Are you looking for a career quick fix, a solution, or an answer to your career challenges?

 

If so, is now the right time for you to start using questions rather than seeking solutions?

 

Today I will be sharing with you the 3 most important questions to ask in your career.

Hello and a very warm welcome to Episode No 24 of ‘Your Bravo Career’

My name is Mark Crossfield, I’m a Professional Career Coach helping you to love your job and build a great career.  

How you can enjoy what you are doing day each day at work

and how to build a great career along the way.

Introduction

In this episode, I’m going to be talking about how you can use powerful questions to focus on what matters in your career.

 

I will also be discussing a News item that is all about whether the job market is hotting up and what this might mean for your career.

 

And,

 

As usual, I have got some helpful resources to share with you, to help you in your career and 

 

Ok, let’s move on to Career New.

Bravo Career News

I saw in the news during this last fortnight from multiple sources that the job market appears to be favouring the worker rather than the company or recruiter.

Multiple headlines to this effect have appeared across the media:

 

The Guardian – It’s a seller’s market for workers

 

Forbes – The job market is hot – now is the time to build your career, and

 

The BBC – UK job vacancies surging

There seems to be a few reasons behind this optimistic view.

 

Firstly, there is the inevitable rebound from worldwide restrictions, as these lift companies are quickly looking to deal with gaps in their workforce.

 

Secondly, here in the UK Brexit is also impacting on the employment market with a big reduction of job applications from the EU market.

 

It’s the same in the US where a report from Monster found 82% of US employers are planning to hire in 2021. 

 

A global report from ManpowerGroup surveying 45,000 employers across 43 countries found hiring plans are the highest-ever—since the survey began in 1962. 

 

ManpowerGroup’s report found that globally, the strongest hiring is projected for the US, India and Canada and in North America in addition to other countries such as Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the UK. 

 

The report found the industries experiencing the greatest difficulties in hiring are manufacturing as well as finance/insurance/real estate/business services. The Monster report found the greatest job growth will be in the areas of transportation and warehousing, technology, healthcare, professional services, and construction.

 

What are the career Implications? It might be that now is a great time to re-assess your career options. You’ll be in good company as you consider what you love to do, what work provides the greatest job satisfaction and how you want to spend your days. 

 

Let me know.

 

Ok, let’s get on with the main part of the show.

 

 

Following a recent trip, my wife and I found ourselves on a long car journey home, looking for some inspiration to pass away the hours. Having discussed whether we should buy an electric car and in the interests of research and entertainment, we decided to see how many fully electric vehicles we could see on our journey.

 

We soon found that this is easier said than done, particularly if you don't take a great deal of interest in all things auto. 'How would we know if a vehicle is fully electric?' my wife asked—good question, how would we know?

Eventually, we came up with these three questions to guide our identification of fully electric vehicles (EV):

 

1. Is it a new car? Seems sensible; most EVs are less than three years old.

2. Does the vehicle have an exhaust tailpipe? EVs don't need one.

3. Are there lots of grills on the front? Traditional fuel-based vehicles have air and water-cooled engines, whereas EVs are usually water-cooled. This has led to many (but not all) EV manufacturers dispensing with front grillage.

 

The journey went by in a flash, and it also got me thinking about the importance of asking questions and how these can shine a light on those things we seek in our jobs and career. 

 

You see, when it comes to finding a job you will love and having a great career, questions are your superpower. Good questions help to guide your identification and selection. There are three types of questions that help you to get clear on your career.

 

1.  'Why' type questions

 

To help you look more clearly at your current situation, you can use a series of why questions. These enable you to take a step back and reflect on your job or career right now. Think about some of your current job ruminations and convert these into a series of linear 'why' questions.

 

Here is an example:

 

- It's the weekend; why is my mood so low? Answer Because I don't enjoy Mondays.

- Why don't I enjoy Mondays? Answer Because I dread work, especially the start of the week.

- Why do I dread work? Answer Because I find it boring

- Why does my work bore me? Answer Because I'm not interested in the work I'm doing

- Why am I not interested in the work I'm doing? Answer Because it doesn't match my personal interests, and I'm not using my skills and strengths.

 

Peter Possible Question: What would normally happen if people didn’t use a questioning approach? If they felt a low mood at the weekend?

 

 

Having cycled through some 'why' questions and seeing your situation more clearly, it's time to ask the next powerful question, ' what if?' These questions are about imagining what could be.

 

- What if I did look forward to Mondays?

- What if I found my job interesting and enjoyable?

- What if I was using the skills that most interest me?

 

These questions are meant to jolt you into thinking about alternative ways of working. They help you see that what you assumed was a 'fixed' reality is a choice in most cases.

 

And, in a few minutes, we will look at the final powerful question you can use in your career, but first, it’s time for Career Resources

Bravo Career Resources

There are several career resources I want to share with you today. The first couple are all about asking questions.

 

The first is the work by Simon Sinek – his book Start with Why is good, but I think his TED talk is probably better – so I will link to that in the show notes.

 

The second resource is the work of Warren Berger who has written two books that are well worth reading.

 

The first is ‘A More Beautiful Question’ and the second is ‘The Book of Beautiful Questions’. In fact, the inspiration for today’s podcast subject was based on both these books which I have devoured.

 

Both books are well worth checking out, as is the TED talk by Simon Sinek.

 

And the final resource for today is a WhatsApp podcast – that’s a podcast delivered weekly by WhatsApp, called 100 innovations per hour. 

 

In this podcast, Paul Smith an expert in tech and future technology shares with you weekly new and interesting innovations. 

 

I contacted Paul and asked him if he could suggest some innovations to share with you, something that aligned with our jobs and careers and he suggested a few. And I wanted to play one of those episodes today.

 

This short excerpt is from Episode 43, on the subject of using technology for walking meetings. Here it is:

 

Thanks, Paul

 

I will put a link to the 100 Innovations podcast in the show notes.

 

Ok, let’s get back to Part 2 of the episode.

Part 2

So the first 2 powerful questions we have discussed so far, are:

 

-       Why? and

-       What if

Let’s now look at our third question …

 

The last question type is 'how'. 

 

Having jolted your thinking into considering new ways of experiencing work, you should now employ the practical 'how' question. 

 

This question helps you to roll up your sleeves and work out the practicalities. 

 

Let’s look at some examples of using the ‘how’ question.

 

Let’s say you’re not finding your job interesting or enjoyable.

 

You could ask the question:

 

- How could I find a job that I find more interesting and enjoyable? 

 

That gets you thinking about some possibilities, doesn’t it?

 

Possible answers could be: 

 

Make a list of those things that interest you. 

 

Or look at industries that you are interested in. 

 

Or look at companies that seem fun to work for. 

 

Or,

 

Let’s say that you are not using your strengths and skills at work, and you want to do that because you know that this will make work more enjoyable and fulfilling.

 

You could ask the question:

 

-  How could I find a job where I am using my strengths and skills?

 

Again, the how questions make you think of ideas and possibilities.

 

Possible answers could be: 

 

Make a list of those strengths and skills that I want to use more of, and

 

Look for roles where those strengths and skills are likely to be required. 

Or, even, see if I can redesign my existing role to include more of these strengths and skills.

 

You can quickly see from these examples that using these three questions - Why, What If, and How you can more accurately understand your current situation, see the possibilities for your job or career and begin to shape the path ahead.

 

So why not try these in your own career and see what comes up for you. Let me know how you get on.

 

Oh, and how did questions help us with our EV spotting on our motorway journey? 

 

Well, you will be interested to know that we spotted 22 EVs on our 2-hour journey. 

 

I’m sure this was many more that we would have spotted without our questions.

 

 

Your call to action today is to:

 

Review these three questions and apply them to your career and see what a difference they can make.

So, that’s it! We’ve come to the end of another episode.

 

I hope you enjoyed the show.

  

You can email me at mark@bravocoaching.co.uk and you can find the show notes at bravocoaching.co.uk/podcast.

 

If you are interested in working with me, you can book a free discovery call on my website.

 

If you haven’t already subscribed, why not do that now. I’ve got a special guest on the next podcast with who I’m excited to talk. I think you will enjoy the conversation as well …

  

Have a wonderful week and I will speak to you again in a couple of weeks time.

 

Bye for now.