Fun at work

What? Huh? Fun did you say? At work? Yeah baby!

You know work doesn't need to be all that serious. Sometimes I work on quite serious things but if I couldn't have a little fun sometimes, well what would be the point?

How does this fun come about? Well I work with some great people with very funny senses of humour. There seems to be something in the culture. I get to travel and interact with a wide range of people on a wide range of issues and I have a husband who likes to make fun of what he calls the "cast" at my work. Sometimes he says he is familiar with the "characters" when I'm trying to tell him about my day. Hardly helpful but it makes me laugh. He has only met a couple of my work colleagues.

There is also a very corporate type team at work who are generally very serious and risk adverse who love playing practical jokes on each other and other people in the organisation. I LOVE hearing about their antics. So unexpected and naughty in a relatively conservative organisation!

Have you ever done one of those value assessment type questionnaires? I have a few times and the value of fun comes out loud and clear for me. I don't expect every day to be a riot of fun or a circus but if I don't get a bit of fun every now and then well, I'd be looking for somewhere else to be.

For me fun is just not about having a laugh at the water cooler, it's also about getting to work on things you love doing and having autonomy. I love helping developing leaders and I get to do this. I love blogging and I get to do this. I have even been able to encourage them to blog as well. A couple of our leaders have no idea what the point of blogging is but it's been fun seeing their discomfort! Some have even been humorous in their writing and learnt to write in their own voice. Love that.

There is also fun challenge in working on news things, learning new knowledge and working through complex issues. Mostly I love my job and mostly it's fun

So, on another public holiday in Australia, tell me about what's fun for you at work? Anything?

Lisa xx

Employability

A few weeks ago I received an invitation to talk about "employability" to a group of final year university students. I was pretty chuffed and have crossed off another of my 2014 goals -"Speak/present at 3 different events during the year, either on improving your career, being a full time working mum who travels a lot or something HR related." I have now spoken at 2 events which is pretty cool!

Employability - the ability to get employed, is a pretty hot topic for students. It can be hard to secure that first role when you effectively have no experience and no idea how the degree, which you have worked hard for, will translate into the workplace. I had no idea what I wanted to do when I finished my first degree and certainly no idea how I was going to get a job to go with it.

The thing is, the stuff I spoke about to these students applies to anyone, in particular if you are trying to change the focus of your career. This is what I spoke about:

How important is your degree? 

Well it is and it isn't. It's SO important and also not so much. How does this work? A tertiary qualification is a great thing to have in that it shows you can stick at something, juggle priorities, think critically and argue your point, present, and hopefully write well. All good things. However a degree without any kind of work experience can be a bit empty.

I've done quite a long post on this topic, which you can read about here.

What is your purpose?

I have written a bit about this topic. Do you understand your why? and Working out your purpose: 3 ways

The thing is though, do students finishing their undergraduate degree know what they want to do with their career? The question was asked of the group I presented to and around a third did. Great. Awesome. Not sure I believe them but great, awesome. Of course there are some people who know at 16, 18 and 20 what their passion and purpose is, but really, I think that's pretty rare.

So for those who don't know your purpose, I think that's pretty normal. I think you need a bit of life experience to work this out. You need to have worked in a few crappy jobs (even to work out what you don't want to do) and learnt a bit more about yourself. If you have been in the workforce for a bit the only way to work out what you think you want to do is to try lots of things, think about what makes you happy and what doesn't, and get some feedback. Hop to it!

Developing your skills

If you don't know your purpose and someone has told you that your degree may not be that important (me) what do you do? Well get a job. Some sort of job. Particularly if you haven't worked during your degree. I reckon working is better than not working, even if you are doing something you don't love. The trick is to understand what you can learn from that job. When I finished my undergraduate degree I took at job in retail. I knew that I didn't want to work in retail long term but I was lucky enough to be offered a place in the company management development program. I thought that would be a good experience and it was. I also knew that retail would help me develop communication skills, conflict management skills and I would have an income while I worked out what I really wanted to do. 

When developing skills it's also important to think about breadth and depth in your career. Experiences in different size organisations and in roles that give you experiences across organisations and also deep in a particular area, are great for your career.

Social media: friend or foe?

I love social media, as many people do. Tools such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and more, help us to stay connected, inspire and keep us informed. However......when trying to get that coveted first job out of uni, or the next step in our career, social media may not be your friend.

When helping managers recruit people into their team, they are sometimes tempted to do some extra research. Privacy legislation says we can only collect information on candidates that is relevant to the role we are recruiting for. In this context, checking out someone's Linkedin profile is OK. Trawling through their Facebook page, is not.

My advice is make sure your Linkedin profile is complete, up-to-date and presents you in the most professional light. Use a high quality photo, preferably taken by an actual photographer (not your friend using an iPhone) and have it cropped so it looks good on Linkedin. A head and shoulders shot is your best bet. Photos taken "out on the town" while you were drinking cocktails (where you have cropped out most of the person with their arm around you ) is NOT appropriate for Linked in. Just saying. 

What else?.....lock down your other social media accounts if they contain photos and information that is not relevant to your job or career. What I mean is, find the privacy setting and make sure only people you let see your profile can see it. Maybe you don't have anything too exciting on your Facebook page: what you ate for lunch; how many km's you walked today...but think about it from an employers point of view (who shouldn't be looking at your page but they will). I don't do anything exciting on social media but I probably follow some people and businesses that my employers may not want to be associated with. Think about it. 

Lisa xx

We're all walking on quick sand

"We're so stupid if we think we can control,

 All the dark matter in this black hole. 

It's going to pull us under if we don't let go, 

We're all walking on quick sand".

This is a line from a Delta Goodroom song "God Laughs". It's a song she wrote about her parents marriage split but I think it applies to life in general, and certainly life in big organisations.

So what made me think of this song? It's fair to say there has been some change going on at work. Most of this change over the past 18 months I have been involved with, with our leadership team. Being in control of the change, while difficult, is often easier than being part of the group of employees who have had the change inflicted on them. I'm sure you agree.

The most recent changes has got many of the team I work in, unsettled and unsure. There is a feeling of things being temporary and ambiguous . What's going to happen next? If that can happen to that person, it could happen to me too! Some of the changes have shown the way in the organisation and highlighted opportunity. Other changes have been perceived very negatively. This is normal.

I have been surprised by my own reactions and those of the leadership team. I somehow expected that experienced and well seasoned leaders would be better equipped to deal with change. But people are people no matter the age or experience. We all feel unsettled by change, by things happening which we didn't expect and things we don't want to happen. We wish things to be different or to stay the same.

I have spoken before about how often I come across people that want certainty and stability in their lives, their work and careers. Many want to know that when they go to work each day, they know what their job is, they know where they get to sit and they don't need to learn anything new. I find this somewhat unrealistic and hard and.... well, a bit sad.

But what do you do when you are in the middle of unsettling and upsetting change? What do you do when everything seems temporary and nothing seems certain?

1. There is always something not changing (I hope). For example, if work is upsidedown, how is home? Is it stable at the moment? What about your family and friends? Are they still there? It's important to maintain connections that remain stable in times of change. Seek these people out. They should help you keep things in perspective.
2. Even at work, if things are seeming a little ambiguous, there will be other things that are not. You still need to deliver on your plans, deliver to your goals, sell what needs to be sold, deliver on the strategy, even if these things are short term. Identifying the things that remain the same and focusing on these are really important. Particularly if you are a leader.
3. EXERCISE! I bang on this a bit. I'm not a fitness freak I just think that exercise makes a massive difference to how we feel about our world. Wrote a post here about keeping your mind fit. If there is ever a time when you need to keep your mind fit it's during a time of change. When I found out about a recent change that effected me I walked every day for a week! 
4.  Reflect on where you want your career to be. Has the change derailed this? If it has are there other things you can learn that you didn't expect? Not long after I moved to Sydney I completed a leadership program. It came at just the right time with a coach as part of the program. This coach had some great little techniques for dealing with stuff. One that relates to change which I use on myself and talk to others about is - even if you are not where you want to be and may be struggling a bit, make a deal with yourself about how much time you will stay in the same situation. Work out the things you are going to learn and pick a date to review. When you get to that point in time, things will have either improved or you can decide to do something else. At least you gave it a chance.
5. Get networking. This is helpful in creating connections that may help with your career, and helpful to understand that most organisations are going through uncertainty and change. Many industry organisations hold professional networking events that help people connect. Is it time you built up your network?

 

Feedback

Feedback

Ah a word to strike fear into any self-respecting employee. Who doesn’t feel anxious when they are about to get some feedback. Who doesn’t feel nervous and/or defensive. It’s natural isn’t it?

Often the feedback we receive is part of an ill organised, poorly trained  process called “Performance Management”. Sometimes we are lucky enough to work with peers or Managers who are skilled at giving feedback and genuinely care about you and are invested in helping you improve. Such a gift.

No matter how skilled or how good the intent of someone giving you feedback, the effect relies a lot on our ability to receive it. Common reactions are:

·         To be defensive and argue

·         To say nothing and skulk away to lick our wounds

·         To cry

·         To be angry

·         To ignore it

·         To bitch about it with our friends

BUT, what if it could help you develop? What if it doesn’t?

My top 5 tips for dealing with feedback

1.   LISTEN. That means shutting your mouth and stop your brain from thinking about how to defend what someone is telling you. Just listen. Take it in. Write it down. Don’t talk.

I had a great Manager in my first HR job. He cared about me getting better and he gave me lots of great feedback. I repaid his kindness by arguing, defending myself and generally being a pain. He used to hold his hand up as if staying stop. Well he was saying stop. Stop talking and start listening!

 

2.   ASK QUESTIONS. Not defensive angry questions like “how you can say that?!” but curious and enquiring questions like “could you tell me more about that? Do you have an example to illustrate what you are talking about?”

3.   PROCESS. Think about what the feedback means to you. Is it helpful? Is the person genuinely trying to help? I once had a peer who told me I spoke too much during the team meeting. I really reflected on that feedback. No one had ever said that to me before and I really didn’t think I talked too much in our meetings. On reflection  I think the problem was that this person needed to speak more in the meetings but blaming me was an easier option than owning their behavior. I thought about that feedback for more than a week and then decided it wasn’t about me and discarded it.

Other feedback I received I really took to heart and thought carefully about how I could integrate it into my style.

4.   SAY THANK YOU It’s pretty hard to give another person feedback. Sometimes that person has agonised about how to deliver the message so as not to upset you (or themselves). They have demonstrated courage and that they care for you, your wellbeing and your career. Thank them.

5.   OWN IT. It’s relatively easy to give positive feedback but people don’t generally like to give feedback that might be perceived as negative or could cause conflict. If someone has taking the time, you should try and own it. You could ask others for their opinion. The more you own your own behavior the better chance you have to do something about it

 

Would love to hear your feedback stories!

2014 Goals update

Every January there is a flurry of information and fluff about new year's resolutions and goals for the year. 2014 was no exception and I found my social media channels filled with information on this topic. I wrote a post about my goals for this blog in January.

Much of the problem with setting goals and new year's resolutions is the probability of actually achieving them! Keeping motivated is about checking in with where you are at with your goals. What progress have you made? Great video here about motivation!

Is too much travel getting in the way of me achieving my goals?

We are nearly 3 month's into the year and what have I achieved? My goals for this blog are as follows:

1. Once a month feature a video interview someone interesting about how they are got to where they are in their career..I'm going to learn how to shoot and edit videos.

Update: So far I have asked one person to let me interview them on video. Since that time I have been travelling so much that I haven't been able to organise this.

Status: Behind. WAY behind! 

2. Blog at least once a week. I lost my way in about September last year and never got my blogging grove back.

Update: So I should have written about 11 posts by now. I have written 6 including this one.

Status: Behind. WAY behind! 

3. Speak/present at 3 different events during the year, either on improving your career, being a full time working mum who travels a lot or something HR related. I'm open people and I work for free!

Update: Last week I spoke at a small Learning and Development Forum. I spoke on advancing your career and included topics on knowing your purpose, breadth and depth in your career and building credibility and influencing (potential future post). I think it went well.

Status: On track.

So having one goal on track and two behind is not a great start to the year. I didn't anticipate how busy work would be during the first quarter of the year and I may have been unrealistic with some of my goals, which is a common thing that happens when setting goals. What to do? Well, I'm going to get focused on writing a blog post each week and I'm going to set a date to do my first video interview.

How are your 2014 goals tracking? Would love to hear.

Lisa

Travel for work: the positive stuff

So a while back I wrote this post on travel. This is another post on travel for work but more from the perspective of how good it is for your career. Over the years I have interviewed many people for roles that require some form of travel or another. Many people don’t want these kind of roles. Some do, but many don’t. My hardest sell was for roles requiring lots of travel to India.

  

Last week I was in Houston (Texas), for work, and I was reflecting on how lucky I have been in a couple of my roles to travel internationally. My first real business trip in my career was to London, travelling business class. That was awesome. I love the perspective you gain from these kind of trips. Experiencing a different part of the business and a different culture. I think it makes you a better leader.

Without doubt some of my best work and career development opportunities have been because I got to travel. The things I most remember were the interactions with people and the things I got to experience. 

Some examples…..

Longest most amazing day ever

While in India where I was doing some HR Audit work (kill me) I got to travel to a little known and remote place called Mundra, located in the upper north-west corner of India.  The landscape resembled roadrunner country and to get there the plane landed at an airforce base. The company I was working for at the time had developed the operation there as well as the housing and amenities for the employees they had to attract to the area to work. The HR Manager’s role went well beyond what you would expect. She was responsible for ensuring employees had adequate housing, providing education for their children, and more.

The longest most amazing day ever started with completing the HR audit at the work location and then going on a tour of the employee housing and the school. Lunch was followed by a long drive, on a road shared with buses, trucks, motorbikes, cows and elephants. Yep. The purpose of the trip was to visit a palace which provided the set for many Bollywood movies and then we had a drink on the beach while camels meandered past. We were invited to meet the Maharaja of Kutch and share a meal. When I finally returned to my hotel room that evening I couldn’t believe the day I had just experienced. I felt that time had been stretched (as I often would feel in India) and I could not have fitted in anything more varied and different to what I did that day. It seems surreal when I now think of it.

What did I learn?

The day was about learning how time is viewed in India (everything will happen in it’s own time) and gave me great insight into companies who provided more than just a job for employees. The leaders of this business were not just managing a workforce, they were managing a community.

As a tourist I would never had such an amazing experience.

Working with team members on the other side of the world!

Probably one of the hardest things in global organisations is developing relationships when you don’t get to see people! Geographical separation coupled with cultural differences mean that misunderstandings can be blown out of proportion and the ability to get things done can be hampered. One company I worked for would have me travel to their overseas head office a couple of times a year for 2 weeks at a time and that made a massive difference to our team getting to know each other and being effective. It also gave me visibility to other leaders in the business.

Last week I was at a global meeting (which happened at about the same time last year) and our team were able to continue to build the relationships we had already established. I got to connect with some other corporate people who I had met previously and met some people who I have only had contact via email. I also went to my first Rodeo and saw REO Speedwagon perform. They still got it! I learnt a lot this week and am leaving with a very clear focus and a very tired head. All good.

What did I learn?

Despite advances in technology for communication and collaboration, I just don't think they can beat meeting in person on regular occasions. 

You can always communicate!

By far the biggest learning experience I have had working and travelling overseas was in China. One particular trip I was being picked up by my local contact who didn't speak English. He bought with him a young Chinese woman who speaks about 6 words of English. I speak 2 words in Mandarin and had Charlie with me who was 4months old and still being breastfed! I flew into Guangzhou not knowing what Hotel I was staying in but also knowing that I was having dinner with a group of Chinese people who also didn't speak English. Who would do this?

It helps that the Chinese love babies and children!

It turned out to be a great dinner and trip. We all seemed to be able to communicate over a meal and Chinese wine and these people left the young Chinese women to stay with me in the hotel so I would be safe. I'm really not sure how much use she would have been (seeing as she was half my size and we couldn't really communicate) but it was a kind gesture.

The next morning my interpreter joined me, which meant the standard of communication improved, particularly on a business level. In the end it was a successful trip.

What did I learn?

Speaking the language is really just one way to communicate. There are many other ways and strangely on this trip I think relationships were built during the times we couldn't use language to communicate. These were often over meals, which seems to be a universal way to build and strengthen relationships, no matter what country you are in.

So what's the point?

Travelling for work can be hard. It messes with any sort of routine, it's very tiring and can be difficult if you have children that need care. If you can work with all these challenges then the difference it can make to your career can be massive. Don't rule it out!

Part-time work

I’m about to be controversial. Probably*

Recently one of my friends on Facebook  shared this story on part time work. It made me mad.

 Part time work has been around for a while now. It’s usually the reserved for the new mum, trying to cope with small children, running a household and also trying to earn some money to provide for their family.

I have worked part time and it’s hard. There’s a  premise is that you have more time to spend with your family. Quality family time. It’s a crock really. Well maybe not. If you can work in a role where there is a definite start and end, it’s probably ok. Shift work might work. A role where you don’t have to take work home or you don’t need to travel. I’m sure there are some jobs where part time works. I haven’t really had one of these.

This article makes the point that you end up squishing full time hours into the part time hours the organizational has agreed you can work. I think that for the most part this is true in my experience.

When I had Aiden, and he was 4 months old I returned to work 3 days a week, and then 4 days and said I would take phone calls on the other days to support the organization. I also took calls while I was on maternity leave and did some work that I could do from home, which was my choice but I must admit I was worried that I may not have a job to return to. I took phone calls from employees about their redundancy package while I changed Aiden’s nappy as he screamed. I don’t know how the employee didn’t notice the crying on the end of the line. Maybe he was too worried that he was losing his job? Maybe he didn’t care? I also took calls standing outside one of my new mummy friends’ houses to talk to a manager at length about terminating someone’s employment, when I desperately wanted to be inside learning about how other mummies were coping with breast feeding and very little sleep.

I stayed up late and got up early to “express” on a trip to Perth so I could continue to breastfeed my son when I returned to Sydney. I was exhausted. I also attached myself to the pump while sitting in a storeroom at work with no lock, so I could provide some breast milk at least part of the time he was at daycare.

When I did return to work and I was so tired that each day I wanted to crawl under my desk and sleep and was so upset that the business head didn’t even remember I was coming back that first day.  I wanted to crawl under my desk and cry. I guess they didn’t realize the stress it put on my family to turn up that Monday morning. It’s a big deal returning to work. There is no formula to work it out and there are very few women to show you the way. When you manage to get your shit act together it’s an amazing feat.

We are so far away from supporting women to return to work after having children that it’s really not funny. We now have paid maternity leave, which is great but what we really need to better access to childcare and better strategies to support women. We need to change the conversation. Instead of people saying:

·         “Do you think you spend enough time with your boys?”

·         “Have you asked to work part-time yet? (when I was working full time with 2 boys under school age)”

·         “Oh those boys must miss you when you are away” (reference to me travelling to do my job. No one asks a man that)”

·         “I’m so glad my wife didn’t have to work” and “I couldn’t have stayed home when the kids were sick” , comments from men .

 I have all these comments said to me. They are mostly well meaning and definitely not helpful.

But my biggest gripe is with this article where it says that when you work part time you should not take on anything extra, and push back…..WHAT?!  Seriously? Look if you work and career is not that important and it’s just a means to an end, fine.  But if at some point you want to progress why would you sit back? Why would you not contribute more. THIS. IS. DUMB. ADVICE. You need to lean in. I see the difference between how women are perceived when they hold fast to their part time hours and those who go beyond. Let’s face it, many of us working in full time roles go beyond these hours, particularly as roles become more senior. Across the board, employees who are more engaged and who contribute more will always have more opportunities.

While I’m on the soap box I also want to talk about managing your part time work. The reality is the organisation is unlikely (unless they have an evolved HR and management team) to be forthcoming in working out a part time role for you. YOU NEED TO DO THIS. You shouldn’t have to. I know, but this is reality. Also, I have seen some women return to work 2 days a week. I’m sorry. This is stupid.  What value does it bring to you? (not much money) What does it bring to the organisation? (not much value).  Childcare is expensive and oversubscribed but try and work it out if you can.

If you are returning to work:

1.       Have a plan. Ask other women how they did it. Get on with it. It will be hard. You will be tired. It will get better. Promise.

2.       Your partner must help and you must ask them to help, even if you are working part time. You must let them do things the way they do them, not the way you do them. Let it go.

3.       Do not stop contributing. There are times when it will be tough. There will be times when you have to juggle. Men don’t have to do this and it’s not fair. Get on with it.

4.       In my view, if you can make it work, get back to full time work as soon as you can. I think it’s a poor bet to leave work and let someone else support you indefinitely. Keep your finger in something that is valuable. It might be part time work, it might be community work.  What happens if your relationship breaks up? What happens if your partner passes away? What will you do? You have kids to support and you need something for yourself.

*This is my opinion and my opinion only. I truly support the choices any woman makes in relation to their children, their family, their work and their career.