LinkedIn News’ Post

Transcript

[Auto-Generated Captions]- I think this is your year. (upbeat music) I think this is going to be the year where there are more opportunities than ever to think creatively about creating those other attributes, those other passions and purpose that you can be living in the work that you're doing and then get help. - Let's face it, most of us make New Year's resolutions and end up dropping them months, even weeks in. January is also the time of year when professionals go on the job hunt. On LinkedIn, there's a nearly 40% spike in members searching for jobs. It can all be an overwhelming process. Luckily, Mark Thompson is here to help. Goal setting is what Mark excels at. Mark is an executive coach who's advised some of the world's most successful people from Lyft co-founder Logan Green to Richard Branson. I sat down with him to learn the secret behind achieving what you set out to do. Here's how Mark Thompson wants to set you up for success. (upbeat music continues) I really wanted to make sure that you came in January (Mark laughs) because this is the time when everyone starts looking around at the jobs and starts thinking, why am I here? There's got to be something better. - Yeah. - Somewhere else. What's the first step in even thinking about the kind of career that you want to have? - Well, I think that it's really kind of interesting, 'cause the first thing that happens is you start the year in a burst, and you want to set these goals and the goal-setting piece is really important, but that's too much like this conversation here. We're comfy, we're dreaming. - (laughs) Right. - But that person who's going to do that stuff isn't the person making up the goals. In other words, the person who's imagining what's happening next isn't really thinking about what it's going to require to do that. - Yeah. - The thing is, you have to think about your career as an investment. It's going to go through these ups and downs. There's going to be volatility. So there's a way to think about maybe your career to add things to the portfolio before you even take the leap into the next job. What have you put in so far that you could build on that you do next, the building blocks that you want to create? And I think a lot of people say, I can't get it here. - Right. - And I'd really kind of have you think about, well, can I make an investment here in a way that might be able to change the outcomes long term. - What does that look... 'Cause I think you're right. So many of us are like, not working, I'm going to go somewhere else. - Right. - So what's the step then to think about how do you start adding on those extra skills? Do you reach out to people? Do you just do it all yourself? What's the next step? - Absolutely get help. I mean, it's amazing. One of the people, I have the privilege of coaching all these unicorns, and they often are making career transitions. And one of those is Venus Williams, working with her sister Serena. They've been building businesses since they were listening to their dad from the backseat on the way to tennis practice, and she's always wanted to acquire new skills. And so for example, she wanted to do a sprint, but doesn't want to do an MBA. That's a way too much effort. So how can I get those extra skills? So she decided to do a series of Stanford executive education courses. She forced herself always to think about the next thing as a new skill. Like maybe you don't need a degree. What you need is a few more skills. And then the other piece is, we suck at achieving the goals that we set for ourselves unless we know someone else is going to talk to us about them. - So is the takeaway here that the job search can also often feel very solo. - Oh, so alone. - You're in this yourself. You have your own goals. - Exactly. - Is the answer find a partner? - Yeah, absolutely find a partner. Set your goals together? - Right. - What do you want to achieve? And teach each other? - And and Venus had up to four coaches at any one time. - Really? - So she'd have this nutrition coach, she'd have this weightlifting coach, she had a business coach, she had a person who was really helping with the training on the court. And then there are help that you need for different seasons of that effort, too. You know, you're trying to lose weight, you know, get some buddies who are also trying to lose weight. So I don't think you want to stop even at getting help from one person to build a little bit of community. (upbeat music) - A study in the journal PLOS ONE found that only about half of people stick to their New Year's resolutions. And what separates the achievers from the rest is a support system. The study also shows the importance of positive goal setting. If you set a goal to gain something you want, rather than a goal to avoid a certain outcome, you're more likely to reach that goal. - Most of us, (laughs) no matter how well off or how well you've done so far in your career, I don't know anybody who feels overvalued. Do you feel overvalued? - No. (scoffs) Way undervalued. - Way undervalued. So what I was curious to know is, so how is it that we can be kind of honored, respected, admired, and engaged for the things that we care about the most? And what I realized is that we hadn't done enough homework to understand who we wanted to be valued by and how. And so we have a real clear intention to say, here, I would like to be valued here, here and here, but I really don't know what my boss values, what my spouse and family might value, that we could be connecting with them and bridging with them in ways that they care about. Think about the purpose that you want to be maybe re-upping. Think about what might be those things that you'd secretly do for free that you could bring more of into the work that you do. That private I call it the three Ps: purpose, passion, and performance. I met the Dalai Lama and what he explained to me that we did research around was that you're really motivated by three things, and if they all come together, you are the triple threat. And that's having that passion, that thing that you'd secretly do for free. Some element of the work that you're doing needs to be the thing that you just find yourself getting lost in if you can. Secondly, if you can be connected to something that is a bigger community of purpose than you are, and then something that you wouldn't mind to keep score at, that kind of gets your competitive or winning spirit going. - Is there an order to those three? If someone's watching this and they're like, this sounds overwhelming. I think I'm just going to stay where I am. - (laughs) Yes, right. Well, I think what is the real first step is to think about the times when you've really been most alive on a team or in a community of service somewhere, if you've had that opportunity. What were the traits of the people? What were the attributes? And there's been times in your life when you felt that. So I'd start first with thinking about the people you admire and the traits in those people that you'd like to aspire to acquire. Your life will get better. - Yeah. - I think that also you could think about those moments where you were the most engaged on a team. And then third, what were some of your proudest moments? You know, people are often talking to me about how difficult change is, but I'm not sure we hate change as much as we hate loss of control. Because if you really think about your proudest moments, you were probably trying to change something and you did. And the more it was against all odds, the sweeter it was, right? - I think for so many of us, this search doesn't involve any of that, because we have been trained to think about title. - (laughs) Yes, right. - And money, and maybe, you know, where you sit within an organization. Is that part of how you should think about your job search and your career? And if it's not, how do you get out of that thinking? - Well, I think that there's the practical issue of knowing that you have to have certain obligations that you have to meet, which is one reason why I'm suggesting something that might be a bit more controversial, which is before changing jobs, thinking about how to change the job. - Yeah. - And change our approach to the job so that you can prepare yourself for a better opportunity. That's why I really emphasize two things. One is that we do have to usually get additional skills before taking the next big opportunity, and then we have to think about how public we can make ourselves in with regard to building our own individual brand. - What do you mean by that? - Take an opportunity to be speaking to a community group or be active in community groups where you can play a leadership role, and really start to exercise that those communication skills and present skills and branding skills that are important for you to be really appreciated and selected in that next job. - I saw something you wrote about the idea of this hubris of going for the gold. - (laughs) Yes. - It's not if you want to become an Olympic athlete, it's not just that you can run faster, you have to have the hubris that you could actually win a gold medal. So could you talk a little bit about that? - Sure. - Of getting out of your head and of believing that you are right for one of these positions? - Yeah. I think that this issue of hubris and humility is, the way I kind of put it, this wild-ass ambition that you have to win a gold medal or be the best you can be in a craft is really also related to something you usually don't see in the same thought or sentence, which is humility. The humility to know that if I'm going to run faster or be faster, I have to get faster somehow. That I need to get help to get faster. I think that's what I see in the CEOs that I coach who are high-impact, is they realize they're now going into a job that they've never done before. So this idea of hubris and humility, this idea of believing that you can make a difference, that you can have impact, and having the humility to realize that the only way to do that is to do it through and with others. Nobody does it alone. - All right, one last question. I want to flip this around a little bit. What's your guidance for managers about how to make sure that they are getting the most out of the people and their people who they want to stick around are sticking around? - Well, you know, I think it's best to get to know your team better than ever. How deeply do you know every member of your team? It goes back to this opening idea of understanding what they value, and what they're looking for in their careers, and seeing if there's a way that we can unlock the opportunity within the organization. There might not be. - Mm-hmm. - And yet sometimes we're so busy doing what we do, we're not learning why people are doing it. I remember, there was one story in a publishing company where there they couldn't get anybody to do the documentation on the software and that was just a dreadful, boring thing to do. And finally, when we understood why they needed to do that, they just needed a guide so that people understood how to, you know, troubleshoot that particular software, they found somebody here who loved to do video work. Well, she ended up being the one who was, they didn't write it up, they recorded it, they edited it, and they got the job done in a new way. The project that nobody wanted for three months got done in three days. - Mm-hmm. - And so why not make the assumption that there might be a better way, a more passionate way, a more purposeful way to do the work that we're being tasked to do, but maybe not the way it was assigned, so that we could be the linchpin to make a huge difference. (upbeat music) - Here's what stood out to me. What the best leaders and executives have in common is their ability to focus on a goal and make it happen. One of the best ways to make sure that you achieve your goals is by defining your missions and values. Have passion for the goals you want to reach, and lastly, find someone that will hold you accountable and help you push through. We dive deeper into this topic on the This Is Working Podcast. Meanwhile, tell me what's your goal this year and how will you make sure you achieve it? Let me know in the comments. (upbeat music continues)