I Love My Job: New Interview Series

Posted on April 4, 2007 by Toby Lucich

Reaching for the Holy GrailWe talk often on this blog about the quest to find work that is personally meaningful, much more that just a paycheck, and ultimately a job that is THE job — the one you’d prefer to have over any other. It’s the Holy Grail of employment: dreamy and glorious, but nearly impossible to find.

But there are those rare few who have found it. The ones who say “I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else” with a straight face and true conviction.

In the first of a semi-regular series, I’m going to interview some of these rare individuals who genuinely love their jobs to find out…well, how did they do it? What was their career path to get there? And what advice do they have for the rest of us?

By talking to the people who have found work that is both personally and professionally fulfilling, as well as financially feasible (no trust fund babies here, thank you), we can learn from their experiences and gather additional courage to keep going until we find it ourselves. If nothing else, it’s confirmation that the Holy Grail of the dream job exists.

In my first interview, I talk to Doug Pfeister, the senior vice-president and New Jersey project director at Bluewater Wind, an offshore wind energy developer. After almost 15 years, Doug says he has finally found “the best job I’ve ever had.”

Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Employment, Fulfillment, Meaning, More than a living, Purpose | 8 Comments

Gen-X Managment – II: Google-ized

Posted on April 3, 2007 by Toby Lucich

GoogleNewsweek article (December 2005) on Google’s Ten Golden Rules, and possible options for Gen X managers thinking about growing an organization of Gen X contributors.

On their list:

  • Make coordination easy. Because all members of a team are within a few feet of one another, it is relatively easy to coordinate projects. In addition to physical proximity, each Googler e-mails a snippet once a week to his work group describing what he has done in the last week. This gives everyone an easy way to track what everyone else is up to, making it much easier to monitor progress and synchronize work flow.
  • Data drive decisions. At Google, almost every decision is based on quantitative analysis. We’ve built systems to manage information, not only on the Internet at large, but also internally. We have dozens of analysts who plow through the data, analyze performance metrics and plot trends to keep us as up to date as possible. We have a raft of online “dashboards” for every business we work in that provide up-to-the-minute snapshots of where we are.
  • Cater to their every need. As Drucker says, the goal is to “strip away everything that gets in their way.” We provide a standard package of fringe benefits, but on top of that are first-class dining facilities, gyms, laundry rooms, massage rooms, haircuts, carwashes, dry cleaning, commuting buses—just about anything a hardworking engineer might want. Let’s face it: programmers want to program, they don’t want to do their laundry. So we make it easy for them to do both.

Is this the battlefield for talent? Are you ready to manage and compete in this environment?

Hat tip to SystematicHR.

Posted in Career | Leave a comment

Motivated Slacker

Posted on April 3, 2007 by Toby Lucich

Ill-motivated slackerI was reading the daily Incentive Intelligence entitled “Internal Motivation vs. External Influence“, which in a nutshell says you can’t apply external pressure to get people motivated – this is something that comes from within.

[M]otivation is an internal thing. You cannot create motivation – you can create an environment where people are motivated to focus on the objectives you want. This is not a minor point. Many times clients will ask… “how do I motivate my channel, or employees?” You can’t. But what I can do is put a program or initiative in place that offers something that will create a motivational desire within the audience.

I get this – I really do. But at different points in my life, I’ve also been that slacker, the guy that really just wants to punch the clock and do the least to get in, get out, and get on. I was cool just taking the tasks as they came, and knew that what I didn’t get to today would still be waiting for me tomorrow. If a wheel squeaked ahead of schedule, I’d give it enough attention to fall off my radar again.

But then, it hits me – whack!- maybe I was a setting-specific slacker. Maybe this wasn’t a character deficiency or a lifestyle, just a poor fit. Manage Smarter writes:

Never assume that people lack motivation. We often assume that if people aren’t doing what we want them to do they aren’t motivated. The truth is that people are motivated. They’re motivated to do what they’re currently doing more than they’re motivated to do what you want them to do. When it comes to motivation, it’s never a matter of lighting a fire; it’s always a matter of helping people restructure their priorities. People already have the fire; it’s our job to capture and direct it toward corporate objectives.

(my highlights)

So does this mean that I was a motivated slacker? Is this an oxymoron? Did my boss just fail to recognize my (immature, admitted) shortcomings? Even then, I had the potential to become the contributor that I am today.

As a hiring manager now, would I be willing to take on a motivated slacker when building my team? What if this person is already on your bus? Are you willing to be the career partner under whose tutelage this person flourishes? Are you prepared to develop today’s slackers into tomorrow’s stars? Is this a good use of your time?

[hat tip to Incentive Intellignence]

Posted in Career, Develop, Motivation | 2 Comments

Are You a Tool?

Posted on April 2, 2007 by Toby Lucich

Turn a bolt, tighten a screw. Are you a tool? Are you the driven, or the Driver?

I hope that was an easy question to answer. If you feel like a tool, start thinking about how you differentiate yourself through insightful contributions or exceptional execution. (Your view here probably has a lot to do with finding yourself in a job versus a career – FYI).

Just found – a new tool from Jim Collins, the man behind Good to Great. A handy little pdf’d questionaire to take his book into your organization as a diagnostic tool. Dig in, talk it through, and start to drive changes.

Don’t be just another tool.

Posted in Career, Performance, Tools | 1 Comment

Moonlighting Revisited, sans Cybil and Bruce

Posted on April 1, 2007 by Toby Lucich

MoonlightingAs educated professionals, we can’t all answer the four-killer questions of professional passion relative to our day job. We’ve all dreamed of some passion-driven, grass-is-greener scenario that let’s us realize opportunities above and beyond those in our current role. Sometimes an opportunity to lead, to create or simply earn more money, the siren’s song has played for just about all of us at one time or another.

And yet oddly, almost every employment agreement that I’ve encountered specifically speaks to the Company’s perspective on moonlighting, and typically, in a negative tone. It seems counterintuitive that companies would seek to recruit bright, interested, driven professionals, and then seek to box them into very specific roles with defined responsibilities.

Moonlighting lets your employees trial new experiences at someone else’s expense.

Employees get smarter even as they find satisfaction. Maybe scratch an itch that might have caused them to leave. Get to develop skills that are applicable in your environment, even if the chance to develop them hasn’t arisen.

What is better than enhancing your bench-strength with self-directed learners willing to own their growth?

My favorite part is that something is driving this effort. And this development found through moonlighting doesn’t cost a single cent from the budget. This is new development that employees are passionate about, without spending or education on the Company’s part. Just a little tolerance.

I get the perception of risks in moonlighting. What if they find their passion? What if they become too successful in their “second” job? This is very much a “can vs. should” issue. I can also hear the clamouring, and why HR and Legal loves these noose-like policies: “Moonlighting can”

  • diverted attention and incremental energies,
  • shifting priorities with a detrimental impact to the Company,
  • introduce interruption at the workplace, or
  • result in outside projects receiving attention during Company hours.

The funny thing to me is – just about anything outside of work for your primary employer has this effect.

  • a hobby you are passionate about (strange golfers’ illnesses in early spring?),
  • a spouse,
  • children,
  • designing and staffing a new Second Life banana hammock retail shop,
  • volunteer work,
  • your kids’ hobbies (think Girl Scout cookies each spring)
  • day trading,
  • or (gasp!) blogging…?

All seem to take that same precious drop of attention from delivery of the Company’s services to customers. Should you try to forbid your employees from marrying? Increase compensation plans to “buy” them 24/7? Or reconsider the implications of moonlighting?

So maybe it’s time to embrace the idea of moonlighting – ? The drivers for the individual are more important for the company to understand than the amount of time that is going into the effort. Unlike an employees personal life and other intrusions that can take away from company tasks, moonlighting often tells the business where the employee wants to go – where their passion is pulling them. An open and honest dialogue may do well to retain motivated professionals.

If your real concern is loyalty or commitment to the Company in the face of new experiences, your efforts to really “manage” (and not just monitor) employee performance is probably due for an overhaul.

If “happy” employees can’t be committed employees, you’ve got some big fish to fry.

Posted in Can vs. Should, Career, Develop, More, Passion | Leave a comment

Thanks for contributing to More than a living in March 2007

Posted on March 31, 2007 by Rick Turoczy

Comments welcomeDuring March 2007, the following folks have taken the time to stop by, read, consider, and comment. And for that, we are very appreciative. Thank you.

Posted in More than a living, Thanks | 2 Comments

Addressing the Org Chart Problem

Posted on March 31, 2007 by Toby Lucich

Organizational hierarchyI don’t know about you, but one of the first things I want when I start a job or work with a client is an organizational chart. Knowing the working relationships between people, how teams are put together and who can sign-off on key decisions is critical to doing my job well. Unfortunately, the number of times I’ve asked for and received a current org chart is exactly…zero.

CogMap, “the Wikipedia of organizational charts,” is trying to help change that by making it easy to create, manage and publish them online. You can see ones for Microsoft, Google and Yahoo!, as well as everything from the US Government to the Amsterdam New York Police Department.

I don’t know how accurate the charts are, but it’s a start. I like the idea of removing the secrecy that seems to surround these documents and enabling anyone in the organization to make changes rather than waiting around for HR to do a yearly update that probably isn’t accurate anyway.

Is your company’s org chart up to date? Do you even have one? And why not make your organization a bit more transparent and put one up there yourself?

(Hat tip to the Fast Company blog)

Posted in Career, Corporate Culture, HR, Human Resources, Online | 3 Comments

Gen-X Management

Posted on March 30, 2007 by Toby Lucich

Gen-X management conflictsRay Williams of the Financial Post writes “Gen X will change work culture“. Of this I have no doubt. But I am wondering what our organizations, our institutions will look like 20 years forward, when X and Y have put their stamp on the cultures of traditional organizations.

Studies by Bruce Tulgan (Managing Generation X), Douglas Coupland (Generations X), and Australian company HCM Global Pty. Ltd., show the Generation X manger is typically mature beyond their years, very adaptable and flexible, and team oriented. They have high expectations of employees and don’t buy into power structures, rather they prefer the project-based approach to work. Generation X managers need positive validation for their work or they will not hesitate to quit their jobs. They hate being micro-managed and want independence in their work, which may explain why so many of this generation have turned to entrepreneurship.

Generation X managers’ assets are their adaptability, technological literacy, independence and creativity. Generation X leaders thrive on change, are fair, competent and straightforward — sometimes brutally honest — are results oriented, and see leadership as nothing magical. However, these managers do have liabilities, including impatience (particularly with authority), occasional cynicism and poor people skills. Messages that motivate Generation X managers emphasize independence, reward for merit not years, minimizing rules and bureaucracy, and informality and common sense.

Ding! Ding! Ding! (my highlights, links)

When I read these attributes, and notice my head bobbing like a Bobblehead, I wonder at the face of the future organization. What if we never check these traits that make for strong individual contributors? I would agree that these stereotypes are fairly accurate, and can see challenges down the road when leaders and the led both seek a state of commitment and not just compliance.

  • Are we more likely to see strong contributor organizations working in graceful supply chain dances?
  • Will Gen X find a new respect (with time) for the magic of leadership?
  • How will Gen X leaders secure the necessary buy-in to build lasting enterprises?
  • How will individual Gen X behaviors in management impact issues like turnover and personal growth?
  • Implications for Gen Y staffers, managers?

Hat tip to Management Issues.

Posted in Corporate Culture, Kumquat, Leadership | 1 Comment

Remember, these are CPAs

Posted on March 30, 2007 by Rick Turoczy

ShockWhen it comes to my vision of the archetypal business person, certified public accountants (CPAs) are right up there. I have a hard time coming up with someone in the organization who is more businessy (technical term) than a CPA.

Maybe that’s just me.

Going with that thought, I also see CPAs as being willing to “put up with more” in terms of the business. I tend to assume that they have some secret knowledge and thick skin that allows them to shrug off–perhaps even enjoy–the stuff that drives me completely nutty. I also tend to assume that younger CPAs–still fresh in perspective and thicker of skin–can put up with even more.

Now, using my (possibly incorrect) assumption about CPAs, imagine where my jaw sits upon reading “Recruiting and Keeping Up-and-coming CPAs at Your Firm” from CCH:

[Young CPAs] want to align themselves with good organizations doing good things. For these young professionals, the idea is not to focus entirely on work for 30 years and then retire. It’s to do good work; be valued for it and to maintain a balance in their lives that allows them to contribute well at work, and at home. They also want to know that they are important to the fi rm and that the fi rm is investing in them, as a professional and as a person with interests outside of work.

Um. Oopie.

Remember, these are CPAs. Dyed-in-the-wool business types.

And they’re looking for the same level of fulfillment that everyone else is seeking?

If they’re steadfastly seeking that kind of fulfillment, what do you think the rest of the business world is seeking?

Um, yeah. Indeed.

(Hat tip to the inimitable David Maister)

Posted in Career, Corporate Culture, Engagement | Leave a comment

Good Karma For Your Career

Posted on March 29, 2007 by Toby Lucich

Improving your karmaTo add to the career management pile-on of Rick and Toby’s recent posts, I wanted to extend the “it’s not what you know” line of thought around networking. Forget standing around a dull conference hall or bad party with a drink in hand, making small talk and exchanging business cards. Banish the thought of a cold call to someone you have no connection to in hopes they’ll let you buy them coffee. That’s fun for…nobody.

Instead, be a good friend and a genuinely helpful person. Seriously. That’s really all it is.

Adopt a perspective about networking not simply as a “pull” (I need a job so I’ll reach out to my network) but more as a “push” — how can I help the people I know?

Today, the Web makes this even easier. Sign-up with one of the easy, free online networking tools to connect with the people you already know and like. It doesn’t matter if they aren’t in your industry or line of work – in fact, variety is a good thing. Then, stay in touch with them. Find out that a cool former co-worker is looking for a better opportunity and help him get it. The neighbor who has to fill a position on her team immediately? Connect her with people she should talk to. Notice that a colleague just landed a new job and send him a quick email to say congratulations.

This makes you feel good (and if you’re a Buddhist, may help ensure you’re not a cockroach in the next life). Even if it doesn’t directly help you land a future job, you build a reputation — dare I say personal brand? — as someone who gives a damn. A little bit of your time reaps big rewards and helps build a community of professionals and friends that can then help one another.

A woman who’s taken this approach to the extreme is profiled in a recent Fast Company piece. She has 13,000 LinkedIn connections and seems to know each and every one. Ok, that’s kind of insane, but her advice is spot on:

  • Always offer to help someone even if you don’t know how to do it
  • Give selflessly
  • Don’t forget people
  • Be clear when you ask for help

So if you don’t have updated contact information for the people you want to keep in touch with, make that your career management investment this week. And if you’re already doing it, how else can you help who you know?

Posted in Career, Networking, Tips | 1 Comment