Sometimes you hear a presentation and it stays with you. That happened to me when I heard Bruce Kirkby (that is KirKby, with two K’s) talk about “When Magic Happens” during the early bird session on the last day of the HRPA conference (January 25, 2013). Bruce started by telling us he graduated years ago with an engineering degree from Queen’s University, but he fell into an unconventional path where magic happens. And this guy has had some big adventures. His presentation made an impression on me, and I choked up a bit when listening to him that morning (and now as I write this post).
Bruce told us a story about a sixteen year old girl and an incident when her boyfriend tried to teach her how to drive a car. We can imagine how that ended. The experience was such that she was seriously afraid of driving and had not driven a car since. This young girl was now a married woman (no, she did not marry that boyfriend), and she was a mom with children. She felt very dependent on others to get from place to place and she really wanted to overcome her fear so she could drive her kids to their activities. As part of the TV series he was hosting Bruce Kirkby set her up to conquer her fear of driving. Guess what – after three days of intense driving lessons, she was driving. You might think – big deal. But she was driving a real race car in a real live race. She immediately went home and acquired her beginner’s driver license and finally her driver’s license.
During very real intense real human moments, when you conquer your fear, magic happens. ~ Bruce Kirkby
Overcoming her fear and learning how to drive opened this women up to new experiences like trying skiing, and asking for (and getting) a promotion at work. And it went on from there. This is the magic of overcoming your fear. It has a ripple effect.
We use the word adventure as a metaphor for attaining our dreams. ~ Bruce Kirkby
This is the visual that Bruce used to describe adventure. He said that most of us live in the “small circle” where we are comfortable. But “We deserve to live in the big circle. That is where magic happens.” The big circle is the visual to describe adventure (and personal growth).
And Bruce went on to describe adventure this way “Adventure – how do I put it into words. It isn’t just climbing a mountain. It’s crossing a threshold. Getting out of our comfort zone.” But where does your comfort zone end? What is your fundamental fear?
Fear is a compass.
We think happiness is comfort. We search for comfort, the routine, habit and resist change. ~ Bruce Kirkby
Think about this for a moment, if we are chasing comfort in our lives, what are we missing? Are we pushing away growth? Do we know where the threshold is where fear turns from being a motivating factor to paralyzing us so much that we can’t move forward?
Bruce describe the comfort zone as “Hey diddle diddle. Going down the middle.” We need to be aware that when we experience fear, that is our compass guiding us towards growth. We need to know our threshold of fear. We need enough fear that it moves us forward out of our comfort zone (green) and stretches us towards growth (yellow), and not so much that fear becomes paralyzing (orange) so that we are stuck where we are, never changing, and never growing.
I know how fear can paralyze you. I am deathly afraid of heights, so much so that when I climbed the fire tower in Parry Sound, Ontario with my husband, then boyfriend, I could not look down when climbing up to the top. When I had to go back down down the mesh steps I could not do it. I was literally paralyzed. I had to crawl down the stairway with my eyes closed, with my husband placing each foot one-by-one on the descending steps until we reached a height I could manage. So knowing your fear threshold is important.
Touch the rock.
I was surprized to hear that Bruce Kirkby has (had) a fear of heights as well. And he climbed a mountain. He asked us: Does fear stop you from trying new things? He told us that one time when he was climbing a mountain they arrived at a section where fear nearly paralyzed him so much so that he almost didn’t make it to the top.
Touch the rock. Don’t let your imagination of fear turn you back from experiencing awesome experiences and personal growth. ~ Bruce Kirkby
When my children were young, my husband and I went back to the fire tower in Parry Sound, and I got half way up and I panicked. I went back down because I didn’t want my kids to see me that frightened. But as I reached the bottom of the tower, I knew I would miss their accomplishment of climbing that great big tower and to see their reactions to the magnificent view. I basically sprinted up the tower and got there just in time as they reached the top. Did I have trouble going down? Of course I did, but I walked down keeping my eyes to the horizon, not to the bottom, and I didn’t need help, except for the wee hand that was grasping mine, and a little voice saying “You can do it mommy.” My husband and kids were so cute when they cheered and clapped when I reached the ground. I sure felt like kissing the ground, but I had touched the rock and it felt great.
Start now.
Life is too short, too precious. Just get up and do the things that you yearn to do. ~ Bruce Kirkby
When Bruce was on his first book tour he said people often asked him how he managed to write a book. He told them all, and there were many who asked him the same question, if you want to write a book, “go home and write it.” Out of all the people that he spoke to, one woman went home that very day and started to write her book. And during his next book tour, there it was sitting right next to his on the book store shelf.
Why do we make things so hard? When we say – Pick up a pen and paper and start writing – it doesn’t sound so hard. But why do so many not do the things they yearn to do? (Hint: it might have something to do with an abundance of “bozosity,” so read on if you are curious).
Second day sucks.
Bruce said that in any adventure, you will come across the little bump that can stop you. But if you can get over it, it gets better. Life certainly throws us curve balls. But if we can get over the hurdles and obstacles, it makes us stronger and we LEARN from that experience. I think that gives us more POWER in our own self, then we had before.
Ignore the bozos.
Sometime when you start out on a new adventure, or new journey to personal growth, people will attempt to prevent you from trying.
Ignore the bozos. Don’t listen to them. There is a preponderance of bozosity in the world. ~ Bruce Kirkby
(Don’t you just love that term, “bozosity”). He also noted that he is often his own bozo and that we all are often our own bozo. And we have to stop the negative dialogue going on in our own head trying to prevent us from leaving our comfort zone. Sure, we should listen enough to weigh all the pros and cons, but finally at this point, it is like Robert Frost and his two paths as a metaphor: Do we want to stay in our place of comfort or travel the path where magic will happen?
~~~
I loved the touch points in Bruce Kirkby’s presentation, “When Magic Happens.”
Fear is a compass.
Touch the rock.
Start now.
Second day sucks.
Ignore the bozos.
Not only can these concepts be applied to our life but also to our careers and in the workplace. Imagine using these concepts when it comes to creating a new product or service, or heading out in a new career direction.
After this session, I tried my first Google+ Hangout Live Broadcast, and I finally posted my first vlog. Was I scared? Yes. I had major “bozosity” going on – what if I make a mistake, what if this and what if that?Just stop already. Are the videos perfect? Far from it. Did I grow and learn from doing them? Absolutely. And that is what life is all about, isn’t it?
Which path are you travelling? Which path are you going to take? What are you scared of the most? It is never too late.
Please share your comments. And if the comments section is closed, please contact me to share your comments and refer to this post “When magic happens.”
Joanne Royce creates happy, healthy, and productive workplaces through HR, recruiting, and training initiatives for organizations that invest in people to invest in success.
Photo credits: Joanne Royce (photos of slides from Bruce Kirkby’s presentation, “When magic happens.” February 2013, HRPA 2013)
I created this vlog in May 2012 and never posted it. I guess I was still too “scared” to post it then, but I’m posting now. It’s almost 7 minutes long, so just over 1 minute per tip. Here it is …
Today, I’m doing something that scares me. I’m posting my first vlog on six tips for success in your first career job (or in any new job)! I hope you enjoy it. Doing something new can cause the “fear-factor” to increase and sometimes if we wait for perfection we will never do it.
What are your tips for success in your job, especially a new position? Share in the comments section below. If the comments are closed, you can contact me; just mention the blog title along with your comments.
Joanne Royce creates happy, healthy, and productive workplaces through HR, recruiting, and training initiatives for organizations that invest in people to invest in success.
This post is inspired by a Tweet from @Achievers. “Cash awards end up as groceries. No one works late for an extra banana.”
It made me laugh, but it is so true. It made me think about my pickle bowl. If you are curious about what a pickle bowl has to do with recognition, read on.
Earlier in my career I was responsible for HR and Administration for a medium sized company. The administration part included managing the facilities of the company. We were moving to a new location and anyone who has been involved in the logistics of a move including managing the construction, contractors, suppliers, and the move itself, knows that it is a huge project. Schedules, deadlines, and project management are key. If one date is negatively impacted then it’s a domino effect and dates and schedules come crashing down. I was the project manager working with a small team to make it happen.
I’m happy to say that the relocation and project was an awesome success and on Monday when our people came to work, everything was in place (including a rose and chocolate at each desk), with the phones and computers working. Did it take extra time at work? Yes, there were many late hours and I did them willingly. It was such a challenge and I wanted everything to work out well. In fact, during the move itself, I brought my children on the Saturday, and set them up in my boss’s office with their homework, some movies, and snacks during a small segment of the move until my husband was off work and could pick them up. (They talked happily about that adventure for a long time).
After the move the two owners of the company recognized our contributions by thanking us during a company “Welcome to Our New Office” meeting on the Monday after the move. I also received a nice bonus, and some additional days off. Of course I appreciated the extra cash and time off, but guess what I remember the most. Did you guess?
I remember my pickle bowl.
I LOVE my pickle bowl.
But why do I love my pickle bowl? I love it because my boss took the time to go and pick it out. Now maybe he thought I was old-fashioned. But maybe he knew that I loved antiques, and pretty things that are practical and can be used every day. In any case, I was delighted by the gift. He told me he found it in a small antique store near his home and he thought I would like it. The fact that he took the time to think about what I might like meant a lot to me. Of course the bonus and the time off were appreciated, but I don’t remember how I spent the cash. I probably bought groceries and bananas. The time off might have been used for a day here and there, as time is often needed especially while raising young children.
But the pickle bowl is what I use to this day. In fact, it is a recognition gift that keeps on giving. When I use it, I smile, and I think of that project, and that success, and my boss going into the antique shop looking for the perfect pickle bowl to show me how much my work was appreciated.
So what was so right about my pickle bowl for recognition? Well, recognition should be timely, social, and personalized to have the greatest impact and it does NOT have to be cash.
Timely – given as close to the event as possible.
Social – recognition communicated to everyone not just to the person receiving it.
Personalized – to the person receiving the recognition. One size does not fit all.
Does NOT have to be cash – or cost a lot. Thank you’s are free.
So next time you are thinking of recognizing someone with a bonus, and time off, add in a token of appreciation that shows you have personally thought of that person and his or her contribution. It will be something the person will never forget.
Remember the pickle bowl.
Joanne Royce, Royce & Associates helps create happy, healthy, and productive workplaces by developing HR initiatives that are cost effective and practical, training your people so they excel at their jobs, and providing outsourced HR to organizations that need it. Contact us to help us support your people so you can focus on growing your business.
Posted by Joanne on February 13, 2013 Comments Off
I am taking a course called Grow to Greatness through Coursera, an online platform for open-access, non-credit classes, available at no cost to audiences around the world. Along with 67,000 students from the across the globe, I am learning from Edward D. Hess, Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business and author of Grow to Greatness. Professor Hess is so good that I actually forget that his lectures are recorded and not real time. He a great story teller which is one of the signs of a very good lecturer.
The focus of the course is on how to successfully grow an existing private business. It is based on the Hess’s research and thirty years of real-world experience advising private growth companies. I am taking it because many of my clients are small business owners and I have seen first-hand how accelerated growth (or no growth at all) can diminish the success of an organization. I also run my own business providing HR, recruiting and training solutions to organizations wanting to create happy, healthy, and productive workplaces, so the key learning applies to my business as well.
The first week was awesome and we were asked to highlight three key moments that stood out. Only three?
Growth is like Mother Nature. Growth can be good and it can be bad.
Mother Nature gives us sunny days (good) and it also gives us tornadoes (bad). Just like Mother Nature, growth can be good or it can be bad. Growth is good when everything is in place to support it, but it is bad when it happens when people, processes, and controls are not in place or ready to support that growth. Businesses need better and more people, processes, and controls in place for successful growth. Many businesses have imploded when growth happened to quickly without people, processes, and controls in place. Growth can stress quality controls, financial controls, diminish your customer’s value proposition, dilute your organizational culture, and put you in a different competitive space. For example, perhaps your size of organization put you in competition with other small businesses, but once you grew, you found yourself competing with larger organizations that you just could not compete against. I worked for a privately owned real estate company back in the day when it was a small company. The company merged with a larger company. I happened to be interviewed for the company newsletter, along with other employees and managers, about the change. I remember saying something like, “It’s an exciting opportunity, but I hope it does not change the small family-like culture we have right now.” I was an administrator at the time and I remember managers telling me how brave I was to say what I said, because everyone was thinking the same thing. Of course, the culture of the organization changed. There was no way it could not change. The organizational culture was certainly “diluted” and the merger put the company in competition with other big players in the field.
Businesses must “improve or die” NOT “grow or die.”
In week one, we learned the truth about growth. One of the myths perpetrated in the business world is “Businesses must grow or die.” This is a business axiom that has no validity or research to back it up. In fact the adage, “Businesses must grow or die” is a myth that is much better replaced by, “Businesses must improve or die.” Was that what happened to RIM, now called BLACKBERRY? Growth (and innovation) in the earlier days put them on top and allowed for the financial funds to build a stunningly beautiful building, but not enough was channelled to improving the product and keeping up with the competition. It’s focus should have been on improving.
Always carry something on your worry plate
Good entrepreneur always have something to worry about. There is always something on the entrepreneur’s worry plate, and the minute that worry disappears that is the start of problems and business decline. I know that one of my favourite clients had a lot of worry during the recession. He told me he stayed awake at night worrying about whether he had the sales to keep all forty of his employees and their families safe from the impact of lay-offs. (How can you not love a client who thinks like that?) I think always having something on your worry plate, also has something to do with ego. If you have a successful entrepreneur thinking he’s got it made and focusing on ego with no worries about the business, customers, and employees, that is the moment the business is in trouble.
Growth is not linear.
Growth is not linear and businesses need to expect the ups and downs that come with evolving a business. At times the business might even move backwards, and then forward. It is unwise to expect year after year of consistent growth in a linear fashion. That very rarely ever happens.
Successful growth depends on more and better people, processes, and controls.
If growth is on the table, make sure that your people, processes, and controls are ready.
People: Do you have the right people in place? Hire slowly and fire quickly. Hess states that research shows that most business owners do the exact opposite. They hire too late and too quickly when there is chaos, and they put up with poor performance or poor fit for way too long. Based on my HR practice, in most cases with my clients, I found the same to be true. Take the time to understand the competencies (skills, knowledge, and attributes) necessary to help the company succeed. Don’t hire a clone of yourself; rather hire someone who has complementary skills. If you like sales, but hate execution, hire someone with great organizational and tactical skills. Listen to your employees and observe the workplace. Is there high stress and tension that does not seem to abate? Are there increased conflict and sickness? These may be signs that your people are not keeping up with growth. Trust and engage your employees, and indeed, love them like you love your customers.
Processes: Design, manufacturing, sales, and distribution processes need to be researched and in place. Face to face contact with suppliers and manufacturer, if you decide not to do this in-house, is key to developing trusting relationships. Research the best processes. Are your suppliers slipping? Are deadlines being missed? Is your database and invoicing experiencing glitches? These may be signs that your processes are not keeping up with growth. There are so many variables with growth. If your invoicing system won’t handle the volume and keeps crashing, that is not good for business.
Controls: Don’t abdicate check signing to someone else and keep a very close eye on cash flow. We read a case study where one business owner found out that her bookkeeper was defrauding the company with the help of the shipping personnel whom the bookkeeper had recommended for hire. The owner ended up having to fire all of them. Is quality slipping? Is cash flow becoming an issue? These may be signs that your controls are not keeping pace with growth. Make sure you have controls in place that give you the information you need to make good decisions.
Be careful about customer concentration – don’t bag the elephant
Many small businesses might think that concentrating on one large customer (bagging the elephant) is the best growth scenario, but it can actually put them at risk. I know from my own experience that large corporations often have 60 to 90 day payments terms, and as a small business entrepreneur, those terms are not the best for me. I worked with the client who found out that hard way that bagging the elephant was not good for business. When that large client decided to bring the work in-house, the client went bankrupt. To reduce risk, it is better to have a diverse set of smaller clients, then bagging the elephant.
Love your customers, not your product
Research shows that high performance companies have: Strategic FOCUS, operational excellence, constant improvement, customer centricity, and high employee engagement. Hess used the analogy of 2 inches wide by 2 miles deep – now that’s laser focus. The emphasis should be on taking care of your customer and not about your love of your product or service. Entrepreneurs who spend time defending the product and service and not actively listening to customers will not succeed in the long run. Have you run into a customer with a specific need and budget? Of course you have. Did you try to promote a BMW version of your product or service, but they only wanted (and could afford) the KIA version? Less time should be spent “defending” a specific product or service and more time on listening to what the client wants. Of course, if you want to promote your high-end product or service, you can also find the ones that value it and have the budget for it, but that still takes listening to your customer and having laser focus. That also means saying “NO” to opportunities that don’t hit the company’s sweet spot.
The “gas pedal” approach to business growth
Businesses should use the “gas pedal” approach to growth. This approach allows for spurts of growth, and letting up on the gas pedal to let people, processes, and controls catch up. Doing so helps ensure there are no negative impacts on quality, production, distribution, customers, employees, culture, and cash flow.
Biological growth
Hess shared with us the biological certainty that many species limit their growth to increase chances of survival. He applied this to business growth calling it biological growth. At some point in the growth of a business, a once agile company can become bogged down by bureaucratic processes and controls. Growth increases complexity and the need for additional management and skills. And as a company evolves and grows it might find that the people who helped get them to that point, won’t get them to where they want to go. Employees need to be educated and trained and in some causes the solution will be to move them into another role or to part ways if the skills needed are not there. It is ironic that my logo symbolizes the biological growth concept and the key learning from the first week. If you look at my logo you will see the “roots and the leaves” of a plant. If we want the plant to grow, we need to water it, fertilize it, and make sure it gets sunlight. If we want the plant to grow faster, we might think that if we provide it with more water, fertilizer, and sunlight it might grow faster, but in fact, we can kill the plant.
Growing too fast can kill a business.
What are your thoughts? Have you experienced good and bad growth with your own company?
Royce & Associates provides outsourced HR support to organizations. We can help with hiring and developing the right people and making sure HR processes and controls are in place to help support “good” growth. Contact us.
Photo credits: Purchased for use on this site only.
In the article “Is the Internet bad for us?” (The Star, Fri Dec 28 2012) Josh Tapper, the author, notes that:
The average Canadian spends more than 45 hours online each month. (ComScore, a global internet use tracker)
More the one-third of wired Canadians use internet-ready digital devices before getting out of bed in the morning, and nearly 50 per cent click away right before falling asleep. (Angus Reid/Vision Critical poll conducted for the Star)
In June 2012, Canadians sent nearly 270 million texts per day. In 2005, the monthly average was 4.1 million. (Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association)
Research also suggests that large amounts of time spent online results in a decrease in self-esteem, increase in stress and anxiety, decrease in attention span, decrease in how efficiently we multi-task, and a decrease in communication skills. The article goes on to suggest that the skills gap is even more pronounced among teenagers and young adults of the Gen Y generation.
Gen Y is broadly defined as those born in the 1980s and 1990s. While it is never a good idea to over-generalize for any generation, Gen Y bring many new skills to the workplace. These skills include being tech-savvy, socially connected (on-line), and collaborative, all of which are great skills to have in the workplace. But as more Gen Y enter the workplace, the communication skills gap widens. It is ironic that the on-line skills that are a strength seem to result in a skills gap when it comes to face-to-face interpersonal communications skills.
In Grown Up Digital: Gen-Y Implications for Organizations, Fonda D. Na’Desh writes that “Gen Y lacks communication skills.” She shares that participants in a study described Gen Y coworker’s communication styles or communication limitations as a negative characteristic, stating that Gen Y coworkers were not diplomatic in conversations, impatient with explanations and questions, needed to practice tact, were very outspoken, and were bluntly honest. It’s easy to see why there is a communication skills gap, especially with face-to-face communications, when this generation has grown up communicating by text, and online. There is no way that online interactions and texting allow the participants to adapt their communication style based on feedback received through tone of voice, eye contact, and body language.
Gen Y will comprise more than 40% of the U.S. workforce by 2020. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) There will be a huge wave of Gen Y in the workplace and the interpersonal communication skills gap will continue to widen.
Perhaps at some point we will all work virtually and face-to-face or verbal communication skills will not be necessary, and indeed, our brains will become rewired. But in the immediate future, effective interpersonal communications skills are essential for success. Thankfully, interpersonal communication skills can be learned, and improved through practice and education.
What are you doing in your workplace to ensure your Gen Y workers have the interpersonal communications skills necessary for success? Are you investing in the development of this essential skill for all your people in your workplace regardless of generation?
Photo Credit: Istock – Purchased for use on this site only
Royce & Associates offers an Effective Interpersonal Communications program and Generations at Work workshops to diminish the interpersonal communication skill gap. If your workplace would benefit from our programs, please contact us for a complimentary one-hour review of your learning and development needs. At that time, we will also share with you the key characteristics of effective communicators. In the meantime, please review our blog archive series on the interpersonal communication skills of active listening and meeting personal and practical needs.
How can not setting any new year’s resolutions help you succeed?
New year’s resolutions set you up for failure.
Fitness Trainer Claudine De Jong mentions in her blog post “Cut the fad out” that New Year’s resolutions ultimately fail. Setting “short term goals” work much better because they are less intimidating. Slow and steady wins over new year’s resolutions that are hard to sustain over time (i.e. fad diets).
Leo Widrich in “The science of new year’s resolutions: Why 88% fail and how to make them work” explains why our brains fail at new year’s resolutions. It is because “when you set a new year’s resolution, an enormous amount of willpower is required. It’s an amount that your brain simply can’t handle.” The good news is that we can train our brains to succeed, by making less abstract, tiny goals, linked to small and specific behaviours.
One goal that I set last year was to become a more physically stronger person (I know, this sounds like a very abstract goal). This was after a ski trip last February, when I sadly and shockingly realized how out of shape I had become. Too much sitting at a desk can make you weak (and can kill you, or so the scientific research tells us so). I certainly had the motivation to want to get in shape and like many people, I have signed up for gym membership in January, started out with a bang, and ended with a fizzle. So this time, I made the best investment in my health that I could. I found myself a fitness trainer (through Twitter), who just happened to be Claudine De Jong. I wanted to learn how to become healthier without relying on a gym to get me there.
Claudine believes that slow and steady sets the pace and prevents injuries. I didn’t start out lifting heavy weights, working out seven days a week and setting myself up for failure. I started out slow by setting a goal to work out once a week. According to the scientific studies, by starting out with a small behaviour change, I was training my brain for goal success.
This kinder and gentler approach, with small changes in behaviour, made things happen. I noticed changes in my body. I was no longer huffing and puffing up the stairs. My energy increased. I was more conscious about what I was eating and cut back on the “white” stuff (white sugar, rice, pasta, milk, flour) and red meat. I increased my intake of water, whole grains and lentils. I liked how my clothes were fitting. I liked that I no longer felt “stuffed” after eating. I started getting out and going for walks on the weekend with my husband. The slow and steady, one small behaviour change at a time, had a snow ball effect, resulting in a stronger and healthier me.
So this year, instead of setting a New Year’s resolution, set smaller, short-term goals, and be specific about the behaviours that will get you there. This process works whether setting personal or workplace goals. And if being a stronger you is one of your goals, contact Claudine De Jong to help you get there or get you started.
Wishing you a happy, healthy, and productive 2013.
Joanne Royce, Royce & Associates provides Outsourced HR, recruiting, and training solutions to organizations wishing to create happy, healthy, and productive workplaces. Give us a call.
Photo credit: My hubby (And in case you are wondering - No, I’m not getting ready for the ski-tuck racing position – as one of my colleagues jokingly suggested!)
Posted by Joanne on December 24, 2012 Comments Off
Tis the season for sharing the valuable commodity of TIME with loved ones. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas surrounded by the most important people in your life. Disconnect and be in the moment. That is what Christmas is all about.
Posted by Joanne on December 21, 2012 Comments Off
Last week’s blog was about following your passion, but following your passion is a journey and it isn’t always easy. First you have to find it. And it can be a long and winding journey with ups and downs.
Tips for finding your passion
Reflect on what you enjoyed doing when you were a child. As a child did you enjoy building towers and bridges, and taking apart radios to “see what’s inside?” If you did you might find your passion as an engineer, or mechanic. If you liked drawing and art, plus building structures, then you might find your passion as an architect.
Listen to the commonality in the words used to describe you or the nicknames given to you. “S/he would be a great lawyer.” And most especially why? “S/he is a great debater who has a well thought out approach about an issue and knows how to argue her case.” If you were called “The Harmony Builder” or “Ann Landers” as a teenager because you were a good listener and looked at both sides of an issue and your peers sought you out to help solve relationship issues, you might well find your passion in social work, counselling, or another one of the helping professions, including Human Resources.
Contemplate on the courses you enjoyed the most at school. If you loved writing poetry, and English classes, including grammar, you might find your passion in writing travel articles while travelling the world. If you enjoyed Math because it involved a system, formula, and process to obtain the correct answer, you might enjoy work that is more absolute and process-driven like an financial analyst or programming.
Think about the jobs you enjoyed the most. If you had a job at a grocery store, did you enjoy interacting with customers while on cash, or would you rather have been behind the scenes wrapping chickens? This will indicate whether you are more task-oriented or people-oriented and will help you find your passion at work. If you were in sales and loved it, but then accepted a position as a Sales Manager and hated it, you know where to find your passion.
Use assessment tools like Myers-Briggs, to increase your own self-awareness. Are you an extravert who gets energy from active involvement in a variety of activities and gets excited around people or are you an introvert who gets energy from ideas, pictures, and reactions inside your own head, who prefers doing things alone or with one or two people? If you are an introvert and a supervisor in a manufacturing plant dealing with people issues all day, you will likely come home drained and you might find your passion in a more task-oriented role like an analyst or an electrician.
Think about your current job. What are the tasks you enjoy the most and the least? If you enjoy a specific task, talk to your manager to find out how you can increase the scope of that responsibility in your career plan. What type of work environments do you thrive in? One that is more structured or one that is ambiguous and free flowing. This will help you find your passion.
Volunteer if you can’t find your passion at work. If you can’t find your passion at work, and changing jobs is not an option, seek out a place when you can volunteer in an area that you enjoy. Maybe it’s volunteering with a crisis support centre or building homes with Habitat for Humanity.
Look at the hobbies that bring you passion. Do you love photography or cooking? Continue to do that until you can leverage your skill and passion into full-time work.
Will mistakes be made? Yes. Will finding your passion take time? Yes.
Finding your passion involves time, energy, and self-awareness. Very rarely does it just happen.
Find and follow your passion. But remember that the journey is it.
How did you find your passion? What obstacles are you encountering in your journey to find your passion?
Royce and Associates offers career coaching, workshops and assessments to help individuals find their passion. Contact us for more info.
Welcome to our blog. Use our insider tips on human resources, training, and interpersonal relationships to create your own happy, healthy, and productive workplace. We'll also comment on life in general and share info and highlights from books.
Human Resources & Training Solutions
The average Canadian spends more than 45 hours online each month. (ComScore, a global internet use tracker)
Reflect on what you enjoyed doing when you were a child. As a child did you enjoy building towers and bridges, and taking apart radios to “see what’s inside?” If you did you might find your passion as an engineer, or mechanic. If you liked drawing and art, plus building structures, then you might find your passion as an architect.
