In a recent conversation with several other mid-career professionals, the topic turned to mentoring younger professionals. One person was bemoaning the limited time available and the huge number of talented, deserving young people who had come to her for guidance. She would like to be able to do more to help.
Another person, who is equally successful by most standards, was perplexed by the dilemma. She said, "How do these people find you? No one ever asks me for career advice." It's a testament to both her confidence and her prestige that she asked this as a simple question, with none of the insecurity or competitiveness that you might expect.
The conversation moved on to the mechanics of networking and professional exposure, but it left me wondering if there isn't another influence at work here. The woman who is inundated with opportunities to mentor other professionals is not more financially successful, nor does she attract better projects or assignments. By all objective measures, the two women are perfect equals in their field, but when the first woman talks about her work, it is obvious that she loves it. She is happy.
People don't just want to do what she does or achieve what she has achieved, they want to live the life she is living. They want to be engaged in their work. They want to feel that level of joyful contentment that they see in her.
I fall somewhere in the middle on this visible-joy spectrum, but now that I've identified the characteristics that attract people to my friend as a mentor, I'm committed to developing them in myself. I don't think this will come by consciously trying to change the way I express myself when talking about work. I think this will come by making careful choices about the work that I do, thereby driving myself toward activities that produce those feelings.
I'll keep you posted!
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
The Next Book
Casey and I have toying with various ideas for the next book. The process of writing is so much fun that we definitely want to do another one, and we have a bunch of different ideas, but until this week, none of those ideas had particularly inspired us to immediate activity.
Caterpiller announced that they are laying off 800 workers because of a slump in sales. Congress denied the auto industries request for a full-scale bailout and the President has been forced to provide temporary support until another solution appears. I heard somewhere that 84% of Americans are unhappy in their jobs.
For our parents' generation, a successful career meant spending 20-30 years at a single company moving up the corporate ladder via promotion every few years and retiring on a pension sometime between 55 and 65.
Our generation started out along the same path with a great job on the bottom rung of the same corporate ladder, but changes in the corporate world (including lay-offs and a common policy of not providing raises equal to the market) caused us to leap from company to company, each time hoping that this one would be the place where we could finally be successful according to our parents' definition. Then the dot-com explosion happened and we all started thinking in terms of stock options and IPOs. For some, this meant entrepreneurial ambitions. For others, just a tolerance for longer resumes with many more employers and a willingness to change companies in order to get the raises and promotions we wanted.
The next generation is coming into the workforce now and they have no desire to make a lifetime commitment to one corporation. The loyalty that our parents felt toward their companies, which was reciprocal for a long time, is just a quaint, old-fashioned idea from History class.
When inspiration hits, it hits hard. We realized that many, many people in this country would benefit from a change in approach to their work. Consultants, and particularly independent consultants, have long known that they are responsible for managing their own careers. This includes maintaining a network, honing their skills, finding work and managing their interactions on each engagement to be productive, profitable and fun (if possible).
And the idea for the next book was born. We are going to write about ways to manage your career for a lifetime of success and ways to manage your daily work for immediate success. Our discussion will be both strategic and tactical, and we hope to influence people to develop a new attitude toward working.
How's that for a BHAG?
Caterpiller announced that they are laying off 800 workers because of a slump in sales. Congress denied the auto industries request for a full-scale bailout and the President has been forced to provide temporary support until another solution appears. I heard somewhere that 84% of Americans are unhappy in their jobs.
For our parents' generation, a successful career meant spending 20-30 years at a single company moving up the corporate ladder via promotion every few years and retiring on a pension sometime between 55 and 65.
Our generation started out along the same path with a great job on the bottom rung of the same corporate ladder, but changes in the corporate world (including lay-offs and a common policy of not providing raises equal to the market) caused us to leap from company to company, each time hoping that this one would be the place where we could finally be successful according to our parents' definition. Then the dot-com explosion happened and we all started thinking in terms of stock options and IPOs. For some, this meant entrepreneurial ambitions. For others, just a tolerance for longer resumes with many more employers and a willingness to change companies in order to get the raises and promotions we wanted.
The next generation is coming into the workforce now and they have no desire to make a lifetime commitment to one corporation. The loyalty that our parents felt toward their companies, which was reciprocal for a long time, is just a quaint, old-fashioned idea from History class.
When inspiration hits, it hits hard. We realized that many, many people in this country would benefit from a change in approach to their work. Consultants, and particularly independent consultants, have long known that they are responsible for managing their own careers. This includes maintaining a network, honing their skills, finding work and managing their interactions on each engagement to be productive, profitable and fun (if possible).
And the idea for the next book was born. We are going to write about ways to manage your career for a lifetime of success and ways to manage your daily work for immediate success. Our discussion will be both strategic and tactical, and we hope to influence people to develop a new attitude toward working.
How's that for a BHAG?
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Book Release!
Everyday Practices of Extraordinary Consultants is now available on Amazon.com and from our website. This is the result of months of work for both Casey and me, so it feels like a huge milestone.
However, everything we read says that selling a book is 5% writing and 95% promotion. It appears our work is just beginning.
We wrote the book to serve the following purposes:
1. To force us to fully explore and document our consulting skills philosophy as we prepare to conduct training.
2. To serve as a sales tool for selling that same training.
3. To establish our authority in the field. Having a book published validates our credentials like nothing else could.
4. As a secondary revenue source for us.
5. To attract a publisher who might be interested in publishing further books. (As it turns out, we enjoy writing.)
6. To find out if we could do it.
I wrote this list as a reminder to myself. If promoting the book requires a great deal of time and effort, and it only serves Reason #4, is it a good idea?
However, everything we read says that selling a book is 5% writing and 95% promotion. It appears our work is just beginning.
We wrote the book to serve the following purposes:
1. To force us to fully explore and document our consulting skills philosophy as we prepare to conduct training.
2. To serve as a sales tool for selling that same training.
3. To establish our authority in the field. Having a book published validates our credentials like nothing else could.
4. As a secondary revenue source for us.
5. To attract a publisher who might be interested in publishing further books. (As it turns out, we enjoy writing.)
6. To find out if we could do it.
I wrote this list as a reminder to myself. If promoting the book requires a great deal of time and effort, and it only serves Reason #4, is it a good idea?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
