The Career You’ll Love

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

Dependent vs. Independent

I had a great conversation with a friend this morning about the difference between the dependent and independent mindsets.  When it comes to your career choices, do you mostly rely on others to make choices for you, or do you mostly rely on yourself?

I can clearly remember when I made the switch.  For the first twenty years of my career, I had generally had the philosophy that “as long as HP continues to give me great opportunities to contribute, I’ll stick around.”  It’s not bad, except that it meant that I just waited for the company to create my jobs and opportunities for promotion.

Late in 1996, I realized that something was seriously broken.  I woke up at 3am on a Sunday morning, sweating and with heart pounding because of all the things I was worried about on my job.

3:00am.  On a Sunday morning.

This is when I realized that most of the managers above me were divorced and had a work-life balance that was, to me, unacceptable.  They were doing great things, fine, but not something I wanted to head for.  So I realized that my likely future into the executive ranks had come to an end.

This meant that my future could no longer be left to the company.  I had to become an independent, determining my own future.  Fortunately, I had six months to determine what that might be, before that job came to an end in July 1997.  That’s when I started this course into what we now call coaching.

I’ve coached a number of clients who are dealing with making this switch.  It’s disorienting, because you have to challenge many of the assumptions you’ve made in your life.  You have to do a lot of introspection, to answer questions you may never have asked before.

But what emerges from the cocoon is a beautiful new being, powerful and with purpose.  Independent, and ready to fly.

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, Twitter and LinkedIn to get timely updates and connections to a broader range of professionals.

© 2011 Possibilities Partnership LLC

The Career You’ll Love

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

Choice

I came across this great quote from a US Statesman in the early part of the 20th century.  It really got me thinking about how I struggle with expectations and obligations, and the choices that I make.

Jobs are great, but feeling a lot less secure than they used to.  Society is changing – quickly – and nobody really knows what the right path is.  That means that “security” is often just a temporary situation, and depends as much on luck as on your own behavior.

A job is just an exchange:  You agree to change your behavior for a certain number of hours a week, in exchange for money in the short term and some kind of expectation of longer term security.  That longer term might be a month, a year, or a decade, depending on your employer and the industry.  But we’ve all come to recognize that images of long term security are often based more on wishes than anything absolute.

But that’s the way it’s always been, if you think about it.  Fifty years ago, people might be able to stay with a single employer for an entire career, but that “security” was based on advances in technology, the whims of the market, the decisions of politicians, even the possibility of natural disasters.

What’s different now is that these things are changing at a much more rapid rate than before.  Which means that NObody is able to make true long term commitments about your job.

What it comes down to, then, is making choices in your life.  That’s what you DO control, but often leave up to other people.

Here’s a simple example: “I HAVE to go to work today!”  Well, no, actually that’s not an absolute.  It’s a choice.  Which has impacts, of course, but let’s think about this.  On the positive side, going to work will please some people, it will bring you some pay, and increase the likelihood of pay and “security” in the future.  On the negative side, it takes you away from your family, and takes your time and energy away from other things you might be doing.  Like taking steps toward your future career.  Or helping people in need.

The reason for doing this exercise is to realize that even such a fundamental action is still a choice, one which you should make consciously.  Not that every morning you’d get up and ponder your role in the universe – that’s a bit esoteric – but there’s a time and a place for questioning how you’re using your time, energy, and money.

William Jennings Bryan liked to frame this as working toward your Destiny, but perhaps you relate more to other ideas such as career and life goals.  The quote is just as true:  You’re not going to make significant progress in ANY direction of your choosing until you make some choices.

Some choices might be tough, but nobody said life was going to be easy.

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, Twitter and LinkedIn to get timely updates and connections to a broader range of professionals.

© 2011 Possibilities Partnership LLC

The Career You’ll Love

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

The larger contribution

The recent disaster in Japan makes me think about my priorities.  I spend so much of my time focusing on the mechanics of building my business that I can forget that there’s a bigger picture here.

At the global level, I believe we each have a mission to help each other through life, to grow to our fullest potential, and to create a world in which everyone has value.

Yeah, idealistic.

For me personally, I translate this to my own spiritual, physical and intellectual development, and bringing my talents in coaching to help people fulfill their personal mission – whatever that might be.  In the context of companies, I help businesses to succeed and thrive because that’s one of the ways we build a healthy society.

But it’s really difficult to know what to do about world disasters.  Sure, I can contribute some money to a relief fund somewhere, and that might make me feel better for a little while.  And let’s not minimize that – money can be REALLY helpful for people who have been wiped out by a disaster.

The question is this:  Do I have a larger contribution to make?  I suppose I could become part of a Red Cross relief team or something, but I don’t see any reason why I have particular gifts to help there.

I’ve decided instead that my most valuable impact is to help create a society where people are watching out and caring for each other.  I do have some skills here, when I combine together my spiritual journey with my development as a business and personal coach.

How’s that going to happen?  I don’t know – I pay attention to the interactions I have with people around me, but it seems like there might be something more important lurking around the corner.  It’s part of my journey.

So what about your own life?  What’s the larger contribution you’re called to make – to your family, to your village, to society?  To the planet?

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, Twitter and LinkedIn to get timely updates and connections to a broader range of professionals.

© 2011 Possibilities Partnership LLC

The Career You’ll Love

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

How often are you actually productive?

Here’s a secret that many don’t want to admit:  At work, most of the time is spent not being productive.  In the worst case, there are many activities which are actually counter-productive – they’re taking you further away from the goal.

When so many people are worried about losing their jobs, they’re scared to raise attention to this not-so-useful work.  After all, maybe if you look busy, they’re going to assume that you must be necessary.

Ultimately, though, this destroys your heart and soul.  But what do you do?

First, it’s important to expand your view to the larger context.  Your boss requires you to fill out those annoying forms which seem to have no value.  But why?  Are they for compliance with government regulations?  Do they help make the manager’s job more efficient?

Second, look for ways to make the busy-work more efficient.  Perhaps you don’t need to attend every meeting, unless that helps to make others more efficient.  Maybe those reports can be made more automatic.

Third, enlist the help of your boss.  Presumably she would appreciate you having more time to work on the important stuff, so maybe there are ways to adjust the requirements.

But don’t let the unimportant trivia keep you from doing important work.  That’s a horrible way to sacrifice your career.

An important resource

Have you looked at your local colleges lately?  If you’ve been out of school for a number of years, you might not realize that there’s been a lot of creativity in recent years.  Many workers are in career transition, and this is an increasingly important market for funding-strapped schools.  They’ve adjusted to people who are learning in addition to full-time jobs, offered teleclasses, and on-demand learning.

You don’t necessarily have to make the choice to leave your job to “go back to school.”  There’s lots of neat alternative learning models.

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, Twitter and LinkedIn to get timely updates and connections to a broader range of professionals.

© 2011 Possibilities Partnership LLC