Manage your energy, not your time

This is the title of a great Harvard Business Review article. I used this article as some pre-reading for the participants on a recent leadership development program. We talked as a group about the kind of things each of us do to top up our energy. I really like the article because it recognises that we only have so much time each day, but we can recharge our energy to be more effective in a number of different ways.

I like talking about this topic with leaders because I find that our working lives are getting busier and more manic. The environments we operate in are less stable and less predictable and increasingly we need better strategies to deal with stress, pressure and ambiguity. For leaders working in a global environment these issues are even more pronounced, particularly when they are being asked to produce more, with less resources.

I also recognise that leaders need to perform at their peak and often do very little to ensure that they actually can. Top athletes use every resource available to them to ensure they have the best competitive edge. They have coaches and dieticians and psychologists and physiotherapists and exercise physiologists and specialist doctors. What do leaders have to ensure they can run the race and produce the results? In some, or most cases, nothing.

That's why I love this article. It addresses different types of energy including the body (or physical energy), emotional energy, the mind and spirit. The article talks about how you can build energy in each area. 

I write this post from the airline lounge in Singapore, on the way to Queenstown, New Zealand to restore my energy. I am attending Trey Ratcliff's Photography and Yoga workshop. I met Trey in the lift at a blogging conference three years ago. He turned out to be the keynote speaker and blew the attendees, including me, away with his energy, courage and creativity. 

I follow him at stuck in customs and when he posted about this workshop I just had to go. A couple of ways I manage my energy when working long hours and travelling a lot is to do something physical and to do something creative. This workshop at Aro Ha seemed to combine the two perfectly. 

I'll be learning some new things like processing photos, which I haven't really done before. I have purchased Lightroom for this task and am looking forward to learning how to enhance raw images from the camera. Actually it would be really good to just work out how to get photos into the software. I'm coming from a low base aren't I?

I'm looking forward to doing something physical everyday from trekking around the beautiful scenery near Queenstown to doing yoga. This will be a nice change from my usual day sitting on my butt or even standing at my new adjustable desk. Swapping this view with clean air and mountains should be good for the soul.

Most weeks I manage to attend one or two yoga classes so getting to do one every day without the rush of work and time, will be a luxury. I'm also looking forward to seeing how the vegetarian "paleo friendly, gluten free, dairy free, and enzymatically active" food makes me feel, and there will also be massages. I like massages. Still tossing up whether I should take some wine along or whether a week without alcohol would be a good thing. Ok, I know the answer to this. 

The opportunity to use my brain and body in a different way for a whole week is such a luxury. I like my job and what I get to do each day but I know if I don't take out time to breathe and be creative I'm not good at my job. This coming week I will get to restore my physical and emotional energy along with recharging the mind and the spirit.

Of course you don't have to fly hours to attend a retreat to restore your energy. What are some of the things you do?

Follow your passion, or not?

High Line, NYC

Much popular career advice comes with tag-lines like "follow your passion" and "do what you love, love what you do"  and so on.  I love thinking about these things. The things I love and that I'm passionate about. Things like looking at fashion and interior design photos on Pinterest and researching and eating at the the best most innovative restaurants in Singapore and doing some virtual and sometimes real shopping on Net-a-Porter. I'm also passionate about stupid expensive handbags and attempting to become a runner.

In addition I like photography and yoga and am managing to combine these by attending a workshop in a couple of weeks in Queenstown New Zealand. I like travel too and we are heading to Switzerland for Christmas and then Paris after that, well because travel is fun and because we can. And apart from fantasising about becoming a fashion blogger every couple of weeks, well I usually like my day job.

Arran lives and breathes riding bikes while he is not working in risk management in large banks. If he isn't riding a bike, he is planning a ride or watching videos about riding or choosing a new bike to ride or selling a bike so he can buy another bike without getting in too much trouble.

So all this is very well isn't it? So why don't we live our passion and do these things for a job? Well to start with I like having a roof over my head and money in my wallet, and while people do do all these things to make money, I'm just not sure I want to. I once went to an event at the Chanel store in Sydney. I was so excited to learn about fashion and all the excitement and meet other people also interested in fashion, but to tell the truth it was all a little hollow. Some of the attendees were more interested in checking themselves out in the mirrors than talking to me about all the pretty things.

Well a few weeks ago Dr Jason Fox who is all about making clever happen, posted a link to this article The Many, Many Problems With "Follow Your Passion" It's a good read and true I think. The point of the article is to find work that is not necessarily your passion, but something that you can become engaged in.

Taken directly from the article by William Macaskill engaging work has the following aspects which seems to make sense to me:

• Independence: How much control do you have over how you go about your work?
• Sense of completion: How much does the job involve completing whole pieces of work so that your contribution to the end product is easily visible?
• Variety: How far does the job require you to perform a range of different activities, using different skills and talents?
• Feedback from the job: How easy is it to know whether you’re performing well or badly?
• Contribution: How much does your work “make a difference,” improving the well-being of other people?

So if you are not enjoying your work, which of these items are you missing? Would love to hear from you.

Having and having a career sponsor

So a little while ago a friend, kinda fabulous friend and all round amazing women, asked me to write about having a career sponsor.

At the time I felt like a bit of an imposter. I didn't really know anything about the topic apart from a general idea of how cool it would be to have a career sponsor. At the time I couldn't say I had ever had one.

Then this thing happened at work. A fairly major structure change and people were ringing me, and asking how it affected me! Well. Truth be told, long story short, it wasn't that great. I always respect the need for businesses to make decisions,  however if they affect me negatively and my career goals, well then, I'm not going to be happy about it.

The skeptical part of me said that those people calling thought I might have the inside scoop on the changes (I didn't) and the part of me that thought these people cared, said the opposite. I would say 90% were the later.

You see my purpose is to make organisations better place for people to be. I do this through working with leaders, to help them be better and more effective. Maybe that sounds naff, but I don't care. That's me. And I want to work in organisations where I get to do that, at least for some of the time.

The change in structure, in part, would hinder my ability to do this. So what do I do? What would you  do?

I always believe that we all have choices. Some are better than others of course. Should I take a few days off and build my network and meet all the Senior HR recruiters in Singapore? Or should I stay put and ride it out?

My decision rested on a number of people who advocated for me and supported me. People who I thought might think I was ok, or did an ok job, but who actually spoke up and were positive supporters. I guess I had hoped they would, but learning that they took some sort of action....well, I was/am humbled. Some were my peers and some were more senior. Wow!

That doesn't mean that anything has changed except for knowing I have some powerful supporters, and that is pretty cool.

Tell me about your career sponsors.....

Disneyland and Motivation

Writing from New York City. Just like a real writer!

There I was, a few weeks ago, sitting with one of the leaders I support and we were seriously in a state. Both of us. He had been, and was, having a tough time. Business conditions have been hard with no indications that things were going to improve in the short term. Some things that were being tried to rectify business performance were not seeming to have any effect. Making progress against our goals is one of the most powerful motivators. The opposite being when you get home from work and feel like you have achieved nothing. We all know how that feels and it ain't good.

I was in a state because I have been feeling exhausted and in need of a holiday, and also feeling like the things I have been working on don’t make a difference. I think we all want to make a difference and do something worthwhile that has meaning, whether in our work life or doing something else. Even Prince William wants to do something that is worthwhile.

So there we were, two pretty senior people feeling down and dejected. Some would say we needed to harden the fuck up. We decided to go have lunch and look at the water. Same same.

I had been feeling particularly bad about the situation because when I say I want to make a difference, it’s working with and supporting senior leaders where I feel I can make the most difference, and on this day I just wasn’t in the right head space to do this and it really make me reflect.  Here was an opportunity to do what I love best, and I had nothing. I even admitted this to the leader.

I knew I needed a holiday and at the end of that week I would get one, but still....ultimately this is what I get paid for and I was out. I had nothing.  My emotional bank was empty. It bothered me for a couple of days but eventually I got into a space where I had some nuggets to share with this leader. Here are three things I shared.

My first one was about Disneyland....the story started with, “when I was in the Broncos cheersquard  I got to go to Disneyland and do a backstage dance workshop......” I’m sure it was at this point he thought I was nuts, though earlier in the week he got to see my eccentric old lady sunglasses so perhaps he had a hint anyway......

So I did get to do a backstage dance workshop with the Broncos cheersquard when I was 21 at Disneyland in California. I can’t tell you how cool that was. The think that stuck in my mind though, was the choregrapher was telling us about going for auditions and being upset when she didn’t get the job. Her advice was to have a good cry about it, and then pull yourself together and get on with things. That advice really stuck with me. It’s ok and acutally great if you have passion and emotion with what we do. We are humans and are emotional beings before being rational beings. It’s ok to be upset, frustrated, down and low energy when everything you are trying is just not working. Go wallow, go cry but put a limit on it because it’s carthartic for a bit, but if it goes on too long you are heading into the realm of professional help. Which is also fine, as long as you get some professional help.

Secondly, I shared that because I was feeling like I wasn’t achieving anything I went back to the work goals I had set at the start of the year. I was feeling so wrapped up in small admin type work that I needed to make sure I was still on track with the big ticket items. I surprised myself that I was! I added some notes to my goals in our online system, which made me feel great, (progress against goals is motivating) and then went and created a mind map of what needed to be achieved during the coming months.

The third thing that helped was doing a day of interviews for a Finance person. Yep I know. How exciting could that be? But it turned out to be a great day where we met some really great people. One of the candidates, who we really liked, couldn’t articulate his achievements in his previous roles. We tried a number of ways of asking about these but got nothing. After the interview the Finance Director (who I was interviewing with) turned to me and said “you know, you and I could write a long list of what we have achieved just in the last 6 months!” And it was true. That made me feel great when I started to think about that.

Back in Singapore our Regional leader had done somthing similar. He had written a list of all the things that had been achieved so far in the year across the regions we support. This was the longest list. The next list were the things we were still working on. It was a middle size list, and then the last list were the things we hadn’t got to yet. It was a pretty short list.

Sometimes you just have to take stock and reflect on how far you have come. I’m not big on looking back but sometimes you just have to, to see how far you have come. To see the progress you have made. Check out this guy Dr Jason Fox my fav person on motivation and making clever happen.

What are your tips when feeling unmotivated? What do you do?

Influencing and Managing. Which are you better at?

I often find that people I work with fall into two categories, those that are good at managing and those that are good at influencing. Actually there is a third category who are not good at either and sometimes this group shouldn't be around people at all.

So what's the difference between managing people and influencing people? It's really how they develop their power base in organisations. The former tend to be good at managing people who have a direct reporting relationship to them. They are good at having control of a team and function and are good at getting things done through others. They develop and use positional power. These people tend to be able to the overall scene for their team, set individual goals for their direct reports, provide progress feedback and can generally keep the team working together.

Influencers are people who can get things done through people who don't have a direct reporting relationship to them. The are usually good at developing relationships throughout the organisation from more junior roles through to more senior roles and leveraging these relationships to get things done. The relationships they develop are "trusted" and as they get better at building trust so does their influencing ability to get things done effectively. Often they prefer not to manage people but work as an individual contributor.

These two types of people, develop and manage their power differently in organisations and while you don't have to be one or the other, I find that most people have a preference. The thing is though as you become more senior in organisations you have to demonstrate you can do both. Managing people is a core skill to progress. Many successful senior leaders have started managing a small team, and then a bigger team and then managing managers who manage a team. In senior functional and corporate roles, and as a member of an Executive team your ability to develop relationships to navigate the political landscape and negotiate what you need to get done will be imperative to your success.

I'm more of an influencer which fits with the roles I have held in the past and now. I can definitely manage a team but I am most comfortable building relationships and using these to help me achieve what I need to get done. My development would be if I get to manage a large team in the future would be how I manage my time getting things done through others.

So what's your preference and where would you focus your development?

Cycling and Your Career: Is there really anything in common?

So on a recent Saturday morning I found myself in the very glam W Hotel at Sentosa Island, Singapore. I was wet, correction, I had been wet since 5.15am, when my husband (perhaps soon to be ex-husband) dug me out of bed to ride my bike in the dark, and in the rain. At 9am I had moved to "soggy" draped in a towel. I’m was wearing lycra with a nappy-like-seat that cyclists call “knicks” and due to being soggy the airconditioning felt arctic. I’m sitting with a group of other cyclists, mainly soggy men, listening to a 23 year work champion cyclist give us career advice. And she is good. She is articulate. And I’m glad I’m here despite being cold and soggy.

It’s hardly in these situations that I expect to learn and to be inspired but that’s what ended up happening. I was at the International Cycling Executives (ICE) breakfast and the guest speaker was Annette Edmondson. From Adelaide (Australia), Nettie has now racked up a large number of titles including Commonwealth and Olympic medals and individual and team world championship medals and I'm pretty sure most people, including Australian's, have never heard of her.

Did I mention she is 23? She is the one on the right below (in case you weren’t sure, I mean I’m looking pretty young and sporty here, hey?)

Any-hoo, I felt inspired to share three things I took away from listening to Nettie speak in my soggy pants.

1. If something is not working, make a change

Five years ago when Nettie was eighteen, she found she wasn’t enjoying her training, her sport or her life. After agonising for a while and progressively becoming worse in a sport she used to love,  she gave up cycling, indefinately. The 3 month stint working in a cafe made her realise she loved the sport but needed to change something. She realised she liked variety and she liked training with others.

She did some soul searching and belly button contemplating and with some help from others, changed it up! She has added more variety to her training and the events she competes in. Since that time her career has gone from strength to strength.

Keeping doing the same thing and expecting a different result is stupidity. Or more eloquently, if something isn't working for you then work our why that is, and then refocus to play to your strengths. It was important for Nettie to have variety in her training and in her competitions, so she refocused on the Omnium event which caters to that.

Of course this applies to elite athletes, couch potatoes and improving your career generally.

2. Men still earn more than women

Elite sport is no exception and perhaps it is even further behind the Corporate world.

As it currently stands the gender pay gap in Australia is 18.2% (and this is not that different in other developed countries). Overall that means women earn significantly less than men over their lifetime and that is a massive difference.

Nettie relayed a story about her brother Alex, two years her junior, who is also a cyclist and a member of the Australian track cycling team and Orica-GreenEdge. Nettie was signed to Orica-AIS. Nettie’s brother’s contract was ten times the value of hers.

I think most of the room felt collectively sick about this. How could this amazingly talented, articulate, determined woman (who was performing extremely well) be worth a tenth of the amount compared to the same job being done by a man?

There is obviously much work to be done to bridge the gender pay gap across the board.

3. Support Networks are Important

Nettie was able to thank and be grateful for all the people in her life from her parents who provide both moral and financial support, through to the the professionals (coaches, dieticians, psychologists, exercise physiologists and so on) and her team mates.

This is not that different to those of us who have developed careers in our chosen field. We have mentors and coaches, colleagues who support us and Managers and Leaders who help us set goals and give us feedback on our progress. We also have people in our career who show us how NOT to do things. Often these people are as important as those who show us the positive things!

So despite being in an arctic room with soggy pants, I took a lot away from learning about an elite athlete's career, that is not that different from what all of us experience in ours.

Lisa xx

Authentic leadership

I'm working with some leaders at the moment who are great. They are not necessarily great leaders all the time, everyday and that's ok. They aren't perfect and no one is. We are all learning and all developing. But what I love about them is that they are authentic. All the time. That doesn't mean they give away all of themselves, but there is no pretence and no pretending. And even though they don't reveal all of themselves completely they are not guarded either.

Ever had a conversation with someone who is guarded? Ugh. Over the past months I have had a couple of those conversations and gee, so not satisfying and I can't help feeling that these people are not going to move forward. These conversations make me feel like I'm not trusted, even though I know the issue may not be about me. Maybe guarded is the opposite of authentic?

The notion of being authentic and authentic leadership is something that has gained more attention and research recently, including from the Harvard Business Review, where you can read about discovering your authentic leadership.

So in my experience Authentic leaders exhibit the following:

1. They are true to who they are
In any situation whether under stress or not you see a person who is essentially behaving consistently and honestly. This doesn't mean that they don't get angry or upset, but they are willing to show this so people working with them know they are human.

2. They are open
By sharing parts of their whole life they allow others to connect with them. They share their struggles and difficulties. Not all problems and not with everyone, but they are able to work out what is right to share with the right people.

Last year one of the leaders I work with shared with the Operations team why Safety was so important to him. He took it beyond wanting to have a safe workplace so our employees are safe. He made it really personal and this made a huge impact.

3. They are consistent
These are not the people in the workplace that you tiptoe around because you don't know what mood they are going to be in, or how they are going to react to a situation. Because these people are open and authentic you can count on them to be consistent in their behaviour.

4. They are reflective: about their own behaviour and how they come across to others, as well as reflective of situations in business. They admit when a decision they made wasn't the best and they celebrate when things work out well.

5.They are perceptive: about how people in the workplace will feel about a situation and use to this to inform decisions and communication efforts. They are usually emotionally intelligent, being perceptive about people feel about things.

6. They have courage
They are prepared to make the tough decisions and have tough conversations. They are willing to help people do better but when they don't they make a tough decision and follow through. When they make a bad decision they admit it and make changes to fix it.

Having courage means they also give great feedback. They are able to get to the point of someone's development need, and frame it in a way that the person gets the message clearly. They don't sugar coat the message but they are clever in giving feedback that also doesn't offend and helps the person improve. There have been times when leaders have told me the feedback they have given to another person and I feel so proud of their skill and bravery.

7. They are liked. So this one is tricky because I don't think you need to be liked to do a good job (generally) and it's also not a priority in being a good leader, but I have noticed that authentic leaders are liked because they are honest about who they are. And this makes them much more effective and means people will forgive them for many things, because they are recognised as human and as a person.

So there are my top 7 attributes of effective and authentic leaders. What would you add?

Lisa

What do you do at work Mummy?

Sooo.....do you ever have a problem describing what you do at work? I do. Not because I don't know what I'm doing, because I do, but sometimes trying to describe it, is tricky. It doesn't sound very, well....real or important. Sometimes it might sound a little wanky.

If I'm telling someone who works in a big company they usually get it (and then start telling me why they hate their Human Resource department. Love that) but if not, describing my work is quite tricky.

It usually goes like this...well "I help organisations manage their people". Umm..or "I help recruit people and help managers manage them and help terminate their employment if needed". Well that's inspiring. If I take it up a notch and say "I provide and execute on the people strategy for organisations" Well what the hell does that mean? when it comes down to it I really just want to help the places where people work, to be better. I do this by helping leaders to be the best that they can be. Well that doesn't tell you anything but it's meaningful to me and links with my purpose.

Obviously I need to improve my elevator pitch but I think the biggest test is when Aiden asks me what I do at work. How do I describe that to a 6 year old?

There used to be a time when jobs were more simple and people knew what you did. For example:

• Teacher
• Farmer
• Train driver (Aiden wants to be a train driver. Charlie "me-too" Pearson probably does too but I think he is more suited to being a dramatic actor)
• Mechanic
• Doctor

Today's jobs include:

• Operational Risk Officer
• Chief Information Officer
• Head of Public Relations
• Chief People and Culture Officer
• Social Media Consultant
• Accounts Executive

Has the world gone mad or is this just a sign of the complexity of today's organisations?

Would love to hear how you describe your job to your friends, family and kids. Leave me a message.

Lisa xx

Doing less with less - My top 5 tips

Ever since 2009, business has been tough. The global financial crisis has somewhat changed business  and in some places the economy has never really recovered. Greece and their ongoing debt issues comes to mind and my home country Australia, while never officially heading into recession, has   ver really hit its straps since. Like the US, and many other countries interest rates have remained low and Australia’s unemployment has continued to rise.

The organisations I have worked for since then have continued to lay off people in light of uncertain  market conditions. Uncertainty and less people in organisations has driven the catch phrase “we have to do more with less”. How often have you heard this? In many organisations there is no redundancy left. No extra people to help out when things get busy. No one to look after your day-to-day work while you work on a project or are travelling. No one to handle your job if you are sick or on holidays. Familiar?

I often feel like I need to achieve more with less but of course there is a limit. There are only so many hours in the day and though I’m happy to work a couple of nights a week with teleconferences or catching up with email, I know that if I do this consistently and neglect things like exercise and doing something creative I won’t be good at my job at all. I get tired and cranky and start resenting my job. Travel on top of my day to day work, which I do a lot, just means the chances of getting sick increases.

Last year while attending a HR conference, one of the speakers spoke about doing less with less. That really stuck in my head. They weren’t talking about being less effective or slacking off, they were talking about getting really focused. They talked about getting clear on the true priorities and not expecting you can do everything. True priorities are the 2-3 things that if you didn’t do them the business would fail, or you wouldn’t be successful.

I try to keep this in mind.

So here are some things I do to try and do less with less:

1. I don’t keep on top of my inbox: (gasp) Now I know some of you are horrified by this.  I currently have over 33,000 emails in my inbox. Is your stress level rising just reading this? I use my emails extensively to keep track of information and priorities (the search function is my friend) but I don’t religiously manage them by putting them in folders and ensuring every email is replied to. A few jobs ago this was possible but the complexity and scope of my role now means is I did this I wouldn’t be working on those 2-3 important things. All I would be doing is working on email!

So what do I do? I deal with the critical stuff and try to have more conversations and less emails. If I miss something I apologise to that person and if some things slip through the cracks and no one follows up, well maybe it wasn’t that important?

2. I write a monthly report: Yes I am so innovative! So this is not exciting but it’s pretty simple. The report has two main sections. One: what I achieved this month  (which makes me feel good if I have made progress against my goals). Two: what I plan to do next month (which keeps me focused on what I need to work on).

When I’m writing the report, which goes to my Managers (so there is accountability), I have to review the previous month’s report to see what I committed to. Often there are items which I missed or for whatever reason were not a priority but I try to ensure they get done the following month. The report works well as I also have to go back to the goals I set at the start of the year to see what I might have missed.

3. I work in blocks: By block I mean a block of time. Some days are manic where it seems like I work on a hundred different things (and achieve nothing) but on other days when there are no meetings or urgent priorities I try to work on big pieces of work in “blocks” of time so I can focus. If it’s detailed spreadsheet type work sometimes I do it first thing in the morning and don’t open my email so I can’t be distracted. This is the classic important versus urgent management. Emails are the classic urgent. People wanting information and time that may take a short or long amount of time to respond to. The important stuff is the things that show you can deliver something, implement a project or finish something. There are days when I have reached lunch and all I have done is respond to emails which is often not very effective.

4. I exercise: Man I bang on about this don’t I? I wrote about it here, and here and probably a few others posts. You would think I looked like an elite athlete or a model the way I go on about it! But it’s a struggle and I don’t manage it every day and as soon as I get out of an exercise routine (as often happens when I travel) it all goes to shit pot. My sneakers are my best travelled pair of shoes but sometimes they don’t make it out of my suitcase.

The thing with exercise is that I am more focused and can do a bit more with the “less”. The body feels better and the mind clearer.

5. I don’t try not to read emails in bed: Ahhh…I remember when I got my very first Blackberry about 14 years ago. So exciting, so cutting edge. At the time the iPhone didn’t exist and this was the only way to get your work emails and diary one device that wasn’t a laptop. Great for travelling. Not great for any kind of separation from your work. We now have smart phones where every aspect of your life and communication is held in one device just sitting on your bedside table taunting you when you wake in the morning.

Over the past few months I have had to develop some discipline around reading my work emails, particularly in the morning before I have stepped out of bed. Working for a global company means a number of emails come in overnight. The problem is that some emails are either complex and/or frustrating and I find I’m not yet in the right frame of mind to deal with them. If I wait until I’m out of bed, dressed, hair and make-up done, and food in my belly, everything is easier to deal with. If I don’t wait some emails put me in a bad mood before I have even said good morning to my family, and it’s hard to recover from that.

Ditto for emails later in the evening. I have gotten into a routine of going a few nights a week to yoga.  I find yoga a blend of being difficult and relaxing and in any case you can’t think about work when you are bent over with your head between your legs trying not to topple into the person on the mat beside you. I get home from yoga about 10pm and shower and hop straight into bed. No emails. I’m not a brain surgeon. Lives don't rely on me reading my email. Whatever is in there can wait.

So there you have it. The things I try to help me doing less with less. How do you do less with less?

The Great Wall and Your Career

Those of you who are friends on Facebook will know that last week I came back from completing the 10km event of the Conquer the Great Wall of China Marathon. It all came about over dinner much earlier in the year, I think February, with two other couples. One of the women runs and was planning to do this event. My ears pricked up and I wanted to know more. What was the event? Who was doing it? Could I come too? (Apparently I have no shame in muscling my way into other peoples events.)


The next day while nursing a hangover from too many cocktails and red wine I checked out the website and starting hassling the other woman at dinner about also doing it. Both women are in a walking group with Mums from their kids school and I wanted in.  I wore her down and we entered, booked flights and a hotel.


Why did I want to do such an event? I have always wanted to go to Beijing and see The Great Wall of China. I also wanted to get fit and wanted to have a goal. This seemed like a great one.

Over the ensuing months there was training. I enrolled myself in the Michelle Bridges Learn to Run program (I can now run 5km without stopping when I never thought I would be able to do that), started watching what I ate and starting using the Yoga gym membership I have had since, oh about October last year. I also did a few Saturday mornings at MacRitchie Reservoir Park doing 10-11kms with a few others (and most of Singapore) and then a couple of Saturdays doing stairs. Lots of stairs. Note to self: Should have done more stairs.


In addition to the actual event on the wall, now that I had muscled my way into this group "walk babe walk" there was going to be lots of other nice things to do in Beijing over the weekend of the event. Nice dinners and touristy stuff.



The 10km was structured so that you went 5km in one direction and then turned around and came back. Most of the first 5km was fantastic, well the views and the excitement of being on the wall were. Our heads were up, we were happy and ready for the challenge.



Optimistic at the start

There were 21 Towers we had to climb up to and at each one during the first 5km we were pretty excited and taking lots of photos.

At about the 4km point we headed off the wall to descend down to the turnaround point. It was at this point after going down, oh about 10,000 steps I was wondering how I was going to get back up to get back on the wall. There was literally 1km of steps that just. went. down.


The things that got me through the first 5km were:

1. I had trained enough and I could definitely walk 10km
2. I had also done a number of stair sessions and felt like I was fit enough
3. The realisation that even though I don't have a svelte fit looking body it's pretty amazing anyway. All I have to do is put my foot in front of the other and keep going.
4. It would be my mind that does me in, not my body so I focused on keeping any negative chatter out.

The second 5km was something completely different. It started with 1 km of stairs straight up. I had to stop every 50m or so to well, breathe. I was walking with a friend and we kept repeating to each other that as long as we could get back up on the wall, we could do it.

Once back on the wall it was a hard slog. We had been walking for over 2 hours and our bodies were tired, particularly our quad muscles from climbing very deep stairs. There is basically no flat on the wall, well the sections we were on anyway. You are either walking up a slope, walking or climbing stairs or walking down a slope or stairs. Also sections of the wall had fallen away and while I don't consider myself scared of heights there were times where I felt very insecure.

The trip back we had a heads down watching every step closely so as not to trip and fall. We concentrated on breathing and putting one foot in front of the other. We didn't take any photos on the way back and the only time we looked up was to try and work out if the next tower we had to scale up into, would be the last.

What has this got to do with your career? Well I got thinking while I was slogging it way on that wall. There are times when your career is exciting, like when you start a new job or earn a promotion or achieve more responsibility. At these times you are happy and have your head up enjoying the view. At these times it seems easier to do your job and get things done. Your confidence is high. That was my first 5km on the wall.


And then there are times when its just hard and the only thing to do is put one foot in front of the other and keep moving. I bet you can think of times in your career that you had to do that too.

What else? Sometimes we need encouragement and help. My walking mate Belinda towards the end was very keen to get finished and pushed me along when I was feeling discouraged. At other times we helped each other. There was also recognition from all the participants of the event that we were in it together. Everyone was encouraging and supportive, well except for the one marathon running who tried to climb over me down some steep stairs but I guess you get people trying to do that in your career too!


The feeling at the end of the 10km was amazing. I had never done anything like this event before, and to be honest I won't be rushing back to do it, even though it was a fantastic experience. This relates to my career too. There are jobs I have worked in and companies I have worked for which were not great and generally bad for my health. I will never repeat these experiences in my career and am wise when I chose my roles now, but when I look back at the experience and what I learnt, I'm grateful for doing them.


Does my experience on the wall relate to your career? Do tell

Things I have learnt by moving to Singapore

You know, moving countries is a good thing. It's good to be out of your comfort zone. It challenges your view of the world and your preconceptions and prejudices. It forces you to evaluate who you are and who you want to be. Arran, Aiden, Charlie and I have been in Singapore for about eight months now and while we have settled in, we also still feel new here.  It seemed like a good time to take stock and evaluate.

1. I'm not as tolerant as I thought I was.....
So it's one thing to spend a couple of weeks in a country on a holiday or business trip. It's another to immerse yourself for a longer period and try to create a life like what you knew at home (or not).  I think it's easy to be patient and easy to get along with, when you are in another place for a set time. I noticed that the first month here was great and then after that my patience stated to wear thin. Mainly with things that are easy when you are at home. Things that you take for granted, like knowing where the fuel station is and where the atm's are and being able to order a good takeaway coffee on the way to work. I was frustrated with lots of little things for, oh...about 5 months. I have definitely been snappy with staff at starbucks who bore the brunt of a whole lot of little annoyances. Ditto for Arran.

I still don't get a good coffee on the way to work. I have given up.

2. You can forget stuff and revert to old ways.....
One of the things I have learnt over my career is that relationships are at the core of being successful. To  build relationships one Senior Leader I work with has a hierarchy of communication. If you can talk face to face, do that. If not, phone is next best. Last resort is email. So I know this and generally try to follow this but after landing in Singapore I too often reverted to just sending emails. Not great when I'm trying to build relationships with our Senior Leaders. This problem was pointed out to me and I was grateful.

3. Things that are easy in one country become hard in another.....
When I moved to Sydney, driving and parking was a nightmare. I never knew the best lane to be in and parking was either stupid expensive or non existent. Driving in Singapore is relatively straightforward and parking is usually plentiful and easy. I have lots and lots of examples like this. Some things are harder in Singapore and some things are harder in Australia. I guess stuff works itself out.

4. Networks take a long time to build.....
When I moved to Sydney from Brisbane in 2001 I learnt this lesson. I wrote about networking here. It's still hard. Ugh! But on the positive side I have met some great people who become fast friends and work contacts.

5. It's hard to make friends as an adult.....
Making new friends in a new place seems a bit like dating. You meet someone at a networking event or a dinner or something and you want to invite the person to coffee or a cocktail. But what if they don't like you? What if they turn you down? The REJECTION!! What if they do accept, multiple times (like they actually like you) but never reciprocate? It's a bit like being 16 again except you are fatter with more wrinkles but better confidence.

6. Common sense is contextual.....
So things that make sense and seem sensible in your home are done differently in another country. So we all know this. We do. Until something happens that makes. no. sense. For example Singapore has sophisticated payment systems and finance technologies. And cheques are still common. What? Yes we have a cheque book. I have never had a cheque book. This is just a Singapore example but differences exist from country to country.  Who's to say what's right in one country is wrong in another? It's all right, I guess.

7. You get to learn new words.....
My favourite words in Singapore are "can" and "welcome". Can is the word for yes and it's said with quite a definite emphasis. I love it! When you get a can it's all good. "Welcome" is like "you're welcome" but with a lovely inflection. High and then low. Sassy and sweet. Least favourite word is "cannot". This is a very definite no. It's a no with absolutely no negotiation room. I don't know why I still argue with a cannot but I do with no good result.

So lots of good stuff to learn. What have you learnt over the past 8 months?

Lisa xx