Week 20.11 Your Life is Your Job

Whether the pandemic has been easy or difficult, it is a safe bet is has been disruptive. It has allowed, caused, and forced me to rethink many things that I had taken for granted, such as the cavalier way I always assumed that I could go out to see anything tomorrow night if I didn’t want to tonight. And it has provided time to reconsider things that I always knew and somehow did not really internalize. I was always aware that my job was not my life. But what I had never really internalized was that my life was my job. Please do not be fooled by the cuteness of the phrase I just turned there; if you are like me, now is a great time for the wake-up call to remember just how important that statement is. So I will repeat it: Your Life is Your Job. Let’s break it down.

Many people obsess over their careers. After all, a well-planned career has some great outcomes. I just finished Bob Iger’s outstanding autobiography, The Ride of a Lifetime, in which he recounts his career from the bottom rung at ABC to the top role at Disney. I read the story as one of talent, determination, patience, timing, and luck. I suspect he would agree. Certain circumstances broke the right way at the right time, and Iger was prepared with the skills and the willingness to take advantage of them. While it would be hard to make the case that he planned his way to the CEO role, he was intentional about it. 

What does it mean to make your life your job? After all, everyone has their own life to lead, so if you are not leading your life, who will? What does that mean? Well, using Iger as an example, it would mean starting with some idea of everything you would like to do with your life. Not what job, money, or things you want. What kind of life you want. What kind of people do you want to spend your time with, what kind of experiences do you want to have, what kind of knowledge do you want to acquire? What do you want to be known for? What do you not want to be known for? What impact do you want to have, how much fun, how much do you want to give away, how much chocolate do you want to eat? These are all questions that only you can answer, and then you get to figure out how to set your priorities and, using your talent, determination, patience, timing, and luck, try your best to make it happen.

Too many people mistake their careers for their life. They think long and hard about what they want to accomplish, what role they aspire to, the money they want to make, the people they want to lead. And when they reach their goal, they look back from the top and realize they were doing the wrong job. When the career is over, it becomes clear that it is only one part of life, and when people are too committed to their career, the loss can be devastating. I suspect this is true at all levels of careers - that the people who see their life in balance, who understand what their care about, and set their priorities accordingly have the greatest life success. Jim Citrin wrote an excellent book about this called The Dynamic Path. 

My good friend and daily questions partner, Ayse Birsel, reminds me to Design the Life You Love. If the pandemic has taught me nothing else, it is that I am not my job, but rather, my career is only part of who I am. My real job is my life. I must make the most of each day, find the balance that I want, remember that what other people see is important to them, and priorities they make for their lives, and I need to make them for mine. This last year was disruptive, creating a chance to see with new ideas (sic). Please take the opportunity to consider your life as the job you are uniquely qualified to do, that only you know how to do it, and that there is no one else to do it. Your life is your job.

Care and compassion need to be hard-wired into digital systems by Sanyin Siang.

"To effectively develop and leverage digital technology’s powers, we need to double down on that which makes us human." In Sanyin's latest word column for Dialogue Review's Digital Leadership themed issue, she asks us to reflect on the need to invest in the human infrastructure of technological innovations. For any organization engaged in digital transformation, several questions should be brought to the fore. How do we innovate through digital technology and keep people first? How do we resist the temptation to innovate for innovation’s sake rather than for the sake of humanity? How do we avoid ethical pitfalls and manage the risks of new technology? To achieve its mission of serving consumers, technology must be buffered and buttressed by a human and humane infrastructure in its very conception and creation." Dialogue Review is a global quarterly practitioner journal that reaches 1.3 million readers, published by Duke Corporate Education and LID Publishing.

Redesigning Inclusion: Superpowers & Symphony.

This is a ground-breaking and transformative new solution to empower leaders and organizations to create a culture of inclusion in the workplace. It is an invitation to belong, where we recognize and cultivate everyone's uniqueness as “Superpowers,” thereby unlocking “Symphony,” our greatest resource to achieve true inclusion in the workplace. This new offering is presented in partnership with Oshoke Abalu, a truly visionary and inspiring woman leader, architect, and futurist. Whether you have seen Oshoke’s acclaimed TEDx talk or attended our Virtual Town Hall with her in December, we know you will be inspired by our collective vision for inclusion in the workplace.

“Redesigning Inclusion: Superpowers & Symphony” combines individual and organizational assessments and inclusion training for leaders and the broader workforce, along with engaging, immersive keynote sessions to introduce this new approach. Join in on a new movement based on human connection and organizational unity by taking the Superpowers & Symphony pledge. Find out more and sign up here.

The Business Development Academy for Coaches with Alisa Cohn and Dorie Clark

Rock star100 Coaches members Alisa Cohn and Dorie Clark have partnered with WBECS Group to launch The Business Development Academy for Coaches - the destination for growing your coaching practice, building your brand, and creating a long-term sustainable business. Dorie and Alisa invite you to a FREE 90-minute masterclass: Counterintuitive Secrets to Growing Your Coaching Business. Sign up here

This session will give you new ideas and strategies to reach the next level - both for impact and income. Wherever you are in your coaching journey, this session will help you shift your thinking about business development to start building the business you desire. You need this!

Why The No. 1 Executive Coach Is Giving Away His Intellectual Property by Ruth Gotian

The story starts with a meeting with Ayse Birsel, a designer, author, and speaker. Goldsmith met Birsel when he interviewed her to get insight into the CEO he was coaching, with whom Birsel worked. Goldsmith saw promise in Birsel and the two kept in touch. Birsel, the author of Design the Life You Love, put together a workshop based on her new book. Goldsmith promised to come to support her and bring friends. “I usually have a dozen people at my workshops. Marshall brought 70 people with him,” said Birsel.

Marshall was inspired by Birsel’s idea to be more like his heroes. He was inspired to pay it forward in a bigger and bolder way than he was already doing. He wanted his techniques to not just be for top leaders but the everyday person. Marshall Goldsmith recognizes that by giving away his intellectual property and making it nimble, it will reach every industry in every corner of the world. He understands that people know their region, audience, and industry better than he does, and he is proud that they are using his techniques which he developed over four decades. His one hope is that everyone who receives the intellectual property will find a way to pay it forward. To read the two-part article, click here, and for part two here.

Michael Bungay Stanier's book The Advice Trap is now out as an audiobook, a year to the day since its print publication. To break up the monologue, he invited a range of contributors to comment after each chapter and reflect on what was most helpful ... and those contributors include the MG100's own Alexander Osterwalder, Feyzi Fatehi, and Pau Gasol. Thanks to those who've already been kind enough to pick up a copy and leave a review.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Oshoke Abalu March 19th

And, as always, thank you, Marshall, for making all of this possible.

With love and gratitude

Scott