Ready, Set, Go! (Special Edition)

by Rafael Badziag

  A word of caution: the informational conversations you’ll have in your career exploration are not the time to sell yourself or pass along your résumé. When we walk into a conversation to sell, we can’t suppress this agenda—it will leak through our expressions and tone of voice. Your intention should be one of learning, curiosity, examining, educating you on the glimmer. To identify what you like and, just as importantly, what you don’t like.

  Now is the time to act. Researching hours on end on the internet doesn’t engage all of you—reach out, talk to people, attend events. There is power in moving forward. It’s physics—Newton’s Law in action. As you continue to move toward your dream, trust that the path will unfold.

  TAKE DIRECTIONALLY CORRECT STEPS

  Rarely do we step into exactly what we’re meant to do. Often, we make directionally correct moves: small changes to our career that can result in meaningful differences in our overall job satisfaction. Taking these small steps over time requires us to be open to some level of inaccuracy.

  A client with a job in sales leadership lands on the belief that he wants to start his own business providing one-on-one coaching to sales professionals. He decides to make a small pivot in his career that is directionally correct, and he accepts a job as a sales trainer for a global company. His goal is to stay in this role for a few years, obtain his coaching certification, and apply his new expertise to the people he will be training.

  What’s interesting is that people sometimes make these moves without realizing it. A client takes a risk, leaves a corporate job, and accepts a contract position with a startup. Within a year, the startup runs out of money, and the client is convinced she made a mistake. She quickly accepts a role helping a four-star hotel shut its doors. She later pivots and launches a company in the outplacement field using what she had learned from the startup. Looking back, she realizes that there was something attractive about the startup—a glimmer instrumental to where she is today. If she hadn’t followed that hunch, she’d still be unhappy in a corporate job.

  Career moves that seem to be mistakes may pay off later—sometimes we just don’t see the connection today. Don’t be afraid to pivot.

  SIT IN THE FEAR

  Too often we let fear rule. When faced with an opportunity to do something big, our amygdala goes into hyperdrive: this is the same tiny, yet persistent voice that warned us as four-year-olds not to run across the street without holding an adult’s hand. And as we became adults, our amygdala warned about other risks, like volunteering for new assignments or a promotion. Deep down, it wants to keep us safe, so it stops us from taking steps in directions that could unleash our best selves.

  When I ask my clients to think about the things they most want to do, I hear descriptors like “scary” and “exciting.” One described it as standing at the edge of a cliff with his friends down below, hooting at him to jump into the water. What is my recommendation when I hear the excitement and vibrancy in their voices? Jump.

  Making small and big changes to your career can feel very threatening.

  But like the client with the startup experience, all that you’ve done is part of you—you’re not really starting from scratch.

  Sit in the fear. Know what fear feels like. I lead clients through a meditation to find out what it might be saying. One client considering a major career change begins to cry. The fear rests in her chest, her heart is beating wildly. I ask her, “What is it telling you?”

  She pauses and says, “Find yourself. Love something passionately.”

  Our bodies are amazing and when we listen, they tell us remarkable things. Here are a few things you can do to recognize the voice of your fear, sit with it, and guide yourself out:

  • Name the fear . In your journal, answer these questions: what are you afraid of? What are you lacking? What is your fear telling you?

  Once you name it, it will lose some of its power to hold you back.

  • Thank your fear . Acknowledge your amygdala for doing its job to keep you safe. Then rewrite its job description—demote it from the Chief Safety Officer to the Safety Assistant.

  • Quiet negative chatter . Meditate. Pray. Read books on quieting the mind. The Power of Now by Eckart Tolle is one of the most influential books I’ve read in a very long time.

  • Face your fear . And do it again . Challenged by her coach to face a fear, a client asked a colleague (whom she disliked for months) to lunch. Feeling emboldened, she decided to do something she’s been wanting to do for about a year, she asked for a raise. Now she is considering opening her own consulting business. When you face fear once, you know you can do it. And then do it again.

  KEEP LEARNING

  It’s never too late to make a change. I’ve seen this again and again over the years with clients who’ve found the courage to shift to their dream careers.

  Armed with a degree in public policy and a heart to serve, a client became a police officer and spent his free time volunteering at a temple working as a youth advisor. He fell in love with congregation life and became a rabbi where he served for 30 years. Today, he is excited at the opportunity to lead a nonprofit collaborating with community leaders to build religious inclusion in neighborhoods.

  What looked like career mistakes were actually turns aligned with his glimmers of addressing public needs and building communities of faith.

  During our coaching session he said, “Looking back at my life, I can see that it all makes sense.”

  U-turns in your career don’t need to be failures. You can view each situation, each move as part of a purpose. You are learning something new with every step you take in your career transition. Explore the glimmers, because you’re meant to step out and do great things. Open that business, take that promotion, jump into a completely different line of work. It’s never too late. And in fact, the timing is perfect.

  © 2017 by Cara Heilmann. All Rights Reserved.

  About Cara

  Born into a hardworking middle-class family in Aiea, Hawaii , Cara Heilmann knows the value of a strong work ethic as she worked in her family’s manufacturing business throughout her childhood.

  Years later, when her father landed in the emergency room, Cara blanched at her desk-bound life and translated that work ethic to becoming a runner. Since then, she has run countless half-marathons, three full marathons, and several 24-hour relay races. Cara carries this grit and determination to her professional life as well.

  Cara has worked for large Fortune 500 organizations—Kaiser Permanente®, ARAMARK, Baxter Healthcare—and medium to small organizations—AMN

  Healthcare®, Clinical Laboratories of Hawaii, Vantaggio HR. After a long career in executive recruiting and Human Resources, Cara is now CEO of Ready Reset Go™, a career-coaching company helping people find jobs that ignite their hearts. Her clients range from physicians to new graduates to CEOs. Her greatest joy is hearing clients say, “I got the job!”

  Cara is a recognized expert, speaker, and trainer and has taught on today’s job search methods, uncovering unconscious biases, giving and getting feedback, recruiting search techniques, and improv interviewing preparation.

  Cara is very involved in the community as a member of the Board of Directors of Wardrobe for Opportunity, a nonprofit in Oakland ending poverty by helping individuals get a job, keep a job, and build a career.

  Cara has a Master of Business Administration from Vanderbilt University and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She is a certified Senior Professional Human Resources, a Certified Professional Résumé Writer, a Certified Professional Career Coach, and a member of the Forbes Coaches Council. She is also certified in the Lominger Recruiting Architect® and TRACOM®

  Group Social Styles.

  Cara resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two boys where she runs throughout the East Bay Hills.

  Cara loves to hear from people, feel free to connect:

  • www.linkedin.com/in/caraheilm
ann/

  • www.readyresetgo.com

  • @CaraHeilmann

  CHAPTER 7

  TRANSFORM STRATEGY TO ACTION

  PREPARING FOR SUCCESS

  BY CHERYL WHEELER, CMC

  Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.

  ~ John Ruskin – leading English art critic of the Victorian era

  You are an executive or entrepreneur from the turbulent world of business. You may oversee a complex operation, or you’re looking to make your business dream a reality. You strive every day to deliver the promised customer experience all while relentlessly navigating the ever-shifting digital business landscape. You may also have C-suite accountability to investors and directors for profitable growth, increased market share, and sustainable value creation. This is your reality.

  Whoever you are, you’re under constant pressure to control costs, increase productivity, and focus on operational effort and capital investment that optimizes performance and delivers measurable results. Your solid grounding in business tells you that success rarely comes from some trendy app, or from the introduction of a cool, new approach. You get that in the real world, there are no silver bullets.

  You’re aware that no prototype of an aircraft ever took off from Boeing Field and remained aloft with a long-term return on investment (ROI), based on a plan-on-a-page, cute Prezi animation, and nonexistent production designs.

  You know that, in the real world, achieving real success takes real commitment!

  “Nearly 60 percent of projects failed to fully meet their objectives: 44 percent missed at least one time, budget or quality goal, while a full 15 percent either missed all goals or were stopped by management.” 1

  Surely, in the nearly ten years since the above study was conducted, one would expect that we’ve cracked the code and are no longer failing so miserably. There are countless books, articles and best-practice approaches that have been developed to avoid risks associated with business startup or transformation, as well as numerous consulting firms professing their expertise in the same.

  Sadly, I wish I could say that businesses are no longer making the same mistakes, particularly at a time when they are amid significant digital transformations.

  As millennials (and even some of us baby boomers) charge forward in a digital world, we are compelled by our personal experiences as we use digital technology as part of our day-to-day lives. As a result, our expectations as consumers have radically changed. Businesses must be positioned to respond to these growing expectations or risk obsolescence.

  According to a study conducted in 2013 involving over 1,500 executives in 106 countries2:

  “78% say digital transformation will become critical to their organizations within the next two years.”

  Therefore, one might suggest that if your business hasn’t already embarked on a significant digital transformation initiative and pulled it off, you’re at risk of missing the boat altogether. Further to that study…

  “81% of people believe digital transformation will give their company a competitive advantage.”

  So, given that your business’ competitive advantage and perhaps even its very survival is dependent on your digital transformation being successful, we better start getting it right.

  Unfortunate Reality

  Sadly, over my 25+ year career, I’ve seen numerous examples of failures – so many in fact, that a significant aspect of my career involved transformation rescue. Whether the goal was a simple realignment of an organizational structure to drive out efficiency or a large-scale, enterprise-wide transformation of people, process, information and technology, the story was the same.

  One example of this was a large organization who, for more than a decade, attempted to automate their outdated registration and scheduling system. In fact, they purchased three completely different software solutions and failed to implement the first two which cost the organization millions of dollars. It was amidst their third attempt that I got called in to complete a risk assessment on their failing transformation and develop a plan to get it back on track. Given the organization’s previous failed attempts, the massive investment already down the drain, the Board was very concerned that the transformation initiative was off the rails – again.

  As with nearly all my transformation rescues, my findings were the same.

  With my remediation plan in hand, I was engaged by the organization to get their transformation back on track and take it to the finish line – and I did just that, in less than six months!

  How was this accomplished?

  1. Ensure unwavering leadership commitment

  Desire is the key to motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek.

  ~ Mario Andretti, Italian-born American former racing driver

  It’s imperative that leadership plays an active role and is viewed as supportive of the transformation.

  The organization’s leadership team was engaged and intimately involved in the definition of the vision and outcomes, and high-level planning. As a result, the value became clear in their minds, and critical business staff were mobilized to support the transformation efforts – providing support from the side of their desks does not work.

  2. Clear vision and measurable results

  Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.

  ~ Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of General Electric

  It is critical to have a clear vision and a definition of outcomes that are meaningful and measurable – a North Star aiming point for sustainable success.

  Many organizations go through the motions of defining outcomes and come up with outcome statements such as “Organizational Excellence” or “Empowered Staff”. These are motherhood statements that are virtually meaningless and certainly not measurable.

  Key members of the organization (including the leadership team) developed measurable outcomes through facilitated sessions. They were developed based on the identified needs and expectations of stakeholders (customers, investors, partners, suppliers, employees, and communities-of-interest). These new outcomes were clear, meaningful, measurable, and in terms that the stakeholders could relate to – responding to the “what’s-in-it-for-me” statement.

  The result was that the leadership and stakeholders were passionate about their North Star. They believed that achieving these outcomes was critical to the success of their transformation as well as their success.

  3. Adoption planning (organizational change management)

  It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg.

  ~ C. S. Lewis, British novelist

  As with most transformation failures, it’s rare that the technology was at the root of the problem – although it’s usually to blame. It’s typically the people side of the change that was not appropriately planned for or managed well. Even though it is now best practice to embed stakeholder engagement, communications, training and knowledge transfer practices and activities in a transformation initiative, it is still often overlooked.

  To prepare for their transformation, I conducted a readiness assessment.

  It consisted of a high-level scan of staff and other key stakeholders to assess: if stakeholders understood the vision and case for change; whether they had a positive view; and their perceptions of the organization’s change readiness strengths and constraints. The results of the scan were used to inform an adoption strategy which defined the approaches to engagement, communication, consultation, training, knowledge transfer and feedback mechanisms.

  4. Clear and correct design of the future-state business

  Details create the big picture.

  ~ Sanford I. Weill, American banker, financier and philanthropist

  The cr
eation of the definition and design of the future-state business ensures that complex needs are understood. Without this, it would be like attempting to put together a complex puzzle without the benefit of the picture on the box. You would be unable to confirm if the individual pieces you are trying to put together will result in the correct image.

  Designing the future business solution takes effort. It takes people – executives and staff alike.

  It is crucial to involve employees (internal to the organization) who have the depth and breadth of knowledge of the business area(s) that are the subject of transformation. It also requires individuals with specialized skills in project management, business design, business analysis, change management, and technology.

  A team of external consultants was brought in to provide support for workshops and conduct in-depth reviews of business activities to develop the future-state business design, and determine if the current capabilities meet stakeholder needs (and if not, ascertained what needed to change).

  Additionally, a working committee was engaged to provide business-specific expertise during workshops and interviews. This committee included staff from each of the impacted business areas. It also included a mixture of staff that represented the distinct organizational levels comprising of leadership and day-to-day, hands-on support staff.

  The designs of the future-state business included business processes, policies, business rules and decision models, business organization structure, and information and technology models.

  With the concise picture of their future-state in hand, they had no trouble mapping out a clear path forward to achieve their vision.

  My Next Plan of Attack

  Whether trying to get their businesses off the ground or embarking on a large-scale transformation, I recognized that the issues my clients experienced were essentially the same.

  Disenchanted from more than a decade of rescuing transformations, I decided to no longer pursue this line of work, and I took off for the beaches of Spain to recover myself. I read the book, Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life: How to Unlock Your Full Potential. 3 I guess it was time for my transformation! After a month of self-discovery, I felt fully rejuvenated and had determined my next plan of attack.