Sital Ruparelia

I’ve just started reading Dan Pink’s new book “Drive -- The Surprising Truth About Motivates Us”. Pink is one of my favourite authors on the workplace and so, as expected, the book is an excellent read.

The clear message in ‘Drive’ is something which most of us have always known intuitively -- that money does not motivate people in the work place in the long term.  But us Pink explains in the book (and in the video clip below) there is now a raft of scientific research that backs up what we’ve already known.

So why do so many employers and business leaders get obsessed with trying to motivate people via the old fashioned carrot and stick approach hey…?

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“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
- Howard Thurman

Last week I attended the London School of Economic Alternative Investment Conference featuring an impressive line up of speakers from the world of Hedge Funds and Private Equity. With students flying in from 75 countries, it was the biggest student conference of its kind in the world.

Whilst listening to a panel discussion about the future of Private Equity Finance, one of the undergraduates from audience asked a question about career prospects within the industry. Interestingly, the overwhelming feedback from the 5 highly successful people on the panel was:

Click here to read the rest…

Unique Talent = Natural Abilities + Your Unique Way Of Expressing Those Abilities

Your Natural Abilities

• What’s *that thing you do* which you’re so naturally talented at?
• What’s the work you’ve done effortlessly ever since you can remember?
• What’s the work or activities that energise you (rather than tire you) after you’ve completed them?
• What types of problems would your friends, colleagues and family pay you to fix out of their own pockets?
• What do you do when no one is looking?
• What type of tasks and activities make you completely lose track of time?
• What would you write about if I forced you to start sharing your expertise in a series of blog articles?
• What would you speak about if I forced you to give a 15 minute talk on a topic you felt confident speaking about?
• What  would you do with your time if you inherited £20million and were told you only had 10 years left to live? 

Your Unique Way Of Expressing Those Abilities

• What’s unique about the way you express those abilities?
• What are your key ‘weaknesses’ that are actually unique strengths in disguise?
• What are the things that make you stand out when you’re with your peers? (positive or negative)
• What’s the most quirkiest thing about you?
• What do your friends and colleagues often mock you about?

It’s In Your DNA

We’ve all got a unique talent – a natural ability that only we can express in a totally unique way.  Just like your DNA, no one in history has ever had that combination.

Which is why:

- No one can write, sing and perform in the exact same way as Michael Jackson.

- No one can bend a football kick or become a fashion icon in the exact same way as David Beckham. 

- No one can be a catalyst for compassion and change in the exact same way  as Mother Theresa.  

And no one can do *That Thing You Do* in quite the same way you do it.  Your own unique talent is in-built – it’s part of your DNA.

Your Challenge

Your task then is to figure out what that unique talent is and then find people, organisations or a cause that can benefit from that talent.

Once you do that on a consistent basis, you’ll be able to build a powerful personal brand, attract success, wealth, job satisfaction and create a sense of meaning from your professional life that most people spend years searching for. It’s the holy grail.

But it doesn’t happened overnight.

Like everything, it starts with a first step. That first step is to start looking for clues about yourself and your unique talent by asking some tough questions of yourself.

I challenge you to take that first step…

1. Forget job titles
Focus instead on the ‘ingredients’ or components of roles you are looking for in a new career. Once you do this, you open yourself up to a wider range of jobs and careers that play to your strengths and interests, many of which you didn’t even know existed.

2. Stop over-planning and over-thinking
Most people have some vague ideas about the type of change they’d like to make (even if they never share it with anyone else). But they never get off the ground as they over-think things – which usually overwhelms them into doing absolutely nothing. The key is to not over-plan, but to just get on and take the next steps.

3. Get your finances in shape
Unless you are already working or have a ‘buffer’ of cash, find an income stream quickly. Whether it means part-time work, freelancing, contracting work or even renting the spare room out – do something. You can’t focus on change when you’re worried about paying the mortgage.

4. Build and cultivate genuine relationships
Every contact you need to help you discover what you want and then find the next opportunity is either in your mobile phone or your diary – or in the mobile phone or diary of your contacts. So make sure you’re building genuine relationships, ask for help and let people help you.

5. Build a new peer group
Surround yourself with like-minded people who:
a) Have made major changes in the past themselves
b) Are already in the new career you want to transition into
c) Are confident, positive and open-minded enough to encourage you, instead of scaring you

(And of course, stay away from doom-mongering negative types who will try to convince you that the world is about to end and so you should just hide under the duvet and do nothing). 

6. Trust your gut instincts
Very often, you know what you want to do, but the advice (and fear-mongering) from the people around you makes you doubt yourself. So listen much more to yourself than to others. Your intuition will be more of a help with navigating your journey than people who have never been on that journey, or been around people who have.

7. Play to strengths
Every bank is reinventing itself to focus on strengths in relation to the changes, needs and problems in the environment. That’s precisely what you should be doing. So what are your natural skills and unique talents? What are you interested in? What excites you? What are the key problems that you’re best placed to solve? Where can you add value? Now with that level of awareness, what are your next steps..?

8. Don’t be idealistic
Focus on transitioning into work that excites you and interests you 70% of the time. Don’t listen to all the life coaches and ‘experts’ who harp on about “finding your ideal job” or a “dream career that you’re totally passionate about.” It’s all a big lie. I really love what I do, but I still have crappy days – that’s life. So forget being an idealist, stick to the 70% rule and transition into careers you’d enjoy ‘most’ of the time.

9. Make holistic career choices
Your career choice has an impact on every part of your life – your health, wealth, family, friends, hobbies and interests as well as your religious/spiritual side. So ensure the decision you make makes you successful as a person – not just in your career and bank balance.

10. Get out and experiment much more
The internet is great resource and tool, but it’s made us all very lazy. The answers to all your career woes are not on the web (unless you’re on my site!). But they are ‘out there.’ So get out and met people, experiment, try new things, go volunteer your time, go work-shadow. The clues and opportunities will come from there, and not from the internet.

11. Embrace the uncertainty
Reinventing yourself, your career, a business or an economy is never a straight-line, step-by-step process. So expect the unexpected and become comfortable being uncomfortable.
 
12. Invest in yourself
We reap what we sow. To create the time, money and lifestyle you want, you have to invest it first.  That may involve reassessing your skills, researching, networking, attending training events and the like. Change won’t just happen – it requires some kind of investment from you.

13. Expect it to take longer than you thought
I thought this article was going to be a top 10 list but it’s overrun and become 13 points. That’s what it’s like making a career transition – it’s a little unpredictable. So just ensure that you’re mentally and financially prepared for things to take longer than expected.

By the way, if you’re looking to reinvent yourself and change careers, you may want to look at our upcoming career change workshop on April 25th. During this one-day workshop, I will show you exactly how to incorporate these 13 points into your own career change – no matter which stage you are at.

You’ll leave the day with the confidence, tools and peer group to make a successful change. For further details, click here

Below are details of an excellent workshop being run in London by Michael Bungay Stanier.

Michael Bungay Stanier, the founder and Senior Partner of Box of Crayons, was the 2006 Canadian Coach of the Year.  Box of Crayons typically work with global Fortune 1000 clients across a wide range of sectors, including Consumer Goods (Campbell’s, Mars, Nestle), Pharmaceuticals (AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Pfizer), and Professional Service Firms (Gartner Inc, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

I’ve admired Michael’s work from a distance for a number of years and am sure this workshop will be a provokotive, fun and highly valuable day for anyone wanting to stop just being ‘busy’ and instead start doing some great work which is satisfying and rewarding.   

Find Your Great Work Public Workshop
How to Find, Start and Sustain Your Great Work, with Michael Bungay Stanier
Saturday, February 21, 2009
9:30 am – 4:30pm
RIBA – 66 Portland Place, London

Register Now Great Work workshop: CA$169.00 – approx. £99
Register Now Bring-a-Friend price: CA$118.00 – approx. £69

(Bring-a-Friend at the reduced rate available only with purchase of one full price ticket)

Are you doing Great Work? Or just Good Work?

Do any of these ring true for you?
• I feel busy all the time
• I feel like I’m in a bit of a rut – and wondering what’s next
• I spend my time just processing all the work coming at me. I’m just trying to keep afloat
• I’m not doing the work that matters – I’m not even sure what work does really matters
• I’ve lost sight of why I’m doing what I’m doing

What if, instead, you could do more Great Work and less Good Work?

Find Your Great Work

During this fun, stimulating and provoking workshop, you’ll be working on how to define, start and then sustain your Great Work.

You’ll learn:
• What the difference is between Good Work and Great Work – and why it matters to you
• Where to look for the seeds of your own Great Work
• How to decide where you should focus your time and energy
• A way of better balancing the demands of your organization with your own goals and ambitions
• How to generate a broader range of possibilities and options – and then how to pick the most powerful choice
• How to create an action plan that sticks

For further details and learn about booking a place click here.

“Wealth is not found in what you own, but in how you spend your time. A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can let alone”

- Henry David Thoreau

Do you get stressed with the amount of ’stuff’ on your ‘to do’ list? Are you overwhelmed by the complexity of modern life – either at the office or at home? Do you often wish for a far simpler lifestyle?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, you’ll enjoy the following interview with Leo Babauta. Leo is a thought leader and author on productivity and simplicity. He’s the author of the hugely popular blog Zen Habits which is one of top 100 most popular blogs in the world with more than 80,000 subscribers. He’s also the author of a new book that comes out next week – “The Power of Less.”

I recently interviewed Leo to discuss the new book and also get he’s thoughts on how we can all become much more effective in managing our careers and lifestyles in 2009 – particularly in view of the current economic climate.

Sital: Leo, many of our readers won’t be familiar with you and the Zen Habits blog. Can you briefly tell us about yourself and how you ended up writing the blog and becoming an author? Click here to read the rest…

“There’s usually a minimum threshold that gets someone to pick a job and stick with it, but beyond that, the things we do are expressions of who we are and what we love and the impact we wish to make, not selfish acts designed to earn a few extra bucks. (No one paid you to read this post, I bet).”

This quote is from an interesting post on Seth Godin’s blog yesterday.

I often get asked questions about my own blog and newsletter  -“So why is it free? Where’s the catch..?”

Similarly when I refer candidates to recruiters or pass across business leads to contacts, I sometimes will over hear people say ”That’s good of him - but he is of course getting a financial kick back for it!” – which makes me chuckle as it’s completely untrue.  

So why am I doing it..?

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Every major set back or stumble I have suffered during my career has taught me a valuable lesson. 

Where I initialy chose to ignore the lesson – the stumble often turned into a fall until I learned the lesson. Whether it be a lesson about people, business, life -- or indeed a lesson about me.

A point summed up perfectly by Oprah in this 4 minute clip from her recent address to the 2008 graduates at Stanford University. Advice which applies in equal measure to those at the beginning of their careers as it does to more experienced individuals like you and me.

Have you a particular career challenge at the moment?

What’s the lesson you need to learn….?

Here’s a tease from the tip in my weekly newsletter ‘Straight Talk’ - if you haven’t already, I hope you’ll sign up

In life, in business and in your career, asking the ‘Why’ question is what achieves progress. Asking ‘why’ creates breakthroughs. Asking ‘why’ creates innovations. Asking ‘why’ solves problems.

Every major financial institution is currently asking itself the question “Why?”

(Aside from the obvious “Why did we ever get into the sub-prime business?!”)

They are looking at which markets they are involved in.  Which products and solutions are on offer? 

And then asking Why?  What purpose do they serve?

Asking these questions will create the breakthrough to achieve a turnaround and ride out the tough market.

You should be doing exactly the same thing. Asking yourself ‘why’ questions about your job and your career.

When you start asking questions of yourself you start to uncover insights and motivations that you didn’t realise were there.  You start coming up with solutions to problems that previously seemed unsolvable.

To read the full article, click here to sign up.

1. “Mark – my boss. I’ve forgotten what he looks like – I never see him. We exchange emails, do conference calls – but it’s all about business. I know we’re busy, but rarely do I get any quality time, feedback or discussion about me or my career. Even when I try raising the subject, it’s always ‘Everything is fine, I have another meeting to get to. We’ll speak soon.’ Cheers Mark.”

2. “Charlotte in HR. What does she do all day? OK, well I do get some help when it comes to hiring & firing my team. And I suppose she is a nice enough person. But do I get any support from her regarding my career? Do I actually trust her sufficiently to even have an open discussion about me? Not a chance.”

3. “My team. They have constant gripes and complaints about their jobs, careers, salary packages etc. Many of these things I have little control over. But I do my bit to give them direction, keep them engaged and motivated. But who is doing that for me? Where is my support? I rarely have the support or tools to do the job, but am expected to just get on with it. Great!”

4. “Charles, the head hunter with his overly posh ‘Lloyd Grossman style’ accent (surely no one speaks like that when they are at home, do they?). He talks about being an advisor and consultant to help me make the right decisions, but I’m never really sure how impartial these guys are. After all, his main focus is earning fees, right? And in the current job market, there is only one person Charles is looking out for – and that’s Charles.”

5. “Sheila – my wife. She’s constantly complaining about me working long hours, not seeing the kids enough and not spending quality time with her. But at the same time she’s happy to just spend, spend, spend like there’s no tomorrow. Doesn’t she realise that there won’t be much of a bonus pot come the end of 2008? She simply doesn’t get it…”

Click here to read the rest…