Start by asking
How can I help?
I recently attended a talk by Mary Olson-Menzel, the founder and CEO of MVP Executive Development and author of What Lights You Up? Illuminate Your Path and Take the Next Big Step in Your Career.
She shared that this simple question about helping can unlock new career opportunities, as when a CFO candidate who reached out to the CEO of a company he’d been interviewing with right when the pandemic hit. “I’ve never been asked that before,” the CEO said, and invited the CFO to work with them.
As I’ve been writing this newsletter, I’ve noticed questions keep cropping up as a powerful resource for moving our careers in the direction we want.
- “How do you balance two things that are impossible to balance?” Kristen Hare’s dissatisfaction with the concept of work-life balance led her to create the Work-Life Chemistry framework.
- Chuck Garcia advises people to ask whether the direction they’re heading aligns with their passion and purpose.
- Mattia Peretti took a months-long career break to ask what it would mean to take work out of the center of his life, and build a new framework where work had to fit around everything else.
Now it’s my turn to ask a question:
What if our career choices are not about having the answers, but seeking them?
It can feel like we’re mostly expected to be ready with answers, whether we’re being asked for our five-year-plan or we’re only invited to ask questions during the last few minutes of a job interview. In the CFO example, you’ll notice he didn’t come in and declare what he would do to help. He started with curiosity, beginning a conversation.
Our career paths aren’t a predetermined series of steps. We’re actively testing theories against reality and shifting based on what we learn. Just as a detective, scientist or a teacher pursuing action research begins with inquiry, so can we.
Our working lives are the unfolding of a series of questions, about who we can be, what lights us up and where we can help. Your route to finding fulfillment doesn’t require you know everything. You can start by simply asking what’s possible.
Happy navigating,
Bridget
🛶 Be sure to check in next week for exciting new offerings from Explore Your Career River! 🛶
🔗 Links
His life-changing moment: 9:20 a.m., Sept. 11, 2001
Taking a career break: 'I was just very tired'
What is Action Research? A Visual Explanation. (John Spencer, YouTube)