February 2, 2025 • 47 mins
What if the key to workplace happiness isn't found in a paycheck, but within ourselves? Today, we're tackling the startling reality of workplace dissatisfaction, with a focus on inner leadership as the remedy. Armed with eye-opening Gallup survey data, we reveal how a staggering 60% of us feel emotionally detached at work. Instead of relying on external factors for contentment, we highlight the transformative power of self-leadership, encouraging you to cultivate happiness from the inside out.
Imagine facing workplace challenges with confidence and resilience, no matter how turbulent the environment. Drawing from cognitive-based coaching, positive psychology, and neuroscience, we explore how to establish a mindset unshaken by external chaos. By strengthening your self-concept, you can advocate for yourself and foster meaningful connections at work. We dive into the critical role of managers and how both they and employees can use inner leadership to enhance job satisfaction through fairness, transparency, and respect.
For those contemplating a mid-career shift, we're here to support your journey. Nearly 60% of professionals are considering a change, and we introduce a structured program to guide you through it. This isn't about escaping current problems but rather mapping out a fulfilling future rooted in resilience and self-leadership. Whether you're eyeing a complete career change, a side hustle, or further education, our insights and resources will help you navigate the transition confidently. Plus, discover the Next Level Inside Membership Program—a chance to work together and turn your career aspirations into reality.
Follow us on Instagram @thepurposefulcareer.
Learn more about Next Level, our monthly membership at https://www.thepurposefulcareer.com/nextlevel.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Purposeful Career Podcast,
episode number 217.
I'm Carla Hudson, brandstrategist, entrepreneur and
life coach.
Whether you're on the corporateor entrepreneur track, or maybe
both, decades of experience hastaught me that creating success
happens from the inside out.
(00:21):
It's about having the clarity,self-confidence and unstoppable
belief to go after and geteverything you want.
If you'll come with me, I'llshow you how Well.
Hello friends.
I hope you had an amazing week.
(00:41):
Today we're going to talk abouthappiness, and specifically
happiness in your career, ormaybe the lack thereof.
I'm going to share with you abunch of statistics on happiness
and satisfaction in the workarena and we're going to apply
(01:03):
that to your life how you'refeeling every day and I'm going
to offer you up four things thatyou can do to generate the
happiness that you're seeking,maybe from your job or from your
life.
Generate them from the insideout.
(01:23):
We call that concept in mybusiness inner leadership, and
it's real and, in my opinion,it's the only thing really
that's sustainable, becausetrying to count on something
outside of yourself, like thequality of your boss or the
workplace culture or how muchmoney you make or even the
(01:45):
quality of the work that you'reworking on trying to generate
your feelings of satisfactionand meaning from that.
That's tough because it'soutside of your control.
You do not know what's going onin the C-suite of your business
and what they might be gettingready to do.
(02:06):
That could throw a grenade intoyour little bubble of happiness
that you're in right now.
And I want, in this episodetoday, to talk about what it
means to be a great leader toyourself.
Yes, it's great if we have agreat leader at work.
I've had some great leaders.
(02:27):
I've had some terrible leaders,but the truth of the matter is
that when the leadership thatyou need is coming from yourself
, when you feel good aboutyourself, when you believe in
yourself, when you're showing upin that way, when you're
advocating for yourself, whenyou're controlling proactively
(02:49):
all the things in your life, inyour career, that you can
control, you're prettybulletproof.
You're pretty good, no matterwhat kind of crazy is going on
around you, and we all know weare living in a world today that
is stirred up.
It's stirred up in the socialarena, it's stirred up in the
(03:11):
cultural arena, it might bestirred up in your home life and
it's definitely stirred up, orprobably about to be, in the
business that you work in.
So this is an important episode.
I think it's going to be onethat makes you feel empowered
that is my hope for you andwe're going to talk about some
interesting things that you canget involved in in my business
(03:34):
to help you generate thatfeeling of empowerment, that
feeling of belief in yourselfany time that you choose.
So enjoy this episode on innerleadership and finding happiness
and satisfaction at work.
I'm going to share somestatistics with you and then,
(03:58):
before I get into the meat ofthe episode, I want to have a
conversation around philosophyand what I feel like is going on
, and so let's dive into some ofthe stats, because they do tell
a story, so they're important.
I'm not just going to rattleoff these numbers, they're part
of what I want to talk about.
The first stat is that 60% ofus are emotionally detached at
(04:23):
work, and that's a high number,but 19% of us are downright
miserable, and this is from aGallup survey.
So almost 20% of all the peoplewho are going to work every day
feel miserable in their job.
So that's not great, right?
(04:45):
It's not great for the companyand it's definitely not great
for the employee or the culturethe way that employee
contributes to the culture oftheir workplace.
If you're miserable, you're notat your best, and the survey
goes on to say that just a thirdof us 33% are engaged with our
work, and that number is evenlower than it was in 2020, in
(05:09):
the heart of the pandemic, whenwe were all working from home
and the world was topsy-turvyand nobody knew what was going
on with anything right.
It's like so to have fewerpeople now engaged with work
than were engaged in 2020,that's a disturbing trend, in my
opinion, and in the US, 50% ofus feel stressed every day, 41%
(05:33):
of us feel worried and 40% of usfeel sad or angry in our job
every day.
So you might be thinking well,why is that?
There are many reasons.
First, there's themulti-generational workplace.
And also, managers of peopleplay a key role in making sure
that they're doing their best tokeep their people engaged and
(05:55):
happy.
A lot of times, that doesn'thappen, and it can, on the
surface, seem like well,everybody just needs to go out
and get a new job, and that'swhat the great resignation was
all about, right, I mean, evennow, 65% of us are actively
looking for a new job.
Millions of people leave theirjob every month, and I think
(06:19):
it's easy for the media or it'seasy for leadership and
companies to say, well, you know, people just are looking to get
ahead, they're looking for asalary jump or they want to work
a hybrid or remote job and I'mnot offering that anymore and
that's why they're leaving,right, and I think for the
(06:40):
worker, it's easy to talkourselves into the fact that we
just want to make more money.
Think for the worker, it's easyto talk ourselves into the fact
that we just want to make moremoney.
I mean, we do all work formoney and I am a big believer,
by the way, in taking risks andshowing up in new ways and
putting yourself out there andtaking on new challenges.
So I'm not dissing looking foranother job, but what I'm saying
(07:00):
is that there's more to thisthan how much money someone
makes and whether or not they'vegot the flexibility they want.
I'm not going to lie.
I think those two things arecontributors.
But we spend in our lifetime90,000 hours at work, right, and
(07:21):
that's one of the reasons Iwanted to start this business.
Is that because I'm well intomy career.
I'm still very much in it andI've got huge plans.
I'll probably be running one ortwo, maybe three businesses.
I'm working on the plans forall that, really for the rest of
my life.
Like I get a lot ofsatisfaction from what I do and
(07:45):
right now I'm still working incorporate because I'm not ready
to let go of what I've reallyenjoyed my whole career, which
is brand marketing.
I love it and I know that whenI leave to do these other
businesses, yes, I'll still bebuilding my own brand and all
this stuff, but I will not bedoing it at scale right.
(08:07):
Most of my career I've done itfor Fortune 500, Fortune 10.
Now I'm at a company that's notquite that big but is in an
area of passion for me in theentertainment field.
So you know I'm not ready togive that up, but I've managed
so many people, hundreds ofpeople, at this point in my
career and I see what goes oninside companies in the reorgs
(08:31):
and the poor leadership and thecontinual boundary creep into
people's personal lives and justall of the stuff that's gone on
Probably always but really hasbeen exacerbated with technology
, especially over the pastcouple of decades.
I just decided, you know, threeor four years ago, when I
discovered this cognitive-basedcoaching, I thought I want to
(08:54):
use everything that I learn togive back to people who are
still very much in their career,who are either at the beginning
of their career, at the middlepoint of their career that's
kind of my sweet spot is themidpoint, but I help people at
all spectrums and I want to dothat because there is nothing
worse than saying, hey, I'mgoing to spend 90,000 hours of
(09:17):
my life at work and I'm going tospend all of those miserable
right?
50% feel stressed every day.
41% feel worried every day.
40% feel sad or angry.
Right, that's not good.
And so, as I was like lookingat all these stats, it really
(09:39):
made me wonder if there wasn'tsomething bigger going on,
because I am the first one who'sgoing to say listen, people's
leader, people's manager, playsa central role in this, and
we'll talk about that.
And it's tough, right, ifyou're in an environment that's
already challenging, as mostindustries are right, companies
(10:00):
are always under pressure,companies are always having to
reorg or make changes or lay offor whatever they have to do.
And we are the ones the workersare the ones who have to kind
of rally right, who have to beresilient and get through it,
and that's not easy.
So I get where those stats onstressed and worried and angry
(10:21):
or sad or whatever every daycome from.
But the truth of the matter is,if it was just playing out at
work, I would say, well, let'sfigure out how to handle that.
But I have a theory.
And you think about socialmedia, and I'm not bashing
social media because I'm on itmyself.
I don't spend a ton of time onit anymore except for my
(10:44):
business, and even then I'mprobably not as active as I want
to be.
But I will say, if you justlook at some of the threads
running on X or even on LinkedIn, now that's become a place
where people are bashing a lotand I think even especially on
(11:04):
Facebook initially was just thishappy place of connection when
it all started up in the mid2000s.
And it's not saying it'sterrible, like there's pockets
of happiness and stuff like that, but it's a great place for
people to just bash each otherand hide behind the veneer of
anonymity.
And so I had this theory.
(11:25):
I thought is it just theworkplace?
Why is it going up?
And I looked at another surveycalled the World Happiness
Report and there's a three pointscale, the happiness report,
and one represents not too happyand three represents very happy
(11:45):
, and Americans on average are a2.18, which is just a hair
above pretty happy.
But you might think, oh well,that's not bad.
But that's a significantdecline from the peak happiness
that the survey caught in theearly 1990s, and the change in
(12:11):
the decline is driven by thepeople who say they're not too
happy.
So in 2018, it was 13% ofrespondents said they're not too
happy, just with life ingeneral, and 8%.
In 1990, just 8% said theyweren't too happy.
So that bottom number hasdoubled in the past.
(12:34):
Call it 30 years, right?
So when you look at all of that, it isn't just the workplace
Like I'm going to talk aboutleaders here in a minute and
some of the things that we cando in the workplace to Like I'm
going to talk about leaders herein a minute and some of the
things that we can do in theworkplace to try to shore up our
own approach.
But what I will say is thatsociety in general is like
(12:55):
stirred up, and there's lots ofreasons for that.
I I think the connections onsocial media and the volume of
information flying around, andjust it's just a time in the
world, I think, where there's alot of changes happening, and
change is unsettling, and changecan make us afraid and we want
(13:20):
to maybe cling to the past, butthe truth of the matter is like
the past is has gone away.
You know, what we need to do islook towards the future and
take an active role in shapingthat.
When I look at that Gallup poll, it's easy to look at it and
say, well, leaders just need toget their act together.
Companies and they do they do.
(13:43):
I'm not saying that they don't,that there's not work to do
there, but I think there'ssomething bigger going on.
And so when I talk about thistoday, I want you to always keep
in mind that the things thatI'm sharing are not just
happening in the workplace.
And I also want to say if 60%of people are emotionally
(14:09):
detached at work across allbusinesses and 20% are miserable
, you can go ahead and look forthat new job, but to be honest
and my own experience has provenout you're going to probably
encounter just a differentflavor of the same thing at the
next stop.
I don't believe anymore thatthere's a perfect place and I
(14:36):
don't believe that you can justwalk into a role and even if
it's got that right combinationof things for you on day one.
It probably won't stay that way.
Not trying to be a downer, butI want to be a realist today and
I want to talk about so.
Now what If that's true, ifwhat I'm telling you is true,
(15:00):
now what?
And how do you solve it ifchanging a job isn't going to
solve it?
And so I want to talk abouttoday inner leadership, and that
is the term that I give to whatI do in my business, what I
help clients with.
And you know cause?
(15:20):
Some people will look at me andsay, oh, you're a mindset coach
, and I don't position myselfthat way, and it's only because
of when I think about mindset.
For me, for whatever reason,mindset conjures up an
artificial sort of temporarystate of being.
I'm not saying that's thedefinition of it, but that's
(15:42):
where my mind goes, and so Idon't think that's helpful.
Inner leadership to me means youare learning a way, a
sustainable, bulletproof way, away that you can control, that
is not dependent on anythinggoing on in your personal life
or your professional life.
It is 100% coming from you, andthat is what I teach.
(16:05):
And there are three thingsbehind that in terms of
methodologies, and they stemfrom proven scientific fields.
So one of them is thecognitive-based coaching
approach that I'm trained in.
So that approach to coaching isderived from the cognitive
(16:25):
behavioral therapy approach,which is a part of psychology
right Around uncovering hiddenpatterns of thought and training
your brain to purposefully workin a new way, not relying on
stored away patterns of thoughtto move you where you want to go
.
You have to be very purposefuland intentional about it.
(16:46):
So that's one approach.
The second one is also an areathat I'm certified in, which is
positive psychology, and that isanother discipline within the
field of psychology, and I gotmy certification from the
University of Pennsylvania, andthat has many different things
that it teaches, but it really,I think, complements the
(17:09):
cognitive based approach reallywell.
Like, cognitive based approachis about awareness and staying
aware, so you can choosesomething different.
Very important.
Everything starts withawareness, and then positive
psychology has a lot of tools inits bag around things that you
can do in terms of pivoting yourmindset and directing your
(17:32):
thoughts more positively.
And then neuroscience.
So I'm a continual student ofneuroscience and I follow a lot
of neuroscientists and I'vetaken courses from them and
things like that a lot ofneuroscientists and I've taken
courses from them and thingslike that, and there's a lot
there too in terms of just howthe brain works from a
functioning perspective, right.
So behind inner leadership arethose three things, and what my
(17:58):
business is trying to teach isthat I'm not against changing
jobs.
I've done it myself and I thinkthere are lots of reasons to do
it in terms of a skill set.
I think you learn so much.
I think you stay motivated andcharged, and it's a great way to
climb the ladder faster thanmost companies will let you do.
(18:19):
So I'm a big fan of it, butthis is a big but too.
But this is a big but too.
Don't ever do it thinking thatyou're leaving a misery and that
you're going to find happinesssomewhere else.
You might, but what happenswhen the boss leaves?
What happens when, three monthsin, there's a major
(18:42):
reorganization?
What happens if you get thereand you like your team, but
you're faced off with a superdifficult client and every day
feels like World War III?
Right, there are so many thingsthat you can't know when you're
looking for a job, so I'm nottrying to talk you out of it if
you're looking.
What I want to do is help youunderstand things that you can
(19:06):
do to stay strong when you'remeeting with challenges, because
the way we feel at work affectsour life and the things that we
experience in our life affectsour work.
We are one person experiencingboth things and we do not flip
on and off when we move from ourpersonal life to our work and
(19:31):
vice versa.
So I want to teach you thisapproach because it is going to
help you understand, like, howto stay strong no matter what's
going on, and I believe,especially with the way society
has changed and the way that theworkplace has changed, and just
(19:52):
the pace of change within theworkplace and the things that
we're all going to experience ifwe're working for someone else.
Learning how to be imperviousto that or strong despite that,
to not allow that to shape howyou feel about yourself or how
you feel about your life oranything else, is super, super
(20:15):
important.
So let's talk a little bitabout, though before I get into
what you can do, I want to talka little bit about the workplace
itself.
So we talked about I don'tthink all this stuff is just
going on at work.
I think it's going on in socialmedia.
I think it's going on in ourculture, it's going on in
society.
It's just we're all stirred up,but there's a lot that goes on
(20:38):
in the workplace and it isn'tgreat sometimes, right.
So I want to share some morestats with you.
And the number one cause ofdissatisfaction so let's see if
this rings true for you and thereason I want to share these is
sometimes I feel like we can befeeling something and we can
feel really alone, right, and Idon't want you to feel alone if
(21:01):
you're going through a difficulttime, because the stats that
I'm going to share will provemany, many, many other people
feel exactly the same way, right?
So the number one cause of thereally dissatisfied, miserable
thing at work is this feeling ofbeing treated unfairly, right,
(21:25):
so that's the biggest thing.
And when they pulled that apart, it's when you feel that you're
not respected or you're treatedwith blatant disrespect.
This feeling of a lack ofcommunity, right, like maybe you
don't belong, that you're sortof on the outside looking in, so
that's another.
You know, I've felt like thatin some of the environments I've
(21:47):
been in myself and a lack ofacknowledgement, right, so you
may be giving it your all andyou just don't feel like you're
ever acknowledged for it, eitherjust in words, praise or
whatever, or maybe anopportunity or compensation
right, or maybe an opportunityor compensation right and some
(22:10):
other contributing factors areif you're being, like, bullied
or mistreated.
I think that is an emergingtrend that is very disturbing,
that I've witnessed in some ofthe environments I've been in,
and that some of my clients havetalked about Inconsistent
compensation, maybe acrossgenders or just even within a
team and role.
I know, like I've heard a statlike the younger, gen Z and
(22:32):
stuff.
They're very open about theircompensation and I think that's
a good thing.
I do, like I think the secrecyaround what we earn or even what
companies are willing to payfor a position needs to.
It's just a very antiquatedthing and I know I can't
remember what state, but itmight be Colorado Like there's
(22:52):
one state where there's laws nowand you'll see, like some job
postings I think it is Coloradoand some other states have just
adopted it too, or othercompanies have adopted it,
especially if they're like haveemployees in Colorado.
Sometimes they just do itacross the board but they're
starting to say, hey, this jobwill pay between this and this.
That's very helpful because youknow you can check last or
(23:16):
whatever, and you may or may notbe getting the best information
, but when we go into a job, Ifeel like they should be paying
what they want to pay for thatjob, regardless of gender or
ethnicity, or which college didyou go to, or whatever.
Like, if you're hiring theperson for the role, pay them a
(23:36):
fair market wage, right.
So compensation is a big thing.
And then if you have a cultureon the team where there's like
biases or favoritism, that's abig contributor too.
But there's other things as wellthat I think have been around a
lot longer than some of thesenewer things.
One of them is unmanageableworkloads, so they're laying
(24:00):
people off and not replacingroles, and people have more on
their plates than they canmanage.
Unclear communication from amanager right, manager's central
to this happiness thing.
Lack of manager support there'smanager again and unrealistic
time pressures associated withthe things you want to do.
So, according to the Galluppoll, there's lots of
(24:24):
contributing things, some ofwhich the company in general can
control around compensation andtransparency and creating a
good, respectful, you know,culture at work.
But managers have a centralrole and unfortunately there's
some amazing ones but there'sprobably more not so amazing
(24:47):
ones and this Gallup poll andother HR polls say that 70% of
the variance in how people feelabout their job or how engaged
they are in their work is adirect reflection of their
immediate leader supervisorright.
(25:08):
So for those of you who managepeople out there, you might be
in the middle of chaos, and ifyou are, I get it Like I've been
there.
I've managed people in most ofthe roles that I have, but I
will say this to you roles thatI have.
(25:29):
But I will say this to you thatyou may not be getting what you
need from your manager, but Ibelieve it is still your
responsibility to try to givewhat you're looking for yourself
to the people who report to you, and I have found personally
that when you're focused ontrying to clear things up for
them, trying to solve theproblems on your team, trying to
make everyday work, um, notonly more tolerable but ideally
(25:55):
more fun, like I think businessis fun.
I think I mean marketing.
I think what I do can andshould be incredibly fun and it
has a direct impact on how wellthe business is doing.
But too many times I see leaderswho feel, I think, largely
(26:17):
marginalized by their leadershipand so they give nothing to
their own direct reports andthey feel completely fine with
that.
And I'm not going to tell youit's easy, it's not.
But what is the answer?
It's not to just opt out.
Not to just opt out.
(26:41):
I think the answer is innerleadership, and this applies to
both the manager, who managespeople, and the individual
employee.
Inner leadership is where it'sat, and there are four things
that I want to offer up that youcan do and, I think, should do,
whether you're an individualcontributor or a manager, and
(27:04):
they can significantly changehow you feel about your job.
First one is make sure thatevery day, you're working on
your own self-concept.
Now, this is something that isvery central to what we work on
in my monthly membership.
(27:25):
You are the product of how youthink about yourself, and when
your self-concept is high, whenyou feel good about yourself,
when you are working on how youthink about yourself, when you
show up at work reflecting inhow you're presenting yourself,
(27:50):
you know if that's aligned withyour own self-image, which is
high, and you go into yourworkday every day believing in
yourself and doing your best, nomatter what's going on around
you, no matter how uncertainthings are, it's going to be a
lot better for you, right?
(28:11):
You're not only going to showup and do better work, you're
going to feel better when you doit.
And it's important how we feelevery day, because all of the
behaviors we have that we feelare self sabotaging or
undermining things likeprocrastination, perfectionism,
(28:33):
overeating, over drinking, overNetflixing, over spending, all
of the consumption behaviorsthat are, you know, sort of over
we over index on all of thatcomes from how we feel, right.
And so if we are in anenvironment where either the
(28:53):
larger culture of a company is aproblem or our direct manager
is a problem, or both right, ormaybe the employees that we work
with are a problem, we can'tcount on the things outside of
us to be fixed or to always beworking in our favor, and we
can't allow the course of ourlife to be redirected or
(29:18):
impacted in a negative waybecause of what a bunch of other
people are doing.
The answer is to stand firm inthe face of that, and I'm not
going to say that it's easy, butit does start inside.
It's not going to be fixed bythe job change.
Again, I think and we'll talkin a minute about doing
(29:40):
something new I'm a big believerin the job change, but I do not
ever want you to do that tomake yourself happy.
Even if it's about more money,do it to make more money, but
money alone is not going to makeyou happier.
You might think.
It is, just like we sometimesthink, that if we lose the 25
pounds we'll be happier.
I promise you you won't rightor you won't.
(30:03):
It's very temporary, veryfleeting.
You're going to be happier whenyou feel better about yourself.
So, self-concept first, andanything that goes wrong, any
failure you have, anyquestionable feedback you might
get, any difficulties that ariseat work.
(30:24):
Don't let any of that sink inand attach to how you feel about
yourself or what you think yourown self-worth is.
Do not wonder whether you'regood enough.
You are good enough and if youhave any doubt about that, I
need you to join me in nextlevel, because that is what we
(30:45):
work on first how do we feelabout us, right, and then we
start working on all the otherstuff.
So, if you're interested inthat, the purposefulcareercom
forward, slash next level andsign up for the waiting list,
because the doors are going toopen soon and in 2025, I'm
thinking about just keeping themopen all the time, because I'm
(31:07):
always getting messages frompeople asking me if they can
join, and I just want to make iteasy.
So I think I'm going to make itevergreen in 2025 and you can
join for 57 a month and thedoors are opening soon, so keep
your eye open for that.
So, self-concept first, andthat way it doesn't matter what
(31:28):
anyone else says or even whathappens.
You know you're good, right.
The second is when you feel goodabout yourself, it's easier to
advocate for yourself.
So in a tough environment thisis number two you have to
advocate for yourself.
You cannot wait for your bossto do it and that you can
(31:50):
advocate with your boss.
You can advocate for yourselfwith other hiring managers
within that company.
You can advocate for yourselfwith HR if you need to, if you
have a problem working with yourboss or if there's a problem
that needs to be addressed by HR.
Number two advocating foryourself is critically important
.
Too many people stay silent andput up with it and shrink down
(32:15):
into misery and make the problemabout them, make it be like,
well, this wouldn't be happening, if it must be my fault or
whatever.
Advocating for yourself isincredibly important.
If you have a great leader.
They'll just do it becausethey're a great leader, but you
can't count on it and I don'twant you to wait for it.
(32:36):
So it's important, and it'seasier to do that when you're
coming from a place of a strongself-concept, when you believe
in yourself.
Right, so that inner work isincredibly important, and that's
where inner leadership comes uptoo.
It's just even knowing that.
(32:57):
Okay, I'm having this problemand I can't seem to solve it
myself.
Advocating for yourself is aboutasking yourself the question
now, what do we need to do next?
Right, if it's a problem thatyou try to solve yourself and
you can't now, it's time toenlist the help of others.
That's about reaching out andknocking on doors and telling
(33:22):
people you need help, whetherthey're peers, managers, other
managers that don't directlymanage you, or even HR.
Very, very important.
And I can promise you, even ifyou have a really bad boss, the
company is not looking to haveyou leave.
It is very expensive for themto lose employees, and so I'm
(33:46):
sure that they would want theopportunity to fix whatever the
problem is or to help with that,to make your workday more
tolerable, so that you stayright.
So advocating for yourself isnumber two.
Sometimes I've just noticedwith my clients and even the
people I've managed a lot oftimes, like you know, other
(34:10):
people from other departmentssometimes will seek me out and
I'll have a mentoringrelationship with them.
When I'm in a company and youknow a lot of them just feel
like it's pointless, like thisis my lot in life and I'm just
going to be miserable, and sothey don't even think about
something like, hey, have youtalked to your boss?
And if you get a no, have youtalked to their boss?
(34:30):
Or have you talked to someonein another department who might
be hiring?
Right, get out there andadvocate for yourself.
Like this is about your qualityof life.
Right, if the boss says, no,great, go find someone who
doesn't you know very, veryimportant.
And number three is buildingconnections with others.
(34:52):
Like feeling like you belong ina place is really important and
sometimes we get that naturallyfrom you know the dynamics of a
team that we're in or we arelucky and just sort of make some
quick connections on the jobpeople to go have lunch with or
people to confide in or go havecocktails with after work or
(35:14):
whatever.
But it's really important tohave a sense of belonging and
community.
And so if you don't have thatwhere you are, I encourage you
to go into work this week andlook around and ask yourself who
are the people that you couldintroduce yourself to.
What are some of theorganizations or the teams or
(35:37):
the employee resource groups?
Those are a great place wherethere are people who are
interested in the same things orpursuing the same things that
you are, whatever, and thatcould become a source of feeling
connected, more connected tothat workplace.
So try to figure out, if yourculture is a challenged one, how
(36:01):
you can give yourself astronger feeling of belonging in
that workplace right, and ifyou don't, if you're a hundred
percent remote or whatever, tolook for ways, when you're a
hundred percent remote orwhatever, to look for ways, when
you're virtually connectingwith people, to to be more
(36:22):
creative with that.
To take a second right beforeyou dive into the agenda, if
it's a one-on-one thing, to getto know them a little bit more,
to find out who they are andwhat they care about.
Like little things like thatcan help you feel like you know
you've got a little bit of athread connecting you in to the
(36:46):
vibe of the workplace.
It's nothing worse than feelinglike you're just sitting
outside of it and that you'rebeing there doesn't matter.
You don't care about it, right?
So that's number three, andthen number four is one that I'm
going to talk about more nextweek, but I'm just going to hit
on it here, and that is considerexploring something new.
(37:07):
More than half of US workers in2020, so in the middle of the
pandemic, when the world waskind of, you know, all of our
life cards got tossed up in theair by that little virus more
than half of us consideredmaking a career change in 2020.
Now you would think that, nowthat the world has settled down
(37:29):
a little bit a little bit atleast the pandemic has that the
number would be going down.
Now the number is closer to 60%.
60% of us this year arethinking about doing something
completely different than whatwe're doing right now.
And we don't usually, becausewhen we get to mid-career, we've
(37:52):
got life, we've got obligations, people counting on us, things
like that, and so you know wedon't do it because we're
worried about financial security, or really, 40% of us say we
don't even know what we'd wantto do.
We know we'd like to dosomething else, but we don't
know what.
That is Right, and so I justwant to introduce you to the
(38:12):
idea that if this is you and youfeel like the job that you
chose or the career path thatyou chose when you graduated
from school has just run itscourse and that you're kind of
over it, it's time for somethingnew, then right, and you don't
have to just quit your job andtake this ginormous risk.
(38:33):
You don't have to put yourfamily's wellbeing in jeopardy
or your own.
You could pursue something newand explore it and make some
decisions through thatexploration about what you might
want to do next, and go into itwith your eyes open and with a
plan.
And that is why, when I sawthese stats, I decided a couple
(38:57):
of months ago that I was goingto introduce a second offering.
So you know, I talk about itall the time.
My core membership is a monthlymembership 57 a month and it's
called Next Level and I teachinner leadership and I'm still
going to have that because it'svery important.
(39:17):
But there are 60% of us thatwant to do something else.
So I'm introducing a new programthat I'm calling the mid-career
edit in June, and it is goingto be specifically about
figuring out what you don't likeabout what you're doing, what
(39:39):
you might want to explore, andthen figuring out a plan for how
you might go do that right.
It could be about changingcareer paths.
It could be about starting aside hustle or your own business
.
Those are going to be kind ofthe three career paths I think
people will probably choose.
And the beauty of this is it'sgoing to be a six-month
(40:04):
structured program where we'regoing to go within and do a lot
of inner exploratory and you'regoing to do a lot of inner work
and some strategizing and you'regoing to come out the other
side with some answers and Ithink it's going to be really
exciting.
So I'm doing the mid-careeredit because I think there's
(40:26):
nothing worse than having yourinner self tell you that you've
checked all the boxes you needto check in this one career path
and that you still keepyourself stuck in that career
path.
I want people to feel empoweredand confident trying something
(40:47):
new, and you can't just do thatat mid-career without a plan.
Most of us right, most of usneed a plan and we want to be
sure that the thing that we'respinning up if it's a new
business or whatever, or even ifit's just hey, I'm shifting
from this functional area tothis other one, or if I'm going
back to school to become anattorney.
(41:07):
Whatever I'm doing that, I'mdoing it because I know that's
what I want to do next and thatthat will carry me for a while,
a good while, in my career.
So I'm super excited to behelping such a large percentage
of people who might feel stuckand I can help them move into a
(41:31):
different phase of their life,because I feel like mid-career
is where we have.
Most of us have that calling.
We're kind of over it and wewant to do something new.
And if we say no to that, westart shutting down, we start
settling Our career stalls, ourearning power stalls, you know,
(41:53):
and we just, I think, shrinkdown and become more miserable
and more miserable because we'redoing something we don't even
want to do anymore.
So listening to that is key andthere's nothing about that that
your manager can help with,right, like you know.
Maybe they can.
If you know the other careerpath, maybe they could help you
(42:15):
network.
You know for that, but it thisis all.
All four of the things that I'vetalked about today are things
that you can control, and that'swhat I like to talk about in
this podcast, because you canhop around and change as many
jobs as many times as cancontrol.
And that's what I like to talkabout in this podcast because
you can hop around and change asmany jobs as many times as you
want.
And I can promise you because Ihave changed jobs I have moved
(42:35):
across the country more timesthan you would ever want to know
and I can promise you that youkind of have the same version of
the problem somewhere else.
The answer is if you want tochange jobs for a set of good
reasons, do it, but don't do itbecause you think you're going
to be happier or that yourproblems are going to be solved,
because even if you walk in andthings are better, they
(42:58):
probably won't stay that way forvery long.
The world is changing too fastand companies have to respond to
that, and so that means thatlayoffs, reorgs, bosses leaving,
like the whole team's beinglaid off, like that is.
That's the world we live in,and the only way to be resilient
(43:19):
enough to go with it and tothrive despite that is by
learning how to lead yourselfthrough these times right, and
the side benefit is, when youlearn to lead yourself, you're
going to be a better leader toothers, and if you're not
already a leader to others, whenpeople recognize how resilient
(43:41):
and gritty and focused you are,despite the crazy that goes on
in most businesses, trust me,you'll be tapped to lead, and
that's good for your your careertrajectory as well.
So I wanted to talk about innerleadership and just some of the
challenges that I see going on,because I do think it's
important, and I think it'simportant to know that, even
(44:03):
though your brain will tell youthat it's easily solved by just
going out and sending out someresumes and getting a job, I can
promise you that's not theanswer.
Look within, strengthen fromwithin, and then you will have
the grit and the resilience tonot only weather any storm, but
to thrive, maybe because of thestorm.
(44:23):
Right, strong people, weatherdownturns very, very well and
they see the opportunity inevery situation that comes.
So that's what I want for you.
So, if everything we talkedabout in this episode sounds
like something you need, I'vegot a very special announcement
(44:43):
to make, and that is I amgetting ready to launch a course
called Inner Leadership thatwill be available in March.
So I'll have more informationon this on my social media this
week, so if you don't alreadyfollow me, go to at the
(45:04):
purposeful career on Instagram.
I'm going to be talking aboutthe course that's coming and if
you would like to get on thewait list, there will be special
discounts and bonuses availableto people who are on my list
already.
So I hope that you'll join mefor that.
Believe me when I tell you thatcourse will change everything
(45:28):
about how you feel aboutyourself and your ability to
control your world around youand make it be something that
resembles what you're lookingfor, because if we wait for
other people to deliver that tous, we're going to be waiting a
very long time and just bychanging the way you think about
yourself and what you believeyour possibilities are, believe
(45:51):
me when I tell you everythingaround you starts to shift to
bring that about.
So be on the lookout this weekin my social media and join me
next week, because we're goingto talk about how to go after
that something new.
And until next time, make it agreat week.
My friends, do you have a lifecoach?
(46:20):
If not, I'd be so honored to beyour coach.
I've created a virtual coachingprogram and monthly membership
called Next Level Inside, wetake the material you hear on
this podcast, study it and thenapply it.
Join me atThePurposefulCareercom backslash
(46:42):
Next Level.
Don't forget theThePurposefulcareercom backslash
next level.
Join me and together we'll makeyour career in life everything
you dream of.
We'll see you there.
This is the Purposeful Career Podcast,
episode number 217.
I'm Carla Hudson, brandstrategist, entrepreneur and
life coach.
Whether you're on the corporateor entrepreneur track, or maybe
both, decades of experience hastaught me that creating success
happens from the inside out.
(00:21):
It's about having the clarity,self-confidence and unstoppable
belief to go after and geteverything you want.
If you'll come with me, I'llshow you how Well.
Hello friends.
I hope you had an amazing week.
(00:41):
Today we're going to talk abouthappiness, and specifically
happiness in your career, ormaybe the lack thereof.
I'm going to share with you abunch of statistics on happiness
and satisfaction in the workarena and we're going to apply
(01:03):
that to your life how you'refeeling every day and I'm going
to offer you up four things thatyou can do to generate the
happiness that you're seeking,maybe from your job or from your
life.
Generate them from the insideout.
(01:23):
We call that concept in mybusiness inner leadership, and
it's real and, in my opinion,it's the only thing really
that's sustainable, becausetrying to count on something
outside of yourself, like thequality of your boss or the
workplace culture or how muchmoney you make or even the
(01:45):
quality of the work that you'reworking on trying to generate
your feelings of satisfactionand meaning from that.
That's tough because it'soutside of your control.
You do not know what's going onin the C-suite of your business
and what they might be gettingready to do.
(02:06):
That could throw a grenade intoyour little bubble of happiness
that you're in right now.
And I want, in this episodetoday, to talk about what it
means to be a great leader toyourself.
Yes, it's great if we have agreat leader at work.
I've had some great leaders.
(02:27):
I've had some terrible leaders,but the truth of the matter is
that when the leadership thatyou need is coming from yourself
, when you feel good aboutyourself, when you believe in
yourself, when you're showing upin that way, when you're
advocating for yourself, whenyou're controlling proactively
(02:49):
all the things in your life, inyour career, that you can
control, you're prettybulletproof.
You're pretty good, no matterwhat kind of crazy is going on
around you, and we all know weare living in a world today that
is stirred up.
It's stirred up in the socialarena, it's stirred up in the
(03:11):
cultural arena, it might bestirred up in your home life and
it's definitely stirred up, orprobably about to be, in the
business that you work in.
So this is an important episode.
I think it's going to be onethat makes you feel empowered
that is my hope for you andwe're going to talk about some
interesting things that you canget involved in in my business
(03:34):
to help you generate thatfeeling of empowerment, that
feeling of belief in yourselfany time that you choose.
So enjoy this episode on innerleadership and finding happiness
and satisfaction at work.
I'm going to share somestatistics with you and then,
(03:58):
before I get into the meat ofthe episode, I want to have a
conversation around philosophyand what I feel like is going on
, and so let's dive into some ofthe stats, because they do tell
a story, so they're important.
I'm not just going to rattleoff these numbers, they're part
of what I want to talk about.
The first stat is that 60% ofus are emotionally detached at
(04:23):
work, and that's a high number,but 19% of us are downright
miserable, and this is from aGallup survey.
So almost 20% of all the peoplewho are going to work every day
feel miserable in their job.
So that's not great, right?
(04:45):
It's not great for the companyand it's definitely not great
for the employee or the culturethe way that employee
contributes to the culture oftheir workplace.
If you're miserable, you're notat your best, and the survey
goes on to say that just a thirdof us 33% are engaged with our
work, and that number is evenlower than it was in 2020, in
(05:09):
the heart of the pandemic, whenwe were all working from home
and the world was topsy-turvyand nobody knew what was going
on with anything right.
It's like so to have fewerpeople now engaged with work
than were engaged in 2020,that's a disturbing trend, in my
opinion, and in the US, 50% ofus feel stressed every day, 41%
(05:33):
of us feel worried and 40% of usfeel sad or angry in our job
every day.
So you might be thinking well,why is that?
There are many reasons.
First, there's themulti-generational workplace.
And also, managers of peopleplay a key role in making sure
that they're doing their best tokeep their people engaged and
(05:55):
happy.
A lot of times, that doesn'thappen, and it can, on the
surface, seem like well,everybody just needs to go out
and get a new job, and that'swhat the great resignation was
all about, right, I mean, evennow, 65% of us are actively
looking for a new job.
Millions of people leave theirjob every month, and I think
(06:19):
it's easy for the media or it'seasy for leadership and
companies to say, well, you know, people just are looking to get
ahead, they're looking for asalary jump or they want to work
a hybrid or remote job and I'mnot offering that anymore and
that's why they're leaving,right, and I think for the
(06:40):
worker, it's easy to talkourselves into the fact that we
just want to make more money.
Think for the worker, it's easyto talk ourselves into the fact
that we just want to make moremoney.
I mean, we do all work formoney and I am a big believer,
by the way, in taking risks andshowing up in new ways and
putting yourself out there andtaking on new challenges.
So I'm not dissing looking foranother job, but what I'm saying
(07:00):
is that there's more to thisthan how much money someone
makes and whether or not they'vegot the flexibility they want.
I'm not going to lie.
I think those two things arecontributors.
But we spend in our lifetime90,000 hours at work, right, and
(07:21):
that's one of the reasons Iwanted to start this business.
Is that because I'm well intomy career.
I'm still very much in it andI've got huge plans.
I'll probably be running one ortwo, maybe three businesses.
I'm working on the plans forall that, really for the rest of
my life.
Like I get a lot ofsatisfaction from what I do and
(07:45):
right now I'm still working incorporate because I'm not ready
to let go of what I've reallyenjoyed my whole career, which
is brand marketing.
I love it and I know that whenI leave to do these other
businesses, yes, I'll still bebuilding my own brand and all
this stuff, but I will not bedoing it at scale right.
(08:07):
Most of my career I've done itfor Fortune 500, Fortune 10.
Now I'm at a company that's notquite that big but is in an
area of passion for me in theentertainment field.
So you know I'm not ready togive that up, but I've managed
so many people, hundreds ofpeople, at this point in my
career and I see what goes oninside companies in the reorgs
(08:31):
and the poor leadership and thecontinual boundary creep into
people's personal lives and justall of the stuff that's gone on
Probably always but really hasbeen exacerbated with technology
, especially over the pastcouple of decades.
I just decided, you know, threeor four years ago, when I
discovered this cognitive-basedcoaching, I thought I want to
(08:54):
use everything that I learn togive back to people who are
still very much in their career,who are either at the beginning
of their career, at the middlepoint of their career that's
kind of my sweet spot is themidpoint, but I help people at
all spectrums and I want to dothat because there is nothing
worse than saying, hey, I'mgoing to spend 90,000 hours of
(09:17):
my life at work and I'm going tospend all of those miserable
right?
50% feel stressed every day.
41% feel worried every day.
40% feel sad or angry.
Right, that's not good.
And so, as I was like lookingat all these stats, it really
(09:39):
made me wonder if there wasn'tsomething bigger going on,
because I am the first one who'sgoing to say listen, people's
leader, people's manager, playsa central role in this, and
we'll talk about that.
And it's tough, right, ifyou're in an environment that's
already challenging, as mostindustries are right, companies
(10:00):
are always under pressure,companies are always having to
reorg or make changes or lay offor whatever they have to do.
And we are the ones the workersare the ones who have to kind
of rally right, who have to beresilient and get through it,
and that's not easy.
So I get where those stats onstressed and worried and angry
(10:21):
or sad or whatever every daycome from.
But the truth of the matter is,if it was just playing out at
work, I would say, well, let'sfigure out how to handle that.
But I have a theory.
And you think about socialmedia, and I'm not bashing
social media because I'm on itmyself.
I don't spend a ton of time onit anymore except for my
(10:44):
business, and even then I'mprobably not as active as I want
to be.
But I will say, if you justlook at some of the threads
running on X or even on LinkedIn, now that's become a place
where people are bashing a lotand I think even especially on
(11:04):
Facebook initially was just thishappy place of connection when
it all started up in the mid2000s.
And it's not saying it'sterrible, like there's pockets
of happiness and stuff like that, but it's a great place for
people to just bash each otherand hide behind the veneer of
anonymity.
And so I had this theory.
(11:25):
I thought is it just theworkplace?
Why is it going up?
And I looked at another surveycalled the World Happiness
Report and there's a three pointscale, the happiness report,
and one represents not too happyand three represents very happy
(11:45):
, and Americans on average are a2.18, which is just a hair
above pretty happy.
But you might think, oh well,that's not bad.
But that's a significantdecline from the peak happiness
that the survey caught in theearly 1990s, and the change in
(12:11):
the decline is driven by thepeople who say they're not too
happy.
So in 2018, it was 13% ofrespondents said they're not too
happy, just with life ingeneral, and 8%.
In 1990, just 8% said theyweren't too happy.
So that bottom number hasdoubled in the past.
(12:34):
Call it 30 years, right?
So when you look at all of that, it isn't just the workplace
Like I'm going to talk aboutleaders here in a minute and
some of the things that we cando in the workplace to Like I'm
going to talk about leaders herein a minute and some of the
things that we can do in theworkplace to try to shore up our
own approach.
But what I will say is thatsociety in general is like
(12:55):
stirred up, and there's lots ofreasons for that.
I I think the connections onsocial media and the volume of
information flying around, andjust it's just a time in the
world, I think, where there's alot of changes happening, and
change is unsettling, and changecan make us afraid and we want
(13:20):
to maybe cling to the past, butthe truth of the matter is like
the past is has gone away.
You know, what we need to do islook towards the future and
take an active role in shapingthat.
When I look at that Gallup poll, it's easy to look at it and
say, well, leaders just need toget their act together.
Companies and they do they do.
(13:43):
I'm not saying that they don't,that there's not work to do
there, but I think there'ssomething bigger going on.
And so when I talk about thistoday, I want you to always keep
in mind that the things thatI'm sharing are not just
happening in the workplace.
And I also want to say if 60%of people are emotionally
(14:09):
detached at work across allbusinesses and 20% are miserable
, you can go ahead and look forthat new job, but to be honest
and my own experience has provenout you're going to probably
encounter just a differentflavor of the same thing at the
next stop.
I don't believe anymore thatthere's a perfect place and I
(14:36):
don't believe that you can justwalk into a role and even if
it's got that right combinationof things for you on day one.
It probably won't stay that way.
Not trying to be a downer, butI want to be a realist today and
I want to talk about so.
Now what If that's true, ifwhat I'm telling you is true,
(15:00):
now what?
And how do you solve it ifchanging a job isn't going to
solve it?
And so I want to talk abouttoday inner leadership, and that
is the term that I give to whatI do in my business, what I
help clients with.
And you know cause?
(15:20):
Some people will look at me andsay, oh, you're a mindset coach
, and I don't position myselfthat way, and it's only because
of when I think about mindset.
For me, for whatever reason,mindset conjures up an
artificial sort of temporarystate of being.
I'm not saying that's thedefinition of it, but that's
(15:42):
where my mind goes, and so Idon't think that's helpful.
Inner leadership to me means youare learning a way, a
sustainable, bulletproof way, away that you can control, that
is not dependent on anythinggoing on in your personal life
or your professional life.
It is 100% coming from you, andthat is what I teach.
(16:05):
And there are three thingsbehind that in terms of
methodologies, and they stemfrom proven scientific fields.
So one of them is thecognitive-based coaching
approach that I'm trained in.
So that approach to coaching isderived from the cognitive
(16:25):
behavioral therapy approach,which is a part of psychology
right Around uncovering hiddenpatterns of thought and training
your brain to purposefully workin a new way, not relying on
stored away patterns of thoughtto move you where you want to go
.
You have to be very purposefuland intentional about it.
(16:46):
So that's one approach.
The second one is also an areathat I'm certified in, which is
positive psychology, and that isanother discipline within the
field of psychology, and I gotmy certification from the
University of Pennsylvania, andthat has many different things
that it teaches, but it really,I think, complements the
(17:09):
cognitive based approach reallywell.
Like, cognitive based approachis about awareness and staying
aware, so you can choosesomething different.
Very important.
Everything starts withawareness, and then positive
psychology has a lot of tools inits bag around things that you
can do in terms of pivoting yourmindset and directing your
(17:32):
thoughts more positively.
And then neuroscience.
So I'm a continual student ofneuroscience and I follow a lot
of neuroscientists and I'vetaken courses from them and
things like that a lot ofneuroscientists and I've taken
courses from them and thingslike that, and there's a lot
there too in terms of just howthe brain works from a
functioning perspective, right.
So behind inner leadership arethose three things, and what my
(17:58):
business is trying to teach isthat I'm not against changing
jobs.
I've done it myself and I thinkthere are lots of reasons to do
it in terms of a skill set.
I think you learn so much.
I think you stay motivated andcharged, and it's a great way to
climb the ladder faster thanmost companies will let you do.
(18:19):
So I'm a big fan of it, butthis is a big but too.
But this is a big but too.
Don't ever do it thinking thatyou're leaving a misery and that
you're going to find happinesssomewhere else.
You might, but what happenswhen the boss leaves?
What happens when, three monthsin, there's a major
(18:42):
reorganization?
What happens if you get thereand you like your team, but
you're faced off with a superdifficult client and every day
feels like World War III?
Right, there are so many thingsthat you can't know when you're
looking for a job, so I'm nottrying to talk you out of it if
you're looking.
What I want to do is help youunderstand things that you can
(19:06):
do to stay strong when you'remeeting with challenges, because
the way we feel at work affectsour life and the things that we
experience in our life affectsour work.
We are one person experiencingboth things and we do not flip
on and off when we move from ourpersonal life to our work and
(19:31):
vice versa.
So I want to teach you thisapproach because it is going to
help you understand, like, howto stay strong no matter what's
going on, and I believe,especially with the way society
has changed and the way that theworkplace has changed, and just
(19:52):
the pace of change within theworkplace and the things that
we're all going to experience ifwe're working for someone else.
Learning how to be imperviousto that or strong despite that,
to not allow that to shape howyou feel about yourself or how
you feel about your life oranything else, is super, super
(20:15):
important.
So let's talk a little bitabout, though before I get into
what you can do, I want to talka little bit about the workplace
itself.
So we talked about I don'tthink all this stuff is just
going on at work.
I think it's going on in socialmedia.
I think it's going on in ourculture, it's going on in
society.
It's just we're all stirred up,but there's a lot that goes on
(20:38):
in the workplace and it isn'tgreat sometimes, right.
So I want to share some morestats with you.
And the number one cause ofdissatisfaction so let's see if
this rings true for you and thereason I want to share these is
sometimes I feel like we can befeeling something and we can
feel really alone, right, and Idon't want you to feel alone if
(21:01):
you're going through a difficulttime, because the stats that
I'm going to share will provemany, many, many other people
feel exactly the same way, right?
So the number one cause of thereally dissatisfied, miserable
thing at work is this feeling ofbeing treated unfairly, right,
(21:25):
so that's the biggest thing.
And when they pulled that apart, it's when you feel that you're
not respected or you're treatedwith blatant disrespect.
This feeling of a lack ofcommunity, right, like maybe you
don't belong, that you're sortof on the outside looking in, so
that's another.
You know, I've felt like thatin some of the environments I've
(21:47):
been in myself and a lack ofacknowledgement, right, so you
may be giving it your all andyou just don't feel like you're
ever acknowledged for it, eitherjust in words, praise or
whatever, or maybe anopportunity or compensation
right, or maybe an opportunityor compensation right and some
(22:10):
other contributing factors areif you're being, like, bullied
or mistreated.
I think that is an emergingtrend that is very disturbing,
that I've witnessed in some ofthe environments I've been in,
and that some of my clients havetalked about Inconsistent
compensation, maybe acrossgenders or just even within a
team and role.
I know, like I've heard a statlike the younger, gen Z and
(22:32):
stuff.
They're very open about theircompensation and I think that's
a good thing.
I do, like I think the secrecyaround what we earn or even what
companies are willing to payfor a position needs to.
It's just a very antiquatedthing and I know I can't
remember what state, but itmight be Colorado Like there's
(22:52):
one state where there's laws nowand you'll see, like some job
postings I think it is Coloradoand some other states have just
adopted it too, or othercompanies have adopted it,
especially if they're like haveemployees in Colorado.
Sometimes they just do itacross the board but they're
starting to say, hey, this jobwill pay between this and this.
That's very helpful because youknow you can check last or
(23:16):
whatever, and you may or may notbe getting the best information
, but when we go into a job, Ifeel like they should be paying
what they want to pay for thatjob, regardless of gender or
ethnicity, or which college didyou go to, or whatever.
Like, if you're hiring theperson for the role, pay them a
(23:36):
fair market wage, right.
So compensation is a big thing.
And then if you have a cultureon the team where there's like
biases or favoritism, that's abig contributor too.
But there's other things as wellthat I think have been around a
lot longer than some of thesenewer things.
One of them is unmanageableworkloads, so they're laying
(24:00):
people off and not replacingroles, and people have more on
their plates than they canmanage.
Unclear communication from amanager right, manager's central
to this happiness thing.
Lack of manager support there'smanager again and unrealistic
time pressures associated withthe things you want to do.
So, according to the Galluppoll, there's lots of
(24:24):
contributing things, some ofwhich the company in general can
control around compensation andtransparency and creating a
good, respectful, you know,culture at work.
But managers have a centralrole and unfortunately there's
some amazing ones but there'sprobably more not so amazing
(24:47):
ones and this Gallup poll andother HR polls say that 70% of
the variance in how people feelabout their job or how engaged
they are in their work is adirect reflection of their
immediate leader supervisorright.
(25:08):
So for those of you who managepeople out there, you might be
in the middle of chaos, and ifyou are, I get it Like I've been
there.
I've managed people in most ofthe roles that I have, but I
will say this to you roles thatI have.
(25:29):
But I will say this to you thatyou may not be getting what you
need from your manager, but Ibelieve it is still your
responsibility to try to givewhat you're looking for yourself
to the people who report to you, and I have found personally
that when you're focused ontrying to clear things up for
them, trying to solve theproblems on your team, trying to
make everyday work, um, notonly more tolerable but ideally
(25:55):
more fun, like I think businessis fun.
I think I mean marketing.
I think what I do can andshould be incredibly fun and it
has a direct impact on how wellthe business is doing.
But too many times I see leaderswho feel, I think, largely
(26:17):
marginalized by their leadershipand so they give nothing to
their own direct reports andthey feel completely fine with
that.
And I'm not going to tell youit's easy, it's not.
But what is the answer?
It's not to just opt out.
Not to just opt out.
(26:41):
I think the answer is innerleadership, and this applies to
both the manager, who managespeople, and the individual
employee.
Inner leadership is where it'sat, and there are four things
that I want to offer up that youcan do and, I think, should do,
whether you're an individualcontributor or a manager, and
(27:04):
they can significantly changehow you feel about your job.
First one is make sure thatevery day, you're working on
your own self-concept.
Now, this is something that isvery central to what we work on
in my monthly membership.
(27:25):
You are the product of how youthink about yourself, and when
your self-concept is high, whenyou feel good about yourself,
when you are working on how youthink about yourself, when you
show up at work reflecting inhow you're presenting yourself,
(27:50):
you know if that's aligned withyour own self-image, which is
high, and you go into yourworkday every day believing in
yourself and doing your best, nomatter what's going on around
you, no matter how uncertainthings are, it's going to be a
lot better for you, right?
(28:11):
You're not only going to showup and do better work, you're
going to feel better when you doit.
And it's important how we feelevery day, because all of the
behaviors we have that we feelare self sabotaging or
undermining things likeprocrastination, perfectionism,
(28:33):
overeating, over drinking, overNetflixing, over spending, all
of the consumption behaviorsthat are, you know, sort of over
we over index on all of thatcomes from how we feel, right.
And so if we are in anenvironment where either the
(28:53):
larger culture of a company is aproblem or our direct manager
is a problem, or both right, ormaybe the employees that we work
with are a problem, we can'tcount on the things outside of
us to be fixed or to always beworking in our favor, and we
can't allow the course of ourlife to be redirected or
(29:18):
impacted in a negative waybecause of what a bunch of other
people are doing.
The answer is to stand firm inthe face of that, and I'm not
going to say that it's easy, butit does start inside.
It's not going to be fixed bythe job change.
Again, I think and we'll talkin a minute about doing
(29:40):
something new I'm a big believerin the job change, but I do not
ever want you to do that tomake yourself happy.
Even if it's about more money,do it to make more money, but
money alone is not going to makeyou happier.
You might think.
It is, just like we sometimesthink, that if we lose the 25
pounds we'll be happier.
I promise you you won't rightor you won't.
(30:03):
It's very temporary, veryfleeting.
You're going to be happier whenyou feel better about yourself.
So, self-concept first, andanything that goes wrong, any
failure you have, anyquestionable feedback you might
get, any difficulties that ariseat work.
(30:24):
Don't let any of that sink inand attach to how you feel about
yourself or what you think yourown self-worth is.
Do not wonder whether you'regood enough.
You are good enough and if youhave any doubt about that, I
need you to join me in nextlevel, because that is what we
(30:45):
work on first how do we feelabout us, right, and then we
start working on all the otherstuff.
So, if you're interested inthat, the purposefulcareercom
forward, slash next level andsign up for the waiting list,
because the doors are going toopen soon and in 2025, I'm
thinking about just keeping themopen all the time, because I'm
(31:07):
always getting messages frompeople asking me if they can
join, and I just want to make iteasy.
So I think I'm going to make itevergreen in 2025 and you can
join for 57 a month and thedoors are opening soon, so keep
your eye open for that.
So, self-concept first, andthat way it doesn't matter what
(31:28):
anyone else says or even whathappens.
You know you're good, right.
The second is when you feel goodabout yourself, it's easier to
advocate for yourself.
So in a tough environment thisis number two you have to
advocate for yourself.
You cannot wait for your bossto do it and that you can
(31:50):
advocate with your boss.
You can advocate for yourselfwith other hiring managers
within that company.
You can advocate for yourselfwith HR if you need to, if you
have a problem working with yourboss or if there's a problem
that needs to be addressed by HR.
Number two advocating foryourself is critically important
.
Too many people stay silent andput up with it and shrink down
(32:15):
into misery and make the problemabout them, make it be like,
well, this wouldn't be happening, if it must be my fault or
whatever.
Advocating for yourself isincredibly important.
If you have a great leader.
They'll just do it becausethey're a great leader, but you
can't count on it and I don'twant you to wait for it.
(32:36):
So it's important, and it'seasier to do that when you're
coming from a place of a strongself-concept, when you believe
in yourself.
Right, so that inner work isincredibly important, and that's
where inner leadership comes uptoo.
It's just even knowing that.
(32:57):
Okay, I'm having this problemand I can't seem to solve it
myself.
Advocating for yourself is aboutasking yourself the question
now, what do we need to do next?
Right, if it's a problem thatyou try to solve yourself and
you can't now, it's time toenlist the help of others.
That's about reaching out andknocking on doors and telling
(33:22):
people you need help, whetherthey're peers, managers, other
managers that don't directlymanage you, or even HR.
Very, very important.
And I can promise you, even ifyou have a really bad boss, the
company is not looking to haveyou leave.
It is very expensive for themto lose employees, and so I'm
(33:46):
sure that they would want theopportunity to fix whatever the
problem is or to help with that,to make your workday more
tolerable, so that you stayright.
So advocating for yourself isnumber two.
Sometimes I've just noticedwith my clients and even the
people I've managed a lot oftimes, like you know, other
(34:10):
people from other departmentssometimes will seek me out and
I'll have a mentoringrelationship with them.
When I'm in a company and youknow a lot of them just feel
like it's pointless, like thisis my lot in life and I'm just
going to be miserable, and sothey don't even think about
something like, hey, have youtalked to your boss?
And if you get a no, have youtalked to their boss?
(34:30):
Or have you talked to someonein another department who might
be hiring?
Right, get out there andadvocate for yourself.
Like this is about your qualityof life.
Right, if the boss says, no,great, go find someone who
doesn't you know very, veryimportant.
And number three is buildingconnections with others.
(34:52):
Like feeling like you belong ina place is really important and
sometimes we get that naturallyfrom you know the dynamics of a
team that we're in or we arelucky and just sort of make some
quick connections on the jobpeople to go have lunch with or
people to confide in or go havecocktails with after work or
(35:14):
whatever.
But it's really important tohave a sense of belonging and
community.
And so if you don't have thatwhere you are, I encourage you
to go into work this week andlook around and ask yourself who
are the people that you couldintroduce yourself to.
What are some of theorganizations or the teams or
(35:37):
the employee resource groups?
Those are a great place wherethere are people who are
interested in the same things orpursuing the same things that
you are, whatever, and thatcould become a source of feeling
connected, more connected tothat workplace.
So try to figure out, if yourculture is a challenged one, how
(36:01):
you can give yourself astronger feeling of belonging in
that workplace right, and ifyou don't, if you're a hundred
percent remote or whatever, tolook for ways, when you're a
hundred percent remote orwhatever, to look for ways, when
you're virtually connectingwith people, to to be more
(36:22):
creative with that.
To take a second right beforeyou dive into the agenda, if
it's a one-on-one thing, to getto know them a little bit more,
to find out who they are andwhat they care about.
Like little things like thatcan help you feel like you know
you've got a little bit of athread connecting you in to the
(36:46):
vibe of the workplace.
It's nothing worse than feelinglike you're just sitting
outside of it and that you'rebeing there doesn't matter.
You don't care about it, right?
So that's number three, andthen number four is one that I'm
going to talk about more nextweek, but I'm just going to hit
on it here, and that is considerexploring something new.
(37:07):
More than half of US workers in2020, so in the middle of the
pandemic, when the world waskind of, you know, all of our
life cards got tossed up in theair by that little virus more
than half of us consideredmaking a career change in 2020.
Now you would think that, nowthat the world has settled down
(37:29):
a little bit a little bit atleast the pandemic has that the
number would be going down.
Now the number is closer to 60%.
60% of us this year arethinking about doing something
completely different than whatwe're doing right now.
And we don't usually, becausewhen we get to mid-career, we've
(37:52):
got life, we've got obligations, people counting on us, things
like that, and so you know wedon't do it because we're
worried about financial security, or really, 40% of us say we
don't even know what we'd wantto do.
We know we'd like to dosomething else, but we don't
know what.
That is Right, and so I justwant to introduce you to the
(38:12):
idea that if this is you and youfeel like the job that you
chose or the career path thatyou chose when you graduated
from school has just run itscourse and that you're kind of
over it, it's time for somethingnew, then right, and you don't
have to just quit your job andtake this ginormous risk.
(38:33):
You don't have to put yourfamily's wellbeing in jeopardy
or your own.
You could pursue something newand explore it and make some
decisions through thatexploration about what you might
want to do next, and go into itwith your eyes open and with a
plan.
And that is why, when I sawthese stats, I decided a couple
(38:57):
of months ago that I was goingto introduce a second offering.
So you know, I talk about itall the time.
My core membership is a monthlymembership 57 a month and it's
called Next Level and I teachinner leadership and I'm still
going to have that because it'svery important.
(39:17):
But there are 60% of us thatwant to do something else.
So I'm introducing a new programthat I'm calling the mid-career
edit in June, and it is goingto be specifically about
figuring out what you don't likeabout what you're doing, what
(39:39):
you might want to explore, andthen figuring out a plan for how
you might go do that right.
It could be about changingcareer paths.
It could be about starting aside hustle or your own business
.
Those are going to be kind ofthe three career paths I think
people will probably choose.
And the beauty of this is it'sgoing to be a six-month
(40:04):
structured program where we'regoing to go within and do a lot
of inner exploratory and you'regoing to do a lot of inner work
and some strategizing and you'regoing to come out the other
side with some answers and Ithink it's going to be really
exciting.
So I'm doing the mid-careeredit because I think there's
(40:26):
nothing worse than having yourinner self tell you that you've
checked all the boxes you needto check in this one career path
and that you still keepyourself stuck in that career
path.
I want people to feel empoweredand confident trying something
(40:47):
new, and you can't just do thatat mid-career without a plan.
Most of us right, most of usneed a plan and we want to be
sure that the thing that we'respinning up if it's a new
business or whatever, or even ifit's just hey, I'm shifting
from this functional area tothis other one, or if I'm going
back to school to become anattorney.
(41:07):
Whatever I'm doing that, I'mdoing it because I know that's
what I want to do next and thatthat will carry me for a while,
a good while, in my career.
So I'm super excited to behelping such a large percentage
of people who might feel stuckand I can help them move into a
(41:31):
different phase of their life,because I feel like mid-career
is where we have.
Most of us have that calling.
We're kind of over it and wewant to do something new.
And if we say no to that, westart shutting down, we start
settling Our career stalls, ourearning power stalls, you know,
(41:53):
and we just, I think, shrinkdown and become more miserable
and more miserable because we'redoing something we don't even
want to do anymore.
So listening to that is key andthere's nothing about that that
your manager can help with,right, like you know.
Maybe they can.
If you know the other careerpath, maybe they could help you
(42:15):
network.
You know for that, but it thisis all.
All four of the things that I'vetalked about today are things
that you can control, and that'swhat I like to talk about in
this podcast, because you canhop around and change as many
jobs as many times as cancontrol.
And that's what I like to talkabout in this podcast because
you can hop around and change asmany jobs as many times as you
want.
And I can promise you because Ihave changed jobs I have moved
(42:35):
across the country more timesthan you would ever want to know
and I can promise you that youkind of have the same version of
the problem somewhere else.
The answer is if you want tochange jobs for a set of good
reasons, do it, but don't do itbecause you think you're going
to be happier or that yourproblems are going to be solved,
because even if you walk in andthings are better, they
(42:58):
probably won't stay that way forvery long.
The world is changing too fastand companies have to respond to
that, and so that means thatlayoffs, reorgs, bosses leaving,
like the whole team's beinglaid off, like that is.
That's the world we live in,and the only way to be resilient
(43:19):
enough to go with it and tothrive despite that is by
learning how to lead yourselfthrough these times right, and
the side benefit is, when youlearn to lead yourself, you're
going to be a better leader toothers, and if you're not
already a leader to others, whenpeople recognize how resilient
(43:41):
and gritty and focused you are,despite the crazy that goes on
in most businesses, trust me,you'll be tapped to lead, and
that's good for your your careertrajectory as well.
So I wanted to talk about innerleadership and just some of the
challenges that I see going on,because I do think it's
important, and I think it'simportant to know that, even
(44:03):
though your brain will tell youthat it's easily solved by just
going out and sending out someresumes and getting a job, I can
promise you that's not theanswer.
Look within, strengthen fromwithin, and then you will have
the grit and the resilience tonot only weather any storm, but
to thrive, maybe because of thestorm.
(44:23):
Right, strong people, weatherdownturns very, very well and
they see the opportunity inevery situation that comes.
So that's what I want for you.
So, if everything we talkedabout in this episode sounds
like something you need, I'vegot a very special announcement
(44:43):
to make, and that is I amgetting ready to launch a course
called Inner Leadership thatwill be available in March.
So I'll have more informationon this on my social media this
week, so if you don't alreadyfollow me, go to at the
(45:04):
purposeful career on Instagram.
I'm going to be talking aboutthe course that's coming and if
you would like to get on thewait list, there will be special
discounts and bonuses availableto people who are on my list
already.
So I hope that you'll join mefor that.
Believe me when I tell you thatcourse will change everything
(45:28):
about how you feel aboutyourself and your ability to
control your world around youand make it be something that
resembles what you're lookingfor, because if we wait for
other people to deliver that tous, we're going to be waiting a
very long time and just bychanging the way you think about
yourself and what you believeyour possibilities are, believe
(45:51):
me when I tell you everythingaround you starts to shift to
bring that about.
So be on the lookout this weekin my social media and join me
next week, because we're goingto talk about how to go after
that something new.
And until next time, make it agreat week.
My friends, do you have a lifecoach?
(46:20):
If not, I'd be so honored to beyour coach.
I've created a virtual coachingprogram and monthly membership
called Next Level Inside, wetake the material you hear on
this podcast, study it and thenapply it.
Join me atThePurposefulCareercom backslash
(46:42):
Next Level.
Don't forget theThePurposefulcareercom backslash
next level.
Join me and together we'll makeyour career in life everything
you dream of.
We'll see you there.
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