Riding the Bull: Careers in Chaotic Times

Uncertainty makes many people anxious. Because of that, most of us go out of our way to create a sense of predictability in key areas of our lives. That is certainly the case with employment: most individuals strive to have a decent bead on their future direction.

Of course, not everyone shares the same across-the-board roster of expectations about earning a living. Some individuals view work primarily as a means of making money to meet their economic needs. They may see what they do as “a job,” and look outside of work to provide fulfillment in other dimensions of their lives. But a significant portion of today’s population expects work to provide a great deal more than a living: yes, they are seeking remuneration, but they are also looking for additional elements such as fulfillment, status, the opportunity to be creative, make a social contribution, travel, engage with stimulating people and problems and more.

Individuals with these broad expectations are usually pursuing not just work, but a career. They are frequently investing their time and resources to get a leg up in their career pursuit. They are likely to engage in advanced education, internships, networking and other efforts to give them an edge in the competitive universe of careers. As the investment ramps up, the attachment to the dream of a career that will provide the array of elements so fervently sought also increases. Underlying these pursuits is a fundamental belief that a well-prepared individual has an enhanced likelihood of success.

That is the fundamental allure of career planning: The mental model here is that, with careful assessment and best-in-class strategy, the uncertainty of what lies ahead can be diminished and replaced with a roadmap that will take us to our desired destination.

This way of seeing the world and the journey ahead, is frequently the thinking behind the decision to work with a career coach, and it has certainly been a driver for many of my clients. The reality, however, is that really good career planning is far more complicated than this simple-sounding journey. But of course, people prefer simple over complex. And that includes career counselors and coaches, as well as clients, so the world is full of unknown-fearing, uncreative people who are “helping” others with their careers.

Self-assessment and an itinerary for pursuing a definitively identified end point may never have been the whole formula for career success, but now, more than ever, the idea is incredibly seductive. During these particular times, however, the likelihood that that siren’s song will lead to a happy ending in your career tale is fairly unlikely. Medical students being trained to diagnose diseases, for example, are often instructed that “when you hear hoofbeats, first think horses, not zebras.” I offer a parallel version for those struggling right now to figure out the way forward in their career: think career chaos, not career planning.

Does this sound dire? I want to argue that there is enormous upside for ambitious careerists in expecting the unexpected. While it may feel unsettling to pursue career success without a carefully mapped out plan to maneuver your way to your goal, put that fear in a box and shut the lid tightly, the upside becomes a compelling argument for a decidedly more fluid approach!

When I first began working in career development, I experienced many “aha” moments. One of the most memorable trainings I attended was presented by a gentleman who wrote a book called “Guerilla Tactics in the Job Market.” Tom Jackson was a no-nonsense, get-out-there employment specialist who had worked with a wide array of challenging individuals and groups. He shared stories of laid-off ship painters who defined themselves so narrowly that they bristled when they were referred to simply as “painters.” From where they sat, they were ship painters. Not house painters, or auto body painters.

But, as he related the tale, Jackson didn’t quibble with his audience or try to convince group members to see themselves differently. Instead, he marched them through a carefully structured program designed to lead them to their next employment opportunity. The ship painters followed the plan, and never had to contemplate changing their line of work: the folks who had work needing to be done quickly grasped what ship painters could do and offered them jobs. The painters didn’t find their next gigs: the gigs found them!

I posit that the pandemic suddenly puts many of us in the shoes of the ship painters: we are all-too-aware that the world of work we were intensely pursuing or preparing for has changed, and, potentially, taken our roles and roadmaps with it. What seemed clear and almost tangible to us now appears as if viewed through a kaleidoscope with the dial being rotated. The paths and goals we were carefully stalking are now shifting shadows, appearing and disappearing, reappearing again somewhere else, often taking a shape somewhat different than their former guise. Our targets have become blurry. Some of them seem on the verge of disappearing altogether. Which raises the (panic-inducing) What am I if I am not my goals?

And so, we now have the perfect storm for determined careerists. The economy is reeling, likely for the indefinite future. The world of work is the flea on the tail of the economic beast: as it seeks to right itself over time, there will be an evolving job scene reflecting the whims and unfurling knowledge of a post-pandemic scenario. Perhaps it is not truly that different; in reality, change is no stranger to any of us alive today. But that doesn’t mean that we are different, and we still don’t like it or the uncertainty it brings.

It is still our knee-jerk reaction to react to that uncertainty with a strong desire to get on top of it and gain control of our futures. As citizens reared in a society rooted in the idea of meritocracy, we also have been taught that, if we are smart enough, sacrifice enough and work hard enough, we can get to our goals. But what should we be smart about in the spring of 2020? What sacrifices should we be making? Where should we invest our efforts?

In the relatively recent past, we created entire industries to assist us with answering these sorts of life questions: We have been buying books to teach us how to succeed at parenting, and enrolling in programs to prep us for the entry exams that can get us admitted to the “right” schools. There are coaches to teach us how to date, organize our closets, get our bodies into perfect shape. Do any of these things “work?” Will they work now?

In some cases, they do. But does a dating coach ensure finding Mr. or Ms. Right? Can we really maintain our perfectly organized closets indefinitely? Does buying your kid a piano guarantee that she or he will play it well? People aren’t dumb. We don’t not recognize that what is promised is not always delivered. But we choose not to take note. I believe we do this because we don’t want to believe that we can’t control our lives. Again, uncertainty generates anxiety, and denial is a powerful force brought to bear to combat it.

In reality, what we have done is drink the Kool-Aid. Not the elixir that allows us to address one particular problem or get on top of any individual hang up or challenge that faces us. The drink is about control of our lives. And nowhere is the desire for control more compelling than in facing the uncertainty of our future.

So here we are, weeks into a world-wide scourge called Covid-19, a pandemic that has locked us in our homes, separated us from the institutions and loved ones who normally allay our fears and dreads. We wait, simultaneously fearful and hopeful, for word that our world will “re-open.” But we also know that, whatever awaits us, it will be different than what we knew before.

There is enormous uncertainty: we are not paranoid; something is threatening us. The irony is that there will ultimately be a vaccine, antidotes, and, likely, an end to this particular source of fear. What there will not be, however, is control. No vaccine in development will provide that comfort.

So, what’s to be done? And how does all of this relate to thinking about your future, and, in particular, about your career?

Watch for Riding the Bull: Careers in Chaotic Times, part II. You know where to find it. That’s control, right?

ADDITIONAL BLOGS THAT COULD BE OF INTEREST

Words of Wisdom

Back to the Future: Building Competitive Advantage

Over 20 years ago I co-authored a book focused on how organizations could re-envision diversity as a competitive advantage. Fast forward to 2024 and I realize I did not anticipate how the DEI effort would look in 2024. The need, when my colleagues and I penned the book, for an enlightened perspective on the value-add of equity in the workplace (not to mention the ethical impetus to address this issue) seemed both clear and compelling, as it well remains. As I look back and gaze forward with some hope that the competitive advantage might still emerge, with focus and intentionality, I plan to hold on to that brighter outlook from two decades ago. Because I envisioned that the dominos in the workplace were lined up neatly and the first ones were falling, I anticipated that the next stage of the initiative would pick up momentum and make major inroads through the tangle of debris wrought by lack of systemic efforts and change during the centuries of racism, sexism and homophobia that had interwoven irrevocably within our country. In my mental model of achieving equity at work, at least in recent decades and during the Civil Rights movement, the arrow of social justice had been launched, and it seemed as if our aim was true and our intended bulls-eye was within reach. In retrospect, and sadly, I was naive and lacked accurate foresight.

Deliberately Growing Up

Those of you who read our posts regularly know that we at SmarterWisdom are quite obsessed by several general approaches to leadership development. Themes and thoughts about self-awareness, intentional thinking and action, growth mindset and (Marcie’s favorite) letting the structure do the heavy lifting, are just a few that run through our writings, just as they percolate through our thinking. Many of these approaches that we care about help to form the framework of our work with the individuals and teams with whom we spend our time. Many of them even come together and align to create a structure that we can overtly share with people in an explicit form.

Which One?

Deciding on your dessert at a lovely evening out with friends can be hard. Is it the lemon mousse with white and dark chocolate? The strawberry shortcake? Tarte Tatin? Blackberry or peach sorbet? OK, you might make a choice you regret, or it just may not arrive and look or taste as you expected, but seriously this is not a complex decision: you won’t let anyone down, you can’t really make a bad decision here. Your dessert decision is simply a matter of choice, your choice alone. According to some scientific research, adults make around 35,000 conscious decisions every day, while others estimate that number to be as high as 350,000. Deciding on the initial path to take ,and the nature of the decision, whether it be a simple choice of sweet, or more, is definitely a huge part of our lives as leaders.

Some Leaders Are Born Women

Examples of women, who are at the height of their careers and those on the fast track to getting there, offer support for the notion that indeed other women should be following this path. From Beyoncé to Oprah to Taylor Swift, women entertainers are taking names and taking charge. No longer simply the pretty faces of success, these women are smart business people who followed their insight and their guts as they saw inside their industry and ensured that they reinvented what it could be for themselves. Oprah became a mega-performer and international figure; Beyoncé became a Harvard Business School case study and Taylor Swift has not shied away from taking on the behemoths of the music industry, from Spotify to Live Nation. Each has stuck her neck out to go a different way, straying from the path most taken, and carved out the way that brought her the time, clout and, yes, financial reward, she was seeking. They are each reinventing what it means to be living their own high-powered career by redefining what that is, and by taking on established power as they do so. By seeking to control the narrative and be in control of their actions and approach, their courage and smarts are setting the bar high and at a new level for all.

Hijacked!

I work with many school leaders. These leaders tend to be open-minded, consensus-oriented people and the schools they lead believe in the benefit of creating forums for discussion with and among employees. The idea that open discussion will nurture an engaged group of workers is a good one, especially during current times when employment engagement is at an all-time low. Freedom to ask questions of others, especially those who supervise programs and departments, in a group setting, encourages trust, develops leaders and allows group process that generates ideas that in turn can solve problems. Arguably, the existence of a place to speak up, to use your voice to improve the place you work, is vital to a successful organization of any kind.

The Existence of the Soul

Recently with my friend and colleague Julie Faulstich, of Stonycreek Strategy, I led a group of senior women administrators from independent schools in a yearlong seminar called: Female Leadership, Finding your Authentic Authority. We enjoyed deep and wide-ranging conversations; we unraveled dilemmas and we discussed the potential isolation of perhaps being the only one in the role of dean, assistant head, or division head, that is a middle manager and reporting to the head of school. Being in the middle in any kind of organization, is not always easy and the work these middle managers do frequently goes unnoticed—and yet without that work, the organization would suffer. So here’s SmarterWisdom’s tribute to the ones in the middle—to their very existence, and, even more perhaps: to our paying more attention to what they do and how important it is.

An All-Around Good Idea

n efforts to ensure that leaders at all levels receive helpful feedback, supervisors and trustees frequently look to the power of the 360 review. This is a process designed to elicit developmental feedback from a range of sources 360 degrees around the participant, with the goal of delivering honest and authentic data about a leader’s work from multiple perspectives; this approach closely reflects the actual up, down and sideways working relationships that characterize how most employees actually work today.

No Really, Look Before You Leap

In all situations, organizations devote time and energy to selecting board members for a very good reason: the quality of the outcomes of the board’s efforts will, of course, be greatly influenced by the quality of the individuals it selects. By ensuring that a structure of orientation, on-boarding and time for input and reflection is in place, the potential of each board member chosen can shine. For both the new trustee and the board their mutual effort and forethought might actually mean the fulfillment of the promise that made the match in the first place.

How an enterprise identifies what it needs in its board members may be tightly defined by its rules of governance or by the match between open board assignments and candidates’ areas of competence, but in many smaller, newer or less formal settings, driving forces include less well-documented considerations including its priorities at a given point in time, an individual’s visibility and degree of influence and access, who else is already serving and the preferences of the organization’s chief executive. In some boards, particularly not-for-profits, the ability to contribute financially and help the enterprise raise funds from others is also a key qualification.

Blank Space (2023)

If popular slang or culture is a way of understanding the ethos of our times then Rizz, Swiftie, de-influencing, beige flag, parasocial and situationship need to become part of our lexicon. These words give us a view into the lives of Millennials and Gen Z’ers (born 1996-2012) and a picture of 2023. Without question they seem to be a set of words that clusters around holding back from commitment versus a couple at the other end of the spectrum where they reflect a kind of signaling to identify as part of a team of followers or admirers. This dichotomy is in part a result of the isolation of the pandemic period. We know that many people, having learned to cope with the lack of in-person human connection during the worst of the virus, reported finding it difficult to resume a pre-pandemic level of social contact.

Crisis, What Crisis?

During my 20+ years of leadership at independent schools, I definitely faced the full range of crises that might beset small schools. I learned a lot about being both somewhat prepared for these exigent events, and also about being totally unprepared and yet somehow able to invoke the necessary actions and skills to get things on the level again. Initially, and in much of my early experience of these big bumps in the road, I tended to think that crisis was always something like a chemical spill on Route 128 very close to the school. Over the years, however, I learned, and internalized, that a crisis could develop from any event or incident that might adversely affect the mission of the school, if left unattended.

Up In The Air

The silver lining to the pandemic’s very dark cloud is that many of us successfully learned to face new threats, see new opportunities (sourdough bread, anyone?) and understand our world in a different way. As a result, even the change-averse among us learned that we can successfully change at least a selected set of our behaviors. Now that the world has rebounded in many areas and shifted to permanent changes in others, it is worthwhile to review our current choices in light of the present-day context. If we don’t identify and articulate our changed work-related behaviors, we are not optimizing our ability to adjust and adapt.

Lessons from Los Alamos

It is by no accident that Christopher Nolan chose to make his latest film, Oppenheimer, about the 1940s and early 1950s, the building and use of the atomic bomb and the life and times of J. Robert Oppenheimer. The book on which Nolan based the movie, American Prometheus by Bird and Sherwin, tells the story not just of the brilliant young scientist, but also of the times in which he lived, the background of the second Red Scare, the undercurrent of anti-Semitism and the way in which one brilliant man was ultimately brought down by the establishment. The parallels for our times are clear. We may not be living with those exact issues, but we are living with the fear of global conflicts, the potential effects of climate change and the fear of failing economies and increased poverty. Watching the movie, and reading the book, inspired me to consider the possibility of lessons for our times, and more specifically, to ponder the perennial and necessary leadership traits illustrated firmly in black-and-white and glorious technicolor.

Welcome Change

Change isn’t easy for some of us; we resist and worry and wonder. While for others it is in their DNA and they cannot wait for the next moment to shift gears. Change, however, typically signifies growth and without growth we run the risk of stagnation. Wherever you are on the REMAIN/ CHANGE spectrum, the fact is that change is constant. Whether you are an easy adopter of change, or whether you tend to avoid change, learning how to predict change, harness change and live a change friendly life, will help you avoid stress and mental anguish and basically make you a better member of your team.

Leading Yourself

Your personal drive or decision even to care about leading yourself is a key first step of self-knowledge. Is the desire to lead myself within me? Do I want to do this? Leading ourselves is the element of our approach to our work where we think and act explicitly in order to become better at what we do. It explains who we are, where we want to go and why we want to go there. It helps us understand what we might accomplish in our work. Ideally it might also help us control our emotions and behavior, since it brings focus and ideally razor-sharp vision to our work. SmarterWisdom sees its work with emerging leaders as helping them to access this deeper knowledge of their intrinsic motivation. Some leaders however struggle to understand the importance of further analyzing and capitalizing on their drive as part of leading themselves.

Gifts of Time and Place

One of the oft-cited reasons for return-to-work resistance is the time and effort of commuting, which, for many employees, constitutes their least favorite part of their work week. After having worked from home, the daily stress of racing for a train, waiting for a bus, or sitting in backed-up traffic strikes a lot of workers as a foolish use of their resources, which are, after all, finite. Whether it is the cost to their wellbeing of stress-triggered cortisol coursing through their bodies as they rush to get dressed, grab a bite or swig a quick cup of coffee, and get themselves (and anyone else for whom they are responsible) out the door, or making the return trip, conducted after a full day of labor, through the crowds and the traffic, many employees report the sense of watching the sands of their precious time running through the hourglass twice each day. They know the commuting routine consumes valuable time and generates a daily level of unwanted, unhealthy stress.

But Does It Bring You Joy?

Several years ago Marie Kondo’s approach to helping us clean up our lives took hold. A key part of her “cleaning up” approach (see Konmari.com), was to hold up a household item or article of clothing and ask does it “spark joy.” During the last year or so, in particular, many people have been asking this question about the work they do: are they in a role that they like, one that is satisfying to them. We have seen various responses to these questions, from people working less and placing family and their own well-being first, to the great resignation. Does your job bring you joy? If you could hold up what you do for a living in front of you, following the Marie Kondo approach, would it make you happy? SmarterWisdom thinks that this is a question worth asking and in a way that is constructive and active rather than passive.

Know Thyself

Self-awareness is certainly a key element in being effective at your work. What is tough about tackling self-awareness, however, is that it is rarely identified by the person being mentored as an area of challenge: understanding one's level of self-awareness is inherently difficult, since it is obviously dependent on the level of self-awareness you possess in the first place. The ability to know yourself and to know how you are viewed by others is key for success. The internal and external mirrors that exist within and outside of us needs to be activated, made shiny and clear, and available at all times in order for any kind of growth and personal development to take place.

Kindness Matters

When I see frequent references to a concept or topic suddenly appearing all over social media or hear a term popping up everywhere in presentations or interviews, I always perk up and register the phenomenon: it makes me want to wonder out loud if there is a need out there somewhere to grapple with this particular issue. Recently, the concept of kindness seems to be the new “it” idea, poking up everywhere I look—from business articles asking the boss to be more compassionate when assigning large projects, to my doctor’s office where I encountered waiting rooms plastered with (mostly handmade) signs and posters urging people to be kind. As I consider what seems to be a rising wave of interest in decency and warmth, I find myself curious about whether or not we just want to talk about it or perhaps act on it?

Working Friendships

By the latter stages of the pandemic, when many of us had been working from home for close to a year, we ached for more connection. We missed the ready-made interactions in the office and the various low-key ways we tried to see friends and families during our free time. Perhaps this renewed attention to significant others in our lives was partly because we had to decide actively, and with intention, to cultivate and find these moments. We thought about our friends, missed them terribly and reached out frequently over the video waves in order to feel connected at a time of great loss. Without the ease of existing relationships, in pretty much most aspects of our lives during the height of Covid, we felt bereft and at sea; we perceived that something was lost and unavailable.

Inner Wisdom Revisited: Jacinda Ardern's Resignation

In February 2020, SmarterWisdom posted Inner Wisdom Personified: Jacinda Ardern, about New Zealand’s Prime Minister, who was elected in 2017, aged 37. Last week, upon the news of Ardern’s decision not to seek reelection, I thought about the words she used in her resignation speech, that “[she] no longer had enough in the tank to do the job.” I wondered if Ardern’s brand of leadership required more in the tank than that of other leaders; I wondered if she felt she had any choice. In the 2/20 Words of Wisdom post, I argued that Ardern was a true servant leader, not someone seeking personal gain, rather someone leading selflessly in the interests of the country. Since we published that piece, which focused on the massacre in mosques in New Zealand in 2019, Ardern has dealt with the White Island volcanic eruption, and of course the Covid-19 pandemic. She has also experienced a myriad of personal threats, among them many that were seen as ageist and sexist. So while the message from our 2020 post stays the same, we are left with a lot to ponder in connection with Ardern’s decision and the loss to the world of this globally-minded leader.

The Liminal Landscape: 2022 Revisited

Summing up the past year in terms of themes, trends, new ideas and developments in the workplace proves not as straightforward in 2022 as we might have expected. In fact, SmarterWisdom believes that any new place at which we have arrived this year isn’t about content at all, but rather about state—state of being, state of understanding, state of wonder! It’s a position that perhaps we would benefit from paying close attention to, even though this moment—or space—is liminal. To be in a liminal space is “to be on the precipice of something new but not quite there yet.” A liminal space can be metaphorical, emotional or physical. And for many people, perhaps understandably, it’s an uncomfortable position.

Trust Your People

It seems there is a whole new movement in the for-profit world related to checking up on employees. As a certain sector of the workforce makes choices about at home, in-office or hybrid work, employers are investing in tracking and other software that monitors workers time-on-task. The concern that because we cannot see them working and therefore how do we know if they are, is driving employers to create a lack of trust, which surely will erode the mutual trust workers need to do their best work.

The Power of Influence

There is no doubt that the pandemic has pushed us all to the brink in many areas: the definitions of work, parenting, schooling, family and friend relationships and even grocery shopping have all changed. SmarterWisdom’s basic philosophy is that within us we have the solutions to many of our problems and that we can always capitalize and make the most of the situation at hand to learn how to approach difficult issues in different ways. In the same way that we faced the recent upheaval in our daily lives, there is little doubt that leaders who were able to access their highly developed soft (or power) skills have not only fared better themselves, but have ensured the success of their teams and workmates.

London Bridge Has Fallen

Somewhere on Twitter this past week, amidst all the tributes posted out of respect upon her death, I read that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was “the first girl boss” (she became Queen at 25 over 70 years ago) and it made me think about what her tenure (she was the world’s longest-serving monarch) might teach us about organizations and leadership. “I cannot lead you into battle,” the Queen said in 1957. “I do not give you laws or administer justice, but I can do something else. I can give you my heart and my devotion to these old islands, and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations.”

In fact, it is perhaps easier to think of what kind of leader the Queen was not, rather than align her with a corporate title: not a chief executive officer, a president or a director. Given the length of her service and the ways in which she established the idea of monarchy in peacetime, she seems like more of a founding partner than CEO; and because of her work away from day-to-day operations, she is more like a board chair than senior manager. It is actually quite difficult to find a good analogy for the role of the Queen as a leader, and yet leader she was, as monarch and head of state.

Time and Its Essence

One of SmarterWisdom’s core approaches to our leadership consulting work is to help leaders prioritize among the myriad of bright shiny things that beckon them each day. Step one is to prioritize, and step two is to stay true to the path you set for yourself.

So how do you prioritize? A good first step is to consider your work in levels, or as the McKinsey article suggests, gears, that is low, medium and high. Examine all the major projects that you are involved in—which takes precedence, what is next, and so on. If you stay focused on less important, mid-level tasks, you are likely to be stuck in medium gear. Yes, you can tootle along getting stuff done, but both you and your vehicle are not turning on the high-power capability that will allow you to move faster and cover more ground—and dive deeper. As a leader in your organization, you want to be in high gear a lot of the time. Think of high gear on the freeway and the large distances covered. Yes, you need to be paying more attention to your driving—but you will get you and your passengers to more places.

Engage and Make It So!

A standout article in Fast Company in their Leadership Now section (July 11, 2022) especially inspired our deeper thinking about why supporting and engaging Gen Z-ers, in particular, is so important. For leaders and managers to adopt behaviors and create structures to help create the most productive settings for the Zs will clearly be worthwhile. Paying attention to the generational cohorts that exist in your organization might be a good starting point—for example, we know that different ages and life stages often seek different benefits as part of their compensation packages; might that be a good general starting place for your human resource officers?

Is It Worth It To Me?

was talking to my niece recently about her return to work in person. She is a media/communications specialist in higher education, based in the UK. She said that without the ability to work remotely as well as in person, she would go crazy: too many meetings on-site, and no time to get her work done! I was reminded of some of my reading and research about the “new world of work” we are entering, since offices have begun to re-open and many employees are now required to return to work in person. Digging further into my niece’s comment made me think more about the potential value of returning to the office, and how many professionals, like my niece, need to know whether or not it’s worth it to them.

Building on a Soft Foundation

Whisper Words of Wisdom

The Beatles’ 1970 album, Let It Be, hit the record stores when I was a junior in high school in the UK. “The Long and Winding Road” brought tears to my eyes and became my go-to Beatles ballad for a very long time. In his new documentary, “Get Back,” Peter Jackson chronicles the making of this seminal album over a period of days and in doing so, according to a wonderful recent article from The Economist, reveals some reliable and creative thinking about an effective team of four.

Hiring Bringing on a 19th Nervous Breakdown?

The hiring process is filled with hopes, fears and expectations on all sides. Hiring someone is a challenging process---especially in this labor market---and everyone is eager to get a good person on board. Candidates themselves bring their own dreams and watch-outs to their job searches, and, at least right now, the market is in their favor. What is aligned across all participants in the process (at least in most situations) is that everyone is eager for a positive outcome. Of course, exactly what that vision looks like may not be fully shared by both the candidate and the hiring manager. In many cases, it isn’t even shared across the hiring committee.

Team-building, Career successMarcie Schorr HirschJune 3, 2020Covid-19, Flexibility, Time-of-change