“I wonder if I chose the wrong career…”
“Please help me, I feel overwhelmed…”
“So… what do I do now?”
I wasn’t a coach then, but after I published two career guidebooks, I received emails from twenty-somethings lamenting how lost or confused they were.
I responded by offering advice, but now that I’m a certified coach, I learned better ways of helping early-career employees, i.e., recent college graduates and new in the workforce.
I’ll get to those better ways later, but first let me comment on a popular notion. It’s commonly held that today’s millennial and Gen Z have difficulty adjusting to the workplace because they are self-absorbed and entitled.
I protest this as stereotyping because as a boomer who got my first job back in 1984 (I’m feeling Jurassic already), I felt the same gnawing disconnect and a crying need for guidance. My own experience and that of others’ teach me that it’s more of a culture change issue.
When we were at college, we pretty much knew what to do and what was expected of us. Structure was set through a curriculum and a set of class schedules. Answers were usually right versus wrong and had to be consistent with textbooks or what the professor said. Performance lapses could be made up with remedial class or even shifting courses altogether.
But in the “real world”, structure is not always evident. While the newly hired gets to know about the organizational structure, policies and procedures, and job description, he or she would quickly learn that there are unwritten rules, informal leaders, and multitasking galore.
Answers were not always clear cut: the boss will not always hand them to you. You grapple with uncertainty, you try to decipher an ambiguous message, you yearn for immediate feedback but are not getting any.
Performance lapses can damage the company (say, you mishandled a customer or a machine) and also your reputation (“Why were you fired from Company X?”). There are no make-up classes to go to. Talk about pressure!
Coaching can help such people who are transitioning from campus to cubicle. Core competencies as laid out by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) can impart powerful benefits. These include being present, evoking awareness, and facilitating learning and growth.
In the next two posts, I will share three distinct ways coaching can help people at this starting phase of their careers.
In my webinars “Transitioning from Technical Expert to Business Leader”, I posed to the audience the option of graduate studies. In this case, an MBA degree. I get asked questions like “Do I have to?” and “Isn’t that expensive?”
I had my graduate degree from the Asian Institute of Management and here are some of my thoughts since then:
It depends on your goals. Is it to widen your knowledge and skills? Is it to make yourself more marketable? Is it to learn how to start your own business? In which case, consider an MBA although you can achieve those goals in other ways. For example, if you aspire to be an entreprenuer, get mentored by a business owner for hands-on experience.
Don’t be daunted by the expense. Ask the institutions if they offer scholarships. My AIM education cost an arm and a leg, but I was blessed in that AIM matched me with a corporate sponsor who did not expect me to pay them back. In fact, after I graduated, the sponsor offered me a job in its Corporate Planning department. I thanked the organization but politely declined as I wanted to forge a different path. But that’s another story.
An MBA opens doors. But once you step through that door and you’re inside the organization, it’s up to you to succeed. Yes, the MBA may give you the tools, say, understanding corporate finance. But at the end of the day, it’s how you work well with people, deliver your targets, and think strategically. It’s you – not the degree – who’s doing the heavy lifting.
So while MBA is an excellent option, do your research before you make the big plunge in time, energy, and resources. Then again, it may be the best decision you will make so far.
When the hand is open, the heart is full.
Joy. That’s what I felt as I congratulated my successor. He got his papers and the organization formally announced his promotion as Plant Manager.
I wonder where my elation is coming from.
Is it being released from the day-to-day burdens of the job?
Is it being soul-satisfied that you have successfully mentored someone?
Is it being known as someone who doesn’t cling to power and paycheck security, but handing them over to the next generation?
Why not all?
Succession planning is one of my passions for people development. I’ve heard somewhere that by 2030, all the Boomers would have retired and… well, heading towards the sunset. That’s why we have to be strategic, steadfadst, and yes, selfless in preparing the next set of leaders.
My experience is that you may have an excellent succession plan, but if the willingness to let go of power, position, and perks is not there, it won’t work. But if it’s there, you feel you’re leaving a legacy and changing someone’s future for the better. That’s the open hand. That’s the full heart.
So:
Who could step into your shoes one day?
What can you do, starting now, to help that person take over?
What support can you marshal to help him succeed?
If not yet, what is holding you or your organization back?
What is the consequence of putting off the succession planning until the need suddenly arises?
Drop me a line if you need some help in grooming your protege.
If you have tips for succession planning, let’s hear them in the comment section below.
Meantime, enjoy the email above. I meant every word of it.
“The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other people for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you…”
Stop right there. This wonderful passage (Deuteronomy 7:7-8) answers three questions:
Can God love me at all? After what I’ve done, I’m so ashamed to go to Him.
The good news is that He loves you already.
Can I make God love me more? Shouldn’t I do good stuff to stay on His good side?
Well, if He loves us with a perfect love, by definition we can’t add to that perfect love.
Can I make God love me less? I’ve blown it again, I wonder if I still matter to God.
Look. If He already loves us at our worst, what can we do that will diminish that love?
Many people seek purpose, identity, security, and happiness. But if we are made in the image of God, it is impossible to detach our goals and longings apart from the Original. In this troubled world, we longed to be assured that there is Someone who cares and in the end, will make everything right.
The passage continues with “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations…” (v 9). If that is not an ironclad promise of stability, I don’t know what is.
There is an Exhibit A for that love. God did not wait for us to shape up before He sent us Jesus. There, at the foot of the Cross, you will find the love you seek.
Then obedience will have its proper place, because the passage ends with “[God] keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands”.
When you are touched by the amazing love of God, you cannot help but love Him back. Remember, He loves you already. You can’t make Him love you more and certainly you can’t make Him love you less. Be secure in that love and live out your truest self: beloved of the Father, redeemed by the Son, and empowered by the Spirit.
Have a great week ahead!
Today my mind was blown away by the incredible grace God had shown Cain, as exquisitely painted by Pastor Chad Williams.
Imagine that! Cain had murdered Abel and was even callous to God about it. God banished Cain from His presence, but he seemed to be more concerned that someone else would kill him (get the irony?).
Yet God put a mark on Cain, in effect proclaiming, “Yes, Cain is a wicked man, but he is under My protection. If you deal wrongly with Cain, you’ll be answering to Me!”
What a picture of the Gospel. Left to our sins, you and I are hostile to God. We deserve to be banished in eternal damnation, yet God “marked” His Son with the nail pierces on the Cross. When you and I repent and put our trust in Christ, we receive eternal life.
Sadly, we never see Cain repenting. As far as we know, he remained hard-hearted and his descendants went even worse, which set the stage for the Flood. But you and I can respond differently. “Today, when you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts” (Hebrews 3:7-8a, 15).
Have a blessed week ahead!
April 29, 2024
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