Tag Archives: careers

Are You A Tourist To Your Own Career?

by on September 26, 2007 in Career

I just published my first post over at Career Hub where I’ll be writing a few times a month. Here’s the beginning excerpt.

Sometimes I get overcharged,
that’s when you see sparks.
They ask me where the hell I’m going?
At a 1000 feet per second,
hey man, slow down, slow down,
idiot, slow down, slow down.
Radiohead – The Tourist

I fondly remember spending a college semester abroad in Oxford, England. It was a wonderful opportunity to surround myself in a different culture and experience the world from a different perspective. It was also a chance to visit all the places I had read about in books and seen on television. Along with my fiancée (now wife), we discovered ruined remains of long abandoned castles, quaint villages with thatch-covered homes, and charming roadside pubs.

We also made a point to visit London. London is a magnificent city with no lack for things to see and do. If visiting unprepared, it can be overwhelming. So being the kind of guy who wants to be prepared for anything, I made a very detailed schedule for our first visit. When I say ‘detailed’, I mean down to the minute. How else can you see the Tower of London, British Museum, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and the National Gallery all in one day? That’s a lot to do and only a detailed plan can make sure it all happens.

The first thing you realize when trying to stick to a very full schedule is that other people may not want to cooperate. Sure, my fiancée was playing along, but the Londoners operating the Underground (their version of our subways), serving tea, and guiding the site tours just wouldn’t keep to my strategically created schedule. I even suspected my fiancée was an accomplice to their desire to subvert my plans. However, despite their best effort, they couldn’t break my resolve and by the end of the day we accomplished my mission of visiting each place on the list. We could leave the city saying that we had been to all the places you associate with London.

You may be thinking, “Sure, you accomplished your objective, but did you really enjoy the experience?” The answer would have to be ‘no.’ And worse, those around me didn’t enjoy it either. Sadly, I hardly remember any of those places on that trip. I was driven by the importance of being able to say I had visited those places.

My mad tourist dash seems silly, yet how many times have we done the same thing in our careers. So many of us race from task to task, project to project, and job to job. Perhaps we do this so we can check them off our strategically created career plans. Or maybe we become seduced by the thought that the next thing ahead is better than what we have right now. Ultimately, we find ourselves trapped by the notion that the destination becomes far more important than the journey itself and we lose ourselves in the process.

So, what can we do?

Find out by visiting Career Hub…

Happiness At Work Is Yours Now

by on July 22, 2007 in Career

Alexander Kjerulf at The Chief Happiness Officer blog has published his Happy At Work manifesto at ChangeThis.com. It’s not that long, but it has some powerful reminders in it.

His philosophy is the same as mine here at WorkPlay – we decide if we are happy. We choose this every single day. The choice does not belong to our managers, our coworkers, or our customers. They don’t get to decide our happiness unless we give them the power to do so. And that’s a choice, too.

Here’s an appetizer to what you’ll find:

5: Letting others know what makes me happy or unhappy at work is my responsibility.
It’s not up to my boss, my co-workers, my employees or my workplace to experiment to read my mind and find out what it takes to make me happy at work. It’s up to me to tell them.

16: I recognize that happiness at work doesn’t come from the absence of bad things in the workplace.
All workplaces can have unpleasant people, too much work, demanding customers, stress, red tape and other idiosyncrasies and annoyances. Though we strive to minimize these, I won’t waitbe happy at work until all of these have been eliminated. If I did wait, I would never be happy.

There are 23 other messages in the manifesto. Take them and savor each one.

St. Patrick’s Day Lesson From Gazoo

by on March 17, 2007 in Work

Great GazooBoomerang, Cartoon Network’s retro channel for old cartoons, decided to connect St. Patrick’s Day with Gazoo, the snarky, little green alien on The Flintstones. In one episode, Fred gets tired of being kicked around by his boss and asks Gazoo for help. Gazoo’s suggestion? Why don’t you try to be boss for a day. Great idea, right? Fred thinks so. He thinks a boss’s job is all about spying on him (particularly when Fred is at his laziest), smoking fine cigars, eating a lavish lunch in the executive cafeteria, and generally keeping him down. He soon finds out the Mr. Slate isn’t actually the big boss, but the underling of the chairman of the company board of directors. And man…Mr. Slate’s life must really suck.

The Great Gazoo taught our guy Fred some interesting lessons.

1. No matter how far up the ladder we are in an organization, we always report to someone. That’s the fallacy of the increasingly anachronistic hierarchical org chart. So perhaps a better way to think of this is that we are always responsible for something or someone else. Even a CEO is responsible to her Board, as well as her employees; responsible for the welfare of the organization.

2. The management life isn’t a walk on the beach. When I first started working, I remember how much I pined for a management gig. I wanted the power and privilege without fully comprehending the responsibilities that naturally tagged along. Eventually, I got that management gig and I know now how challenging, frustrating, inspiring, and overwhelming that just being a good manager can be. I can now look upon my own manager and company executives with a sense of empathy.

Here’s a thought: what would happen if organizations would allow employees and managers to swap work for a day? For a week? It might just change a few perspectives.

3. Find appreciation for whatever work you do. At the end of the episode, Fred finally gets to go home. He’s exhausted and dispirited. Gazoo decides that Fred has experienced enough and returns him to his normal life. Once he gets home, Wilma says she has supper warmed up for him and he’s just in time to tuck Pebbles in. It’s here that Fred realizes that he’s got it pretty good. Too bad his taste of management is so sour.

Hope you’re wearing your green today.

Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work Day Is April 26

by on March 5, 2007 in Career

In the Bailey home, Take Our Daughters and Sons To Work Day has established itself as an annual tradition. For at least three or four months, Leah (age eight) has been asking me when our “Daddy/Daughter Work Day” is this year and if we’ll be able to do it again. The answer, of course, is, “Absolutely!” Katie, my youngest, is quickly closing in on five years old and is starting to ask when she’ll be able to do this, as well. I’ll probably schedule a shorter day with her later in the summer.

There are a few reasons for it’s popularity. One is that it’s a special daddy-only time which is important since I’m not as available to them as their mom during the day. Two is that it’s an intentionally fun day spent outside of school. Three is that it’s a chance to see and experience a world they only hear about.

What do I get out of it? Quite a lot. It’s a chance to share in my daughters’ excitement of spending time together in a unique way. Also, when I get to share my work experience with my them, it helps me crystallize my own sense of whether work is meaningful or not. It’s hard to fake fulfillment in soulless work and for me the whole purpose of the day is to encourage them to think about finding work that’s fulfilling for them. Anyway, kids can sense those sorts of lies and ask the most honest and pointed questions that drill down to the heart of our own work. Interesting how our children can help coaches us without even knowing it.

Wondering what you can do to make it a fulfilling and enjoyable day for both you and your child? The folks who manage the day, Ms. Foundation For Women, have some tips and provide a sample day on their website.

Start by contacting your child’s teacher and see if she or he has anything planned surrounding the day. If they don’t know about Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work Day, then introduce them to the concept and ask whether they’d be interested in learning more. Don’t be afraid to track the principal down and do the same for them. Make sure they understand that it’s not just an excused absence from school, but an experiential learning day.

Next, check and see if your workplace has anything planned for the day. Some companies have some structured activities planned, which is great to find that type of buy-in. And if not, talk to the folks in human resources, and again, emphasize the importance of sponsoring workshops or other events. If you don’t find any sympathetic ears, don’t fret…just do it anyway and plan things on your own. This is what I had to do in my last two organizations.

Need some help building activities? Here’s a listing along with pdf worksheets and an interactive online activity.

I’m interested in learning if anyone else has plans for April 27 and what you’re doing. Bring your ideas and questions to the WorkPlay community.

Mentors Are Everywhere

by on March 1, 2007 in Career

Even though I’m technically out of the non-profit association world, I still like to check in frequently with friends and other folks who keep this vital area of our working world moving. Over at the association for association professionals (ASAE) they have a blog called Acronym. To work in associations is to understand why this particular blog name is rather clever and playful.

A couple of days ago, Lisa Junker noted an interview with Howard Gardner in the March 2007 Harvard Business Review where he talks about the influence of an anti-mentor. Gardner describes anti-mentors as “potential role models who had been unkind to their employees or who had shown behavior that others would not want to emulate.”

Lisa writes:

This struck a chord with me, and as I consider the idea, I’m surprised to realize how much of my personal management style has been shaped not by the good examples but by the bad ones. Many things I strive to do as a manager—like moving heaven and earth to do a review on time, or providing constructive feedback immediately when needed (in a private setting) instead of letting issues fester, to give just two examples—came about because I’ve seen the atmosphere that can be created when these basic things don’t happen.

Which prompted Lisa to ask: “What lessons can you thank your anti-mentors for?”

There’s quite a lot to consider in her question. The first is that, as employees, we are capable of being grateful for the examples of lousy management. Within that, there’s a certain release that from being in a less-than-optimal professional relationship. And we also gain a greater sense of control when we can acknowledge our own learning in these situations. This doesn’t excuse shoddy management practices and certainly nothing that creates toxic work environments, but by taking time to consider how situations of anti-mentorship are contributing to our own growth, we can turn some of this pain and discomfort to our own advantage. If nothing else, it teaches us we need to get the hell out of that organization as fast as humanly possible.

I also realize that it’s not quite as easy to throw my former managers and colleagues into the two separate buckets of mentors and anti-mentors. Each of them have their strengths as well as their flaws – all of which have contributed to my own practice of being a manager and leader. In our not quite so black and white world, it seems more appropriate to consider our past managers as human beings who have a mixed bag of qualities.

And rather than thinking we have to have it all together before we can possibly mentor someone, John West encourages us to just do it and do it now.