Latest / Success Matters / Failure to Flourishing with Siobhan O'Riordan
Transcript
- 0:00I'm the same person and so why is it I'm either absolutely
- 0:04flourishing or I'm absolutely failing?
- 0:07A colleague of mine had mentioned she goes, have you
- 0:09ever heard of this term generalist because that's kind
- 0:12of what you are. It was this idea that there are
- 0:14people out there, and there's a lot of people out there who
- 0:18don't specialize in a role, but really are people who tend to
- 0:23fill in the gaps or connect the dots or see patterns.
- 0:27How HR and how talent and performance and everything
- 0:31around work is actually set up for specialists and not for
- 0:35generalists. I'm a big believer in the
- 0:37strengths world that we all have something of benefit to bring,
- 0:40and when we do and we're aligned around that, it's just it's very
- 0:44powerful. So, Sean, thank you very much
- 0:50for joining me on Success Matters Podcasts.
- 0:52You were introduced to me by one of my previous guests and former
- 0:55colleagues, Charlotte Blair. Let's start with something we
- 1:00talked about when we we did the prep call, which is your, your
- 1:03Irish Irish, which is a term that OK, we some people might
- 1:09get, but you also they reference last time was kind of very
- 1:12American thing to do to talk about being Irish Irish.
- 1:15It is. It is a very American thing to
- 1:18do. And in the States, people will
- 1:20often refer to, you know, everything that's in their
- 1:24background. So people will often answer, you
- 1:27know, someone says, you know, where are your people from?
- 1:30What's your ethnicity or something?
- 1:31And people be like, well, I'm a quarter Scotch, 1/4 French,
- 1:36etcetera. And, and my parents came to the
- 1:41States and right before I was born.
- 1:45And so when people ask me, I say Irish and then they say and, and
- 1:52I say Irish, Irish, which is that's all I am being a first
- 1:58generation American. But coming from 2 parents who
- 2:05grew up and got married. So, you know, came to adulthood
- 2:08in Ireland and then came to the States, which which did
- 2:14influence me at a young age. Being, you know, sounding
- 2:19American and being very much sort of American presenting, I
- 2:23guess you could say, at school and in life.
- 2:25And then, you know, having a much more sort of Irish culture
- 2:29at home, you know, which is subtle.
- 2:32But I think the experience a lot of people have in a lot of
- 2:35countries, you know that when their families move, yeah.
- 2:39Yeah, maybe not strong in moving from Ireland to to America, but
- 2:43certainly, well, you say that I'm moving, I'm Asian, right.
- 2:47And living in Britain at home, there's an Asian culture which
- 2:50is very distinct from the European culture and and you do
- 2:54kind of notice that difference. Yeah, yeah.
- 2:56And you notice that even though it's more subtle for sure, you
- 2:59know, going from a European culture to a Irish to an
- 3:03American culture, it would be more subtle than than what you
- 3:07experienced and and somehow harder to describe those.
- 3:14Subtleties you. Know them as a kid well, I would
- 3:21say, you know, parents are a little bit more strict perhaps
- 3:25you know, like you wouldn't, you know, kind of there's certain
- 3:28things you wouldn't dare to do. You might get in trouble and,
- 3:35and, and some of the like colloquial terms.
- 3:38And then I think also we're all like very verbal people, which I
- 3:45think it's a really Irish characteristic.
- 3:50And, and I would also say open minded.
- 3:56And I think that's often the experience of moving from one
- 4:00culture to another and being of two cultures.
- 4:03It is I find for me and and and I think there's probably people
- 4:06who wouldn't say opposite kind of an openness to people all
- 4:11different cultures because I I already live in too.
- 4:14Right. Yeah, yeah.
- 4:16And and talking, subtle as it is, yeah.
- 4:18Yeah, yeah. So talking of cultures, you also
- 4:20spent some time in a poll teaching I did.
- 4:23So tell us about that and and the cultural differences you
- 4:26noticed in that experience. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 4:29I often call it the happiest time.
- 4:31Yeah. In my life, Yeah.
- 4:33Why was it the happiest time? It was, you know, first of all,
- 4:37I felt incredibly lucky to get the role and job that I had,
- 4:41which was teaching history at an International School.
- 4:45And I was the history teacher or the social studies teacher.
- 4:48And it was a very small school and a very small student
- 4:54population. And the, the school community
- 4:59was just a really beautiful place for kids and for teachers
- 5:04and families because we really only had each other.
- 5:07So people really figured out. And I was really inspired by the
- 5:10students there coming from all these different cultures and all
- 5:14these different backgrounds and really finding a deep friendship
- 5:18and a lot of connection. And this idea of being kind of a
- 5:22global citizen was just, it was very, you know, gave me a lot of
- 5:27energy. And Nepal is a very beautiful
- 5:29place and with a lot of different, different types of
- 5:33people with different ethnic backgrounds and, but unified by
- 5:39this really incredible landscape and, and this incredible history
- 5:44of, of never having been invaded, which was like a
- 5:48really. Now, of course, there's giant
- 5:50mountains, which explains. There might be.
- 5:54A reason for that. There might be a reason, but,
- 5:57you know, but the culture itself was a just had, you know, the
- 6:02just parts of Buddhism and Hinduism and all these different
- 6:05languages and different people, but with a really strong sense
- 6:10as, and I've been in India and, and other parts of Asia, that
- 6:14real strong sense of hospitality and community that was, it felt
- 6:20very welcoming and wonderful and, and, and every day there
- 6:24was something new and wonderful to learn.
- 6:26So, but, you know, so I had the benefit of always being able to
- 6:30explore something wonderful, but also be in a community of
- 6:34people, you know, that I had deep friendships with.
- 6:37And, and, and everyone sort of shared this love of place.
- 6:40Also, I would say among the expat community, people were
- 6:44felt lucky to be there. Yeah.
- 6:46How long were you teaching there?
- 6:49I was teaching for four years. OK.
- 6:52Yeah, yeah, yeah. For four years.
- 6:54And I knew if I didn't leave after four years, I probably
- 6:59wouldn't. Right.
- 7:01Yeah, it was that strong a pull. Yeah, Yeah.
- 7:06And then, of course, it's hard to be in a culture that can
- 7:09never be your home, you know? So I, I thought, yeah, yeah.
- 7:14So I made a hard decision. It was a hard decision, but.
- 7:17You had to tear yourself away from it.
- 7:19I did I. Did were the many tears at that
- 7:23time? Yeah, I it, it was a many tears
- 7:26over many months, both leaving and coming back.
- 7:30People were like, wow, you're really emotional about this.
- 7:33I said, yeah, it was pretty spectacular.
- 7:35So I was lucky to have some family members and friends come
- 7:37and visit. So they, they had a sense of it.
- 7:39And I'm still connected with students and teachers and other
- 7:43people from that time in my life.
- 7:45But it, you know. Yeah, yeah.
- 7:47Yeah. So.
- 7:47So when you went back, I'm assuming you went back to the US
- 7:50after Nepal? I did, you did, I did.
- 7:53So I had this really interesting and it's how I moved from being
- 7:58a teacher into the nonprofit sector and more specifically
- 8:02around philanthropy. And my college roommate at the
- 8:06time came over to my apartment and she was really, she was
- 8:10late. She was two hours late.
- 8:12And I was making dinner. And she said, you know, I know I
- 8:16shouldn't ask you this, but could you, would you work with
- 8:20me? And I thought, you know, not so
- 8:23great. We might put our friendship, you
- 8:25know, at risk. But we made this funny agreement
- 8:29that either one of us could leave by just leaving a note.
- 8:35You know, she couldn't, she couldn't say see you later.
- 8:37I could say see you later through a note.
- 8:39We. Never need to do that.
- 8:42Pretty much on. The desk, I'm gone, you know, to
- 8:45preserve the friendship. We never needed to do that.
- 8:49And instead, I ended up kind of coming into, you know, what we
- 8:54call in the States, the nonprofit sector or the social
- 8:56sector or third sector, and working both in foundations and
- 9:01nonprofits, which in many ways got me to the point of where I
- 9:06am now as a coach and consultant.
- 9:09Right. OK.
- 9:10And now you talk about being a generalist, which is kind of
- 9:15counter intuitive to what advice you get, which is specialized,
- 9:19you know, find your niche, find find that.
- 9:22So how did you land on being a generalist?
- 9:25And what is a generalist? Yeah, I, well, I think it's a
- 9:28really good question. One of the things that I
- 9:33realized looking back that while I love teaching for many reasons
- 9:40why, you know, that turned out to be a generalist.
- 9:42When I came back, I was having a career that that I would call
- 9:47spiky and it was either I was really doing incredibly well in
- 9:53an organization or in a role. I was, you know, getting
- 9:57fellowships or awards and recognition and I and I was
- 10:01thriving and happy great. Or I was in roles where I was
- 10:06absolutely crashing out, not doing terribly and and I was
- 10:13getting fired a couple of times and or I would quit.
- 10:17I just and I thought, what is this?
- 10:20I'm the same person. And so why is it I'm either
- 10:25absolutely flourishing or I'm absolutely failing and I can't?
- 10:29And I don't understand. And there was nothing in the
- 10:31middle, nothing. And I thought, this is really
- 10:34frustrating. And then a colleague of mine had
- 10:40mentioned she goes, have you ever heard of this term
- 10:42generalist? Because that's kind of what you
- 10:43are. And not soon after David Epstein
- 10:49published a book called Range and it was really around
- 10:54generalist versus specialists and, and and why they matter.
- 11:00And in in learning about the term generalist, which is which
- 11:04is really the default term for Jack of all trades or someone
- 11:07who might be a multi hyphenate or other terms, a utility player
- 11:13or a multipotentialate, I think is 1.
- 11:16I think it's too difficult to say some.
- 11:18I never say it, but it was this idea that there are people out
- 11:24there and there's a lot of people out there who don't
- 11:27specialize in a role, but really are people who tend to fill in
- 11:34the gaps or connect the dots or see patterns and they are in
- 11:41lots of different roles within organizations.
- 11:44But how HR and how talent and performance and everything
- 11:50around work is actually set up for specialists and not for for
- 11:55generalists. And so this was like a big aha
- 11:58for me understanding that I was a generalist and that and that
- 12:02when I was in the right environment and I was able to do
- 12:05what I do really well, I was really doing great quality work
- 12:11and really on behalf and for others.
- 12:13When I wasn't, I was, you know, frustrated and, you know,
- 12:19probably became my own worst enemy, but wasn't getting the
- 12:25management or leadership or mentorship that I needed either.
- 12:30And so I came across a statistic in 2023 by a talent firm called
- 12:39OC Tanner and they do talent strategy for big corporations
- 12:43and they do an annual trend survey of 36,000 employees.
- 12:46And in that 2023, of those 36,000, just slightly over 50%
- 12:52identified as generalists. OK.
- 12:56Within their organization and frustrations around that.
- 12:59So they didn't feel like they had full access to promotion.
- 13:02They didn't feel like people had clarity or understanding of like
- 13:05what they were really good at or kind of what they were bringing.
- 13:08And so they felt, you know, there was there's there, there.
- 13:12It was ambiguous enough that I, I wrote a, a post on LinkedIn
- 13:22about what a generalist was and kind of what they bring.
- 13:25And it got, it's went viral for me, you know, and got, you know,
- 13:32from attention and post from people who I'm like, how did
- 13:34they even find this? And I had clearly hit a nerve.
- 13:37And that's what prompted me to write the book because I don't
- 13:43want people to have to suffer what I just suffered.
- 13:47So if I can, if I can help offer a framework and an approach and
- 13:51a clarity so that people who see themselves as generalists can
- 13:55actually understand themselves a little bit better so that they
- 13:59can communicate more effectively both what they bring and what
- 14:02they need. I think that serves us all in
- 14:05every organization and I think it serves us particularly at
- 14:07this time of pretty significant change.
- 14:11Yeah. So you touched on it that you
- 14:14know, HR departments, corporations as a whole, they
- 14:18like to put you into a particular role, write a
- 14:22particular box also. So how as a generalist, do you
- 14:27find the right role that fits you when all that you see
- 14:31advertised is we want a finance person, we want a salesperson,
- 14:35we want a operations lead, we want yeah, it's, it's always got
- 14:38that kind of title to it. And then the job description is
- 14:42usually very within that kind of sphere and that silo.
- 14:46So what's the advice to someone who sees themselves as a
- 14:49journalist or is around finding a role or, or do you have to
- 14:53make your own role? Do you have to start your own
- 14:56business, as it were, to have that freedom?
- 15:01Probably both kind of it's a yes.
- 15:03And to take, let me take the first part of that.
- 15:08I would say it is hard to find a role if you're looking for
- 15:13something that's as generalist. However, there are roles where
- 15:18generalist particularly thrive and they tend to be roles that
- 15:22that that cut across an organization.
- 15:24So the classic is a chief of staff role.
- 15:29It's highly individualized to the person that it reports to
- 15:33and and, but that is often a role that works across.
- 15:37There are generalist versions of lots of roles like marketing and
- 15:42HR, especially in smaller organizations or teams that have
- 15:46a number of functions. And then there's, you know, many
- 15:53entrepreneurs and CE OS also identify as as generalist and
- 15:59also a lot of people who are consultants and coaches also.
- 16:05I the thing that is because there is no definition of what a
- 16:09generalist is. It is really and it's the
- 16:14responsibility of generalist at this time.
- 16:16It's, it's changing like the our operating context is changing
- 16:20where where I'm starting to see more job descriptions and more
- 16:26companies starting to understand the value of generalist and
- 16:30starting to incorporate that into job descriptions.
- 16:33They still have distance to go on performance etcetera and
- 16:36promotion. But what you do see is, is
- 16:40generalist increasingly coming, defining themselves by the types
- 16:49of problems they solve and how they solve them.
- 16:53OK. So, so in some ways they are
- 16:57presenting a solution to a problem that a role might be
- 17:02trying to solve that they solve a little bit differently.
- 17:06The other thing that companies looking for more adaptive talent
- 17:14and generalists looking to be in roles where they can kind of
- 17:19bring their ability to adapt is, is in even if it's a traditional
- 17:27role and they've done something like that is again,
- 17:30demonstrating, you know, are they a dot connector?
- 17:35Are they someone who fills in the blanks?
- 17:38Do they think about things that are more kind of systems level
- 17:41strategy, right? And also what does their
- 17:43curiosity look like? And does that show up in how
- 17:47they manage people? Does it show up in terms of how
- 17:50they look at process or does it show up in terms of how they
- 17:53think about product? I think the probably the most
- 17:56important, whether you're an individual contributor or a
- 18:00consultant or someone looking for a role, is that you get very
- 18:04clear on the kind of, I call it the operating environment or
- 18:09context that you're working in or that you work best in.
- 18:13Because I think that is going to be more of a determinant, even
- 18:18more so than what the role is described as.
- 18:22Right, OK. And you, you, you touched on
- 18:25this earlier saying, you know, the, the change that's
- 18:28happening. So AI is definitely a big, big
- 18:30change. How do you see the role of a
- 18:33generalist within the AI world? I think I'm starting to see a
- 18:41role advertised called an AI generalist.
- 18:44So I'm seeing that pop up, but I think more importantly, it's
- 18:48what a generalist can bring. So generalists are have have
- 18:55have three sort of defining characteristics that I just
- 18:57briefly touched on, but it's worth just a little bit more of
- 19:00a description because how it really relates to to the value
- 19:04that they bring. So a generalist is going to
- 19:07bring a lateral curiosity. So as a specialist really wants
- 19:10to go deep and become an expertise and we need them,
- 19:13right? And generalist need experts, you
- 19:15know, they don't just function by themselves, they function in
- 19:18relation to expertise. And so, but jealous will be
- 19:22looking across. They have a lateral approach to
- 19:25curiosity as opposed to a linear kind of deep orientation to
- 19:31curiosity that a specialist would have.
- 19:33The second thing they have is they make creative connections.
- 19:37They're a little bit out-of-the-box thinkers or
- 19:40they're, they're people who see the gaps.
- 19:43So they're, again, not thinking in a linear or logical way, but
- 19:46often will make connections that, that seem, that are
- 19:52creative or, you know, unlikely or, or, or experimental or let's
- 19:57try it. And so, and, and, and these are
- 20:00preferences of, of, of how generalists think and operate.
- 20:04And the third is they need an environment in which they can do
- 20:08both of those things. And so.
- 20:10Very entrepreneurial environments are very conducive
- 20:13at an early stage, but also any kind of R&D function or anything
- 20:20that's adaptive that needs sort of the, the abilities of or, or
- 20:25what adaptation brings is a great place for a generalist to
- 20:29be, which of course is where we are now with AI.
- 20:33So AI has, has, has two really big asks of us, I think as, as
- 20:42people, as as workers, as, as you know, for me, thinking about
- 20:47the future is how are we going to adapt to AI and use AI to
- 20:58meet the demands that we have and the needs that we have at
- 21:01work and elsewhere. But, and I think this is
- 21:04particularly where generalists can can discern both.
- 21:07How do we keep people and the discernment that AI is effective
- 21:12and useful in the center of what we do?
- 21:16So generalists can, because they're adaptive by nature, can
- 21:21bring that kind of experimental approach forward.
- 21:24Let's test this, let's try this. But when they are really capable
- 21:30generalist, they really understand their ability to
- 21:32discern what's working and not working.
- 21:36And where AI fails is really around a lot of the stuff that
- 21:41is human. You know, it's you know, it's
- 21:44it's, it's we were joking before about some of the answers we get
- 21:49from AI. And I recently asked it about
- 21:52who were people doing great generalist work, etcetera.
- 21:55And, and David Epstein, whom I'm a big fan of, was mentioned, but
- 22:00I wasn't, I was like, wait a minute, how dare you?
- 22:05Yeah. And, and I wouldn't, you know, I
- 22:07didn't really expect it, but I was really, you know, feeding it
- 22:10pretty clear language from from my book and things I put out
- 22:14there to see what was going on. And then of course, when I
- 22:18corrected, you know, and I put that in air quotes, AI, it came
- 22:23back with, you know, this big apology.
- 22:25And of course they would never make this mistake going forward.
- 22:27And I was like, you know, that that is also not human.
- 22:30But anyway, so leading that adaptive function, really
- 22:35letting curiosity and, and and and, and almost a playful
- 22:40approach to different I, you know, solutions is, is something
- 22:45that generalists have, have a lot of comfort with and can, can
- 22:49carry that risk and help mitigate that risk a little bit
- 22:52more readily within organizations.
- 22:55OK. If you you're a Clifton
- 22:58strengths coach as well, right. So is there any particular of
- 23:03that 34 strengths that that are there, are there any particular
- 23:07ones that make that stand out within the generalist population
- 23:10for we're putting in? This is this is like my dream is
- 23:16to get, you know, people who self identify as generalist to
- 23:19take the the assessment and, and, and see where it goes.
- 23:23And I know there's a great community and newsletter called
- 23:28Generalist World and they did a kind of an informal study and
- 23:32they said, you know, if these are the strengths, which ones
- 23:35would you pick? Which is a little bit different
- 23:37than taking the assessment and then getting the results.
- 23:41And and they identified some, I think there are some that will
- 23:47could more easily lend themselves to being a
- 23:50generalist. But it's more and any strengths
- 23:54coach would tell you this, it's less to do with what the talents
- 23:57are per SE and more with how what you do with your talents.
- 24:02But some of them ideation is 1 perhaps where it's people who
- 24:08love to come up with ideas that can be quite generative.
- 24:12You know, there's a number of talents that think about the
- 24:15future. You know, strategic in the
- 24:17Clifton strengths world is really about pattern detection.
- 24:21So it's not really about strengths, but that could be a
- 24:24good one. But there's also ones that
- 24:26relate to people. So a lot of generalists are very
- 24:30good people managers because their curiosity is about people.
- 24:35And and so a lot of their solutions and how they're
- 24:38thinking about that have to do with people.
- 24:40And but any talent that helps to, you know, you know, and I,
- 24:48and I talk about this in the book, but it's, it's also how I
- 24:53came to my own understanding of where I succeed as a generalist
- 24:58is through my strengths. And I think, but I think it's
- 25:02even more vital for a generalist because they don't have the
- 25:05language that you were talking about before around specialist
- 25:08roles. So a specialist is going to be
- 25:11assessed for their expertise. And if a generalist is an expert
- 25:16at anything, it's the art of practice.
- 25:20You know, it's, it's practicing things as you know, it's, it's,
- 25:23it's the practice of learning. It's the practice of problem
- 25:25solving. It's the practice of adapting.
- 25:27You know those are all practices that iterate and, you know,
- 25:31improve or you have to restart or reboot.
- 25:35Yeah. Well, well, I mean, as you were
- 25:37describing some roles that are, yeah, particularly suited for
- 25:42generous, Yeah. You, you open my mind to
- 25:45potentially roles that you might not consider because it's not
- 25:49got a sort of firm type job title for a little better way of
- 25:53putting it. It's, you know, it's because
- 25:55we're we're conditioned to look for roles that we fit in, right.
- 25:59Square playground hole type of thing is comes to mind.
- 26:02Whereas that's that the genre isn't in that space.
- 26:05They're in a broader, as you say, a more curious space,
- 26:08right? One where they ideate and more
- 26:11able to ask questions and come up with answers and solutions.
- 26:14And yeah, really, really make a difference in that regard,
- 26:18rather than being down a particular narrow path.
- 26:23Yes, and I think it, it's and yet because there's so many,
- 26:29it's clear we're needed and, and I think generalists can bring,
- 26:36you know, a little bit of that. Do you know, managing the risk a
- 26:39little bit of resilience a little bit and, you know,
- 26:42through being adaptive, you know, and, and being able to
- 26:45help organizations and specialists experiment with,
- 26:50with how AI can help improve either workflow or whatever it
- 26:54is they're thinking about using AI for.
- 26:59And I think that's a perfect role for generalists because
- 27:03it's, it's, it's the type of problem we like to solve and
- 27:07it's very much in collaboration and partnership with specialists
- 27:13and we need their expertise, right?
- 27:15So it's not, it's never an either or, you know, do you hire
- 27:19the specialist or, or the generalist?
- 27:23But it's more, I think, for leaders and managers to realize
- 27:27that they have generalists within their organization who
- 27:30needs support, and that that they can be a model of what sort
- 27:35of practice looks like and what being adaptive looks like during
- 27:40these times of change. And I have, I have a feeling
- 27:43that a journalist would probably be able to articulate a message
- 27:47better than a specialist because often times specialists are very
- 27:50deep in the weeds of what they do and what they know and they
- 27:53can't articulate that that well. Whereas A generalist takes this
- 27:56sort of high level view and connects those dots on behalf of
- 27:59the specialist is what what I'm sort of thinking as you're
- 28:02talking there. They definitely can.
- 28:05Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think that's, you know,
- 28:07and some would be better at at communicating that, whereas
- 28:11another generalist might be better at creating the
- 28:13collaboration around it, you know, or another or, you know, a
- 28:17classic is there are generalists who see who solve near term
- 28:21problems, you know, so they see where the gap is and they fill
- 28:25it and they can jump in and do a good enough job to meet the
- 28:30needs so that the whatever the team is can move forward, you
- 28:33know. That utility payer type in in
- 28:36that kind of. Role.
- 28:38Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 28:40So Shawn, as you know, this podcast called Success Matters
- 28:43and I always ask my guests, what does success mean to you?
- 28:46So what does success mean to you?
- 28:50You know, I, I've been thinking about that a lot in and in the
- 28:55current context. And I think I was also thinking
- 28:57about it sort of over my own career.
- 29:03And I think early on it was this idea of knowing enough that I
- 29:07could share or, or or be respected around, you know, work
- 29:15that I did, etcetera. I think for me, success is
- 29:22having a sense of, of your work really being to the benefit of
- 29:27others. So it's not about me.
- 29:30It's really what it enables others to do.
- 29:33And really feeling really leaning into that for me has has
- 29:40been great because I don't I have no attachment.
- 29:43And I don't know if that's, you know, that I don't care anymore
- 29:47or that I'm old enough to to claim some level of wisdom,
- 29:52which you know, which is, you know, also laughable.
- 29:56But but I do think I am very, you know, looking at the
- 30:02challenges that we're facing, you know, and it's, you know,
- 30:05it's AI, it's an opportunity. But also we have big changes in
- 30:08climate and the environment, which is, you know, presents
- 30:10other kinds of challenges, this intergenerational workforce,
- 30:15different economic systems and political systems.
- 30:17There's a lot of challenges out there.
- 30:19And I see a lot of talent on the sidelines that can help us all
- 30:25solve problems by helping us be adaptive, by helping us to be be
- 30:30more practitioner minded. And so for me, my success is
- 30:34really just helping that conversation to happen and
- 30:37helping those people come off the sidelines to, to, to bring,
- 30:41you know, their intelligence and, and their promise to bear.
- 30:46Because I, you know, I'm a big believer and the strengths world
- 30:50that we all have something of benefit to bring.
- 30:53And when we do and we're aligned around that, it's just, it's
- 30:56very powerful. And, you know, seeing.
- 30:59So that's, you know, that's for me, my definition, definition of
- 31:04success is other people being successful.
- 31:07Right, OK, yeah, then that's that's cool.
- 31:09It's that piece around being hits of others is often how I
- 31:13kind of, you know, interpret that it's if if you're in
- 31:16service of others, it's often very fulfilling and that is
- 31:19often the success, right. That's for me one of the success
- 31:22metrics. So I have a tradition in my
- 31:25podcast that I've borrowed from a, a very famous podcast to ask
- 31:29a previous guest for a question for my next guest.
- 31:32My previous guest asked this question.
- 31:33I'll just read it out. It's what forms your identity
- 31:38and how does success relate to it.
- 31:43Wow. Yeah, it is a quite a big
- 31:45question and and it was actually very quite a young person who
- 31:49asked it as well, which I thought that's very interesting.
- 31:52You know, I wanted to dig deeper.
- 31:54Where did that actually come from for you, you know?
- 31:57Yeah, what forms my identity and and how does that impact my
- 32:04definition of? Success.
- 32:05How does your? Yeah.
- 32:06How does your success relate to it?
- 32:09Yeah, it's an interesting question because I think what
- 32:17impacts my identity is, is actually goes back to the
- 32:21beginning of this conversation and there were a couple of
- 32:26different aspects. So one was being Irish, Irish in
- 32:30the state. So I felt a little bit different
- 32:33already. I also had a speech impediment
- 32:36and, and that made me feel a little bit outside the norm.
- 32:40But I was, you know, very social and, and, and very enthusiastic
- 32:45that, you know, which probably doesn't come as a surprise to
- 32:48you or people listening to this. And I think the what sort of
- 32:54formed my identity was because I sometimes felt a little bit on
- 32:58the outside, but was a strong personality.
- 33:02And, and I think there were, you know, I was born that way.
- 33:04And I think there were other conditions around that.
- 33:07It was this idea of speaking out.
- 33:12And, and it took me a long time to learn actually how to do that
- 33:16effectively. And, and I would say that
- 33:22ultimately for me, the, this definition of success and, and
- 33:27where it aligns with identity is that is feeling really aligned
- 33:33that I am doing work that feels very aligned with who I am and,
- 33:43and I bring it in service to others.
- 33:45And I think for me, that is a definition of that.
- 33:48That to me is my, my preferred definition of success or where I
- 33:51feel, maybe it's where I feel most successful, but I think it
- 33:55also, there is no break between who I am and what I'm trying to
- 34:01do on behalf of others. So I'm not faking it.
- 34:04I'm not pretending otherwise. I'm not trying to.
- 34:09And it, you know, I've, I've tried on different roles before
- 34:15where I didn't feel fully aligned and, and wasn't
- 34:20successful. So I feel, I think I, I think
- 34:25that sort of answers the question, but I think that's an
- 34:26amazing question. It is.
- 34:29It is an amazing question and I'm going to bank that for
- 34:32future questions as well because I think it's a really good one.
- 34:36And to your point about having had the spiky career, I'm making
- 34:39an assumption here that when your identity was not congruent
- 34:43with the role that you're in, that's when you had those tips
- 34:46in your career versus when you were in line with your identity,
- 34:50you had a spike in your career. Yes.
- 34:53And I, and I think because I was really trying to do what I do
- 34:58well. And, and, and when you're doing
- 35:02what you do well, and this is the strength space argument that
- 35:05I think the strength space coaches are really almost
- 35:08fanatical about is, is it's not just rewarding for you, but it's
- 35:14better for everyone because you're bringing what's needed
- 35:17and what you can bring in a way that others can't.
- 35:21So I, yeah, I think, I think that is a good observation based
- 35:25on the, on, on the spiky career. And I, you know, the, the, and
- 35:33the idea of success ultimately is, is individually defined.
- 35:36And I think it's when you're most aligned.
- 35:40And it doesn't mean that I don't think people need to be paid
- 35:42fairly. And everything else, you know,
- 35:43that's, you know, I think there's lots of different
- 35:46metrics that matter. Yeah.
- 35:50Do you? Do you have a question for my
- 35:52next guest? I If they weren't doing, if they
- 36:03could do anything else other than what they're doing, what
- 36:06would it be? OK, they could do anything else
- 36:09other than what they're doing. What would it be?
- 36:11Right. Yeah.
- 36:12That's yeah. That's always an interesting
- 36:15question when you ask that and see what what people say because
- 36:19the follow on then is why aren't you doing it now?
- 36:22Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's AI think I'm always
- 36:26curious because sometimes people say the most incredible things,
- 36:29you know, like, and it's usually because they don't have.
- 36:33Well, actually we won't say that unless unless it's part is not
- 36:40going to be recorded so. OK, we'll we'll park that 1
- 36:45then. Yeah, yeah.
- 36:46Yeah, we are approaching the top of our time now.
- 36:48Sure. And it's been a really great
- 36:49conversation. What's the title of your book?
- 36:53The title is Reframe how Generals Thrive in a Changing
- 36:57World and it's available at the usual online places and there's
- 37:05a really great workbook that goes with it that is accessible
- 37:09with AQR code inside the book. So OK.
- 37:13Yeah. So buy the book, get the QR
- 37:14code, get your workbook is yeah, that's part of.
- 37:17It and people can find me on LinkedIn or my website, which is
- 37:21big strategies, Big C strategies.com.
- 37:25OK. Well, thank you very much for
- 37:26the conversation. It's been really, really great
- 37:28to speak to you today on Success Matters and we'll certainly put
- 37:31the links and details in the show notes.
- 37:35Awesome. Thank you so much.
- 37:36And it's been really fun chatting and you ask such good
- 37:39questions, so thank you for that.
- 37:41To find your success, contact me at
- 37:43info@successmatterscoaching.com. That's
- 37:46info@successmatterscoaching.com.