small steps into the unknown

I often see parallels between physical challenges, like biking up a big hill, doing a yoga tree pose, and intellectual/emotional challenges -- like embarking on a new marketing campaign, or doing a new piece of writing. My newest insight, which I thought I'd share, was in my first pilates class, which I took last week.

As I got to what I thought was the end of a set of particularly painful abs exercises, the instructor pushed on to one more set, this time with a challenging new twist. The details aren't important, but I plunged forward into a pretty feeble rendition of the new twist. And as I fumbled along and lost my balance, I had the insight -- sweating there on the floor: you need to fumble and flail before you can hope to be on the path to mastery. It isn't as if I hadn't learned and re-learned this countless times in the past, but I suddenly saw the process slowed down into micro steps.

I realized that I could hold on to the image of that moment next time I'm resistant to stepping into an unfamiliar idea, creating a less than wonderful first draft, or picking up the phone to make a difficult call. If I don't allow myself to fail, I wil never begin. I left the class feeling virtuous that I'd made it through, committed to returning. And in the retelling to myself, I remembered the success more than the failure.

What image of flubbing on the way to success can you remember and hold on to?

Envisioning your career

A career is way more than a job. It is a path, even a calling -- and shaping it takes work and vision.

Here is the dictionary definition:
Career
1. an occupation or profession, esp. one requiring special training, followed as one's lifework: He sought a career as a lawyer.
2. a person's progress or general course of action through life or through a phase of life, as in some profession or undertaking: His career as a soldier ended with the armistice.
3. success in a profession, occupation, etc.
4. a course, esp. a swift one.
5. speed, esp. full speed: The horse stumbled in full career.
6. Archaic. a charge at full speed.

–verb (used without object) 7. to run or move rapidly along; go at full speed.

–adjective 8. having or following a career; professional: a career diplomat.


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Origin:
1525–35; < MF carriere < OPr carriera lit., road < LL carrāria (via) vehicular (road), equiv. to L carr(us) wagon (see car 1 ) + -āria, fem. of -ārius -ary

Often we think about career from the outside in: what will make me the most money; what will earn me the most status; what will be a good use of all those years of education; how can I fit the job description I just saw posted.

But thinking from the inside out can get you in touch with your sense of purpose and where you want to have impact -- where you would come alive.

Many of us have several visions for where we might go. And some of those, or even all of them, can be vague, murky or appear preposterous. But having a vision can keep you focused when you have just lost a position, are having trouble finding the right next one, or run your own business and are hustling for clients.

What is your career vision or visions?

I get this exercise from my colleague Michael Melcher:

Try exploring one vision for yourself --five years hence --and avoiding the temptation to begin immediately to tell yourself why it is not possible. Maybe you are doing development work in Afghanistan. Maybe you are teaching first graders. Maybe you have discovered an green tech innovation, and are selling it to investors.

Stick with the idea.

What are you doing?
Whom are you working with?
What industry?
What kind of organization?
What does your workplace look like?
How do you feel in this place?

Try it on and see how it feels.

Now try it again with other visions, if you have them.

See what you learn.

Be proactive in your career

I was pleased to read the piece in today's New York Times about the trend towards pursuing careers in public service, one of the bright sides of this moment of crisis. Hundreds of talented people are being proactive and moving toward growth areas that also allow them to pursue a desire for social contribution.

From the article: "In choosing careers, young people look for signals from society, and Wall Street will no longer pull the talent that it did for so many years,” said Richard Freeman, director of the labor studies program at the National Bureau of Economic Research. “We have a great experiment before us.”

What will the new map of talent flow look like? It’s early, but based on graduate school applications this spring, enrollment in undergraduate courses, preliminary job-placement results at schools, and the anecdotal accounts of students and professors, a new pattern of occupational choice seems to be emerging. Public service, government, the sciences and even teaching look to be winners, while fewer shiny, young minds are embarking on careers in finance and business consulting."

At this moment of flux, where are you in your career?
Have you been pondering a move of this type?
What tools and support do you need to make this leap, or at least to begin to move along this pathway?

I am leading a workshop in New York -- a Career Action Group -- beginning on May 5 and continuing for four Tuesdays. The workshop will be full of tips and strategies, along with a structure for exploring your values and vision, honing your networking and communications skills and managing the uncertainty of the transition. All this in a group with about 10-12 other interesting people.

It includes ten hours of workshop, and a 45 minute one-on-one coaching session. Check out the information at www.careeractiongroups.com
If you sign up by April 15th, you'll get $100 off the price!

Hope to see you there.

A moment to connect with your sense of purpose in your work

Every once in awhile I ask myself why I do what I do for work. What's a political science PhD, a recipient of the top fellowships, who taught at Wellesley and has a book out on leadership and change in post-communist Eastern Europe doing helping talented people make their next career moves, or become more effective or creative in their current roles?

I do love this work. And I feel priveleged to be privy to the inner struggles of really smart and creative people figuring out how to develop their gifts and talents and to take on challenging projects.

But every so often I, like many of the people I work with, have to remind myself of the reasons and reconnect with my passion and purpose.

So here's my thinking.

Back when I was teaching at Wellesley and Berkeley, I offered guidance to my students not just by imparting knowledge or provoking them to think critically, but in helping them live up to their potential and make difficult choices about their paths as emerging leaders. I liked that helping-them-with-life part more in the end than directing them to good resources on peace-keeping or conflict prevention, for example. And I bet it is that guidance about the difficult choices about their careers, between practicality and passion, that they remember years later. For many of us, work is so central to who we are as human beings; how we gain satisfaction and joy; how we express our unique contributions; how we learn. It is about making a living, but it is even more about making a life.

Second, one of the most important trends of this turbulent time is the move of some of our best and brightest away from finance, and away from focusing primarily on economic gain and status and towards work with social purpose, either in government, in greening businesses, in social entrepreneurship or non-profit work. Helping those people find a place to contribute their smarts and creativity (what sometimes is blandly called talent management) is hugely important for our future as a nation. We are in a moment of incredible opportunity, if only we take it -- to throw a lot more firepower and innovative energy towards our most pressing social challenges.

For these reasons alone, I feel my choices, and my difficult career transition, was worth it. I can have real impact on peoples' lives, as a catalyst and thinking partner. And of course, I can make a living in the process.

What would you do if you weren't worried about the challenges of starting in a new field?

What is a step you can take towards aligning your work with you sense of purpose?

What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?