photo credit: roland

Matthew Rochte wrote a great post at the Opportunity Sustainability blog about Red Herrings in Bicycle Commuting:

Last summer, when gas prices were hitting $4/gallon I had the fortune of attending a fantastic presentation on bicycle commuting [...]. Kevin Ishaug, owner of Freewheel Bike Center in Midtown Minneapolis (on the Midtown Greenway), talked about the “Red Herrings” nature of arguments against bicycle commuting, especially in the Northern Climates.

The excuses he discussed in the article were:

• “It’s too far”
• “I’m not in shape”
• “It’s too cold”
• “What about the snow”
• “My clothes will get ruined”
• “Where do I shower?”

The first commenter quipped that it was too much work to bring the bike out to ride the distance to her home office.

I also work from home, so while I certainly don’t need to bike in to my primary place of work, I really do have a need for transportation nearly every day since my work involves consulting and meeting with clients. My main red herring is that my meetings are too unpredictable and the logistics too uneven to try to bike to client meetings.

Besides, there is another red herring lurking right behind that one: the perception issue. I’m sure I’m not the only person who wonders how professional it would seem to a client if I rode up for a meeting on a bike. And I’m lucky enough to be known for being a bit of a non-traditionalist anyway, so while I think I could pull it off, there’s some cost in having to explain and wondering if there’s any loss of credibility and respect from the less progressive (but still important) clients.

What are your thoughts on these obstacles? Do you commute by bike occasionally or regularly? If not, what are the obstacles holding you back from bike commuting?

The economic wasteland we find ourselves has me thinking, and many of you as well. How far would you go to get the job of your dreams? Would you lie? Would you cheat? Would you misrepresent yourself and provide false information? Would you fake your references, having a buddy pose as a former supervisor to ensure a ‘glowing’ recommendation? Would you lie about your GPA or the degree you received? Where do you draw the line? How far are you willing to go to stand out from the rest?

What say you? Leave a comment here or there. We’re interested in following the discussion either way.

photo credit: Lanana

Do you ever look around and wonder when the work environment became so hostile to your value system? There are several ways to take back the wheel of your own ship, despite the choppy waters. One way is as simple as revisiting your college or university.

I spent this past weekend with six good friends from college. We started an annual summer reunion about five years ago, and each reconnection is richer and deeper than the last. Every annual weekend is now like a seminar in life as we share personal challenges, strategies and solutions.

Not everyone is still in touch with friends from school; myself, I went through several years of being disconnected and wondering if all of those memories were but a dream. But one way I found my way back was by going to campus, simply to walk the grounds and to put my heart and mind back in the place of my 20 year old self.

It was rather astonishing, the immediate immersion back into a way of thinking about the world that was more open, more full of possibility, more idealistic in the very best sense of the word.

I found that by allowing myself back into the place where my highest ideals were first established, I was instantly stronger and more directed in my own thinking about my work. I had a clarity and a commitment that the middle-aged adult world, despite its picking away, could not claim.

When you are feeling separated from your highest ideals, try this — even if it’s been decades, find a way to touch your college community. I think you’ll find it’s not so hard to embrace again your own belief in the best of who you and others can be.

photo credit: tm_lv

My dad worked 38 years with the same employer. I know there were times he thought about going elsewhere, but since he didn’t have a college degree, he always felt limited by what he thought wouldn’t be available to him.

I, on the other hand, have held a lot of jobs, and most of them were for less than a full year. Some were even 6 months or less. (A few have even been 3 or 4 weeks, but those were generally contracts or really bad fits.) In the earlier years of my professional life, my dad regarded my “job-hopping” with some anxiety and counseled me to stick it out longer with each employer. After a while, though, he began to recognize that I was doing good work and not leaving my employers in a lurch,  that I had a different role in most of these companies than the one he had with his, and that I was more comfortable with change than most people seem to be.

I bring this up to ask this question: do you know what your role is at your workplace? Are you a long-term fit, or are you there to fulfill a more short-term mission?

It’s an important question to ask yourself occasionally, as it may change from time to time. Company cultures do evolve as their leadership and the markets they serve evolve. Subtle changes in management two or three levels up can have ripple effects on your surroundings. And what might have started out seeming like a perfect long-term fit can, over time, become ill-suited to your goals and ideals.

In much of the marketplace, moving from job to job after a year or more is rarely considered suspect anymore. Under a year in each job, though, and you’re at risk of being labeled a “job-hopper.” If you don’t think that’s a weird bias for corporate America to have, ask yourself this: do we have even a quasi-derogative term in corporate parlance for someone who stays in an ill-fitting work environment far longer than they should? Why not?

It’s certainly true that hiring employees can be an expensive process, and training them even more costly. Some estimates put the cost at 1.5x to 3x the cost of the employee’s salary. So when employees leave after only a short tenure, it can adversely affect a company’s bottom line. But employees who make themselves too comfortable after years of service, consider themselves too senior to downsize, and become locked into an outdated view of “the way things are done” come with a cost as well. (It’s a cost that’s more difficult to quantify, and more difficult to find studies about, but the discussion is out there.)

Recently, I’ve had a series of phone interviews as a job candidate. I hadn’t been pursuing a new job (I’d already started a company of my own doing web marketing strategy and services) but I was gladly entertaining the conversations because it’s a company I really respect and, truly, you just never know. But I was struck by the fact that every interviewer asked me about why I had a history of “job hopping.”

As I explained to the folks I was interviewing with, my role in most of my previous jobs was, whether explicitly or implicitly, that of a change agent. And a change agent, by nature, doesn’t generally hold a long-term role inside a company. And in most cases, by the time I left each company, even after some of the shortest tenures, I felt that I had achieved what I was there to do. (By the way, as a side interviewing tip: the tie-in with the job I was interviewing for was that it was a consultant position, and my frequent role as change agent makes pretty good sense in that context. I wasn’t lying or rationalizing at all, but having a way to align your story with the story of the job you’re interviewing for really helps overcome anti-job-hopper biases.)

Could I have articulated at the outset of each of those jobs what I was there to do? Probably not. But that doesn’t change the fact that those companies and I each met at times when we needed each other. And I have, as a result, developed a skill for sizing up a company’s situation and helping it improve.

We each have a purpose in our professional lives, and our roles at work should reflect that, even if it becomes inconvenient to explain to future employers. As Penelope Trunk pointed out when she wrote about job hopping a few years ago:

A resume is not a laundry list of job and duties. It’s a document about a story. Your resume needs to show the story of a person who contributes in large ways wherever you go.

No one chooses at the outset to take on a role as a mindless cog in a machine, yet some of the compromises we are asked to make in the name of seniority require selectively ignoring parts of our life goals or ideals. We all owe it to ourselves to perform periodic checks of how well our roles suit us, and answer ourselves honestly.

What are your thoughts on knowing your role within your company? Thoughts on job-hopping or on seniority? Leave them in the comments.

photo credit: DerrickT

Many people think that work/life balance is all about what appears on either side of the vs. in any given scenario. For example:

• Then vs. Now
• Work vs. Life
• Passion vs. Profession

Or better yet:

• Doing what I have to do vs. Doing what I want to do
• Making money vs. Having fun
• Playing it safe vs. Living your dreams

Of course, all of the above matchups are limiting, and even unfair. But that’s the point. Neither work nor life always have to come down to a 1 vs. 2 choice. It doesn’t have to be Either vs. Or. Believe it or not, it can be This AND That. Work AND Life. Passion AND Profession.

And maybe that’s the center around which work/life balance rotates. It’s finding that sweet spot where what we want to do and what we have to do collide. It’s finding the gooey center of happiness in the middle of the Tootie Roll Pop we call life.

So, don’t merely try to justify your 8-hour workday. Find an 8-hour workday that makes you happy, proud, and fulfilled. Don’t buy into the modern mantra that it can only be one or the other. Don’t defer life – live a whole one.

To get a better glimpse into what I mean by that, spend time this weekend with The Monk and the Riddle. This quick read is a quasi-fictional account of a Web-based entrepreneur who thinks he needs to strike it rich with a business plan he’s not very crazy about in order to live the life he’s always wanted. After several conversations with a Silicon Valley veteran, he finally realizes that work is about more than a paycheck, and that value is measured in more places than on a balance sheet.

An excerpt:

Work hard, work passionately, but apply your most precious asset – time – to what is most meaningful to you. What are you willing to do for the rest of your life? does not mean, literally, what will you do for the rest of your life? That question would be absurd, given the inevitability of change. No, what the question really asks is, if your life were to end suddenly and unexpectedly tomorrow, would you be able to say you’ve been doing what you truly care about today? What would you be willing to do for the rest of your life? What would it take to do it right now?

Whether you read a book this weekend, or whether you finally break free from the versus mentality, understand that balancing between work and life might be as simple as re-understanding the meaning of the word life.

photo credit: quinn.anya

As I mentioned on Mother’s Day, I grew up in a household where both parents were business people. (My mother, as I said in that post, spent years as a chamber of commerce executive and is now an elected official in my hometown.) My father spent 30-some years in industrial sales and sales management, and he worked out of our house when he wasn’t on the road, so I saw him in work mode a great deal of the time.

Both my parents were role models for me in many ways to become the Corporate Idealist I am today. Below are a few lessons I learned from my father, and which I hope are similar to lessons other people have learned from their own fathers about business.

Act sensibly, but be passionate about what you do.

My father was a likable, friendly guy but he had a short fuse and I sometimes heard him getting angry on the phone with suppliers, colleagues, and probably even customers. I know that what set him off the most was when people didn’t match his expectations of quality and service.

While I don’t think yelling at people on the phone is necessarily the best way to conduct ourselves in business, it shows passion. If you’re passionate about what you do, the challenge is to use your zeal to fuel others’ enthusiasm, and to spark your own creativity and innovation. Even slightly hot-headed dads would probably agree.

Don’t start fights, but stand up for yourself if you’re bullied.

This lesson comes not so much from the workplace as from the playground, but it applies everywhere. Unfortunately, even in the most mundane office environments, there are often still playground bullies. Sometimes they’re the CEO; sometimes they’re just at the next desk. Fortunately, Cy Wakeman recently posted an entry over at Fast Company about dealing with office bullies.

Invent and innovate.

My dad and I were on the front porch swing one time, and he started talking about inventions, and how much money there was in inventing something, and how I should try to think of something I could invent. I remember describing a concept I had for a typewriter that would type down onto paper underneath of it so it could work on odd size pages and bound paper. I don’t think he was very impressed, and I chuckle when I think of it.

Still, while I have not invented something in a classic sense, I have certainly tried to apply a philosophy of innovation to my work and other areas of my life.

In the end, your relationships matter.

When my dad was dying from cancer in 2005, he asked me to help him write some letters to some of his friends. He had a very difficult time finding a way to express what he wanted to say, so we came up with something that said “thank you for everything – your support, your kindness, your prayers, and most of all, your love.” Several of his friends approached me at his funeral to tell me how much they cherished that letter. Many of us may not suffer long enough to get the bittersweet chance to write those kinds of letters, so it’s important to express our love and gratitude to each other as often as we can.

The corollary to that lesson is that life is too short to spend your time with people you don’t care about, or who don’t share your values.

How about you? What did you learn from your father about business, or about life in general? Leave your lessons and stories in the comments.

And Happy Father’s Day to all fathers and children of fathers!

photo credit: Orin Optiglot

One of the defining characteristics of work/life balance revolves around the issue of choice. We all really want the choice to work when we want, where we want and how we want. Or we want the choice to vacation as we wish, go to events that are appealing, or meet up with friends we love.

And, if our life is balanced enough between what we do to make money and then what we do when we spend that money, we feel free. We feel like we’re in control of our lives and careers and that we’re able to do better work and maybe even be better people.

Of course, when we don’t feel like we’re maintaining a healthy work/life balance, we can feel helpless. Out of whack. Frantic. And then we may not be able to do our best work or even live our best life.

There’s a growing body of research that says too many choices are bad for us. Too many choices can be paralyzing, confusing and may actually mean that we make a worse choice. Does this then mean that in order to have a proper work/life balance we should actually not seek to have more choices about how we spend our time? Should I erase the first two paragraphs of this post?

No. Instead, we need to best navigate between the choices that matter and the choices that don’t.

Maybe I think I want a gig that allows me to work from wherever I want. Maybe I like to be able to choose to work from home, a cubicle, a coffeehouse or a moving train. Or maybe that decision doesn’t mean that much to me. After all, no matter what, I’ll still be working. Sure – our environment can have a direct effect on our productivity, but maybe it’s not that big of a deal.

Maybe instead I’d like to be able to choose the kind of work I get to do. Maybe I’d rather be able to choose the clients I get to work with, the kind of marketing campaigns I put together or the kinds of products I sell. Because those choices deal directly with the kind of work I’m doing, they may make the work part of my work/life balance a little better, which could allow me to spend my life time at places I enjoy (like my home, a cubicle, a coffeehouse or a moving train).

As you reflect on your own balance this weekend, think about which choices are most important. Then, begin to build your work around those choices. Take a deep breath when you feel like you don’t have any freedom in certain choices and if possible, dismiss them as unimportant. Or at least let them be sacrificed on the altar of choices that matter.

photo credit: faeryboots

I was recently emailed by a friend of mine. Adrian is a corporate idealist, no doubt. But he’s also more of a vagabond idealist. Chances are slim that he’ll return to what most of us consider the ‘corporate’ life. Instead, he’ll blaze his own trail, one that clearly defines his own understanding of work, life, passion and impact.

Adrian sent me a link to this story, which ran in the New York Times last month. It highlights the idea of a nation – yes, an entire nation – measuring the success of their economy by a Gross National Happiness index. The two-minute video on the left will give you the idea of what’s going on.

Here’s how G.N.H is measured in Bhutan:

Specifically, the government has determined that the four pillars of a happy society involve the economy, culture, the environment and good governance. It breaks these into nine domains: psychological well-being, ecology, health, education, culture, living standards, time use, community vitality and good governance, each with its own weighted and unweighted G.N.H. index.

While I don’t want to debate the realities of a major country (like the U.S.) adapting this model, the four pillars and nine domains may have a lot to say about our personal understanding of work/life balance.

Instead of lobbying Congress to adopt a G.N.H index, how about you develop one in your own life? In looking at the above 13 themes, where do you stack up personally? Take some time this weekend and take stock of your own life. See what your personal G.N.H. is and make changes in the areas that need to be improved.

You may find, as Bhutan did, that your very survival (corporate or otherwise) depends on it.

photo credit: nyki_m

When I was growing up, my mother was CEO of a chamber of commerce that served five communities around my hometown. I was frequently roped into volunteering in the chamber office, at networking functions, and so on. As a result, I was very comfortable mingling with business people at networking events by the time I was 12. So when I talk about what I learned about business from my mother, I’m not speaking in poetic abstractions.

But even in those poetic abstractions, there’s a lot of sound business wisdom. Even outside of a traditional business environment, motherly advice never steers us wrong.

Play nice with others. The workplace is so much easier to enjoy when you like the people you work with. At the very least, when people show each other basic respect, collaboration gets easier, resources free up, and good things happen.

Do your homework. Whether it’s preparing notes for a meeting so you don’t waste anyone’s time, reading a report someone has asked you to read, or writing a report to document the knowledge you’ve gained in a project, making a little effort to do what people need from you is still appreciated.

Share. The wisdom goes that the best managers pass down credit and soak up blame. If you’ve ever been lucky enough to work for a manager who lives by this credo, you know how much it can free you up to do your best and most creative work, unafraid of a reasonable amount of failure.

Work it out. Conflicts arise in every workplace, and those who can confront others directly in a non-threatening way to come to resolution are going to come out ahead of those who can’t or won’t.

On the other hand, some motherly advice makes more sense flipped on its head:

Play with matches Be prepared to take risks. While risk takers are more likely to get burnt, they are also more likely to reap great rewards. Volunteer for projects that are outside your comfort zone or experience. Don’t hold back your opinion or point of view, stay in the arena. Just because “we’ve always done things this way” is not a reason to avoid approaching business challenges in a creative manner.

(via Management-Issues)

What about you? What advice did your mother give you that you carry with you in business to this day?

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there, and thanks for teaching us to be better people.

photo credit: austinevan

I’m on record as hating personality tests. That said, I happened across one that includes a type called the “Engaged Idealist” and one of the things that struck me was this:

In their job, they therefore have to be very careful not to develop a burnout syndrome.

Do you suppose this is the personality profile (if you accept that there is such a thing) of most corporate idealists?

Here’s an excerpt from career advice for the Engaged Idealist from the same site (and the bolded emphasis is mine):

You enjoy working in a colorfully diverse group of people who interest and inspire you. … Your insight into human nature, your feel for your colleague’s and/or subordinate’s positive sides and potentials and your preparedness to encourage and support everyone around you to the best of your ability quickly brings them closer to you. … Within your means you are always available to others who need you because you yourself enjoy the ultimate gratification of being able to help others to make the best of themselves and to be successful mediating conflicts among people. You are well suited to be an executive: It is difficult to resist your charisma, your enthusiasm and your ability to excite and motivate others. Authoritarian management attitudes are not your thing; it is your way to convince others of a project’s reason and significance who will then look forward to follow you voluntarily. You place a lot of value on creating the willingness to cooperate in others and with your gift to motivate that usually comes easy to you. You do not enjoy conflicts, need harmony and invest lots of energy and time in a good working climate and a harmonic relationship of your colleagues among each other.

Sound like anyone you know?

What do you think: is there probably a common personality type or do we span the spectrum of possibilities? (I kind of like the latter explanation, but I want to hear what you have to say either way.)