Careers

vanilla passion

I’ve long heard that vanilla is the best-selling ice cream, yet I’ve met very few people that say vanilla is their favorite. So what’s going on? How can a flavor that few love be a best seller? It wins because it is less offensive to more people. Few love it, but few really hate it. Vanilla is a safe choice.

That seems to be the strategy of a lot of businesses: play it safe and offend fewer people than your competition. The opposite approach is to be very clear about what you are and what you aren’t and focus on the customers who truly appreciate what you’re about. Rather than being some things to all customers, the focus is on being everything to some customers.

Likewise, many (most?) people approach their careers and lives that way. It’s pretty obvious from the sameness of LinkedIn photos and bios that the goal is to fit in, be like others, don’t stand out. Don’t veer too far away from the tribe norms. And, on some levels, there’s nothing wrong with that after all vanilla sells more as a whole.

The problem is, it gets passed over more, too. Vanilla sells more, but no one is passionate about it. I gravitate toward ice cream flavors with names like “Chocolate Armageddon” but you might hate that. You might prefer straight up mint chip. Others go for rocky road. We push the vanilla aside to get to what we really want.

When we look at products, businesses, or even people that folks get really excited and passionate about and want to go out of their way to champion, support, and tell others about, it’s never a plain vanilla product, business, or person. The things we get passionate about, the companies we are loyal to, the people we really want to help succeed always stand out in some way.

If we choose to stand out, there will be naysayers, critics, and people who don’t like us. But there will also be the raving fans. If we choose to play it safe there will be few naysayers, critics, or people who don’t like us. But there will also be few cheering us on.

Being different doesn’t guarantee success. In fact, it often impedes it. First impressions do count, the image we present to the world does matter; people judge us based on the information we give them. I can’t control my height, gender, race, age, etc. but I can control how I dress, how I’m groomed, what I say, how I say it, etc.

Being different doesn’t guarantee success, BUT successful people are often different. They think different. They operate different. They have a different message for the world. And they get different results.

So often it seems that the giants don’t norm off of everyone else. They aren’t looking to see what others are doing before deciding what to do. Instead, they go their way and let other choose to follow or not. It’s ironic that so many of our icons are also iconoclasts.

The guys over at Talent Anarchy (twitter: @talentanarchy) refer to our individual uniqueness as our freak flag (a term I love). It’s not about piercings, tattoos, and blue hair. It’s about owning who we are as individuals and being comfortable and honest enough to be really authentic. That is really, really hard to do. And, done right, there is scary, incredible power there.

It’s a tough choice. But remember: sometimes the choices that look the safest are actually the most dangerous. After all, when was the last time you bought vanilla ice cream as a treat for yourself?

 

4 life balance myths

Work/life balance. The Holy Grail of our modern age. We all want it, feel like we can never have it, and feel frustrated because of it. There are several myths that prevent us from really understanding what life balance is about and how we could achieve it.

 

Myth #1: We can have it all

A few years back, Jack Welch famously said, “There is no such thing as work-life balance. There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences.” And, of course, he was spot-on right. We want to believe that we can have it all, but we can’t. Time in a day is limited and any time we choose to spend doing one activity is time that we can’t choose to spend doing another. Jack referred to consequences, which is a bit of a loaded word because we tend to think of consequences as always being negative. Let me rephrase it as: we all make work-life choices and that creates certain results or outcomes.

Because my work-life choices have consequences (or outcomes), I need to be very clear on what outcomes I want and what choices will lead to those outcomes. If I want results X but am making choices that leads to results Y then I’m going to feel very dissatisfied and out of balance.

Balance requires clarity of outcomes and choices that support the outcomes we want.

 

Myth #2: There is such a thing as work-life balance

The term “work/life balance” is a huge misnomer and sets us up for failure. Work is a part of our life, not something separate acting against it. It would sound ridiculous to refer to sleep/life balance, meals/life balance, hobby/life balance, family/life balance, shopping/life balance, etc. Work is not something separate and thinking that our life stops while we’re on the clock at work and starts again once we’re home sounds like a great way to resent your job and be miserable for a significant portion of your life. Let’s instead focus on it as “life balance”. It’s a small, subtle, yet powerful difference.

Brian Tracy made a big impact on me when he said, “If you find that you have no desire to excel in your field, this is a good sign that it’s probably not the right job for you.” Paying the bills comes always comes first, but when we find ourselves living for the weekend, it’s time to either change how we’re thinking about our job or start considering other ways to pay the bills. All jobs, no matter how much we love them, are sometimes difficult and aggravating. The question is always: is it worth it? Life is far too long to be miserable 8+ hours every day.

 

Myth #3: Life balance is about hours worked

If you know what results you want, make choices that support those results , and enjoy every aspect of your life, the number of hours at work is largely meaningless. If you despise your job, even working a few hours a week would be miserable. If you love your job, living by the clock would be very frustrating. If given the choice between 40 hours of hellish soul robbing frustration or 60 hours of exciting, challenging, fulfillment, which would you rather have? Which would your family rather you have?

It’s not a choice between work or life. It’s about viewing work as a part of the whole life. Life balance requires seeking fulfillment in all areas of our life

 

Myth #4: There is a finish line to life balance

A major source of life balance frustration is thinking that it’s ever done. There is no finish line. We never, ever reach a point where we get to check “Balance Life” off of our To Do list.

The way it was explained to me years ago is that balancing life is a bit like balancing on one foot. Try it. Stand up and lift up one leg. It’s not particularly difficult to do, but notice how much you are actually moving your body, making small and subtle corrections. If you were to stand perfectly still, you couldn’t balance – you’d actually fall over. (It’s actually really, really difficult to stand perfectly still because your body knows better.)

Life balance is the same. It is dynamic, not static. Even when things are really going will and all in sync, you’ll still be making corrections. More time working one week, more time with the family another, less time on hobbies, and so on, all trading off as you balance the choices that will lead to the outcomes you want in all areas of your life.

4 types of people at work

At risk of oversimplifying, we tend to view people at work in one of four ways based on their productivity and personality. Selection, promotion, and development decisions are made based on what category we see people in.

It looks a little like this:

 

Jerk

Good with People
High Results

Tolerate?

Super Star
Low Results

Why are they here?

Tolerate?
  1. Good with people and gets great results: we all love these folks. They’re great to be around and they get things done. Co-workers like them, customers like them, and management likes them. We hate, hate, hate to see these people go.
  2. Pleasant person with low results: we tend to like them, wish they’d do more, but make allowances for them because they are easy to work with and don’t cause anyone trouble. They do a great job of building relationships and are liked by customers and liked or tolerated by co-workers and management. Nice compensates a lot for low productivity.
  3. Jerk with high results: we can’t stand them, but they are often tolerated by management because they get things done. They often don’t realize how much they are getting in their own way and how much higher their career would climb if they were easier to get along with. They don’t understand that relationships matter.
  4. Jerk who doesn’t do anything: universally hated. Don’t be this person; don’t manage this person. Any manager who keeps one of these folks on the team instantly loses credibility. They thrive in teams with weak managers and cause a disproportionate amount of damage to the culture and work environment. In an ideal world, everyone in this category would be working for your competition. Realistically, there are a few in your organization right now acting as giant brake on progress.

What do you think? Spot on? Too simple? What are your experiences with these four types of people?

foolproof 2-step plan for success

1. Be awesome.

2. Repeat.

shrinking comfort zones: the quick path to nowhere

Your comfort zones are either expanding or shrinking – there isn’t any middle ground. Either you’re stepping across the line, challenging yourself, moving a bit into the unknown and pushing back the boundaries OR you’re backing away from the line. Each time you step back so that you can stay with the familiar and comfortable, the line draws in, so you have to step back again, and again it shrinks.

The world it is a changin’ (duh!). Jobs are moving off shore or going away or radically evolving. A sure ticket to failure is to stand still, refuse to change and insist (insist!) that the world not change either. Problem is, the world’s changing whether we like it or not. The jobs of tomorrow are not going to look like the jobs of today. Want to stay employed? Stay relevant. Challenge yourself. Learn. Grow. Push your boundaries. Take on challenges you wouldn’t normally take on.

The more we try to stay safe by not changing, the more at risk we are of being completely behind. My prediction is that anyone who isn’t focused on improving and developing new skills each and every year will soon be either underemployed or unemployed. BUT, I’m not necessarily referring to technology. Technology facilitates a lot of changes, but is becoming more and more user friendly (anyone remember punch cards?).

The biggest growth potential that I see needed is in change, communication, and relationship development. As an HR pro or manager or employee, can you have the tough conversations you need to have? Can you hold people accountable? Can you influence people who don’t report to you? Can you use technology to enhance your communication instead of complicating it? Can you develop the trust and relationships that will enable you to get twice as much done with half the angst? Or do you leave it up to other people who are “better at it.”?

You’re either moving forward or falling behind in direct relationship to the rate you are pushing your comfort zone. Avoiding the difficult or unpleasant parts of the job – often the parts that involve other people – is a fast track to irrelevance.

quick career advice #1

For those just starting out in their careers Woody Allen gave the shortest and best career advice when he said, “80% of success is just showing up.” You want success (or even gainful employment)? Show up in body, mind, and spirit.

It’s common sense, but the power in it is that every knows it but not everyone does it. Be one of the few who does it.

In any job, but especially entry level jobs there is a ton of competition. There are lots of people out there who can: a) do your job better; b) do your job cheaper; or c) both. Here’s how it works when a manager is deciding who to keep and who to drop: Proven person gets some grace, person who looks like he/she has potential might get a little slack, and new person/warm body is first to go. We all have to start out as new person and the key is to show potential and become proven ASAP. First impressions make a HUGE difference. Gotta kick butt from minute #1.

do you have a job or a career?

I was watching Chris Rock’s “Kill the Messenger” the other night and was really struck by one of his comments. I’m paraphrasing, but he basically said that you know you have a career when there’s never enough time. You look at your watch and it’s already after 5pm so you plan on coming in early the next day. With a job, there’s too much time. You look at your watch and it’s just after 9am and the day stretches out ahead.

Absolutely brilliant! It doesn’t matter if you’re overpaid or underpaid, hourly or salaried, educated or uneducated, or what field you’re in or company you work for: if there’s never enough time to accomplish all that you’re excited about getting done, you have a career; if time is your enemy, you have a job. There’s a lot of people with college degrees in high paying jobs and there’s a lot of people just getting by (for now) who are forging their career.

So, what’s the scoop. Do you have a job or a career? If you have a job, what would it take to get a career?