Month: September 2023

You will not hear me say, “find your purpose.”  That’s because I believe we all have the same purpose and it is to explore who we are as individuals and try to make sense of our place in this complex world. A simple yet challenging common purpose. People often think that having a purpose means you need to have some lofty, world-changing personal mission that impacts millions of people in measurable ways. You don’t.  Or at least not everyone does. For some people (Group 1), who they are and how they can best make sense of their existence on this planet means they need to be an activist or a philanthropist or a life-saving researcher or a radical innovator. For others (Group 2), it is more one-on-one in nature.  First, about connecting with yourself, and then with another person, and another, and another, until you start to build a picture of who you are and the fingerprints you are leaving on the world. People in both these groups, and along the continuum between them, can find success and fulfillment, the more important issue is to make sure you enjoy the journey, regardless of which approach is right for you. For Group 2, the pressure from thinking you are supposed to be in Group 1 can create a great deal of stress.  We may feel that our worth comes from the number of people we impact and how measurable that impact is — that we are somehow lesser if we are not transforming the world in big, bold ways.  That’s just nonsense. If we want to find a valuable lesson from the COVID pandemic it could be this — even casual contact with another person can spread something from a community, to a country, to the globe, and fairly rapidly. The number of interactions we have on a daily basis create an endless opportunity to “infect” others with our individual formula of humanity. The more human connections we make with each other, the more practice we get being our fullest selves and the more clues we receive for the driving philosophical questions “who am I and why am I here?” In the 1980’s Heather Locklear was in a commercial for the shampoo brand Fabergé Organic where she said, “when I first tried (this shampoo) it was so good I told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on.” My suggestion is that people ditch trying to “find their purpose” and instead focus on living on purpose, with intention, fostering curiosity, and appreciation, one person at a time.  If that leads you to large-scale mission-driven work then so be it, if not, start by telling two friends how good your shampoo is. From the Executive Maven Toolkit This issue’s tool is Ikigai, the Japanese word for “reason for being” and one of the many longevity secrets of the centenarians of Okinawa. I consider it a better alternative to “finding your purpose” as it helps you build a life complete with mission, passion, vocation, and profession.   A lot of you have seen this tool, but haven’t sat down to complete it yourself. It is one of the simplest ways to do some self-discovery and map your connectivity to the world. Give it a try and let me know how it goes! From Elizabeth on LinkedIn My most popular post in the last two weeks was my announcement of being accepted as a member of The Upside, a co-operative of B2B consultants who work together to grow their businesses.  Thank you for all the congratulations, but since this post was about me I’d like to share my second most popular post as well. I spotlighted Greyston Bakery for the Open Hiring practices last week and it resonated with so many people.  We can and should be more innovative and open-minded in our hiring practices.  Here is link to the post so you can read more about them. Research and Expert Resources The 2023 Reimagined Workplace research report from The Conference Board shared HR Leaders top 3 current challenges: 1. Finding qualified workers (80%)2. Getting people back to the office (73%)3. Filling leadership roles externally (68%) The report also highlights the double bind HR is currently facing. Those companies implementing cost-cutting measures to improve the financial health and security of the organization are having knock-on negative impacts to the mental health and security of their employees.  The report shares some of the creative solutions organizations are implementing to create more employee flexibility in an attempt to address the talent acquisition and employee engagement challenges. You can read The Conference Board’s full report here. Links and Resources All the photos of Juliettes in this newsletter were created by me using Generative AI.  If you’re interested in learning more about how to use GAI check out the Bootcamp I did with Lori Mazor here.

Even those of us without children can feel the change of season from summer to “back to school”.  Maybe summer casual dress is over, maybe your work colleagues are sporting a post holiday glow, or maybe everyone seems a bit more revved up for the final 1/3 of the year. Year end.  That’s the season that follows back-to-school and it can mean a race to the calendar finish line for many.  That race can result in long to-do lists, packed days, too many holiday parties, and cause exhaustion, frustration, or even depression. Yesterday I ran a Masterclass for the women in Juliette Lifeworks on recognizing, preventing, and addressing BURNOUT.  It’s a popular class with employers this time of year because they know that when employees are overly busy they are more susceptible to burnout. However, being busy doesn’t cause burnout and the tools for dealing with each are different.    — Making sure that “being busy” doesn’t overwhelm you requires prioritization, delegation, and optimization.   — Making sure that “burnout” doesn’t send you into a deep dark pit requires awareness, attention, and action.  There is a lot of misinformation about what burnout is so let me clarify it for you. The World Health Organization’s official definition for burnout is “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions: Busy and burnout can both lead you towards exhaustion, but it’s the negative mental impacts and resulting performance that distinguishes burnout.  If you are starting to feel bitter, resentful or negative towards work or towards anything or anyone keeping you from work, then you may be on the burnout path. In his  book Burn-Out: How to beat the high cost of success, Dr. Herbert Freudenberger wrote, “Why are so many of our best and our brightest beginning to feel empty and unfulfilled? Why does it seem there must always be more accomplishment, more achievement, more effort? Why, as a nation, do we seem, both collectively and individually, to be in the throes of a fast spreading phenomenon — Burn-out?” The nation he referred to was the US and the year he wrote this was 1980. 1980! Before the internet, before email, before smart phones, and before all the other technologies that enable us to accomplish and achieve exponentially more in a minute, hour, day, and lifetime. I’d argue that this hasn’t been a fast spreading phenomenon at all.   Like burnout syndrome itself, it is a slow burn and it has been singeing us around the edges for decades to the point where many of us are living in a perpetual state of early burnout that ebbs and flows but never really quite goes away. Some statements that indicate early burnout stages include: – When I go home early from work it feels strange and I’m not sure what to do.– If work is left behind, I feel guilty and worry about what others are going to think.– Lately I’ve had to be very careful not to forget or overlook anything.– I am having conflicts with colleagues more often than before. – I don’t have time for connecting with friends and family and when I do I’m thinking about work.– The only way I can switch off is social media scrolling or television streaming.– The only way I can calm down and de-stress is with medication or alcohol. If year-end usually means longer hours and increased social commitments then it’s a good time to watch out for burnout sneaking in. You can start by defining how you’d like the next four months to feel.  That’s often more challenging than listing what you want to achieve or accomplish before the end of the year so try to sit with it for a bit.  Once you have defined how you want to feel make sure that you actively work towards making it happen and intentionally checking in on your progress. From the Executive Maven Toolkit Given this issue is about Burnout the tool I’m sharing this month is the Strong Self Helix. When you find yourself working harder in this back-to-school season keep in mind that you can either spiral up or spiral down from there. Neglecting your needs, withdrawing from others will start to lead to a loss of self, feelings of emptiness and maybe event depression before total burnout. On the other hand, if you actively manage stress, stay connected and engaged with others and focus on yourself, your reason for being, and leading those around you then you can spiral upwards toward a strong self. From Elizabeth on LinkedIn Every issue I spotlight a post that most resonated with my network and in the last two weeks there was a tie and oddly one was about the start of school and one the end of school! I am embarrassed to say that the first was about me backing into the nicest mom at school on the first day of pick-up!  (Couldn’t you have upvoted another post?!) You can read the full post here.  The other was my personal reflection on what I’m most grateful for from my years of undergraduate and graduate education. You can read that post here. Research and Expert Resources I recently attended a call with Josh Bersin and team on Technology in HR with a focus on AI. You can download their latest AI research paper here. HR is in a critical position with respect to the development and rollout of AI.  HR is often underfunded and treated as a cost center rather than an investment area.  Innovating the technology in HR is going to require strong business cases. I have been helping several HR Leaders with their AI strategies and we continue to come back to an overriding mantra, “this investment must solve a significant problem for the organization, it can’t just make something incrementally better.” Links and Resources We have a new offering that we are very excited about.  As many of you know, I am