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entrepreneur

Salad Dressing, Change and Career Paths

June 24, 2012 By Michele Woodward 1 Comment

 

Have you been in the salad dressing aisle recently?

Let’s see, there are: Organic, Orange. Paul Newman, Paul Prudhomme. Annie, Amy. Nature Valley, Natural. Balsamic, aromatic, diabetic, gluten-free, fat-free…

On the other hand, let’s explore my mother’s choices – which were: French, Blue Cheese, Italian, Oil & Vinegar.

Thus, my darlings, has the world changed.

It used to be that women like my mother could choose careers like they chose salad dressings. If they wanted or needed to work “outside the home”, they got to choose between nursing, teaching or secretarial roles.

Simple? Yes. Straightforward? Uh huh. Opportunity to do as your wits and passion directed? Not so much.

Even today, with so many career options open to women, we struggle with work. Did you see the now-famous essay by Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter in The Atlantic this week? Titled “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All”, Slaughter explores the dynamics of professional success for women who want to be at the top, the unfulfilled promise of feminism, the gulf between the attitudes of men and those of women, and suggests that young, ambitious women freeze their eggs in their 20s in case they work too hard and miss the window of opportunity on their fertility.

OK, then.

Can we look at a bigger picture, my friends? A larger context to why there are so many anxious strivers out there, and why the workplace is hard for so many? Why, yes – let’s do! Here is the big picture context:

The world sneaked up on you and changed.

Sometimes you have to look back to really get a picture of the future. Cary Campbell Umhau, friend and founder of SPACIOUS, highlighted this interesting article on her Facebook page this week – Ten Most Significant Cultural Trends of the Last Decade by Andy Crouch. And what’s changed the most? I’d lump all ten together and call it The Status Quo.

In my mother’s day, the majority got to dictate the status quo, and they determined – like salad dressings – that there would be  one or two or maybe three ways to be “successful”. But now? As Crouch writes, there is no more majority – there were more “minority” babies born last year than “majority” babies.  So what we have today is a minority majority. In fact, if no one is in the majority, then we are all minorities.

That’s a helluva shift.

And what does it mean?

It means the status quo we grew up with is gone.

And we all get to be much more agile, collaborate and create our own definition of success. Unlike my mother’s limited, status quo salad dressing choices, we face a  wide array of possibilities…

And some people, and organizations are not aware of the change that has already happened.

Or are confused by it.

Invested in the past.

These organizations cling to the old status quo. They liked being the majority. It worked for them. They knew the rules. They had power.

But the rules have changed and continue to change. And those organizations will have to change, or die. We’re already seeing it happen with booksellers, camera stores, the travel industry, newspapers. Next to fall? Academia, insurers – anyone who relies on controlling information to generate revenue. Those barriers are leveling.

And where we’re going is faster, more collaborative, more streamlined, more niche – which is, when you think of it, reflective of needs of minority majorities.

Here’s a peek at the future. Right now, today, a kid is sitting with some friends in a room tweaking code that will change our lives in the next two years. She needs no permission, no credential, no template, no budget approval.

All she needs is an idea, and the oomph to see it through.

Maybe that’s the definition of our new and dynamic status quo, then: Embracing change. Valuing flexibility and agility. Collaboration. Being a part of the power of the minority majority. Limitless creation.

Those invested in the old status quo will lose. It’s just a matter of time. And those who embrace change, new definitions, new ways of being? They will truly have it all. On their terms. In ways that matter.

It’s time for you to let the old go to make room for the new. Even if it means change. Even if it means new rules or no rules. Even if it means you have to learn something new.

It’s time. Do it.

It. Will. Be. Worth. It.

 

Filed Under: Authenticity, Career Coaching, Getting Unstuck, Managing Change, Uncategorized Tagged With: Anne-Marie Slaughter, careers, Cary Campbell Umhau, change, entrepreneur, future, gender roles, getting ahead, SPACIOUS, trends, Why Women Still Can't Have It All

Totally In On A New Thing

May 20, 2012 By Michele Woodward Leave a Comment

It used to be that a man married a lovely girl and got his job in a factory or office. For thirty years, his work brought in the family’s income and the health insurance while the lovely girl stayed at home and raised their adorable children. Then, the man retired, got his gold watch and went fishing.

Times have changed.

Really changed.

I recently listened to a segment of the NPR show “On Being” which featured 23 year old spoken word artist Sarah Kay. She’s just back from Australia, where she performed and taught throughout the country.

Did you hear that?

Twenty three.

“Spoken word artist.”

Australia.

NPR.

In contrast, when my dad was 23, he was married with two kids and a third on the way – and wore a suit and a hat to the office every day. The idea of Australia probably never crossed his mind, let alone something called “NPR”. That a girl could be a spoken word artist and make a living would have been baffling.

Times have really changed.

And what’s changed the most are the possibilities.

A kid can have an idea in his dorm room (or drop out of college) and turn it into a billion dollar business:

Mark Zuckerberg.

Michael Dell.

Bill Gates.

A woman can be on a reality show and parlay that into subsequent lines of business:

Bethenny Frankel.

Guiliana Rancic.

Anyone named Kardashian. [I am not going to hyperlink anything to that name. I just…can’t.]

It’s not only famous people who can take advantage of today’s possibilities.

People make money de-cluttering homes.

Artists have built sustainable revenue by selling their paintings online.

Using Skype, consultants can work with clients all over the world, while still managing to be at the bus stop to greet their kids at 3pm.

People have written books solely for the Kindle and ended up making decent money – and receiving book deal offers from traditional publishing houses.

Kids put videos of themselves singing on YouTube and go on to sell out stadiums.

Employees get laid off and start a whole new company.

A former White House staffer can reinvent herself and become a successful executive coach and writer.

Who would have ever thought it?

Yes, times have changed. And the new world of work is more flexible, adaptive and collaborative.

There are new rules, and new ways of being successful. Which can be a little challenging for folks who define “success” as having the same job for thirty years, with the hat and gold watch thing as mileposts. For these folks, it feels like the times have changed too fast, what happened to the rules, and can’t we turn back the clock?

Nope.

The genie is out of the bottle.

And now that people can have flexibility and a good income, now that they can have satisfying work of their own creation, now that anyone can go from being employed to being freelance to being employed again, now that time and distance is no longer a barrier to business growth – now is the time to embrace the way the world has changed and adapt to its new work rhythm.

If you hold on to the old way of work, you will lose.  Because we stand at a new point in the evolution of careers, with a  promise that is huge, and bright. And wildly creative.

I am in. Totally in. How about you? You ready?

Filed Under: Career Coaching, Getting Unstuck, Managing Change Tagged With: career strategy, changing careers, entrepreneur, new rules of work, small business, work

Inspiration Out Of The Blue

December 13, 2009 By Michele Woodward Leave a Comment



As I sit here on a Sunday morning, it’s raining outside – a steady, cold drizzle.

“Sunday morning?” you wonder. Isn’t that kinda late to be writing something that usually goes out on… Sunday?

Yep.

It is.

But I’ve struggled this week to find the right subject to write about. Just couldn’t find anything. I have, I fear, lacked for inspiration.

And when I find myself in this situation – oh, yes, believe me, it’s happened before – I step back, let my vision get all fuzzy, and see what happens.

And guess what?

Something happened this morning. Something that brought a great topic right into focus. And I wasn’t even looking for it. Cool, huh?

It happened when I read novelist Ann Patchett’s great piece in the Washington Post this morning. I am fond of Ann Patchett’s writing. You may know some of her books – Run, Bel Canto, The Patron Saint of Liars. In the Washington Post, Patchett writes that she fears she doesn’t treat her writing as if it’s a full time job, and resolves to do so in 2010. At least for the first 32 days of the year. Because, you see, a friend told her that doing something different for 32 days will make a permanent change.

So, Ann Patchett, 46 year-old author of five novels, two non-fiction books and a zillion essays and articles needs to make her writing a full-time job?

Funny, that. And familiar.

See, this week two different people told me that I didn’t work full-time.

I know. Me. Not full-time. Funny, right?

And I think it’s all about their idea of what full-time looks like. It’s all about quantity over quality. As if being chained to a desk for 60+ hours a week is the only respectable measure of full-time work. And the idea that you can set office hours, and not work on weekends, and make a respectable living is a mind blower.

Did you know that there are 42 million Americans who are self-employed, freelance or do temp work? That’s 30 percent of our workforce. Forty-two million people who decide what their work hours will be. Forty-two million people who make their own salaries, pay their own health insurance and fund their own retirement accounts. Forty-two million people who have decided for themselves what full-time looks like.

My dear friend Pam Slim, author of Escape From Cubicle Nation, tackles the subject of becoming one of the 42 million beautifully.

And I’m going to suggest her next book be titled Escape From Cubicle Mindset.

Because Cubicle Mindset says that the only work that’s valid is done from sunrise to sunset in an office, directed by a supervisor a pay grade above you, and rewarded with a steady, reliable, marginally increasing paycheck.

But Cubicle Mindset is woefully outdated. Cubicle Mindset tells us that there is only one way to make money. And be productive. And be valued.

And I disagree. And plenty of other people disagree, too. Forty-two million disagreers, actually.

Because I can make more money working on my terms than I have ever made working for someone else. And the best thing? I have time. I have time to create, to connect, and to let inspiration find me.

Oh, and it comes in the most unlikely places. Especially when I’m not looking. Or when I don’t look like I’m working.

And what Ann Patchett may find she’s missing when she moves to writing one hour a day to writing ten or how many ever hours she considers “full-time”, is the time to gestate. The time to let inspiration find her, maybe even find her while she’s at Costco with her mother. After 32 days she may have a quantity of words on paper, but as to quality?

Maybe she’ll write a book about it.

Filed Under: Career Coaching, Clarity, Getting Unstuck Tagged With: Ann Patchett, entrepreneur, inspiration, Pam Slim, writing

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