Rising to the Thrill

Wanted: thrill seekers in the world of work

Last weekend, my children jumped out of an airplane to celebrate one of their birthdays.  Several years ago, two of them went up in a plane and jumped.  This year, they took their younger brother.  All three of my children jumped. The conservative finance major jumped.  Be still my heart.

The last birthday thrill jump was off a bridge in Oregon, with bungee cords tied to their bodies.

These faces look happy right?  They look like they are so glad they paid over $400 to jump off a bridge and plummet to the rocks and river below?  So glad that they would pay more to jump out of a 1959 Cessna aircraft for a parachute experience?  Yes, and yes they did.  Thrill seekers that they are.

Needless to say, I did not go watch this event.  I went the first time and it was all I could take as a mother.  To assuage my concern, I started thinking about thrill seekers and the applicability to work environments.  How would this scenario play out at work?

My environment is a combination of e-commerce, payments and government solutions.  Not the brave new world of Mars or the thrill seeking world of Indiana Jones. Quite the contrary, most of our world is secure, locked down, predictable, controlled.  My environment is full of people who rely on consistency and try to resolve inconsistency.  Problems with the website, problems with the payment, problems with up-time?  Radical change in the website?  New products on the fly?  None of these are good things for our people and they work hard to keep the outside from creeping on the inside.  Consistent, routine flowing processes are what we strive for.  Most of the time.

Challenging though it may be, even the staid, route, IT guy needs a thrill once in a while.  Even our banking and eCommerce, "let nothing happen today" people need a thrill once in a while.  But what does the "thrill" look like for them?  And how is it helpful to the employee and the organization?

This question is something I have pondered for a few weeks.  Ever since I heard that my children were jumping again, I wanted to mitigate my fear.  And they wanted to show off theirs.  In talking to them later, half of the learning was the bright new experience.  The finance major said never again, but check, I have done it.  He also said that he had to be twice as brave as thrill seeking is outside his wheelhouse.

WheelHouse

My point is, when looking at our workforce through this lens, you can see the "thrill seekers" and those who don't normally, but then do.  What does that mean for your organization?

It means you can develop a way to recognize those who make a bold move, but who won't do it again because it wasn't right or who wouldn't normally step out of their comfort zone. Sometimes it is about a supervisor that manages too tightly.  Sometimes it is just a shy person.   BUT, sometimes they make a bold move!  Check out the shy tech guy link to see what this can look like.  We should recognize and reward them.

It also means that we should keep an eye on our thrill seekers, and help them direct that energy in positive ways for the organization.  Could your finance person take a bold move and introduce a new way to show value?  Could your Service Desk Manager introduce a wild idea to integrate all managers into the data base?  Would that be a thrill?  Or a NightMare?

It is hard to allow the thrill seekers to go out on the edge in a work environment.  The dreamers are often confused with thrill seekers.  They are not the same by a long shot.  Even harder, keeping the thrill seeker from thinking this will be everyday. Thrills are not usual by definition.   Managers are responsible for balancing this in themselves and in their subordinates.  Leaders of the organization must learn to inspire thrill seeking in those who might, and to inspire confident idea presentation in those who will. There is a balance and truly healthy growing organizations need that balance.  Challenging the status quo from the inside is far better than challenge from the competition or worse the Board!

I assure you that my children will be doing something other than white water rafting, bungee jumping or skydiving for the next trip.  They are already talking about flyboarding.  I guess thrill seekers will never stop.  Just for the record: my oldest is in IT, middle in PhD pursuit and youngest in Finance.  Their father in law enforcement.  We have no idea where they got this!

Rising of the Occasion of Work or Passion for Work

Today one of my professional peers and a friend resigned.  It was the second one this week.  And there is a void already, though neither has left.  Both of the women are strong and independent, each in their own way.  Both of them people I respect.  I will miss working with them.  I think that they had a passion for what they do, but more importantly a passion for the people for whom they did their jobs.  I started this blog to talk about passion and work vocation.  But now, I am going to talk about passion because you are passionate.  Because you care.

• "Telling someone to follow their passion -- from an entrepreneur's point of view -- is disastrous," says Cal Newport, Georgetown University professor and author of So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Search For Work You Love.
•  "That advice has probably resulted in more failed businesses than all the recessions combined... because that's not how the vast majority of people end up owning successful businesses.”
• "Passion is not something you follow," he adds. "Passion is something that will follow you as you put in the hard work to become valuable to the world."

After I read this post, it gave me pause to think about the people I know who are passionate about what they do and why.  

• Career Passions Are Rare  It's easy to confuse a hobby or interest for a profound passion that will result in career and business fulfillment. The reality is, that type of preexisting passion is rarely valuable.

But then again, I have had the fortune to know many who did have the passion at a very young age.  My father knew he wanted to be an engineer.  He wanted to be good at math and science and blowing things up (not so much the chemistry).  He wanted to be involved in space travel and had a career many would envy.  My father woke up whistling every morning, happy to be up at five to take an hour bus ride to the base to work on guidance systems.  As a bonus, he got to watch things blow up!  My husband is another lucky person who knew that wanted to be in wildlife from the time he was a kid.  He became a game warden and loved his job and was passionate about teaching others the beauty and appreciation of the wilderness.

My mother in law is a pianist. She loves playing for her church and for services (funerals included).  She tries to make each performance unique and special for the person(s) affected.  She grew up at the piano and her father was a minister.  So he may have gently guided her through her years.  So perhaps she is one who loved what they did well after years and years of practice.

• Don't believe me? Think about something you're passionate about. Or something you were passionate about when you were in high school.  Then apply this test: Will people pay you for it? Will people pay you a lot for it?  "Money matters, at least in a relative sense," Newport says. "Money is a neutral indicator of value. Potential customers don't care about your passion. Potential customers care about giving up money." (That same logic, of course, also applies to potential employers.)

This June, there were lots of speeches and advice for graduating youth.  I thought it interesting that there was such a dichotomy of views: do what you love or do something well.  Or do something for money and do it well.  I know of more than one woman who has told me that they work to pay for their horses and their hobbies.

 That work, while rewarding, is really to provide a means for them to participate in the competitions across the nation.  Horses are expensive, and working to support them requires well paid skills.  Both of these women have them: one is a nurse practitioner and the other a financial analyst.  But, my point is they work so they can afford their hobby - not work at what they love to do as their hobby.

I suppose that most people view their jobs as what they have to do to support themselves and their families.  There are many jobs that I don't envy, but I am so glad than people do them. 

One of my peers that is leaving is in Human Resources.  She is the rock of the organization.  We don't always agree, but we always agree that she is genuine and forthright.  She gives great advice and is very organized.  She is the one you want in the interview room and the one you want in the disciplinary hearing.  I don't now if she loves all of her job, but she very obviously loves providing services to the people and caring for their well being.

The other person that left held a difficult pressured job and did it well.  Again, I don't know if it is her passion or if her passion was getting it right.  Hard to tell.  She worked hard and made sure that in the end, her boss and her organization held the right information for complex business decisions.  Her tenacity is marvelous.

Neither job is one I wanted.  Plumbers, auto-mechanics, roadway surveyors, airplane pilots, diesel fuel delivery, septic tank cleaners, electrical engineers.  There are people loading cargo and driving the giant cranes that build the skyscrapers.  People doing jobs that you don't ever think about, but you depend on.  I am sure that they see it as a necessity, not the dream of their life. I was recently touring Boston, wandering through the streets and blocks.  I was taken by surprise at the number of employees smoking outside  of their store doors, complaining about their jobs, their bosses and their low wages. Not to mention, they complained about the terrible supervisors and awful managers.  Unhappiness in work abounds.

 It helps to keep in perspective that whatever your chosen career path, you too, will encounter less than fabulous circumstances, people or situations.  Working in every job from clerk to bigwig, there are jerks all along the way.  There are great folks all along the way.  Hope I am one of the great folks!