Midlife Crisis? Take Control of Your Career!

“At midlife, a man or woman feels an inner siren call like an old memory.

we suddenly remember our former intuitions for a possible life.”

David Whyte, The Heart Aroused, Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America.

Midlife is a moving target, but it’s more about attitude than chronological age.  The market loves youth and each additional birthday candle after age 40 signals decreasing options unless you take control of your career.  YOU have to create opportunities, YOU are Director of Sales.

• What are you selling?  Anyone at midlife has extensive experience and expertise.  What is unique about yours? 
• Who are you?  What are your values? Cultural fit is the largest determiner of success or failure with an organization. 
• What are the consistent outcomes of what you do?  How do your stories reflect effective leadership and management?

Five top reasons older job seekers fail to get offers:

1. Focused on the past, ingrained biases and ways of doing things
2. No evidence of continuous learning; degrees outdated, lack intellectual curiosity
3. Try too hard to impress in interviews; talk too much, inquire and listen too little
4. Rigid, opinionated, inflexible, know it all
5. Lack aura of leadership and professional presence appropriate to field and industry

Five top advantages at midlife:

1. Experience and expertise
2. Good judgment
3. Interpersonal skills
4. Credibility with stakeholders
5. Work ethics

Five ways to beat the competition!

1. Know yourself; believe in yourself.  Do the hard work of in-depth self assessment
2. Create powerful , consistent, comprehensive marketing materials; resume, brand statements, Linked in profile
3. Target your job search; know what you are looking for and where you want to work; bring together your network and keep your eye on the goal
4. Learn the marketplace; do your research; look for work that needs doing rather than wasting time applying on-line
5. Get a Career Coach; no winning ball team ever did it without a coach, why should you? 

It’s your career.  It’s your life.  Isn’t it time to take control?

The Memory of the Future: A Contradiction in Terms?

“When you confuse the edge of your rut with the horizon, your world seems very small.”

Although it’s not possible to predict the future, we all spend an inordinate amount of time attempting to do so. Rather than trying to predict what will happen, it’s much more productive to question, “What are potential scenarios that might occur? What are strategies I can use to deal most effectively with each of them? What resources will I need, what skills, what critical competencies do I have right now that I can build upon?

We constantly imagine possible scenarios for the future, sometimes with anticipation, other times with apprehension, but the visual image and potential consequences can be very real. David Ingvar, a former head of the neurology department at the University of Lund, Sweden, calls this the “memory of the future.” The human brain automatically attempts to make sense of the future by testing possible plans of action; therefore, when the situation actually occurs, you have a “memory” of how you sorted out the potential choices before it occurred. The more practice you have, the more adept you become at selecting favorable options.

The scenario approach encourages questioning, it recognizes the reality of ambiguity and expects change. It doesn’t create a specific “plan” that can create an artificial perception of order, which is in reality the most unstable state of all as it lulls us into a sense of surety that leaves us unprepared when things don’t turn out as we planned. The scenario approach, on the other hand, encourages questioning, it recognizes the reality of ambiguity and expects change. It prepares us to deal effectively and confidently with whatever occurs, because we have “been there” already in our imaginations. It teaches us to be much more effective problem solvers and it reduces our fear of the unknown…..critical attributes for individuals and companies in today’s topsy turvy world.

Next time you’re caught daydreaming, just say you’re creating the future.



Turning off the Guilt Trip!

What is it in the human psyche that relishes the negative and brushes off the positive? Of the nine basic human emotions, only the last three are considered positive, according to Russ Harris, author of The Happiness Trap.

1. Fear
2. Anger
3. Shock
4. Disgust
5. Sadness
6. Guilt
7. Love
8. Joy
9. Curiosity

We are biologically pre-disposed to protect our lives from potential danger because negative emotions focus our attention and make us alert to potential predators waiting to destroy us. The problem is, throughout evolution and the slow development of the frontal part of our brains where thinking and logic take place, we failed to recognize that we had become our own worst enemies.

The elephant will always be able to outweigh, out-maneuver and over power its rider, the mahout. Emotions are king and our feeble brains follow where our feelings lead us.

Start with the most useless, destructive emotion of all, guilt. What possible advantage does it bring us? We wallow in our own self-pity and become our own victims, absorbing our energies, and leaving a piddling puddle of jelly left to conquer the world. It’s listed at the bottom of the top six negative emotions because it is most likely to be the repository of the five above.

Vow to yourself that any feelings of guilt you may have will be turned into something constructive. Turn off the Guilt Trip and get out of the Guilt Trap!

Personal Branding: Creating your Noble Cause

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” Albert Einstein.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, I am master of my fate. Beneath the surface of a successful person is almost always this conviction. They recognize the power they have to create their lives and they take responsibility for ensuring that their values are at the core of every decision they make. Winners are rarely accidental. They believe the glass is at least half full and figure out a way to make it overflow. If you believe in yourself and the power of your future, others will also believe in you.

It’s easy to become distracted by the responsibility you have for the goals of your organization and, in the process, lose touch with your own mission and goals. The result can be a rudderless exercise of floundering between, “Do what I say, not what I do.” No leadership strategy has ever been as effective as role modeling so creating a motivated, innovative, self-directed workforce begins with understanding and motivating yourself.

Libraries are full of “How to” books on leadership, on how to impact the performance of other people and gain recognition through their achievements. Strategies, techniques, manipulation under the guise of the common good, are wrapped up in tidy packages of “Five….or seven…or 10 Steps” anyone can learn and implement almost immediately. You are assured that following the specific rules will produce more, better, quicker, cheaper. It is comforting but rarely realistic. Leadership is about people and people just don’t fit into prescribed rules of behavior.

A brand image is an implied promise. Evaluate your brand image, identify the product and service guarantees people anticipate from their relationship with you. Is your image consistent, predictable, does it reflect who you really are and how you perform when you are at your very best? A successful leader has a clear brand image that epitomizes a personal mission and vision of a positive world.

Tribal Leadership is a terrific book by Dave Logan, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright. The five stages of development they identify for great organizations are equally useful for individuals seeking to define and connect with their own personal brands. They identify Level 5, the highest level of achievement as when everyone in the organization is focused on something much greater than themselves, their team, or even the organization’s success. It is founded on a Noble Cause based on core values, and a belief that “life is great.” Your Nobel Cause will encourage you to stretch beyond your perceived limits and capture the imagination of people around you.

Where does your brand fit with the universe? What is your unique place? What do you bring to the table that no one else can claim? What are the values that guide you? What is your Noble Cause?

“It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others.”
John Andrew Holmes

Power Tips for a Winning Midlife Career Transition

Attitudes become our realities. At midlife, if you believe your age is a reality, you’re probably right. If you believe it’s a disadvantage, you’re definitely right. Midlife is an incredible time to invest in the future. Rich with experience, at the height of your professional expertise, you’re positioned to put all your talents, interests and abilities together for the most productive and fulfilling years of your life. Take this advice and power on!

1. Create your brand: Differentiate yourself in the marketplace by creating a brand that is recognizable, repeatable and outcome based.
2. Expand your horizons: What have you learned today? Whom have you met? How often have you laughed? What risk did you take?
3. Get in fighting shape: Are you ready for the competition? Would you bet on this horse?
4. Define your market niche: So, ok, you can do most anything, but where do you excel? Where do your talents, interests and skills meet?
5. Invest in people: We are herd animals by nature, and we are inherently integral to each other’s lives. Nurture your relationships; create new connections.
6. Fish where the fish are: “Cruising the net” is probably the most popular, and least effective, way of finding a great new career opportunity. The courting ritual that goes on in front of monitors is like guppies in different tanks posturing in front of the glass. Interesting but probably not going to produce new guppies. Get out there and meet people face to face.
7. Get a Coach: Would you put a winning basketball team out on the floor without a Coach? Isn’t your life worth as much as a ball game?
8. Create a power resume: Forget the nonsense of a 1-2 page resume. If you’ve got it, flaunt it! It’s your sales brochure, the owner’s manual for a cutting edge product.
9. Bury the past: No one hires a wounded bear, so move on. Save the recriminations, pain and regrets for your journal and then burn it. There’s too much possibility in the future to waste emotion on the past.
10. Get with it! There is a time to cogitate, a time to ruminate, a time to meditate, but make it quick. Exploring new options is exactly what you should be doing at mid-life. This is a beginning, not an ending and you don’t want to miss the party.

“This time, like all times, is a very good one,
if we but know what to do with it.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Leaders are Always Originals

Leaders are where you find them. The new leadership challenge is to make sense of the context. Deal with the hand you’re dealt. The key is to identify the people in your organization that others are following and bring them into the fold. Are they leading where you want them to go? Do they understand your goals, the reality of the marketplace you are facing? Can they see your vision? Are they on your team or creating an alternate world you may neither recognize nor approve?

Leadership comes in all sizes and shapes and it is no longer defined by title, expertise or experience. It can appear in the most unexpected places. Keeping the focus of everyone in your organization on a vision can require the flexibility of a chameleon, the charisma of a rock star and the wisdom of an ancient oracle. What are we poor mortals to do? Start with recognizing the multiple viewpoints and goals of the people you are leading and bring them with you in the journey.

Whether leaders are born, made or evolve on the spot when the situation demands it, there is no question command and control is out and persuasion is in. It’s all about identifying and developing talent and that requires subtlety. It is more about vision than task, collaboration and respect than hierarchy. The faceless leader who issues edicts from an ivory tower with a moat around the castle to keep naysayers out and who surrounds him/herself with sycophants will see the talent drain away and the company fade into oblivion.

10 Rules to Become a Career Superstar

The corporate ladder is gone, lifetime employment a quaint blurb in the history books. Scary as this may seem, it’s also enormously freeing to know who you are and what you do is your choice. A number of years ago, I gave a keynote address to the International Association of Career Management Professionals (now ACP) in Montreal, where I encouraged us all to partner with our clients to become Career Entrepreneurs, taking control and running our careers like a business. The rules I created then seem even more important now.

Rule 1: See yourself as a product or service worth buying

Rule 2: Identify your life’s work

Rule 3: Focus on outcomes; don’t limit your identity to a profession, title, or skill

Rule 4: Collaborate; develop strategic alliances

Rule 5: Brand yourself

Rule 6: Learn something new every day

Rule 7: Become a child again; laugh, play, skip and climb

Rule 8: Find the sunshine in your life and spread it around to others who could use a ray or two

Rule 9: Ask “Why not?” more often than “Why?”

Rule 10: Live your life in cycles rather than linear stages; keep learning, growing, playing and working at every age.