career clarity manifesto: a revolutionary recipe to a...

CAREER CLARITY MANIFESTO: A Revolutionary Recipe to a Nourishing Career | 3

Heather Petherick Career & Performance Coaching | www.HeatherPetherick.com ©Copyright 2013

Heather Petherick Career & Performance Coaching | www.HeatherPetherick.com © Copyright 2013


TABLE OF CONTENTSWHY A MANIFESTO? .................................................. 4

A Revolutionary Career Recipe ............................. 4

Tough Love ............................................................... 5

Allow Me to Get a Little Philosophical ................. 5

How to Use This Guide ........................................... 5

A Caveat .................................................................... 5

STEP 1. HOW DID YOU GET HERE? .......................... 6

The Bigger Picture .................................................. 7

STEP 2. WHERE ARE YOU NOW? .............................. 11

Career Satisfaction Scale....................................... 12

STEP 3. YOUR UNIQUE INGREDIENTS...................... 15

1. Talents ................................................................. 15

2. Personality .......................................................... 16

3. Problem/Purpose/Passion ............................... 17

STEP 4. CREATING A NEW CAREER RECIPE ............ 18

Final Insights ........................................................... 20

A Last Kick in the Pants ......................................... 21

Comments & Questions? ......................................... 22

Want More? ................................................................ 22

So Who the Heck is Heather Petherick Anyhow? 22

Works Cited ................................................................ 22

4 | CAREER CLARITY MANIFESTO: A Revolutionary Recipe to a Nourishing Career



WHY A MANIFESTO?Have you ever noticed the tension that exists between you and your work?

That struggle between wanting to get results and wanting to actually enjoy what you’re doing? If you are like most people this is the battle that defines your career. You squeeze yourself into a marketable career path, adapting as best you can, achieving as much as you can, and enduring as long as you can… until one day you retire.

Seems like an awful waste of talent, time and effort to me.

That’s why I’ve written the Career Clarity Manifesto. I’m on a mission to help talented, hard-working people everywhere find a way to unify what they do for a living with who they really are.

But there’s some resistance to this idea.

There are critics who argue that work should be difficult. That success only comes to those that work harder, faster, longer and that your prize will be proportionate to your suffering. They label anyone who thinks differently as lazy. New-age. Selfish. They tell them to “suck it up!” and “follow the money!”

What these people don’t want to face is the fact that while we may, indeed, have more money today – we are also less satisfied and less healthy than generations before.

We are not starving for nourishing food: we are starving for nourishing work.

The old career choice strategy has been to identify where the money / security / status is and then do whatever it takes to earn it (get a particular degree, hone sought-after skills, schmooze our way to the top, and deny or suppress our true nature).

The problem with this strategy is that it’s a lot like ordering off the career menu of Who’s Hiring and then hoping we acquire a taste for it. And the approach of picking whatever looks good, without full knowledge of our tastes and preferences, is like eating off the sushi-go-round: we end up regretting it later.

I love eating sushi but it’s no way to choose a career.

A Revolutionary Career RecipeIf your career is going well, it has the power to nurture all areas of your life; your finances, your self-confidence, your relationships, your mental and emotional well-being. If your career is not going well it will strain your relationships, drain your confidence, starve your bank account and erode your health. Moreover:

• Your success is directly related to how well your career fits you.

• Your career is the most important money-making asset you have.

• You spend more time working than doing anything else.

So doesn’t it make sense to intentionally design your career rather than just “pick off the menu” and hope for the best?

Of course! But how?

The new and, dare I say, revolutionary career choice strategy is one that identifies first, what you have to offer the world and second, creates a career that honors that. It’s about creating a career that pays you - to be you. Anything else is madness.

Making sure there is a match between all the elements of your identity (I call them your ingredients) and your work is the most important thing you can do to guarantee that your career will be successful, satisfying and stay that way for years to come.

As a species, we are incredibly adaptable. On one hand, that adaptability has allowed us to thrive for thousands of years. On the other hand, it has also led us to believe that we should be able to find happiness in any manner of jobs. However, you may have noticed in your own career that while you can squeeze yourself into a variety of roles, you do not experience them as equally palatable.

In fact, some jobs will make you plain miserable. Why? It boils down to a clash between your natural way of being / doing / thinking and the requirements of that job. Consider what it would be like if you took a slow and steady plowhorse and switched it with a high-strung racehorse. Both of them would fail miserably in their new




roles. The racehorse would feel restrained and come to hate the farmer and the plow. The plowhorse would come in last every time. They are both horses and yet they are quite obviously meant for different jobs.

It’s the same with human beings...except that we’re much better at masking our unhappiness. At some point you either have to (A) give up the charade and find your place or (B) resign yourself to being miserable.

For hell sakes, stop being miserable.

Tough LoveIf I may have a tough love moment here, there is something I really want you to get:

YOU are responsible for the success in your career.

And, no, I don’t just mean how much money / security / status you have. What I mean is how happy you are. Day to day. Week to week. This might sound obvious to some of you, and yet I really want you to get this. It’s up to you to ensure that you are happy or at least on a path towards greater career satisfaction. You can’t rely on your boss, luck or even just “wishing” to make it so.

Does this mean that if you’re unhappy with where you’re at in your career that you’re a failure? Not at all, in fact along the way you’ve probably learned some critical lessons about who you are and who you aren’t.

What this does mean is that you’ve got the opportunity right now to OWN the journey. Use the Career Clarity Manifesto to write your unique career recipe for a lifetime of success and career satisfaction.

Don’t wait. Later is too late.

Allow me to get a littlephilosophical As I see it, the only way to save this world is to start honoring who you truly are, at your core, warts and all. You’ve got to step out from behind that mask you’re wearing. Stop being a half-rate version of someone else and start being a first-rate version of you. Sure, it will take guts, faith, and courage to look into yourself and finally recognize why YOU are totally frickin’ amazing... But it’s worth it.

Imagine for a second a world where everyone was in their ideal job. Imagine a world where human capital wasn’t

being wasted, languishing in the wrong career. Where people were passionately pouring our heart and souls into their work and having the time of their lives doing it! Imagine, then, how fast we’d chew through the world’s problems.

It can begin with you.

Honestly, if your work isn’t a perpetual tonic to you then you’re in the wrong business. You’re taking up somebody else’s spot. You’re wasting our time. What we really need is for you to stop mucking around and get serious. You see, my friend, you have a unique mix of talent, personality, and drive and it needs to be served up hot & fresh if we’re ever going solve our problems.

So why is your career important? Why does your career matter? Seriously. It’s not (just) about you. If you were doing exactly what you were hardwired to do and doing it in a way that totally engaged you, do you know how far you’d stretch? Do you know how much you would accomplish? Do you know what a difference you’d make?

I do.

The world needs you.

Discover your unique recipe for career success.

We will all be better for it.

How to Use This GuideThe Career Clarity Manifestoprescribes 4 steps towards creating your unique career recipe. Each step consists of an exercise and coaching questions. Like looking in a mirror, each of the exercises will help you see sides of yourself that perhaps you haven’t before. The coaching questions will help you capture that new insight and deepen your understanding of the tension between you and your work.

A CaveatOf course, the exercises offered here don’t necessarily commit you to actually doing things differently in your career (unless you truly want to). They are, however, a crucial first step in understanding the tension between you and your work - and to begin resolving it. At the end of this process you will have a much clearer picture of what’s working and what’s not. You will also have a list of your unique ingredients – those that are essential in your perfect career recipe.

Let’s begin.




STEP 1. HOW DID YOU GET HERE? You went to school and earned a good job. You worked hard to get ahead, put in some long hours and followed the rules. Eventually, your efforts began to pay off; recognition, pay increases, maybe even a promotion or two. But lately things have changed. Instead of being happy with where you’re at, you feel like your job is sucking the life out of you.

As you evaluate your early career choices you realize:

• You felt pressured into a particular career by your family’s expectations and assumed they knew what was best for you. Unfortunately now you wish you could turn back the clock

• You chose a familiar and trusted path – following in your parent’s career footsteps or joining the family business - but a job that once gave you sense of security now feels like a prison

• You chose an early career out of necessity to pay the bills thinking that you’d get into what you really wanted later. But those two years have now stretched into five or 10 years and you’re feeling trapped

• You were always great at X so logically you became a Y only now you realize that success in this career field has less to do with your talents and more to do with your ability to navigate politics

• You wanted to prove something to your small-town detractors so you pursued a career that promised social status and prestige, rather than a career that played to your own interests and skills

• You were so overwhelmed with the choices back then that you left it up to fate, making the best of whatever opportunity floated by and now you wonder what could have been

• You’ve always known that you were in the wrong career – but now - even the prestige and pay of your work isn’t enough to keep you motivated

You need to ask yourself: Why did I get into this line of work in the first place?

Check the statements that are true for you:

Was it to achieve a particular type of lifestyle?

Was it to impress or please someone at the time?

Was it to pursue an early interest or talent?

Was it for more pragmatic reasons, like paying the bills or getting away from something / someone?

Or did you ‘decide not do decide’ and just take the best, first career opportunity to present itself?

CAREER CLARITY INSIGHT:As you look back on the motivations you had, then, are they still valid today? What’s changed? What do you know now to be true?




The Bigger Picture (Adapted from Nicholas Lore’s book, The Pathfinder)

1. On the following two pages, you will create you a visual representation of your life. One end will represent your birth, the other, the end of your life. Write “NOW” in big letters at the place that represents your current age.

2. Start at the beginning of your life. Write in significant events, from the time of your birth to the present time. Focus on events where you experienced significant growth, a personal transformation, a major life event, went after or accomplished an important goal and times when your life was profoundly altered in some way.

3. If you are using a pen, switch to a pencil with an eraser. Begin to imagine your life continuing along this lifeline into the future. What significant milestones do you want to reach at various times in your future? You might find it helpful to frame your thoughts like this:

a. “What would I most like to accomplish between the years of x and y.” b. “What would I want to have done by then?” c. “What would I want to have done that I have not done so far?”d. “Who would I like to be by then?” e. “Who would I want to be that I am not being now?” f. “What would I like to have by then?”

Don’t let yourself be bound by overly reasonable, practical thinking. This exercise is about what you would really like to be, do or have! It is not about practicality. At the same time, don’t write in entries that you know are just grandiose pipe dreams.

4. Continue to let your imagination fly, where it will, into the future. Keep asking questions that encourage you to visualize what you would like your life to be like. You need not confine yourself to career-related entries. Look in all the other areas of your life as well. Consider things like relationships, personal goals, financial issues, etc.

The Beginning

The End

70

30

40

60

10

50

20

Heather Petherick Career & Performance Coaching | www.HeatherPetherick.com ©Copyright 2013




CAREER CLARITY INSIGHT:As you review your completed lifeline, what behavioral patterns or trends do you see in your past?

What would you like to change or do differently going forward?

Looking at The Bigger Picture of your life, what new insights or ‘aha’s’ emerge?

Great! We’ve retraced your early career steps. Now, let’s start to look at your current situation.




Estimated % ofPopulation

General Description Effect on Personal Life SatisfactionScore

Career Bliss: You are paid to play! You actively look forward to your work as you see it as a vehicle for self-expression. You interpret difficulties as positive challenges; have a sense of purpose; work uses you talents & fits your personality fully.

You are generous with your time & talents, often in service to others; you lead a vibrant & healthy lifestyle, are playful & have a high level of personal integrity; people are naturally drawn to your creativity & enthusiasm.

Positive: You enjoy work most of the time but your enthusiasm is tempered by difficulties. Your career meets your perceived needs & contributes to positive self-esteem. Good fit between work, talents & personality.

You tend to make a positive contribution to the community around you; flexible & resilient, you have success in most relationships; you enjoy increased longevity & resistance to disease.

Neutral: You accept work without a struggle & can appear to be a valued worker in a procedure-driven organization.

Your life has neither a significant positive effect on your community nor does it have a negative effect.

Career Hell: Work is a constant struggle. It takes an act of sheer will to go to work each day; you carry a strong sense of resentment. There is a deep clash between your talents or personality or values & the daily requirements of your job.

Each day at work erodes your self-esteem and, as a result, you have difficulty maintaining healthy relationships. You display hostility & may rely on substances to cope. Your immunity is diminished & life expectancy is shortened.

Negative: You actively dislike significant parts of your job; daily routine marked by struggle, suffering, clock watching, resignation. Work does not use your abilities fully or requires talents that you do not possess. You complain about your job & frequently fear the loss of your job.

While other areas of your life may be healthy, career stress has a negative effect on your relationships, health & longevity. You spend considerable amount of time recovering from work, often feel powerless & have reduced self-esteem.

10

8

6

4

2

10%

20%

30%

30%

10%

STEP 2. WHERE ARE YOU NOW? In the broad landscape of work, there is a distribution of career satisfaction that ranges from Career Bliss to Career Hell. Let’s take a good straight look in the mirror, shall we?

Read the following descriptions and circle the satisfaction score which most accurately reflects your life and current career state.

Career Satisfaction Scale:

Adapted from (Lore, 1998, pp. 12-13)




The sad truth is that only 30% of North Americans enjoy at least a moderate degree of career satisfaction. The lives of the other 70% of people are characterized by a simmering malaise caused by a clash between the requirements of their job and who they naturally are.

Think about that: 70%. Do you know how much human potential we are wasting on ill-fitting careers? It’s mind blowing! It’s tragic. Seven out of 10 people are not fully using their unique gifts and abilities. Are you one of them? And if you are, have you fully considered the negative effect your job is having on your health, relationships and your community?

• If you rated yourself at either a 9 or 10, then you need to put down this guide and give it to the next person you encounter. Chances are they need it much more than you.

• If you rated yourself somewhere between 8 and 6, then things are okay. You feel fairly positive about your career and this guide will help you to take your career (and life!) to the next level.

• If you rated yourself at a 5, then this guide is the kick-in-the-pants you need to stop playing small. You have so much more to offer the world!

• If you rated yourself a 4 or below, you need to take this process very seriously. Your quality of life depends on it!

CAREER CLARITY INSIGHT:What surprised you about the proportion of people that share your career satisfaction experience?

What effect is your job having on your life (health, relationships, community)? (+) Positive (-) Negative

How would your life be different if you were more satisfied with your career?

Where would you rather be on this scale? How committed are you to achieving that (using a scale from 1-10, with 10 being the most committed)?

So far in the Career Clarity Manifesto, you’ve had the opportunity to review your early career decisions and where you are currently in your career. And while it’s normal to feel some regret, realize that every step along the way has brought you to today. Every experience (good or bad) has made you who you are. And now, we get to turn a corner in this process! It’s an opportunity to start fresh by creating your perfect career recipe one ingredient at a time.




STEP 3. YOUR UNIQUE INGREDIENTSCreating your most ideal career needn’t be a highly complicated endeavor. Sure, there are lots of variables to consider - which is why most people get mired down and give up long before they make any substantial progress - but there are really only three things you need to get clear on:

• Your Talents• Your Personality, and • Your Purpose, Passion or (favorite) Problem

There is plenty of research that supports the claim that the most satisfying careers are those that honor a person’s complete and authentic self. When you’re operating from your most natural state, success comes easy! When your work requires you to do the things that you’re naturally wired to do, and in a way that suits your unique personality, it no longer feels like work; it is a source of joy! Your work energizes and replenishes you. And more than that, when your work aligns with what you truly find meaningful you’re drawn to do more, dig deeper, and stretch farther.

The secret to creating your most ideal career, and achieving a highly satisfying life, is to find that place where work aligns perfectly with your talents, personality, and passion. I call that place the Career Sweet-Spot.

Interestingly enough, when even one of these aspects of ourselves isn’t sufficiently honored in the work that we do - we experience stress. Over time, a mismatch between our natural way of being and our daily tasks will inevitably erode our mental and physical health.

Bottom line: if we are in a job that requires us to work at odds with our naturally preferred state, we will eventually and inevitably grow to dislike that job. For some, it may take a few months. For others is may take years. It depends both on the severity of the mismatch and our ability to subvert our true self.

Now that you have a framework to understand what’s required in creating the most satisfying career possible – let’s delve even further by identifying your unique ingredients.

Talents

Purpose,Passion, orProblem

Personality

CAREERSWEET-SPOT




1. TalentsYour talents (also known as your gifts, strengths, or aptitudes) are those things which you are naturally good at. In fact, they probably come so easy to you that you may assume that they’re nothing special. Don’t make that assumption! Our talents or strengths have certain signature qualities that allow us to identify when we’re using them. Specifically, our talents are often revealed by those activities where:

• We experience a sense of being ‘in the zone’ or losing track of time• We are left feeling emotionally energized, fulfilled or renewed by doing them • We enjoy doing them and develop mastery relatively quickly with training, focus and discipline

By contrast, our weaknesses are revealed by those activities where:

• We experience a sense of time dragging on and/or we engage in clock watching• We are left feeling drained, both mentally and physically, after doing them• We do not enjoy doing them even though we may have become proficient through training, focus and discipline

Recognizing what your talents are can be as simple as looking back over your life and isolating those moments where you felt truly in the zone. Or, if you’ve been living in career hell for some time, taking an aptitude test can be especially helpful in prying back the layers of self-doubt and pessimism that may have overgrown these fond memories.

CAREER CLARITY INSIGHT: What are the areas or activities that you seem to have a lot of natural ability?

What are the areas or activities in your life where you struggle to “measure up?”

What proportion of your current role requires you to use your strengths?

What proportion requires you to work in your areas of weakness?




2. PersonalityPersonality (or temperament) preferences occur along a continuum. Take, for example, the classic introvert/extrovert preference. An individual is neither completely an introvert nor extrovert. Instead we tend to be a mix of both. For me personally, I’m at my happiest and most productive when I get to spend 75% of my workday interacting face-to-face with other people and approximately 25% of my time alone in my office, thinking my own private thoughts.

Introvert ME Extrovert

Here are some personality preferences for you to consider as part of this self-assessment. Indicate your preference at the appropriate position on each scale.

Team Player Independent

Cautious Impulsive

Serious, subdued Enthusiastic, cheerful

Pessimistic Flexible

Self-indulgent Disciplined

Suspicious Trusting

Chaotic Organized

Conservative, traditional Experimenting, liberal

Tough-minded Emotionally sensitive




Reserved, private Sharing, open

Tendency to give up, fickle Tenacious, persevering

Concern for others Self-centered

Loner Sociable

Passive, docile Aggressive, assertive

Relaxed, tranquil Driven, intense

Joiner Socially independent

Shy Bold

Dependent Self-reliant

These preferences are some of the many ways that you can slice, dice and categorize your personality. Of course, if you want even more insight into how these and other preferences interact, I recommend taking an assessment such as the MBTI® or DiSC® profile.

Just remember: your results will help you to identify not only how you like to interact with people but also what kind of work environment suits you best. This is a critical factor that’s often ignored in our career decisions!

Creating the perfect career demands that you achieve both the quantity AND quality of interactions with the world that satisfy your unique personality.




CAREER CLARITY INSIGHT: What are your most extreme personality preferences? List them below.

How have they caused you trouble in the past?

3. Problem/Purpose/Passion

Your 3rd and final group of ingredients is what you find most meaningful. Some people refer to this as their passion. Others prefer to talk about a sense of calling or purpose. You might also think in terms of a problem or topic that you find fascinating. Of all the career ingredients that make you who you are – these are the most elusive. Frankly, there is no test you can take to identify what you’re passionate about: only you can decide.

CAREER CLARITY INSIGHT: If you’re not sure what your problem/purpose/passion is, it may help you to consider the following: What groups do you feel drawn to serve?

What is a hurt, pain or illness in the world that you want to ease?



Is there a problem, issue, topic, or process that you find especially fascinating?

Have you experienced something in your life that has given you a unique perspective or special knowledge that needs to be shared? If so, what is your message?

STEP 4. PULLING YOUR RECIPE TOGETHERIn this step you make the leap from customer (or food critic) to chef. Given the new knowledge you have about your tastes and preferences, it’s time for you to get in the kitchen and create something delicious. It’s time to review the work you’ve done and bring your recipe together.

Keep in mind that at the beginning of any new recipe, the goal is to combine the biggest, most important ingredients first. There may be some small elements you’re missing right now. Over time you can experiment with the proportions (using more of your strengths and less of your weaknesses), trying out different seasonings (or work environments), and letting things simmer until you feel you have the perfect combination. But for now we just need to transfer your most significant talents, personality preferences, and areas of passion here.

Talents

Purpose,Passion, orProblem

Personality

18 | CAREER CLARITY MANIFESTO: A Revolutionary Recipe to a Nourishing Career CAREER CLARITY MANIFESTO: A Revolutionary Recipe to a Nourishing Career | 19

CAREER CLARITY INSIGHT:

Review what you’ve written down as your main ingredients and compare it to the requirements of your current role. Where does your job clash with your ingredients (Talents, Personality or Problem / Purpose / Passion)?

Is there more than one area of mismatch? If so, how does this explain your level of career satisfaction (or dissatisfaction)?

Where does career frustration show up in your life?

• Are you negative at work – with colleagues, clients or employees? • Are you negative at home – with friends or family members? • Do you keep your frustration hidden, bottling it up inside? And, if so, what health issues do you experience?





Final InsightsWhat are the top 3 insights you’ve gained about yourself and what’s necessary for your career satisfaction?

1.

2.

3.

What are the elements of yourself (your ingredients) that you are unwilling to have undermined by a workplace that devalues that dimension?

What do you need to stop doing to improve your career (and life)?

What do you need to start doing to improve your career (and life)?

What new questions will you need to answer if you want to continue to move forward in this process?




A Last Kick in the Pants Like anything in life, you get out of it what you put into it. If you’ve diligently worked your way through the Career Clarity Manifesto you now have a pretty good understanding of why your work is chafing. You’ve identified what you find palatable. You also have a much healthier understanding of your situation. See? You are not fatally flawed and destined for misery - you are simply suffering a mismatch between your natural self and the demands of your job.

That’s both a relief and a challenge.

Once you understand your situation you are naturally empowered to improve it. Finally, you can forgive yourself for being so frustrated AND you can begin to do something about it.

Keep in mind that you’ve got plenty of places to start. For example, you might begin by:

• Committing to improving your career satisfaction score over the next 6 months

• Discussing with your boss ways to modify your current role that leverage more of your strengths

• Taking training to further develop your talents

• Delegating your areas of weakness to someone who has those strengths

• Researching different careers that better match your recipe

• Signing up for an aptitude or personality test to gain further insight

• Brainstorming with a friend or spouse about potential career options

• Gaining volunteer experience in a role that’s closer to your Career Sweet-Spot

• Narrowing in on the problems / processes that you find most meaningful

• Interviewing people that are in your ideal line of work about future opportunities or training requirements

• Hiring Career Coach to guide & support your journey

However you choose to begin – I hope you’ll take bold action. Use your revolutionary career recipe to create a nourishing, satisfying future. You are so worth it!

The world needs your unique recipe!


Comments & Questions? Bring ‘em on!

I’d love to hear anything that this Manifesto has stirred up for you – any questions, ideas, tears, cheers or boos.

Send me your comments using [email protected]

Want more?

Thank you for investing in yourself through the Career Clarity Manifesto. My goal is that you come away from it with more clarity about where you’ve been and more confidence with where you are headed. Of course, this is just the beginning! If you’d like to continue in this process, I invite you to contact me for a more in-depth conversation about how to take your career recipe to the next level.

SO WHO THE HECK IS HEATHER PETHERICK ANYHOW?Despite being a super nerd throughout school, Heather landed in white collar career hell right out of University. It was a shocking wake up call to the realities of working in a job that devalued her natural abilities. Refusing to settle for a lifetime of well-paid misery, she quit her job and vowed to find a way to unify her work and self. Along the way she discovered a unique coaching process that she now shares with her clients.

Since 2007, Heather Petherick has been using humor, courage, and the unvarnished truth to help her clients create their own career recipe and achieve the success that they deserve.

She specializes in working with dynamic professional women in the areas of:

• Career Choice & Career Transition, and • Personal & Professional Excellence

As a speaker, her worked has spanned government and corporate audiences ranging from entry-level to senior level executives.

Heather earned a Masters degree in Management from the University of Lethbridge and has been a Charter member of the International Coach Federation (ICF).

She lives in Lethbridge, Alberta, with her husband and two children. She is an avid gardener, a reluctant housekeeper and an unsinkable optimist.

Contact her via her website at: www.heatherpetherick.com

Works Cited:

Lore, N. (1998). The Pathfinder; How to choose or change your careerfor a lifetime of satisfaction and success. New York: Fireside.

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