In the course of our coaching- & consulting- practice we often work with startups & fast-growing organizations who frequently hire younger individuals. For some of these young new-hires it’s their first “real job” or the first time they’ve actually thought about the prospects of a professional career.

A few days ago I actually had an early morning coffee-chat with one of these bright, young people who sought me out for counsel. He had a great attitude, was eager to work, but also had some concerns & great questions: “…how do I increase my value and grow?…how do I gain experience & responsibility?…how long should I expect to be in this role before being promoted?…”  

Here are some principles I shared to encourage, challenge, and guide him in his thinking and next steps:

Patience, Endurance & Performance – your job is a marathon, not a dash (often unlike an academic environment they might be used to). Settle into a sustainable pace of being an excellent performer where you’re planted. Nothing replaces the consistency of being the best at what you’re responsible for. Let your work speak for itself.

Grow Horizontally – increase your span of experience by looking for areas adjacent to your core role (above) where you can add value. Look for “train-wrecks” to fix. Volunteer to take on responsibility. This broadens your base of value and marketability. Keep in mind that you’ll have to “do more” before you’ll be “given more” (…pay-raise, titles, promotion, etc.).

Learn How to Grow Others – this is a real sign of maturity, and often counter-intuitive to an ambitious starter who tends to want to focus on ways to differentiate themselves. While it’s fundamental to be excellent at your job (back to #1), having the ability to work with others and make them excellent (…dare I say, better than yourself) is a sign of an emerging leader with real potential.

Stay Positive & Constructive – many young people enter the job with high expectations & rose-colored glasses, but are often disappointed by the daily grind, interpersonal issues, or job-related challenges. Rather than resent constraints, change your mindset and embrace them. See problems as “fun to fix.” It’s the bread and butter of what real leaders do (shocking to many) and a unique opportunity to add value.

While I’ve found these principles useful in counseling the “next generation,” I’ve also found them valuable & timeless reminders for myself. So, what about you?…can you think of someone you could encourage with these points?…or maybe one of them particularly resonates in your situation?

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In my work coaching leaders and facilitating executive-teams I hear the following phrases a lot (especially in large organizations!): “let’s align on the objective, let’s set clear goals, let’s conduct a strategy session to clarify direction, etc…”

While I’m a strong advocate of aligning on direction (and often facilitate these discussions), I’m increasingly convinced that many leadership-teams overdo it and the “marginal return” on yet another “vision-exercise” is minimal, if not negative. Why?…and what should you do instead?

Let me introduce “the headlight principle.” It’s based on the metaphor of a car at night, which is only able to see into the distance by moving forward, and letting its headlights progressively illuminate the next stretch of road (conversely you’ll never see what lies ahead if you stay in the parking lot).

Restating the principle – “you will learn more about the right direction for the future by taking action, then talking & deliberating more about it” (…or…another offsite, more PowerPoint slides, or another sketch on the wipeboard – you get the point…).

While I believe the imagery makes the point, let’s drive it home by decomposing the key variables that make this principle true:

1. Your car = your performance: – are we getting tired? can our car really make it up the mountain pass? As you move into the future and expose yourself to different opportunities and challenges you’ll learn an immense amount about yourself and your true capabilities (…skill, energy, resources, team…)

2. The road = the environment & process to make it happen: – lots of potholes? damaging our car? no gas stations? a shortcut? weather? While you might be enamored with the final destination, the journey to get there will teach you valuable lessons about how feasible it really is and if you’re up for the challenge (ex investment needed, traffic jam/competition, economy, speed limits/regulations & standards…)

3. The destination= vision: – what about that beautiful waterfall we just discovered? what about the tip we got from the lady at the last rest-stop? The original destination was what we initially had in mind, but we’re constantly learning more about other alternative destinations as we get closer to them and get new information. There’s no virtue in blindly committing to the “original goal” if our learnings suggest we should redirect.

To make it simple, the key factors that drive the “headlight principle” are taking continued action, and dynamically learning to inform the next step. So if you’re parked in the parking lot, worried about whether the destination is the right one or not, turn on your headlights and start moving. You’ll find out.

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In my last post I wrote about the power of analogous inspiration to free you from “lame ideas” and ignite creativity and provide a fresh perspective on your ideation efforts (go back and read it if you missed it). If this struck a chord, I’d like to go a step further by providing you a practical “how-to guide.”

Here’s a step-by-step approach that will help you get started (maybe for the first time) and ensure you get the most out your analogous experience.

1. Clarify your game-changer. This doesn’t mean you’ve pre-determined your solution, but it assumes you have a clear angle (or at least a starting point) on what you think could “change the game” for your customer – examples: bundling, taking pain away, help make choices, simplify complexity, etc.
2. Establish an analogous lens(es). What would you like to learn from your analogous experience? Suppose we choose the angle of simplification in step-1. Is it simplification by saving time?…simplification by providing shortcuts?…simplification by making something complex seem accessible? You may have more than 1, but it helps to list them so you can stay true to what you’re looking for (and prevents it from becoming an aimless boondoggle).
3. Choose the analogous experience. Where can you go to see through the lens selected in step 2?…and what specific questions would you seek to answer? Again, if we go with the game-changer of simplification (step 1) and the lens of “making something complex seem accessible” (step 2), several destinations come to mind – a financial planner, a hotel concierge, a Genius-Bar technician at the Apple Store…others?
4. Experience it! As you go to your destination try to really experience the service, not just observe. While certain situations may make this challenging, you’ll find the impact exponential if you “feel it in your own skin” versus “just observing it.” Yes, that means…sit through a financial planning session, get a hotel concierge to advise you on an excursion (and do it!), get a phone fixed…
5. Debrief and leverage insights for ideation. Now loop back to step 1-2…How did the analogous service achieve the result (example: “make something complex accessible”)? Reflect on the experience…list the ways they do it (example – by creating a plan, by bundling options, by pairing me with an expert…). Then ask yourself the question: “how might we apply that to our game-changer” (example: simplification)? Let the creative ideas fly!

So, what are you waiting for? Not only do you reap the benefit of higher quality ideas, but it also gets your team out of their comfort zone into an “explorer’s mindset” as they venture into the great unknown to experience, observe, learn and apply. Go!

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