The focus of this post is the importance of your friends and family in your search. To a degree you have to put on heirs in your networking so that you're always in impression mode. Those who you are closest to are the ones you can share your fears, vulnerabilities and uncertainties with because they already know you on that level and will love and respect you throughout. They'll also build you up and be sure you know how capable you are, offering inspiration and support along the way. But I digress. This post is really prompted by an email I received this morning from one of my closest friends with a gentle reminder that I failed to post anything yesterday. For all my intentions, yesterday was a full day but I'll go into that later. First, here is the unadulterated email I rec'd from my good friend:
Hey Boss!
Love the blog! I think the structure,
objective and soon to be content will both inspire and educate.
However, I missed the update today. Hold yourself accountable to the
daily journal even if its creative writing! You may find the creative
side will lead you to options you had not thought about. Plus once
you've landed that next "Diggity" position you will be able to look back
and see what you were thinking and what lead you to where you are.
I
remembering after traveling and having to start over completely bc real
estate was dead. I was so frustrated with not finding a "suitable"
position that I found myself running in circles and reaching in areas
that I knew were not where I wanted to be. I think I did this to
justify to myself that I was "searching" hard enough to be able to sleep
at night. In hindsight I should have been more efficient in my "job
search" and took the time to enjoy the freedom and explore more of my
creative side. You know as much as I do that once you land somewhere you
are going to pour in everything you are and the freedom is gone.
Bottom
line, you are brilliant and have one of the most creative minds I know!
I've always looked up to you and how you've never taken the road most
traveled. Wherever you land, they will be lucky to have you!
One
day you'll look back at this time and smile bc it tested your character
and tell your child how scary it was not knowing what was going to
happen. All moments in life are equal, you have freedom now like never
before, do something great with it!
Love you brother!In other words, he nailed it. But it got me thinking about Personal Trainers in the fitness world and they not only instruct you on the mechanics of executing a workout but also offer motivation and positive reinforcement. Similarly, Professional Trainers like my Executive Coach have given me a new way to conduct a job search that's expanding my networking skills and with this email and other encouragements from those I'm closest to, I'm getting alot of encouragement as well.
The idea that people need this deeper network as much as they need their professional network was reinforced yesterday while having coffee with a former employee who was part of the restructuring that eliminated our department. We were sharing how we're handling it, how we're responding and what we've done since we received the news. While I shared much of what I've written about in the prior posts, she said that one of the first things she did was to let her 2 best friends and her sister know what had happened and that they were going to be her coaches in this transition of hers. Now this is a person who I had worked with for the last year and half so I know a great deal about her. She I knew that last week's news could have gone 1 of 2 ways because she's incredibly sensitive but she's also incredibly forward facing and optimistic and the forward facing side won out. Rather than lose confidence in herself, tuck her tail and go home, head hung; she's pisking herself up and with the help of her "coaches" I know she'll stay up and figure out what the best next move for her will be.
I suspect that I did a bit of that too (self congratulations coming...). I decided that I did not want to dwell on how the restructure was handled rather focus on the acheivements, growth and development I was fortunate to have acquired in these last 6 years. And the advice I'm going to heed and give to you is that you have freedom now like never before, do something great with it!
All job related activities taken yesterday:
- Applied to Managing Director position for an education related non profit
- Had lunch with a former employee
- Had post-lunch coffee with another former employee
- Asked two LinkedIn connections to introduce me to people at a company I'd previously applied to
- Sought more feedback on my resume from Exec Coach and scheduled a session next week
- Scoured the Atlanta Business Chronicle for companies I'd like to target and made a list.
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