The Value of Having a Dream Job

I’ve had many dream jobs throughout my life. Some dream jobs that have been on my list were an Executive Director for a non-profit or to run an agency. While I haven’t officially had either of those titles, these positions have been incredibly valuable to my career growth and development.

Here are three strategies where a Dream Job can be valuable:

1 – Skill Development.  I firmly believe that own your own skill development is essential to your career growth.  Find some job descriptions for your dream job.  Look at the job requirements and create a plan for how you will acquire those requirements.  Look through the roles and responsibilities and identify which skills are needed; add to your plan how you will develop those skills.

2 – Build Connections.  LinkedIn shares that 71% of job seekers will earn their next job through a connection.  What communities do you need to be involved with to be successful in your dream job?  Who do you need to network to be a part of your dream industry?

3 – Ask Advice.  Find some people that have your dream job and ask their advice?  Aside from the skills you found through job descriptions, ask them what skills are essential for success in your dream job.  What were those pivotal moments in their career that lead them to their role?  What advice do they have for you?

Even if your dream job changes, the skills (technical, soft, leadership) that you developed will be valuable for the rest of your career.  The connections you created can become key members of your tribe or inspire you to a new dream job.  The process of ask advice will help you with emotional intelligence, interviewing skills, and increase your confidence the next time you ask advice.

Dream big and work intentionally towards having the career you want!

Were you “At Your Best” today?

We all want the chance to be at our best at work and we know when we are at our best.

  • Can you easily identify who you are at your best?
  • Do you take the time to celebrate when you really crush it?
  • Can you identify professional parameters/environments that allow you to be at your best?
  • What are those 3-5 words that describe you at your best?

Now, who’s keeping you in check to be at your best?  Do you have an accountability partner?  Or maybe a block on your calendar for some self-reflection.  Bring out those 3-5 words and see if you’ve been living it out each day, each week, each month.

Being in tune with when you’re at your best will help you feel accomplished and happy at work.  It will also give you clarity as to how you want to grow in your career.

Diversity & Inclusion: International Women’s Day

This Thursday, March 8, is International Women’s Day.  It’s a great day to celebrate women, understand their unique challenges, and build some new connections.  If you would like to do something in your office for International Women’s Day.  Here are a few ideas.

Goal: Celebrate women

Idea: Share stories of amazing women.  If you have a monitor in your office, create a PPT slideshow to keep looping all day.  If you use Salesforce Chatter, post about 1 woman/hour.  Or print some pages out to put up around the office.

Goal: Build awareness of women inequality

Idea: Share facts about women and inequality or tips on how to get involved or do something about it.

Goal: Create a community of strong women

Idea: create an employee resource group or an informal group that meets once/month.  There are some amazing communities I am a part of where I get to connect, learn, and mentor like Ladies Get Paid and Everwise Women.

Take a moment on Thursday to celebrate the women in your tribe!

3 Ways to Nail Your Performance Review

Performance Reviews are an amazing time to focus on your professional development. Here are three strategies to make the most of them.

1 – Listen. Naturally, there will be positive and negative feedback shared during your performance review. And you may want to figure out who said that about you or what situation someone was referring to which lead to that feedback. It’s important to stay in the moment and listen. Take it in, process and revisit later if needed. If you feel that in your review there’s a situation that wasn’t accurately represented, there are two ways you can respond: (1) ask your manager for advice for how you could have better shown up in that situation and (2) share your intentions and present solutions for how you could have handled it better. Remember your review is about YOU, not what others have done to you. Keep it focused on how you handled yourself, how you could have been better. Feedback is a gift, use it to understand what your work perception. And improve it!

2 – Develop. Many companies have great development opportunities that employees may not take full advantage. Your performance review is a great time to learn what they are and how you can take advantage of them. Focus on your development and how your manager and company can contribute to your professional development.

3 – Negotiate. Congratulations if you are getting a promotion and/or raise. Be grateful that your company appreciates you. But don’t be afraid to negotiate. Ask for more money (and demonstrate the value and contributions you have made to your company). If you can’t negotiate what you want during your performance review, share that, “this raise/promotion is not in line with the value you bring.” Your manager may have authority to give you a raise of $X and will need to get approval for anything above that. Schedule a follow-up meeting to allow for your manager to have the needed conversations and offer to provide your manager with anything that can aid her/him in their negotiation with leadership. If they can’t hit your number, understand what is needed to get that promotion, co-create a development plan with your manager/HR and schedule a mid-year review in 6 months to formalize progress and re-commit to what is needed.

Ultimately, you want to be at a company that is helping you develop into the best you can be. If your company is not invested in your development, own it yourself, and look for people, and possibly a new company, which will support your development.

What Skill will you Develop this Year?

Your career development is solely your responsibility.  You get to develop the skills you want.  You get to apply for the roles that you can use those skills and develop more.  You get to seek out mentors and accountability partners who can help you achieve your goals.

Now, sometimes it may feel like our development is someone else’s responsibility.  There are influencers and decision-makers that are needed to get you that next role, title, promotion, or pay increase.  There are mentors and managers that will give you insight into areas of improvement or give you opportunities to stretch yourself.  But sometimes, we give all these other people too much power in our career development.  You do not need permission or an invitation to grow.  Remember they are team members in your development, you are the team lead on this! Build relationships in your career, learn from others, and get advice.  Work with your manager and HR team to see what’s available.  Some companies do tuition reimbursement, will send you to conferences and events, or have subscriptions to Harvard Business Review or Lynda.com.

What is the most important skill for you to develop this year? Here are some thought starters.

Leadership Skills: Who is a leader that you admire?  What leadership skills do they have that you want to emulate?  Think big and create an action plan to develop these skills!  Keep yourself in check.  At the end of each week, set aside 15 minutes for a reflection.  Celebrate the successes from the week and replay when you fell short.

Team/Relationship Skills: Most of us work in teams at work.  Even if you don’t work directly in teams, other people contribute to your success.  How can you improve your teamwork?  How are you currently perceived in team settings, and more importantly, how do you want to be perceived?

Technical Skills:  Is there a software you want to master?  Does your boss have a task that you don’t understand but want to learn?  As a business owner, do you wish you were better at P&Ls, insurance, or marketing?  What are some technical skills future-you needs?

If you are ready to commit to your career development, it may be time to hire a career coach!  Reach out to me for a free 15-minute introductory call to learn more about coaching.

Diversity & Inclusion: Listen & Learn During Black History Month

There are three sides to every story: yours, theirs, and the truth. Think about when two kids get in trouble and their parent asks each of them what happened. It’s usually two different stories and neither is the complete truth.

I’ve been in conversations with people recently: “why do we need Black History Month? It’s one History!” But it’s not one History; it’s generally one side of the history. When the textbooks are all written by one side (those in power), the movies from that era are directed and produced by one side (those in power), and the laws are created by one side (those in power).

Now, we are fortunate to celebrate Black History Month. There are books, articles, and movies that offer multiple perspectives and allow people to share their experience. It’s an opportunity for us to be empathetic to someone else’s experience and perspective.

While we may feel like that’s so far in the past, our parents and grandparents lived through it. And our peer’s parents and grandparents lived through it too, and maybe had a much different experience. Even today, you may be surprised to learn about experiences your peers have that don’t even cross your mind.

One thing I spent some extra time learning about recently was Voters’ rights.

For example, the 15th Amendment passed in 1870 which prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen’s “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

However, that amendment was poorly enforced and there were consequences for those that did vote (you can hear stories about loss of bank loans, loss of jobs and destruction of property). Then Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to enforce the 15th Amendment. In 1965, when the Act passed, there were no African-American U.S. Senators and only six African-American U.S. Congressmen.

This month, listen and learn something about the Black Experience. Read articles, watch movies, or even better, have a conversation! Listen and learn from someone you know. When you approach a conversation willing to listen and learn, share your intentions and ask if they are willing to share. It may be a very powerful conversation.

Diversity & Inclusion: It’s Different This Time

Diversity & Inclusion is on the minds of top CEOs and companies across the country.  And there have been several movements in our country’s history when this has come up, like The Civil Rights Movement and The Women’s Movement.  Maybe even in your career experience, you’ve seen companies focus on the percentages of minority employees or attended tolerance workshops and trainings.

In 2017, I had a different experience with Diversity & Inclusion.  Something that has seemed so overwhelming, taboo, and out of my hands became real, comfortable, and important.  I read more, I had more dialogues, and I participated.  I knew my intentions were in the right place to understand and that I could better express my intentions in one-on-one conversations and in groups.  People opened up and shared with me more than ever on this topic.  It was enlightening, it was meaningful, and it was real.  We can all be better.  We can treat everyone with respect and understanding.

In 2018, I’m going to blog more about Diversity & Inclusion.  But I’m going to start here.  In 2016, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson gave a speech to the AT&T Employee Resource Groups.  In it, he shared:

“When a parent says ‘I love my son,’ you don’t say ‘but what about your daughter?’
When we run or walk for breast cancer funding and research, we don’t say, ‘What about prostate cancer?’
When the president says ‘God bless America,’ we don’t say, ‘Shouldn’t God bless all countries?’
And when a person struggling with what’s been broadcast on our airwaves says, ‘Black Lives Matters,’ we should not say, “All Lives Matter,’ to justify ignoring the real need for change.”

This topic is incredibly sensitive for all of us.  And I’m not going to share a checklist of things you can do to be an advocate for Diversity & Inclusion.  It’s not a checklist, it’s about you showing up as the best version of you.

For now… Think about what Randall Stephenson said.  Think about how you have responded to people asking for their voice to be heard.  Think about how you can truly listen to what people are saying.  And if you’re up for it, think about what you can do to support them.

Difficult isn’t a barometer you’re on the right path

I used to be motivated by the whole “no pain, no gain” and other strong quotes about how brilliance is on the other side of hard work. I don’t always buy it anymore. It doesn’t have to be difficult. And we shouldn’t use pain or difficulties as a barometer we’re on the right path. I’ve learned something greater – mindset. So let’s look at two ways difficult can be reframed to tell if you’re on the right track.

Do the work. Real work is awesome. When you set a goal, put the effort in, learn amazing skills, ideas, and philosophies along the way and you can find great success. I suppose real or hard work can be difficult but it doesn’t have to be. Don’t discount real work as being difficult or painful. Celebrate real work for what it is – helping you achieve your goals.

Other times our professional lives are difficult. Sometimes we’re in the wrong situation. And we are empowered to do something about it – we can make changes or we can leave. If you are waiting for changes to happen outside of your control, you’ll be sitting in a difficult, painful place indefinitely. Here are some questions to help you identify if you can change the situation.

Environment: Are you in an environment where people like you can be successful?
– Are there people around you that you can look to as a role model, mentor, or advocate? Have you put in the real work to find them and develop a relationship with them?
– Are you at an organization that is helping you develop or master the skills you want to use in your career? Can you articulate what those skills are and an action plan to achieve those skills?
– Are you at an organization that celebrates and leverages your uniqueness to contribute to the success of the organization? Have you had the conversations to validate your answer?

People: Are you in a difficult place because of the toxic people around you?
– Have you built the skills (technical, soft, leadership) that you need to earn a promotion but other people are holding you back? Who are the real decision makers and have you had the conversations with them about your inability to grow?
– Are your managers, peers, or executive team demotivating? If there are specific things happening, have you had the right conversations with the right people to initiate change?
– Are you unnecessarily competing with people when it’s not a competition? How can you change it from competition to collaboration?

It’s Just You: And maybe it’s you. Maybe you aren’t being true to the career life you want. Maybe you’re not on your right path, leveraging your best skills, or building your future skills? Maybe there’s something else out there that aligns with your work priorities. What’s holding you back from pursuing your dream career? Maybe it’s just you.

Take some time to think about if difficult parts of your professional life are:
1 – real work and you need to evoke your mindset.
2 – difficult because you’re not on the right path.

Define what your success looks like

What does success look like for you in your career?  When you retire and look back at your entire career, what will make you proud, what will you have done to make you feel successful?

For some it may be earning a certain job title, pay & benefits package, people managed, accolades.  Others it may be achieving work-life balance and having the time for family, friends, hobbies, or passion projects.  Some may be all about the gig economy or finding additional sources of revenue. Others may want to focus on making a difference as a tenured employee at one company.

The beauty is that this is YOUR career. After you retire, the only person who will determine if you were successful is YOU, with the measurements you value about a career.

Define this for yourself, reevaluate every year, and evolve it as you evolve!