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Teresa Hopke

Steps that need to be taken if organizations are going to optimize employees’ experience and hold on to the working parents of the future.

More Than a Baby . . . Working Parents and the Paradigm Shift

April 2018 - ATD Links

Three years ago, I took a leap of faith and started my podcast, The TalentGrow Show. It was a twice-a-month leadership development show (which in 2018 has become a weekly show—gulp!) featuring mostly interviews but also some solo episodes. Guests have included leadership experts, authors, consultants, and coaches, but also a top banker, chef, philosopher, neuroscientists, actual managers working on their management skills, best-selling authors, coaching and talent development gurus, and mentors and friends of mine like Elaine Biech, Beverly Kaye, Kimo Kippen, and Michael Bungay Stanier.As I celebrated the first three years, I thought I’d look for lessons I learned that are applicable to you, as well. So here are three key leadership-related lessons, or insights, each represented by three letters: three Ps, three Cs, and three more Ps.Pursue your passion and purposeA lot of people fall into work that is not that satisfying to them. For others, we have a passion or maybe a sense of purpose around something, but we feel like we don’t have time for it. In my more than 25 years in the world of employee and leader development, I’ve seen more than my share of people who have given up on their passion or are lacking a sense of purpose.I encourage you to not give up and to continuously pursue ways to go toward your purpose, if you’re clear about it, or to clarify your purpose if not. Being clear on your purpose and passion is a source of an incredible sense of well-being. And it helps you orient your actions, whether your work is a work of passion (kudos!) or something you do on the side.(Plus, sometimes you start a gig on the side and then eventually figure out how to shift your work to be more aligned with your passion. It’s a good thing.)For me, my purpose is clear: My work in the world is to help as many people as possible become aware of their strengths, passion, and talents and find ways to optimize and maximize how they use those in their daily life, especially in their work. Therefore, podcasting has been a fabulous way to support achieving this purpose beyond my professional services, such as speaking at conferences, consulting with companies on their leadership development strategy, and facilitating workshops and retreats. I have fallen in love with this podcast. It is such a passion project.What’s been amazing is that podcasting enables me to reach so many more people than I can through my face-to-face work. For example, in my first year of podcasting, I was able to reach thousands of people. In the second year, I almost tripled that number, and then in the third year of podcasting I was able to double the number of downloads I had in the first two years combined.To further my reach and the number of people I can positively affect through my work, my goal this year is to up my downloads tenfold. Ten times. That’s big, right? I don’t know if I’ll reach it, but it’s always good to set a really hard goal, something that seems a little bit out of reach. When I say or write it, I feel scared. But that sensation of nervousness is a good sign.A goal that kind of scares you (but not terrifies you to the point where you don’t take any action) is perfect. You should move toward things that seem almost out of reach but not completely unreachable. You can see it on your horizon and motivate yourself to move toward it.As you can see, mobilizing yourself toward scary goals that you feel passionate about and help you achieve your purpose is a very positive and beneficial endeavor. So what is your purpose? And what passion project are you pursuing?Cultivate your curiosity and connectionsThe second chunk of the three lessons learned is the three Cs—cultivate curiosity and connections. If you want to be happy and be a good role model for others, this lesson is a great one to apply.For me, it’s a no-brainer. I love to learn. I am a very curious person. And I love to connect people and connect ideas. Plus, I get tons of pleasure from sharing what I’m learning with others throughout all the work I do. Podcasting allows me to leverage those strengths and maximize my benefit from them. And it helps me reach my purpose.Of course, networking is a major topic of interest for me that is all about connecting: I connect with the guests (or reconnect, since many of them are people that are already in my network). But I am also connecting with listeners and expanding my network.(By the way—check out my ATD articles on networking here and here and join Bill Gentry and me at our upcoming session at the ATD International Conference on May 6, 2018, all about tactics for managers to flip their script on networking.)So my question to you is, what are you doing to cultivate your curiosity and your connections? How are you pursuing those goals?Practice towards progress, not perfectionThe other three Ps are to practice towards progress, not perfection. I definitely have a little bit of a perfectionist monster in me that I’m fighting. Do you?The thing is, perfection gets in the way of progress, because when you get hung up on making something perfect, you get bogged down to a point where additional polishing no longer adds value. There is a point at which there are diminishing returns for continuing to perfect something before just shipping it out. This is definitely one of the things that I’ve been working on with myself—focusing on the progress I’ve made and not trying to make everything perfect, just better.Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer write in their book The Progress Principle about research that shows people experience a much greater sense of happiness and well-being when they notice small steps of progress toward a goal and celebrate them rather than only celebrating when they reach the goal. Turns out that arriving at the summit—reaching the goal—doesn’t yield the kind of happiness that we expect. In fact, we often feel deflated or surprised by that end-game letdown.So focus on progress. Make baby steps. And look for the small wins to notice and celebrate. We are all on an ongoing journey of development, and this kind of mentality can help you keep moving and growing.This aligns well with what we can learn from Carol Dweck (ATD’s 2017 Champion of Talent Development Award recipient), who wrote about having a growth mindset (rather than a fixed mindset), where we view ourselves works-in-progress. Everybody around us is a work-in-progress, and we always have to keep challenging ourselves to grow and to learn and to adapt.The way you grow is by pushing yourself outside your comfort zone. That's where we stretch and grow, and where real progress is made. If you’re in your comfort zone, then you’re just doing the things you already know how to do, the way you’ve always done them. And in that way, you become complacent and stagnant, rather than making progress. (To learn more about this, check out my TD Magazine article.)If you want to maximize your gifts and grow, as well as challenge the people you are helping do the same, definitely push beyond the comfort zone. But caution: Do not push into the panic zone! (I just interviewed Professor Andy Molinsky about going outside your comfort zone for Episode 81.)Those are the three biggest lessons I’ve learned in my first three years of podcasting, and I hope they help you get more meaning and pleasure out of your work and lead others to do the same. Pursue your purpose and passion, cultivate your curiosity and connections, and celebrate progress instead of aiming for perfection.Please add a comment with your insights and reactions below. Let’s get a conversation going!© 2018 ATD, Alexandria, VA. All rights reserved.

Teresa Hopke

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