Tennis Anyone?

By Tami Adachi

Guest blogger

I haven’t worked in a year. I’m at the age where people ask me if I’m retired. I always answer “no” because I consider myself a Rebooter and someone who will never retire. Playing tennis has filled in the work gap and I’ve taken on a bigger role as a USTA team captain.

I recently started thinking that I am working, in my relatively new job as a tennis captain of about 15-20 women (and sometimes men). The only difference is I’m not getting paid. I started making comparisons of my new found employment and why money was the only difference.

When I had a handful of comparisons, I tested them on my husband Lee, who is one of my biggest tennis fans. Here’s what I found:

·        Teammates are like employees, except they don’t get paid.

·        As a captain, I am leading a team of teammates (employees) that changes every three months. I have to recruit the team, set lineups, schedule practices, and see that we play in compliance with all the rules of our tennis club and the USTA.

·        As the “boss,” I have to figure out ways to motivate, lead and support my team. This is a true test, mainly because no one is getting paid to do this job. My teammates play tennis because they love the game. If I don’t do a decent job, they can tell me to take this job and shove it! In the real world, this is harder to do!

·        It’s very rare that you have to fire someone from their job. When I was a paid boss, I was fortunate that I never had to fire anyone. It’s human nature that everyone wants to do a good job. Telling someone they are fired is not easy. I’ve only had to do this once as a tennis captain, when the team chemistry required it.

·        Before every tennis season begins, I always set the tone, explaining what my philosophy and expectations are. My philosophy is the same every season: we are a competitive (and fun) team as opposed to recreational. My expectations are the same every season: keep your availability up to date, try to come to practice and be a good ambassador of our tennis club. Availability is a tennis captain’s biggest challenge in putting match line ups together. When a player who is scheduled to play becomes unavailable, it changes the entire line up.

Lee thought I was on the right track. That’s when I suggested I write about it and perhaps he would post it on his website! So here we are.

Is my tennis job fulfilling? The answer is an overwhelming “yes!” I’m in the best physical shape I’ve ever been in and tennis is a lifelong sport. I enjoy the women and men I play (work) with. A lot of them return every season. We have a great track record of making our goals of playing well, having fun and even going to the playoffs. I have a healthy respect for my teammates, many of whom juggle careers, families and tennis. And from what they tell me, they think I’m doing a good job. I can certainly say they have done a good job.

So what’s the moral of my story? I believe that when I re-enter the world of paid employment, I will be a better employee and boss. Tennis teaches you a lot of life lessons and I’ve learned a lot.

Tami Adachi is a consultant in the Bay Area with more than 20 years of experience in public relations and public affairs. She took up tennis just a few years ago and has quickly established a reputation as a team captain people want to play for. She is married to Lee Callaway.

Losing -- and finding -- the breadcrumbs

"Breadcrumbs" are a type of secondary navigation that reveals the user's location in a website or web application. The term comes from the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale in which the two title children dropped breadcrumbs to form a trail back to their home.

Well, I lost the breadcrumbs to find my way back to the page for publishing new posts on this blog. I know, duh. But thanks to a tech specialist with Google, I found my way back and am  bringing the blog back to life.

Talk about rebooting! How many times have I owned up to letting the blog (and the website, www.rebootyou.com) get stale? Too many times. Will this time be different? I hope so.

I still believe passionately in the principle behind RebootYou -- that we must continually reinvent ourselves to stay vital, relevant and, well, alive.

Please join the conversation -- or let's start one! I'd love to hear from anyone who considers himself or herself a rebooter about your experience in reinvention. Post a comment to this blog. Let's talk!

Going back to work as a ‘boomerang’

Boomerang retirees: people who exit gracefully after their career at a company, then return shortly afterward to work there part time.

A growing number of firms are offering programs to bring retired employees back for their knowledge and expertise.

“From the corporate perspective,” Christopher Farrell writes in the New York Times, “it is useful to have experienced hands who can train younger people, pass along institutional wisdom and work with fewer strings attached.” Farrell notes that while formal corporate programs to engage retirees are still relatively rare, “human resource professionals predict that the number of boomerang retiree programs will expand, especially among larger companies with deep pockets.”

Boomerang programs are appearing in the public sector, too. California and other states offer retired employees the opportunity to come back part time, and the federal government has initiated a phased retirement program where hours are cut back but additional retirement benefits can still be earned.

Are you boomerang material? Check out the whole article here.

Not a mastermind? No problem. They're all around

You don’t have to be a mastermind, but you can benefit from one. You can start or join a mastermind group. A mastermind group is a group of people who get together regularly to collaborate, help each other, offer advice and exchange contacts for the purpose of mutual benefit.

“Starting a mastermind group is a natural fit for retirees,” according to Tobe Brockner, who is quoted in a recent article in Business News Daily, “6 Smart Business Ideas for Retirees.” Brockner is the author of "Mastermind Group Blueprint: How to Start, Run and Profit from Mastermind Groups" (Aloha Group Publishing, 2013).

"Many [retirees] already have a network that they can tap into to find excellent mastermind group members, and by being the group organizer and facilitator, they can make a nice supplemental income," said Brockner. 

Depending on the size of the area in which they live, Brockner said enterprising retirees can start and facilitate multiple mastermind groups, and charge a premium for the value of being a member. 

"Mastermind group facilitators can generate between $1,500 to $3,000 per month per group for just a few hours [of] work," he said.

Stephanie Burns, founder and CEO of Chic CEO, a free resource for female entrepreneurs looking to start a business, wrote an article in Forbes magazine about seven reasons to join a mastermind group. They including being a part of an exclusive group, getting advice from people you trust, and picking up new learning.

What if you want to join a mastermind group instead of starting one? Here’s one source of information: The Success Alliance, headed by Karyn Greenstreet, author and small business consultant. The website lists various mastermind groups, some that meet in person and others that meet via videoconference and telephone. The site provides a description of each group’s area of focus and contact information. The list is updated monthly.

Looking for one in my neighborhood, I found Meetup.com with mastermind group contacts in the San Francisco Bay Area.

As a latecomer to the worlds of both mastermind groups and meetups, I found that there are tons of opportunities out there in both fields. All you have to do is look! 

What to do when a state of denial becomes undeniable

“No, I’m not in denial,” I said.

But I was – and the subject was my hearing. My wife had suggested numerous times that I was getting hard of hearing but I denied it. I thought I could hear fine, even though the person closest to me was telling me otherwise.

This blog is about denial, specifically denial about hearing loss, one of several forms of denial that I have been guilty of (more to come in the next several blogs.) I’m writing about denial because it is one of the biggest barriers to rebooting and reinvention. And I also will be writing about how to get out of this unfortunate state.

Hearing loss common in older adults

According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), age-related hearing loss gradually occurs in most of us as we grow older. It is one of the most common conditions affecting older and elderly adults. 

“Approximately one in three people in the United States between the ages of 65 and 74 has hearing loss, and nearly half of those older than 75 have difficulty hearing,” says the NIDCD’s website. “Having trouble hearing can make it hard to understand and follow a doctor’s advice, respond to warnings, and hear phones, doorbells, and smoke alarms. Hearing loss can also make it hard to enjoy talking with family and friends, leading to feelings of isolation. 

“Age-related hearing loss most often occurs in both ears, affecting them equally. Because the loss is gradual, if you have age-related hearing loss you may not realize that you’ve lost some of your ability to hear. 

Brought up short

“There are many causes of age-related hearing loss. Most commonly, it arises from changes in the inner ear as we age, but it can also result from changes in the middle ear, or from complex changes along the nerve pathways from the ear to the brain. Certain medical conditions and medications may also play a role.”

Whatever the cause in my case, the incident that brought me up short (and out of denial) was when a co-worker asked me one day if I had a hearing disorder. She said she had noticed that I seemed to miss some things in telephone conference calls. To my embarrassment, I had to acknowledge that I did indeed have some hearing loss and would get a checkup. I also had to admit to my wife that she had been right, both about my hearing and about being in denial. 

I went through the process of being tested and fitted for hearing aids. That was almost 10 years ago and I have been wearing them ever since. Of course I can hear much more clearly now and have moved past the social stigma of having them in my ears.

What to do about it

If you think you have hearing loss, and are in denial about it, there are steps you can take to get out of this double bind. Here’s what the NIDCD advises:

“The most important thing you can do is to seek advice from a health care provider. There are several types of professionals who can help you. You might want to start with your primary care physician, an otolaryngologist, an audiologist, or a hearing aid specialist. Each has a different type of training and expertise. Each can be an important part of your hearing health care. 

• “An otolaryngologist is a doctor who specializes in diagnosing and treating diseases of the ear, nose, throat, and neck. An otolaryngologist, sometimes called an ENT, will try to find out why you’re having trouble hearing and offer treatment options. He or she may also refer you to another hearing professional, an audiologist. 

• “An audiologist has specialized training in identifying and measuring the type and degree of hearing loss. Some audiologists may be licensed to fit hearing aids.

• “A hearing aid specialist is someone who is licensed by your state to conduct and evaluate basic hearing tests, offer counseling, and fit and test hearing aids. You must be examined by a physician before you can be fitted for a hearing aid, although federal law allows you to sign a waiver if you don’t wish to be examined before you purchase an aid.”

We’re going to talk about other denial traps, including rebooting denial, how they can come to define us, and how to get out of them. So stay tuned. And you might want to take notes!

Tennis for underserved youth

OK, re-rebooting and re-running.

I’m in the process of updating and doing some redesign on the RebootYou website at www.rebootyou.com. More details to come. Yes, it’s about time!

I’m also running in the 2013 ING New York Marathon on Nov. 3. This time I’m running for USTA Serves, the charitable foundation of the U.S. Tennis Association. USTA Serves brings tennis – and more – to underserved and disabled people with an extensive program that combines tennis and education. You can learn more about USTA Serves and how it carries out its mission at the USTA Serves website. I encourage you to take a look. This organization is doing a lot of good for a lot of deserving people.

You may be wondering if I have suddenly taken up tennis. No, the tennis player in the family is Tami, and it was through her membership in the U.S. Tennis Association that I learned about USTA Serves being an official charitable sponsor of the New York Marathon. When she got the USTA email telling her about the sponsorship, we both got excited because this would give us a way to do good and have fun at the same time.

By raising money for USTA Serves, I could earn a guaranteed a spot in the race. Which is a big deal, given that it is difficult to get into the New York Marathon in any case. Unless you run for a charity, to get in you have to compete for a spot in a lottery with about a zillion other people, and until I learned about USTA Serves, I was not seriously motivated to run for one of the other sponsoring charities. What’s more, getting in this year’s race was especially challenging because everyone who was officially entered in last year’s Sandy-cancelled race has an automatic pass into the 2013 event. But being able to run for USTA Serves changed all that for us – this is really Tami’s and my race.

So I will be getting my own street view of New York’s five boroughs on Nov. 3, taking a few small steps to bring tennis to people who might not otherwise have an opportunity to play. I’ll be blogging about my training along with continuing thoughts about rebooting. Hope you’ll come along for the ride. Or the run, as the case may be!

Life in the safe lane

 

On the RebootYou.com website, we’ve suggested going back to school as one strategy for restarting. Well, I took my own advice recently and went back to school, although it wasn’t exactly what I originally had in mind.

It was driving school – a course for seniors whose skills behind the wheels may be slipping.

It was a pretty thorough refresher course, lasting about 2-1/2 hours and covering freeway, residential and downtown traffic.

I was encouraged to take this course by my wife, who sees my driving habits from the passenger seat and has a much more objective view of my abilities than I do. So while I was initially skeptical, it turns out she was right – the course did show me several areas where I can definitely improve, and underscored the fact that I am not the Mario Andretti that I used to be.

For example, glancing in the rear view mirror regularly to see who or what is behind you and what they are doing – closing on you, passing on the right or left, etc. It’s a way of staying mindful of your total environment. I wasn’t doing it often enough.

Another example, when exiting the freeway: don’t step on the brake pedal while you’re still in freeway traffic. Just take your foot off the accelerator, slow down to make the exit ramp, then apply the brakes. Putting on the brakes on the freeway may slow you down too fast and it also sends what could be an alarming signal to the car behind you.

And looking in the right hand side mirror (and turning around to look) before turning  right at a stop sign or traffic light – there may be a bicyclist or skateboarder slipping up beside you.

So, steering out of denial and into the safe lane. The life I save might be yours – or mine!

Rebooting RebootYou

I’m getting myself back out on the road to run again, after a too-long layoff. As I was running today, I was thinking about the RebootYou website. Talk about something that needs rejuvenation! That’s another task I haven’t been taking care of. So enough of my beating myself up and on to the subject at hand: rebooting.

The original concept of RebootYou was to help people recently retired get back to being productive instead of sitting on the couch. My assumption was that there were ample opportunities in the market for gainful employment after retirement – perhaps at a slower pace or a different type of job, but staying active and engaged in something rewarding.

However, today, four years after I launched RebootYou, that assumption no longer holds true. In fact, the exact opposite situation prevails -- there are not even enough opportunities for gainful employment for many in their prime earning years -- well before they are at "retirement age." Many have been forced into involuntary joblessness not because they have aged out of the workforce, but because the overall workplace opportunity has been downsized by the economic downturn.

Making matters worse for those newly out of a job are fundamental global changes described by Tom Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum in their new book, That Used to Be Us. They point out that the combination of globalization and the information technology revolution have made many jobs obsolete or nonexistent. Even white collar jobs for high skilled workers can be outsourced to lower cost geographies. The net for would be rebooters is a vastly different climate than existed just 4 short years ago: 

• The demographic bulge of Baby Boomers turning 65 still looms. The oldest of the Boomers have already hit 65 and started retiring from conventional jobs.
• I have no data to back this up, but I’m guessing the majority of these Boomers are not on the cutting edge of personal technology and social media techniques.
• The number of job openings has shrunk considerably, not only for those "second career" jobs but for basic employment as well.
• To have any hope of qualifying for a job in this new world, many boomers will have to learn new skills and will have to learn to compete on a whole new playing field.

But for those who can adapt to the new realities, there are at least two broad paths to re-employment and continued contribution: education and entrepreneurship. I plan to talk about these avenues in coming blogs. Please come back and share your thoughts, too.

Los Angeles Marathon Success!

I am happy to report that on Sunday I successfully finished the Los Angeles Marathon, all 26.2 miles, in 6 hours and 42 minutes. I ran with Team in Training and raised money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. It was without a doubt the most challenging marathon I’ve ever run. It started raining when the opening gun went off (actually the opening horn), and it rained the entire time.


It was no drizzle, it was an out-and-out winter storm, even though it was the first day of spring. The rain was continuous, sometimes light and sometimes coming down in buckets. And just for fun, there was a brutally cold wind whipping through the LA area with gusts up to 25-30 mph. The route took many twists and turns, so we got the wind from every direction at one time or another – front, back and both sides. And since I was soaked through and through, it sometimes cut like a knife.


In many locations the drainage could not carry off all the water, so it backed up into the street, 3-4 inches deep in places (today’s Los Angeles Times described it as “shin high,” and that was no exaggeration). There were 2 inches of rain in Santa Monica, 2.29 in downtown LA, and 6.35 inches in Van Nuys, which is just a few miles north of the marathon route.

I used a run-walk strategy which really saved the day, and at the end I had enough steam left to run all out for the last half mile. At times I felt – well, miserable: cold, wet and tired. I had to keep reminding myself that I was doing this voluntarily! I didn’t break any records for speed, but the objective was to finish. And I finished feeling strong – I did not hit the wall. As a footnote, last year’s winner, Wesley Korir, hit the wall at mile 21. He said afterward, “First of all, I’d like to thank God that I’m still alive. I thought it was the end of my life.” Hey Wesley, I felt your pain! Thousands of runners were evaluated for hypothermia and 26 were taken to hospitals for treatment.

Tami and two dear friends, Dirk and Tonya Jackson, were my support team. They braved the rain to cheer me on at the halfway point and wait for me at the finish line. All four of us, dripping wet, finally made it back to the hotel where we could dry out. I took a long hot shower (hot water never felt so good!), then we went out to dinner and had a big juicy steak to celebrate.

On Monday I was a little stiff (surprisingly, not as sore as I thought I would be) but very happy with the outcome. The Bay Area Team in Training runners raised over $100,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Team in Training runners from all over the U.S. participated in this race, as it was one of their main events, and all in all TNT raised $610,000 at the LA Marathon.

Many great friends and members of my family helped me more than double my personal goal of $3,000. My final total topped $6,000. I am deeply grateful for everyone’s financial and moral support. Their donations will go a long way toward advancing the mission of curing leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, and improving the quality of life for patients and their families.

An update on my training

Tami and I were in Hawaii for 18 days over Christmas and New Years, and I got a lot of running in on Alii Drive on the Big Island.


Alii (means “king” in Hawaiian) is the main street in Kona, and it’s the perfect length for runners – a little over 6 miles. And there are scores of runners on the street, especially in the morning. Men, women, all ages, even a few very young athletes. Some – they are easy to identify – are clearly Iron Man athletes.

I ran on nine of the days for a total of 81 miles. Longest run was 16, and also did a 14 and a 10. Today (Jan. 29) I went 18 miles, and right now I’m pretty stiff and ready to go to bed! I was thinking that this soreness was caused by lactic acid buildup, but I just spent 30 minutes reading about lactic acid and it seems that it’s not the villain at all. What the latest research shows is way too complicated to go into here, but suffice it to say we get sore for a lot of reasons, one of which is probably not lactic acid!

The fundraising efforts for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society are going extremely well. At this point my total on my Team in Training website is $4,391, but I’ve turned in a couple of checks that haven’t been recorded yet and I have received two more checks this weekend that I haven’t sent in yet. So I think I will definitely hit my upward-revised goal of $5,000 within about a week.

The support of so many people is amazing and really gives me a huge boost to do the training, even when it seems to take a long time and take a lot out of me. I started this project mainly for myself, with of course the added purpose of raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. It has become a much bigger and more emotional effort, for which I am grateful. I’m still running for myself, but now I’m also running for a lot of other people – those who have had (or who have) one of these diseases (listed on my webpage), those who will be benefited by the money I and others raise, and the many people who have contributed money to L&L Society. It’s a completely different experience now.


Team in Training is a great program. It will do wonderful things for you, both physically and psychologically. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in working for a worthy cause while doing something physically demanding.

Making progress one step at a time

The marathon training is coming along well. Had a slight flareup of what I thought was tendonitis, but it turns out to be just a strained muscle in my lower calf. Had it checked by my doctor today who concluded that it was in fact not tendonitis. He advised me to keep stretching, ice it down regularly and keep on running.

On Sunday I ran 11 miles, partly in the rain. Wind picked up on the way back and it was rather chilly. But overall it was a good day. By the end of December I hope to be up to 17-18 miles for my long runs.

Have shed about 6 or 7 pounds since I upped my running schedule. That's one of my goals for this effort and so far it's paying off. The old saying is true: burn up more than you take in and you will lose weight. The simplest diet regime in the world.

I'm tweeting about my training, and I think you can follow me on Twitter @leecallaway. Not sure exactly how that whole Twitter thing works -- I know how to post tweets but don't know how to recruit followers. When we work out with Team in Training, I am usually the last to finish any given lap or sequence of laps. Which means I am following all the other members of the team but none of them are following me on the track. Maybe there's a connection here -- if I could pass a few people, then I would have followers...

This is your brain on running

Running for me has always been as much about mental health as physical health. It clears my mind, calms me down (after the fact) and gives me a lot of time to put my brain in neutral without most of the interruptions of the day-to-day world – phone calls, e-mail, necessary errands, etc. More than once while running, an answer to a difficult problem has just popped into my head.


I don’t usually run with an iPod or portable radio like many people do. I prefer to run without a soundtrack. I run a lot on streets and roads without sidewalks, and I like to be able to hear the cars coming toward me, especially the ones coming up behind me.

For the most part, I generally prefer to run alone rather than with other people. I find that other people like to talk when they run. I’d rather save my breath for survival.

I clearly remember how I got started running. This was some years before running caught on and became a popular sport for the masses. A friend and neighbor, Royce Hough, said one day, “We ought to run.”

“What? Run where?” I asked in all innocence.

“I don’t know, maybe around the block for starters.” He had done some research and found out – duh – that running is good for your health.

That first attempt to run around the block didn’t go so well. Our block had a hill on two sides. I made it down the first side but not up side 3.

We stuck with it, though, and pretty soon we moved to a nearby park which had two softball fields adjacent to each other. Once around both of them was about a quarter mile, as I recall. My first running shoes were Marine combat boots. They were the only shoes I’d done much running in before.

After about a year I bought my first pair of Adidas. Big improvement. I felt like Fred Astaire. OK, I felt like Fred Astaire looked. There the resemblance ended.

Gotta run now...

I should be old enough to know better, but it turns out I’m not.

I’ve signed up for the Los Angeles Marathon on March 20, 2011. I know, some people think it’s an insane thing to do at any age, let alone 74.

But when the little voice inside says do it, you gotta answer. And as Marilyn Monroe said (I got it from a reputable quotation site), “Ever notice that ‘what the hell’ is always the right decision?”

So I am going to blog about my training. In a very real way, I’m rebooting myself in the running game. I’ve run eight marathons in the past (completed seven – more about that later), but haven’t tried one in about nine years. I think I’ve still got the wherewithal – we’ll see as the training gets serious. I promise to report honestly!

Today (Nov. 14) went for my longest run in quite a while – 10 miles. Very slow, though, because of the excess weight I’m lugging around. Hopefully I’ll shed some of that during the training. The run felt great. A bit tired at the end but definitely not out of gas. Ran in Redwood Shores – saw a hummingbird, three egrets, a bunch of ducks, another bunch of Canada geese, and a great blue heron. At the end of the run I was running west and looking at a gorgeous sunset – in the Bay Area we don’t get that many with just the right amount and kind of clouds, but this afternoon was sensational.

I won’t be trying to add anything scientifically or athletically significant to the running literature. I’ll just be sharing my thoughts and feelings along the way. It might even be interesting, so please check back when you have time.

Ability to reinvent yourself = the new job security

The following column on career reinvention is reprinted from Business Week, August 28, 2010.

Business Week Interview: Career Reinvention

In today's tumultuous workforce, flexible talents, skill sets and a willingness to change means job security. Best-selling author and Business Week columnist Marshall Goldsmith talks with The Reinvention Institute's Pamela Mitchell on how to effectively transform careers.

You say that in today's marketplace, the old concepts of career change don't work. Why is that?

Over the past several decades, the pace of business cycles has sped up considerably. Cradle-to-grave employment is a thing of the past.In this day and age, the ability to reinvent yourself—to recombine your skills, talents, and experience to move between job functions, departments, or industries—is the new form of job security. Within the space of a decade, what's been considered to be a good field for jobs can disappear. Take a look at the phenomenon of outsourcing, which has decimated U.S.-based opportunities for many industries, like software programming. Or consider the media field. With traditional revenue models struggling and new technologies competing for audience attention, newspapers are trying to find new niches to replace lost profits.

How do you cope with these factors? Career change has tended to focus on typical job transitions—strategies for climbing to the next level of seniority within your organization or moving to a similar position within the same industry. But what do you do when your company is reducing headcount and opportunities in your field are disappearing?

Great point. How is career reinvention different from career change? In this day and age, the ability to reinvent yourself—to recombine your skills, talents, and experience to move between job functions, departments, or industries—is the new form of job security. More than just repackaging your background, career reinvention involves changing your assumptions about how your career will evolve. It means being prepared to take advantage of new opportunities by developing your skill sets with a strategic eye toward emerging business models.

That sounds great for someone who is new to his career, but what about if you've been working for 10 or more years in the same field? Is still possible to reinvent your career when all your experience has been in the same industry?

 This is one of the most common questions we get! Yes, it is possible; in fact, we have a number of clients who have made successful switches after long careers in a particular industry.

That said, it is crucial that people understand that career reinvention is not an easy process. I like to draw the analogy that switching between job functions or industries is similar to moving to a foreign country. To be successful in your new land you'd have to learn the local language and familiarize yourself with its customs and cultural expectations. The same is true when you want to move to new career territory. To bridge the divide between your old and new careers, you need to learn the language and customs of your new field…and decide what to bring along from your former job.

If someone with 10 or 20 years of experience is leaving a field, that's a huge loss of talent for their organization. How does the trend toward career reinvention affect companies?

Over the next 5 to 10 years, as boomers retire and the available pool of workers shrinks, companies will be forced to rethink their strategies for retaining talented workers. But this requires that they break out of the old mindset of slotting employees into function-based boxes. They need to ask themselves: Do our people feel they can transform themselves beyond their current role, or do they need to leave us to grow?

For corporations, reinvention is the road to retention. Leaders need to become the architects of employee reinvention within their companies. One of our recommendations is that companies develop their workforce by facilitating ways for their talent to move within the firm.

Along with reducing layoff costs, this strategy can minimize the expenses associated with pursuing new business opportunities. Some forward-thinking organizations are already creating these types of reinvention programs.

What are some of the stumbling blocks people face when they're trying to reinvent their careers?

People tend to fantasize about new careers and are often unprepared for the amount of work that's involved in actually making the switch. They also have a hard time shifting out of their old work identity, which means that they often try to pitch themselves in a new field using their old language. This results in a translation failure, where hiring managers don't understand how the candidate's background applies to the job they're seeking.

Identity can also be a big obstacle when people are trying to reinvent themselves within their firm. Because they've been defined by a particular job function, they cannot get a shot at a new role. A number of clients come to us after hitting this barrier.

What advice do you have for people looking to reinvent their career?

Understand that whether it's within your current firm or a totally new field, successfully reinventing yourself requires you to establish your legitimacy as a candidate. Hiring managers, both internal and external, have goals they need to meet. Your mission is to prove—in tangible ways—that you can be a valuable asset to them in reaching those objectives.

 Minimize translation failure by learning how to repackage your background so that it highlights those skills that will be directly useful in helping you succeed in your new role. Ask yourself: "How can I benefit from what I've done in the past?" Analyze your talents and identify the work successes that demonstrate them. Match those previous accomplishments to future career deliverables—this will help you see what achievements in your background are of value to hiring managers in your new field.

Source: Business Week, Marshall & Friends July 1, 2008


http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/jul2008/ca2008071_219231_page_2.htm

Moving the attitude adjustment hour

There are many things in life we can’t control – the weather, the economy, traffic on the freeway, to name a few. But there is one thing we definitely can control – our attitude.

We wake up every morning and go out into the world with an attitude. We put on an attitude just as surely as we put on our clothes. Even if we don’t consciously adopt a certain attitude on purpose, that non-expression is itself an attitude that shows up to other people.

I thought about what makes up an attitude. What are the components? What are the ingredients?

Here’s what I came up with. I concluded that my attitude is made up of a combination of where I am on a number of scales:

· Self-respect vs. self-deprecation
· Humility vs. entitlement
· Positive vs. negative
· Easy sense of humor vs. scowl and frown
· Generosity vs. selfishness
· Forgiveness vs. anger
· Gratitude vs. thanklessness
· Optimism vs. pessimism

By just focusing on these scales – even briefly – I can figure out where I am on each one. Then I can adjust my positions to shape my attitude. It’s like the bathroom mirror I can adjust by rotating the edges. Turn it one way, normal reflection. Turn it the other way, magnified reflection.

I can look at myself in that mirror and adjust the image that I am projecting – my attitude.

Since my thoughts took this path, I find myself reminded of them every morning when I look in that mirror to shave. It’s a new enough experience that I’m pleasantly surprised every time. I’m hoping I can make this an everyday thing.

And what might an adjusted attitude do for you? Quite a few possible benefits:

· A healthier mental and physical wellbeing
· An opportunity to look at your life more positively
· Attracting people who are like you (you get back what you put out)
· Maybe a job
· And possibly the most important result from floating somewhere to the left of center (on the scales), you will find your creative juices flowing, "rebooting" yourself into a better and perhaps longer life.

It’s a new time of day for the attitude adjustment hour.

Behind the times

I had a George Bush moment the other day.

No, no, not that George Bush. The first one. George H.W. Bush.

Remember when he was baffled when he saw a barcode scanner at a grocery store checkout counter? He’d never seen one before. That moment became a symbol of his being behind the times and out of touch, and may have contributed to his defeat by Bill Clinton in 1992.

Well, so far my George H.W. Bush moment hasn’t cost me the presidency, but it was a big “aha” moment for me, anyway.

I was listening to the radio and an ad came on for a barbecue specialty chain that sells high end grills. “Father’s Day special,” the ad said. “We’ve knocked off $300 on our top grill.”

Whoa.

$300 off? Wow, what do those things cost? Are they giving them away for Father’s Day?

Well, next day I happened to be close to one of the stores in that particular chain, so I stopped in.

Whoa. And wow again.

The minute I walked in, I realized that I had completely missed out on the upscaling of backyard cooking. The first model I saw had a price tag of over $3,500. It was a beauty, all right. Shiny stainless steel and a huge lid that opened to reveal a cooking surface big enough for a side of beef. And a double decker grill.

I asked a salesman if this was his most expensive grill.

“Oh, no,” he said. “There’s our top of the line.”

He pointed to a monstrous SUV of a grill with about eight burner knobs, mounted on a faux stone pedestal. “That one goes for $7,350.”

I was relieved to see that, in addition to the super-high end models, they also had a lineup of three basic black Weber kettle grills – large, medium and small. The one I use at home is a small. I also have an even smaller Smoky Joe, which retails for around $35, I think. So they haven’t forgotten about the average guy.

When my Smoky Joe wears out, I can consider upgrading to the $7,350 model.

Or I can buy 210 new Smoky Joes.

What were they thinking?

A lot has been written about Chevrolet’s boneheaded attempt to kill the word Chevy, including a very good column today by Jon Carroll in the San Francisco Chronicle.

I didn’t think there was much more to say about the memo until tonight I heard a Chevrolet commercial on the radio. The last words were, “Go to Chevy.com.”

Hmm, I thought, didn’t whoever wrote that memo even go to his own website?

When I got home I typed http://www.chevy.com/ into the address bar and hit enter. The words immediately changed to http://www.chevrolet.com/ and opened up the Chevrolet site.

In the top navigation bar there was a big link to “EXPERIENCE CHEVY.” So I tried it and found a sub-link, “History and Heritage.” On that page the company displays photos of significant models, innovation and milestones from 1911 to 2008. In 15 of the captions, the car (or the company) is described as a “Chevy.”

Then I went to the search bar – this is still on the Chevrolet site – and typed in “chevy.” Up came a page with RESULTS 1-10 OF ABOUT 13,900 FOR CHEVY.

All righty, then. Didn’t exactly think that one through, did they?

Well, as Jon points out, they’ve now backtracked and said they really like the word Chevy, after all.

But I’m filing that in my “What were they thinking?” file, along with subprime mortgages, credit default swaps, drilling for oil a mile under the Gulf of Mexico with no emergency shutoff plan, and telling your staff you’re going hiking on the Appalachian Trail when you’re really headed to Argentina to see your secret lover.

More Montgomery baseball

(Please see previous post dated June 11 for context)
We’re going back to Montgomery to visit family in July and we plan to go see the Montgomery baseball team play. Once known as the Rebels, they are now called the Biscuits, for reasons I hope to find out. And they play in a new park called Riverwalk Stadium. We’re really looking forward to the game.

But no hill, no train smoke, and a team called the Biscuits – will it really be Montgomery baseball? We’ll find out!

I have fond memories of the old Montgomery Rebels, and I can name almost the whole lineup from those teams of the 40s:

• Pitchers: Stan Coulling, Marty Arrante, Chester “The Great” Covington, among others
• Catcher: “Mop” Brown, who whistled three quick times every few minutes. I don’t remember Mop’s real first name, but it may have been Charles.
• 1b: Al Brightman or Mac MacWhorter (Mac was a utility player who once played every position in the field in one game – one per inning – and was the winning pitcher!)
• 2b: Roy Carlin
• SS: Billy Spears
• 3b: Ray Wilson (A hometown boy. Ray’s dad, who always sat behind the Montgomery dugout on the third base side, was his biggest fan and would cheer him on with a loud “GoRay, GoRay, GoRay” whenever he came to bat)
• LF: Johnny Creel, who stuck his bubble gum on the button of his cap when he came to bat (there were no batting helmets in those days).
• CF: Billy Martin, a speedster who was the stolen base leader (and center field mountain climber).
• RF: Art Rebel, clearly the most appropriately named player on the team.
• Manager: Frank Skaff, and later Charlie Metro

The radio broadcasts were done by an announcer named Dave Manners. Like all broadcasters back in the day, for out-of-town games he would sit in the station studio in Montgomery and re-create the action from ticker tape messages. The message that would actually come across was something like, “Spears grounds out to short.” Dave would describe a whole imaginary at bat, pitch by pitch, sometimes running the count to 3 and 2, and add made-up color as if he were at the game. When Dave would pause, you could hear the tickertape clattering away in the background.

They don’t make ‘em (up) like that anymore.

The sounds of silence

(With a bow to Simon and Garfunkel)

“You will hear some silence while you wait.”

That’s part of the conference call recorded message that plays when you dial in before the call has officially started. The whole phrase goes like this:

“The leader has not yet arrived. Please stand by. You will hear some silence while you wait.”

It always intrigues me. How do you “hear” silence?

Whoa. Pretty deep thought there. Maybe a philosophy class topic. One hand clapping, and all that.

In my brain it connected to another thought: On the radio, you never hear silence. “Dead air” is what the broadcasters call it. When dead air happens, it’s because somebody forgot to throw a switch or turn a knob or activate something. And for the radio people it’s a bad thing.

But moving on to the next thought, there is a time when you hear silence on the radio. On purpose. And nobody gets fired for it.

It’s in a broadcast of a baseball game. There are frequent lulls in the action on the field, so there are frequent pauses in the announcers’ talk. Those silences – when the announcers go quiet and all you hear is the faint murmuring of the crowd and the occasional shout of a vendor – are one of the endearing attributes of a baseball broadcast that makes it so pleasant, so accessible, so – well, listenable.

I grew up listening to broadcasts of baseball in Montgomery, Alabama. Our team’s name, of course, was the Rebels (Forget, hell) and they played in a ballpark named Cramton Bowl.

They don’t make parks like that anymore. It was used for both baseball and football, so it had a funny shape. There were grandstands behind the plate and along both baselines, but then on the first base/right field side there was a much larger extension of stands for football games. The right field line in baseball was also approximately one sideline of the football field.

When configured for baseball, there was this hill in center field. It was not a small rise, it was a serious hill. A center fielder in this park had to have mountain goat skills to catch long flies hit anywhere between left center and deep straightaway center.

And just beyond the left field fence, behind a big row of trees, there was a ravine with a railroad track running through it. In the days when there were still steam engines, a train would go by, chugging and puffing away, and if the wind was right, huge clouds of black coal smoke would roll up from the ravine and blow into the playing field. The left fielder would disappear in the smoke.

You had to be tough to be a Montgomery Rebel.

More in the next post.

Stayin' alive

I got a letter – an “official e-mail,” no less – from a “Mr. Adams Williams,” who identified himself as “Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.”

Mr. Williams advised me that “one Mr. David Woodruff, who claim to be your business associate/partner here in Africa,” was further claiming that I was dead and that “all relevant documentation/Informations regarding your Payment/Transfer be changed to him as the beneficiary of the payment” of $1,850,000 which, Mr. Williams said, the government of Nigeria owed me.

“We need to confirm from you if it’s really true that you are dead as made mention by your associate. You should note that, if we do not hear from you, it automatically means that you are actually dead and the information passed to us by David Woodruff is correct.”

If I was not dead, the letter went on, I was to “respond to this e-mail immediately” with my name, address, and other identification information, plus a copy of either my driver’s license or my passport.

Well, I don’t know about you, but I have not had great success in responding to these “help me collect millions of dollars for you” e-mails. So I decided, with some reluctance, not to answer.

Several weeks later I got to thinking about it – “Mr. Adams Williams” didn’t hear from me, so to his mind I am “actually dead” and “David Woodruff” has probably collected all the money that was rightfully mine.

That Woodruff. He’s always doing something like this. And to think he used to be my “associate/partner” in Africa. Why I ever trusted that guy in the first place I’ll never know.

And what can you say about the government of Nigeria? They’ve owed me money for years and have stiffed me time and again.

But back to my being “actually dead.” I suppose I should let my insurance company know so the life policy will pay off. And probably Social Security, too, so they can forward my checks to my wife. I mean my surviving spouse.

But there’s a silver lining. Since I’m “actually dead,” I no longer have to floss. Better yet, I won’t have to go the DMV later this month and renew my driver’s license.

I’ll just join all those other bad drivers on the road who really need to get a life.