Working Matters

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Hopefully this New Year will bring a favorable climate for creating a professionally rewarding career. As 2011 begins, now is a good time to ask yourself if your career is giving you the opportunity to excel at what you do best. Does your career speak to your passions, vision and purpose? If our work is not aligned with who we are, our daily job can become a grind.

Since we spend so many of our waking hours working, shouldn't we try to make that time rewarding and fulfilling? Unfortunately, many of us feel trapped in mediocre careers.

To reach meaningful success we need to feel connected to our work and career path. Getting to this point is not easy. It's bigger than drive and ambition. It begins by digging deep and exploring our goals, mission, values, vision and purpose. It's also about knowing what we offer and what drives us.

When we know what's important to us and what we love to do, then we can begin to identify where our work and career path should be.

My warm wishes to all of you for a healthy and prosperous new year.

Best regards,

Linda Yaffe
Certified Executive Coach

WORKING MATTERS

Why are some people promoted to positions that bring out the best in them, while their peers who are equally talented get left behind in positions that do not allow them to flourish? Are there secrets to a rewarding and satisfying career in the corporate world?

According to Gallup research, only twenty percent of people are working in jobs that provide them the opportunity to excel in what they do best.

Do we then change jobs or move on to another company? Why change seats on board the Titanic? The answer to career fulfillment and success lies within you; it is up to you to find out where your passion lies and how your can become successful no matter where you are.

In spite of having a degree of success at your job, even at the executive level, there may be times when you experience dissatisfaction or emptiness. This happens when you come to a mid-career point, a life transition or crisis, or when a promotion doesn't materialize. You begin to ask yourself if there truly is meaning in the work that you do.

Earlier in your career, career choices were probably much easier to make as it was clearer which options were advantageous. At that point in time, you probably plotted out your ascent up the corporate ladder and went after career enhancing goals.

However, by the time you reach mid-career, the ladder has moved quite a bit. With flatter organizational structuring, it can be a challenge to know how to make the right career moves.

You Are in Charge

No one manages your career but you, and you must rely on yourself as your own guide, even if you are fortunate to have a trusted mentor.

Most professionals have already moved between a few organizations by the time they reach mid-career points. This may be due to company upheavals, downsizing, or mergers and acquisitions. With each change comes reflection on the next strategy required to sustain a long and successful career.

Complicating anyone's career landscape is the fact that people change jobs and organizations more frequently than in the past. Executive turnover is at an all-time high. Fifty-eight percent of large and medium-size companies changed CEOs from 1998 to 2001, according to an international study of 484 corporations by management consulting firm Drake Beam Morin.

The fact is that if you are an ambitious executive you are most likely going to move through more jobs within a decade as compared to an executive thirty years ago. Career choices are no longer simple, and career paths are varied and unpredictable. There are many forks in the road, and one wrong turn can mean years of waiting for the next opportunity to come along.

There is no safety net. Your individual career is becoming as complex as the business environment. While companies are becoming more sophisticated and creative about attracting talent, issues of incentives, compensation and opportunities are more complex.

Career success is not achieved easily. It requires investment of time, effort, focus, emotional intelligence, and personal sacrifices. Those attaining the highest levels of professional success report being more satisfied with their jobs, their lifestyle, their compensation and the balance in their lives.

Three Core Questions

The factors that form the core of career success lie in the answers to three questions:

1. Who are you? What are your core values?
   
   
2. What is your core purpose?
   
   
3. What are you trying to do with your life?

Those people who experience high levels of success in their careers report an alignment of what they do with who they are. They somehow find the magic blend of their life purpose with what they do in their jobs.

The power of these questions lies in the power of purpose. The search for one's purpose is important, but it is by no means an easy task. Many of us spend our lifetime searching for true purpose. We all seek meaning from life. Everyone wants to leave footprints. Yet finding and clearly defining what that is, is elusive.

The Power of Purpose & Energy

Many experts believe that we can identify our purpose by looking within ourselves. Regardless of our spiritual or philosophical beliefs, most people agree that when we act in accord with our strengths, talents and desires, there is a sense of heightened energy or flow. Therefore, when our purpose is aligned with our vocation, we become more motivated in our lives. Work no longer becomes a chore, but rather an enjoyment, reflected through our expressions and behavior.

The key to acting with purpose is to bring together the needs of the world or business with our unique gifts in the form of a vocation – a calling. We apply our talents and passion to the tasks that we perform. At this juncture, work becomes a way of actively making a contribution to the world or society.

Ambition is Never Enough

For people to really excel in their work, they need more than just ambition. Satisfying goals, attaining numbers, receiving rewards and compensation and attaining status is rarely enough. We must be connected to our core values and intrinsic motivators in order to be truly fulfilled. Determining what our internal drives are is not an easy task. Most of the time we require the services of a professional coach or a career coach to assist us in our quest. There are also many assessment tools that can help clarify and update self-knowledge.

Stop Doing What You Don't Like!

Career success is more like sculpting and editing, rather than accumulating or building.

"Discover what you don't like doing and stop doing it!" – Marcus Buckingham, The One Thing You Need to Know (2005)

According to research from the Gallup Organization and Marcus Buckingham, it does not make sense to stretch yourself with new and challenging assignments, or even to balance your life if it involves doing things that you don't have an affinity for. Buckingham contends that you will not feel energized when you focus on your flaws.

Sculpting the ideal career path for you to take consists of not only discovering your purpose and strengths, but also in knowing when to say "no".

People who are already successful have had the courage to choose their work wisely. They are unwilling to tolerate aspects of their job they aren't good at, and find a way to delegate or avoid certain tasks.

The longer you put up with aspects of your work that don't play to your strengths, that are not aligned with your core values and purpose, the less successful you will be.

When you focus on your best talents and what you love to do, you will achieve more. You will experience sustained career success. You will find that your career path is exactly where it should be, on purpose, and aligned with who you are.

WorkingMatters' principal, Linda Yaffe, a Leadership Development and Certified Executive Coach, uses her senior and executive level management experience to help you achieve your business and career goals.

Whether you are jump-starting a business, advancing your career, an executive or president, Linda’s coaching expertise will provide you with the essential focus, skills and behaviors needed to perform, advance and lead in today’s business environment.

As well, Linda works closely with companies like yours focused on "high potential grooming and leadership performance enhancement" geared toward your top talent and next generation of leaders.

Linda delivers bottom-line benefits to individuals and organizations focused on moving to the highest levels of learning, performance and achievement.

In addition to coaching, Linda delivers Leadership Workshops to small and large businesses.

Linda abides by the strict code of confidentiality and adheres to the highest standard of ethics in accordance with the International Coach Federation.

For more information, please contact Linda by email at LYaffe@WorkingMatters.com