Water's Edge Coaching

Like so many Chicago Cub’s fans I am saddened to hear of the passing of Ron Santo.  The Cubs were my heroes as a child and I spent many a school day afternoon alone or weekend sitting at my father’s feet watching the likes of Ernie Banks, and Billy Williams and Ron Santo playing the same game I loved to play down the street at the park with my friends.  They were and still are heroes.  No scandals, no steroids, so 60 minute specials on ESPN to make an announcement.  They played the game with a sense of joy and addressed the fans and media with a sense of humility.  I’m always amazed when I watch interviews from back in the 60s how all these players had an “awww shucks” kind of way of responding to questions.   Like they felt priveleged to play the game and a bit embarrassed to get all this attention for it.  Ron Santo epitomized that.  Ron moved on to the broadcast booth for the Cubs and brought a heart on the sleeves style to his color commentary.  I have to admit, Ron was not very good at color commentary.  Certainly not a polished professional.  BUT, listening to Ron scream “OH NO!” or hearing a frustated “Come on guys, just get a hit!”  made me feel like he was one of us.  Like he was just another frustrated Cub fan reacting to the game.  I guess you could say Ron announced like he played, with a lot of heart and a blue collar style.  You weren’t supposed to be able to play baseball professionally as a diabetic let alone be selected to the all star team nine times.  You weren’t supposed to add color commentary to a broadcast the way Ron did and be beloved by fans for doing so.  But Ron Santo did both, and he did it his way!  A lot of us struggle with the barriers and disappointments that are part of our job search efforts or part of the challenges of finding ways to succeed in our work with fewer resources and challenging business conditions.  I think there is a lesson for us all from Ron Santo’s life.  Be true to yourself.  Realize barriers are just that, barriers and don’t have to be roadblocks.  Thanks #10 for the impact you had on me and my life.  I don’t think I actually realized it until today.  Rest in peace old friend.

I was a little rough on him, I admit it.  I didn’t apologize for it because I think it was the right thing to do, but I did acknowledge that I was being rough.  He needed me to.  Sometimes as job seekers and career changers we don’t seem to be able to get out of our own way.  We want to have a great network providing us leads, but we shy away from the hard work.  Networking is hard work and way out of the comfort zone for a lot of job seekers.  But it is THE WAY to land a job in today’s market.  Don’t hold yourself to the standard of the “power networkers” with 800 Linked-In contacts and a gift for making new friends if that is not who you are.  Not being like that doesn’t make you a bad networker, it just makes you not as good as them.  So what?!  You are looking for work for you, so do so in a way that works best for you.  Put your best efforts into it but put forth the effort!  That network is not going to create itself.  Go get em!

In this slap a bandage on the problem and get back in the game society of ours, career changers and job seekers are setting themselves up for disappointment.  We skip right to the final destination (a new job, something other than what I have now) while ignoring what we really want.  While ignoring what would really make us happy.  There are a lot of reasons we won’t focus on ourselves.  It might be we are uncomfortable doing so, or that we’re not used to taking the time to plan.  Maybe it is the pressure to find work immediately, or at least the perception there will be a price to pay if we don’t do so immediately.  In my coaching of others, it is the focus on self that seems to be the most challenging for people.  In my opinion, it is also the most important thing to do.

Yesterday I received a reminder of why I love being a coach so much.  One of my career coaching clients was describing to me her “A-Ha moment” where seemingly from out of nowhere she discovered the type of work she wants to be doing.   She eloquently described how this type of work made so much sense for her because of its connection to her values, interests and skills.  I was genuinely happy for her.  Because of her hard work, her willingness to listen to herself, and to stand up for who she is as a person I believe she was much more prepared to be ready for that “A-Ha moment.”  I haven’t gone so far as to create an elaborate “A-Ha theory” but I do believe that sometimes these ideas come to us unsolicited, while other times we need to put ourselves in a position to look at things in a different light.  That is where coaching is a big help because you’re doing a lot of introspection and with your coach exploring new possibilities.  You never really know when or where that “a-ha” is going to show itself to you, but when it does, are you ready to listen?

Growing up I idolized Ernie Banks.  By the time I was old enough to start caring about whether the Chicago Cubs won that day (an affliction I still suffer from) Ernie had moved from playing shortstop to playing first base.  But he was still Ernie!  Still Mr. Cub!  He brought a boyish enthusiasm to the game, best captured in his quote “Let’s play two.” Reflecting a message any boy could understand, on a day as beautiful as today, let’s play two games of baseball.  I don’t recall ever seeing Ernie Banks not smiling, except maybe when he was about to put a ball out on Waveland Avenue.  I’m in my 40s now, still obsessed with the Cubs, and I still idolize Ernie Banks.  I keep an Ernie Banks autographed baseball on my desk in my office.  It reminds me of the enthusiasm, hope and sheer joy that Ernie brought to the ballpark every day, and through his actions, lifting the spirits of legions of adoring Cub fans.  That autographed baseball reminds me of my sincere desire that we all could feel the same way about our work.  That as leaders we create that environment for our teams that energizes them.  As employees we must be vigilant about giving our all to the team.  As job hunters we should seek out work that engages our head, hands and heart.  Thank you Ernie Banks!  Let’s play two!

In the past couple of weeks it seems I am running into a lot of people looking to shift their career focus without paying attention to what type of work best suits them.  Don’t get me wrong, they have a final destination in mind (a job) and a path they plan to follow (work they feel qualified to do) but they are ignoring the most important part of their search, themselves.  I am a huge fan of doing what you love, but how many of us take the time to think about what that is?  How many of us are willing to even listen to ourselves think about that without letting all kinds of “mental chatter” take over the conversation.  You know the kind of “chatter” I am talking about.  The voices that tell us we’re not good enough or we wouldn’t get paid enough, or it would be foolish to go back to school.  They chase us away from our ideal job before we even get a chance to recognize it as a dream job.  The temptation for many people is to just skip to a solution “the job” in the manner that seems most efficient to us “work we are qualified to do.”  My advice is make some space to listen to yourself.  Get a glass of your favorite drink to relax with, whether it is a cup of warm tea, your favorite merlot or a glass of something stronger.  Put on some music that will help you free your mind.  Then just listen to yourself.  Be playful.  Suspend critical evaluation and just hang out with your thoughts…… with yourself.  Then you can start on the plan to get there.