Ok, you’ve convinced yourself that a major change is needed….but now what?

Some of us have plenty of obvious reasons screaming at us for a change!

• Some may be in a job they can no longer stand….
• Many have found themselves without a job or a downsized career and feel they are just buying time….
• Some have realized they’ve been chasing something they no longer want and are looking for a different path….
• Most understand they they could be doing a better job prioritizing their life (some day soon)….

We might be at wit’s end…

Or maybe you’re not entirely sure why you feel motivated to seek a change but something is pulling you in this direction.  You might even feel guilty that you’re fortunate in almost every respect (you have a roof over your head, bills are getting paid and life might be moving along without a hitch). Yet, you’re uneasy and searching for “the next thing”.

I believe there are times our inner voice calls us to act…yet we don’t know what to do about it.  [Please don't call the guys with a straight jacket to pay me a visit....give me a moment or a few posts and I'll explain ]

Before you take any action, I believe you should invest the time and energy in yourself first.  Spending some quality time examining yourself is absolutely critical to designing a plan worth pursuing.

A Period of Self Discovery

I wish I had made this investment in myself 20 years ago.  My opportunity came while recovering from a major accident and I had nothing but TIME on my hands.  After 22 days in a coma, I spent the better part of 6 more months in a bed & wheelchair with the good fortune of my loving family, hundreds of books and a laptop.

Being blessed with time I was able to properly deal with what I believed was a life altering (and presumably career altering) event.  The lessons learned were amongst the most valuable in life and worth sharing.

But nothing came to me (that I can point to) from books, tapes or television.  The awareness of the necessity to change or alter the path you’re on comes from within each of us and may be different for each of us.

If you’re like me, you won’t easily succumb to any “touchy-feely” jargon.  Yet if you simply do your homework on yourself and discover what truly brings you peace…you will find your answer.

More to come….

Clearly, we don’t need to look far for reasons to enact change amongst us.  I continue to list the “high hard ones” to capture the dozens of conversations people have shared…and one of the most compelling reason to adopt a change within ourselves is the very fact that we shouldn’t waste a time of crisis.

Now is the time to take action.

A Crisis is a terrible thing to waste.

The perfect storm holds the hidden benefit of justifying extraordinary actions.  Our employers, our organizations, our local-state-federal governments all recognize this and have used this as an opportunity to recalibrate budgets, future plans and aspirations.  It also calls each of us to do the same.

If you’ve read my earlier posts, you know I also treat a horrible accident as a watershed event in my own life as it facilitates a number of quantum changes in me (some still in process). It’s actually been the catalyst (or excuse) for virtually any change I wanted to make.

We can actually use this “Great Recession” as the excuse to change our lives!

Sure, we can change our careers.  Go back to school, follow our dream job (most of us don’t really know what that is), start  our own business or even re-create the one we have.  Just because the landscape has changed, it doesn’t mean we don’t have control over what we do about it.

We certainly are forced to recalibrate our living.  Financially, we are all coerced to justify our lifestyles. How great will things be in a few years if we are able to maintain our “new lifestyles” with so much less stress? Our energy applied to relationships and meaningful endeavors will certainly yield a more rewarding life.

This series of short postings are highlighting several compelling reasons to enact change in our lives.  We each have our own reasons, but I’ve not talked with a single individual that doesn’t agree change is needed.

In my small part of the world, I am already seeing the early signs that people are joining together recognizing this need for change and beginning to shape the next steps.  We inspire each other.

If the recent news articles dealing with employee morale are any indication…our employees are desperate for change! [see example below]

It is inevitable that we all feel a bit separated & isolated after a period of shock.  In fact, I believe it is natural.

I’ve read, and heard of, so many divorces, broken relationships and career altering decisions after catastrophic events put such stress on people they simply shatter their preconceived assumptions.  I don’t for a minute want to minimize a truly catastrophic event, but I have witnessed a number of people that have (or are now) treating the loss of a job or downsized career as a catalyst for completely overhauling their assumptions.  I’m not sure it is all bad, but it can be if we’re not careful.

Keeping things in perspective is easier said than done, but we can help each other when we know we’re not alone.

Downsizing, unfortunately, doesn’t lend itself to team building or camaraderie.  Nor does it foster the beginning of closer relationships in the workplace.

The “I survived 2007, 8 or 9″ T-shirts simply don’t cut it.

As colleagues in an environment that has experienced shock, we must lead the positive change that we all know must occur (even if we don’t know exactly what to do).  It requires us to act — to communicate with one another (maybe for the first time).  It calls us to focus our attention on each other and put our egos behind us.

Putting all of our energy into improving the morale of those around us is the surest way of improving our own lot in life.

As a mentor, finding a way to serve the needs of someone else will strengthen the very network that is broken. You can make a difference in the life of someone else….and quite accidentally take one step closer to feeling what has been missing from your own experience.

We simply need more people serving those around us before we will heal this place.

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CNN Money.com article

‘Working twice as hard for half the money’

By Jessica Dickler, staff writer  January 25, 2010: 11:16 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Being out of work is taking a toll on job seekers. But even those with a job are getting fed up.

Layoffs, diminished benefits, pay cuts and extra workload burdens are finally pushing many disgruntled workers right out the door.

In a study by CareerBuilder, 24% of workers say they no longer feel loyal to their current employer and 19% plan to move to a new job this year.

Almost one-quarter of respondents surveyed by the Conference Board in a separate study said they didn’t expect to be at their current jobs within a year.

Since the recession took hold two years ago, only the threat of the unemployment line was keeping workers on the job. But as the economy shows signs of improvement, “people will start taking off in droves,” said Rusty Rueff, a career and workplace expert at Glassdoor.com.

Brent Quam hopes to be one of them. Quam, who is 36 and works as a flight attendant at a major airline, has seen his pay and compensation cut 33% since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. At the same time, his hours have increased.

“We’re working twice as much than we’re supposed to be working for half the money,” he said of himself and his coworkers.

He has since gone back to school and graduated with an MBA, hoping to find work in arts administration and leave the airlines behind.

Despite his discontent, Quam says he will continue working at the airline until he receives a job offer. “I really can’t afford to quit, it’s a matter of grinning and bearing it until things turn around.”

“Workers feel like they took the brunt of the recession because companies had to do whatever they could to cut costs, and what they cut were programs that directly impacted employees,” explained Michael Erwin, a senior career adviser at CareerBuilder.

Now, with signs of improvement in the economy, employers should start thinking about worker retention, rather than cost cutting.

“Morale is in the toilet,” said Glassdoor’s Rueff. “Morale issues lead to productivity issues which lead to results issues.”

If employers do not communicate what employees can expect going forward in terms of reinstating salaries and benefits, then that’s going to cause a lot of friction, Rueff explained.

Joan Marie Verba, 56, couldn’t take another day with her former employer.

“I worked for a nationally advertised weight loss company. Our pay was basically minimum wage, with commissions for each client,” she said. “However, ever since the recession started, the number of clients diminished, which meant that the pay essentially was reduced to minimum wage.”

Plus, “they were cutting hours and the opportunities were just shrinking,” she said.

“I was just so frustrated, I had to make a change,” Verba said of her decision to quit in December.

She has since been looking for another job while taking additional classes in health coaching and working as an independent weight loss consultant.

But experts say employees need to keep their emotions in check and think twice about whether to jump ship without a back-up plan.

“It’s going to be even more competitive than it was last year,” Erwin said.

Workers should start thinking about their next move, update their resumes and build up networks. But quitting on the spot as a form of protest is not advisable considering the alternative of getting lost in a sea of job seekers competing for few openings.

“People who are in jobs need to think long and hard before they jump up and say that the grass is greener on the other side,” Rueff cautioned. “I don’t think they want to be out there on the street right now.” 

There is a terrific metaphor in Lance Secretan’s book “Inspire!” that provides one of the best descriptions of many corporate workplaces I’ve seen.  I’m surprised I haven’t seen it in Dilbert!

We all know the term “copycat” as it applies to someone or something who imitates or adopts the behavior or practices of another.  Although it is cute when we are kids, it can be annoying later.  While imitation may be the best form of flattery, it can prove to be disastrous if we are following the WRONG behavior (even inadvertently).

The “copyfrog” label, however, combines this notion of imitation with the story of how a frog is boiled.

It seems that if you place a frog in HOT water it will immediately jump out.  However, if you place a frog in cool water and slowly heat it, the frog will stay until the water boils and it is too late to escape.

Lance Secretan lists one of the reasons we find it difficult to change is this copyfrog effect: …someone who is afraid to speak up for fear of ridicule or feeling alone, or appearing not to be a team player, even though many others may feel the same way, and are also afraid to speak out.  The result is that we copy the perceived (but not the real) beliefs of others — we copy others who are copying us.

Quite simply, by not jumping out of the water (or changing behavior) we are endorsing the status quo and ultimately leading to our collective demise.

If we model ourselves after those who have been successful (or appear to be so) rather than being authentic to our own souls it is easy to be trapped in denial when things turn bad.

Is it possible we have all been guilty of being a Copyfrog at one point or another in our lives?

You won’t have to look far for compelling evidence that we need to embrace dramatic change.

While I will reference my own workplace, I have been bombarded recently with so many similar examples (even outside of automotive) from acquaintances, that I am convinced we need a new type of leadership at all levels in our workforce.

In prior postings, I referenced the loss of passion in employees due to the massive downsizing we experienced at Ford. I stand by those observations even though I have drawn some criticism for my perspective.  What is becoming more obvious, however, is the fact that a recovery (a real recovery) requires a fundamental change in leadership styles for all of us.

In an attempt to lead myself to full engagement I have been reading a great deal and doing a lot of “soul searching”.  Many of the thoughts in the next few postings were from a handful of authors who have specialized in the areas of value driven business (Nadine Thompson, Angela Soper, Ben Cohen, Mal Warwick) and next generation leadership (Lance Secretan).

It is clear to me that the traditional manager who has mastered the skills of motivation, project lead or program management, and delivering terrific shareholder returns (especially in the short term) may well be a detriment to recapturing the hearts and minds of people.

We have systematically trained (and have been trained) based on a flawed business paradigm. As one management theorist wrote in the Harvard Business Review (May-June 1998, pp 98-105), “Organizations need to remember that their ultimate goal is performance, not employee satisfaction and morale.”

The skill sets and convictions of the leaders that brought us to this place won’t inspire anyone to re-engage.  It’s time for all leaders, influential program or project managers and team members to raise our sights to a higher level if we want to sustain a true recovery.

More to come…

I just returned home from spending the day with our youngest son attending the NASA broadcast of the launch of the 2010 F.I.R.S.T. robotics competition and the subsequent “initial strategy” meeting his high school team held to get started with this 6 week challenge.

I walked away more impressed than ever with the future of our world.

Without getting too deep into the logistics of what the FIRST initiative stands for [For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology], I can tell you that it has far more impact in changing lives than ANY other activity I’ve witnessed to date.

Although centered around building robots for competition, it is more about building people for challenges.

Watching the transformation of young peoples lives is more than fascinating, it is contagious and I would encourage EVERY person I know to go see for themselves what is taking place in these high schools around the world.

Nothing is more relevant to the challenges we face.  One guiding tenet of the FIRST experience is centered around something they term “Gracious Professionalism”.

I wish every executive or business colleague could re-enlist in high school for such valuable education.

Just for kicks, watch the animation that explains what these kids (grades 9-12) have the next 42 days to build.  This is in their “spare time”.  While it includes a competitive drive, a thirst for knowledge and the thrill of contributing to something cool, the real benefits come from living through the intense and demanding schedule rarely experienced at a high school level.

As a professional (not in a science or engineering role) I have found nothing more worthy of recommending other adults volunteer their time in mentoring young people.  Take time to attend one of the local competitions.  Check out the details at www.usfirst.org

Next Deadline:  1/16/10

One of the first questions I’ve asked myself when setting this blog into motion was “who in the world would ever take the time to read what I wrote?”

I’ve never been drawn to anything quite so narcissistic as a public diary (my original understanding of a blog) and my life is a tad bit boring (as my teenage kids will readily attest).  Yet, the more research I read on the art of penning one’s own blog, the more I feel compelled to try.

Clearly, my initial “pre-postings” were, at least, interesting for those that are close friends and family as they dealt with a number of personal issues.  The diversion from a normally secretive persona made the entries dealing with my physical recovery after an accident something to talk about.  Even if we’ve never met, most people can relate to injuries that require time to heal.  I was glad to get it all out of my system (so to speak) and it serves as good background for those that might find it interesting to watch how this blog has progressed.

I have been told by some colleagues that they are looking forward to some “dirt” on the Company we work for.  Unfortunately, this will never occur.  Aside from the water-cooler talk,  I have no interest in memorializing how close my corporate life is to the Dilbert comic strip.  Besides, there are plenty of other sites that rant on with automotive or employer bashing…we don’t need another.

Instead, I simply chose to document and follow a few of my own passions in a public forum.  Perhaps over time, this will reveal part of a transition I’m unaware of at the moment.  Nevertheless, I am compelled to find my own rhythm of starting the conversation.  I hope  that the more people I make aware of this site, the greater the chance we can actually have dialogue.  I continue to experiment with the “comments section”, but I clearly have hopes that I am successful in engaging readers along the way (or at least provoking a reaction).

So what can you expect to read and why should you tune in?

I hope to entertain you (at the very least).

My commitment to transparency quickly exposes the fact that I am simply a happily married, middle-aged, corporate grunt, father of 3 wonderful kids in college or high school.  I deny that I am going through any mid-life crisis (my kids joke that I must be) and I have no experience as an author of anything outside of grad school or work related activities. But after you get over my self-effacing boorish chatter, it will surprise you to learn my interests are…..well, interesting.

I promise to keep my postings short (600-800 words max) so it forces me to get to the point quickly.  As my confidence grows (no guarantees), I may post more than once a week.  I also leave room that I may decide to use video or audio clips, but for now I’ll stick with simple written submissions.

I’m also finding I have tons of friends that, like me, were really stuck in the past (the designer of my website called me “so web 1.0″).  I hope to also introduce them to the world of blogging as I teach myself a few new tricks.

So Stay tuned.  Bookmark this site…subscribe to the feed…or simply check in every weekend and participate (voting on the posts are also anonymous and a good way for me to judge if I’m on the mark or off base).

Next deadline: 1/2/10

I admit, I started my 2010 New Years Resolution last September when I initiated this blog.  I spent several months pre-populating the blog with various tidbits of a personal nature to practice using WordPress (the platform you’re reading) and to experiment with a number of topics.  While I have learned a great deal, I have far to go.

The point of this posting is to state that a New Years Resolution should be communicated. It should be a statement worth sharing.  It can be personal, which means you would only share it with close family members or a privileged few…but it is nevertheless a statement and requires the courage to communicate.  For it to “count” you must do more than just think about it.  You must have the courage to place it in view of someone.

I obviously told a couple of close friends & colleagues about this site while it was under development, even though I wasn’t yet sure I knew where it would lead.  It was necessary to gauge the level of expectations of my intended readers and to make adjustments when necessary. The best example was the revelation that anonymous postings were absolutely required if I wanted to entice people to participate.  At Ford Motor Company (and I’m sure many other fortune 1-100’s), it is a kiss of death to be viewed outside of mainstream.  So, the addition of the ability to join this conversation with an alias was born.  Anyone may log in and add value to this site without the fear of someone misinterpreting their devotion to their employer.

My resolution is simple:  I will stick with this blog and focus on  Transformations. I will post, at least, 52 weekly entries intended to spur conversation as well as personal & career reflection.

Of course, it’s not the only thing we will see on this site.  I fully intend to maintain my focus on mentoring others, pontificating my own “point of view”, sharing my own fascination with the study of the future and any/all tidbits associated with true value.  To make things interesting, however, something as personal as transitioning is worthy of my primary focus.

Feel free to jump in.  Learn from my mistakes (hopefully this blog isn’t one of them), learn from the experience of others commenting (tbd) and read my thought process and decisions during the next year or so and decide for yourself how you can do the same.

What is your New Years Resolution?

This story of transitions, will document several transformations at once.  It is blurry and confusing in the midst of such upheaval, but I am hoping more clarity unfolds as the story develops.  In the meantime, I will simply write what comes to mind.

——————

I made a rather bold accusation in an earlier post that one of the terrible by-products of a massive downsizing was the loss of passion in employees.  Indeed, many lifelong loyal employees at my own Company were walked out the door (or asked to leave) in a massive restructuring that extended throughout the entire automotive industry.  The survivors of this restructuring are struggling with how to re-engage.

Even those that remain in positions of leadership feel the lack of cohesion and synergy around them.  Remnants of our old culture mixed with the birth of a new culture not yet embedded make for a confusing environment to encourage true passion in your work.

Many simply won’t re-engage.  They are aggressively pursuing other interests and it is only a matter of time before they find something that will draw their attention.

Others, however, want to stay and make Ford the best automotive company in the world.  They just don’t know what or how to mentally and EMOTIONALLY reconnect at the same level they were previously.  We shouldn’t underestimate this huge leap of faith and courage that will be required to do so.

Our HR departments are now tasked with the monumental assignment of kick starting “employee engagement”.  How much will it cost to recapture your heart?

It is not a criticism of leadership or negative commentary on the decisions that were made during a painful restructuring.  It is a simple statement of a natural human phenomena of recovery.  In a traumatic event many people enter a period of shock.  It is a self defensive reaction that takes some time and attention to resolve.

Unfortunately, the easy answer of money won’t fix the issue of lack of passion or true engagement.  Sure, we would all like to have more money…it helps compensate for a lot of other things.  But even if you gave everyone a 20% pay raise (which would be a ridiculous move for a corporation), it would be a short lived improvement in satisfaction and ultimately no impact on real engagement or passion in employees.

We have to get back to the fundamentals of what makes people tick.  It’s about each individual and their own desire to feel wanted and connected.  Restoring their sense of value can be helped with pay raises…but their sense of feeling wanted and connected takes something else.

The obvious mandate is to provide a sense of purpose for everyone.  Restoring the health of the Company, hitting profit targets, sales targets, product & service targets are all worthy goals that every member of the team can aspire to improve and know how their contributions impact those results.  I believe this is hard work but most managers are skilled in helping employees know how their department or job impacts the goals of the organization.

The more difficult task, however is encouraging true engagement (or “passion” as I call it).  Employees can easily resign themselves to simply having a job.  They may be satisfied with their job (even rate it “completely satisfied” on internal surveys), happy with their surroundings, work-life balance and generally enjoy the relationships they have in the office.  They may even acknowledge a sense of purpose in what they do and perform their jobs competitively and typically in an acceptable manner (sometimes even much better).

To some inexperienced managers (or worse, those that don’t know the difference), they could feel their department was fully engaged.  Their employee satisfaction scores look really good….they don’t have visibly unhappy people walking around…they see people having fun at the water cooler.  They may have no reason to suspect their Company is being “shorted”.

A passionate employee is more likely to be less satisfied in this environment regardless of how they answer corporate surveys.  They see more potential for themselves, their Company, their teammates, etc..  They are often frustrated with limitations, bureaucracy or micro-management.  They are incredible assets to any Company that can harness their energy and unleash them in the right environment.

Fostering passion in employees is not a skill set that is universally developed in most corporations.  In fact, a manager that has the ability to spot passion and channel it effectively is rare.  To fully succeed in a globally competitive arena however, it is a requirement.

What would make you passionate about your job?  What would it take to make you the biggest ambassador in the history of your Company?  If they made a list of the most influential employees (in the eyes of consumers) would you be on the list or do you aspire to even be considered?  It’s a question that EVERY company needs to ask if they want sustainability.

You can’t Buy passion….you can only foster it.

While I’m trying to remain totally transparent in this endeavor, sharing this string of “pre-postings” and revealing how vulnerable I’ve felt over the past couple of years recovering from an accident during a major industrial downsizing — I might add that I now find myself living through an unfamiliar experience trying to come off the “injured reserve” list!

After 4 years and 8 reconstructive surgeries, I remain indebted and thankful that the Company has allowed me to remain employed in a capacity that facilitated my recovery, but it is now a MAJOR challenge to re-engage my career and contribute at pre-accident levels.

At the time of the accident, I was fortunate to have held one of the most prestigious (and controversial) assignments in all of Marketing and Sales — the Regional Manager of the Detroit Region.  Of course, the day of the accident was also the start of a string of massive reorganizations for Ford-Lincoln/Mercury (3 in less than 18 months) and I was relegated to watch it all unfold while my injuries clearly kept me off the field.  The mishmash of new chains of command was incredible.  Politically, one camp after another had their turn running things and the worst of our culture prevailed while each camp destroyed more than the previous.  People were leaving the Company left and right.  It was truly surreal to watch.

The resulting remnant of our structure has finally settled and “jelled” and there doesn’t seem to be much to aspire to at this juncture in my old “territory”.  Not to mention, when you have been on the sidelines in an organization for as long as I have, you are officially an outsider.  It will take a “re-hiring” decision to find another role.

The options remain limited, and I find there are multiple hurdles in uncovering opportunities at my level.  To open doors, I have volunteered for nearly everything that presents itself.  I have specifically tried to broaden my personal knowledge of parts of the Company that I previously had no interest in pursuing.  It has been fun opening myself up to new technologies and initiatives (like social media).  I wish I had done so earlier.

The fact is, however, I will have to leave the only world I’ve known – North American Marketing, Sales & Service.  I’m prepared to do so, and I am hopeful I can find an area that allows me to repay the Company for standing by me through this recovery.  Coming off the injured reserve list is a lot more difficult than I ever expected.