Crafting Your Job

A job never remains the same. We constantly alter the tasks and activities we do as well as change the people with whom we interact with on a daily basis. Amy Wrzesniewski and Jane Dutton, Professors of Management call this 'crafting a job' and define it as 'the physical and cognitive changes individuals make in the task or relational boundaries of their work'.

Take our office cleaner for example. Over the past 9 years that he has cleaned our offices he has come to know us well and vice versa. Without fail he will take the time to have a chat and our relationship has moved from contractual to friendship.

He is a superb example of job crafting. The 'relational boundaries' of his job has changed as he spends more time in our offices than on other floors so that he can have a yarn with whoever is in the office. His tasks have also changed as he comes to our floor as close as possible to 5pm to say hello to staff. He'll also go over and above the call of duty to keep our offices clean. He takes coffee spills personally. He'll dry-clean parts of our carpet without charging. And don't get him started on fingerprints on our glass door.

As a result of this job crafting, his identity and the meaning of his work has changed. For him, it's not just about emptying the bins and vacuuming the carpet each day. He sees himself as an integral part of our business and takes pride in the cleanliness of our office. By altering who he interacts with and subtly changing the tasks and activities undertaken, he has crafted work that is more meaningful and fulfiling.

Job crafting exists whether we are conscious of it or not. It may occur more visibly in some workplaces than others depending on whether employees perceive that there is opportunity to job craft as well as individuals' perceptions toward their work.

Job crafting is neither good nor bad. If job crafting results in work patterns that are aligned with organisational objectives then there may be a benefit to the organisation.

Ultimately, we all strive to increase the satisfaction we derive from work. One way in which we do this is by actively crafting our jobs through task changes and altering our relationships at work. We spend such a significant amount of our life at work, why not enjoy it?

Further Reading
Wrzesniewski, A., & Dutton, J. E. 2001. Crafting a Job: Revisioning employees as active crafters of their work. Academy of Management Review, 26(2): 179.

How much we miss

The story below is copied verbatim from an email that has recently been circulated. If you haven't read this, do so. It's a beautiful story of what is important.

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Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:
the violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes:
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:
A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes:
The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. = Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities. The questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.... How many other things are we missing?

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Shifting professions mid-career

Making a significant shift of professions mid-career has always been difficult. Becoming an expert in one field (eg as a doctor, engineer etc) requires a significant amount of learning, time and experience.

So what happens when you want a change?

There are two things you need to do: (1) gain experience; and (2) further education.

The first step is to start to build experience in the industry to which you want to transition. Taking the example of a doctor wanting to become an engineer, think through where the medical and engineering fields overlap (eg biomedical, design engineer, etc). Then find ways to build experiences such as through a secondment, special project, involvement in the industry association or volunteer work.

The second step is further education. The one profession which has pioneered mid-career professional transitions is Management. The origins of the MBA is from the need to equip technical experts in management skills as they move up vertical career ladders.

But, other professions have cottoned on. Today's Australian Financial Review reports on a new 2-year Master of Professional Engineering (from University of Sydney) designed to train engineers from non-traditional backgrounds or help existing engineers move into another discipline.

Shifting professions can be done. It is the road less travelled, but the road most enjoyed.

(Postscript: Don't forget Monday's AFR has a weekly liftout called "Education" with the latest trends and offerings from the education sector.)

What will motivate you: money or development?

A recent survey reported in the Financial Review again found that people are more interested in long-term career development than remuneration. In fact, with the economic woes, career development is even more important than a year ago. 45% of employees left their employer because of a lack of career development.

Interestingly, nearly half of the 3000 employees surveyed said they were seeking a new job.

This hints that people are resigned to their current situation but will move if a better opportunity comes along. I wonder though, how many people are being proactive about seeking opportunities? Are they just looking outside their organisation? Do they see the opportunities within their current workplace that are created during times of change?

Remember that 'career development' is your responsibility. Don't just rely on your organisation to come forward with opportunities - they may well be overly occupied just keeping the ship afloat. Be proactive, explore, have conversations. Something interesting might just turn up....

The grass isn't always greener

I was speaking last night with a good friend of mine who is currently living and working in Edinburgh. Well, at least has been working up until recently when her contract with a financial institution wasn't extended. The GFC and all that. Now she's looking for work in a tough labour market.

In reflection on our conversation I made the assumption that just because she is living overseas she must be having a fun, grand time. It wasn't until she told me her situation that it brought back memories for me of job hunting in London and Vancouver. Of the loneliness and guilt of not enjoying the daily grind, but, feeling that one "should" be enjoying it simply because you are living overseas.

The grass isn't greener in the other paddock.

It always looks amazing, but don't forget there is a day to day reality. Whether the paddock you see is another job, occupation, organisation, city or country. Be wary of the green-tinted glasses. Don't squash the emotion - that excitement is what life is about - but keep a balanced perspective.

Work experiences you need

Developing and growing your career requires experience. It is through our successes and failures that we learn the most.

We tend to think about work experience as one-dimensional, in other words, that it is about experience in general. There are, however, different experience sets that we need to go through in order to develop our career. This depends first and foremost on our preferred career direction. The aim is to gather experiences that lead us toward our future direction.

Lets take an example. Ellen Goldman interviewed 36 CEO's to identify different types of work experiences that were important to develop the ability to think strategically. She identified 9 types, including for example:

• General work experience: a wide ranging variety of experiences that are significant in scope and are autonomous.
  
• Being mentored: particularly early on in one‘s career with have frequent contact and immediate feedback on performance.
  
• Being challenged one-on-one by a key colleague about one‘s thinking.
  
• Dealing with the threat of organisational survival by an external entity: for example a takeover threat or the loss of a key customer.

Think outside the box when it comes to what sets of experiences you may need.
Then, write down one action you will take to get one of these experiences in the next 14 days. Experiences won't happen unless you start somewhere!

Further reading: Goldman, Ellen F. (2008). The power of work experience: Characteristics critical to developing expertise in strategic thinking. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 19 (3): 217-239.

Amazing story of unique skill to business

This is an amazing short video clip of how a unique skill can be turned into a lucrative business. I'm sure this artist didn't setup to make millions...but watch the end of the video.

You'll enjoy the 2 minutes, click here.

The take away message: a niche market can be worth a fortune. If you have a talent, there may well be a way to make a career out of it.

(Thanks to Tom Poland for sharing this via www.The8020Blog.com)

You are not your job

It's the second BBQ question: "So, what do you do?" Nine out of ten people will respond with their job title after which the questioner immediately makes implicit conclusions about that person based on a stereotypical understanding of their job.

Those people who define themselves by their work find it difficult to change careers and are more affected when one of life's curve balls are thrown at them.

This is particular true during periods of unemployment. according to Canadian career expert, Norman Amundson. His research showed that the closer a person’s identity is linked to their work, the greater will be their difficulty in coping with the unemployment period.

You are not your work. Your career is certainly an important part of you, but it's only that: a part.

It is far more effective for your identity to be based on personal capacities and attitudes rather than on a traditional working relationship.

How God will help your Career Decisions

The last four years has seen a blossoming of research on the role of spirituality and religion on individual's careers. The research does not differentiate between belief systems but rather focusses on whether people have a spiritual or religious framework.

There is a difference between spirituality and religion, but that's another blog post (or two) for the future.

So how will God help you?

Ryan Duffy and David Blustein conducted a study on the relationship between religiousness, spirituality, and career decision self-efficacy. They found that spiritual/religious frameworks play a significant role in an individual's confidence about making career decisions. Here's an extract from their findings:

"While the exact link between these variables and confidence in making career decisions is not clear, we propose that the stability and support granted by a strong base in religion and spirituality helps an individual have confidence about a host of decisions, including those concerning one
s career."

The end of the redundancy stigma

Being retrenched no longer comes with a social stigma. It is far to common an experience with the average person experiencing 3 involuntary career changes in their working life.

It is so commonin fact that two retrenched workers in the US decided they needed to promote more actively that they were looking for work. So, they created a brightly coloured wristband saying "Looking for work - Need a job". 

The result?

They are no longer without work. Their full time job is packing and sending these wristbands to people from around the country.

There's no such thing as thinking too big

"I think I'm thinking too big" said David.

This was his response to writing down his Preferred Career Directions for the future. We were at a career management and strategy workshop for postgraduate students of The University of Queensland Business, Economics and Law faculty which I was facilitating.

"First there's no such thing" I replied. "Tell me about your possible directions".

"First, I want to be a successful economist". A worthwhile goal, I thought, to excel in his chosen profession.

"Second, I want to be an expert in developmental economics". A specilisation in developing economies, fair enough.

"Finally, I want to turnaround a nation".

Wow.

"David", I asked, "where are you from?"

"East Timor" he replied. "We're in a mess. But have a look at Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia - they all turned around their nation in the space of one generation. I believe we can do the same".

There is no doubt in my mind that David will make a significant contribution to his country. He's the next Treasury Secretary, Presidential Advisor or whatever role he ends up in to turn around his country.

There's no such thing as thinking too big.

Two Executives, One Career

Following from the last post, I wanted to share another innovative job search story. 

Harvard Business Review published a story in 2005 called 'Two Executives, One Career'. Two senior executives shared a job at a bank for six years before being retrenched. This article is the story of their job search as they went about selling themselves as a team. They had one resume.

Some people to whom I've mentioned this story have been skeptical.  Understandably so - innovative ideas always engender a healthy dose of cyncism. Can such a job search approach work here in the real world?

Yes.

Recently a pair of senior communication and public relations professionals did exactly this. Inspired by their cohesion as a working team, they stayed together after the project they were working on finished. 

Working with their consultant on a Career Transition program, they developed a comprehensive job search campaign including a joint approach (one resume, both attending interviews) and seperate approach (independently following leads, networking).

They secured a senior management position in their chosen areas of communications and stakeholder management.  In this tighter labour market it is even more important to implement a well planned job search strategy.

There is always room for innovative approaches. Remember, companies will make room for great people. You just need to find those companies and convince them of your value. 

Use your network to create your network

There are two truths about a tightening labour market: (1) There are still jobs available; but (2) those jobs are harder to find.  It is times like these that call for innovative job search strategies and I'd like to share with you a clever approach.

I recently heard about a senior manager who was between jobs and decided he needed to expand his network. He asked his mate, who was a wine connoisseur if he'd share his expertise and then organised a wine tasting evening. He invited a number of his key contacts in his network, asked them to bring someone, and invited other people who he didn't know, but wanted to know. 

The result: a small but highly influential gathering of people, a strongly enhanced network, and several job leads to follow. 

A successful job search requires creativity and energy. Think laterally, and put the effort in. 

The good news about the labour market

Australia's employment rate is 95.2%. That's not bad. We only ever hear about the unemployment rate of 4.8%. The purpose of the media is to tell the news in a way which sells the most papers and advertising. A great example is the sensationalism with which the media portraits the mass layoffs and company closures in recent times.

Don't get me wrong, these are challenging times and retrenchments are happening at an unprecedented rate. Some industries and occupations are suffering more than others. Engineering, for example, is being hit hard by the downturn.

But it's not all doom and gloom. There is still work which needs to be done. There are still jobs out there. 

I'm pleasantly surprised by the underlying buoyancy in the market. Participants on our Career Transition programs are generally finding work quicker than one would expect. But those that are the most successful are working the hardest.

Jobs simply aren't being advertised at present. Companies are reluctant to advertise yet they are still recruiting. So don't focus on the bad news, focus on the good news: you have great talents which someone, somewhere will gladly pay for.

Will you finish strong?

Here is a 60 second video clip of an inspirational speech by Nick Vujicic. This man has an amazing spirit. You can't help but be inspired by watching this. 

What professionals want

I was getting my coffee at my favourite local coffee shop - The Newsroom Cafe in Toowong - and started speaking with the Barista about the impact of the Global Financial Crisis. Yup, good hearty morning topic with a double shot flat white. Her partner is a computer game designer and recently had a project axed on which she was working for two years. She was devastated that two years of work was down the drain.

Professionals want professional recognition. Regardless of the occupation, professionals want to use their profession and grow and develop over time. Give an architect interesting work and they'll stay. Give an accountant a challenging assignment and they'll thrive.

Make sure that your manager knows the type of work that you enjoy. Convince them to give you such work as you'll give 120% effort in return.

Where do you career

I must admit to a twinge of patriotism over the Australia day long weekend. It must of been all the Australian flags attached to cars. I did see one person who was 3 times more patriotic than the average Australian: he had 3 flags attached to his car.

But this is not a flag post. Its about Australia, about where we choose to live and, therefore, work. Location is the first decision to make in your career. It impacts on our life and the opportunities available to us. 

Richard Florida argues vehemently on the role of location in his book: "Who's Your City". While I don't agree on his belief that globalisation is overstated, I do believe that the role of location is often overlooked in making decisions about career and life.

First step: identify your preferred career directions. Second, identify the life influences on this (family, kids at school etc). Then identify where you could achieve this.