Greetings!
The current economy continues to challenge many people and businesses. For some people, this causes a career transition to be made. The desire for happiness can seem to be a distant dream. Yet some people and companies are successful in achieving happiness, even in the face of the current economy and career transitions. In this issue we explore some of the factors that contribute to happiness and a successful career. Certainly, career and developmental coaching can contribute to achieving a sustained state of happiness. As a leader in your business, what are you doing to contribute to achieving happiness for either yourself or those around you? We welcome your feedback or suggestions. If you would like to
provide feedback or suggest topics for future issues, please click on
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Happy reading!
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Bill Spreitzer 919-388-3600
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Happiness Is ....
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Recently, one of my clients suggested that I read a
recently released book by Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos, entitled "Delivering
Happiness". I found it to be an intriguing
read offering many lessons. How many of us truly live our lives at both
work and outside of work feeling that we are fully engaged in our passion and
our life purpose? The more that we can
align ourselves around our passion and life purpose the closer we get to
sustained happiness.
Many of us could name a number of things that make us
happy that depend on correcting certain situations in our lives: the unemployed
want that job, the overweight want to lose the excess, etc. Unfortunately, we all are quite familiar
with the effect that once we achieve our goal, we're not happy any longer. We need another goal. Hsieh does a great job of outlining the
"science of happiness" using 3 different frameworks. All of them can be applied to both our
business and personal lives.
So, how do you translate happiness to a business? Hsieh talks a lot about company culture and
how important it is in creating a sustainable business that can exist for
generations. Two of the key ingredients
to culture are vision and values. One
of the first things we do in creating a strategic plan with our clients is to
develop a vision and core values for the business, if they don't already
exist. While these ingredients are
relatively easy to create, they are much more difficult to ingrain into a
corporate culture.
You see, the vision and values must be much more than
words. Even well-displayed words on framed
wall plaques or on a corporate website don't do much in the way of creating a
company culture. A vision and values
need to represent a way of life for the company and be generated by the passion
inside the company. At Zappos they
created a Culture Book which describes the culture they have and want to maintain
as they grow.
The Culture Book starts
with the Core Values of the company, and relates the stories that emerge during
the company's life. By writing the core
values in a book and reinforcing them with stories from many different
employees, they build the tribal knowledge about what is the passion of the
company and how do people live inside the company. The values and the culture book become the
reinforcing behavior mechanism by which all processes and interactions both
inside and outside the company are measured. - How do you hire the right people? The Zappos HR department used the culture
book and created ways by which interview questions and situations uncovered the
right people to fit the culture. For example, they use a "speed-interviewing
party" to determine which candidates fit the company culture.
- What about training? Look at the core values and develop and
deploy the training that will sustain those values.
- How do you take care of customers? Zappos' first core value is "Deliver WOW
through service". For example, they offer
free shipping for the initial purchase and any returns. One story involves helping a customer order a
pizza when they called one of the Customer Loyalty Reps.
- How do you be happy? Create and sustain a company culture that
allows you to engage your passions and work toward a higher purpose every
day.
Zappos is an on-line retail shoe company. They were recently acquired by Amazon, but
were allowed to keep their brand and culture as an independent entity after the
acquisition. Who could imagine that an
on-line retailer, especially one that sells shoes, would be the source of
happiness for thousands of its employees, vendors and customers? Yet, that is what they achieved.
Dave Vogelpohl - Excellerate Solutions, Inc.
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Coaching for Professionals in Career Transition
Recently
I spoke to a group of executives that are going through a career
transition. Some are doing so on their
own accord while others have been "involuntarily" placed in transition as a
result of the economy. My talk was
centered on the key ingredients to living an extraordinary life including
getting reconnected with your core values and life purpose, being a servant
leader by authentically helping others while networking, and the power of a
personal brand.
This
group of talented individuals meet weekly at Career Pro Inc. (www.careerproinc.com) led by its founder
and president, John M. O'Connor. John
has been powerfully guiding professionals through career transitions for over
18 years and is recognized nationally for his contributions to this much needed
profession.
While
pulling together my talk, it occurred to me that career coaching and
developmental performance coaching serve people before, during and after a
transition, but in different ways. To
further clarify the role of a career coach, I interviewed my colleague John
O'Connor. Below are the highlights of
our discussion.
What is a career coach,
John?
"Usually
career transitions involve stress and change.
I see this career transition time as an opportunity to invent or
reinvent one self. A career coach provides insight, analysis, and sometimes a
few radical ideas to help a client reach aggressive work-life goals. A career
coach to me can provide bold ideas, new documents such as impactful resumes and
bios, insight into companies and sought after positions during a career
transition."
Why is getting
coaching and support so important during a career transition?
"For
many people this is a crisis situation. I feel that some of our most ready
clients are those who may not be at peace with the fact that they are looking
for a job but they have a certainty that they want to make their career search
a productive one. They want dynamic resumes and marketing materials. They want
laser-like advice on how to handle interviews. They want to refine and reinvent
their personal brand. They don't want to "just get a job" but they
want to identify and acquire a position that maximizes their talents and
interests."
When is the best time
to engage your career coaching services?
"When
you feel you need to have fresh ideas and strategies to move your career and
compensation to the next level, you are an excellent candidate for Career Pro
Inc. Individuals at or above the $100,000/year income mark should know about
what we can do for them. Companies that want an individualized outplacement
program for its highly compensated employees should get Career Pro involved
early in the process. Professionals who are doing an executive search and need a
high degree of confidentiality would also be good clients for Career Pro Inc."
John, what do your
clients walk away with that lives beyond securing that next career position?
"I
feel we are a catalyst for change and that change starts to happen or gets
moved forward for our clients during their career transition. At the heart of Career Pro Inc. is helping
professionals accomplish their work-life mission which really humbles me. We help executives define and tell the story
of their career. That's cool to me. They deserve the credit for taking the
advice, assistance and counsel and making it come alive."
How do you
differentiate a career coach from a developmental performance coach?
"At Career Pro Inc., our best skill set is to become a critical partner immediately
before and during a career transition. Our company focuses on that critical
period of time and provides the set of targeted services mentioned earlier. We should work arm-in-arm with developmental performance
coaches like Excellerate Solutions because any executive or highly compensated
professional is expected to perform and generate results - period! Developmental coaches partner with these type
of individuals throughout their careers to help discover 'blind spots',
collaborate on well defined solutions, commit to measurable goals and actions,
and hold them accountable to achieve desired results. All the top performers that
I work with use performance coaches." Copyright protected, all rights reserved worldwide. ©2010
Bill Spreitzer - Excellerate Solutions, Inc. and John O'Connor - Career Pro, Inc.
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Motivational Quotes
"For
individuals, character is destiny. For
organizations, culture is destiny."
By: Tony Hsieh
"Work not to just make money but as a way to
implement our highest ideals for living consciously, communally, and globally."
By: Matthew Gilbert
"One thing I know: the only
ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and
found how to serve."
By: Albert Schweitzer
"The supreme accomplishment
is to blur the line between work and play"
By: Arnold Toynbee
"Far better it is to dare
mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than
to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much,
because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."
By: Teddy Roosevelt
"My
mother said to me, "If you become a soldier, you'll be a general, if you
become a monk you'll end up as the pope." Instead, I became a painter and
wound up as Picasso."
By: Pablo Picasso
"Most folks are about as
happy as they make up their minds to be."
By: Abraham Lincoln
"To love what you do and
feel that it matters--how could anything be more fun?" By: Katharine Graham
"If you don't stand
for something, you'll fall for anything."
By: Michael Evans
"Many
men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are
after."
By:
Henry David Thoreau
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