Measures that Matter - Part 2

It’s true that what gets measured, matters. Without measure how do we know is something is on track, falling behind, fits into our values, aligns with our strategy, or is even relevant to our goals, should we be spending time on it? 

In our personal life we hear a beautiful/profound quote/statement – that says – those who care matter and those who don’t care, don’t matter. 

What if we thought about these concepts in our own business or career? Could we move easier, faster or gain more momentum when really focussing on the measures that matter. 

Your Why

When looking at our careers, we really need to get personal…The starting position is laying out our own stall of needs, desires and aspirations. Each of us has our own sets of measures that are important to us, it’s likely those measures will relate to the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Items relating to physiological and safety needs are often our key drivers, but what could we achieve if we removed some of the deep routed reliance on those needs and allowed space for something new to envelop our driving force and passion on doing work that fulfils our sense of purpose, rather than doing work that simply pays for the basics that we need in order to survive.

Outline for your own measures that matter, I have consolidated these into four categories:

Building Solid Foundations

Fundamental Foundations – sometimes we can struggle to articulate what some of our aspirations are. Which is why setting out, documenting the ground rules is important deepening exploration into our values, understanding and verbalising our passions, unpacking our strengths, creating a personalised pathway.

Chart out your career to date, break down into sections of 5 years and document all the key learnings that you have gained in each of those 5 year periods. Often we gloss over, forget or total skip getting clarity on the timing and phases of those points in time, milestones that matter and experience gained, it all adds up. It might be helpful to identify in each five year period what you have learnt, knowledge gained, experience lived and wisdom of the accumulation of all of these states.

Measuring Your Trusted Ecosystem

Trusted Ecosystem – surrounding ourselves in an environment that is healthy for our sustainable growth is vital. Take time to consider many aspects of our professional eco-system which includes self, personal brand, inclusive teams, professional networks of peers from direct reports through to inspirational leaders, having a tribe of people that support our growth, listen to our challenges and provide us with a place of safety to try new ideas, maybe even failing safely. Importantly we need to give consideration to who and how we influence, what impact we are having, how we are being seen, are we listening to others. Being clear on   having our own sales pitch which means being able to articulate our own special sauce.

When to go deep or to keep it brief..

Depth versus breadth – consider how you thrive in either scenario, ask yourself whether you are a generalist or a specialist and own that space. Be who you are, there are great attributes of being either one. Importantly review how you have gained broad exposure to complexity in either environment, which might mean consolidation of experience in one industry area, progression through multi-national or global enterprises, or perhaps your preferred size of organisation might be SME, Mid-Cap or owner managed, private business. Think about how you excel in certain business environments, whether you prefer exposure to whole of business or discipline centric roles.   

Eyes to the future

Future focus – once you have spent time in deep reflection mode, it’s time to turn our attention forward and start to investigate how we innovate, what are our preferred environments in which we can ideate, think differently, engage our curiosity and allow space for our unknowing mind to explore. How we discover, disrupt and ensure that we continue to learn, grow and explore new areas is as important as the knowledge and skills that we bring.

What could hold us back

Interestingly I like to explore those elements of what gets in our way of achieving those measures that matter to us. I always like to consider the many challenges that we face and consolidate them into three fundamental areas;

Mindset – having negative thoughts or talking ourselves out of opportunities, is often one of the biggest hurdles that we set for ourselves. We can be our toughest critic. Remember where there is reward there is risk, I often ask myself…’what is the worst thing that can happen, if I take this decision’ – calculated risks are a good thing, if we lay our ego’s to rest and step forward we are often pleasantly surprised by the result.

Motivation – sometimes we have to have an honest conversation with ourselves and ask ‘is this a priority for me right now’? If I struggle to do the things that I say I want to, maybe it’s because other aspects in life are taking a priority. In my personal experience, if I want something badly enough I will make it happen come hell or high water…  

Management – am I setting myself up for success, am I outsourcing my career to my employer, rather than taking responsibility and accountability for how and what I do. I believe that no one person has been put on this earth to make me happy, therefore I need to ensure I am coming from a strong place inside of myself to drive outcomes that are important for me and not to wait on others to make that happen.

What should I do now…

Perhaps you might be asking yourself. ‘what should I do from here’, my response is to remove or reduce any overwhelm and take 3 steps:

1.     Schedule time in your week/month to spend at least 2 hours reflecting and capturing all the professional learnings, knowledge gained, experience sought and wisdom generated across your own 5 year intervals

2.     Review your network and connections. Do you have people who you can be inspired by, mentors that can help you map out growth areas, support new ventures, listen to your ideas on future proofing yourself.

3.     Allow yourself some space to actually vision where you want to be in 3,5,10 years time in your career. Get curious as to what deep joy and feelings of fulfilment would look like for your professional career, can you imagine working in a way that you love.

Finally, I would encourage everyone to seek out a support network, find a mentor (at least one) and get prepared to be your own silent observer for those voices who may want to side track your progress from here. If you are keen to explore my mentoring sessions, I would love to chat and have an obligation free discovery call.