Why being a politician is a tough career

I know that you are well and truly tired of commentary on the election but something really struck home to me when I was watching Joe Hockey and other members of the Coalition on the election coverage on Saturday night.

We were watching people being retrenched in front of our eyes.
And this happens every 3 years.

That’s a tough working environment. Every two-and-a-half years they have to spend 6 months justifying why they should keep their job based on their performance over the past 2 or so years.
Politicians have to find out what their boss – the public – expect of them, and then deliver on these expectations.

While the political career landscape is starkly transparent thanks to 24/7 media, our career is also subject to regular scrutiny, albeit in a less public sense. Most companies hold formal performance reviews every year and, if our performance is not up to scratch, then we could find ourselves out of work.

So, to learn from the Coalition’s mistakes, make sure you know what is expected of you; deliver on these expectations; and reinvent yourself every ten years or so.

What will you leave behind?

The lyrics of a recent top 20 song by The Cat Empire is called 'No Longer There', caught my attention:

"what will you leave behind when you're no longer there?"

Interesting question isn't it. Makes me think as to why we work, our motivations to spend 40 odd hours a week doing a particular set of activities. If you 'were no longer there' can be analysed at several different levels, depending on where 'there' is:

Your Position

So, if you left your current position, what would you leave behind? Will it be in a better state than when you arrived. Would it work smoother, faster, more efficiently? Will the next person be able to pick things up quickly and easily understand what you've done so that they can build on that for the future.

Your Company

If you left your company, what would you leave behind? Would it be a state of destruction or strong relationships. Would you be remembered favourably? or forgotten quickly?

Your Working Life

At some point we will stop working, whether through our choice or not. What will be your legacy? What will you be remembered for? Over time your career will have common themes that point toward your contribution to society, community and other people. But why wait until the end to figure out what this is? If you can identify these threads that hold the tapestry of your career together then you can weave a brighter, larger tapestry and direct the design to be what you want, not simply the product of unconscious action.