GET YOUR DREAM JOB
THE ESSENTIAL CAREER MANAGEMENT GUIDE
Your DIRECTI N & F CUS IN LIFE A VISION OF YOU DEDICATION
I dedicate this series of “Get Your Dream Job – The Essential Career Management Guide”. E-books to my parents Maureen and Carl Phillips who blessed me with a great upbringing and childhood. Executive development was always a discussion point in our home and the countless hours we have spent talking and researching professional development have been a great advantage in life. Additionally, I must say it was a great privilege to grow up in Canada. Mom and Dad, thank you.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to acknowledge Terry Szwec, who was the CEO Career Coach at the leading Executive Search Firm in Toronto, Canada and was kind enough to coach me for free while we worked together. Terry your career advice is threaded in this book and your kindness will never be forgotten. Many thanks. NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
I hope this book makes a meaningful contribution to your career. Having a best in class career management strategy will allow you to provide a better life for your family. An increase in your disposable income is not about earning more money. Increasing your income is about increasing your access to healthcare, to education, to security, and protecting those you love. Make a decision now to be the highest paid professional in your industry. After all any success starts with a vision.
My experience is that the best vision starts inside you. Not from the market, or from a global economy, or from the latest technology. A vision comes from who you are as a person. You are unique and your value is hidden inside your soul. Your contribution to this world can only be made by you fulfilling your purpose in life.
Do not listen to market reports or take advice from people telling you to be realistic and responsible. Follow your heart and listen to that quiet inner voice. Set a vision for yourself based on who you want to be, not what others think of you or what you think the market will give you. Setting a vision for yourself based on your inner voice takes self-confidence, self-esteem and courage. These are the ingredients of the fertile ground to which the seeds of a vision can be planted.
You only have one life and it will pass quickly so don’t waste it trying to be something you’re not. Be yourself and expire every resource you have in realizing your vision of yourself. I hope this book sets you on this course and provides a meaningful road map to help you achieve your dreams. I wish you all the best as you walk the road of happy destiny.
Sincerely,
Shane Phillips Chief Executive Officer The Phillips Group YOUR DIRECTION & FOCUS IN LIFE
INTRODUCTION
Get Your Dream Job – The Essential Career Management Guide series has been broken into six E Books, this is the first and is called “Your Direction & Focus In Life”. The E Books of the series are listed below, and for the process to work you will need to read each and every one. Follow them intensely, with unshakable resolve, and they will produce a job offer within 90 days.
1. Your Direction & Focus In Life
Vision alone will trump skill, ability, opportunity, markets, and anything else you can imagine. Having a clear vision of where you want to be 20 years from now and most importantly who you want to be is the key, not just to your job search but to life.
2. Your Energy
While a tree gets its energy from the sun, and a car may get its energy from petrol, a human being gets its energy from emotion. Happy and excited people deliver the best results. A job search can be a depressing and demotivating experience, but with the right approach it can be an uplifting and rejuvenating experience. Ensuring your energy levels are at their peak is a critical step in the process.
3. Getting An Interview At Your Dream Company
Getting an interview with the CEO of your dream company is not an easy task. Get Your Dream Job – The Essential Career Management Guide, breaks it down into small steps which will allow you to set up a meeting with the biggest CEOs and decision makers of your industry. Our tried and tested process has helped people to penetrate even the most coveted of organizations. YOUR DIRECTION & FOCUS IN LIFE
4. Your CV and Social Media Profile
Having a professional personal brand that employers can view online and in CV format is a foundation stone to your job search process. This chapter walks you through setting up your CV and social media profile to catapult your career to the next level.
5. How To Interview
Succeeding in an interview has nothing to do with how good you are at your job. We have all met people who were great in interviews but could not perform in the job. Remember it is not the best candidate who gets the job but the best convincer who gets the job. Use this chapter to get all the tips and tricks to handling the toughest interview questions.
6. How To Negotiate Your Salary
Negotiating your salary is one of the most important things you will do in your life. Based on thousands of salary negotiations, “Get Your Dream Job - The Essential Career Management Guide” provides you with a process that will give you the upper hand in the negotiation with any employer. Proven tactics to increase your salary. YOUR DIRECTION & FOCUS IN LIFE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Why Focus? 7
Identity 15
Finding Your Focus 24
Articulating Your Direction 32
The Five-Step Focus Process 39
The 5x5 Dream Box 51
The Last Exercise 54
Summary 56
Exercise Checklist 57 YOUR DIRECTION & FOCUS IN LIFE
WHY FOCUS?
“You are a trader, you may think you are a banker, an accountant, an engineer, or whatever it says on your business card, but in reality you are a trader and you are trading your time for money.” Jim Rohn Entrepreneur & Motivational Speaker
Most people don’t like to think of themselves as a product or a commodity that is being traded. You have to realize that you are a commodity, and whether you like it or not your time is being traded for money. Understanding the game allows you to win the game. Employers will try to get the talent they need at the lowest possible price and smart candidates will make employers pay a premium for their services.
After interviewing thousands of people, I realized that there are huge discrepancies between salaries for the exact same job. For example, the lowest paid CFO I have come across was earning $150,000 USD a year including base, allowances and bonus. One of the highest paid CFOs in recent history of a publicly traded American company was Peter Oppenheimer, CFO of Apple, who in his best year earned $68.6 million USD. Oppenheimer was trading at a large premium and unfortunately many CFO’s are trading at a discount. The question is how do you trade at a premium and stop trading at a discount? The answer is focus.
Oppenheimer has spent his entire career in technology. After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree from California Polytechnic
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State University, San Luis Obispo in Agricultural Business and an MBA from Santa Clara University, both with honors, he worked with Coopers and Lybrand in their Information Technology Consulting Practice and then joined Automatic Data Processing (ADP) where he was CFO before joining Apple as a Controller for the Americas. He has effectively had three employers his entire career, all of whom were in technology.
Oppenheimer has had a very focused career and this allows him to trade at a premium because people pay for expertise. People pay for expert knowledge. The biggest opportunities come to those executives who are the most focused. This is contrary to what I see when I review people’s job search strategies. Most people panic and start applying for any job under the sun. Loss of focus caused by panic will not help you trade at a premium, it guarantees you will trade at a discount.
Truly, one of the most common job-search strategies is to apply to every quasi-relevant advertisement on the internet until exhaustion and then eagerly wait for a response, hoping that something will stick and your dream job will just appear out of cyberspace.
In actuality, frantically throwing your CV around the internet is tantamount to a drowning man who does himself no favors by flailing his arms and legs around in a failed attempt to stay afloat. Neither do you do yourself any favors by whipping your CV around the market place. In fact, it may do you more harm than good on many levels. Remember: if the drowning man just calmed down and took a deep breath, he would float and be absolutely fine.
Firstly, you should know that 60% of the jobs on the Internet
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do not exist. It’s usually one of two things that’s going on. Often, a company may post a job while in reality they already have the person they wish to hire in place and are simply running through a hiring process as per their corporate protocol. Many government companies, for example, are required to take an advertisement for senior positions as part of their policies and procedures even though they often have a candidate in mind for the position. At best, you will be entering the process late and will need an Olympic gold medal performance in the interview to oust their preferred candidate.
Even worse, sometimes recruitment companies take out job ads to build their data bases and the job advertised does not actually exist at all. So really, no matter how qualified you are, you are not getting the job that doesn’t exist. In any case, by throwing your CV all over the Internet you are simply wasting your time, destroying your spirit, eroding your market equity and de-motivating yourself. Take my advice and stop doing it now.
Instead, get focused and take control of your career and your life. Olympic athletes focus on one sport their entire lives. Steve Jobs was so focused that by the age of 18 he had completed over 10,000 hours of programming time. Einstein was so focused on Physics that even after being rejected by the scientific community he continued to develop his theories in solitude. Despite not having a job in physics he continued to spend all his time working on physics.
Like these people, you have to be a specialist in a functional area as well as in a specific industry. Before you argue with me, yes it is true that a Chief Financial Officer’s skill set is transferable across industries as is a Human Resource Manager’s, as is a Chief Internal Auditor’s and so on. So many professionals are able to
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cross industries and businesses with their skills. Just because you can cross industries, does not mean you should.
For example an automotive CFO with 25 years of experience will not be able to compete effectively against a technology CFO with 25 years of experience for a role in the IT industry. As Chris Rock says, “You can drive your car with your feet if you want to, that doesn’t make it a good idea.” This is what the board is thinking when they’re hiring their CFO, “we could hire the automotive CFO, but we are better off going with someone who really knows our business. Let’s go with the IT focused CFO.”
To explore the idea of cross industry moves in a bit more detail, let’s take the example of a Chief Human Resource Officer (CHRO) simply because it is very common to see CHRO or HR managers cross industries. Let’s call the CHRO Manager John. John’s company, an investment bank, closed down and he suddenly finds himself out of a job. John goes home and sends his CV to every internet job posting he can possibly find. He ends up sending his CV to 50 companies in 50 different industries.
John gets a call back from an automotive company called Big Auto Manufacturers (BAM) and they ask him to come in for an interview next Monday at 9am. “Great!” John thinks to himself as he has been looking less than a week and is already in interview mode. John is a celebrated CHRO professional in Banking and in the past year he has been a guest speaker at four Banking trade shows which were HR focused. He is ranked as one of the top CHRO’s in banking in his country. He is very confident and feeling good about the upcoming interview.
Unbeknownst to John there is another CHRO whose automotive plant just shut down. Her name is Jennifer. Jennifer has 20 years of automotive HR experience. Furthermore, as she’s been in the industry so long, Jennifer knows 30% of the employees at BAM and even worked for the now-CEO of BAM in a previous
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role. Jennifer was also the keynote speaker at an automotive HR summit where two Executive Vice Presidents from BAM heard her speak and were impressed by her expansive knowledge of the mission critical human capital issues currently plaguing the auto industry. Finally, Jennifer’s old CEO is golfing buddies with the BAM CEO and put in a word for her to help her get the job. Jennifer has been booked in for an interview next Monday at 10am.
Who would you rather be: John or Jennifer? Obviously Jennifer is a shoe-in for the role. She has simply, by maintaining focus in her career, made herself very competitive for the position. In today’s market, every time John goes up against Jennifer he loses. The silver lining for you in this ominous storm cloud is that you can choose to be Jennifer, you do not have to be John ever again. All you need to do is stay focused in your industry.
By staying focused you will expertly position yourself for the win. Never again will you use a spaghetti offense, staying up late at night sending numerous CVs across cyberspace only to wonder why you are not getting any response. Never again will you go to a job interview and wonder why no one is calling back. You are going to become so competitive that you will not only get called back but the phone will start ringing with unsolicited offers from employers headhunting you for top positions in the global market.
It is clear you need focus but knowing what your life’s purpose is, is a difficult question. The answer is rooted in your sense of identity. Who you are as a human being. Perhaps we have 10,
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20, 30 or even 40 years of work ahead of you. How do you know what you should spend the rest of your life doing? If you are highly educated this will be even more difficult question for you; especially if you have a Tier 1 business school MBA. In fact, the education system itself is structured in such a way that it can damage your focus, your Your direction cannot purpose and your true self. be found outside you, it is found within The education system begins to prepare you. It is seeded in you for a career, especially the MBA. The your identity. Your MBA teaches you how to identify gaps job search starts in the market, customer segments within you, not on a which aren’t being served, how to job board. create financial models to simulate the success of your opportunity and so on. I have often interviewed very bright, well-educated MBAs who have started a business based on their world class analysis and in three to five years they close up shop; are out of business, out of money and out of energy. Three things you really don’t want to be out of. But why? Their analysis was so good! The market gap they were filling was so obvious! It was the opportunity of a life time!
Going after an opportunity in the market just because it is there is what I call “MBA’it is”. MBA’itis is a disease most commonly
MBA’itis: A disease of the mind caused by being subconsciously and consciously drenched in the pervading paradigm of business thought professed by academics of commerce. This disease is most often caught in the classrooms of leading business schools from around the world and will often come after an MBA Degree, the degree from which this disease is most often associated.
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found in freshly minted MBAs who go off to start their own business. They have been taught to find an opportunity and go after it. What they have not been taught is how to do what you love but rather how to create what he market needs. The MBA teaches you that direction and focus is about picking that point on the horizon and working relentlessly towards it. Well what happens when the landscape changes and that point on the horizon doesn’t exist anymore?
The world is going to change more in the next five years than it has in the last 25 years. Most of the skills we have will be obsolete in the next decade. The biggest mistake people make is looking to the market to get their direction and focus. Your direction in life has nothing to do with the market, it has to do with who you are as a person. Your direction cannot be found outside you, it is found within you.
If you plant an acorn tree in a forest of maple trees it does not try and make itself as much like a maple tree as it can. No, it stays true to its seed and becomes the tallest most robust acorn tree it can. Similarly, if a dandelion sprouts beside a garden of rose bushes it does not try to become rose, it blossoms to the brightest and most beautiful dandelion it was designed to be. So, stop trying to be what the market needs and start being who God created you to be. Embrace your destiny.
Take a deep breath, stop searching the job boards, stop reading market reports, turn the news off, and relax. Don’t send your CV to anyone, don’t call anyone, don’t send a barrage of emails all over the place. You most likely will do more damage than good.
You need to have a sense of direction in life before you interview
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for any job – especially if you are a senior executive. You see, you cannot give something you don’t have and part of your job as a senior executive is to give your team direction. As an Executive Search Professional, whenever I meet people who tell me they’re looking for executive positions but can’t articulate specifically what they’re aiming for, I ask myself: “If they cannot even give their own career direction, how will they give a large team of professionals direction?”. If you want to be a leader you need to have focus and direction in your life and career.
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IDENTITY
The root of direction comes from You have to know identity. You have to know who you are who you are before before you can know where you are you can know where going. I often have candidates come to you are going. me and say “Shane, I have two job offers, one is with company A, the other one is with company B and I am not sure which one I should take”. If you are traveling down a road and you come to a cross roads and you are unsure which way to choose, it is simply because you have no idea where you are going. You have no idea what you want to be doing five years from now and you are not sure what type of capabilities you want to develop.
Getting in touch with your identity starts with knowing your roots. I had the opportunity to interview Mr. Colm McLoughlin, Executive Vice Chairman of Dubai Duty Free, who is the outstanding professional who took Dubai Duty Free from a fledgling operation that no one had ever heard of in 1983 to the number one Duty Free in the world. With sales in excess of $1.93 billion USD he has created a global benchmark for how a duty-free enterprise should be run. He is by far the most successful Duty Free professional in the world and perhaps one of the humblest as well. I am sure that in his typically modest style he would modify the statement above and say “this was a team effort, no one does anything by themselves”.
I mention this meeting because of what Mr. McLoughlin did as I was leaving: he gave me a book with a self-explanatory title called “Fly Buy Dubai, The Remarkable 25 Year Journey of Dubai
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Duty Free”. What is interesting about the book is that it does not start with an analysis of the world’s duty free market or a story of the strategy-smith who forged the bedrock of the organization’s direction. It starts with Phytophthora Infestans, commonly known as potato blight.
Potato blight is the fungus which caused the 1845 Irish potato famine. Why does the world’s greatest duty free executive start with Phytophthora Infestas? Identity. He starts with describing the identity of Ireland and the United Arab Emirates and, in effect, he is touching on his own personal identity as an Irish businessman. The book describes the impact of British Imperialism on Ireland, how they colonized Ireland and transformed much of their countryside into an extended grazing land to raise cattle for the British consumer. Pushed off the best pasture land, the Irish were forced to farm smaller plots of marginal land. On these sub-prime farmlands the only crop they could effectively survive on was the potato. Over 1 million Irish people died during the Irish potato famine.
Life was never easy for the Irish and, as a result, they had to be innovative to survive. It was in this desperation that the idea to create the world’s very first duty free shop was created and opened in 1947 in Shannon Airport. The book goes on to draw parallels between the tough life in Ireland and the challenging conditions in Dubai, an emirate which was also forced to innovate or perish. Clearly, it innovated.
The point is, we can only understand the vision of Dubai or Dubai Duty Free by understanding their identities and their histories. Similarly, for you as it relates to finding your focus, it is important to go back and understand where you come from and who your ancestors were. Were they carpenters? Travellers? Politicians?
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Colm McLoughlin had the opportunity to work with the team that created the first duty free in the world. He worked there for over a decade before joining the Dubai Duty Free team. Today, he has over 40 years in the duty-free business and has been highly focused in his area specialization. He also has a strong sense of identity as an Irish businessman and relishes the opportunity to be innovative, always rising to unbelievable challenges and most of all, he never quits, no matter how tough it gets.
So ask yourself: What is my identity?
I’m going to share another story about identity to help you answer that question. It’s my favourite story about finding your identity. Mohammed Ali is best known as the greatest boxer of all time and a Heavyweight Champion of the world. His real strength came when he found his identity as an African American. We all know that Mohammed Ali’s birth name was Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. and that he changed it to Mohammed Ali when he converted to Islam, and if you didn’t you do now. When asked why he changed his name, he told the story of how most African Americans were named after their old slave masters and how, in fact, these were not their real names. By changing his name he was closing the door on his past and creating new chapter of freedom and prosperity for African Americans in the United States.
In 1967, the US was heavily engaged in the Vietnam War and the general population’s sentiment towards the war was at an all- time low. Mohammed Ali was conscripted to go to Vietnam and refused. The world will never forget the infamous moment when the press asked him why he refused conscription into the US
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Army, to which he said “No Viet Cong ever called me nigger!” With this succinct and race-infused statement the US erupted into a heated internal conflict and violent protests swept the nation. Up until this point the US had not witnessed any widespread public protests, Mohammed Ali was the spark that started a fire which set America ablaze.
Failure to comply with conscription resulted in Mohammed Ali being charged with draft evasion. They stripped him of his heavyweight boxing title and suspended his boxing license for three-and-a-half years. The US power structure turned aggressively against him and his formal title was stripped. A normal man would be crushed from such a tempestuous turn of events. By remaining true to his identity Mohammed Ali gained even more power and sparked a tidal wave of demonstrations, protests and anti-war activism. Despite having his title stripped and being banned from boxing he was still referred to as “The Champ”. To this day he still retains the title of Champ. His identity is so strong it will endure the test of time.
Just like Mohammed Ali’s identity guided him, your identity is your sense of direction, and so too will it guide you through your most difficult moments. It is a source of power, of energy. It is the glue that binds your soul to your destiny. If you are lucky you already have it. If you don’t, you need to find it. You need to invest time in finding it. Start with this thought: both Colm McLoughlin’s and Mohammed Ali’s identities were rooted in suffering. Their tribulations became their strengths. This is the magic of identity, that it will often be found in your darkest moments. If you are going through a tough period now, or if you did in the past and wondered what it was for, start finding yourself in that negativity. The fertile ground of negativity is often ignored, repressed or avoided at all costs. Just look at nature itself, when an animal dies and decomposes on the ground it creates the most fertile soil from which the healthiest and strongest plants sprout and grow. It is in the face of death we see the greatest expression of life.
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In fact, even the most devastating event such as a forest fire, leaves the ground fertile and ready for a new generation of plants to grow. So too will your greatest accomplishments start from your darkest most painful experiences in life.
We often avoid the negative experiences we have in life and try and focus on the positive. While there is good logic to this approach, when searching for your identity you have to go and explore both the positive and negative experiences you have had. These experiences don’t even have to have happened to your adult self. Sometimes, it is the experiences we have as children which have a lasting effect on us.
I had the honor of interviewing Mrs. Farah Williamson, CEO of The Social investment Consultancy, an NGO that helps corporations and individuals create impactful Corporate Social Responsibility projects. She has, among many others, led water projects and built schools in Uganda. Her sense of purpose is deeply rooted in her sense of identity as a witness of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Living in Rwanda as a child, Mrs. Williamson had a Tutsi nanny who had been living with them as a member of her family for some time. Sadly, despite her family’s best efforts to get her nanny out of the country, the nanny was executed. Mrs. Williamson never forgot this devastating experience and it has made her one of the most passionate activists I have ever met.
It is important for you to understand where you came from in order to develop a clear idea of where you are going. Start with looking
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to your past – your parents, your grandparents, where you’re from – and then look at your development years, the ages from 0 to 25. Identify your five most memorable moments. Why are they significant? What happened during those events? Don’t focus only on the negative events. Identify some positive events and understand why you enjoyed them so much. By understanding your early experiences, both positive and negative, you can see your personality starting to emerge. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Are you an adrenaline junkie or do you prefer less high- octane activities?
The chart below will help you identify some key events in your life and how they shaped you. Starting with your childhood start to remember and explore the significant events which started to shape you. Compile them into three different areas, life events, educational and development events, and career events. Some people may experience career events as a young child like Mark Zuckerberg who was creating video games while other kids were playing them. Defining moments can be both positive and negative. A positive moment could be graduating from University or the birth of a child, a negative could be a job you hated. Try filling out the chart in the next page.
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Exercise 1 : Your Life Event Chart
Age Life Experience - Education/ Career Describe the Development – Milestone - event. What did you How did it learn or how affect your did you develop development from it. or your career?
Childhood
11 to 15
16 to 20
21 to 30
31 to 40
41 to 50
51 to 60
61 to 65
66+
Look at this table once you have completed it and ask yourself the question “who am I?”. 21 YOUR DIRECTION & FOCUS IN LIFE
Try filling in the various boxes of this table and look deeply at the events that have shaped your life. Do not be shy about the negative events. Relive them if you have too and let them become part of your conscious self. Once you have explored your development years you can move onto to your professional life – which is generally the ages from 25 to 75 years old. Take stock of the experiences you have had, what you have been exposed to and, most importantly, what capabilities you have developed which make you unique. As we saw, Peter Oppenheimer had developed a clear and unique capability of managing technology companies on a global level. Below is an example of how to fill it out.
Age Life Experience – Education/ Career Milestone – Describe the event. Development – How did it affect your What did you learn development or your or how did you career? develop from it.
Childhood Failed grade one, as Impacted my self- Pushed me later career well took an extra year image and lowered to go back and do my to finish high school. my sense of self- MBA. Because school was worth. hard, I had a great value for education.
11 to 15 Grew up during the civil I learned how to get Got my first job at age war. things done with 13 selling ice cream. I limited resources learned hard work and and minimal discipline from a young planning. age.
16 to 20 Became a football Re-built my self- Won the Vanier Cup in champion esteem and sense 1997. Champions live of self-worth. forever. 21 to 30 Graduated from I learned I was My degree gave me an university with intellectually strong insight into the human Bachelor’s Degree. and hard working. condition, a skill I use until today. 31 to 40 Completed my MBA I learned the Re-built my confidence, importance of self-worth, self-esteem reading and being and re-ignited my up to date on the ambitions. latest business news and trends
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Follow the exercise above and it will “The brighter the give you a framework to think about light, the darker your life. While writing out the sections the shadow. Don’t think about your values and what is ignore your dark most important to you in life. Often a spots.” negative experience can be a blessing in disguise, as in the above example the individual fails grade one which becomes the motivation for them to complete their Masters later in life. One of my mentors used to say to me “the brighter the light, the darker the shadow”, so be sure to look at your dark spots.
I do understand that as we grow older our responsibilities may force us into jobs or industries which we do not enjoy or which, if we had a choice, we would not be involved in. Perhaps if you didn’t have that mortgage and kids to look after, you would have changed careers a long time ago. It’s ok. You are where you are. Now focus and getting to where you want to be. In the preceding exercise you asked yourself the question “Who am I?” and now the question you have to ask yourself and answer is “Who do I want to become?”
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FINDING YOUR FOCUS
The beginning of this exciting journey is focus. Focus. Focus. Focus. Getting laid off, being re-structured or getting into an argument with your boss which dictates you must resign are all the best things which could ever happen to you. Now you can focus on a career path that you are really passionate about. Not just on an industry you are really excited about, but on a career that expresses your identity. It is not just about getting that job you have always wanted, its about becoming that person you have always wanted to be. Now, if you already know what you are passionate about and have a focus area skip to the next chapters: Finding Your Energy and Getting A Meeting With Your Dream Company. If, however, you are unsure what area you should focus your career on keep reading.
Sometimes people have been working for so long in a job that they hate that they have forgotten their dreams and what they are passionate about. They relinquished their direction to march to the incessant beat of a corporate drum. If you feel like this do not be alarmed, you are not alone. I cannot count the times executives come to me and say “I am in my mid-40s and I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.” Firstly, it will take some time to clear your head after you leave a job, especially if you have been working there for a long time. Quitting, getting fired or being re-structured out of job are huge opportunities for you to do what you love.
One executive I know once said to me: “If you really want to know what job you would love to do ask yourself: if I had won
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$200 million dollars in the lottery what would I do?” Of course, you ask yourself this question after you have finished celebrating and sailing around the world; and the answer is usually what you would want to do rather than what you feel you have to do. And that should be your job. This approach may be a little too touchy feely for some people, so another great way to find what you are passionate about is to ask yourself what was the happiest time of your career? Where were you happiest in your career path? What were you doing during this period? This was most likely a role that spoke to your unconscious drivers and motivations so it may help you to ponder this moment in your life and look to see what factors contributed to your happiness.
Happiest What I liked about This role spoke to my Career I was happy because? the role was? needs for? Moment
Position 1
Position 2
Position 3
Position 4
Fill out the table above and list your four most enjoyable jobs. List what you liked about them and in the last column write out which one of your emotional or psychological needs it spoke to. Did it make you feel loved, cared for, important, powerful, smart, needed, cool; what was the psychological effect of the job on you? When we boil the experience down to the psychological need the job satisfied in you than you will begin to unearth what really drives you.
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Exercise 2 : Your Happiest Moments
Happiest I was happy because? What I liked about This role spoke to my Career the role was? needs for? Moment I got to travel and meet The learning Self-development and Sales senior people every and exposure to continuous learning. My Executive week. accomplished need for knowledge professionals. I did the business I enjoyed the Prestige, importance and TV section for one year. popularity it influence. Presenter It was great fun and I afforded me. The loved being on TV. attention was nice. Leading a team of 50 Helping people and Caring for others, as well people was enjoyable. I contributing to their as prestige, importance GM liked the responsibility. success. and influence.
Going to developing The feeling of Caring for others, the Head countries and executing making a difference need to do humanitarian of CSR CSR initiatives. Amazing and being part of a work and have work with Projects experience. team which cares (part time meaning and purpose. about the world job) around them.
In the example above we can see the person needs to have meaning in their work. They need a humanitarian thread to what they are doing and need to feel that they are contributing to a greater good. They want to be part of a team which cares for others, the community and society at large. Finally, this person also has a need for prestige, influence and power. As they start their job search they should focus on jobs which epitomize these values.
Do the happiness exercise and look at the last column with particular attention. This exercise will begin to unearth your values. What is it that really drives you and what do you hold dear to your heart. These are the things which define you as a person and you should be in a job which is true to your identity. List out the values you need in a job and use these are your lodestar for your job search.
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As you unearth your values, drivers, and subconscious motivators you may feel like not just changing jobs or professions but entirely changing your industry. You may feel that banking is now abhorrent and in no way is a fit for you, or perhaps the meat industry is a turn off, and so you have resigned yourself to not just change professions but change industries. I would vehemently oppose such decisions and would ask you to stay in your industry if at all possible. Yes change your job but do not change industry if it is possible.
It may not be necessary to change industries. In fact, it is desirable to keep your industry specialization as that will give you market equity as your progress your career. Remember Jennifer from a few examples ago? Many people have a knee jerk reaction when they realize they are not happy and blame the entire industry. Don’t quit the industry just because you don’t like your job. You just need to change your role within your industry.
Let’s look at things another way and take the example of a Director of Information Technology who is sick of interfacing with computers all day and has decided to change careers into something which is more people-focused after 10 years of experience in IT. Let’s call him Mark and say he is 34 years old. Mark’s friend owns a wealth management business and offers him a position as a wealth manager. Mark thinks it will be challenging to become competitive in the field, but he has always been actively investing his own money and he likes the idea of spending his days driving from meeting to meeting during the day and socializing at swanky corporate events in the evening while selling investment opportunities to ultra-high net
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worth individuals. Mark is seriously considering taking the job and reckons that he will be back at his current salary level in three years; so by the time he is 37 he will be back on track and the pay cut he would be taking now will not be that much of a big deal and won’t affect his future earning potential.
What Mark is not calculating is the opportunity cost of throwing away a decade of IT experience. Why is that a big deal? Generally speaking, the job market is not that competitive while you are still in your 30s reporting to someone who is providing overall leadership for the team and who is ultimately responsible for delivering the vision and strategy of the business. However, when you move into the 45+ age group you begin competing for jobs for which it is very likely that you will be responsible for creating and implementing a strategy from scratch. These are very high- powered jobs and you will most likely be competing for these positions with individuals who have spent their entire careers in one industry.
On the next page is a pyramid showing the competitiveness for different job levels in an organization. Look at the diagram and take Mark’s possible career choice of changing industries early to mid-career into account. Who will it affect him as he approaches the CEO – 2 and CEO -1 jobs? That is one and two levels below the Chief Executive Officer.
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CEO is usually 45 to 65 years CEO old plus.
CEO - 1 is C Level or usually 40 years old plus. CEO-1 = 8 jobs CEO - 2 is Senior Manager or usually 35 to 45 years old. CEO -2 = 24 jobs CEO - 3 is Manager or CEO - 3 = usually 28 to 35 years old. 450 jobs
CEO - 4 is Entry level or CEO - 4 = usually 18 to 1,500 jobs 28 years old.
The above pyramid illustrates the job distribution for a small company. You can see it is less competitive when you are early and mid-career. As you approach your forties the job opportunities become scarce and the statistical probability of advancement is more challenging. In the above pyramid the company has 1,500 early career jobs which require no to less than 3 years of experience. The next layer which is Manager or CEO – 3, or three layers below the CEO. This level requires 4 to 8 years of experience and also has a large population of 450 people.
As you move into Senior Manager or CEO – 2, which requires 8 to 12 years of experience, the number of jobs decreases dramatically. There are only eight C-Level jobs or CEO -1 jobs. These are your CFO, COO, CIO, CMO, and so on. These require 15 plus years of experience.
The number of jobs from entry level to Manager decreases by 70% (CEO-4). From Manager (CEO-3) to Senior Mid-Manager (CEO-2) the number of jobs decreases by 95%. From Senior Manager to
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C-Level Executive (CEO -1) the number of jobs decreases again by 67%, and then from C-level to CEO the number of jobs again decreases by 87.5%. The statistics are against you and the odds are not in your favor if you want to move up into senior executive leadership. You will need every advantage you can get to climb the ladder and make the cut.
To get back to our example of Mark who is about to switch industries, it may seem like going into wealth management may be a good idea for Mark in his 30s, when he reaches his 40s he will be outdone by someone who has spent the last twenty years working in wealth management and has previously managed large teams, probably across different geographies. As he moves from Manager to Senior Manager the number of jobs decreases by 95% and as he moves from Senior Manager to C-Level the jobs decrease again by 67%. There is a good chance Mark will hit a glass ceiling as he matures in his career as a result of this mid-career industry shift. What seemed like a good idea in his thirties, will come back to haunt him in his forties.
On the other hand, if Mark stays in the IT industry he will be able to leverage his 10 years of experience. The winning strategy would be for Mark to keep his industry focus and find a role within it which is client facing or more interactive and social than his current role. Keeping his industry experience, maintains his competitiveness.
Positions such as an IT Professor, IT Sales, IT Consulting, IT Journalism, or a media role reporting on the latest IT trends would all allow Mark to be more socially active in his work environment while keeping his industry specialization. So, when you are choosing a new direction my advice to you is to try and stay in your industry while changing your role within it. This is to have a long-term vision with the knowledge that as you approach the CEO – 3 and CEO -2 jobs they are infinitely more competitive to win than the early career and mid management jobs.
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One of the most important things to do when managing your life is to take a long-term view of your profession. Do not take a job, do not commit to a career, but be committed to creating a “life’s work”. Take a long-term view of where you are going. Look at your professional choices in a 20-year perspective. As the example above shows when we look at the next four years the decision Mark is making is not such a bad one, but when we look at the next fifteen years we can see he may have some challenges securing a C Level job if he does this move.
Often people who feel fed up with their jobs become repulsed by their entire industry. Realize that it is the role, not the industry, you need to change and that by doing so you will likely find a new role in your industry that you will find very enjoyable. The key is to identify what your strengths are and what you enjoy doing most and find a role that speaks to those needs.
In his book “Chasing Stars: The Myth of Talent and the Portability of Performance”, Boris Groysberg references the story of a procurement specialist in textiles who quit her job as a buyer and went to work as an analyst on Wall Street. She became the top textile analyst within 24 months as she knew the business inside out. By staying focused on the textile industry but identifying a very innovative way to leverage her experience while at the same time landing a job that she loved, this lady was able to achieve stellar performance. I urge you to think along the same lines.
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ARTICULATING YOUR DIRECTION
One of the biggest mistakes people make when they’re looking for a job is to say “I am currently looking for work, if you hear of anything can you let me know?” It is a much more effective approach to be branded as an expert and say “I am a Chief Information Officer with 20 years of experience and am currently looking for work as an IT Consultant. Do you know anyone at a Management Consultancy that needs a good IT Consultant? An example of a company I would like to work is Accenture.” Being specific and focused you become more powerful than an unfocused job seeker who does not articulate their preferred employer or the job they are gunning for.
Additionally, being so focused makes it much easier for other people to help you. They know your area of expertise, where you want to work and what kind of companies to refer you too. This allows you to be top of mind the next time they hear of a relevant position. It is important to list a few target dream companies you want to work for. To be clear what I am telling you to do is explicitly state a list of three to five companies you want to work at so people can clearly understand where to place you. You might be surprised as one of your contacts may know someone at the exact company you mentioned.
In physics they use the formula that force is equal to speed times mass or F= S*M. Thus, a one-hundred- pound ball moving at 10 kilometers an hour will deliver a 1,000 pound impact. The same ball moving at 100 kilometers an hour will deliver a 10,000 pound impact. For the executive, the amount of force you
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exert on the market is very similar. If you have a spaghetti offense and send your CV to one hundred or so different employers your force is dissipated across such an area that you cannot create any impact at all.
Relationships are of paramount importance and having the right ones in the same industry will ensure you are able to get yourself in front of a decision maker. Having a number of influential relationships all in the same area will be beneficial to the progression of your career and will allow you to create impact. You must have a clear vision of where you want to go with your career and start moving in one direction with some speed. Together, your relationships, focus, and direction will create force and impact, and will get the results you desire.
This type of focus requires you to align your professional relationships, personal relationships, community relationships, recreational activities, as well as intellectual pursuits. Have every element of your life focused in one industry, in one area, and that is how you will achieve impact.
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Focusing your relationships and all the areas of your life
Professional Relationships
Reading & Personal Writing Relationships
Recreational Intimate Activities Relationships YOU
Education & Community Courses Service
Hobbies Geographically
Professional Relationships
This is an obvious one. There is a huge value in building relationships in one industry, in one geography for several decades. For example, knowing everyone in healthcare in New York, or everyone in the legal profession in Chicago, or everyone in construction in London; will only give you an advantage in your profession. Be committed to creating relationships for life and make a commitment to know everyone in your industry.
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Personal Relationships
Make an effort to develop personal relationships with people in your industry. Celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, work milestones, and so on. Spend personal time with industry champions to develop yourself.
Intimate Relationships
Have a life partner who knows your industry and has experience in your field is always a plus. The more expertise you can have around you the better and your spouse is one of the few people who will always be looking out for your best interests.
Community Service
Lend you professional skills to the betterment of the community. Find areas where you can volunteer or create charity projects which utilize your professional skills. I knew an investment banker who teamed up with a group of other investment bankers to provide free project financing advice and services for fringe market governments who need power stations and other quintessential pieces of infrastructure.
Another friend of mine was a lawyer and offered free employment law services once a month to low income people who were wrongfully dismissed. Use your professional skills and apply them to your CSR efforts. If you are a construction worker then maybe you can volunteer on building low income housing projects. Whatever your professional focus and skills, be sure to get involved in community service. If there is no professional association doing such work, then start one.
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Geographic Focus
When you are young go and travel, but when its time to manage your career pick a geography and stick to it. Executives who spend most of their career in one city have a big advantage over other executives as they get to know everyone and everyone knows them. You never know when you need a relationship. When you are in a tight spot having a large power network in the city you operate in can be valuable. Focus your efforts in one location.
Reading & Writing
I once saw a documentary on a man who was innocently incarcerated. He spent twenty years in jail and his only relief was reading which the jail permitted. He read over one thousand books during his time in jail. Eventually he was released. Unfortunately, the reading had only a marginal effect on his ability to have a career. This is because he read one thousand books on one thousand topics. Of course, he had no choice as he had to read whatever the jailer gave him. You have a choice, so start reading with focus.
When you read, make sure you read on a book related to your profession. If you like fiction, then chose a fictional book that is about your profession. Read all the available autobiographies written about anyone and everyone in your profession. Read all the top ten bestselling books on your profession. Read at least four books a month.
Most people read books unrelated to their profession. This is a waste of time if you want to move your career forward. Focus all your activities around your profession. Become hyper focused and read all the popular books on your job. If you read four
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books a month, that would be 48 books a year and within two years you would become an industry guru in your field.
Reading is useless without writing. You must write about your profession as well. In the bare minimum make notes and start to write down the thoughts you get while reading. If you like poetry, then write a poem about your profession. If you like to write jokes, write jokes about your profession. Write short essays about the future of your profession and industry. Write and then publish your writings on Linkedin, or make them into videos for the internet.
Do not be afraid of criticism when publishing your work. Welcome it. Encourage your competitors and cohorts to refute your claims. Then counter attack their critiques with new data and more insightful papers. This is the journey of the intellect and one that should not be missed. Most people do not publish their work, not because they don’t have their own ideas, but because they don’t have the courage to publicly voice their opinions. Have courage and start writing about your profession.
Recreational Activities
Recreational Activities should always be done with industry friends. Surround yourself with industry professionals. If you are an engineer who likes motocross, create a motocross group for engineers. If you are a professional boxer who like knitting, then creating the boxers knitting club. Make an effort to surround yourself with the winners of the industry and spend time doing non-work related activities together.
Education & Courses Take only courses that will move your career forward. Make sure your qualifications and degrees match your career path. The same goes for weekend courses or seminars. I once knew a candidate who took his own vacation time to travel to an industry event because his boss would not give him time off to attend. At the
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end of the day, it is your development and so you should invest in it. Own your career like an entrepreneur owns his business. Invest in it, work for it, and develop it.
Hobbies
If you have a hobby try and find other professionals in your industry with the same hobby and form a group. Get together with them and share your passion for the hobby with them. Do not waste your time socializing with people who are not related to your career. You must socialize, yes this is a true, so do it with people from your industry.
SUMMARY: Focusing Your Relationships and All The Areas of Your Life
The nine areas of your life should be aligned to helping you rise to the top of your profession. Top performers are highly focused. One of the reasons Silicon Valley is so successful is the alignment of the nine areas outlined in this chapter. For example, an IT executive, lets call him John, may finish work at his software solutions company, then goes to the soccer field or football field (depending on where you are from) to play with some friends. His friends are all executives from other IT companies. After the game they go for a bite and talk shop. During the after the game bite, John, finds out that one of the companies is hiring and his friend can put in a good word for John; after all he has known John for ten years and they are best friends.
Focus is not just being committed to a career in one industry, it means the books you are reading, the events you are going to, the people you are socializing with, the company you are working for are all aligned on one single goal. Work to create this alignment in your life and watch the synergy it will create. You will create an upward spiral that will take your career to new heights.
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THE 5-STEP FOCUS PROCESS
Not sure where to focus? This next exercise requires you to put pen to paper and do some work to find out where you should focus in life. Using the following exercises, you will identify activities which speak to your personality, and natural talents. The goal is to identify:
1. Your Five Most Energizing Activities 2. Your Five Strongest Skills 3. Your Five Favorite Personality Traits 4. Your Five Strongest Values 5. Your Five Strongest Motivational Drives
YOUR FIVE MOST ENERGIZING ACTIVITIES
I review innumerable psychometric tests and am always amazed at how different personalities are; what is a horrible experience for one person is a fantastic experience for another. So, the ultimate goal is to find what really excites you and do that.
The first thing you can do on this road to discovery is keep an energy log. As you go through your day write down the things that energize you and the ones that de-energize you.
Then at the end of the week, review the list. You will begin to see patterns and perhaps you’ll notice that your current career is full of things that de-energize you. They are just not a fit for your personality. You may even surprise yourself with what you learn.
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For example, you may recall situations in which you should really have been tired, but you were not tired at all. These are your energizing activities. Below is a list of possible activities which could energize or de-energize you just to get you started. It’s not exhaustive and it’s not meant to be 100% applicable to you. It’s just here to get you started.
• Public speaking • Writing • Media appearances • Exercise • Helping others • Working outdoors • Saving a life • Driving • Surgery • Family • Deal structuring • Learning • Sales • Spending time alone • Creating art • Silence • Building something • Negotiation • Designing • Working with people
Once you’re comfortable and confident that you’ve spent enough time monitoring your activities, list your five most energizing activities below. They don’t have to be in a particular order although if there is one that trumps all the others, then put it in first place.
I have created a sample list on the right hand side to help get you started.
My five most energizing activities Examples 1 – 1 – Being on the radio 2 – 2 – Helping others 3 – 3 – Public speaking 4 – 4 – Creating impact with clients 5 – 5 – Talking with friends
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YOUR FIVE FAVORITE SKILLS
We all have many skills; many more than five. However, we all also have skills we are most proud of. The next thing you can do is start identifying those skills which you enjoy having and possess in abundance.
There are, of course, dozens of different skills in the world and you have your unique mix. Part of finding your direction and focus will be understanding your distinctive capabilities. By doing this you will understand how to become inimitable, making it impossible for others to compete with you. Below is a list of skills you may have which would be relevant to your dream job. Have a look at it to get your thoughts going and then, write down your five favorite skills in the table below.
• Project management • Tactics & Execution • Sales • Writing • Risk management • Phone skills • Communication • Administration • Interpersonal Skills • Marketing • Finance • Organizational Skills • Accounting • Social Media • Strategy • Branding
My Five Strongest Skills Examples 1 – 1 – Communication 2 – 2 – Setting Strategy & Vision 3 – 3 – Team Building - driving results in a group 4 – 4 – Interpersonal Skills / Building Relationships 5 – 5 – Tactics & Execution
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YOUR FIVE FAVORITE PERSONALITY TRAITS
Once you have identified your five greatest skills, you will want to identify your five most obvious personality traits. As with skills, there are so many personality traits you can have so the goal is to identify your top five; maximum 10 otherwise the list becomes unwieldy and future steps in the exercise become more complicated. Below are some personality traits to get you thinking. Once you’re ready, write your list in the table.
• Extroverted • Direct • Introverted • Sense of humor • Assertive • Serious • Passive • Silly • Quiet • Aggressive • Bombastic • Ambitious • Cautious • Determined • Candid • Results-oriented
My Five Favourite Personality Traits Examples 1 – 1 – Outgoing 2 – 2 – Ambitious 3 – 3 – Results-Oriented 4 – 4 – Assertive 5 - 5 - Tenacious
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YOUR FIVE MOST DEARLY HELD VALUES
Next you must identify your values, the things that you stand for. Some people value honesty; others value the right of people to live a safe life. One thing to watch out for here is ‘money’. Many people say they value money whereas, in actual fact, they value what money means to them. For some, money means security and access to healthcare. For others, it means the freedom to buy things for themselves or those they love. So be very clear about identifying what you actually value.
To help prime you for this exercise, list the five happiest moments of your life, the five proudest moments of your life, your five most fulfilling experiences, and your five saddest moments. These emotional moments in your life are the beacons for your value system. Write down what happened during these moments and how you felt. This will start to highlight what is important to you in life. Then look at the list below and see if any words jump out at you. As with all the other lists, this is a short foray into an otherwise endless sea of possibilities. Finally, once you have identified the values you hold most dear, write them down in the table. • Achievement • Community • Adventure • Competitiveness • Altruism • Contentment • Ambition • Determination • Balance • Discipline • Belonging • Empathy • Boldness • Enjoyment • Calmness • Equality • Challenge • Excellence • Commitment • Fairness
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• Faith • Professionalism • Family • Quality • Focus • Reliability • Fun • Security • Generosity • Selflessness • Happiness • Self-reliance • Hard work • Serenity • Honesty • Speed • Humility • Teamwork • Ingenuity • Thoroughness • Intuition • Timeliness • Justice • Truth-seeking • Love • Understanding • Leadership • Unity • Obedience • Vision • Order • Vitality • Patriotism • Veracity • Positivity
My Five Most Dearly Held Values Examples 1 – 1 – Family 2 – 2 – Integrity 3 – 3 – Equality 4 – 4 – Ambition 5 - 5 - Health
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YOUR FIVE STRONGEST MOTIVATIONAL DRIVES
Motivation is one of the least understood drivers and influences on our behavior. You can find as many definitions of motivation as you can find dictionaries. You can find as many theories on motivation as you can find theorists. A quick glance at our contemporary landscape and it will be obvious that we do not yet understand human motivation at all. For example, the best companies will use a mix of sophisticated compensation and rewards, from base salary, financial incentives, stock options, health benefits and more; while a company like Wikipedia has some of the world’s greatest intellectuals writing their pages for free.
Why is it that the world’s biggest companies struggle to keep their white collar staff motivated, even while spending millions of dollars to find the best ways to inspire them and still fail; while clandestine operations such as Wikipedia engage the world’s greatest minds to work for them for free. No payment whatsoever is provided by Wikipedia to its authors. Wikipedia has over 5,976,889 articles and its members write approximately 20,000 articles a month as referenced on Wikipedia’s own Wikipedia page. By number of words, Wikipedia is approximately 85 times larger than the former segment leader, Encyclopedia Britannica, which employed professionals to write it, produce it, and sell it. Encyclopedia Britannica was outperformed by people working for free.
Linux is another example of a free operating system used for servers and super computers. The code for Linux was written for free by leading programmers. It was originally created by Mr. Linus Torvalds, and has been contributed to by thousands of IT professionals from around the world. The point is Mr. Torvalds
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did not pay, nor did he incentivize anyone to work on the open source operating system. They worked for free. For the love of the job.
Apache is the world’s most popular web server on the Internet since April 1996. Its programmers have created over 200 million lines of code, it has over 7,000 Apache code committers, and is an all-volunteer community. Seven thousand people all of which are high skilled professionals, all are working for free.
Examples like Apache, Linux, and Wikipedia, all point out that the modern workplace does not currently understand motivation. As human beings we are so much more than a paycheck, and the immeasurable value we create is tied to our intangible subconscious drivers which push us to peak performance. To manage your career effectively you have to look beyond your earnings and incentives and really tap into your intrinsic motivators. This will help you unlock the door to unleashing your true potential and reaching self-actualization. Working in line with your intrinsic motivators will provide you with a clear competitive edge over your peers, cohorts, and rival candidates.
Extrinsic motivators are items you received for doing your job such as salary, bonuses, and other elements which are given to you by your employer or client. Intrinsic motivators refer to doing an activity simply for the enjoyment of the activity itself, rather than its instrumental value. These are psychological rewards you personally get from doing the job. Such as an expert in industrial psychology re-writing a Wikipedia page on motivation, simply for the pleasure of sharing their passion the subject matter. Or a coder re-writing a piece of Apache code to increase the systems resilience to hackers, simply for the feeling of making a contribution to the community.
I do not want to get into the definitions of motivation, nor do I want to try and define its various sub-sections, as the jury is still
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out on this area of psychological. No one has yet presented the holy grail of motivational theories. The area has not developed a paradigm of thought which is universally accepted, or which sufficiently explains the expansive realm of human behavior. What this means is that you will not be able to grab onto a particular theory as your lodestar to guide you through this section. Rather you should be guided by heart and your inner voice. Trust your gut on answering the question what motivates you.
The point is that you do not need to become an industrial psychologist, you simply need to understand your subconscious drivers that really make your heart sing. Don’t bother with psychological theories or formal definitions, simply look back to your exercise on page 20, “Your Happiest Moments” and write out your drivers. Then remove the columns which are not related to your drivers and start to focus on what really gets you going. This exercise is more about listening to your heart than your mind. Distill the exercise down to using just three columns as in the example below.
Role Spoke to My Needs for My Driver is Radio Host – Helping Others A feeling of giving Career Show back to my community. Radio Host – Being the center To be recognized as an expert and Career Show of attention to stand out from the crowd. Radio Host – Spontaneity and being To work in a challenging Career Show under pressure. high visibility work environment.
In the example above I explore the role a candidate had of being a radio host of a live talk radio show. The table highlights why the position was so enjoyable for the candidate. He was driven by being in a volatile and unpredictable work environment as he never knew what his guests were going to say. It was a job with an electric spontaneity about it.
The next element about the show that excited him was that it
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was a career show and it let him help many people who were unemployed and some who were even homeless to get their next job. As part of the career show he ran a job search clinic that helped over 2,000 people to improve their careers. It was a project he loved and was proud to be a part of it.
Finally, this candidate liked to be the center of attention and to be viewed as an expert. As this candidate looks for their next job they can see that they will perform best when the role speaks to the following motivational drivers;
1. Helping others – giving back to the community (Deeper sense of purpose) 2. High visibility (Center of Attention) 3. Spontaneity 4. Volatile and unpredictable work environment
For this candidate to put them in a backroom or for them to work on a project that does not receive public appraisal and appreciation will de-energize them. Alternatively put this candidate on the stage and in front of a large group and let them work in a volatile spontaneous environment, they will thrive.
We are all motivated by different things. While some people enjoy fame and being in the limelight, others find being the center of attention agonizing. Different people have different drivers. The key to having a successful career is to get into a job that speaks to your subconscious motivational drivers. To be in a role which truly fulfills you is one of the keys to having an enriching and enjoyable career. It can also be one of the foundation stones to peak performance.
Take some time now and think about what really drives you. Think what has been motivating your behavior. Write down roles in which you really performed at your best and then write out what was the intrinsic motivator that the position touched on.
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List out as many as you can.
If you do any research on this topic you will find a myriad of different theories. They mention such drivers as the need for Achievement, Power, Affiliation, Authority, Camaraderie, Choice, Independence, Esteem, Safety/Security, Fairness, Challenge, Curiosity, Control, Cooperation, Competence, Competition, Recognition, Meaningfulness, Progress,and many more. I personally believe there will be as many intrinsic motivators as there are people. The important point is that you take time and think about yours. So now write out your top five motivators.
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In the final exercise you will combine all four lists and your dream job should start to emerge. Have a look at the diagram below. You are going to create the same diagram using the lists you have created. First, put your energizing activities as the base of the model. This has to be the base because there is no point in getting involved in a career that de-energizes you.
The key thing to remember is not to let reality affect your focus. Reality is the road most traveled to mediocrity. If your values, personality, skills and energizing activities are geared toward being a TV host then so be it. Let your dreams come alive. Reality has no place in this exercise. The creation and existence of a dream does not require reality so do not be shackled by imagined limits or boundaries. This is your moment to dream big. The bigger the better. As the cliché goes: aim for the moon and if you miss, you will be among the stars.
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THE 5x5 DREAM BOX
CommunicationSKILLS VALUES Strategy & Vision Family Team Building Integrity Interpersonal Skills Equality
Ambition Health
DREAM JOB
Presenter ENERGIZING ACTIVITIES Media Personality Being on the Radio Career Coach Helping Others PERSONALITY NGO Leader CreatingPublic Impact Speaking on Clients Outgoing Motivational Speaker Ambitions Talking with Friends
Results-OrientedAssertive Tenacious INTRINSIC MOTIVATORS Helping Others High Visibility Spontaneity Volatility / Unpredictable Work Environment
First, put your intrinsic motivators at the base of the model. Next to the right of it put your energizing activities to the right of it. You can use these two boxes as the bedrock of your exercise. Your job should speak to your intrinsic motivators and it should energize you. The key thing to remember is not to let reality affect your focus. Reality is the road most traveled to mediocrity. If your values, personality, skills, and energizing activities are geared toward being a TV host, then so be it. Let your dreams come alive. Reality has no place in this exercise. The creation and existence of a dream do not require reality, so do not be shackled by imagined limits or boundaries. This is your moment to dream big – the bigger, the better. As the cliché goes: aim for the moon, and if you miss, you will be among the stars.
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THE 5x5 DREAM BOX
SKILLS 1 VALUES 2
1 3 2 4 3 5 4 5
DREAM JOB
1 ENERGIZING ACTIVITIES 2 1 3 2 3 PERSONALITY 4 1 5 4 2 5 3 4 5 INTRINSIC MOTIVATORS 1 2 3 4 5
Check if the profession fits with your energizing activities. If it doesn’t fit, perhaps you should be wary of it. This is important because you will not be able to enjoy your life if your job is continually draining all your energy. You need to get into a vocation and position which inspires you, which lifts you, which takes you to the next level.
Once you’ve done this, find a list of professions which interest you and see if they fit your 5x5 dream box assessment. Start with the profession’s fit with your energizing activities. If they don’t fit you need to drop it right away. This is the most important because you will not be able to enjoy your life if your job is continually
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draining all your energy. You need to get into a vocation and position which inspires you, which lifts you which takes you to the next level.
Step two is to take your potential dream job and assess it against your values. Some executives refuse to be involved in businesses which sell alcohol, cigarettes, or promote gambling. Others refuse to work in companies with no CSR exposure. You cannot sacrifice your values so you must make sure that your dream job is compliant with them.
Next, see how well the role fits your personality. A shy person probably should not go into sales, just as an extroverted person should probably not become a novelist as writing often requires long periods working alone and this will de-energize an extrovert. Finally, check it against your skill base. This is less important than the others as you can develop the skills you need if there are some obvious gaps here. So, if your dream job fits the other boxes, write it down and, if necessary, create a development plan to upgrade your skills.
53 YOUR DIRECTION & FOCUS IN LIFE
THE LAST EXERCISE
This is the last exercise, but I prefer to do it first. The answer you get from this exercise will most likely be better than any of the answers you get from any other exercise. I just put it last because It is a bit weird and most of the people I coach don’t really like it, although they admit it is the most effective.
For this exercise I want you to pick an age when you die. Yes, like I said, this exercise is a bit weird but just trust me and do it. People are living over 100 these days so pick any date you like. Say you pick 102 years old. Then imagine your eulogy as people come up and talk about you at your own funeral. What are they saying about you? Who did you become? What did you accomplish? Who are you at age 102? Do not let reality affect your eulogy. If you want to cure cancer, or be the first person on MARS, what ever it is, you write it down.
Let’s say you are now 35 years old and are a leading sales woman. Your goal is to be the CEO of the Company. You list your goal down and the date when you become CEO, and then start working your way backward through all the roles you need to achieve before you get the CEO role. Go backwards until you get to your current role.
In the below example we see that our Saleswoman needs to become a Division Manager next, and that her life’s work will be becoming a master of sales and starting a charity. A philanthropist and sales guru. When you close your eyes and think about what you want to achieve before you die, you will start to unearth your life’s work. The greatest expression of life is often seen in the face of death.
54 YOUR DIRECTION & FOCUS IN LIFE
THE LAST EXERCISE 102 Died 90 Enjoying Retirement 80 Worked On Charity 70 Started Charity 65 Retired 60 Became CEO & Chairman 55 Became CEO 50 Became Regional CEO 45 Became Regional Director 40 Became Division Manager 35 Saleswoman 30 Started in Sales 20 Worked In A Variety of Jobs 10 School 0
I know this exercise may be a bit weird to do but I urge you to do it. Pick the date you die and work your life accomplishments backwards until you get to your current position. This will create a sense of direction for your life and a road map for your career.
55 YOUR DIRECTION & FOCUS IN LIFE
SUMMARY
Take a long-term view and develop a vision for your life’s work. The process starts inside you and not in the market. This is the beginning of your career strategy which is focused on building capabilities rather than chasing opportunities. You should start by becoming familiar with your history and your roots, then re- visiting your development years and, finally, your professional years. This will help you understand your value system.
Once you have an idea of who you are, go through and identify those things which energize you. Then identify your favorite skills, your favorite personality traits, and finally your strongest values. Once you fill this out in the 5x5 Dream Box, your dream job will become self-evident. The key is to put some effort into your search. Do the research and put pen to paper.
Remember: you are a trader and you want to position yourself to trade your skills at a premium. Doing what you love and utilizing your unique skills in an innovative way will allow you to create value that no one else can. Pick a focus area and decide what your life’s work will be. Then go after it like your life depends on it, because it does.
56 YOUR DIRECTION & FOCUS IN LIFE
THE EXERCISE CHECKLIST
YOUR DIRECTION & FOCUS IN LIFE
Ex # Exercise Page Completed Notes Be sure to list the negative Your Life Event 1 21 life events as well as the Chart positive ones. Find the drivers which 2 Happiest Moments 25 make you happy. Energy is the key, find what Your 5 Most 3 40 energizes you and you'll Energizing Activities find your life's purpose You may be surprised Your 5 Favourite 4 41 which of your skills you Skills value most. Your 5 Personality Which personality traits do 5 42 Traits you value most? Your values are the Your 5 Most Dearly 6 44 foundation stones of your Held Values character.
Putting it all together to 7 The 5x5 Dream Box 52 find your dream job.
Start with your death to 8 The Last Exercise 55 figure out how you can live your life to the fullest.
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