Archive | April, 2005

A Person Divided Leaves A Remainder

by on April 14, 2005 in Life

Welcome to a wee bit less cranky post here at Alchemy. Yesterday, I was blessed to receive some terrific coaching (thanks Donna and Charlie). I can’t fully relate what’s going on now, but perhaps there will be a time in the near future. But that’s not what I’m thinking about right now.

Last night I fired up the grill for the first time this season for some delicious Hebrew National beef franks (the only hotdogs that are allowed in our house; not because we’re Jewish but because these are simply the most flavorful franks out there). As my dear wife and I sat on our deck enjoying the brisk evening air and a beer, she told me about a conversation she had with a friend earlier in the day. The friend was feeling lonely and frustrated with her husband who has a lot going on right now. At work, he’s busy with several large projects nearing their deadline, personnel issues, and a potential promotion. At home, he’s busy with managing the building of their new home and meeting his obligations as a dad. When he’s finished with all of this, my wife’s friend is left with what remains (in this case, a grumpy and tired guy).

Trust me, it’s hard not to divide ourselves among all the tasks and responsibilities of our lives. This is where I found myself the past few days. In my case, it wasn’t a division of roles, but a division of spirit. Unfortunately, this is the type of division that leaves a really unpleasant remainder for my wife and girls to deal with.

Ask yourself: Are you divided right now? Is there too much pulling you in disparate directions? Who in your life is getting the remainder?

As I was so caringly encouraged to do yesterday, get curious about what this division is in your life. Look at it as if you had never seen if before, with fresh eyes and unjudging heart. Consider how you can begin to reconnnect what you are doing and who you are being. Those who love you the most need more than the remainder.

Give Curiosity A Chance

by on April 12, 2005 in Career, Work

Sunday’s Washington Post contained an article which I believe sums up one of the greatest problems facing our organizations right now. The article was titled Our Incredible Shrinking Curiosity and went on to lament the very strong possibility that NASA will stop funding the two Voyager spacecrafts that are currently at the outer edges of our solar system. While the writer points to a growing propensity in the U.S scientific community to squeeze out curiosity-driven research in favor of specific products, profits or outcomes, he might as well have been talking about businesses in general.

Does this sound like any companies or industries you know?

Crouched today in a defensive posture, we are suffering from a lack of
confidence and a shriveled sense of the optimism that once urged us to
reach boldly into the unknown. Equally important, we seem to have
forgotten that many good things come just from being open to them,
without a formed idea of what they are or how they should come out.

Organizations today are all about deliverables: the sure things with a finely-tuned, fixed outcome. Projects are judged by these sure things, an individual’s worth is based on how they executed the deliverable. Found something interesting along the way? Want to explore a better path? Put it all aside and forget it. It’s not part of the expected outcome.

From a hiring perspective (you just knew this was coming, right?), hiring managers are in love with deliverables and narrowly defined requirements. Look at job postings these days and you’ll find a litany of mandatory experience and skills. In their mind, the hiring manager has the ideal candidate already created who just happens to have been doing the work since they exited college. Problem is there’s little room for curiosity for that professional who is making a transition. Similar skill sets and transferable experience? A passion for this new work and career? Hmmm…too difficult to connect the dots when here’s a resume of someone who has done this same work before.

The reality is that the current system does not reward folks with a wide array of skills, experiences, talents. The default is complacency where deliverables trump curiosity. If you are hiring right now, take a second look at that person coming from left field. They might just be bringing something that will reinvigorate your department, project, company, industry. Your curiosity will undoubtedly be rewarded.

I Will Be Complacent No Longer

by on April 11, 2005 in Career, Work

Folks, I’m pissed off. And I’m fulfilled. And I think there’s still an abundance of opportunity and purpose out there in this world. But, let’s focus on this thing that’s got me pissed off because it’s at the core of what a soulful career is all about.

There are a ton of books and gurus and websites and blogs (not unlike this one, but that’s likely to change…read on) that encourage us to pursue purposeful jobs. There are those of us who excite people to live their passions. We throw out lots of really thoughtful words and mantras that make it seem like the "perfect" career and workplace are so easy to achieve. All of this is done for what seems like the individual’s benefit. There’s just one problem with it all: the system in which each of us work is broken.

When it comes to hiring…organizations still insist on seeing meaningless resumes, conducting meaningless interviews, and contacting meaningless references.

When it comes to achieving…organizations still insist on handing out hollow titles and binding people with hollow position descriptions.

When it comes to treating people with respect…organizations still insist on not trusting their employees with the facts (usually in the form of silence, denial, and lying through their teeth) and not helping them grow as full people (they’re only concerned about them from the time they enter the office doors to when they exit).

Not your organization, you say? Consider yourself lucky. This is your invitation. You now have an obligation to spread the seeds of how an organization MUST work in today’s world. You have no other choice.

You may say this is a diatribe written in anger and frustration, but it is not. This is being written by someone who sees and understands that there will always be a problem with creating soulful work as long as organizations continue to operate with a "business as usual" mindset towards its most important asset: it’s people.

Talking about creating soulful work is fine, but insufficient. Demanding better ways from our companies is what we need to focus on. What we will achieve is a revolution in our organizations that fully recognizes and cultivates the soulful workplace. It will mean burning useless traditional structures to the ground and rebuilding in better ways. It will be radically rethinking what it is to bring people together for a common business cause. It will allow for the honoring of the individual soul in each action and thought.

See, pissed off is good. It’s complacency that’s at the heart of all that is destructive. I will be complacent no longer. The manifesto is coming…

Heading For The Hills

by on April 8, 2005 in Business

Today, I’m heading back home to visit my parents and help them with a major life decision: they are selling the final piece of the family business. It all started with my grandfather back in the early 1950s who saw a brilliant opportunity in gasoline distribution. More and more individuals were able to afford automobiles and gas stations were popping up everywhere as a response to this trend. As a result, he became a very prosperous businessman who would later add to his modestly-sized gasoline bulk plant and build his own gas station (conveniently placed near a newly built interstate highway) in the early 1970s. In the mid-1980s, he built another service station not too far away.

My dad has been involved in managing the business since he graduated from college in the early 1970s. It started with delivering gas; I still remember riding with him in the big truck when I was just a little tyke. Over the years, my dad’s role naturally evolved. In the early 1990s, my grandfather decided to step aside leaving dad as the legal owner. However, this was about the same time that the business started to seriously decline. First sign was the decision to get out of bulk distribution as we were getting squeezed by much larger competitors. Then, the second (and newer) service station was starting to bleed money and was sold. All that’s left is the original gas station and now it is being sold.

The story behind the decline of the business is a familiar one to small business owners. As I reflect on what’s happened over the past 15 years that’s brought us to this moment, I see some cautionary patterns emerge. I doubt any of these will come as a great surprise to successful entrepreneurs.

Don’t piss off the gods. My grandfather has an irascible personality and has been known to tell people who get in his way to kiss his ass (compound this with my dad who tries to please everyone). Unfortunately, this includes folks who could make life easy or tough for an independent businessman. Naturally, they helped make it hard for him and Dad to sustain the business when times grew tough.

Don’t focus on a tree when Wal-Mart comes to bulldoze the forest. The writing of "your business is going down the toilet" was really on the wall when the giant moved in across the street. At first, it seemed like a good thing to have them: customers could have their cars serviced while they did their shopping. Then, Wal-Mart decided to sell gas. And then another discount gas retailer moved in next to them. So, while they duke it out with each other, the family business suffers the collateral damage.

Don’t start hacking off limbs to save the body. The time for innovation isn’t when the shit hits the fan. When it was apparent that the business was failing, my dad looked to anything that might give it a boost. After the first one didn’t quite work out, it was time to start hacking away things. First, it was hours of operation and downsizing; then, it was services, Now, there’s not much left but a bloody torso.

I don’t offer any of this as an indictment of my father’s business acumen. He’s always tried to do the best he could to manage the business he inherited. I always thought that he wished he could be doing something else, though. I guess this is what really drives me and my philosophy toward work and our career decisions. I’ve seen how unhappy my dad has been toiling at his work and how unfulfilled he’s been by his decision to enter the family business. For a while, I thought he was an isolated example, but when I started working I saw the familiar signs all around in co-workers.

So, I need to go and head for the hills. Perhaps I need the break, too. I’m still waiting to hear from a couple of companies about whether I’m the right candidate for them. Hopefully, one of them will see that I’m ready to get started, ready to contribute in fresh ways, ready to passionately bring myself to the work that I do. All I know is that I’m ready.

Doug Manning On Proactive Parenting

by on April 5, 2005 in Life

This post by Doug Manning of Proactive Living hit me hard. As a father of two girls (one on the cusp of hitting the pre-adolescent phase), I’m always mindful of how I’m doing as a dad. I immediately showed it to my wife and we both just took a deep sigh, which usually signifies a "whoa" moment for us. If you’re a parent, take a moment and read Doug’s entry on Proactive Parenting.

Thanks Doug for the reminder of how much good we can do as parents, as well as how much harm we can do when we hang on to our own dreams and illusions of how our kids should be.