Setting Yourself Up for Success

When we want to set goals for ourselves, we often start by describing something we lack or want in the future. Then we assess where we are right now, measure the difference between the two, and outline the steps to take to achieve that goal.

Every day, I meet with executives around the world who are either focused on getting a job, changing their career path, or looking for their next move up in their current company. Invariably, the discussion focuses on what steps to take to “get there” and often the discussion lacks focus beyond the next six months.

But “getting there” usually implies a perfect, step-by-step plan that doesn’t allow for contingencies, disruptions, emotions, or simple failures. The result is that eventually they missed an outlined step, tried to go back and make it happen, and get frustrated.

In my phone meetings, I can tell when someone is trying to dig out the hole they think they’ve created by looking how far away they are from their goals. Generally expending more and more energy hoping for better results, I can sense that they are close to giving up. Often, they’ve waited too long to reach out for help and have used precious energy, resources and finances and are at the end of their rope.

Thinking about what it takes to get direction and momentum in achieving any goal, I have some insights I want to share with you. I have a different perspective when I think about success and I want you to begin setting yourself up to succeed – not matter what’s happening to you.

Insight #1: Success isn’t about achievement; it is about learning something along the way.

Things are not linear today. Stability is out the window. Using linear thinking supposes that properly lined up steps will result in achievement. But, in reality, experimentation, risk, human relationships, serendipity, chance and being in the right place at the right time has a whole lot to do with seeing results today. We must be more willing to deal with ambiguity with respect to planning out executive careers.

Insight #2: Success is deeper than arrival; it is about character, perseverance, and courage to achieve any goal.

We are in a cycle of major change that will last decades. We’ve got to get a clue that our career success must be measured differently than in the past. Our potential – the future, our ability to be agile, and our identity – must be aligned with these major changes. Executives must do much more than focusing on landing a job in a company. We must make the leap, take the risk, and do something different to transition ¬with what’s happening today.

Insight #3: Success is about “becoming” what we want, not “doing” what we need. We are not human “doings”; we are human “beings.”

As someone said the other day, “It is not where you start that counts; it’s about how well you finish.” Who you are is always going to be more important that what you do.

We must really look at what’s going on around us and determine what our lives are all about. With upwards of 90% of executives looking to leave their company as soon as the economy turns around, collectively we are not defining what is important to our lives and are just “muddling around in the middle” waiting for something new to happen to us.

To move into your future, you must abandon the past and grab what’s ahead.

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The MarketOne Executive™ Bottom Line:

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How do you set yourself up for success in your job search, career plans, or new business endeavor?

Here are some things to think about:

1. Determine daily what is most important for your life. Make this an activity or task that you look at every morning. Ask yourself what provides you with the greatest reward, personally. Direction leads to movement when you enjoy your life.

2. Align all other “must dos” as secondary. Organize your “must dos” from most important to least important as a result of what is most important to you today.

3. Create boundaries that cannot be crossed by you or your loved ones. Design your day using the criteria of what’s most important, what must be done and what boundaries can’t crossed. It is the step-by-step, day-by-day efforts that get you to where you want to go.

4. Know that what you learn is more important than what you do. Tasks completed, or not, are not definitions of success or failure. What you learn through each task you tackle is much more important. What you learn about yourself, why you completed or didn’t complete a task, and what motivates you in either direction tells something about your goals. And what you learn is how you should measure success.

5. Reflect, revise and renew. For every task or activity that didn’t get done, ask yourself:

• Why didn’t it get done?
• Why did I not do it?
• What are my emotions around this task?
• What’s the lesson?

  

The measure of success isn’t whether or not things get done. The measure of success is being aware of who you are and what you’ve learned today – about yourself, your true goals, and how you want to live as a human being.

What do you think?  Love to hear what you have to say.

Why “Passion” May Be a Problem When Looking for New Opportunities

Anna is a client of mine who, after 25 years in her field, is tired of her career. She says it is boring and just doesn’t get her juices going. She wants to strike out onto a new path or she wants to do something important and make a contribution. “Karen, I just want to be passionate about what I do. I am so tired of working so hard and not getting any recognition,” she exclaimed.

Can you relate?

Often we use the word “passion” to describe what we want in our next position. Usually we use it as a code word to say we want to do something interesting in our next role.

And that’s where I begin to have a problem.

Since 2002, I conduct close to 300 free, no obligation, 30-minute Strategy Sessions in a single year. I really enjoy doing them because each situation is unique and different. Together, we brainstorm about how to approach a career or job search with fresh and insightful ideas, always looking to significantly improve results right away.

But when someone, like Anna, says that they now want to pursue their passion in life, I get knots in my stomach.

Why?

Well, to be honest, pursuing your passion is NOT presenting your potential! Here what I’ve found:

1) Passion is not something you pursue; it is something that you have.

Passion is applied to something that you are interested in. It is not a beacon of light in the darkness that will tell you that you’ve arrived at your destiny. When I talk to someone who is trying to find their passion – out there somewhere – I know that it will be a long time before they find what they are looking for.

2) Passion is a result of success; not something you get when everything lines up right.

Passion is basically a follow-up emotion created when you are doing something you are good at. I never thought I would start and run an executive coaching firm. But as I got really successful at it, my passion came and now I love what I do.

3) Passion is the energy to perserve whenever we are challenged; it is not the momentum that propels you to a destination.

One of the reasons why, after landing, 80% or more of executives become discouraged and disheartened within six months is because they are thinking incorrectly about “passion!” Many are looking for the employer to give them “passion” while doing their job. Within weeks of starting a new job, most realize that the new employer only wants a lot of hard work, doesn’t appreciate their experience and gives them very little recognition for what they know.

The MarketOne Executive™ Bottom Line:

 
Passion can be a “dangerous delusion.” It sounds right, but it is oh, so, wrong.

Opportunities are being fought for vigorously by many, many others who want that job as much as you do. Making an emotional decision as to whether a position is right for you by using “passion” as the barometer, is a great way to extend your search, stay confused and/or get more stuck than before!

Rather, I suggest that you look at the pursuit of you next position by identifying your economic “potential.”

Your potential is identified by answering these tough:

• how you are meeting what the market demands today (not yesterday),
• why would someone want you as opposed to someone else,
• when will you provide a return on investment for the company,
• what latent potential do you have that is of value to the employer, and
• how are you presenting yourself – as a luxury, top-end item or a commodity?

If a potential employer sees some of these elements in you, then you have an opportunity to plug into your passion. And once success is yours, it is a-m-a-z-i-n-g how this fuel called “passion” shows up on the scene.

What are your thought?  Love to hear what you think.

The Emergence of the “Execu-preneur” in the Next Decade

What do smart executives do when there are too many competitors in one market? They find new markets.


With slow growth predicted in 2010 and beyond, hiring – although in some corners predictions state that executive hiring at the very top will be robust for the next 6 months – is sure to be slow and cautious for most companies. Many headwinds, including but not limited to healthcare reform, cause barriers-to-entry that make the risk of high salaried talent to be too much for mid- to large sized companies. Small organizations, traditionally fueling the hiring boom in previous years, have too much to do in keeping themselves healthy to consider hiring anyone.


CNN Money.com, on January 7, 2010, reported on the Conference Board’s macroeconomic research for 2010. Gad Lavanon, associate director, is looking for unemployment to remain at 10% or greater and doesn’t expect unemployment to return to pre-recession levels of under 5% anytime in the next six years. The National Association of Business Economics stated that 60% of companies don’t expect payrolls to return to pre-recessional levels until 2012.

ExecuNet’s Mark Anderson differs stating that their Recruiter Confidence Index in December 2009 revealed an “…anticipated increase in search activity [which] shows companies have started to expand their workforces after a long period of cutbacks.” He believes that executive employment is brightening and possibly rebounding in the next six months.

Which is it: robust or cautious executive hiring in 2010?

I wonder if it makes any difference.

After two years of going through a hard slog and wondering whether or not one will have a job in the next year, many executives that I talk with are dissatisfied with their jobs and are looking for greener pastures.

One poll I read recently said that 75% of employees hate their jobs. And another 10% to 15% are dissatisfied. With longer work hours, increased pressure to produce results, and little or no increase in compensation, many have had enough of the idea of being someone’s employee. If not for the healthcare problems in getting new coverage, many would have left their jobs a long time ago.

What’s the answer?

I believe a resurgence in entrepreneurialism is about to hit the economy in from 2010 to 2020.

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Executive Actions:

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Becoming an entrepreneur, when no other opportunities exist, is not a new concept. But in the Great Recession, more top level leaders were laid off than in any economic contraction – ever. That means that many executive and top leaders are competing for fewer and fewer openings.

This mass migration from executive to entrepreneur is a trend that I am calling “The Emergence of the Execu-preneur™” – executives who are moving into entrepreneurial roles, sometimes for the very first time in their careers.

What does it mean if you are thinking about joining this trend?

Here are two questions you need to think about.

• Question #1: What is your motivation for becoming an entrepreneur?
  
• Question #2: How will you address the three big challenges of Money, Product and Pricing that every new business faces?

Your answer to these questions is very important to consider. I help you figure out how to think about them in my newest FREE eBook called 7 Questions to Ask Yourself When Thinking About Making the Transition from Executive to Entrepreneur.

Feel free to download the eBook and contact me with your ideas and thoughts.