Building A 21st Century Career

According to academic and career theorist Prof. Michael Arthur, there are three types of career based investments that people can make:
1. Knowing why: Deals with how and why people derive meaning out of their work and learning.
2. Knowing how: Covers skills and expertise that will be in demand for a particular industry.
3. Knowing whom: Involves building and managing one's social network of peers.

INSIGHT
Managing a 21st century career requires being entrepreneurial - continuously seeking out opportunities to develop, renew and enhance your skills and abilities.
A coach helps to accelerate the process of discovery and growth.

Living By The Pareto Principle

"I really want to clear my life to make it so that I have to make as few decisions as possible about anything except how to best serve this community….And I feel like I'm not doing my job if I spend any of my energy on things that are silly or frivolous about my life.” - Mark Zuckerberg on why he wears a grey t-shirt all the time.

INSIGHT
Zuckerberg is very clear about the vital few in his life.
He believes in serving his FB community to the bare inclusion of everything else in his life. But on becoming a father in November last year, he took two months off to help his wife take care of the baby. Being a competitive person, he even invested time and effort in trying to bring his baby’s diaper changing time down to 20 seconds. He succeeded!

The Irrational Mind

In the United States, net immigration from Mexico has been at zero since 2010, but Republican primary voters still cheered Donald Trump’s promise to build a wall on the southern border as though it would solve whatever was worrying them. - A New York Times report

INSIGHT
Human beings are predictably irrational, says author and professor of psychology Dan Ariely. A wise leader is one who can channel his people's irrational emotions into productive action, by focusing not on emotions, but on behaviour. 

Power of The Story

“Retelling a story about the habits, mannerisms daily goals of successful people puts you one step closer to learning (& teaching others) how to recreate their results. Find people who have the skills you want. Study their stories, & tell their stories. We tend to teach what we need to learn, & I can't think of a better way to do it” - Annette Simmons in Whoever Tells The Best Story Wins

INSIGHT
Learning from the stories of others is the simplest way to learn. My personal collection of over 700 stories is my treasure of learning into which I dip to revive and refresh myself.

Being Authentic is a Choice

Lionel Messi announced his retirement from international football yesterday after Argentina lost again in the Copa America final. Often the lightning rod for criticism. He has been questioned about not singing his country's national anthem. “I get annoyed by the people who attack you without thinking“ he said, “I won't sing the anthem on purpose. I don't need to sing it to feel it. It reaches me. Every person feels it in their own way.”

INSIGHT
Is it brave, or is it foolish, to choose be authentic to yourself when emotionally charged situations demand a certain form of expression of behaviour?

Fostering Innovation

Leaders can foster creativity by setting goals with clear boundaries but at the same time breaking all the rules, often unspoken. Our creativity and innovation is often capped by these unspoken rules, which condition our thinking process. - Franklin Tang, CEO Philip Tang and Sons

INSIGHT
An organization's spoken rules define the ’musts’, while the unspoken ones define the ’shoulds’. Articulating the unspoken, transforms them into ’coulds’.