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