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Career Zingers Volume 1 11 Career Zingers Small Nudges of Career Advice to Perk You Up by David Zinger Email: david@davidzinger.com Site: www.davidzinger.com VOLUME 1
Why Career Zingers? Career Zingers gives you small nudges of advice, direction, and perspective for your career development. It is here to help you when you feel confused, uncertain or lost in your career path, you are wondering what your next step is on your career, you want to sustain your career progress, you want to manage and master your own career, or you simply desire a small idea to nudge your career. Career Zingers is the perfect resource to pass on to someone else you know at work or home who could use a few good nudges on their career path. You are welcome to distribute this document within your workplace to help your co-workers enhance their career self-management. Caution: reading this book is not a substitute for taking action and reading by itself will not advance your career. Why Career Zingers? Career Zingers gives you small nudges of advice, direction, and perspective for your career development. It is here to help you when you feel confused, uncertain or lost in your career path, you are wondering what your next step is on your career, you want to sustain your career progress, you want to manage and master your own career, or you simply desire a small idea to nudge your career. Career Zingers is the perfect resource to pass on to someone else you know at work or home who could use a few good nudges on their career path. You are welcome to distribute this document within your workplace to help your co-workers enhance their career self-management. Caution: reading this book is not a substitute for taking action and reading by itself will not advance your career.
What is career? We tend to define career as an occupation or profession often requiring special training or education. Yet career also means to run or move rapidly along. The fuller view of career is a person’s progress or general course of action through life. In 1980’s (I know, I go back a few years) career development was defined by Donald Wolfe and David Kolb as, “one’s whole life, not just occupation. As such, it concerns the whole person, needs and wants, capacities and potentials, excitements and anxieties, insights and blind spots, warts and all. More than that, it concerns him/her in the ever-changing contexts of his/her life.” I am not sure career zingers will help you remove warts but it may help you with all that other stuff. I simply define career with 8 words: good life lived well with others every day What is career? We tend to define career as an occupation or profession often requiring special training or education. Yet career also means to run or move rapidly along. The fuller view of career is a person’s progress or general course of action through life. In 1980’s (I know, I go back a few years) career development was defined by Donald Wolfe and David Kolb as, “one’s whole life, not just occupation. As such, it concerns the whole person, needs and wants, capacities and potentials, excitements and anxieties, insights and blind spots, warts and all. More than that, it concerns him/her in the ever-changing contexts of his/her life.” I am not sure career zingers will help you remove warts but it may help you with all that other stuff. I simply define career with 8 words: good life lived well with others every day
1. The Wooden Yardstick Comparing yourself or your career development to others is to transform yourself into a wooden yard stick. You may be able to measure things but you are no longer human. The next time you feel jealous, diminished, or envious of another person, ask yourself: “Do I want to be a wooden yard stick or a living human being who is simply incomparable?” 1. The Wooden Yardstick Comparing yourself or your career development to others is to transform yourself into a wooden yard stick. You may be able to measure things but you are no longer human. The next time you feel jealous, diminished, or envious of another person, ask yourself: “Do I want to be a wooden yard stick or a living human being who is simply incomparable?”
2. The Career Moment Too often we view career development as aspirations, goals, and future results. In our pursuit of the future we miss the living moment of our career. To have an amazing career ensure you don’t miss where you are because you are in a blind craving and endless pursuit of where you want to be. 2. The Career Moment Too often we view career development as aspirations, goals, and future results. In our pursuit of the future we miss the living moment of our career. To have an amazing career ensure you don’t miss where you are because you are in a blind craving and endless pursuit of where you want to be.
3. On The Path As we speed along, many of us make resolutions and dream of an idealized time ahead. Many of our resolutions are neither attainable nor sustainable. We get caught up in the frenetic compulsion to get to some idealized, perhaps even mythical, destination. Exit the career freeway, stop your motor mind, and start taking steps on your unique career path. § it is helpful to travel together, § appreciate the scenery, § enjoy some snacks along the way, § keep walking on. 3. On The Path As we speed along, many of us make resolutions and dream of an idealized time ahead. Many of our resolutions are neither attainable nor sustainable. We get caught up in the frenetic compulsion to get to some idealized, perhaps even mythical, destination. Exit the career freeway, stop your motor mind, and start taking steps on your unique career path. § it is helpful to travel together, § appreciate the scenery, § enjoy some snacks along the way, § keep walking on.
4. Clean Smudges During the day when I look through my glasses I often fail to notice how many smudges are on the glass – blurring and obscuring my worldview. As I take off my glasses – and look at them – I see how much they are in need of cleaning. Before launching into your career and world - take time to look at the concepts, ideas, and evaluations that act as your intentional and evaluative career lenses. Give these concepts a solid cleaning to remove career smudges so that you have a fresh view of where you are and where you are headed. 4. Clean Smudges During the day when I look through my glasses I often fail to notice how many smudges are on the glass – blurring and obscuring my worldview. As I take off my glasses – and look at them – I see how much they are in need of cleaning. Before launching into your career and world - take time to look at the concepts, ideas, and evaluations that act as your intentional and evaluative career lenses. Give these concepts a solid cleaning to remove career smudges so that you have a fresh view of where you are and where you are headed.
5. Be Resolute not Coercive Each New Year’s Day signals a time when many of us make resolutions to advance our career or begin the 100 other self-improvement initiatives we scheme up. The good news is that we don’t resist change while the bad news is, we resist coercion. At times, we can be self- coercive with our own career development. Trying to make ourselves or force ourselves to be better can sow the seeds of separation from ourselves, internal tension, and feelings of failure. Be resolute in your work without being coercive with yourself. 5. Be Resolute not Coercive Each New Year’s Day signals a time when many of us make resolutions to advance our career or begin the 100 other self-improvement initiatives we scheme up. The good news is that we don’t resist change while the bad news is, we resist coercion. At times, we can be self- coercive with our own career development. Trying to make ourselves or force ourselves to be better can sow the seeds of separation from ourselves, internal tension, and feelings of failure. Be resolute in your work without being coercive with yourself.
6. Be a Hit Ed Sheeran had the biggest hit song of 2017: Shape of You. Bernadette Jiwa, writing about lessons learned from the biggest hit of 2017 stated, “you have to put yourself into the situations that give you the best chance of doing great work.” The best situation I know to give yourself a chance for great work is to continually strive to do good work. I define work engagement as: “good work done well with others every day.” If you do good work every day, once in a while the situation may arise that you will stumble into great work. 6. Be a Hit Ed Sheeran had the biggest hit song of 2017: Shape of You. Bernadette Jiwa, writing about lessons learned from the biggest hit of 2017 stated, “you have to put yourself into the situations that give you the best chance of doing great work.” The best situation I know to give yourself a chance for great work is to continually strive to do good work. I define work engagement as: “good work done well with others every day.” If you do good work every day, once in a while the situation may arise that you will stumble into great work.
. 7. You are Invited As you strive to enhance your career avoid being coercive with yourself because when you are coercive you set yourself up for guilt and failure. You end up transforming part of yourself that can be an ally into an adversary. A powerful way to change this is to frame your desired career changes as personal invitations, not impositions. I like receiving invitations. I don’t like feeling I am being pushed into something — even if it is me pushing myself. Career development requires a caring and careful approach to embark down a new or renewed path. Are you ready, willing, and able to accept the invitation of personal career management and mastery?
. 8. Trash Talk On a cold January morning, the garbage truck and recycling truck picked up my trash and recyclables. Every week two large bins of material from my home either gets thrown out or recycled. Too many of us in our career development are always trying to add, attain, obtain, or achieve. I encourage you to respond to the following three questions: 1. Am I able to identify what I need to throw out of my life versus what I can reuse or recycle? 2. What is weighing me down in my career that I need to trash? 3. What skills, strengths, and experience can I recycle or transform into a new way of working? Before you add more to your career, take out the trash!
. 9. Under Construction I am not a fan of either positive thinking or negative thinking because they are both shallow and too one-sided. Sometimes good things are not as good as we thought or bad things turn out to be good in time. Good things happen for a variety of reasons and bad things will inevitably occur. Experiences involve more than our thinking yet thinking is a tremendous force in career development. That’s why I advocate constructive thinking. Regardless of what occurs determine what you can construct out of the experience. Our careers are large and lengthy self-structures built over time. As you develop your career, hard hats are optional, but know that regardless of where you are on your career path, be it your first job or deep into retirement, your career is always “under construction.”
. 10. Standing Naked I was in the change room at the gym today. One gentleman suddenly realized he had left his gym clothes at home. "I was in such a hurry when I left home I just forgot my gym stuff at home," he bemoaned. As we race off in our career we may inadvertently leave something, or someone important, behind. Perhaps you inadvertently left a very cherished activity behind or maybe you achieved tremendous success only to realize that you left your spouse or family behind because you failed to give them the attention they needed. Take one minute each day to ensure that you have what you need, and who you need, as you move forward. There is no point arriving at your destination only to end up standing naked, lacking what you need.
. 11. A Fresh Start There is the possibility of growing in the most difficult of places. New Year’s Day is fading fast. Perhaps you dreamed of a career change or made a career resolution and broke it. You believe all is lost, thinking now you’ll wait until your birthday in late August to make a fresh start on your career. When can we start over? The truth is, anytime. The next moment invites you to begin again. And the moment after, sends a second invitation. And each moment does this again and again and again. Don’t dither, postpone, or procrastinate on career change for a special event or specific date on the calendar. Close the door on real or imagined setbacks and open the door for a fresh start right now. And if this fresh start doesn’t proceed as planned the next moment after that is a great time to begin, yet again.
. David Zinger offers you his absolute best in career, work, and leadership engagement speeches, workshops, coaching, and consulting. David has spoken around the world and he wrote 4 books on work. He invested 24,000 hours in employee engagement. David was a counsellor educator at the University of Manitoba and a career development coach and employee counsellor for Seagram/Diageo. Engage with David today to improve, enhance, or develop your career. David offers fresh and invigorating speeches, workshops, coaching, and consulting on career development. Contact Information: § Email: david@davidzinger.com § Website: www.davidzinger.com § LinkedIN: www.linkedin.com/in/davidzinger/ § Twitter: www.twitter.com/davidzinger § Network: www.employeeengagement.ning.com/
