The Bamboo Project Blog

Do You Network to Build Your Career Resilience or to Get Your Work Done?

I'm currently facilitating an 8-month long leadership course that meets monthly. Yesterday's topic was networking and connecting. As part of our work, I had them go through some exercises to look at their networks and diagnose where they had gaps and needed to do some more work. 

What started to emerge as we went throught the exercise was how many of the participants network and connect on behalf of their companies, but they pay little attention to building connections that support their own career resilience and professional development plans. Connecting, for them, is about connecting to benefit their companies, which may or may not actually benefit them. 

When we think about building our networks, clearly we need to pay attention to developing the connections that allow us to be successful in our jobs. We need to connect with customers and clients and people in our industries so that we're able to be effective in our work. 

However, we need to understand that the connections that we make on behalf of our companies or organizations are not necessarily the connections we need to make to increase our own career resilience. We should never confuse what our company needs us to do with with we need to do for ourselves. 

Connecting to build your resilience means developing connections that energize, nurture and challenge you, connections that help you grow personally and professionally, regardless of whether or not those connections get your company more business.  You need mentors, communities of practice, and "way-showers"--people who can be role-models and supporters of your career and personal growth. 

So here's your challenge for today. Go through your contacts and ask yourself if the people you're connected to are basically connections who benefit your company or organization, or are they connections that also help you grow and adapt to change? 

Career Resilience Requires Persistence

 

Last week I wrote about career resilience and the need for us to develop four patterns in our work lives:

• Clarifying
• Connecting
• Creating
• Coping

One thing that I've observed about resilient people is that they persist. Even when things are at their worst or it seems like they are going nowhere, resilient people are persistent people. As Steve Pavlina puts it, "they press on, even when they feel like quitting."

Persistence is one of the major Coping patterns we need to develop in our lives if we ever hope to be truly resilient. Without persistence, we won't be able to work on any of the other patterns we need to grow in ourselves, because honestly, developing career resilience isn't always easy work. 

The problem with persistence is that it's not terribly sexy. It's the daily, weekly, monthly grind of self-discipline, of slogging through mud when we feel like just giving up. Believe me, I struggle with persistence all the time, so I know it's not an easy thing to do. 

But resilience requires persistence. It takes diligence to forge new habits and self discipline to bring our vision into reality. The essence of reslience is not giving up. Persistence is what makes sure that we don't. 

Where do we need to show persistence? I think in two ways--persistence of vision and persistence of action. 

Persistence of vision is having a clear image of where we want to go--direction, not necessarily destination. Persistence of vision is what drives us to create, to the actions that we need to take to move forward. 

Persistence of action is even more important, though, because this is often where we fall down. We may have a persistent vision of where we want to go, but we fail to take the steps to actually get there.---especially if we encounter obstacles or challenges along the way that make us want to give up. 

So how to develop our persistence muscles? Probably the best advice I've seen on this comes from this post by Todd Warren (quoting Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich). We need to have:

1. "A definite purpose backed by burning desire for its fulfillment"

2. "A definite plan backed by continuous action." 

3.  "A mind closed tightly against all negative and discouraging influences, including negative suggestions of relatives, friends and acquaintances."

4.  "A friendly alliance with one or more persons who will encourage one to follow through with both plan and purpose."

 

A purpose, motivation to achieve that purpose, a plan that turns into action, a positive mind and supportive people--that's what we need to practice persistence. And these are the tools of career resilience, too. 

Career Resilience: The Four Patterns that Should Guide All Your Career Moves

 

I wrote a couple of long posts in February on the two major factors most job seekers are dealing with in this economy. The first was on the reality that there aren't enough jobs for everyone who wants one. The second was on the poor quality of many of the jobs that do exist. 

After writing these, though, I was left wondering what it is we can do to operate in this kind of environment. How do I advise people about career and professional development in a world that is so uncertain, risky and, frankly, negative? 

Yesterday it hit me. There is only one thing we can do if we want to be successful when change is happening so rapidly and when so much of our work life is about dealing with stress and curve balls. 

We have to develop our career resilience skills. 

That's it. That's all we can do. We have to develop our resilience skills and use that resilience to meet the challenges that have become a regular part of our work lives. 

Why Resilience?

According to the American Psychological Association, resilience is your capacity to deal with stress, adversity and uncertainty. Resilience is about bouncing back, rolling with the punches, getting back up on the horse. It's our ability to take what life throws at us and use it to grow stronger. 

Our careers are no longer a matter of making a decision about what we want to do with the rest of our lives, getting an education and then following a straight-line career path to that dream job. Those days are long gone. 

Today's careers require us to be agile, flexible, and adaptable. To see opportunity in challenges and to develop our capacity to deal with constantly changing parameters and requirements. 

When you build your resilience, you are in a better position to adapt to ongoing changes. You accept change as a part of life and see change as an opportunity, not as a series of insurmountable obstacles. 

Resilience can also help you feel more in control. You're able to keep things in perspective and to see yourself as an actor in your life, rather than as a victim. High resilience also allows you to be more pro-active in responding to whatever gets thrown at you. 

Four Patterns of Career Resilience

In looking at resilience as it applies to our careers, I see four patterns we need to incorporate into our lives. I see these as patterns, because they are ongoing components of our behavior and thinking that we need to work on. Career resilience is not a once and done event. It is a way of being that you must focus on developing.

The four patterns I see are:

• Patterns that support Clarifying
• Patterns that support Connecting
• Patterns that support Creating
• Patterns that support Coping

Patterns for Clarifying

Resilience needs clarity. We need to understand who we are, what we want, and how we bring value to the work that we do. What are our signature strengths? What do we want more of in our lives? 

Clarity is also about knowing what's going on in the outside world. What occupational, industry and economic trends impact our careers? What is the likelihood that technology or outsourcing could eliminate or completely change our jobs? What credentials and skills are needed to be successful? 

Most importantly, what goals and plans do we need to develop for ourselves, based on our awareness of ourselves and the changes that we see going on in the world? Clarity gives us a sense of purpose and control because it allows us to know where we stand and to see where we can fit in as new opportunities and challenges come our way. 

Patterns for Connecting

Resilience thrives on connections. Resilient people have a core group of individuals they know are always in their corner. They look for who is available, who's trustworthy and who's helpful and they go toward the light of these connections.  They aren't afraid to ask for and receive help and they offer their own services in return. 

Connections and relationships are also at the heart of what it takes to be successful in a networked world. It is your relationships that bring you information, knowledge and opportunities. Your connections can help you bounce back and spring forward, even under the most adverse conditions. But connections don't just happen. We must be purposeful and intentional in developing those connections that will most support us in adapting to change. 

 

Patterns for Creating

Resilience is also about action. What steps are we taking to achieve our goals, to learn from our misakes, to engage in new experiences that can grow our skills and networks? Resilient people have a plan and they work that plan. 

We also have to ask ourselves what patterns do we have in place that provide the best structures for creating and experimenting? How do we spend our time? What rituals are part of our work lives? How do we move from insight into action? 

Flow needs a framework. If you want your career to flow more easily, you must create frameworks for that to happen. 

Patterns for Coping

Ultimately, resilience is about how we cope with life's ups and downs. How do we manage our emotional responses and maintain an optimistic outlook, even under dire circumstances? How do we nurture and take care of ourselves on a regular basis so that we can bring our best selves to our lives? What stories do we tell ourselves about our work, our strengths and weaknesses and about how people relate to us? How do these stories impact our ability to meet challenges head on? 

Resilient people have a generally positive outlook on life and have learned to persevere in the face of challenges. They feel their emotions, but they don't allow their emotions to overwhelm their ability to act. Effective coping mechanisms are a critical component of developing career resilience. 

 Additional Thoughts on Resilience

I see the four patterns of career resilience working together synergistically, each connected to and reinforcing the others. All of them are critically important, although at different times we may find ourselves more focused on a particular pattern. When we're confused or uncertain about where to go next, we may pay more attention to Clarifying. When we're overly stressed and anxious, we may need to spend time on our Coping patterns. If we're trying to expand into something new, we'd be well-served to focus on the Connecting and Creating patterns. And if we've lost our jobs, we need to spend time working on all four patterns. 

There are two things that feel most important to me about developing career resilience. The first is that resilience should be our goal. We cannot control the people and events that surround us, but we can control our capacity to meet the challenges that inevitably arise at work. By focusing on resilience as our goal, rather than on trying to control what is uncontrollable, we put ourselves into a much healthier position for moving forward. 

I also see the idea of patterns of behavior being critically important. Resilience is not something we summon at will. It is something we must build and work on every day. Believe me, we know it when we haven't paid attention to one or more of the career resilience patterns in our lives. I see this all the time when I'm working with people who lose their jobs. They've done little to develop these patterns in their lives, so they are less equipped to move on to their next opportunity. 

For me, working on career resilience is a worthy goal. It's a way to respond to all that is negative and challenging at work and to focus our attention where it's most needed--on our capacity to creatively and effectively respond to a new normal. 

What are your thoughts on this? Does the idea of career resilience resonate with you? What do you do to build your own career reslience? 

The Other Elephant in the Room: Most Jobs Suck

 

Last week I wrote about an elephant in the room of careers and employment that we aren't really acknowledging or discussing--the fact that there are 3.3 job seekers for every available job opening. 

Today I want to acknowledge another elephant in the room that is the reality for both those who are unemployed and those who are currently working. It is this (and pardon my bluntness here):

From a job seeker perspective, many, many jobs suck.

On just about every measure you can imagine, job quality from a job seeker perspective is trending downward. Real wages for many jobs are declining. Adjusted for inflation, the average U.S household has lower income than it did in 1997.  

To the extent that there is any job growth, most of it has been in low-wage industries. And healthcare benefits and retirement fund costs are being shifted onto workers, contributing to the erosion of their wages. Assuming, of course, that they have healthcare or retirement benefits available to them at all. 

For many workers, full-time employment is a dream, especially in those industries where employers are using just-in-time scheduling to bring workers in for the busiest few hours, rather than for an entire shift. And in an effort to avoid the requirements of the Affordable Care Act, many companies are cutting hours even further, preferring to hire a number of part-time workers rather than fewer full-time employees. This forces workers to try to juggle multiple jobs with each employer demanding that their job be the first priority. 

For salaried workers, hours are longer  and increasingly we are on call 24/7, afraid to not respond to an email or answer a client call because we could be seen as not being dedicated enough. No one wants to be the target in a layoff, so we do whatever we can to appear to be the most productive and "value-add," even if that means giving up the necessary down-time that actually helps people function. 

Many, if not most workplaces are short-staffed and those workers "lucky" enough to have a job, find that they are expected to pick up the slack for those who have been laid off or not hired in the first place. Workplaces are engineered to wring every ounce of productivity from their workers and managers spend much of their time trying to make sure this happens. Unfortunately, workers aren't even the beneficiaries of these productivity gains. 

We are also dealing with a great deal of uncertainty at work. Many jobs are now explicitly temporary or contingent work, so those workers know they are always on borrowed time.  But even "permanent" workers know there is no guarantee and that lay-offs can come at any moment.   

On top of all of this, job duties change quickly, and requirements for doing those jobs change even more rapidly, often in ways we didn't anticipate. With a glut of workers in the market, it's easier for employers to demand more skills, education and specific work experiences largely because they can. But how do you keep yourself prepared for what is essentially a moving target? And how do you keep upgrading your skills when you're spending so much of your time just trying to keep your head above water at work?

The reality is, that in addition to the sheer lack of available jobs, we are also dealing with a severe decline in the quality of those jobs that are available. All of the talk about "poorly prepared" workers obscures these facts and keeps us focused on job seeker deficiences, rather than on the deficiencies of the modern workplace.

This is not to say that we don't need to find ways to continue to learn and grow as workers. We do. But at the same time, we need to push back on the notion that if we only fixed workers, then everything else would fall into place. This simply isn't true.

We need to broaden the conversations we are having about work and the economy beyond the simplistic "pull yourself up by your bootstraps and you'll  be OK" discussions that currently dominate our national landscape. There is something much bigger going on that we need to address. But we have to start by acknowledging the realities of our situation. There aren't enough jobs for everyone who wants to work and the jobs we do have are of increasingly poor quality. 

An Antidote to Disposable Worker Syndrome: The "No Fire" Policy

 

Charlie Kim, CEO of NextJump

A few weeks ago I wrote a post on the "disposable worker" and the damage I think we're doing to ourselves and our economy with this approach. Yesterday in a comment on that post, Catherine Lombardozzi pointed me in the direction of an interview with NextJump CEO, Charlie Kim, whose company has adopted a "no fire" policy. Here's how that policy emerged:

 

I always thought we were a company with a strong focus on people, and it was for that reason that I advocated “fast firing” — if you knew someone wasn’t working out, don’t prolong the agony. Allowing bad behavior to perpetuate is one of the worst things you can do for team performance. . . 

I was talking with Bob Chapman, CEO of Barry-Wehmiller at Massive, a gathering organized by Simon Sinek, and Bob challenged me on this point and asked me how I’d like my son to be fired by someone in the future. That floored me. Being fired is a highly traumatic emotional event. It’s the equivalent of being told “you are no good.”

 

Charlie is right, of course. It's difficult to not take a lay-off personally, even if it has nothing to do with our performance. We see it as a commentary on our worth, especially if others are staying behind. Why were WE selected to be laid off, when others were considered valuable enough to keep? 

Charlie goes on to describe the impact of "no fire" on his company's operations:

Once you realize that you are entering into a lifelong relationship, hiring starts to look a lot more like adoption, or dating. Multiple interactions over some time are required before our team would get comfortable with a prospective hire. Every hiring manager started hiring more carefully, something I’d been advocating for but couldn’t make happen in every manager. Without further direction, they started treating hiring like adoption: once we take someone into our family, they’re here for life, when things don’t work, they’re responsible for training them, helping them.

Training also became much more comprehensive, touching subjects such as character, grit, and integrity in ways we had previously viewed as beyond the scope of company training.

Almost immediately turnover went from 40% to 0%. Recruiters and other CEOs have told me that NxJumpers aren’t even taking their calls. The percentage of employees who said they “love,” not like, not tolerate, but LOVE their jobs went from 20% to 90%.

I told you about the formal deliberate changes we made to our training programs. There were powerful, self-organizing impacts as well. Peer counseling groups formed in every part of the company. Groups of 3 to 4 people meeting regularly to help each other grow, talk through hardships.

Probably the biggest impact was the effectiveness of performance evaluations. Development discussions were usually wrought with skepticism from the employee standpoint — are you really trying to help me or just documenting material to potentially fire me? Since getting fired wasn’t an option, everyone became more open to talk about their real problems. Performance evaluations became what it was always intented for – development discussions, open, honest and often real and raw conversations on what people are struggling with. Since people could voice real concerns at work, they left those toxins there and didn’t take them home with them. Home life improved as well.

 

There are still times, of course, when a hire doesn't work out, but NextJump provides the support and encouragement for people to move to their next position:

I reassigned a person to a job position and told them their new job was to look for a new job. We continued to pay them, provide office space, access to company resources, and promised positive evaluations as appropriate.

This "no fire" policy seems like a huge win/win for both individuals and the companies they work for. When employees feel the deeper commitment from the company to their professional well-being, they can focus on what really matters, rather than on the protective behaviors a more uncertain work environment tends to engender. There's also time and space to deal with the deeper, more personal issues that inevitably impact company performance but that we currently address by discarding  a person and moving on to the next one. 

What would happen if more companies took the "no fire" pledge? How could this change the experience of work and the quality of our workforce? 

The Elephant in the Room: The Main Reason You're Still Unemployed

As a lot of my work recently has been with people who are unemployed, I have a ton of articles coming through my feeds on job search, unemployment, etc. Most of them are about "personal branding" and "building your network," how to manage your social media presence, write a great LinkedIn profile and navigate ever-more confusing and time-consuming online applicant tracking systems. 

This morning, I ran across one that lists 18 Reasons Why You're Still Unemployed. These include being pierced, tattooed, angry, depressed, interviewing poorly--the list goes on. All of this, of course, suggests that the reasons for your unemployment lie somewhere in YOU. YOU need to do something to fix all of these flaws and once you do, then (presumably) a new job will be waiting for you. 

I have a secret for you though. You could fix every single flaw on this list--including re-training for another career and magically erasing the depression and anger that pretty much go with the territory of unemployment--and you could STILL be unemployed. Do you know why?

Because there are 3.3 job seekers for every job opening. 

I'm going to repeat that. 

There are 3.3 job seekers for every job opening. 

That's on average, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Depending on where you're looking for work and the kind of work you're seeking, the numbers can be even worse. 

It's kind of like playing musical chairs with three people walking around a single chair. When the music ends, only one of them will be able to sit down. And no matter how awesome the other two may be, through no fault of their own, they will still be sitting on the floor. 

This is the elephant in the room we're not really discussing. We're all so busy looking at what we can personally control (like our "personal brand" and endlessly re-writing our resumes) that we've completely lost touch with a fundamental reality. 

There are not enough jobs to go around. 

Why does this matter? 

Well if you're unemployed, it matters a lot. It gets old feeling like you've done everything you can and still you're having no luck landing a job. And then when you feel angry or depressed about it, people admonish you to "have a better attitude."  Worse, they will argue that it's your "bad attitude" that keeps you from finding something new!

What about people who have a job? Well this should matter to you too, because this trend of fewer jobs for more people is going to continue, and probably accelerate. See this and this to get an idea of how technology is impacting jobs. Then read this Business Week article on the disposable worker to see how that dynamic is intersecting with technology. You may be safe for now, but that may not last forever. And if you're one of the lucky few who doesn't have to deal with this reality, you are still going to have a spouse, child, parent, or friend who does. At some point, we are all going to be dealing with unemployment, many of us more than once. 

I think we're doing tons of damage to people by continuing to peddle this story that it's individual shortcomings and flaws that explain long-term and/or frequent unemployment. Yes, we can all do a better job of job searching. Yes, people still continue to find jobs in this economy.  But focusing on individual flaws keeps us all from discussing the bigger problem--that there aren't enough jobs for everyone who wants one. 

So let's stop putting all of our energy into figuring out how to "brand" ourselves so that we can compete for the limited pool of jobs that are available. And let's stop acting like the unemployed are lepers who somehow deserve their fate because they didn't create a great LinkedIn profile or keep their skills updated. 

Instead, let's turn to discussing what we're going to do about the fact that the pool of available jobs is shrinking and the real crisis is not about personal branding. It's about needing more jobs. 

And let's quit telling the unemployed that it's their fault they can't find work. Believe me, if there were tons of jobs that needed doing, then employers would be a lot less picky. Your tattos and piercings and lack of a social media profile wouldn't get in the way of needing to get some work done. 

It's simple math. So let's start dealing with that. 

Disposable Worker Syndrome is Killing Us

 

For the past several months, I've been doing more work than usual with people who have been laid off from their jobs. I've listened to their stories of how the lay-offs occurred--usually in a brutally swift and cruel fashion--and been witness to their pain at having done all the right things, only to be told their services are no longer needed. It's heart-breaking, really, to see how they try to recover from this assault, accepting their disposability as inevitable in some ways. 

I contrast this with the marketing messages we receive from companies and other organizations about the need to re-use and recycle. Inherent in this is the idea that we can be more responsible stewards of the earth's resources, finding ways to renew and re-use things, rather than throwing them away. 

While this spirit seems to be alive and well when it comes to material goods, I don't see the same spirit animating our approach to people. But in my mind, "renewable and sustainable" isn't just about re-filling water bottles or recycling paper. I think it starts with seeing people as renewable resources, rather than as objects we use up and then throw away. 

I cannot tell you the damage this is doing to workers, this idea that you are only as good as the last thing you did for the company. I see people who have poured their hearts and souls into doing what they were asked to do, into "doing the right thing," only to be told that this wasn't enough. And we remove them from our institutions just as efficiently as we take out the trash, with little regard for the fact that these are human beings, many of whom have tied up much of their sense of self-worth in the work we are now telling them we no longer need them to do. 

In the past, through this blog, I've focused on how we as individuals need to keep renewing and recycling ourselves through a process of lifelong learning and adapting to change. I still believe this is true. But I also believe that, through our institutions, we are doing great spiritual and emotional damage to ourselves by consistently communicating to people that they are disposable and that they are on their own in the process of recycling and renewing.  

To torture my metaphor, we are treating people like garbage--throwing them into landfills and just letting them waste away there. We are doing nothing to provide them with the structures and resources and emotional supports that would help them go through that renewal process. 

I've come to realize that part of the reason for my absence here has been that I'm grappling with what it means for me to support people in their careers when they are operating in an environment that so regularly communicates with them about their disposability. Yes, I can talk about positive professional development, but for most people, this is used to develop their capacities in service to organizations and institutions that are essentially sucking them dry. Once they've been used up, they are cast aside.

Somehow it feels almost immoral to me to advise people on how to play the game when the game is so clearly rigged against them. 

I understand all the reasons for companies shedding jobs, including globalization and the impact that technology is having on work. But that doesn't excuse us from treating people decently. In fact, I would argue that it REQUIRES us to come up with better, more humane ways to treat people who are caught up in the winds of these changes.

I'm only beginning to grapple with where all of this leads me. I'm not sure that there are easy answers. But I do know that it is only in the calling out of what's really going on that we can start to find better ways to handle the changes we are dealing with.

For now, many of us can pretend like it won't happen to us, so it's easy for us to hide our heads in the sand. But I promise you, every person I've spoken with who's been laid off (many of them repeatedly) thought the same way you did. Like unplanned pregnancies or car accidents, a layoff is something that is going to happen to someone else. But increasingly, my friend, that is not true.

We owe it to ourselves and to each other to begin talking about what we need to do to bring humanity back into these transitions, to find ways to support all of us in being able to manage the renewal process. We can't treat people as disposable, as garbage for someone else to take care of. We have a responsibility to ourselves and to others to find better ways to help each other through these upheavals. 

On Release and Fallow Fields

 

Just about a year ago, I wrote a post about the dark side of creation--that time when we draw into ourselves to let things ferment. Harriet Wakelam, whose own experiences inspired my post, talks about it this way:

I have recently been through one of those 'life reinventions'.  Unlike the current 'sexy' portrayal of creativity the process was absorbing, consuming and sometimes dark and scary.  During the process  I switched off from my networks. One minute I was talking, the next I was disconnected. 

This is me--one minute I was talking and the next I disconnected. For months I was full of ideas and plans and then, like that, they switched off. I found that I had gone as far as I could go at that time in talking about careers and career re-invention and professional development. My blog posts dried up, I stayed off Twitter, my participation in LinkedIn groups dwindled and my Facebook updates have largely been about art-related topics. 

At first I thought it was a temporary thing, that I just needed to take a few weeks off from the connections. But the few weeks became a few months and I felt dry as a bone. I've also felt guilty for my silence here, but silence seemed preferable to writing from the dry, silent place. 

I've discovered, over time, that this is how my creativity works. Deeply productive and abundant periods of growth followed, inevitably, by long periods of fallowness. I cannot anticipate or control the times when the Muse is silent, any more than I can force the periods of creative abundance to occur. Each has its own season and I can only honor both periods, the yin and the yang of the creative process. 

As we enter 2013, instead of a New Year's resolution, I am going with a "Word of the Year"--a word that can guide my activities and my intentions. My word for this year is "Release."  I chose it because I turn 50 in September and as I move into a new phase of my life, it feels important to me to let go of the habits, thoughts, activities and connections that no longer serve me well. After almost 50 years, I need to make some space for new things in my life. 

One of the things I want to release is the judgement I place on myself for the fallow periods. I also want to release the pressure to always "produce" and the need to "say something, "when silence is really what's called for. Sometimes the most learning and growth takes place in the gaps. 

Here's hoping that in release, the fallow fields begin to produce again. . . 

Learning from Experience: Soha El Borno Goes Freelance

I first "met" Soha El Borno online when she was working at Wild Apricot as a Web Copywriter and blogger. She always posted great content and was an excellent resource for social media and nonprofit work. 

When I put out a call for your career transition stories, she responded to me quickly by email, telling me she wanted to share hers. 

As you'll see, she's like a lot of women who go through career transition when they start trying to juggle a desire to be home with their children with their professional identities. My own foray into self-employment began when motherhood and career aspirations collided and I know a lot of other women who pursue the freelance route to better meet their needs for career and family. 

Here's Soha's story:

Q. Can you give us some background on yourself, just for some context? 

 
I hold a bachelor's degree in  Marketing and published my first article about a year after I graduated. I started out doing marketing writing -- specifically marketing communications and PR - for a few years. I then moved to a software company, where I did all their copywriting and blogging. I transitioned into freelance writing gradually over the years. During that time, I held my full-time day jobs and took onfreelance assignments on evenings and weekends. 

Q. Like happens for many women, your career change was precipitated by starting a family and juggling the demands of family and working. How did that factor into your deciding about what new career direction you wanted to go in? How has that shaped your career identity? 

 

Deciding to get into freelancing really came about as a natural next step for me. I always loved writing and got to do a lot of it in all my previous roles, but being a parent was also a high priority for me. I knew that if I was happy with myself and my career, that I was going to be a better mother. I also wanted more flexibility to be with my children. It just seemed like the right choice and I'm happy I took that step. 

Q. What kinds of emotions have you dealt with in making the transition? How have you dealt with them? 

 

I'd freelanced before, so I knew the basic drill. I took on extra freelance assignments while working full-time but this time around I didn't have the security of a job. So the pressure was stronger and I needed to find a lot more work. Emotionally, it was very hard, but worth the pain. I was determined to make it work so I started marketing a lot. I began by telling all my colleagues and friends that I was freelancing and many of them offered me some writing work right away. I also started using linkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and networking and that helped me get more work. 

Q. What has been most challenging for you in making the transition? 

 

The biggest challenge was juggling motherhood and work all at the same time. Trying to fit in freelancing where I can while delivering a high level of quality in my work was overwhelming. So I learned to be to a very early riser and got all of my writing work done in the early morning. That was the best time for me to finish my work and get some peace and quiet. 

Q. What has been most rewarding? 

 

There a lot of rewards. I love the flexibility and the fact that I can be involved in my children's life. And it's a wonderful mental exercise every day. I'm always learning and building my skills and meeting different people. 

Q. What would you do differently if you could do it all over again?

 

Honestly, I wouldn't change a thing. 

Q. What advice do you have for other people who want to make a transition? What was the most valuable advice you received from someone else. 

 

Transitioning into freelancing takes time and patience. But don't let that scare you. If this is what you truly want, then go for it. Never give up on your dreams. When I was first starting out, I was working full-time and taking on extra freelance assignments. I worked during the day and on many evenings and weekends and all my hard work has paid off. If you're determined to make it happen, you will find a way. 

Career Resolutions as a Key to Career Thriving

A few weeks ago I read Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project, which chronicles Gretchen's year of personal experiments to increase her happiness--her version of the 30-Day trial! .

One section on goals vs. resolutions really struck a chord with me. This is what she writes on her blog about it: 

You hit a goal, you achieve a goal. You keep a resolution.

I think that some objectives are better characterized as resolutions, others, as goals.

“Run in a marathon” or “Become fluent in Spanish” is a good goal. It’s specific. It’s easy to tell when it has been achieved. Once you’ve done it, you’ve done it!

“Eat more vegetables” or “Stop gossiping,” or “Exercise” is better cast as a resolution. You won’t wake up one morning and find that you’ve achieved it. It’s something that you have to resolve to do, every day, forever. You’ll never be done with it.

. . . it can be easy to get discouraged when you’re trying to hit a goal. What if it takes longer than you expected? What if it’s harder than you expected? And what happens once you’ve reached your goal? Say you’ve run the marathon. What now – do you stop exercising? Do you set a new goal?

With resolutions, the expectations are different. Each day, I try to live up to my resolutions. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I fail, but every day is a clean slate and a fresh opportunity. I never expect to be done with my resolutions, so I don’t get discouraged when they stay challenging. Which they do. 

 

This idea of goals vs. resolutions really resonated for me in regard to the work we do in our careers because I think that ongoing professional development is largely about keeping resolutions. While having goals can be helpful, they also require us to have some sense of the destination--where it is we want to end up. 

But so many of us work in a world where the destination is often unclear, or we are in the midst of transition, so we are working on direction, not destination. In those cases, resolutions seem far more appropriate for what we want to do. They are a way to keep moving forward, to keep developing. 

Career resolutions are really the habits we create for ourselves that we do on a regular basis. How do we spend that first hour of work? What rituals have we created for ourselves daily, weekly, monthly? 

Goals give us a sense of destination, while resolutions are the habits that can take us there. And even when our goals feel unclear, we can still keep our resolutions as a strategy for continuing to develop even if we feel stuck or lost. 

What do you think of this idea of career resolutions vs. career goals? Does the concept of career resolutions resonate for you? 

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Do you have a creative dream you want to bring to fruition? Join me on November 9-11 for the Dream It/Do It Retreat--two days of solid dreaming and work time to move your career or creative project forward. You'll be surrounded by a supportive group of kindred spirits, plus great food and access to a fully-stocked art studio!