Every individual, and every company, is navigating through a professional world of a thousand options and ten thousand distractions.
What should my next role be? What sort of company is best for me? Should we pursue that piece of business, that new client? What about expansion into this or that area?
What we all need is a compass, and a filter. And by that, I mean: accurate, self-defining words that map out our purpose.
A few weeks ago, I was doing a clarity session with someone over video Skype, and we slowly but surely arrived at a series of words, phrases, and short sentences that summed up their makeup. It was an interesting moment, because now past and current job experiences began to make sense in whole new ways.
A job role that was causing lots of angst was simply revealed as a mis-match – a less-than-ideal fit for this person’s makeup. Those self-defining words – like looking into a mirror – made clear what was really going on, and why.
But, as for the future, those key words also serve a vital role as both compass and filter.
When an individual or company has clarity about their purposes, strengths, and makeup (their professional DNA), that clarity makes the pathway forward much less confusing. The types of job roles or business opportunities to be sought come into focus as the key words about YOU come into focus.
Paralysis and uncertainty are replaced by a sense of direction.
But, just as important as this compass is, those key words also serve as a very effective filter. That is, the vast majority of distracting and sub-optimal opportunities can be screened out immediately, once you have a clear understanding of what you are….and are not.
This is one of the most liberating aspects of gaining clarity – discovering the key words (the metadata) that describe you, or your company. We don’t need to be shaped by everyone else’s expectations. We need to come to the marketplace with our own definitions.
We live and work in a very complex world. We’ll navigate it much more effectively with a well-calibrated compass and filter.
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Recently, I was talking about Clarity Therapy and some other topics (including men and depression) with Jim Beach over at School for Startups Radio. Here’s the recorded interview!
