How French Anthropology Can Help Your Career

The term Bricoleur was coined in 1962 by the French anthropologist and sociologist Claude Levi-Strauss to describe someone who is adept at many tasks and can use the materials and resources around them to create something.

A Bricoleur is pragmatic, strategic and self-reflective.

I think these terms succinctly describe a successful modern career. Career today is pragmatic – we can’t be off with the fairies. We need to provide the basic necessities to live and take concrete, tangible action.

A successful career, however, is also strategic. Making careful decisions to position our self for the future.

Finally, without self-reflection, we risk becoming irrelevant with skills no longer required in the market place.

So, 50 years after it was first coined, perhaps being a Bricoleur may come back into vogue.

Office Politics: Breaking Down the Barriers to Your Career

Think of your career journey to date. How many times have you heard your inner monologue commenting on day-to-day issues at work that increase your stress and anxiety levels? Or have you ever outwardly engaged others in confrontation over situations you can no longer remain silent about? Even worse, have you ever been the perpetrator of instigating outward negativity in colleagues, bearing the brunt of negativity you may have helped create?

The point is, office politics are real and destructive. They put at risk your ability to effectively manage your work activities, motivation, passion and productivity, whether you’re caught up in other people’s issues or from time-to-time, even create your own office politics. My comments on this issue were recently published in Marie Claire. Think of these themes as somebody who’s at the receiving end, but also remember we can all slip into negative work patterns that perpetrate office politics.

1. Don’t take sides in office conflicts…But don’t appear insensitive. Most of the time people just want to be heard, although they’d love for you to take their side by dragging you into their conflict.

2. It takes two to tango: Don’t engage in office gossip. If gossiping is a favoured daily activity for a colleague, they’ll get bored if you don’t encourage them with adding your morsels of opinion or judgment.

3. Somebody steals your thunder: Stand up for your work. Sometimes others may seek to undermine you by claiming positive outcomes as a result of their own creation.

More here on this issue that affects us all from time-to-time.

A Model of Career Change: Part 3

This week is the final post around the Do-Meet-Be model of career change. The initial discussion looked at taking action (“Do”) to broaden your perspective and increase your knowledge about the huge range of careers that people pursue. Next, I looked at how networking (“Meet”) enables you to generate potential career leads, creating engagement with people and groups you would otherwise not have access to. While these two topics focussed on taking action, the final stage causes you to look within. What occurs within you once you’ve started to take action? And ultimately, what path will you take to actualise your career dreams?

Step 3: Be. Through taking different actions and meeting different people you’ll start to think of yourself differently. You’ll no longer think of yourself just a school teacher but also as a horticulturalist, or interior designer or technical trainer or whatever you may want to become. The shift is tangible. You’ll notice yourself giving a different answer to the ubiquitous BBQ question: “So what do you do..?”

If your chosen career involves up-skilling, then think before enrolling in study including how you best learn, what support you’ll need and a realistic view of employment prospects. Study and skills are integral to life-long learning in a career, but so is possessing insight into why you’re learning it. Addressing these types of questions will help you realise what your end goal is.

I hope this blog series has triggered some valuable introspection, generating ideas for you pursue to ultimately enable you to make informed decisions about your career journey.

Above all, don’t think your career to death. Take action.