Being strategic now can save you a lot of agony later.

You know what it’s like. You’ve had a long day at the office, in the field, travelling for work. You return home, or to a hotel somewhere, and you feel exhausted. Not so much physically tired as mentally and emotionally tired. You just take this to be part of the job, part of the grind, part of the sacrifice you must make day in and out to stay on top of your job. Exhaustion is just one of the many sacrifices you need to make to stay employed and achieve your personal, family and career goals.

But what if that exhaustion was really trying to tell you something about how you feel emotionally, and unconsciously, about your work and career?

Our unconscious selves are telling us things all the time. If you aren’t energized by your work, career, and the people around you, it could mean you aren’t truly aligned to your career. Meaning, your personality is fundamentally misfit to the career you’re in.

Let me give you an example.

A recent coaching client of mine came to me and complained of being over-tired and unhappy with their career. This person was a senior executive and on paper had an impressive resume. So impressed with her, her work ethic, and her competency, her employers wanted to elevate her into an even more senior executive role, with more responsibility, more pay, and more of the prestige we associate with climbing the corporate ladder. Her peers would envy her success. To her friends, she was a success. Her family was proud of her achievements. She herself was a nervous wreck, hollowed out of happiness, and dreading the promotion she didn’t want, and ultimately declined.

How can someone like this be so outwardly successful but feel like they are failing inside and dreading the success they created? Because they are misaligned to the roles they’ve taken, which means stretching one’s personality so far off centre that instead of happiness there is dread, instead of fulfillment, exhaustion, instead of worth, worthlessness.

But how can this be? It’s precisely because the misalignment between inherent personality and career choice are too far apart. The result is damaging to the person in question and can create a toxic mix of bad feelings that become harder and harder to overcome and ignore.

Most of us ignore these signs. We say to ourselves, work is separate from life. I go do the work, but that’s not who I am. That idea couldn’t be more wrong. No, you aren’t what you do for a living. But, yes, what you do for a living needs to reflect who you are. Why? Because who you are defines your response to everything in life, and if you aren’t aligned in your career with who you are as a person and personality, you are going to feel the weight, the wear and tear on you, the wear and tear on relationships, and the ultimate outcomes for you in all aspects of your life.

If you feel exhausted by your career at the end of every day. If you have trouble sleeping. If you feel anxiety or even panic about the next day at work, it’s time to look more deeply into where those feelings are coming from and fix them. It doesn’t do to stay with something you don’t enjoy and can’t be passionate about. If you really love what you do, that’s excellent. But if you don’t it’s time to start defining what a great career for you would be.

Every ProFound coaching client goes through a program of success, to identify what’s happening in your life and career right now, and to see where the weaknesses in your life’s balance are. Part of these exercises include scientifically valid personality and job fit assessments, which are the culmination of over three decades of personality and career fit data gathered from millions of people. What ProFound’s job fit and personality assessments and analysis will show you is how far you are stretching your natural personality to fit the needs of your career at work. All of us make some adjustments to who we are at work, but some of us really take it to an extreme. When you adjust your behaviour at work too far away from who you really are, it can turn you into a different person. For instance, if you really are the type who doesn’t like confrontation, but you are forced to mediate confrontation in your career, you might behave differently on the job or at home. You might be more prone to explosive outburst if pushed too far off your main line. You might become more remote and isolate yourself. You might find ways to cope with this adjustment in negative ways with alcohol and drugs to soothe yourself back to centre. You might even begin to hate your job or yourself. In so many ways it’s hard to see that who we are and what we need to be for others need to be the same things as much as possible for us to be as happy and fulfilled as we can be.

I’ve seen this time and again with our coaching clients, who, once they see who they are, and how they have to modify their baseline personality for their chosen career, begin to understand what kinds of unconscious sacrifices they’re making every day for their profession of choice, compromises that hurt them in little ways every day until, in some cases, it’s too much. The too much hurts their relationships with others beyond the job and into their personal relationships with friends, families, loves ones, and themselves.

Assessing your personality and job fit is an easy and fun thing to do and will reveal things about you and your career of choice. It will reveal the kinds of careers that fit you best, and will show you some of the skills you need and the things you need to watch for when you’re pushed too far off your centre-line personality. You’ll see new career options for you that potentially fit your personality ever better than the career you might be in today. And it will give you the gift of knowing yourself in ways you might have never thought before.

If you’re struggling in your career and don’t know what to do next, reach out to us here. We are in the business of helping you achieve your dreams.

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A new article in the Washington Post says the ground rules of workplace safety are changing fast.

 

 

Imagine you are tested for your temperature before you enter the elevator alone to go to work. You’re given an app for your phone that records your vital measurements like temperature, and which connects to the phones of your coworkers who pass by. Your office has put in plexiglass sneeze guards, and your open office space is staggered with workstations that give you distance from your closest co-worker. You wear a mask because it’s now mandated. Welcome to the post-covid office where new rules around occupational health and safety are taking effect. Workplace safety will include new office rules, like elevator safe zones, contact tracing via apps, temperature taking with infrared scanners, and more.

Companies are being forced to re-imagine the office and the safety of co-workers, the likes of which we haven’t seen in our lifetimes.

If you’ve been out at all lately, you will see many people in the public domain wearing facemasks. Stores now have partitions between you and the cashier. Some places like Starbucks won’t take cash, and some establishments have even taken to sanitizing the money you give them before they add it to the cash register. Of the stores that are still open, everyone wears some kind of rubber or plastic glove. These same kinds of precautions are looking to be the norm for the post-covid business across industries.

Companies bringing people back to work are looking for ways to keep their people safe while reducing the fear factor of coming back to work.

WAPO quotes Tom Puthiyamadam, leader of Price Waterhouse Cooper’s Digital practice, who is heading up the deployment of a contact tracing application for its clients. Puthiyamadam says, “Not every enterprise is going to command and control mode, but I think right now some of these practices are warranted. I don’t think many employees are going to say no, because a lot of [them] are actually scared to come back in.”

Companies from Amazon to Goldman Sachs to IBM are innovating to keep workforces safe, from employee covid test kits to on-site health specialists to health tracking apps.

The WAPO article notes that some Asian companies might be ahead of the curve with innovative health strategies that could be adopted in other regions.

IBM, as an example, is staggering their return-to-workforce, bringing those back who need access to specialized equipment and labs for work. Arrival times to work are staggered so the elevators aren’t filled to the brim. Workplace buffet-style serving is gone, so are shared serving tools for food service. On-site gyms are closed. Plastic covers for keyboards are distributed with masks, and on-site cleaning is done with more frequency and done visibly so that workers also have a visual sense of the safety measures put in place. Some companies are removing doors from offices so to reduce the number of touches on door handles. Cushman Wakefield in Amsterdam is laying office tile to demark a circle around every desk to show where you should stand to be socially distanced. Some companies are considering one-way hallway traffic flows. Each strategy is as unique as the companies undertaking them, and each is looking to others for what amounts to an evolving and new best-practice.

Every company is looking for ways to get people safely back to work, when the time is right for them, and in ways that provide safety and peace of mind to their workforce. One question remains: Will workers begin to see this as a necessary new normal, or will some of these new innovations, like tracking apps, feel like an invasion of personal privacy beyond the need for personal and workplace safety? It’s a question that remains unanswered, yet.

What are some of the ways you’re now innovating your health and safety policies because of covid-19? Do you agree with some of the measures companies you know about are taking related to new rules for occupational health and safety? Let us know here.

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There are some simple things we can all do to support each other.

In times of crisis, it’s worth thinking about first principles, like: How can we all support our colleagues during a pandemic? There are no end of news stories now about the psychological pressure of lockdown, of being isolated alone, and people of all ages traumatized by forced isolation and the unknown. Those who are single and living alone, healthcare workers, and children, are arguably the most affected; but so are we all in one way or another, with some of us losing jobs and businesses while we wait for the bans in our various countries, states, territories and provinces to lift.

There’s no question that each and every one of us is affected, the half of the global population currently in lockdown, and all of those not in lock down, many of whom have nowhere to be locked down, being as they are without home or a permanent home, or far away from home.

So, what can we do to support our colleagues during this time?

Here are some simple but powerful suggestions from people that I’ve asked:

Stay in touch with your workforce and executive team. If you never had them, or stopped having them, start those Monday morning meetings on your platform of choice. It’s a good idea to use the first 15 minutes to just check in with everyone to see how they’re doing, ask about their weekend, and take whatever comes. Offering an ear and warm words and suggestions in a group setting is a good way to start the week with morale much higher, and people feeling more connected, than if you don’t gather the troops on a Monday. It also shows leadership.

Have a video conference once a week with colleagues outside of your company. These might be your regular friend group, or it might be people who you don’t see very often. If you don’t get invited to a video conference just to shoot the breeze, then start one. Find two people you know, and who know each other, and take an hour a week to have a video call just to talk. People need connection, and, without being able to do all the things that we would normally do, a video conference with peers and friends goes at least some way in keeping you grounded to the world and with others.

Go for a socially-distanced walk. Find a couple of friends or colleagues and get out for a walk. Obviously, you will want to maintain social distancing rules, but in most places you can get out for an hour walk with colleagues feeling the same things as you. On an hour walk you’ll talk about the news of the day, family, ask a few questions and answer some. Tell jokes and have a laugh. A little sunlight, some light cardio, and talking with people you like is a good way to refresh yourself for the next day.

Be there when someone calls. In the pre-covid days, with people overloaded with work, life and family tasks, some avoided the phone altogether after work hours. With covid-19 forcing us to stay apart, the phone now becomes a lifeline. There are always the hermits among us who might take social isolation as a gift, but most of us are hungry for company. If your phone rings, don’t let it ring through. And if you’re lonely, call someone. It might be your usual habit to ask for help, but if you are feeling lonely and isolated, a friendly voice down the line can help you stop overthinking. One of the best ways to forget about your problems is to think of someone else’s problems. So that call you place for yourself might just be the call your colleague was waiting for. Pick up the phone.

Let someone know how special they are to you and that you’re thinking about them. Nothing feels nicer than telling someone you respect and appreciate your truth about them, if it’s on the nice side. Everyone appreciates encouragement and good words. If you’ve been holding your tongue because you’re not that kind of ‘feely person’, now’s the time to let someone know how much you think of them. In good times people are already very hard on themselves, the inner voice chattering to them often about the most negative things. A few unexpected words from you can make all the difference and turn a bad day into a better one. Letting someone know how much you value them, over the phone, or in an email, or over video, will surprise the person you tell, and it will, surprisingly, make you feel good telling it. Connecting with others is an emotional experience, so if it’s been forever since you let someone know how you feel about them, try it now. If you are a boss, this is your chance to tell your team, as a team and individually, how much they are valued and respected.

Stay in touch with your colleagues using text. Some people love texting, others hardly do it. But it’s an easy was to connect with your colleagues and friends. Obviously, you can use whatever application you like best, from regular text, to Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, and We Chat. If you’re so inclined, as you might have children, you could even have some fun showing off your lighter side on TikTok and sharing the fun. This might not be your thing, but I am seeing parent bond with their children making TikTok videos and sharing them with colleagues and friends.

Share a conversation. Wherever you are in the world, and however you choose to connect, just be sure you keep the conversation going. Sharing news, information, music, movies, thoughts of the day, are all good ways to support your colleagues during this time. Being forced apart and being alone just isn’t the way we are built. Some can cope with it better than others, and some have a lot of worry and stress on their minds right now. You can help make that melt away by staying as connected as possible in the ways that are available. It’s about helping people cope, to minimize their stress response to the current situation, and helping them, and yourself, maintain a healthy mental perspective.

What are some of the ways you think we can support colleagues in this time? Write us here.

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Critical events often bring self-reflection and changes that can guide us to something greater.

 

 

It was recently in the news that long-time CNN host Chris Cuomo has been reconsidering his career as a public purveyor of political views and balanced perspectives. Cuomo has been on the air for a long time now, offering his show, in his words, as a ‘balanced perspective’ on all things political, essentially giving equal voice to opposite and dissenting voices. After being diagnosed with Covid-19 and being locked down at home in fever dreams where his dead father and older brother, Andrew Cuomo, appeared to him, the latter dressed in a tutu wielding a magic wand, Cuomo has had a change of mind about what he does for a living. On air he has talked about his lone fight at home with coronavirus, his symptoms and his progress. Now, he’s telling us he wants to quit the business because what he does for a living, and the toxic format he helped create, isn’t worth his time anymore.

Sometimes it takes a near-death or other major crisis for us to rethink where we put our time and what we do with that time.

There are a lot of problems with major network journalism these days, including the political TV talk-shows, like Cuomo’s, that pit guests against each other for the sake of viewership and ratings. Chris Cuomo was paid millions of dollars a year to play the middle and gather a ‘balanced view’, which was never balanced but manufactured for maximum confrontation and conflation that reaches millions of people looking for answers and truth who, instead, get the jacked-up spin.

So I am glad Chris Cuomo is rethinking his career, though he might also have a change of heart walking away from the bully pulpit and limelight. As he put it in an interview on SiriusXM, “I can do it [walk away] because I saved my money.”

Not all of us are as lucky as Chris Cuomo to have salted away millions to make his next career choices as easy as falling back on a fluffy mattress made of money.

No doubt there are many more of us now who are rethinking our careers, or are forced to rethink them, because the jobs are just gone. People are forced to float away from the mooring of what used to be meaningful to them; the further you drift, the harder it is to see and get back to land. Millions of people are now cut off from opportunities at least until the restrictions of our current situation are lifted, and maybe forever.

There’s been a lot of talk about the economy roaring back when this pandemic backs off. But, will that really be true? With so many businesses gone, or nearly strangled out, which of them will come back? With so many people laid off, how many of them will stay loyal and sticky to the companies who laid them off? It’s hard enough to find talent in the best of times. If you are a company who had to furlough or lay off staff, which of those staff are waiting with bated breath to rejoin you? Possibly very few or none. They will all drift to something else, go somewhere else, and start something new.

More and more people are telling me that they are reconsidering their career, what they do for a living, and what satisfies them. With a crisis on every doorstep, our thoughts turn to our families, our children, our way of living. It’s common that people work to achieve a better life, meanwhile disliking the work they believe will get them to their ultimate happiness. As though happiness is outside of ourselves somehow when it’s not.  Again, a great many of us are caught in socio-economic situations that require us to pick up the crumbs of any jobs that are available to us, with a lot of people working more than one job to make ends meet. But even these people, like gig economy workers, or warehouse workers, are reconsidering, for themselves, if it’s all even worth it.

So, if you are rethinking your career or your purpose right now, I’m not surprised. But what can you do when you don’t have the options that a rich TV personality has? Or if you do not have technical skills that allow you to more easily work from home? There are many people who not only cannot afford a computer at home, there are many who don’t even really know how to use one. What is available to these people who are having the exact same human response to a crisis that has, and is, devastating people and families and careers around the world? And with little or no money and protections available to pivot to a new life?

These aren’t easy questions with easy answers. To contemplate the bottom falling out for the poorest of us is a sad thing to contemplate. And, as a society we can’t really let it happen, as people, even if the political will seems faltering or half measured. This is the time for every individual to ask: What do we want for ourselves and everyone else? And how did we get here that we should care about Chris Cuomo quitting yellow journalism, versus caring about a single mother with three children and a GED who has no real options available?

Well, we could redistribute some wealth. It feels ridiculous that someone on TV hired to pump up the population on issues makes so much more than, say, a real teacher. Or, how is it that minimum wage or universal income find constant opposition, yet we never really question how much CEOs make and add to the society we share? It’s time to re-evaluate what’s important, things like equity, equality, our social contracts, our environment, and how we can do a  better job going forward to make sure that every person in society, willing to be in that society and contribute to it and build it up, can be rewarded for being part of the greater good.

Change is a personal thing, and changes such as these hit directly at the heart of home. But change is also a cultural and societal one. And it will take all of us as individuals to not only selfishly reconsider what we value personally for ourselves, but in so doing, consider also what it is we value as a society. Real, positive personal change can only happen if we are also looking out for the good of all and everyone. Hopefully it’s a contagious idea.

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Your sense of humour is your greatest weapon.

 

“Have you ever tried to home school a child when you’re a moron?”
– Joey Diaz

Forget about the petty things in life, if you don’t think there’s a silver lining here, you’re wrong. You’re just taking a lump right now, just like everyone, but don’t doom yourself with negative thoughts about yourself and your life right now. Rough patches are tough, and we all happen to be in one. I feel for you. But, everything happens for a reason, and the best way through can be to lighten up. Here are some good jokes from around the web to make you smile.

Here’s one:

Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson go on a camping trip.  After a good dinner and a bottle of wine, they retire for the night, and go to sleep.

Some hours later, Holmes wakes up and nudges his faithful friend. “Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see.”

“I see millions and millions of stars, Holmes” replies Watson.

“And what do you deduce from that?”

Watson ponders for a minute.  “Well, 

Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies, and potentially billions of planets.

Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo.

Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three.

Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful and that we are small and insignificant.

Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. What does it tell you?”

Holmes was silent for a minute, then spoke. “It tells me that someone has stolen our tent.”

Here’s one:

When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300°C. 

The Russians used a pencil.

Here’s one:

This woman rushed to see her doctor, looking very much worried and all strung out. She rattles off: “Doctor, take a look at me. When I woke up this morning, I looked at myself in the mirror and saw my hair all wiry and frazzled up, my skin was all wrinkled and pasty, my eyes were bloodshot and bugging out, and I had this corpse-like look on my face! What’s WRONG with me, Doctor!?”

The doctor looks her over for a couple of minutes, then calmly says: “Well, I can tell you that there ain’t nothing wrong with your eyesight….”  

Here’s one:

A turtle was walking down an alley in New York when he was mugged by a gang of snails. A police detective came to investigate and asked the turtle if he could explain what happened. 

The turtle looked at the detective with a confused look on his face and replied, “I don’t know, it all happened so fast.”

Here’s one:

An Alsatian went to a telegram office and wrote: “Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof.” The clerk examined the paper and told the dog: “There are only nine words here. You could send another ‘Woof’ for the same price.” “But,” the dog replied, “that would make no sense at all.”

Here’s one:

A sandwich walks into a bar. The barman says: “Sorry, we don’t serve food in here.”

Your life will come together again. Wear a smile today.

 

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