Thank goodness it is finally football season! My most favorite sport to watch is finally back. I am an avid fan of the New England Patriots and all other teams (when they are not playing the Pats, I root for them all). In my time off I have wondered why I like football so much and I think I have discovered why.
Football is a game of strategy - the team can fail one week, but the day after the game the team is right back at it reviewing what went wrong and revamping the strategy to fit the next opponent. That is very much like what I have done in my career. In consulting I would go to a client (opponent), develop the strategy that works for them, implement, then go on to the next client. While working at hospitals I had a similar approach - looking at each location or department and figuring out what works best for that particular location, then moving on to the next issue.
One of the things I have reflected on while being unemployed is how to find the right fit with the right company. In the past I have jumped at opportunities to switch companies when recruiters called because I felt I had to make up for lost time when I stayed home while my children were young. I thought "wow, they want me, I must move to this position" but I didn't do a great job of determining upfront if the company had the same cultural fit that would work best with my style. Similar to football players moving around the league because they too are looking for the right fit with a team. Do you ever wonder why some players do so lousy with one team but excel with another? It is because we all react to different cultures, management styles, and values in different ways. Highly successful people are not afraid to fail and move to a better opportunity. Failure does not define who you are, how you handle failure does.
It is similar to people looking for new positions. If we are truly going to succeed in our positions, we must find a good fit with our prospective employers and that takes work. I have told many recruiters and HR personnel that I am taking my time to find the one last position that will be the best fit for both me and the employer. I am willing to wait for the perfect position.
The work I go through when deciding to apply for a position involves a lot of internet research. What are people saying about the company? What are they not saying? Are they always in the news for the wrong reasons? Who is on their executive team? Are they well respected in the industry? I do my research and it would be fitting if I could show the companies that I apply to how much time I took to select them to apply for. However, it is difficult to show them in a cover letter just what I have gone through to get to that point.
The most difficult task is trying to determine what the culture is truly like. I ask myself questions like: "will they really embrace a female leader?", "Is the company ready for me and my style?". Those are hard questions to get answers for and I am struggling with that. I want my last great job to be with a company that embraces my level of enthusiasm, someone who wants to have fresh ideas and input often on how to make things better, and someone who is not going to judge me because I like colorful suits!
The moral of today's blog is that you can have a great career with a great company, but you have to do the work to find out who you are first and what is important to you in your career, and take the time to find the right employer that fits with who you are and what your style is. You may not find it on the first try, but like the football players who move around the league, eventually you are going to find the team works for both of you.
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