The Career You'll Love » Career Coaching

The career you’ll love newsletter – 26 July 2010

Carl — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:15:29 +0000

The Career You’ll Love

Sponsored by Carl Dierschow’s career blog at www.Dierschow.com

Welcome to my new career tips newsletter! I encourage you to pass this to anyone who might have an interest in revitalizing their career – instructions for subscribing are at the bottom.

What exactly is trust?

I think the universe is telling me something today. A couple of days ago I submitted a blog post regarding building trust – that will be published on the Workbloom blog in the next few days.

This morning, I had a chance to hear a presentation by Richard Fagerlin on this subject, which I found quite thought-provoking. Here are some great ideas.

Our paradigm of trust, historically, has been that it’s something you need to spend a lifetime earning from others. To be crass:

You are put in a situation of being tested
You perform some action in response
Someone else judges whether your action was “trustworthy” or not
If it was, then they now award you with this thing called “trust”

That’s fine, certainly, but you might notice something: You’ve given up most of your control. And if, for whatever reason, another doesn’t grace you with this intangible “trust,” then there’s not much you can do except to try to pass the next test.

Instead, let’s think about the aspects of trust which are more about who you are than what you do. The core elements are:

Integrity
Competence
Compassion

To the degree that you have all three of these, then you’ve created the elements which will not only encourage others to trust you, but – more importantly – which will put you into a state of trust with those around you.

Trust isn’t a one-sided judgment. It’s a two-sided relationship. And it’s really just a foundation upon which the activities of the relationship can take place.

Let me describe these three elements, then:

Integrity: Being aware of, driven by, and consistent with a set of values, and displaying that consistency in different situations.

Competence: Being good at what you do - having skills, knowledge, and abilities which are relevant and valued.

Compassion: Being able to connect with others – not only empathy, but also to identify with their values even when they’re different than your own.

When you have these three qualities, you’ll be able to operate from a solid foundation of trusting others, to build the healthy trusting relationships we all strive for.

Just a final word: Don’t assume that trust means only trusting blindly. When I trust another, it means I have a basis upon which to predict their behavior – but that might still not be what I would choose. So healthy trust also depends on communication and validating. Trust but verify.

An important resource

I’ve been reading a great book recently, Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes, by William Bridges. I found it quite useful for people who are struggling with a sense of travelling through life stages, and the transitions that are required for each. It’ll help you to understand the bigger picture of your life, and quite possibly help your kids, partner, and parents.

It’s an easy read, and extraordinarily powerful.

Carl Dierschow is a Certified Leadership Coach and author of the career management guide, Mondays Stink! 23 Secrets to Rediscover Delight and Fulfillment in Your Work. He is a career coach for those going through interesting transitions, and works with leaders who are creating amazing teams. Find out more at www.Dierschow.com and www.PossibilitiesPartnership.com.

If you are interested in individual career coaching, group coaching, or other resources which might help you with difficult choices, please contact Carl at carl@dierschow.com.

Connect with Carl on Facebook and LinkedIn to get timely updates and connections to a broader range of professionals.

To subscribe or unsubscribe to this newsletter, send an e-mail to newsletter@Dierschow.com

Keeping the saw sharp

Carl — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 01:18:09 +0000

If you have a job, you’re probably very busy. You’re now doing the work of three people, struggling to catch your breath.

The difficult part is to think about the long term. You not only need to be valued as a productive worker today, but also five years from now. Or ten.

Are you building that foundation for your future career?

Read more on my Workbloom blog»

The career you’ll love newsletter – 12 July 2010

Carl — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:32:39 +0000

The Career You’ll Love

Sponsored by Carl Dierschow’s career blog at www.Dierschow.com

Welcome to my new career tips newsletter! I encourage you to pass this to anyone who might have an interest in revitalizing their career – instructions for subscribing are at the bottom.

What’s not news?

We’re immersed in news, and it’s possible to lose yourself in newsfeeds of various sorts: TV, radio, newspaper, websites, RSS feeds, newsletters … Your days and weeks disappear as you attempt to “keep up on” current events.

This is giving you an entirely biased view of the world, because events are news precisely because they are unusual.

Sure, there was a tragic accident yesterday where a couple of people lost their lives. That’s sad. It’s regrettable. Then realize that the VAST majority of people live on without ever experiencing that of tragedy. Don’t become paralyzed by something that’s so unlikely to happen.

As a professional coach, I might long to become the next Marshall Goldsmith. But I also realize that many coaches are quite successful without ever reaching that level of fame. I can be at peace with the fact that my clients see wonderful changes in their lives, even though I’m relatively unknown. My efforts rarely make the newspapers.

Fame and notoriety aren’t the same as making a difference in the world. You get fame by being outrageous and exceptional, and sometimes that even becomes an obstacle. And those billions of parents who just do their best to raise their children in an environment of support and love? They’ll never make the news. They’re too ordinary.

This principle is also important when you’re looking for information about the world and people around you. If you focus on news sources, you’ll mostly hear about things which are exceptional – some positive, but mostly negative. If you want a balanced view, you either need to go to the source (like what a company has to report to the government) or seek out analysts which aren’t paid to create news.

Oops, I mean to report news. Sometimes there doesn’t seem to be much difference.

An important resource

I’ve found my local library to be a wonderful source for industry information. Let’s say that you’d like to find the largest companies in your particular field. This can be a frustrating exercise on the web, because there the information is skewed by who’s creating the most buzz. That’s useful to know, but that may have nothing to do with finding your next job.

There are lots of industry publications which do this kind of analysis, but you have to pay to get access to most of this information. The great news? It’s quite likely that your library has a subscription, and that you can get free access. A skilled librarian will even be able to show you how to navigate through the mountains of data you might encounter.

The web is great, it’s wonderful, it’s fun. But when you have to get down to serious work, remember that it gives you a biased and inaccurate view of the world.

If you are interested in individual career coaching, group coaching, or other resources which might help you with difficult choices, please contact Carl at carl@dierschow.com.

Connect with Carl on Facebook and LinkedIn to get timely updates and connections to a broader range of professionals.

To subscribe or unsubscribe to this newsletter, send an e-mail to newsletter@Dierschow.com

Picking the right mentors

Carl — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 00:59:40 +0000

You may have heard the advice that it’s good to have a coach or a mentor. But beyond that, it can be confusing. Why? What should I expect? Who should I approach?

To start with, let me explain the difference between a coaching and mentoring relationship. With a mentor, you’re looking to follow the path that someone else has successfully navigated, perhaps who can even open doors for you. A coach, on the other hand, focuses more on your specific goals, bringing out your best clarity and motivation from within yourself. Sometimes the two roles are combined to various degrees.

If you’re looking for a mentor, the keys are:

You’re looking to follow a path that others have taken successfully.
You have access to some people that can show you the way.

But given that each person’s journey on this planet is somewhat unique, you might argue that no one else has taken your specific path. If that’s really true, then go hook up with a coach who can help you to discover the new territory.

But for many people, there’s aspects of their life which are quite similar to others. Perhaps right now you’re just out of school, attempting to create a new career in the performing arts when times look bleak. Stated that way, there’s plenty of other people who have experienced the same thing, and some of them have succeeded despite the challenges.

Perhaps you’re also struggling to find the right balance between work, family, and spirituality. So look around: Are there any people who have the kind of balance that you’d like to have?

Perhaps you’d like to make a career change, into a new area in which you have less experience. Who has that experience, and has made the kind of jump that you’re looking for?

I’m sure you see, then, that the role of the mentor depends very much on where you are in your life right now. That will change in a few years, so perhaps you’ll be looking for mentoring in a different area then. So seek out someone different at that point.

How do you hook up with a mentor?

Identify the specific area you’re struggling with. At this point, you don’t have to have any idea what the solution might look like.
Look around for people who appear to have solved the problem in a way that you might like to copy. But you don’t have to assume that their solution is exactly right for you; that’s to be discovered.
Ask other friends and people you trust if they have ideas for who might be a good mentor. But stay focused on your area of struggle; being a friend isn’t the primary purpose of being mentored.
Ask a potential mentor for advice within the context of an ongoing relationship. They appreciate being recognized for their expertise, and usually feel indebted to help others who are struggling.
Set up an agreement including how and how often you’d like to meet, the length of the “engagement”, how much you’d like to be challenged and pushed, confidentiality, and what (if anything) you might have to offer in return.
Honor your agreement, and make sure to give your mentor thanks for the value they are giving to you.

Most mentor relationships aren’t paid, although there are some “barter” arrangements where expertise might be traded for expertise. And although you might well end up being a friend of your mentor for life, make sure to bring the formal mentoring relationship to a graceful and appreciative close when you’re feeling less need for the constant advice. It would be terrible for a valuable mentor to feel guilty about not having time to meet with you any more, especially after they’ve been of such great help for you.

Where would you need to be mentored at this point in your career?

People can tell if you’re engaged in your work

Carl — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 23:21:53 +0000

It seems that recently many people, perhaps most, have struggled to be inspired by their work. With such an uncertain economy, 24/7 accessibility, fear of job loss, and lack of pay increases, we’ve created work environments where many focus more on keeping up with work than on making a great contribution.

There’s some really practical reasons why you should look to be engaged in your work:

You become more productive, thereby more valuable to your employer.
It helps you to be more creative and bring more energy to what you do.
It affects the attitudes of those you work with, helping you to have some fun.
It makes you happier and more satisfied with the work you do.

Read more on my Workbloom blog»

The most important stakeholder: Yourself

Carl — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:42:33 +0000

Here’s the bonus category: Yourself. We’ve spent so much time thinking about other people, we might have forgotten that it’s important how we feel about our own work!

Looking at it this way, you realize that you are independent of your work. So how does the work help you to achieve your life and career goals? How would you LIKE to relate to your work?

Read more on my Workbloom blog»

Key stakeholders: Understand your partners

Carl — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 20:34:40 +0000

I’ve broken out partners as a distinct category of stakeholders, because the relationships are much different than the others in our diagram.

The simple definition of “partner” is someone who works with you to deliver value to their customers and your customers, and to their management and your management. In the case of your teammates, the customers and management might be the same. In fact, that makes decisions much easier, because you hopefully have an environment that’s aligned and supports you working together.

Read more on my Workbloom blog»

Key stakeholders: Understand your customers

Carl — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 02:02:12 +0000

As we travel through the stakeholders, your customers end up being one of the most powerful categories. And the length of this list might surprise you!

Depending on your job, the end customer might seem very distant. My first career out of college was as an engineer, and there were many stages between my work and the people who actually purchased the products I worked on. But as I became more experienced, I recognized that the people who spend money are the most important ones to understand, because that money paid my paycheck. If they didn’t want to spend money, there was no reason for me to have a job.

The career you’ll love Newsletter – 31 May 2010

Carl — Mon, 31 May 2010 19:39:03 +0000

The Career You’ll Love

Sponsored by Carl Dierschow’s career blog at www.Dierschow.com

Welcome to my new career tips newsletter! I encourage you to pass this to anyone who might have an interest in revitalizing their career – instructions for subscribing are at the bottom.

How to Use Influence to Your Advantage

I can think of a million ways to “fix” other people around me. They’re just all so messed up, aren’t they?

Here’s the brutal truth: That’s not the way the universe works. You don’t get to “fix” them.

After I get over the disappointment from that statement, now what can I do? How do I keep myself from just being a victim of circumstances, a slave to my situation?

Here’s the secret: I have considerable influence over the people in my life.

Maybe that doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it is. What it means is that if I want to make a difference in other peoples’ behavior, I first have to take responsibility for my own. I have to work to influence others, which isn’t a simple process.

Influence isn’t just a nice word for control

Influencing is actually a much different concept than controlling, because it’s based on a cooperation of individuals, leading to a desire to change. With control, desire doesn’t really enter into the picture.

Let’s say that I want to influence you to leave some kind words in the comment section of this blog, something which will let me know whether you’re getting value from this page. I have absolutely no control over whether you do that, and in fact you may have left the page before the end of this sentence.

What I can do, though, is to show you why it might be valuable to you to leave comments. I can’t give you money or guarantee fame. So perhaps I can appeal to your vanity, giving you a place to see your name printed on a website. More powerful than that might be to explain how this creates a conversation where I can respond to what you say as you respond to my words.

Perhaps even more interesting is how a conversation on a blog like this creates a community of people who can all be helping each other to learn about an interesting concept like exerting influence.

Influencing others

You can see the thought process I was using there:

Be straightforward about what I’m asking from you
Explain or show how that can have value to you
Giving you an easy way to say “yes” to the request, to remove obstacles

Let’s say that I’d like to ask my boss for a change in job assignments. I have relatively little power in this situation, but certainly do have influence. So first I can be clear what I’m asking for: “I’d like to talk with you about the possibilities of shifting my job responsibilities.” Then I have some well-articulated ways to show value: “If we can do this, not only will I be more productive in my job, but also I’ll become much more valuable to the organization in the long term.” Finally, I remove obstacles: “I would work with you on creating the set of responsibilities which are most valuable to the group and where I could make the best contributions, and I will work with you to phase this in over a period of 3 months so that the others on the team are impacted the least. I’ll spend extra effort to cross-train people to take over my current job.”

Depending on the situation, this may or may not work. Anything truly valuable in life isn’t a sure thing. But what I’ve done is opened up a conversation with my boss where I’ve demonstrated professionalism, a desire to give benefit to her and the larger organization, and flexibility.

Thinking through the conversation is the first step to having influence.

As a footnote, I’ll mention that I’ve used this exact strategy three times in my career to create jobs which were customized to my own abilities and interests, making a deep difference to the larger organization. But each time, it took between 3 and 9 months to get through the process. It takes considerable focus and determination.

Wonderful resource

Here in northern Colorado, we have a wonderful organization which is focused on serving the needs of people who are looking for new jobs. Especially during these tumultuous times, it’s more important than ever to have a group of people who can help you with difficult decisions. Check out what groups are in your area!

Carl Dierschow is a certified Organizational Leadership Coach and author of the career management guide, Mondays Stink! 23 Secrets to Rediscover Delight and Fulfillment in Your Work. He is a career coach for those going through interesting transitions, and works with leaders who are creating amazing teams. Find out more at www.Dierschow.com and www.PossibilitiesPartnership.com.

If you are interested in individual career coaching, group coaching, or other resources which might help you with difficult choices, please contact Carl at carl@dierschow.com.

Connect with Carl on Facebook and LinkedIn to get timely updates and connections to a broader range of professionals.

To subscribe or unsubscribe to this newsletter, send an e-mail to newsletter@Dierschow.com

Key stakeholders: Understand your management

Carl — Sun, 30 May 2010 19:54:41 +0000

On our journey through the stakeholders, people often think that “management” is the easiest one to figure out. But it may be trickier than you think!

I define “management” as the people who are given the power to direct your work, and as such are responsible for whether you do a good job or not.

Read more on my Workbloom blog»