Honestly, there is nothing more to say.

I was recently introduced to a new podcast Career Curves. As someone who has been less than intentional and more opportunistic about my career choices, listening to people who have embraced and even chosen their career curves really resonates for me. It also reminds me to be more observant and mindful of opportunities, especially when I am feeling stuck or complacent in my comfort zone.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know how much I love questions. Listening to this podcast I was struck by 3 questions that I am pondering since I heard them.

1. What was your smartest career move, intentional or not?
2. What is one career do over you wish you could have?
3. What career advice would you give to your younger self?

I am not sure I have landed on answers to the first two questions yet. The answer to the third question would be to pursue a profession in healthcare – not sure if it would have/should have been a surgical nurse, a diagnostic imaging technologist or a physiotherapist. While I probably would still have migrated into Management roles, having the medical professional background would have opened different opportunities.

How would you answer these questions? What are your thoughts about riding the career curve?

The Toad was born a wise old soul. He was nine when he first asked me what he was meant to do with his life. Yup nine! As you can imagine I was ill prepared for the question as I thought I had a few more years to figure it out for myself before I had to help guide him.

Since then I have read more than a few books and blogs about leadership, finding meaning, faith, decision making, spirituality, acceptance etc. Many writers have offered their own frame for measuring the metrics of a life lived well or discerning your life purpose. As I read the book Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up, the author offered two important questions to contemplate. They are:

1. In what ways have I been brave?
2. How have I been kind?

Simple, clear, but full of meaning, interpretation, and opportunity! Brilliant!

OK Toad, this time I am ready for you!

Work projects + Consulting projects +  House projects = sticky notes + lists all over the Yellow Castle!

I have a new project on my plate – I need to pull together a large-scale plan for a complex multi-system system. This complex plan needs to serve as both a high-level overview of capacity as well as a roadmap for operations at several levels. I need both telescopic and microscopic context.

Today I was pacing the house trying to think through elements of planning and I stopped to watch a snail move across the front porch of the Yellow Castle. As I watched I contemplated the context of big/small, fast/slow, straight paths, consistent sustained effort and how beautiful something so slimy can be.

“If someone could only see my actions and not hear my words, what would they say about my priorities?” James Clear, Author of Atomic Habits

As a Mom, I have had conversations with the Toad about situations where a person’s words and actions are incongruent. We have talked about looking for the potential reasons for that disconnect and depending on the person and the relationship to have a conversation about his observations.

I must admit I have not explicitly connected actions to priorities for the Toad. I must also admit that as I read the quote above and thought of my own current choices, that my actions, while congruent with some of my priorities, they may need some significant rebalancing.

What are your actions saying to the world?

"The two skills of modern business: Storytelling and spreadsheets. Know the numbers. Craft the narrative.”    James Clear

I love this quote because in my day job there is a plethora of data. Surprisingly (and frustratingly), we also have a reflex to seek more data. What we have far less of is the narrative that the rich and abundant data could tell us.

Healthcare is a complex system. People and their lives are complex systems. Put the two together and there are loads of moving parts and many important nuances. We sometimes react to the overload of data by trying to simplify to a single statistic. In my opinion this is not helpful and often dangerous for decision-making.

The weaving of data, statistics, and trends in overlapping complex systems is both an art and a science. Turning that complex weave into a narrative that grabs attention, compels action, and leads to quality decision-making is a leadership imperative in today’s world.

Terminal uniqueness is the belief that the situation a target group is facing is unlike anything faced by anyone else.

This term comes from the work related to addictions and recovery. I think it also has applicability in the world of project/change management.  I am only saying that partly in jest.

I cannot tell you how many times I have been working with a client and am told that the proposed change will not work because they are different or special. This belief is held even in the face of evidence that the change works in other organizations.  It is held even when there are benefits and improvements on the table. It is so pervasive in parts of my work that I have honed a reflexive response – “you are special, but you are not that unique.” 

As you might imagine I do not always have (or take) the opportunity to deliver that message.

My Grandma used to tell me she didn’t think I could even spell the word patience because I showed so little ability to demonstrate it. I like to think that with maturity and mellowing perhaps I have some aptitude for patience now when required.

My checkered past with the concept of patience is what made the following quote from James Clear leap off the page at me:

“The most useful form of patience is persistence. Patience implies waiting for things to improve on their own. Persistence implies keeping your head down and continuing to work when things take longer than you expect.”

I may not have a ton of patience, but I am a master at persistence!

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." Maya Angelou

This quote has been around.  It’s been used, posted, reposted, reused and some might say it is getting tired.  Others, like me, might say that it is such a profound quote because it is true.  In all facets of your life.  Whether it’s parenting or being a friend or providing effective support to your work colleagues.

I have spent most of my career in human resources and the cornerstone, the very foundation of human resources work is relationships.  There have been books written about how to communicate with each other in the workplace, how to build effective teams, how to handle challenging personalities, how to lead, how to engage, how to motivate, the list is endless.  All to illustrate that the human condition is a complex world we navigate every day in our workplaces and human resource professionals place themselves in the midst of all the muck and mire.

My most prevalent value when practicing Human Resources is the value of service.  In that work, I worked in service of my customers.  I strove every day to provide support, to remove obstacles, and to find creative solutions to highly complex challenges.  While abiding by strict guidelines in the form of collective agreements, labour law and organizational imperatives – I still kept the needs of my customer at the forefront of my mind.  How, I asked myself every day, do I make life just a little bit easier for this manager?  In many cases, there was nothing I could do but listen quietly while a manager blew off some steam.

When I moved from a purely HR role into a front-line operations management role I did so with the intent that my HR practice would benefit from experiencing what my managers went through on a daily basis.  It would make my HR practice richer.  What I did not count on was falling in love with operations and leading a front-line team.  So, I am here to stay in operations.  But I had a lot to learn and even as a seasoned HR professional I needed the support of my HR partner more than ever.

Recently I experienced what I had heard many managers over the years complain about . . . “useless HR support”.  No wait – it was not useless – it was ineffective.  After a short email exchange where the HR person told me to “meet with X and review the agreement and report back once completed” over a highly complex highly sensitive situation I seethed.  After 3 sleepless nights spent seething and stewing, I finally came to the realization that at the core of this problem was the value rub for me.  This was not working in service of their customer.  This was directive.  I do not like directive.  It made me feel useless.  It made me feel incompetent.  It made me feel frustrated and misunderstood.

A year from now I likely will have forgotten the details of this exchange, but I doubt I will ever forget the feelings conjured by the experience . . . hence the quote.

I don’t really care that solutions may not be found or that the ultimate solution may be exactly that which was directed but I do need to know that my knowledge and experience is valued and contributes to the search for a solution.  I need to feel a true partnership with my HR person and most importantly I need to feel supported.  I don’t think I am alone in this.  Ask any operational manager you work with.