Make the Move Sooner

Early in my career, I made a move that meant leaving a role after less than a year and moving from the IBM R&D lab and manufacturing plant location I had "grown up" in to the client-facing IBM marketing organization. News of that move elicited two responses from my co-workers at the lab and plant. Some were excited and congratulated me on the move and the new opportunity. Others struggled to figure out how to politely ask me why I was making the move. The second group, certainly the more vocal and probably more numerous, thought I was making a mistake.

But that move propelled my career in a lot of ways. It took our young family to Chicago, a world-class city where I have been blessed with opportunities with some of the best organizations in the world. My thinking in that early decision -- actually "our thinking" since these big decisions have always been made with my wife -- was to make a move while I still enjoyed my current role, organization and company/firm and was succeeding. In that instance, I wanted to the challenge of working in IBM's marketing organization at a time it was considered the best in the world.

Sounds good, right? Problem is I forgot or did not prioritize these same factors in the next job. That job never turned into what I thought it could. I could go into detail, but suffice it to say that I stayed in that role too long.

Eventually I realized I needed to make a move. The expectations for a Systems Engineer at IBM were changing and changing drastically and I needed to get in front of it. So I raised my hand and asked my manager to help me (more on the value of asking for help in a future post) find a role -- even an opportunity to shadow another system engineer -- on a consulting engagement knowing that I would be stretched and could be in an uncomfortable position for a while. Within weeks, I was staffed on IBM's largest reengineering project to date and was out at a client site in a small southern town a couple weeks after being staffed. My concern about being stretched and even uncomfortably out there was well-founded. Still the experience I gained in what became a 1-1/2 year engagement after the client extended my time on the engagement was foundational to the next two career moves for me.

Fast forward to my most recent career move 2 years ago which saw me leaving a global leader, an organization I had been with for years and where I had been promoted to and entrusted with a senior management position. When an incentivized, time-boxed opportunity came up to leave that organization, I initially asked myself, "Why would I leave?" The change in the playing field, especially the time element, prompted a quick shift in my thinking. On the second day after hearing about this opportunity, the question became "Why wouldn't I leave under this program?" So I aggressively analyzed the decision while starting to prepare as if I might leave. By the end of that week, after praying through the decision and getting counsel from a small group of people I trusted, I decided to make a move.

Four months later, with a much-appreciated, six-week break between companies, I started as a Senior Product Manager in Deloitte's global IT organization responsible for a large product portfolio across two major technology initiatives in a Global Tax transformation program. The move was energizing to my career and continues to provide opportunity and challenge.

With this most recent move, a time-boxed opportunity forced me to think in a way I hadn't thought in a while. The challenge for me now is to remember the thinking and approach that led me to make that first bold career move and my most recent career move and then make my next move -- whether internal to the network of firms or external -- sooner.

How about you? Do you need to think through your next career move? If your answer is "I Don't Know" or really anything this side of No, I encourage you to get going so you can make the next move sooner.

My Commentary on Commentary

With 24-hour news, 24-hour sports news, 24-hour entertainment news (is there such a thing?), the publish-your-own landscape of the internet, and the legitimization of social media and instant messaging as business tools let alone our own "personal" social networking, we all have become commentators. The commentary starts before the actual event, carries on alongside the event and lives a life of its own long after the event. The commentary can be interesting and thought-provoking. The commentary can be refreshing, funny, entertaining. But sometimes the commentary is really more than just commentary.

Commentary or Complaining?

Sometimes our comments alongside the event or afterward fact are not commentary. Instead, we are complaining. Let's be clear about what complaining is. Complaining is focused on the circumstances. Complaining takes the form of "This is hard" or "This stinks." And while those might be accurate assessments of the situation, repeated over time, they quickly become unhealthy.

Unchecked complaining goes from occasional comments to the soundtrack of that part of your life -- and a negative soundtrack at that -- to emboldening yourself in this "life is hard, this isn't fair" thinking by enlisting others in that complaining. Instead of this running commentary -- er, complaining, we need to make a choice:

• Accept the circumstance (because the good, the pay, the benefit outweighs the bad) and cut off the complaining
• Change the circumstance (the old "you are either part of the problem or part of the solution")
• Leave the circumstance (e.g., changing jobs, employers, organizations because the ups no longer outweigh the downs for you).

Commentary or Criticism?

Sometimes our comments alongside or afterward are not commentary and are not complaining. What is really going on is criticism focused on a person or a group of people.

Criticism can quickly ramp up from one-time or occasional comments (e.g., the "Can you believe this? Why don't they get it?" conversation alongside the conference call) to a low buzz (e.g., the "here we go again" IM or email conversation alongside or after the conference call or meeting) to an all-out attack (e.g., the flat-out argue like you would never argue if you were face-to-face with these people Facebook or blog post which is the modern version of talking behind someone's back at the water cooler).  

Again, instead of ongoing, escalating criticism, we need to take action in one of two directions:

• Accept the person or people and their behaviors as is ... and stop talking about it.
• Go to the person 1:1 to give him the feedback (e.g., opportunities to improve), to confront her (i.e., if the behavior is actually harmful and needs to stop) and/or to better understand where the person is coming from and what is driving the behavior.

I have been focusing on less running commentary -- whether just in my head or with others -- and an accompanying growing gentleness and commitment to invest in people by providing feedback and confronting them when necessary. I encourage you to do the same.

As you prepare for another week, step back and think through where you are carrying on a running "commentary." Ask yourself whether it is really just commentary. Is it complaining? Is it criticism? If so, stop talking about it. Do something about it or be quiet.

Your Very Own Utility Belt

It seems lame now -- and honestly it probably seemed somewhat lame then -- but there was something cool about Batman's and Robin's utility belts in that campy, 1960s, Adam West version of Batman. What tool or gadget would they pull out of their utility belt each time that would be just what was needed to avoid something dangerous (e.g., the exploding shark) or to escape the overly-complicated, criminal "genius" plan to do away with the Caped Crusader and Boy Wonder? Think what would have happened if Batman and Robin always pulled out the same tool from their utility belts in response to every criminal plan. We wouldn't have had to wait to "tune in tomorrow -- same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!" to find out if they would once again escape the harrowing death-trap plan of that episodes "special guest criminal." While it might be a long and weird leap from the campy, 1960s "Batman" TV series to your office, I would argue many of us are guilty of pulling out the same tool day after day, hour after hour in the work world. You know it. You love/hate it. Everyone now ... email!

Why do so many of us pull out that same over-used, email tool in 99% of the situations they face each week in the work world? After all, email isn't the only tool in our utility belts. We have many productivity tools available to us -- IM, text, OneNote, EverNote, Outlook tasks, not to mention all those other programs loaded on your laptop/tablet/phone. We have many meeting/communication tools available to us -- WebEx, Instant Meeting, Lync calls, Lync IM chats, video calls, Skype for mostly free! Email typically isn't the most efficient tool in our utility belts. We have faster tools. We have tools that do the job in less time. We have tools that are lighter weight. Email often isn't the most effective tool in our utility belts. We have tools that are more fit for purpose.

But we use email. Why?

• We use email because we are comfortable with email. After all, we have been using email for -- brace yourselves -- decades.
• We use email because we are addicted to the sense of accomplishment, of a task completed, of putting the ball in someone else's court when answering and filing or deleting email.
• We use email because it is less confrontational than an in-person meeting or a discussion over the phone.
• Finally, perhaps most annoying of all, we use email because we can include lots of people in email with -- ugh! -- Reply All (which by the way is not always a benefit or positive).  

Here is my challenge to you. When you get back to the office Monday, check out all the tools in your tool belt -- even some older ones like meeting in-person -- whether planned ahead or ad hoc -- or calling someone on the phone (or updated to a Lync call). Dust some of those tools off and give them a try. Go crazy and "reply" to an email with a phone call or in-person discussion. My gosh, even try using those tools that your company's processes say you should use like a risk log, an issue log, a defect tracker, the change request system. Actually think about which tool you should grab from your utility belt. Don't just grab the same old, worn-out, dulled email tool. And save yourself, those you work with and your customers from the long-running, harrowing, tune in tomorrow, tune in next week, tune in next month, tune in next year, same email-channel to see whether we can all escape the stranglehold of our inboxes and the send button. "To the Batcave!"

Career TPOV #2: It Isn't About Comfortable

Have you ever had to learn something multiple times? I am not talking about a math equation or a definition. Rather I am talking about a life or career lesson that you had to learn more than once. The second point in my Career Teachable Point of View (TPOV) is one of those lessons for me. My job and my career isn't about being comfortable. The same goes for your job and your career unless you have determined to settle in.


I have seen that lesson play out -- both in a positive and negative way -- at a few key points earlier in my career. Perhaps I will share more on those in another post. For now, let's focus on the last few months of 2010 as I was going through my latest career move -- a major move where I left a company that I had been with for a number of years. When the company offered a voluntary separation package, the element of being comfortable -- as comfortable as you can be in the corporate world these days -- was upended for me. It raised a number of questions (e.g., What was driving the company to offer this package? What follows a voluntary separation package? Should I take the package?) which forced me to move comfortable down in my priorities as I made the decision first to take the package and then to work through a career transition.

The result now a year in with a new position at a new firm is a great opportunity partnering with a major global function on a multi-year transformation initiative. I own delivery of all technology projects in one of the two largest programs within that transformation initiative. That, of course, comes with challenges. But aren't opportunity and challenge two sides of the same coin? The newness -- even a year in -- plus the program, project and organization challenges keep me learning, stretching and, honestly, uncomfortable.

Clearly comfortable remains lower on my list of priorities. As strange as it sounds, my goal is to keep it there. I recommend the same to you.