The Power to Choose

When I was growing up, no one would have dared utter the words “I want to be happy in my job.” I can only imagine the scornful response from parents and teachers: “What are you talking about? A job’s a job’s a job. Shut up and do your homework.” That was then. 

I want to be happy in my job.

We  were  not expected to be happy at work. We just went out and got a job. These days, you can make a choice. Do you want to be happy at work? Or do you want to settle for a job that’s “good enough,” even though it’s not a good fit for you?

If you are unhappy at work, there’s a natural tendency to complain about your job and do nothing about it. If this is the case, you aren’t willing to do what it takes to change the situation. And that’s okay. But if you decide to do nothing, at least stop banging your head against the wall. Stop moaning about your job. And be aware that staying in a job you dislike, or working around people who constantly make you feel uncomfortable, can make your work suffer. You can waste years of your life not realizing the reputational damage that you’re doing to yourself on a daily basis. It just chips away until everyone can see that you’re totally disengaged.

THE POWER TO CHOOSE

You don’t have to live and work like that, though. You have the power to make a choice, and an infomercial can help. By looking at what’s revealed in your infomercial—what do you genuinely love to do, for instance, and how much of your capacity is being used—you’ll be forced to look in the mirror and come to terms with where you are at in your working life. Then you can choose to stay or to go. 

Answering “What I Need” is Critical to Career Success

A friend of mine is a brilliant derivatives player. He had a very successful career at a bank where they gave him total freedom to do what he wanted, hire who he wanted, and fully exercise all his ideas and plans. Then, after a change in management, he and his team were out. So he started interviewing with everybody. He was looking for a company that would give him the same freedom that had made him so successful at his previous job. Sure enough, he landed a seven-figure-a-year job. I called him the first day of his new job: “Congratulations, but you’ve made a big mistake. I bet you $1,000 you won’t be there at the end of year one.” He swore and hung up on me. I was sure I had made the right call. I knew the executives, I knew the organization he had just joined, and I knew he would never be given the bandwidth he needed to use all his skills. I knew because I had been in the exact same situation. 

When we met a few months later, he admitted that my comments were prophetic. “I’m trying to make these changes and they’re not letting me,” he said. “When I presented a plan for business growth, I didn’t even get a yes or no; it just went from committee meeting to committee meeting, and eventually just sat there.”

Soon after he arrived, one of the senior guys in the company asked if he had everything he needed. “What I need,” my friend responded, “is six thousand square feet. Let me hire about two hundred people and give me $1 billion in capital. Then leave me alone.” “Very funny,” the senior executive said. “That’s never going to happen.” But that is exactly what was needed for my friend to be able to maximize his skill set. Both parties had made a huge mistake: the company for hiring him and not understanding how to utilize him, and my friend for thinking that they understood what it meant to hire him. It was a wrong fit, and unfortunately, it happens all the time. 

According to a 2016 study from the Hay Group, the world’s top recruitment firm, half of Canadians are unhappy at work because they’re stuck in a wrong fit. Wrong fit is expensive for employers. On average, the cost of termination for any employee in any organization can range from three to five times their annual salary. But the non-monetary cost is even higher, both for employees and employers. Wrong fit sucks the energy out of the company, the employee, and everyone around that employee. Working together becomes a grind because of the constant waste of energy from trying to make something work when there’s no possibility of that happening. Individuals put forth the effort to try to change themselves, but it just doesn’t succeed—and the result is disengagement. 

People show up every day, attend their meetings, prepare their reports, complete their sales calls, but they are simply going through the motions. A recent Gallup study concluded that only 30 percent of North American employees feel engaged or inspired at their jobs and the vast majority of North American workers —70 percent—are not reaching their full potential.

Finding Your Fit

I recently read a study that said over 70% of the people working in Great Britain were unhappy with their jobs. What a sad state of affairs, imagine getting up every morning with nothing to look forward to except for the end of the day. OMG, I would shoot myself yet I do understand how you can end up in that trap. If this is you and you are reading this get up on your feet and say to yourself “I deserve to be happy, I deserve to have work that utilizes my skill set and finally I deserve to enjoy going to work every day because I get to do the things I am good at.”

In order to make any significant changes in your life it begins with a realistic assessment of where you are at the time. Determine your skills and what interests you. Then read my book, How to Hire the Perfect Employer, and follow the process that will lead to your powerful infomercial that will allow you to look and opportunities and see if they are right for you.

You have the power to make the changes happen. I believe that people are often afraid to look for work where their passion is due to the belief that they won’t be able to make enough money. As I always say to people;

“Do you know that?”
“Have you actually done the work and research to find that out?”

Don’t you think you will be far more valuable to a company or yourself if you are doing the things that you are good at every day and watching your productivity jump by leaps and bounds instead of spending time on the things that you suck at and have really no interest in doing?

Throughout my coaching practice I am amazed at how unmotivated people are at finding the right fit at work for them. Behind family and health, their job, where they spend 40% of their time every day is the most important aspect of their life happiness. When I started my business, I quickly realized that I could make money from my passion. By understanding who I was and what I am good at I could target myself to the clients that needed me most and wanted me to do the work utilizing my strengths. I never wasted my time pitching people that either didn’t need my type of service or want my personality and process. I stayed and continue to stay within my target rich environment, focusing on those clients that need and want me.

Your life should be focused on working everyday on your strengths. The things you suck at you will always suck and should seek a job or career that requires as little as possible from that side of your personal balance sheet. Balance is for investment portfolio, work to your strengths every day and you cannot help but be successful and a success by any measure you wish to judge. You have the power to make it happen…so DO IT!

Recruiters and Job-Seekers: The Answer to Your Biggest Problem

Do you know what The Economist identified as the number-one challenge of organizations big and small?

Finding the right people.

I smiled when I read it because I hear it all the time. I work as a trusted advisor to numerous business clients, consulting for them on business strategy, helping them with their recruiting, and coaching them. I also coach individuals who are looking for a job or considering a career change, or who wish to develop greater clarity and success in their present position.

Do you know what most of the people I work with say is their number-one challenge?

Finding the right employer.

I often wonder why companies can’t find the right people. And why people can’t find the right companies. The problem is clear for all to see. The question in my mind has always been how can we work towards a solution?

Of course the causes behind this colossal mismatch are many and varied, but I have developed an approach that is doing its part to successfully bring these two sides together. I call it the Fit Factor™ and I’d love to share it with you.

That’s why I wrote my forthcoming book How to Hire the Perfect Employer: Finding the Job and Career That Fit You Through a Powerful Personal Infomercial. I believe this book is a game changer. My aim with this book is to give you a whole new take on finding and developing a job and career.

The approach outlined in my book will move you from hoping to be picked by an employer from among hundreds of applicants to being in the driver’s seat. From being just another person queuing up for another pro forma interview to actually interviewing employers to see if they are the right fit for you.

On this blog over the next weeks and months I will help you figure out who you are, what you bring to the table, and where you should be looking for your perfect career fit.