Using Life Principles to Do What Matters to You
In Goodbye Career, Hello Success, Randy Komisar says “If you want to land the job of your dreams—even if you want to become a CEO—rid yourself of raw ambition. Avoid promotions that make perfect sense. Accept work based on friendship alone. Trust your gut. Then watch what happens: prosperity of the heart, soul, and—yes—the wallet.”
Sounds likes a bold set of principles right. This article is a must read for anyone looking for meaning in what they do. Randy’s “non career principles” were actually based on a number of realizations along the way, which he translated into concrete principles. Here are four principles that helped Komisar to let passion drive his [...]
Part 2: Reinventing Your Career is Innovation on a Personal Level
In part 1, I shared several tactics to help you gain the necessary insights or information to refine your career vision. Part 2 expands on test and learn experiments; and focuses on visioning, revamping your story and executing your vision.
3. In Aerialist, Katrin Ley from Reebok, reinforces the importance of partnering with the right expert, Cirque du Soleil in their case, creating a vision that excited them, considering a lot of different options and then narrowing in on one to launch. This is the fun part of the coaching process, this is where my clients create their vision in technicolor, no judgment is allowed, the key is to end up [...]
Part 1: Reinventing Your Career is Innovation on a Personal Level
I spent fifteen years creating innovative solutions, processes, customer experiences and business models for global companies. I really enjoyed what I did, in that I got to create idea, bring those ideas to life and then sell the vision to people who said they wanted change but were not really ready to accept or initiate the change required. Switching industries, working in different countries and transitioning to new roles, meant that I was reinventing my role every 18 months or so. Drawing on my corporate experiences, today as a coach, I work with clients who are ready for change and need help defining or fine tuning their career vision or next [...]
Lessons Learned: Ursula Burns’ Path to CEO
At the Most Powerful Women Summit, when asked how she would tag herself, Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox, responded the “Groomed CEO”. With roughly 28 years of experience there is no doubt that Ursula Burns not only loves Xerox but created her own path to prepare for this seat. Burns led Xerox through many stages of transition, e.g. responding to crisis by spearheading downsizing initiatives, turning around Xerox to meet revenue growth expectations and realigning parts of the business to boost its business to business offerings. Burns’ path offers many examples, success factors that prepared Ursula for the next level, here are five of them:
Burns knew what her factor. Your factor is a powerful, [...]
Lessons Learned from Anne Mulcahy: Managing a Seamless Transition
One of the dilemmas some of my clients and readers face is letting go and moving forward. Whether it is a project that went awry, a negative performance review, the experience of working with a mismatched manager, a lay-off or your teams’ lack of confidence in your ability to deliver, letting go of these career shocks represents a transition that must be managed effectively to advance our careers.
Tagged the “Accidental CEO“, Anne Mulcahy, former Xerox CEO, admits she was not groomed for the CEO seat. At the Most Powerful Women Summit, Anne acknowledges she came in the wrong way so it was important to learn from that and go out the right way. [...]
Career Transitions: From Sales to Sauce
In Second Acts, Dawn Fallik over at WSJ.com profiles Jim Barbour in “A Former Sales Rep Concocts Fresh Start With Barbecue Sauce.” A quick look at Barbour’s career history and you will see that he had a short stint in stockbroking, then spent several years in sales with great companies such as Sony, GlaxoSmithKline and then transitioned to a marketing role with a start-up furniture store. Today, Barbour is the CEO of FunniBonz, so just how did he create a barbecue sauce that sold over $10,000 in one store within six weeks, just six months after launching his company?:
He used his time at the furniture store to [...]
Lessons Learned From Successful Career Switchers
“We change when the pain to change is less than the pain to remain as we are.” - Ed Foreman
The San Francisco Chronicle recently profiled a former investment banker, a national sales director and an executive search specialist who have all transitioned successfully in Successful second acts: a career change can lead to greater job fulfillment.
Here are some of the lessons they shared:
An effective career transition may take many months sometimes years to find a true professional fit. The key is to take the first step, and then the next step, while seeking to understand the lesson of each twist and turn along the way.
Reflection and a visualization are vital [...]
