Quote: What is genius?

In honor of his birthday (2/11/1847), a quote from Thomas Alva Edison:

“Genius is one percent inspiration, and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

Shifting Careers

I referred to a column written by Marci Alboher a couple of months ago, and that led me to start reading her columns periodically. I was pleased to discover recently that Marci is now writing a new blog for the New York Times called Shifting Careers.

If you haven’t discovered Marci’s writings, you should check out her blog. It is very well written, entertaining, and insightful. She writes about what she calls the “slash” or “/” career, as in her personal experience as a “corporate lawyer/journalist/speaker/writing coach/and now columnist/blogger.” Perhaps I enjoy her writing so much because she makes me feel better about all the slashes in my career, as in “journalist/retail manager/CPA/technical writer/trainer/career coach.”

As soon as I get a chance, I’m going to pick up a copy of her new book, One Person/Multiple Careers: A New Model for Work/Life Success (Business Plus, 2007).

Study: Personality can predict performance

A recent study conducted by Dr. Nathan Bowling at Wright State University found that personality can be an effective predictor of job performance success. A couple of excerpts from the findings follow:
I’ve often debated with fellow graduate students and managers over the relationship between job performance and job satisfaction. Are employees satisfied at work because they perform at a high level? Or do employees perform at a high level because they are satisfied at work? Prevailing wisdom is that high performance follows job satisfaction, though there are compelling arguments for both sides.

Bowling’s research, however, rejects both arguments. He suggests that both are a result of personality characteristics:

“My study shows that a cause and effect relationship does not exist between job satisfaction and performance. Instead, the two are related because both satisfaction and performance are the result of employee personality characteristics, such as self-esteem, emotional stability, extroversion and conscientiousness.”

What are the implications? Please share your thoughts…

7 principles to work by

My reading list has historically been second-hand, meaning that I tend to build my list based on recommendations from others. Rarely do I snoop around the shelves and tables of the bookstore looking for the hidden gems that others may have overlooked. I’ve always had a never-ending supply of recommended reading (college professors are good for that), combined with a short supply of time and patience for shopping, so the second-hand method works well for me.

It’s unusual, then, that I would impulsively pick up a book to read, but this particular book recently caught my attention: Keeping the Faith, by Ana Mollinedo Mims. The book is Ana’s very narrative and personal story about how she incorporates her faith into her personal career, and the impact that has had on finding meaning and success in her professional life.

In the book, she describes the seven principles of her faith-based philosophy:

1. Faith – How to bring meaning to our work and infuse what we do with purpose.
2. Prayerfulness – How to pause and take stock of any and all situations, centering our thoughts and bettering everything we set forth to accomplish.
3. Humility – How infusing this in all things can bring about the most prosperity.
4. Integrity – Why goodness and quality serve us long after a job is done.
5. Forgiveness – Why adopting forgiveness does and will lead to greater meaning.
6. Stewardship – How leading opens our options for all things.
7. Legacy – Why we must all care about the work we do, and how a job is never really finished.

What I liked about this book

First, I appreciate the spiritual perspective of this book. I have always believed that our faith should be reflected in our work, and that our work is a natural extension of who God created us to be. We find meaning in work and life by discovering what we were created to do. This book supports that philosophy.

Second, the book is a very comfortable read, and very inspiring. Her personal stories as well as the stories she tells of others lends believability to her ideas. In other words, you don’t get the idea that this is pie-in-the sky wishful thinking, but a pratical philosophy that anyone can embrace.

What I didn’t like about the book

In a word — the title. The theme of the book seems to be about finding success by incorporating faith into your work and career. I think the words “Work” or “Career” or even “Purpose” should figure prominently in the title. Granted, the subtitle is “How Applying Spiritual Purpose to Your Work Can Lead to Extraordinary Success,“ but that’s not prominent enough to capture most readers.

Conclusion

The book was not what I expected when I picked it up, but I was pleasantly surprised. One of the reasons I wrote this review is that I think many people will disregard the book because of the title, and miss out on an enjoyable and inspiring read. If you are wondering how to integrate your faith and career, you will enjoy this book.

And it may help you answer the question, What were you created to do?

Advice for older job seekers

Thanks to YourHRGuy for drawing my attention to this article in Forbes Magazine. It offers three rules for older (40 plus) job seekers:

• Rule #1: Job seekers over 40 need a resume that looks forward, not backward.

• Rule #2: Don’t be defensive, and don’t omit dates.

• Rule #3: Don’t be afraid to sell yourself.

The writer suggests that younger job seekers need to emphasize work experience, but older job seekers need to change the perpective from “Look at everything I’ve done” to “Look at what I can do for you.” In other words, the resume becomes less about the candidate and more about the employer.

The author writes,

“Beware of writing a résumé that generates awe but not interviews. Your résumé should persuade a potential employer to grant you an interview, not your old employer to give you a gold watch.”

Older job seekers often have a hard time selling themselves for two keys reasons:

First, older workers tend to think that selling themselves is tantamount to bragging about their past accomplishments, and they consider bragging to be in bad form (rightfully so). Self-marketing, however, is not as much about past accomplishments as it is about future potential. True, there is a correlation between past accomplishments and future potential, but self-marketing should emphasize what you can do for someone else. Past accomplishments are merely the supporting evidence.

Second, many workers do not know what their real strengths, gifts, and passions are. For many years, they have defined themselved by their job description rather than their strengths and interests. Employers are less interested in your previous titles and job descriptions. They want to know that you have the skills and passion to do the job.

If your job serach has you looking to the past, you need to shift your thinking to the future. I believe that everyone has a unique purpose in life.

What were you created to do?

Note to butchers: don’t hire vegetarians

Thanks to the Be Excellent blog for pointing me to this article in Entrepreneur Magazine. In the article, Robert Kiyosaki stresses that businesses need to hire people with a passion for their mission.

Hiring the right people — the people with the right passion — is one of the toughest jobs for any business. But maybe not the toughest. The toughest job may be getting rid of the wrong people. Hiring for skills will get an organization only so far. Hiring for passion will help the organization excel.

Kiyosaki says his rich dad told him

“Hire people who are mission-driven — people who share your vision. If you don’t, your business will struggle, or may never even get off the ground.”

In other words… if you own a butcher shop, don’t hire vegetarians.

Implication for Job Seekers

Why is it so challenging for businesses to hire for passion? One reason, I suspect, is that many job applicants don’t know or cannot convey their passion.

If you don’t know what your passion is, how will your employer — or potential employer — ever know? You need to know what you are passionate about, and be able to effectively express your passion. If you don’t know what your passion is, there are many tools to help you. One such tool I just came across recently is a new book by Dan Miller entitled 48 Days to the Work You Love.

You should also consider finding a coach who can help you discover your strengths and passions.

What were you created to do?

 

Work Quote

Occasionally I come across a quote about work that inspires and motivates me. Rather than just reading them and moving on, I thought I would start sharing them here. This one is from Woodrow Wilson:

“You are not here merely to make a living. You are here to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.”

How have you enriched the world today?

Career success

What defines a “successful” career?

• Money?
• Power?
• Prestige?
• Popularity?

Too often we define success by looking in the review mirror. We look at our accomplishments to see how our peers and employers value our contribution — measured by our salary, position, or influence. In other words, we let the market be our measure of success or greatness.

Seth Godin talks about this phenomenon as it relates to a work of art, or a song. If the picture sells for a lot of money, or if the musician becomes really famous, our society tends to assume that there must be some inherent quality that makes it great. He says

“After all, what makes a great work of art should have nothing at all to do with how much it sells for and everything to do with how it makes you feel. I think the game here is in the definition of ‘great.’ And what society has chosen…is that ‘great’ means successful. Not the other way around.”

We tend to do the same thing with our careers. We spend too much energy focusing on how to be “great” instead of how to be “successful.” We find success by using our gifts, talents, and passion to help or serve others. We find success by discovering and doing what we are created to do.

What are you created to do?

Help wanted?

Good news for the job market: both workers and managers expect strong job growth in the coming months. The February Hudson Index indicates that 32 percent of workers (up 2 percent) and 33 percent of managers (up 3 percent) expect their organization to add jobs in the near future.

In addition, a record low of 14 percent expect layoffs in the coming months.

Of course, the numbers are based on employee perceptions, but it does suggest that employees are becoming increasingly optimistic about the job market. I’d be interested in hearing your perception of the job market where you live (hint: leave a comment).

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UPDATE: I just came across another interesting Hudson survey:

• 21 percent of employees beleive they will earn “significantly” more in 2007 than in 2006
• 42 percent of employees expect to earn “a little” more in 2007 than in 2006

Thus, about two-thirds of employees have a positive outlook on their financial situation.

The Value of Work #2

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a comment about the Value of Work. To my surprise, it has become the most popular post on my blog to date, despite the fact — or perhaps because of the fact — that it contains no original content on my part. (Thanks for keeping me humble!)

Considering the popularity of that post, I thought you would enjoy this post from Guy Kawasaki’s blog about the Gift of Work. It links to a sermon by Nancy Ortberg. Disregard the comments in the blog about the video being taken down — apparently their site got overloaded, but it is back up now.

Let me know if you find this as meaningful as I did.