

However, as I thought about it more, I realized how throwing up for three hours could be considered a great experience!

You see, it wasn’t the actual throwing up that was great (I don’t think), it was the satisfaction that he had achieved a self-determined goal, pushed himself beyond where he had been before, and experienced success on a very visceral level.

So how does this relate to your career?

Well, let me start with a question:

When was the last time you went all out for something in your career?  A time when you didn’t hold anything back and put everything you had into achieving a career goal?

For a small number, this may be a daily experience.  My guess is that you are living and working in your strengths, in which case you can probably stop reading this post and let us in on your secret.  Others may be scratching their heads thinking ‘how would I ever be able to go all out when I can’t stand my job?’ The thing is, in my experience, this just means you haven’t found the right goal.

The hardest part of the whole thing is figuring out what your goal is.

It is personal to you and only you can decide what you want in your career. Maybe this career goal has nothing to do with your current job or business. Maybe this career goal is for your next job or your next business. When you take a step back and shake off everyone else’s expectations, what do you dream about?  What is that thing in the back of your mind you’ve been thinking about but always feared that you couldn’t do?

Your fear is not unfounded, but it may be the first clue that you’re on the right track.  You will have obstacles if the goal is truly something that will stretch you and push you beyond what you thought you could ever achieve . You will experience pain, throwing up if you will. In addition, whenever we declare a career goal that is unique or different from the status quo, we will receive a cautionary response and likely even criticism. However, when you arrive at the finish line of your goal you will experience meaningful accomplishment like you have never felt before.

My running friend taught me a valuable lesson that day. He taught me that it doesn’t matter what other people think about your goal. The only thing that matters is that you feel so good about accomplishing your goal that you can throw up and still call it great!  That’s when you know you’ve chosen the right goal.

What is your next career goal?  I’d love to hear about it (unless of course it involves bodily fluids).

Adam Rico helps professional people who want to change or enhance their careers to do work they enjoy. More information about Adam can be found at WorkYouEnjoy.com or you can follow him on Twitter.

image: calamityphotography

Filed Under: Reinventing work

Wanted: Guest Writers With Something Different To Say About Worklife

May 20, 2011 by Leave a Comment

It’s one of the things I love best in life.

Honest to God conversations about whatever. But particularly around things in which there’s a passionate shared interest.

Such a great way to build connections and real from-the-heart relationships.

And I love too how social media makes it possible for conversations to happen in real and virtual time, across all kind of geographical and cultural boundaries.

I love the way it enables communities to build themselves and share stuff. The magic that happens in the mix of different views and voices.

And I want to encourage more of it here.

Guest posts

Have something to say about the whole challenge that is worklife? Fancy sharing it with the other folks who read the blog? Pitch it in my direction.

There’s a whole community of smart professionals that want more from their relationship with work than either the in-house corporate trainers, or the personal life coaches will ever understand. Words like values, consciousness, purpose, meaning, balance, flow all apply. The unfolding journey of becoming more and more oneself at work. The everyday battles along the way to support yourself in being okay, when environments don’t always support it.

If you read this blog, the chances are that you’re part of that community.

What’s your experience? Bring it. Let’s help build a body of thinking on this subject that helps legitimise it.

Share a story, a piece of wisdom, some tips that have helped you. Whatever.

How to

My blogging ninjas have put together a rather cool page with guidelines to help you think about it in more detail. Head over there, and check them out.

If you’ve any questions or comments about this, leave them below, or email me and I’ll happily answer.

Looking forward to some great conversation!

Filed Under: Reinventing work Tagged With: , ,

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

May 16, 2011 by 8 Comments

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?

 

Creative Commons License photo credit: aithom2

Filed Under: Corporate jobs, Reinventing work Tagged With: , ,
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