Tag: Career

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Career Libby

What’s Next?

It’s a new year, and with that comes all kinds of interesting newness: new resolutions, new sweaters, new opportunities. But with newness also comes change, and change is scary. Yes, it’s exciting; yes, I should embrace it, but man, it’s scary.

It is possible that within the next month or so, my life will be very different than it is now. I’m not sure how I feel about that. Part of me is dreading it – I have routines and things that I do and don’t do – I like it. But I’m also ready for more – changes at work, changes of those routines that I love, changes in my family dynamic.

But what if it all goes south? What if the changes are “worse” and my new routines are rote rather than reassuring? What is my obligation to this change? Do I have to like it? How long do I have to adjust to the change?

So, here’s the thing…I’m not sure I have a choice: I am not affecting change in my life, change is happening to me. So what’s the difference?

The difference is that I have to step up – I have to meet the change head on and make it work for me the best I can. It means more work on my end and it also means more unforeseen factors for which I can’t prepare. It also means that it is extra exciting – nerve-wracking, in fact – and that the rewards may be even greater than they would be if I had chosen a path myself.

As I tell my son, the only thing you can control is your attitude: you need to make the best of whatever situation you find yourself in or all you’ll have is a bad experience. So I’m embracing this change. I will race towards it hoping to catch it off-balance and have it fall into my arms, out-of-breath and grateful. I will make it work for me.

Wish me luck.

– Libby Bingham

 

 

 

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Career

Collaboration: Where to Start

A friend of mine passed along a couple articles from the January-February 2016 Harvard Business Review, and as usual, she was right on with her guess of what I’d find interesting. One of the articles was Collaboration Overload, by Rob Cross, Reb Rebele and Adam Grant. I’m afraid poor ol’ collaboration is one of those really important concepts that’s fallen into the buzzword bucket. In many cases, we’ve been told to collaborate, but we haven’t really been taught how to do it effectively. We end up providing a final product and asking for feedback (which of course we don’t really want) so we can check the box to say we worked with another person or team. Ta-da! Collaboration!

Boo.

What I liked so much about this particular article was the author’s definition and exploration of collaborative resources, which can help us understand the type of collaboration and help we need. They outlined three personal resources we can each contribute to add value when we collaborate:

  • Informational resources are knowledge and skills—expertise that can be recorded and passed on.
  • Social resources involve one’s awareness, access, and position in a network, which can be used to help colleagues better collaborate with one another.
  • Personal resources include one’s own time and energy.

They go on to discuss how informational and social resources aren’t finite – they can be shared without the giver losing those resources. If I share knowledge I have or introduce you to a person I know, I still have that knowledge and I still know that person. But when I give you my time, no one else can have that time (despite how good at multi-tasking I may think I am).

The problem is that we typically default to asking for another’s time when we attempt to collaborate, depleting the most scarce resource by default when we may not have to. The idea of asking myself what type of resources I need from someone seems a great place to start when I think about how I want to collaborate. I may need actual face time for an exploratory conversation. Perhaps I need a piece of historical context. Or I might just need my project presented as a priority to someone else who can help me. But not all of these require me to set a 30 minute meeting in someone’s day.

I’m going to try this lens for a while and see if it helps me clarify what I need from people. My network is my most valuable resource and I never want anyone to feel like I wasted their time, in a meeting or otherwise. How can you make the best use of your resources?

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Career

Bad Behavior Isn’t Good Performance

A recent Washington Post article, Beware the rule-following co-worker, Harvard study warns, points out four signs of a toxic employee. Three of the four weren’t necessarily surprising, but it’s the fourth that really caught my attention.

Simply put, the study found that toxic employees tended to be more selfish and over-confident than their non-toxic colleagues, which is no big surprise. The third finding was that toxic employees tend to follow the rules more strictly, sometimes to the detriment of providing good service, or embracing the rules that keep them at the top of the pyramid. And while that’s interesting and perhaps counterintuitive, the finding that really got me is that toxic employees tend to more productive than the average worker. More!

What I find interesting about the productivity finding is this: that high performance oends up being an excuse for other poor behavior. I think we’ve all encountered such a scenario before. “Sure, Jim can be a pain, but his numbers are great!” It’s beyond frustrating when you’re on the receiving end of Jim’s pain – whether it’s passive-aggressively not responding to you or blatant disrespect, the message you receive is that it’s okay to treat people poorly as long as you’ve got success in another metric. And that’s how we end up with toxic employees who are more productive – not only do we allow it, but we often reward it, especially when that productivity means more profit.

This is the reason we as organization leaders need to integrate values and behaviors into job descriptions and performance expectations. There should be no paradox of good performance trumping poor behavior – good performance must include good behavior. They absolutely can’t be separated if you want your organization to be successful. They’re never easy conversations, but addressing the toxic behavior will not only help your other employees, it will save you money. Harvard says so!

 

 

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Career Karen

Enabling in the Workplace

In my last post I shared my personal reflections and experience surrounding the topic of enabling.

Let’s translate this hurdle of enabling into the workplace. What does it look like when someone begins to enable?

I want you to fill in the blanks before you continue reading. Humor me, pretend you’re an enabler. How would you answer these 9 statements?

  1.  If I don’t show support, the person will think I’m _______________.
  2. If I don’t show understanding, the person will think I’m ________________.
  3. If I complain, the person will think I’m ________________.
  4. If I get upset, the person will think I’m ___________________.
  5. If I express my honest thoughts, the person will think I’m ______________.
  6. If I feel hurt, the person will think I’m _________________.
  7. If I say no, the person will think I’m ___________________.
  8. If I don’t agree, the person might _________________.
  9. If I don’t agree, the person could _________________.

Unlike popular thinking, it’s not “yes people” that move up the corporate ladder. They will move up, but only at the mercy of a pecking order.

“If I dot all my I’s and cross all my T’s, they’ll choose me.”

Nope.

“If I show support and agreement to my direct supervisor, they will endorse me in my career within the organization.”

Not necessarily.

Only you can move up the ladder. No one can take you there but yourself.

The primary trait that will move you up in your career is a genuine confidence in who you are and your capabilities. That’s what leaders look for.

Confident people are great listeners and engage with fellow stakeholders. They’re team players and forward thinkers who are considerate and inclusive.

Confident people aren’t afraid of stating their thoughts and expressing their opinions because their ultimate desire is to build a great future with a great team.

When we enable, we are acknowledging that we are not confident.

You now have a second chance to answer the above questions. This time, answer them with confidence, with intelligence, with experience and with expertise.

When we respond from a place of confidence, we interpret events, circumstances, environments, conversations and people from a healthier perspective. (Notice how different the above statements are interpreted in the list below.)

  1. If I say what I think and express my honest thoughts, I’m showing my team commitment because _______________.
  2. If I ask for clarity because I lack understanding, I’m showing my team commitment because _______________.
  3. If I’m dissatisfied with the outcome and express my complaint, I’m showing my team commitment because _______________.
  4. If I’m displeased with the outcome and I’m troubled, I’m showing the team my commitment because ___________________.
  5. If I’m disappointed in the team’s unity and express my discouragement, I’m showing the team my commitment because _________________.
  6. If I say no, I’m showing the team my commitment because ___________________.
  7. If I don’t agree, the person will know that _________________.
  8. If I don’t agree, the person could respond with _________________.

Enabling is responding with fear.

Confidence is responding from your true identity. And in your true identity, there is no need for fear.

It’s one thing to accommodate and remain flexible because you want to be. Being flexible is an attribute of team playing. Being accommodating can have a great impact when it’s offered from a place of fearless confidence.

However, it’s considered enabling if you accommodate and remain flexible because you’re afraid of what people will think or you’re afraid the outcome will have a negative impact on you.

What replaces the brokenness of enablement? The valor of confidence.

– Karen Thrall

* also published on www.karenthrall.com

 

 

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Book Reports

Why Not Me?

Over Thanksgiving break, I had the opportunity to do a lot of reading, and one of the books I read was Mindy Kaling’s Why Not Me? I love smart and funny women and tear through books like Bossypants and Yes, Please, as well as Kaling’s last book, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? These women tell wonderful stories and are funny as hell. But the thing that makes me adore them is that they work hard. They don’t expect things to be handed to them, and through their hard work, they develop incredible bonds with the people around them. That sounds pretty great to me – working hard with people you trust and enjoy. They also sneak in really smart observations in the middle of their witty story-telling. It’s like they’re tricking you into learning!

I was tricked into learning about confidence and entitlement in the last chapter of Kaling’s book. She revisits a question she got at a panel and didn’t feel like she addressed well at the time. A teen-aged woman asked Kaling about confidence and where she found hers. In retrospect, Kaling felt she gave a generic answer about her family and her parents believing in her. And while that was true, she expanded on her ideas about confidence and where it comes from.

Kaling is a hard worker and is proud of it. And because that hard work, she talks about feeling entitled. Not the kind of entitled we’ve come to associate with “kids these days who don’t know the value of hard work.” but the kind of entitlement that comes from being a good person and working your ass off. We are all entitled to basic decencies from the second we’re born, and sometimes that’s harder for women, and women of color, which Kaling also addresses. But past the basic decencies,  you have to earn your entitlements. Being entitled is a concept we’ve come to view as wrong, and I think Kaling’s approach is refreshing. Sometimes, it’s okay to feel entitled. And in her words, confidence comes when you “work hard, know your shit, show your shit and then feel entitle.”

And to me, that’s a beautiful concept.

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Awesomeness in the World Uncategorized

Caring What Others Think

So often, we’re told not to listen to what others say about us – not to worry about what they think, pay no attention to their opinions. And while that’s good advice for some things, I think we miss out on some valuable intel. Set aside, for a moment, the notion of constructive criticism or looking for the gem of good feedback delivered in a mountain of shit. I’m not talking about those things (at the moment, anyway – I think we can get a lot out of feedback, even if it’s not delivered in the best way. But that’s another blog post from another day.).

What I’m talking about is what our friends and trusted advisers see in us. I wouldn’t have gotten into the type of consulting I do now if it hadn’t been for a friend who had a job and thought I could help her out. She described me as being good with teams and getting buy-in and consensus. These aren’t the primary ways I would have described myself, but she was right. I am good at those things, even if they don’t pop into my mind as the things I’m best at (they are now, thanks to her).

We know we’re usually our harshest critic, but why is it so hard to listen to those around us who have seen what we’re capable of? It’s easy to believe the bad things, but so much harder to believe we have talents we may not even know about or think of as strong skills. You value your friends’ judgment, so why not value it when it’s about you and your amazingness?

I was recently approached about a job opening and I believe I know the perfect person for it, so I connected the employer and the candidate. It’s not quite a job the candidate has done before, but there’s no question in my mind that she would knock it out of the park in this position. She was hesitant as we talked about it. As we talked through the skills and experience I thought she could bring to it, I think I was able to convince her, but it took some doing. From the outside, I don’t even see how that’s possible – this job was made for her. But the job title was making her uneasy. The job title was just the title. It didn’t get to the heart of her skills and passion, which were absolutely what the employer wants and needs. I’m happy to report they’re in discussions now, so we’ll see where it goes.

So the moral of the story – don’t listen to the haters, but listen to the people who have your back. They know your talents and abilities and want the best for you. And you have great taste in friends, so listen to them.

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Career Libby Uncategorized

Mindset and Success

My son, who is in second grade, is going to be taking some tests in the next few months; the results will determine whether or not he is eligible to be in a gifted and talented program moving forward. It’s a tremendous opportunity if he gets in, and my husband and I want him to be prepared, but he already is feeling a lot of pressure to succeed. We are trying really hard to put it all in perspective. We’re looking for practice examples so that the types of questions are familiar to him when he takes the test – not to “hothouse” him, but so that he’ll have less anxiety. In looking for those, my husband found a Ted Talk by Eduardo Briceño that expounds on the power of “mindset.” According to Briceño, people fall into one of two categories: fixed mindset or growth mindset. Apparently, if you have a growth mindset, you are better able to deal with losing/failing – you can turn it into a learning event and actually grow and get smarter.

We’re hoping to diffuse the pressure my son is putting on himself to do well by sharing this idea with him. In reviewing it and anticipating our conversation, it occurs to me that I could benefit from a deeper understanding of these concepts myself. In a recent post I talked about how I’m nervous about taking on some new areas at work and how this both frightens and excites me. I have always been a pretty high-achiever in life, but every time I am given a new skill to build or experience to try, I am rife with self-doubt. From a very young age, I have thought of myself as “unable to do math” – this is clearly an example of the “fixed” mindset. My opportunity to work on some new projects in areas less familiar to me is a chance for me to embrace the “growth” mindset. It isn’t fair for me to promote this to my kid without believing it myself. So, I am going to embrace it with abandon…and who knows? If it goes well, there could be a career in the mathematical arts in my future!

– Libby Bingham

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Karen On the Job

Market Research Gets a Rebirth Over and Over and Over…Again

How’s your company doing? Still doing the same advertising, marketing and promotional routines? How long has it been the same? What if you’re in a rut? And how do you know if you are in a rut?

Simple. Are numbers increasing, stagnant or decreasing?

Increasing? Then, you’re not in a rut.

Stagnant or decreasing? You’re in a rut.

It might be time for some market research again. A rebirth. I believe we should continually evaluate/assess our marketing strategies. Sometimes what used to work may no longer be as effective. That doesn’t mean the business is over, just means we look at it from a different angle.

(1)  Word of mouth is contagious and it’s your free advertising. Definitely do not compromise this one!! It’s a good idea for organizations to invest heavily in their customers. Your customers are your best sales people because they love what you offer and provide. Bottom line: they love you! They’re a fan! Are your customers spreading the love? Is their enthusiasm about your services and product infectious? Ask yourself, “What is missing in our organization that is keeping our customers from bragging about us?” Find out. Don’t dismiss any notion or stream of thought. Explore the wonderful possibilities that will emerge from your analyses. And remember, your employees are also your customers.

(2)  What is the goal you want? Be specific. Write it out. Share your goal EVERYWHERE!  And stay true to it. Dream about it. Think, strategize, brainstorm, analyze, plan, build – do whatever it takes (well, almost whatever!)! This business you launched was birthed from your incredible and extraordinary creativity. That very same creative resource will continue to grow your business. Your creativity is a key component to your success! Stick to one goal and stay tenacious until you’ve accomplished it. Your confidence is also fundamental.

I believe every organization needs to reinvent their public persona every 3-5 years. Keep it fresh! I learned this personal life principle from one of my best friends, Graham. It’s effective and provides a freshness to help you keep growing. Think about all the investment you’ve made to get you this far – it’s worth the time to look over your organizational map and see where you can explore a new way of thinking.

– Karen Thrall

* also published on www.karenthrall.com

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Career

Expecting the Unexpected

I saw a teaser on LinkedIn last week about taming your schedule. As someone who feels like my calendar has gotten completely out of control these days, I was obviously intrigued. Shane Atchison talks about a skill he leaned from a mentor of his and titled his post Scheduling for the Unexpected. The idea is simple – block a portion for your day for the inevitable surprise. It’s not a question of whether or not something will come up, but what that will be. Atchison shares that he schedules some time at the end of the day, typically an hour, and that helps him keep on track. And while he does usually need that time, on the rare occasions he doesn’t, he’s able to leave work an hour earlier and prioritize something else.

This certainly isn’t a new concept, but I so love the idea of scheduling unstructured time (I know, I know…scheduling unscheduled time? Could my Type A be any more obvious?). I personally do best with structure and plans. It helps me organize, stay focused and not feel overwhelmed. That does mean I’m not always great when the unexpected comes my way, but I want to be better at being more flexible, and this seems like just the tool to help. The idea of building in time to handle what I didn’t expect really resonates with me. The hard part, of course, is sticking to it. That time, at least for me, will always be the first thing to go as the calendar gets tighter and demands pile up. But that’s also something I’m trying to be better at – sticking to my priorities. So if carving out time for the unexpected means I feel less crazed and I can get things done? Sign me up. I’m blocking the time on my calendar right now.

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Career

What All the Cool Kids Know

It’s cool to know what’s going on. Nerd culture has gone mainstream and being unimpressed and unconcerned went out with flannel in the 90’s. And while fashion trends come back around, I sure hope it won’t be cool again to be uninformed. I like knowing what’s going on. I don’t mean in the annoying, all up in everyone’s business sort of way, but rather, in the way that I can easily make connections and know where to find information. Sure, it may sound altruistic, but let’s be honest. It makes things easier for me. I can figure out where to plug in to make sure my projects get the attention they need. I can get a new perspective or improve an idea I have when I consider someone else’s point of view or a new audience.

When we talk about communication and knowing what’s going on, it’s easy to point out what someone else isn’t doing for you – what they’re not giving you, how they’re not making it easy or what they’re not sharing. But in the middle of that, it’s important to take a look at what you’re doing that keeps you in the dark. Keeping your head down and staying at your desk is a great way to ensure you don’t know what’s going on. Ignoring readily available resources is just silly. Zoning out in a meeting is a sure-fire way to miss an important detail. I know we’re all busy, but how much time does it really take to read your company newsletter? Sure, it’s another logon to remember, but taping into your organization’s intranet or social media platform is a great way to access bits of information while you’re away from the office. And attending social events at work will help establish more personal connections, and we know we enjoy working with people we like. We also like to tell them what’s going on, ask their advice or share a challenge. And when people share with us, we learn.

Take it upon yourself to learn about what’s going on in your organization. Don’t wait for the formal updates or for information to come to you. Ask your colleagues what they’re working on. Include yourself in conversations as appropriate. Offer to help outside your area. Participate. Read. Raise your hand. All the cool kids area doing it, so don’t just sit back and wait. Make it your business to know what’s going on.