British actor Richard Briers - who is probably most famous for playing Tom Good in the Good Life 70s sitcom - was talking on the radio yeterday about his career as an actor. He has acted in other TV shows and in many plays and well into his 70s now he is currently appearing in a play in London . But he described the time when he graduated from acting school along with actors Alan Bates, Albert Finney and Peter O’Toole ( actors he describes as the “New Wave” ) he said “I think I’ve had it” . He realised that he would have to find his niche as he could not compete for the kind of parts they would get and this led to a very successful career in what he calls ” light comedies”.
He is not alone in finding that he was in amongst many other equally talented people in his chosen profession and his approach is a good example of how to make the situation work for you.
Every year new graduates enter the job market to be the same qualifications/exam passes. Some will already have an idea of how they want to specialise or to what level in the organisation they aspire but most will take things step by step and gradually work out how they can make their mark. There will be high profile stars but there can only be room for so many of them in any business . But that does not mean that the others are any less talented - or for that matter valuable and attractive to employers!
The responsibility for finding a way to mark rests with the employee though. It can be tempting to just settle with what is offered - but that can often lead to dissatisfaction and frustration. And when you do decide to move to another organisation how you did what you did well is just as important as what you did well. ( something which is easy to overlook and undervalue)
- It might be the lawyer who is particularly dealing patiently with elderly clients
- Or the HR person whose ability to discuss tricky issues or break bad news is particularly sensitive
- Or the accountant who will take time and demonstrate that they understand the client’s business challenges as well as do the numbers
- Or the recruiter whose interest in people ensures that the right questions are asked at interviews resulting in a great hiring track record
- Or the new hire who makes a point of speaking to everyone to try to get to know people quickly they come into contact with regardless of seniority or if they are in another team
- Or the trainer who has a knack of understanding the needs of the participants in workshops and adapting the programme to suit
In short - when you ask the question “who is good at..” immediately comes to mind.
So - what are you good at - and have you found your niche ?
Imagine a swimming pool in front of you. You are first to arrive. You lower yourself into the pool. At first the glassy water is disrupted by some ripples. As you start to swim these become small waves right to sides of the pool. You have had quite an impact on that water!
This applies whether you are Michael Phelps or a leisure swimmer.
Now think about this in terms of what you do generally. In your “pool” how far does your influence reach? Of course using the swimming pool analagy the answer should be right to the edges. But is it? Have you decided that influencing is limited to the “Michael Phelps” in your pool and what can you do now to change that?
Then after a while, as other swimmers join you you can no longer identify your waves - they are now blended with the others. But that does not stop you swimming does it? Unless another swimmer is splashing about and making the water round them unpleasant ( and think about that in terms of your current situation …) we have all learned to work with the others and those combined waves still reach the edges.
In your world who could you co-operate with combine your waves?
And a final thought…what if you decided remove the boundaries of the pool and decide to swim in the ocean?
I am writing this at the start of the second week in 2010. Over the past week the press, blogs and online chats have been full of resolutions and advice on how to lose weight/stop smoking/ change jobs…the usual stuff.
Also in the last week in the UK we have been hit by the worst winter weather we have had in the past 30 years. I suspect that for many people the challenges of getting to work, managing childcare because schools have been closed and keeping the house warm and might have taken the focus off any of the usual New Year resolutions.
But is this the right time to be making changes just because a new year has started?
And how can you tell if it is the right time anyway?
The ”right time” often presents itself. It might come from an “aha” moment when you have sudden clarity on what you want. It might be from a chance comment, or something you read or meeting someone new.
This is not meant as an encouragement to sit back and wait for something to happen of course! Taking some - even small - steps towards change can give great results. And you never know - you might find that when you look back on previous successes - that the “right time” was when things came together without you artificially forcing it.
In the most recent Metasaga ( more info at the foot of this post) we led a group round the National Gallery of Scotland to look for metaphors in the paintings.
Lesley ( my co-guide) and I had chosen a number of stops between us for questions. The final one was mine. It is a painting by Italian painter Correggio and hangs near the entrance of the gallery. The painting is complete except for the central figure which is still in a sort of sketched format. I have tried researching this more but drawn a blank so if I get the artistic comments wrong please forgive - or correct - me.
I understand that this might have been a draft for another picture. Or the central figure might have been left deliberately blank so that a patron could be painted in. Whether either of those are accurate this unfinished painting was bought by another artist ( who clearly admired the work) and is thought to be sufficiently important to be hung in the gallery.
Bearing this in mind the questions I had at that stop on the Metasaga were
Do you have anything unfinished ( and maybe even put aside or discarded) that would be valuable to others? Maybe they would be willing to take it over and develop it further? Or work in collaboration to finish it with you?
Does what you are doing have to be finished to be valuable?
I actually thought I had posted on this topic already and I realised that I hadn’t when I read this excellent post from Ian Aspin on his Really Good Thinking blog which includes another question on the same theme
“Let’s stop right now and ask “what are we not deciding/starting/doing/finishing now because we don’t think it’ll be perfect?”.”
Worth thinking about?
Metasaga
I was reading the Time Out Guide book I had for my trip to Stockholm at the weekend on the flight home as I had to fill a couple of hours and not surprisingly there were no English lanuage newspapers at the airport ( which is a fact not a complaint - see below on that point!). I was glad I had not read it in full before I travelled though. In the restaurant section they handily reminded me about the incompetent “Swedish chef” in the Muppet Show with his imcomprehensible accent which must be really really annoying for the wonderful real Swedish chefs out there.
How easily are swayed by what others say?
A friend recently told me about a workman she had hired to do some handyman work on a recommendation from a colleague with the warning ” he is really good but can be a bit grumpy”. She was prepared for his grumpyness and was surprised and delighted that he was totally charming while working for her.
And I regularly read the reviews at www.tripadvisor.com before booking a hotel. At the start we actually changed bookings on the strength of reviews but I am more cautious now and try to read between the lines and balance the good reviews against the bad ones to find some middle ground. As a regular contributor myself I try to ensure that any bad points are explained in context. It is not really helpful for example for a reviewer to complain that a 5star resort is “expensive” - duh? Or that brands from home are not available locally - surely the point of travelling is to broaden the mind and experience ( as at the airport)? But hotel managers have the right and opportunity to comment on the reviews but they should not just post a cut and paste response to all bad reviews like I saw for one hotel. I passed that one over !
It is generally accepted that businesses need to work hard to keep abreast of what their customers are saying about them and work harder still to maintain a good reputation.
But what about individuals - small business owners ( like the handyman) or employees even? Getting meaningful feedback can be very helpful and using that as a basis for doing more of what you are good at ( and less of what you are doing badly!!) is advisable.
But a word of warning - weigh up good and bad feedback against each other balance it and to put it into context . In other words don’t rush off to improve on something that only one person out of many thinks needs improved.
And be careful how you talk about others - out of context that grumpy comment could have cost the handyman a customer. When it comes to visiting new places or hiring new workmen - try to start out without bias and as my Mum says ” take as you find”.
