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I was on a panel Q&A session for the women interns at HP Labs. The panelists were a set of current and past lab directors at HP Labs and a senior researcher at HP Labs. My fellow panelists had some very good advice. The audience was a bright, energetic group of women who are in various stages of grad school, and they made good comments and asked great questions. It was a very fun group to talk to.
One of the tips I gave them was from my Top 10 Career Tips: Align your work with your passions and strengths. Define your career accordingly.
It turns out that this was not unique advice. In fact, all the panelists gave the advice that for career success, you have to be passionate about your work.
An additional tip that I gave was: Use your weekend strengths at work.
My advice here is to think about the things that you do on your weekends and in your free time when you're with your family and friends. Chances are that you're spending your free time doing things that you love to do. Chances are that these things use your natural strengths, i.e., your weekends strengths. And, chances are that your weekend strengths can be used at work!
You might not realize what your weekend strengths are, so you may need to do some asking around to find out. Ask your mom and your close friends what your natural weekend strengths are. You might think you're a pretty average person who doesn't have any special strengths or you might think you know what your strengths are, but your mother and your friends will probably be able to point out some strengths that you didn't know you had or that you didn't think were important. So ask them and listen carefully to their answer!
The next part is creating opportunities to use your weekend strengths at work. You probably never thought that your weekend strengths could be applied to work. They definitely can, and I'd even go so far as to say that if you get your job aligned with your weekend strengths, then you will have a successful career!
Let me give you a few examples about your hidden weekend strengths and how they can be applied to work.
When you go out with your friends, are you the person who does all the research and planning to find the best restaurants to go to, the best way to get there, and the nearby places to park? Do you make the restaurant reservations and print maps for everyone? These planning, organization, and execution skills are absolutely invaluable at work. So if you have them, please get into a job that uses and values them! Organize the projects and people at work, get people excited about what they're doing, and make those people and projects produce results. Note that those of us who don't naturally possess those planning and organizational skills find people like you invaluable! And, you don't have to be a manager to do these things. Just offer your skills to your manager and see what happens.
Or, are you the person who spends your free time reading news and surfing the internet learning all sorts of news and random tidbits? Do you always know the latest about what's going on with anyone at any moment anywhere in the world? Do you know where to go to find to information about anything? It turns out that these research and news skills are also invaluable in the workplace. Get into a job that needs this kind of diligence, collect all the information that's needed, and find a way to share the valuable information you collect in your head with those around you!
Or, do you spend your weekends coaching, teaching, or mentoring people about some activity that you love? If so, try to apply your coaching, teaching, and mentoring to your colleagues at work. You can do these things with your colleagues even if you are not a manager. I love it when my employees start coaching each other and when they start coaching me. Everyone wants to do a good job, so if you have any tips that can help someone do their job better, then offer to tell them!
You might think that your current job doesn't use your strengths. Before you come to this conclusion, I would strongly encourage you to take a very close look and ask yourself if your job doesn't use your strengths or if the way you are doing your job today doesn't use your strengths. Note that there is a big difference between these two. It turns out that there is lots of flexibility in how you do your current job. And, there is a very good chance that you can improve on the way you are doing your job today, especially if you think creatively about how to apply your strengths. Let me share an example from my own career, which is actually how I formed this advice in the first place.
Early in my career I used to sit in my cubicle and create video transcoding algorithms, develop prototypes, and write papers and patents. I thought that was what my job was. At the same time, I spent my weekends playing ice hockey, running a few practices, and giving people tips to improve their game. And, a couple years earlier I used to coach ice hockey; I really enjoyed teaching people new skills and watching them progress. At one of my performance reviews, my manager gave me my review which was basically all positive. He then asked if I had any questions. I didn't really have any, but we had an hour slot so I made one up. I asked my manager why all these things I like to do on my weekends are different from my job at work, even though they seem to be useful work skills. I told him about my weekend hockey exploits and the aspects of teamwork and coaching that I enjoy. He thought for a minute and then said, "They don't have to be different. They shouldn't be different!" He said that I should incorporate my teamwork and coaching skills at work and try to make them match. After that, I went back to my cubicle and I started thinking about how I could collaborate with other people on projects to bring a little teamwork into my job. Then, over time I mentored an intern and got a little coaching into my job. And soon enough, teamwork and coaching became a larger part of my job, and I redefined my job in way that being better at them made me more successful in my job. And, it turned out that this new way of doing my job actually led me to greater success, because I was working with more people and having more impact with my work. I'm happy to say that teamwork and coaching are still part of my job today!
Final remark: Discover your weekend strengths and find ways to use your weekend strengths at work!
So, here are my questions for you:
- What are your weekend strengths?
- Do you use your weekend strengths at work?
- Ask a friend what your weekend strengths are. Did you find any surprises?
- Do you think your weekend strengths can be applied to work?
- If you can't see the connection, then let us know what your weekend strengths are so we can brainstorm about how you can apply them at work!
Tags: career tips, natural strengths, weekend strengths, successful career, align work with passion, career advice, HP
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| Posted by Susie Wee on Wednesday, July 25, 2007 2:24 AM |
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