My Lifestyle Career

Portraits for Haiti: A Priceless Fundraising Event

  

I have amazing clients. 

Not that I really needed to be reminded of this fact, but yesterday I received an e-mail from one of my clients that blew me away.  The e-mail came from Erica Lansner who is a professional photographer and photojournalist based in New York City.  Her photos (seen above) have appeared in numerous magazines, including Life, Sports Illustrated, Newsweek and the New York Times.  

Her work is superb -- you can check it out at  ericalansner.com

But, in addition to being a world-class photographer, Erica is an incredible person.  

While many of us talk about how horrendous the situation in Haiti is, Erica has decided to do something about it by donating her talents to raise funds for Haiti.  Between Thursday, January 28th and Tuesday, Feb. 2nd, you can schedule a 15 minute portrait session with Erica, including one 11x17 custom, archival print, for a minimum contribution of $100.  

100% of all funds raised will go to one of the following organizations; Partners in Health, Doctors Without Borders or the ClintonBushHaiti Fund.

If you live near NYC, this is an offer too good to pass up.  Do something good for the world and get a priceless portrait in return.

And, now here are the details:

Dates: Thursday January 28th through Tuesday Feb.2nd 11am-6pm (weekend included.) 

Location: 390 Riverside Drive, NYC

Schedule: Please e-mail Erica at erica@ericalansner.com to schedule a time.  She will schedule sessions on a first- come, first- served basis 

A Few Details: Children, adults, friends, relatives, groups of up to 3 people welcome. Just no pets. You choose which photo you’d like to have printed. Prints will be delivered within 2 weeks. CD of all of your photos and additional prints available for extra fee. 

To see some recent portraits: http://www.ericalansner.com/portrait and visit her website: http://www.ericalansner.com/

Digital equipment has been generously donated by Scheimpflug Digital for this project. http://theflug.com/ 

Assistance and cookies generously provided by Kate Attardo. 

Want to Reinvent Your Career? Pssst...Your Friends Have Something to Say

The other morning I was working with a client, a former nurse, whose background weights heavily towards the sciences and research.  In discussing her assessment, one of her dominant themes was that she is a helper.  She loves listening to people, analyzing their problems and offering suggestions to help make their lives better.  It is not part of her official job description, but it is what she loves to do and does well.

As we tossed around ideas about what types of careers might be a good fit for her, I asked her if she ever considered becoming a therapist.

Suddenly there was dead silence on the phone.

Fearing that I had totally missed the mark with my suggestion, I asked her again what she thought.

"Wow, that is weird," she remarked.

"Weird in what way?" I asked.

She went on to clarify that it was a weird coincidence.  Evidently, prior to beginning her work with me, she had asked several of her closest friends what type of career they thought would be a good fit for her.  Each of them had also suggested that she consider exploring her options as a therapist or a coach or some similar helping line of work.  

It's hard to ignore such consistent feedback.  Especially when it comes from friends who know you well. 

Friends see the real you.  Unlike your work colleagues who get to know the buttoned-up, professional veneer version of you, your friends get to see your natural self. The self who comes out when you are doing the things you want to do with the people you want to be with.  The goofy self.  The caring self. 

And yes, the sometimes unorganized, lazy, cranky, irrational, "I can't believe you can be so bitchy!" self too.

If you're blessed with good friends in your life, consider asking them, "What type of career do you see me in?"  

Their answers might just give you something to think about. 

Reinvent Your Career: Lemonade the Movie

If you've been laid-off...

If you know of someone who has been laid-off...

If you're  feeling stuck in your job...

This is a MUST-SEE movie. 

Here is the trailer -- the full thirty minute video can be viewed online for free through pleasefeedtheanimals.com or by purchasing the DVD on the site. 

Watch it. Learn from it. Pass it on.

 

Reinvent Your Career: The Clues in Your Clutter

I hate to clean.  But this past weekend I spent a good part of a beautiful Saturday organizing our basement.  While I can't claim I enjoyed all the sorting, cleaning and sneezing (who knew I had such dust allergies?)  I found the experience surprisingly rewarding. 

One of the best parts of this project was discovering long-forgotten hidden treasures; magazines I couldn't bear to part with, memorabilia from my college years, and favorite baby momentos (note to self: it was perfectly okay to throw away Juliana's hand painted baby bottle now that she just turned 19).  Each item brought back a flood of memories and emotions; souvenirs from distinct and different phases of my life.

Standing back and admiring my well organized piles, I realized that the stuff we accumulate in our lives is a 3-D representation of our inner selves.  What we choose to buy and what we choose to keep (long after we actually need the item) provides illuminating insights into our interests, hobbies and values.  

In my case:

Seeing my sorority initiation mug reminded me of the value I place on community and how I am most energized when surrounded by upbeat personalities.  

Reading through the papers I wrote while earning my masters degree in career development reminded me of how much I prefer practical solutions to theoretical musings.  

And that box of the still-not-used craft supplies, reminded me that it might be fun to make some time in my life to play with art.  Someday.  In my next life? 

Who knew a day of cleaning would turn out to be so enlightening.  Next time you're feeling stuck about next steps, treat yourself to a day of de-cluttering.  You might just uncover some nuggets of golden insights hidden in those long forgotten boxes.  

Reinvent Your Career in 2010: Appreciate Your Assets!

 

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone enjoyed a delightful holiday season. 

I love the fresh beginnings associated with January 1.  The new year is traditionally the time of year when we take stock of our standing in life, tally up our assets, and set goals for the coming year.  

When people take inventory of their career-related assets, they typically think of skills, work experiences, degrees and credentials.  But I maintain that your unique set of assets extend beyond your resume-friendly credentials to encompass all facets of your life.  The town you live in, the people you know, the stuff you've accumulated in your basement -- all of this can be leveraged to help you change careers or start your own business. 

If you're feeling stuck about what to do next, making a list of your assets can provide your career reinvention process with fresh juice.  As you compile your list, be sure to include:

1) Who You Know:  Your friends and associates can help your career reinvention by providing resources, support, counsel and job leads.  Spend several days brainstorming, writing down and expanding your networking list – you’ll be amazed at how many people you know who might be able to assist you:

• Business Associates: former employers, co-workers, vendors, clients and colleagues 
• Personal Contacts: Friends, family, neighbors, schoolmates, sorority or fraternity members, acquaintances you’ve made at church, temple, or through other community groups. 
• Service Providers:  Your hairdresser, banker, doctor, lawyer, real-estate agent, etc. 
• Online Community: Contacts that you have access to through online communities such as Facebook and Linkedin. 

Who are the people you plan to call on for assistance in 2010?

2) Where You Live:  Think about the unique aspects of where you live and how you might be able to leverage that for your next career move.  My town boasts an unusually good library, an easy train ride to New York City, free lectures on a variety of business related topics and a vibrant continuing education program -- all resources that I tap into to help me grow my business.  Other towns provide their citizens with different forms of benefits -- natural beauty, inexpensive real estate or a culturally diverse population.  

What are the unique features/services provided in your area that you can leverage to help your career reinvention?

3) Your Natural Gifts:  All of us are endowed with unique natural gifts and talents; a keen fashion sense, a wicked sense of humor, the gift of gab, unusual patience, a discriminating palate or a smile that lights up a room.  

Which of your natural gifts might provide the foundation for a new business or income opportunity?

4) The Stuff You Own:  Sometimes the stuff we own can hold clues to our next career move.  Do you have a collection of goods that could be sold on e-bay?  Could your love of cooking, as evidenced by your massive cookbook collection, be transformed into a catering business?  Maybe you have a fully outfitted home office that could be easily transformed into a small business headquarters or a house that could be marketed to the media industry for location shoots ?   

What does your "stuff" say about your career-linked interests and opportunities?

5) The Causes You Support:  Most of us belong to religious, community and/or cause-related organizations.  As you consider the groups you have chosen to affiliate with, either through membership or financial support, think about the types of issues or causes you might want to impact through your career.  

What types of businesses or organizations might be a good match for your value system?

Reinvent Your Career: Two Free E-Books

Here are two free e-books (you gotta love anything free at this time of the year!) that I highly recommend:

Looking for an Encore Career? The Guide to Finding Work That Matters:  A 28 page guide filled with useful resources, strategies and inspiration for anyone looking to transition into "work that matters."  Although this is targeted to people 50+, most of the information is age-neutral.

What Matters Now: An 82 page e-book featuring insights from major thought leaders across different disciplines.  This little gem, compiled by Seth Godin, is filled with ideas to think about (and do) as we go into the new year.  Topics covered range from fear to enrichment to excellence.  A quick but powerful read -- share it with your loved ones.  Might just be the key to producing a major "A-ha" insight that alters your career planning process.

Reinvent Your Career: 5 Ways to Power Change Through Pictures

 

In my role as a career coach, I am always looking for new ways to produce the "A-ha!" moments that produce real breakthroughs for my clients.  For some, clarity comes as a result of a career assessment, for others it is the by-product of conversation, and for many, it is a result of a combination of strategies.

Over time, I've come to appreciate the power of visualization as a transformative tool for people looking to reinvent their careers.  As human beings, we strive to make sense of the world through pictures --since the days of the cave people, graphic depictions have been an integral part of how we communicate and interpret the world around us.

Timothy Butler, author of Getting Unstuck, explains the power of images as a career clarification tool as follows, "These images are preverbal messages, aspects of self-awareness that have not yet been processed through the language centers of the brain.  In being preverbal they have a premonitory quality.  They bring news: hints about what might be if we are able to get the message and act on it.  They point to knowledge about ourselves and our world that will be known more completely only later, when we have had time to take it in fully and express it in words."

Expressing your career/lifestyle goals through pictures, as opposed to articulating it in words, can be a powerful way to unlock vital clues and patterns that you've been struggling to express.  Fortunately, in our everyday lives, we are surrounded by visual images that can be leveraged for this purpose.  Here are some ways to analyze the images in your life to help create a more vivid picture of your future career direction:

1) Revisit photo albums:  Spend a few hours going through old photo albums and scrapbooks.  What do the photos tell you about your personality?  Are there certain pictures of major milestones or magical moments that reflect clues about your talents, interests or unique assets?

2) Watch old family movies:  Reviewing family videos can be an entertaining reminder of your innate gifts, talents and personality traits.  It also can be a multi-sensory reminder of the distinct personality traits and interpersonal relationships that might be impacting your career path, in either a positive or negative manner.

3) Keep a clipping file:  You know how you sometimes clip articles and photos from magazines for a "dream" file of beautiful homes or vacation ideas?  Do the same for your career. Collect pictures that capture your view of the ideal work environment -- including photos of people, work settings and attractive work clothes.

4) Meditate:  Every day, we are bombarded by so much information that it compromises our ability to focus on what is most meaningful in our lives.  Set aside some quiet time to meditate on the types of activities and work environment that would make you happy.  Notice the images that come to mind.  Do you prefer to be in a fast-paced or quiet office?  City or rural settings?  Happier being with lots of people or working in solitude?  Look for patterns and themes in your mental images.

5) Build a Vision Board:  A a vision board is a collection of visual images (photos, paintings, pictures, etc.) displayed on a bulletin board or poster as a graphic representation of your dreams and ambitions. Once you've designed the board, displaying it in a prominent place will help serve as a daily reminder of your ambitions and career goals. You can read more about the how-to's of constructing a vision board by clicking here.

Reinvent Your Career: From "Weak" to Wow!

 

I was speaking with a client the other day about how to answer that dreaded  interview question, "Name three weaknesses that you have." In my opinion it is a pointless question, because most people have been coached to answer that question by highlighting a strength as a weakness.  (e.g.,"I just can't stop myself from compulsively proof-reading my correspondence three times before sending it out," or some other cleverly contrived response).

But, when it comes to reinventing your career, naming and claiming your weaknesses, is anything but pointless.  Knowing what you don't like and don't do well is equally important as being able to identify your strengths.  

The problem is that most of us don't want to spend time thinking about our weaknesses. It makes us feel uncomfortable.   

So we avoid the issue and muddle along. 

But what if you could frame your weaknesses in a new way?  While we tend to think about a weakness as something we don't do well, I strongly prefer this definition I found while reading Find Your Strongest Life by Marcus Buckingham:

"The proper definition of a weakness is 'an activity that makes you feel weak.'  It doesn't matter how stellar your performance is, if the activity drains you, bores you, or makes you lose your concentration, it is a weakness.  The thought of learning how to do it is singularly unexciting, wile the prospect of doing a great deal more of it makes you choke with panic.  It's a weakness. It weakens you."

Doesn't this make a whole lot more sense?   

Keeping this expanded definition in mind,  I decided to make a list of my own weaknesses and was amazed at how much easier it was for me to identify my "weak" spots, once I removed the "this must mean I am not good at this" factor.  I won't bore you with the whole list (although I am sure my husband would love to critique it) but here is a sample of my writing:

1. All things mechanical:  This past weekend, my husband and I went shopping for a plasma TV.  Normally, I love to shop, but this time around I couldn't wait for it to be over.  I mean, who cares about 720 vs. 1080, the number of audio inputs or the ratio of black to color lines?  I know I'll be thrilled once the TV is set-up, but the technical details involved with this purchase bore me to tears. (Disclosure: When it comes to mechanical things, even really simple things,  I am not just bored, but also remarkably inept, a lethal combination I assure you.)

1. Investments: While I throughly enjoy the fruits of our investments, talk of stock margins and Morningstar ratings makes my eyes glaze over.  I intellectually appreciate that I should be more engaged and interested, but I am not.  It just isn't my cup of tea.  

Identifying your weaknesses, and eliminating them from your "must-use" consideration, empowers you to focus on careers that play to your natural gifts and enhance your life.  

Remember, YOU -- not your friends, spouse or co-workers -- are the best judge of the activities that make you feel strong, engaged and vibrant (your strengths) and those that make you feel weak, bored and marginalized (your weaknesses).  

Honor that insight.   Eliminate (or at least reduce) those activities that drain you, focus on your strengths and you'll quickly be on the road from weak to wow!

Free Reinvent Your Career Tool of the Week: Strength Finder Test

 

I recently read Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham. The book offers numerous studies revealing a drastic decline in female happiness over the last 40 years, and offers personal strategies for reversing this trend in your life (FYI, no reason men can't use this as well).  As part of the book, readers are encouraged to take a free online assessment, The Strength Finder Test, that measures you against nine life roles and reveals which role is your lead role.  

Always a sucker for online tests, I took the test myself, and found it amazingly accurate, in spite of the fact that I almost abandoned the test midway as I grew increasingly irritated by the seemingly ambiguous answer options.

According to the test, my greatest role is advisor with my secondary role identified as influencer.  I laughed reading the description of each of these roles -- a spot-on analysis of both my strengths and my blind spots.  Here is an excerpt:

"You begin by asking, 'What is the best thing to do?' and your thrill comes from knowing that you are the person others turn to for the answer.  You don't neccesarily want to be the person who actually makes the changes happen.  Rather, what excites you is being valued by others for your insight and judgment.  Since you love to be the expert, you are constantly on the lookout for information that will help others make better decisions."

Hmmm, sound familiar?  No wonder I enjoy my job so much.

Of course, the test results will make a lot more sense if used in conjunction with the book.  Nonetheless, this test is fun and I think you'll learn a few choice nuggets about your strengths that can be applied as part of your overall overall career reinvention strategy.  

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Reinvent Your Career: Who Do You Want to Hang With?

This past weekend, I had the good fortune of (twice) enjoying the company of my career counseling community.  On Friday, I hosted a holiday luncheon (pictured above) for my career counselor "lunchbunch" and on Saturday, I attended a workshop attended by career counselors from different parts of the country.

As usual, being around my colleagues was a delight.  We laughed, we told stories and we applauded each others accomplishments.  Although I don't get to interact with my colleagues nearly as much as I like, their friendship is one of the great things about being a part of this profession.  Having spent the first stage of my career trying to fake my appreciation for my hard-charging co-workers, I really appreciate the opportunity to be authentically me around my fellow colleagues.

I only wish all of my clients were so lucky.  Sadly not everyone is.   Of course, clients are unhappy for many reasons; the hours they have to work, not getting paid enough or being required to travel on weekends.  

But the number one reason people are unhappy?  

They dislike the people they work with.

The "who" of your work life -- clients, colleagues, boss or vendors -- can make or break you. The dullest of jobs can be fun if you have the good fortune to be surrounded by people you find interesting, supportive and uplifting, and conversely, the most promising situations can be ruined if you have to contend with demanding or difficult co-workers.

And yet, when clients look to reinvent their careers, they focus on the "what" and the "why" of their careers, and often overlook the people part of the equation.  They leave the "who" piece of the puzzle up to chance and hope they have the good fortune to find a nice place to work.  

I maintain that you have more control over the people part of the puzzle than you think.  And if you want to reinvent your career in a way that is going to be most satisfying, it behooves you to pay attention to the type of people who float your boat.

Certain careers tend to attract certain types of personalities.  In my line of work, my fellow career counselors are motivated more by making a difference than by making a profit.  Now, this doesn't mean I love every colleague I meet.  But if I had a choice to spend my weekend with a group of career counselors or a group of litigators, my personality is better served by the counseling profession (with all due respect to my friends who are litigators).  It's not that litigators aren't nice people.  It's just that the nature of their profession rewards personalities who are motivated to fight hard, be tough and work long hours.

As you think about reinventing your career, spend time considering the types of people you want to work with:

• Do you prefer to be around children, young people, 30 somethings or seniors?  
• Are you happier working with men or women?  Parents or childless?  Singles or marrieds?  Gay or straight?
• Are there certain ethnic/religious/cultural groups that you find most interesting?  Would you prefer to work among a fairly homogenous population or do you prefer a diverse group of colleagues?
• How important is education level?  Are you stimulated or intimidated by working around people who are intellectually intense?
• Are there certain types of personality characteristics that you find difficult to deal with?  Likewise, are there certain types of people (artists, creatives, etc.) who you find inspirational and energizing?

Remember, these are the people you are going to spend a good chunk of your week around.  If you plan to work for twenty more years, you'll potentially be clocking over 40,000 hours with your colleagues.  A little bit of upfront planning can help you identify the types of personalities that can transform a ho-hum career into something special.