The Career You’ll LoveSponsored by Carl Dierschow’s career blog at www.Dierschow.com |
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Let me have you ponder the difference between these two questions:
It’s a pretty subtle distinction, but potentially quite crucial. Perhaps I’m the boss and you work for me. When we talk about “this problem,” it’s quite close – something that is within our grasp. When we speak of “that problem,” it’s a little more distant, something which is perhaps out of reach. We both might have a little more ownership of “this problem”, but perhaps be more objective about “that problem” because it’s more distant.
The term Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) was introduced by James Collins and Jerry Porras in 1996. It’s a powerful concept.
It’s one thing to have a goal that’s practical. Let’s say that I want to save enough money to retire on – that’s very sensible and, hopefully, achievable.
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.
Why are you here?
It’s one of the core questions of human existence, really, because without any purpose there’s no reason to live. Some people would frame this question as, “Why are WE here?”, but that’s really only motivating to philosophers. It really hits home when you make it personal.
By default, I suppose, I’m here because of the random circumstances of my birth and upbringing. But that only says how I ended up acting the way I do, not that there’s a reason for me to be here in the first place.
Everyone’s a leader. No, really!
We often assign the term to people who are in recognized positions of power and authority, but that weakens the term.
If someone is going along with you on any kind of journey, you’re a leader. You are in a situation which you need to exercise some kind of influence over others who are with you on that journey.
I’ve been fortunate to have a few wonderful bosses over the course of my career. Not just decent, not just good, but truly exceptional people. I’ve also been fortunate that the number of truly terrible managers has been very low.
The truly exceptional ones have treated me with honesty and respect, supported me in tough times, cared about me as a unique individual, and given me challenging and valuable work.
As you might know, I was in London this week attending the followup class to the Coaching Fundamentals class I took back in September. That class was, in essence, the high level overview of the process, so the last few days were much more deep study and practice around some key areas:
How many times do you know what the right thing is to do, but lack the courage to act upon it? Humans are wonderful at rationalizing, at finding creative excuses to avoid doing what’s hard. Myself included, of course.
I had a chance to attend a fantastic workshop this morning, led by the incomparable Gus Lee. Never heard of him? He’s a leader in challenging people to find and develop a core of character in their lives.
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