New Directions

Successful Strategies for Career, the Workplace, and Personal Growth

James G. Ward

• Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781626343535
• eBook ISBN: 9781626343542
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Personal Success

Careers don't just happen.
Our definition of career and how we approach the workplace have undergone a profound paradigm shift. In the modern economy, career transitions are common: Layoffs, changes in management, corporate downsizing, mergers, restructuring—even a difficult boss—can all lead to a new job or even a completely new line of work. What do you do when you have to find some new direction? Managing a long career is hard work, but author James Ward offers a practical career toolbox, full of strategies for success at every career stage, including • How to choose and plan your career path
• How to handle career transitions
• How to find a job
• How to succeed once you're hired
• How to create a strategy for the future ?Ward turns his thirty years of professional coaching and HR experience, firsthand observations of a changing business landscape, into actionable career strategies. It's critical that you be willing and able to transition into a new job—sometimes into a new career. New Directions provides the tools necessary to excel in today's shifting professional world.

Workplace Strategies

Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains.

—Jean-Jacques Rousseau, French philosopher

Happiness at Work—a Possibility?

Happiness is the valuable commodity, and that’s what makes life good.

—Neil Young, Canadian singer-songwriter and musician

As a fan of Neil Young, I was interested in an interview about his recently published memoir. In addition to being a songwriter and musician, he is a “motor head” and has owned hundreds of cars over his lifetime. In the interview, Young pointed out that at this stage of his life, he is focused on doing things that make him happy, including writing a book about his love of cars. As I pondered this, I began to think about happiness at work. How many of us are truly happy at work?

Are you just satisfied or are you “engaged”? There is a great deal of research on the issue of what motivates us to get up in the morning and go to work day in and day out. Employee engagement has recently become a focus of many organizations, particularly as they try to create a positive work environment, one that appeals to the millennial generation. A recent Gallup poll found that just twentynine percent of millennial workers were engaged in their jobs¹— thus the reason for the focus on engagement. Are employees really happy at work? How do you really measure engagement?

“Engaged” employees feel passionately about their jobs and share their organization’s values. Some employers use self-reporting surveys to attempt to measure employee engagement, while others look at specific behaviors that show commitment, drive, dedication, and social integration. But being satisfied at work is not the same as being engaged. Here’s my simplistic example: Imagine you go on vacation and try a new restaurant. The food is good; the place had a pleasant atmosphere, the service is good, etc. You leave satisfied. Will you tell others about the experience? Probably not. However, during the same vacation you go to a different restaurant and have one of the best dining experiences of your life, one that is so terrific you simply can’t stop talking about the experience. You tell all your friends about this restaurant experience: the food, the service, the wine list, the ambience, and so on. That’s the difference in being just satisfied versus being engaged.

Employee engagement surveys will often attempt to measure the level of employee engagement versus employee satisfaction. Employees working just for the money are generally not engaged at work. They don’t necessarily consider the psychic benefits of working; for them, the emotional and psychological rewards are secondary to the financial aspects of work. Plain and simple, they work to get a paycheck and support themselves. They may be one hundred percent satisfied, but not engaged.

A steady paycheck is important. But, over time, there is more to working than just receiving a paycheck. The intrinsic benefits of working are equally as important, if not more important, as the money we receive. This “psychic income” is critical to happiness at work. In my definition of psychic income, I include positive work relationships and personal satisfaction in your work. In his memoir, Neil Young describes happiness as “the valuable commodity,” and in my opinion, happiness cannot be measured purely in financial terms. It is hard to find true happiness in money, and that’s where fulfillment in our work comes into play. The short-term benefits of a paycheck are unquestionably important. However, over time the intrinsic or psychic benefits will outweigh any focus on money. We all want to get more out of working. In my view, over the long term, personal satisfaction—and more specifically “engagement”—is critical to happiness at work.

One of the most successful organizations in recent memory is Starbucks. Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, has created a business model in which getting a cup of coffee is an “experience.” I have been told that his senior managers running his operation don’t leave. He has created a culture of engagement. Schultz has been quoted as saying, “Work should be personal. For all of us. Not just for the artist and entrepreneur. Work should have meaning for the accountant, the construction worker, the technologist, the manager, and the clerk.”² That is the best definition of employee engagement that I can think of.

Monday Morning Horrors

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.

—Anonymous

I’m sure everyone has heard some version of this quote. Do you find yourself dreading Monday morning? For many of us, the beginning of the week is often the worst day of the week. Why is that? Is the monotony of a dead-end job acceptable because the thought of having to start over is far worse than the alternative? Often, because of our hectic lives and busy schedules, we are reluctant to take action and make a change. Each Sunday night, we mentally prepare ourselves to tackle the same increasingly empty role. Is it time to do something about those Monday morning horrors? You can begin by taking ownership, deciding what you love to do and want to do, and making a plan to find a position that accommodates your skills, talents, and passion.

Some caution is needed here; it is very important to have realistic expectations about doing what you love. We all have different passions. For example, I love music and have some talent as a guitar player. However, that does not mean I can make a living as a musician. We need to remember that we all have competencies, talents, and skills in certain areas. It’s much better to have a realistic awareness of what you can and can’t do. That being said, we can still change the way we approach our Monday mornings.

Whether it’s the job, organization, or career choice you made, taking ownership and considering what, and how, you need to change is important. At times, the best medicine is a new position, or a change in environment to recharge your batteries. Other times, it’s making small changes to your routine and approach to improve your current situation.

Regardless, taking specific action steps to change is the place to start. For example, if your boss is someone you just can’t seem to get along with and you struggle to communicate with, that can make Monday mornings seem impossible. Making a few tweaks to your routine might help you with the “Monday morning blues.” Consider tweaks such as these:

• Plan ahead. On Sunday night, think about the days ahead. What needs to be done in the coming week? What meetings, projects, and deadlines are coming up? Take a few minutes to think about these activities, or better yet, make a priority list, which will get you ready to face the week ahead with less stress.
• Arrive early. On Monday mornings, start getting in early. Why? Getting to work early allows you to have time to focus without interruption, possibly looking at your action list from the night before, checking emails, etc. This will allow you to start the week off on a positive note, in the right mental frame of mind.
• Focus. Instead of focusing on all the negatives aspects of your situation, focus on what needs to be done rather than what stresses you.
• Improve performance. It’s always helpful to focus on improving your personal performance. It’s hard to ignore top-tier performance. This may improve the communications issues with the boss. You might also consider seeking out a coach to help you communicate better with your boss. Small action steps will empower you.

What Is Your Strategy?

Have a vision, get a plan, and stay the course.

—Frederic Hudson, LifeLaunch

As professionals, we devote time and attention to what matters and to those activities that will get us to where we want to go. Do you have a career strategy, a workplace strategy, or, better yet, a “life” strategy? By life strategy I mean an all-encompassing plan that includes not only career plans but also life and personal goals, and includes asking questions such as where you want to live and whether you want to get married, have a family, and establish roots near your extended family.

When you sit down and think about it, where do you allocate your time, resources, and emotional energy? These are questions you should be contemplating as you develop career and workplace strategies. Most of us don’t graduate from college knowing with certainty what we want to do. As we navigate the ups and downs of our careers, we normally find our way into something we enjoy doing . . . most of the time, anyway.

How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton Christensen and others is an excellent book, worth taking the time to explore. As a Harvard Business School professor, Christensen tracked the career paths of Harvard MBAs; and despite their professional accomplishments after graduation, many of them report being unhappy with their career choices. Hard to imagine, right?

Sometimes it takes many years to find our way in life, but it does not need to be that way. In my view, it comes down to an individual’s makeup, or DNA. Some of us have a high need for achievement, status, success, and wealth. Others of us seek personal fulfillment through hobbies, our families, and personal interests. Regardless, we all are wired in certain ways that drive and motivate us to do what we do. Coming to terms with that reality is how our life strategy begins. For many of us, finding our personal passion, setting personal goals, finding the right career choice or right job, etc., comes easily. For others, it can take time—perhaps years—to realize. And that is okay as well. The important thing is to find what we love and then do it.

One of the tools I use in my coaching practice is the Hogan Motive, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI), which measures your motives, values, and preferences. Based on forty years of predictive analytics, this psychometric tool is an excellent way to measure one’s internal makeup. I like it because it measures and shows what we really want, not just what we say we want. Do you value recognition, power, money, social status, or altruism? Gaining an understanding of these values and preferences is the start of taking control of your career and life and, ultimately, the start of guiding your strategy.

Having Passion

To be passionate is to be alive.

—Jason Gay, author and journalist

I love this quote from Jason Gay, Wall Street Journal columnist. He frequently writes on sports and social issues. One topic he writes about often is running. As a runner myself, I find that his columns on the topic always hit a nerve with me. Runners, and all athletes for that matter, have passion about what they do. Passion is also an important quality for business success. I believe it goes hand in hand with several key strategies to building and maintaining a successful career. Again, it does not matter what you do for a living; these three strategies will help you maintain the right attitude for success, both on the job and off:

• First, have some passion for what you do. It starts there. We spend most of our life working. In order to maintain the necessary work ethic, drive, and sustainability to make it, passion is a requirement. Without passion, you are racing toward extinction. Moreover, lacking passion in the workplace will automatically place you behind on the performance curve. Employees lacking passion fall into what I call the “plotter” category, those people who just show up day in and day out without drive or mission.
• Second, you must constantly focus on self-improvement. You should never be satisfied with yesterday’s success. There is nothing wrong with taking a bow for today’s accomplishments. A victory lap is okay—in fact, it can be important. Enjoy the moment, but always think of ways to improve and do better. This will lead to the right result.
• Last, think like an owner. What does that mean? In today’s competitive world, owners must put clients first— put customers and products first to build a successful business. As you begin to think like an owner, it will lead to a significant change in your mindset. Thinking like the CEO of your own business changes the way you do things. It drives you to think in terms of excellence in all that you do. Moreover, it will guide you on how to spend the company’s money and allocate resources.

These three simple rules for developing and maintaining passion will help you manage on a day-to-day basis and build a lasting career. As Jim Collins points out in his book Good to Great, we do not get from good to great by focusing on just average. To get beyond just average, you must have passion.

WHEN YOUR PASSION BECOMES YOUR JOB: JOAN

Joan was a successful technology executive. She had worked in a number of organizations and had difficulty finding the right fit. After college she somewhat stumbled into her technology career but never really enjoyed the work. After fifteen years in different technology roles, she was laid off when the company she was working for closed its US operation.

Joan had always been an active runner and in fact had completed a dozen marathons. She used running as a way to destress. It cleared her mind and gave her much fulfillment. She had also been involved with a nonprofit, helping to raise money by acting as a running coach for the marathon team. It turns out, this nonprofit had just received approval to hire a full-time paid staff member to run their athletic fund-raising efforts. This happened at the same time Joan was in transition. She took the job and found herself feeling much happier, and later also became a part-time running coach for the local high school cross-country team.

Personality and Organizational Fit

What matters most is not “what” you are but “who” you are.

—DaShanne Stokes, author of The Unfinished Dream

Personality plays a significant part in success or failure on the job. One of the paradoxes of being human is that we have different sides to our personality. The ancient philosophers describe this as the paradox between good and evil.

Personality plays a huge role in personal development. In my coaching, another Hogan tool I use is the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI). This psychometric assessment helps individuals better understand their own personality, particularly their individual strengths and weaknesses. The Hogan assessment breaks down personality into two separate components, the “dark” side and “bright” side. The bright side of personality includes those personality characteristics considered strengths—tendencies that appear when we are at our best. The dark side of personality includes those characteristics that can cause us to derail and thereby underperform. These are tendencies that show up when we are at our worst.

During my career, I have seen many situations in which individuals with unlimited potential derail themselves because of their dark-side personality quirks. Bottom line, this is about how we are internally wired. It’s important to understand how you are wired if you are to make the best career choice for yourself and, most importantly, determine the type of organization that fits your pers...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Dedication
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface: Why Seek a New Direction?.
• Introduction
• Section One: Careers in Today’s World
• Section Two: Who’s Seeking Work?.
• Section Three: Job-Search Strategies
• Section Four: Workplace Strategies
• Section Five: Personal Growth Strategies
• Conclusion: Channel Your Destiny
• Appendix A: Additional Tips for Your New Directions Toolbox
• Appendix B: Action Words to Use for Resume Development
• Resources
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• About the Author