I’m Saying Yes

Yesterday I was going to write a post about how the universe was flooding me with signals to make opportunity happen now, instead of merely defining what I want in the hazy future.

But I wrote about doughnuts instead.

And today I got flooded with more signals.  Cumulatively, signals have included:

• Anastasia consistently prodding me to work backwards from 10 Years Out into steps I should be taking now
• Jacque asking her agent to start reading this blog (thank you!)
• A friend reporting that a business bankruptcy, instead of feeling like an emergency, felt like incredible freedom
• My former boss sending me an article from the New York Times, “Dire Times Offer a Chance to Reconsider Choices,” although nothing is officially dire job-security-wise at the F50C
• Noticing a friend in the middle of  1000 Doughnuts and remembering to be on the lookout for my own doughnuts
• My sudden realization that what I was looking for in my job I actually have, and can thus just suddenly being to act as though I already have the title, primary responsibilities, pay grade, compensation and flexibility I want.
• An extraordinary number of people, many whom are strangers, keep telling me they really like my new haircut.  This isn’t directly related to making, noticing & seizing new opportunity, but it is a huge injection of positive confidence.

OK, universe, you win.  I am now officially saying Yes to your offers. Bring on the freelance assignments. Bring on the syndicated column. Bring on the promotion.  Tip the blog. Tip it big. Tip it all.

1000 Doughnuts

I have a friend who is in the middle of experiencing 1000 Doughnuts.

I am completely convinced that once you become aware of 1000 Doughnuts, you are consciously and subconsciously on the lookout for them, and therefore get more doughnuts in general. And 1000 of them hopefully.

Here’s what they are: they are from a Free Will Astrology new year’s horoscope I got in 2005.  I cut the horoscope out of the paper, laminated it with scotch tape, and stuck it to my bulletin board.  I periodically photocopy it for people who I think are experiencing 1000 Doughnuts. Consider this my photocopy for you.

GEMINI: As I meditated about what would be the perfect holiday gift for you I kept coming back to the fantasy of a thousand doughnuts.  Nothing pleased me more than the mental image of your living room floor covered with boxes of Bavarian cream, chocolate frosted, jelly-filled, glazed and apple crumb doughnuts.  Here’s the astrological explanation for my intuition:  I think fate plans to blow your mind with sweet extravagance in 2005.  Receiving a thousand doughnuts would be a metaphorical rehearsal.

Go forth, people, and receive your doughnuts!

Love the One You’re With

Ok, I’m pretty happy about work right now for two reasons.

The first is that our goal-setting process is coming to an end and I’m locked. My colleague spoke up today in front of my boss and said he thought I’d been asked to take on too much given the resources I have, and I appreciate that. But even though I’ve been tasked to boil the ocean, I’m OK with failing on some of my objectives since you learn and grow most from failure.  And because of the way our points system is set up — voluntary assignment of points, and no hard correlation of points-to-objectives — I’m already strategizing to game the system and claim full points no matter how many objectives I actually achieve. Broken system, loose rules, break the rules, set new rules: learn to love the broken system, love the one you’re with.

Second reason I’m happy, and second way to love the one you’re with:  my current job is my dream job. Here’s how this works.  Under the theory that if you don’t define yourself others will define you, I’m going to define my current job in ways that establish me as working on, known for, an expert in, etc., my dream job.

The thing I’ve been craving to do is to have a leadership role in the communications field.  This is problematic for several reasons, the first being that there is zero up, down or lateral movement going on at my company right now — as with many firms these days.  Even more problematic is that leadership roles in the communications department and my current pay grade totally don’t jive.  I’m over-paygraded for a leadership role in that field. (People with director and VP titles in small agencies come to our communications department as individual contributors, manager titles at best, sometimes even specialist titles.) Finally, I have no direct experience in that field and I know I often over-romanticize what’s on the other side of the fence.

But thinking about my goals for 2009, I relized: I’m already doing much of what I think my fantasy job is all about. I am managing director-, possibly up to VP-level leaders. I am doing complex, cross-functional communication and change management with a huge group of stakeholders. I am developing strategy, then seeing it executed. For the applications & projects I own, I am steering them for the future.  I have a nice balance of extremely strategic and precise, tactical actions.

So I am going to talk about my work in ways that establish me as deputy-chief (I think my boss gets to be chief) strategist for EBI from the business side, and EBI communications director.  And I am going to talk about strengths & weaknesses in ways that support this. Establish goals in a way that supports this. Take on new work only if it supports this. Help my boss continue to position me, market me and brand me as chief strategist and communications director.

Two titles I’ve always wanted!

It’s an evolutionary process, but I’m very inspired and now firmly believe that anyone can evolve their current situation into their dream situaion — without a lot of fancy interviewing, jumping-ship, or etc.  My formula (and I didn’t realize this was a formula; hindsight is 20-20) is this:

• Consistently outperform in current role
• Consistently build deep, sustained relationships with boss, peers, clients
• Build trust and get known as a reliable expert and learner
• Fill gaps no one else fills. In my case it’s a sophisticated level of communication, and successfully guiding teams through confusion/ambiguity.
• Talk about the type of experiences I want, not just the job or title I want. In my case, for a couple of years I’ve been a broken record talking about managing people, communications, strategy development, managing complex virtual teams/stakeholders and the ability to execute a few very tangible deliverables.

Since I’m trusted, fill gaps and am known for delivering outcomes, it’s been easier for my leadership to keep attaching me to new work & open opportunities that match the type of experiences I’m looking for.

So since I don’t have the title I want yet, and moving to the communicaions department may not be the best/easiest/smartest/possible move, I will now just:

• Behave as though I already have the title I want
• Behave as though my current job is my dream job, to the point of describing what I do in the terms of my dream job.

I apologize if this all is total Duh to you but I suddenly put it all together today and I’m very inspired to create my own reality right now.

Do any of you create your own career reality like this?

10 Years Out

As a follow-on to the lottery exercise, I’m going to answer Anastasia’s questions from this post here in its own post.

In a nutshell, she asks: what does my ideal career situation look like in 10 years?

Now, I’m not generally one to make a heavily scripted 1o-year or even 5-year plan.  This works well for some, but doesn’t mesh well with my thinking style.  On the other hand, Anastasia is right to ask what my ideal outcome is, since you can’t attract or achieve what you can’t describe.  So I know generally what my ideal situation 10 years out will be, and I can dive deeper into the specifics of that situation as I need to (e.g. when I’m ready to move more quickly towards that destination, or if I need to tweak what that destination looks like).  But at this time I won’t script out the specific steps I’ll take.

10 years out, I :

• Have an equity stake in a small, high-growth private firm,
• Am probably not the original founder of that firm (not really my style) but came on board early on,
• Lead strategy and new business development for that firm (my favorite kind of stuff to do),
• Probably also own the back office functions and staff (also stuff I like to do)
• Carry a highly marketable title, such as VP of Strategy and Operations,
• Am highly compensated in salary and benefits, more so that I would have been at the F50C by this time,
• Work highly flexible, adaptable hours (my kiddo will be 10 by this time and I want high flexibility to be involved in school and lots of time for my family),
• Write: I Enjoy my work enough, and work flexible enough hours that I also easily have room to publish a relatively sophisticated blog and do some highly-selective freelancing & column work,
• Volunteer: I Enjoy my work enough, and have enough room in my schedule to have a leadership role again on a nonprofit board (larger nonprofit with multi-million dollar budget and/or statewide reach — this is a size I like),
• Am well-regarded (at least locally, not sure if I care or not about nationally) in my field and am sought out as an expert and collaborator,
• Run every day and race regularly; have completed a marathon,
• Have plenty of time to read widely (fiction, news & business),
• Have big & small adventures, and cozy home time, with my family,
• Laugh a lot,
• Wear jeans most days to work

Like the lottery exercise, 10-Years-Out is another great exercise to do when times are uncertain or scary. Thanks, Anastasia, for the prompt!

My Performance Review

My mid-year performance review was yesterday. (Mid-year huh??)  It went very well! One of the things I really appreciate about my company’s culture is that reviews are expected to be no-surprises events.  You should be hearing about your strengths & weaknesses all year long in direct and actionable feedback from your boss.  Your boss is supposed to be  your partner in this — I like that expectation.

Here are my results:

+  I keep teams focused on delivering the high-value items, especially when chaos or scope creep starts up.

+  Excellent communication

+ Excellent execution, especially with large, complex projects.

+ Several partners, including three directors, expressed relief that I’m back from leave. One said, “I just feel more comfortable with her around.”

- Don’t over-use my communication strength.  Influence the communication strategy but hold others accountable to deliver, instead of stepping in to do it for them.

- Leverage my communication and relationship-building strengths to influence more without authority, particularly with a project that is at risk for derailing.

No promotion yet, but I’m working on it!

A Little Paranoia

WSJ.com has one of those boilerplate doom-and-gloom economy stories in their career strategies section: Five Signs You May Be on the Layoff List.

In a nutshell,

1. Others are losing their jobs
2. Hiring freeze
3. Training budgets cut, projects slow down
4. Office gossip
5. Company is missing targets

At the F50C, 3 of 5 of these situations are already occurring, and a fourth, #4, is starting in some sectors.

I will be frank here: I stripped back my 401k withholding to just meet the company match, not because I’m concerned about how much I’ve lost in the last two quarters (a lot – but I have a long term view), or about buying equities (in fact now’s a great time to snap up tons of shares on the cheap), but because I want to maximize my cash flow and move those savings rapidly into cash. This is temporary, but:

In case.

In case something goes very wrong.

Because while senior management is not at this time sending any signals into the employee community about layoffs, my industry is extremely sensitive to macroeconomic forces, consumer confidence, and most importantly credit-fueled consumerism. And the latter is not just in practicality impossible for most people at this time, it’s also waaaaay out of vogue.

Also my company, within that industry, is not the low-cost leader nor do we have the low-cost perception among our customers.  We differentiate on style, quality and brand experience.

So I’m moving into cash.

Careful, MFK, that you don’t attract a layoff by dwelling on layoffs. Law of Attraction and all that.

If you were unexpectedly laid off, would you feel a tremendous sense of loss or a tremendous sense of relief? I’m not sure I know my answer to that question!

PS to E: good luck on your interview today!

How to Tell If Your Goals Are Good

Team, of all places, Babycenter has a great article about how to make sure your goals are reasonable and you’re focusing on what’s important.

How to Fail-Proof Your New Year’s Resolutions is (duh) actually about setting good new year resolutions that you can actually achieve. But aren’t new year resolutions just a type of goal?

Some of the rules tie together good goal setting practice with other key traits of successful people. This list is fresh. Here’s the excerpt:

1. Know the purpose of your list. (Uncover your core values by asking yourself  “What kind of person do I want to be?”

2. Focus on what you already like about yourself and your life, and take it from there.

3. Make sure your goals are intrinsically motivated. (Meaning: Don’t use your life to try to impress other people.)

4. Think about what you want to do, not what you want to have.

5. Keep it fun. (If it’s not, you won’t do it.)

6. Keep it positive. (Language counts. More action, less reaction.)

7. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. (Think small, easily digestible bites, instead.)

8.  Read your list to yourself. (How does it make you feel? Intimidated, empowered, challenged?)

9. Include your wildest dreams, and be ready to abandon, or change any items on the list at any time.

My reactions:

#2. You’re always going to be more successful when you focus on maximizing strengths instead of improving weaknesses.  When it comes to weaknesses, figure out how to neutralize or mitigate them and be done with it.  Why sign up for a goal that’s going to be painful or impossible to achieve? If you’re consistently asked to take on goals that involve fixing a weakness or having to primarily use traits that are weaknesses, then you’re probably in the wrong role.  And PS for resolution-setters: I don’t mean we should give up on difficult outcomes like losing weight.  But if portion control is a huge weakness, don’t focus your goal on portion control – focus it on lifting weights or cooking whole foods, or cycling more often.

#3. This is a big problem for me.  I do like me some extrinsic attention from authority figures.  How annoying! This trait does not serve me at all.

#4.  This is right in line with some of the best career advice I’ve ever been given

#6.  Absolutely. If you focus on eliminating something you don’t like, you’ll still get the outcome you don’t like, because even focusing on something’s absence still keeps the “something” front and center in your conscious and subconscious focus.  My boss & I are constantly trying to get our team and partners to define business cases for projects and strategic initiatives in terms of what we will do instead of what we are not. It’s a much better sell.

#7. Oh, I struggle with this every day during our goal setting process!  I think we absolutely have bitten off too much.  We’re not so good at tightly defining success, and I am weary, weary, weary of trying to boil the ocean.

PS – Gotta credit Free Money Finance for the quote-react format, which he uses all the time. Love it.

More Performance, More Review

Here’s the new twist on my performance review:  My boss kindly reminded me today that he now reports directly to the Senior VP.

Since our reviews are always signed by the boss and the boss’ boss, the SVP will be reading & signing mine. Talk about visibility!

And talk about being out of my comfort zone! I don’t have the same kind of relationship with the SVP that I have with my boss. I barely have a relationship with the SVP.  But I’m still leaving in the career-advancement parts. She’ll read them, and I’m not sure why that’s so scary to me.

I feel embarassed and icky but what’s the worst that could happen? They’ll tell me I’ve got no potential and it will never happen.  And what’s the best that will happen? I’ll have a new advocate in the SVP, helping align the stars for my promotion.

Laying Promotion Groundwork with my Performance Review

Why Am I Being Reviewed in November?

Due to my leave of absence, I missed the regular mid-year review cycle.  My top priority this first week back is to get my mid year self-review written and onto my boss’ desk. (Next step is for him to add his comments and formally give me my review.)

Good thing there’s so much loose chatter right now about how good it is to have me back and how partners & clients have missed the value I bring. Puts my boss in the right frame of mind!

Asking for What I Deserve: My Achilles Heel

I’m going to take what feels like a risk this time around and leverage my mid-year review to be frank about my goals for promotion.  I’m pretty self aware and I know that advocating for my own career interests is a weakness of mine — I’m a great coach but don’t easily take my own advice.  Chalk it up to Minnesota Nice or some long forgotten early childhood experience, but asking for raises and promotions is really hard for me to do.

I can usually pretty easily talk about my results, track record and positive feedback. I have no problem asking for big challenges, projects and responsibilities.  But ask to be fairly and competitively compensated for the results I deliver, with salary, title and advancement, and I’m a silent mess.  And my former boss confirmed earlier this year that leadership doesn’t think of me for advancement because they think I don’t think I’m ready.  Because I never say anything to the contrary and I don’t ask for it.

You don’t get anything good at work if you don’t ask for it!

Way out of my comfort zone. So I am stepping into the fear.

It may seem totally duh to those of you for whom this comes easily, but for the rest of us, here’s the plan:

1. Create a personal development goal around advocating for my own career. At my company, everyone has personal development goals as well as regular job-related goals. I already did this earlier in the year.  I have a problem telling my leadership that I want to advance? I made a goal to address this earlier in the year: “Clarify career interests for management.”

2. Remind my boss of this goal. Since I had a reporting relationship change partway through the year, I will send my personal development goals to my boss tomorrow along with my mid-year review.

3. Demonstrate measurable progress against this goal. My self review recaps that I:

• Clarified for leadership my interest in moving to Level 2 management [Just before my leave, I had quick discussions with my boss and my director and explicitly stated that I wanted to get to Level 2.  Despite their perfectly nice reactions, I found the exercise painful and I felt icky for a few days afterward.  You bet I'm taking credit for this as a win on my review, and since this is a weakness for me, it's totally a win.]
• Held 9 networking meetings with leaders in the Communications team and other departments, to explore fit and possible next career moves. Was requested by two departments to check back after my leave ended. [Doesn't hurt to remind my boss others find me valuable!]
• Took 3 talent management / leadership classes. [Reinforcing that I'm always sharpening my leadership skills]

4. Demonstrate great results against my other job goals. The mid-year review form is short and sweet, and I highlight:

• Great results on the major projects my team owns
• Outstanding upward feedback scores on the company survey. 91% favorable; 95% neutral + favorable. [Quantitative measure of my skill managing and coaching others.]

5. Keep my advancement interests top of mind for my boss and other advocates. Career development discussions were already scheduled with my boss and my director, happening to fall within the next two weeks. Today I scheduled time with a key director, who is an advocate of mine, in the Communications department (one of the departments I’m targeting for my next move).  In each of these conversations I’ll reinforce my interest in promoting to Level 2, my track record and skill set that are a great fit for Level 2, and my interest in moving to Communications as part of this advancement. Tomorrow I’ll schedule coffee with a key manager in one of the other departments that interest me.

One final note: Be careful if you try these techniques in your company.

• Are these tactics a good fit for your company culture and “the way things are done”?
• Can you openly talk with your current leadership about a desire to move to a different department? We rotate people a lot in my company, so it’s safe to be out of the closet about wanting to move on — but in some companies that may be seen as a betrayal or as presumptuous so you may have to soften your approach.

Those of you who do this kind of thing easily: What else do you suggest I do??

Relaunch!

Placeholder is now Open-Source Career.  Welcome to beta.