It is decision time. Your daughter or son is entering their final year of high school. They are at the age when they should be preparing for what’s next. However, they are not doing enough to get ready for their next step. So, you may want to jump in and do it for them — at the same time, you know that allowing them to make their own choices shows that you respect them and their wishes. Here's some powerful career advice to find the right balance.
Most students (and parents) do not get it right the first time. About 80 percent of US college students end up changing their major at least once. On average, these students change their major at least three times throughout their college career. Can you afford three do-overs?
I enrolled in engineering because I was good at math and science. My engineering education was a great foundational education, but like two-thirds of engineering graduates, I left the practice of engineering before I reached mid-career. I went on to do many exciting things including being the CEO of six companies in three different sectors over the last 25 years. I continue to have a great career and want to share some lessons I learned along the way.
Knowing my strengths would have helped me
Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome. — Arthur Ashe
About five years ago I was exposed to SuccessFinder. It predicts career satisfaction and success based on discriminating factors: human behaviour and competencies. It identified my behavioural strengths and helped me understand how my superpowers contributed to my career success over the years. I also found out that my predictor of success as an electrical engineer was "good." However, many more benchmarks have a more significant predictor of success for me than being an electrical engineer. These included: CEO of $1B+ Company, President of International Division of a Global Company, Entrepreneur, Board Director, even a Politician!
After graduating from engineering, I started my career with Ontario Hydro — a great organization. They had a progressive talent strategy that included a graduate training program and career planning. As part of the career planning process, we identified target jobs and determined the skills, knowledge, and experience we would need to fulfill them. I learned early on that targeting a specific position was of limited value. In my first two plans, my target jobs all disappeared through restructuring. So, I just focused on gaining additional skills — including an MBA, volunteering for task forces and seeking opportunities as they came up — my career journey is on LinkedIn.
I have been the beneficiary of great support from my parents and my wife throughout my career journey. However, had I been armed with the profound insights from SuccessFinder, I would have been more intentional about my career journey — starting with what I studied at university. My career journey would have been different.
Find Fulfilment
I would expect to see greater happiness and harmony since if we are teaching our children to focus on getting better at things that matter to them, instead of trying to be better than the kid sitting next to them, [, they will] no longer have to see each other as competitors.” — Todd Rose
For a career journey, being fulfilled with what you at doing and is more important than the outcome.
The Institute for the Future, engaged more than 20 global experts to forecast how emerging technologies will reshape society and work by 2030. The report concluded that these emerging technologies would recast human relationship with machines – creating in-depth, more immersive partnerships. Humans will serve as digital conductors and how we conduct business, discover talent and learn will be radically different.
Most noteworthy, 85 percent of the jobs that will be around in 2030 do not even exist now.
So, it is tough to plan for a future that most can't even imagine. It is essential that today students think of their career as a journey. The first step after high school is an important one.
We want our children to be happy, healthy, and doing what they were meant to do with their lives. We can help our children succeed in a more meaningful and fulfilling way by capitalizing on their uniqueness and pursuit of personal satisfaction.
However, rarely do we ever ask our kids “What motives you?” Even if we did it would be tough for them to answer. As parents, we spend much time telling our kids what should matter and very little time to support them in figuring it out for themselves.
For generations, success required us to be the same as everyone else in our field, only better. The "standard formula" was viewed as the only practical path to financial security and fulfilling life. However, the standard formula works for fifteen to twenty percent of the people. To various degrees, it leaves many people feeling disengaged and frustrated. The new formula is a mindset, where you, discover your micro-motives (superpowers), be open to opportunities that need your mico-motives, develop strategies to build the talent stack need your superpowers and do not focus on the destination.
To help your kids uncover their micro-motives—play the judgement game with them. You want them to lead their journey of self-discovery. Rather than asking “How was school?” or “How was soccer?” Ask “What do you like (or dislike) about school (or soccer) today? Probe a little to understand why. They need to discover what matters to them and what motivates them.
Help them by recognizing when they have strong reaction positive or negative to an activity, event, a person, etc. it is telling them something about themselves. They are a detective discovering what motivates them. This kind of self-knowledge will help our children live a fulfilling life.
Following the Path of Least Resistance
Many of us follow the path of least resistance on our career journey — just like nature — unless there is a compelling reason to do something else we keep going the most comfortable direction.
Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. — Confucius
To be successful, we need the requisite knowledge, skills, and abilities. However, behaviours and competencies are the key differentiators in performance. High performers share a common subset of behaviours and competencies that they are incredibly adept at using. They naturally leverage their strengths. Helping your high schooler discover these behaviours and competencies creates a platform for making decisions across their career lifecycle,
I have worked with thousands of volunteers over the years. They accomplish many marvellous things. It amazes me how many of them say they get greater satisfaction from their volunteer work than from their job. Great volunteers have passion and generously leverage their behaviours and competencies to advance the organization or cause. Would organizations and their workforce both be better off when each could take advantage of his or her behavioural strengths?
Would all organizations and their workforce both be better off when each could take advantage of his or her behavioural strengths? For your child, find a way to leverage their strengths will serve them well.
Metacognition
Metacognition is thinking about one’s thinking. It refers to the processes we use to plan, monitor, and assess our understanding and performance. Metacognitive practices increase our abilities to transfer or adapt our learning to new contexts and tasks. It includes a critical awareness of one’s thinking and learning and oneself as a thinker and learner.
Students who know about the different kinds of strategies for learning, thinking, and problem-solving will be more likely to use them. — Paul Pintrich (2002)
SuccessFinder helps students become aware of their strengths and weaknesses as learners, problem-solvers, writers, readers, test-takers, group members, and so on. A key element is recognizing the limitations of one’s knowledge or ability, then figuring out how to manage these challenges.
Those who know their strengths and weaknesses in these areas will be more likely to actively monitor their learning strategies and resources and assess their readiness for particular tasks and performances. — Bransford, Brown & Cocking
Research by Dunning et al., on “Why People Fail to Recognize Their Own Incompetence” (2003) connects with the absence of metacognition. They found that
People tend to be blissfully unaware of their incompetence, lacking insight about deficiencies in their intellectual and social skills.
Their research suggests that increased metacognitive abilities are needed in many contexts.
Metacognitive practices take us off of auto-pilot. They are not the path of least resistance. Mel Robbins’ famous 5-second rule is a simple idea with powerful results. Her Ted Talk has had over 10 million views. It is a useful tool to help both of you to shift gears and focus on what is needed in their career journey. Mel says:
The moment you feel yourself hesitate (when you know you should do something) start counting backward 5-4-3-2-1, then GO! The rule is a proven, form of metacognition. When you use it, you shift mental gears, interrupt your habit of overthinking and awaken your pre-frontal cortex – making change easy. The rule acts as a ‘starting ritual’ that breaks bad habits and triggers positive new behavior change.
Today’s workforce thinks differently about career success than I did.
64 percent of Millennials would rather make $40K a year at a job they love than $100K a year at a job they think is boring. – Inc.com
What does career success mean to your high schooler? They need to define it for themselves.
Many paths lead to a destination. Invest in setting your child on a journey of discovery — they will find career satisfaction. I talk about the process as a journey because the way forward is a process of active and internal development. Planning and investment upfront can save them time and make their trip a lot more fun!
Powerful Career Advice — Concluding Thoughts
It happens that we can make serious mistakes as parents. I have spoken with many of students over the years. I observed how moral support from their parents had hampered their success during this stage.
The commonly accepted formula for fulfilling goals and dreams is knowing your long-term goals, working hard, and staying the course in the regardless of obstacles until you reach your goal. This formula fails for far too many. Helping your children to adopt a mindset to utilize their superpowers best can guide them to a life of purpose, authenticity, and achievement — fulfilment.
The pursuit of fulfilment leads to excellence rather than the pursuit of excellence that leads to achievement. Their actions are genuine. Having this mindset empowers your kids to consistently make the right choices to fit their circumstances and complement their unique interests and abilities.
Embracing the diversity of their micro-motives and understanding helping them understand their behavioural DNA, leads to career satisfaction, something that fewer than twenty percent of people achieve. This is the new formula for success.
My next insight will be Parents — Tips You Need to Know to Boost Your High Schooler's Career Success. The tips will help you find the right level of involvement — the standard you both want — in your child's career journey. Watch for it in a few days.
