Three Career Gifts
This holiday season I was fortunate to spend an hour with the great ladies of the Women of Logicalis group sharing some of my favorite career 'gifts'. I wanted to share this experience since I believe these ‘gifts’ can help everyone in their careers and in their life. Some of my favorite ones for career happiness are mentoring, community involvement, and gratitude. Let’s unwrap them together.
Mentoring
This should not be new to anyone. Mentoring is an incredible tool to help provide you direction throughout your career. Mentoring relationships offer:
Coaching
Advice on dealing with people, situations, and career growth
Inspiration to reach great heights
Motivation to reach your career goals or excel in a high stakes moment
Support
I have been fortunate to have many amazing mentors and have prioritized time to mentor others, but there are two tips that can help when approaching mentoring.
Formal Mentors Vs. Mentoring Moments: Recognize that mentoring does not always have to be a formal experience, with a set schedule or meeting cadence. The long term mentor relationship definitely has a time and place when you are looking for that structure and style. However, don’t forget to treasure mentoring moments where someone can give or get the benefits of a mentoring relationship in short form without the commitment. Great leaders can often offer rich advice in a shorter, more ad-hoc conversation. Take advantage of these times. This can also help you get to know leaders and grow a relationship that could lead to something more formal in the future.
Role Based Mentoring: Think about mentoring in relation to your job. Make a list of people on an “Advisory Board” that can give you the mentor type approach to your daily role. Divide the list into two categories. The first group are people that work with you or benefit from your work that can give you ideas and real-time feedback based on your role and responsibilities. This feedback loop will serve you to understand things that are working and course correct as needed allowing you to be agile in producing your best work. The second group are thought leaders within your company that also can give you role related advice relative to the more strategic or company direction so you can map to execution at your level. Use ‘mentoring moments’ with this group to gain insight.
I also believe the Diva Tech Talk podcast (www.divatechtalk.com) that highlights career journeys of women in tech offers lots of advice in the 76+ episodes, and many tie in mentoring. In episode 44 of the podcast, Susan Emerick, who is also the author of the book The Most Powerful Brand on Earth, shares with listeners some thoughts on mentorship.
“Women are always in a position of having to prove their strengths, and pushing boundaries. I tried hard to mentor upcoming professionals, and always really felt it was important to be the one who was truly setting the example. Modeling the way with professionalism, with poise and gratitude, always helps you get that step ahead.”
-Susan Emerick, IBM and Author of The Most Powerful Brand on Earth
I found that I had over 50 people on mentor/mentee list, but each interaction has a unique mission and time of active engagement. I found that I enjoyed making the list because it made me reach out and keep in touch with all the amazing people I have been lucky to know through mentoring.
Community Involvement
Being involved in your local community or professional community of interest can have significant positive impact in your career both in the people you meet and what you learn through these experiences. I can’t say enough how many great memories I have had in community roles and how they have shaped who I am as a leader.
Here are the overall benefits of giving your time to serve the community:
Networking
Learning new skills
Leadership Experience
Experimenting/Innovating in a safe environment
Setting example for children or friends
Great for group activities
Way to contribute to your own community
Good Karma and friendships
For those just starting their career, leadership in community groups can give you the leadership experiences without needing to work your way up in your career. These skills will make you ready to be leaderly in your daily job and prepare you as you navigate your career journey. For mid career, this is a great way to experiment with your style and flex muscles outside your full time job while developing your brand. As for the established leaders, this is a wonderful way to give the gift of your leadership experience and influence for a greater good. No matter where you are in your journey, there is a way to serve. That way you can stay connected to the human element of our world.
We are all busy with life, but my challenge to anyone reading this is to find at least one thing you can do to give back by volunteering, serving on a board, taking on a community project, etc. It is good for you and good for our world to come together for good. For those givers who are already living this, then your challenge to bring someone with you into this world. Look to invite someone to join you for your next event or opportunity. Let's change the world!
“No One Can Do Everything but Everyone Can Do Something”
Gratitude
My favorite gift is that of gratitude and we can always find things to be grateful for in this life. This is foundational for me in my personal and professional life. Having this attitude allows me to focus on all the positive things and I have found that just brings more good things in life. You don't have time to stress about the other things. An authentic thank you is all it takes. I personally love mail, so I usually make a custom card with pictures or qoutes, but you can find your own style.
Actually writing down what you’re grateful for has been linked in research to a multitude of health benefits.
If you’re a manager, saying “thank you” to your employees or peers could actually increase their motivation to work for or with you.
For teens, gratitude could mean better behavior in school and higher levels of happiness and hopefulness, according to one study.
Gratitude has positive effects on the brain, including mood neurotransmitters and hormones that are key to social bonding.
Gratitude is good for your cholesterol.
Gratitude can improve your sleep.
Gratitude could help you achieve your goals.
However, people are less likely to express gratitude at work than anywhere else, so that is just another reason it is so important to bring with us to work.
Studying the positive impact from gratitude has helped me gain even more appreciation for the value of this practice. Here are two nuggets I will share:
The Art of Practicing Gratitude - I learned a lot from a short Ted Talk from Jane Ransom and continue to benefit from her social media posts on twitter @TheJaneRansom. She shares the key to expressing gratitude: emote, extend, and exercise. Check out her talk and I will add cliff notes version here on ways to take the concept into practice.
Emote: meaning it’s not enough just to think about gratitude; you’ve got to feel the emotion.
Extend: as in extend your gratitude beyond yourself to include other people. Be grateful for other people.
Exercise: do your daily gratitude exercise.
2. Gratitude Circle- Think about gratitude as a circle.
Start with you. Think about what you are grateful for physically, mentally, professionally, etc.
After that, start to imagine the circle growing to include your friends and family for all the gratitude you have for them and what they bring into your life.
Lastly, go big with that circle to encompass your company, larger community, and the entire world. This circle method can help you to extend the gratitude energy from where we usually practice it as we look at ourselves, into the greater picture.
Now that we have opened these 'gifts' together, you can hopefully make some big strides forward in your career and life. The beauty of these gifts is that the benefit is a two way street. Many are gifts you can give, but almost every one listed gives you a chance to receive. In a mentor and mentee relationship, each party both gives a piece of themselves and receives in that relationship regardless of the role you play. The community is all about giving back, but what you gain in perspective and self fulfillment is irreplaceable. Even gratitude is all about giving, but you truly receive as seen in the benefits listed above.
My 2019 goal is to carry the giving spirit of the holidays ALL YEAR!
Digital Toast! ~Nicole
Connect with me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tech_NICOLE
Subscribe/Listen and Follow the Diva Tech Talk Podcast: www.divatechtalk.com
