Let’s go back to some of the questions I raised earlier in this chapter. What does having that life at work look like for you? Is it working on your own schedule? Is it being respected by your peers? Is it having good relations with the people you work with? Is it about growing and learning? Is it about traveling? Is it about sharing what you know? Is it about making a contribution? Is it about having less stress?
Maybe visual images come to mind. Is it like surfing? Climbing a mountain? Being a warrior? Is it about wearing a suit or wearing shorts? Wingtips or flip-flops? Going to work in a limo or traveling by train?
If you could work in this new way, how would your life be better?
As a consultant, I often go to offices and watch the way people work. I observe meetings, interview people, and sometimes I just hang around in the employee lunchroom. That’s one place where I can really understand a company’s culture.
I like to watch how people come and go and walk around the office. Are people happy when they see each other? Do they complain when they talk? Do they blow off steam? Do they laugh? Do they yell at each other?
I always like to find the person in every organization who, no matter what is going on, manages to keep his or her cool and not be undone by the next turn of events. This person always interests me. This is the kind of person I wanted to be.
In your office, is there a person like this? Would you like it to be you?
In Japan, I set out to be the kind of professor who would make a difference in other people’s lives. I had a dream of what I wanted to do, and that’s what I set out to do. I remembered the best teachers I had in high school and the best professors I had at Boston University and the University of Massachusetts, and I wanted to be like those people.
I also wanted to have good relations with colleagues and peers. I wanted to avoid the kind of in-fighting that had almost sunk my career before. I remembered the charged political environment of universities where I had taught in the United States, filled with late-night hushed phone calls and secret tenure votes. When I started in Japan, I focused more on what I wanted to contribute. I didn’t set out to be popular. I wanted to be the kind of professor people would remember.
How about you in your work? Is there something unique, something valuable, you can contribute? Will people remember you? If so, how will they remember you? Think more about your eulogy than your résumé.
As the first American full-time professor at Keio University, I knew all eyes would be on me. My actions were scrutinized, but I looked at it as a great opportunity because I could influence how others saw Americans. I could break any stereotypes other faculty members might have had, and I could follow my own path.
I didn’t know any of the rules of Japanese society or Japanese universities, and I could stake out my own way of doing things. Being an outsider can be a real asset. I was inspired by the story of an outsider who made a real difference through his presence alone.
As a young consultant, I worked with the Boston Public Schools helping to integrate schools that previously had been predominantly white or black. Integration meant redrawing district lines and busing students to schools across town to achieve a more equitable balance of white and black students. There was much opposition to this desegregation that was ordered by the courts. Every day there were violent protests.
Teachers and administrators were afraid for their lives because of bomb threats and Molotov cocktails being hurled at the schools. Many employees felt the senior administrators lacked the will and ability to lead them through the crisis. And then rumors started flying that a new leader, Bob Wood, would soon be leading the Boston Public Schools.
Dr. Robert Wood had been the U.S. secretary of housing and urban development and the president of the University of Massachusetts, and now he was to be superintendent of the Boston Public Schools. The job had been previously held by political appointees, many of whom were considered incompetent and not fully committed to integration.
And then even before Bob Wood arrived, there seemed to be a transformation in the school headquarters where I was consulting. Almost to a person, the teachers, administrators, and staff, all of whom had once looked beaten-down and defeated, now stood taller and prouder, knowing they were about to have a leader who would make a difference. The staff started talking about how they wanted to make integration succeed. They showed up for work on time and stayed late. Even before he was officially sworn in, Bob Wood was an instrument of change because of his reputation, because of who he was. He was the message.
Many wondered why he would want the job, but he saw the superintendent position as an opportunity to make a real difference in the city where he lived. His ability to influence was not because of his PhD. It was not because he had taken any course on changing large-scale organizations. It was not because he was coming in with a “change program.” It was just him; he could get things moving even before his first day. He came in to do a job and that’s exactly what he would focus on. And best of all, people knew it.
Do you know anyone who has that kind of impact by virtue of their presence alone, by just showing up?
Seeing Bob Wood’s ability to move people because of who he was motivated me to become such a person. It was seeing what Bob Wood could do even before he started his job that propelled me to become someone who could influence others. Gandhi is often quoted as saying, “You must be the change you want to see in the world.”6 I took that slogan as my own.
Who you are is more important than the degrees you have. The degrees might get you a job, but that’s not what will help you get things done. Nor will these degrees keep you engaged in the work you do. I’ve seen students and clients pay money to earn more and more certificates to add to their portfolios and résumés, but I recommend building a strong foundation of self-knowledge first before adding to your list of certificates. There is no end to the degrees or skills you can accumulate without doing what is most important: connecting to yourself.
All of that time I spent looking at the faculty catalogs I wrote about in the first chapter of this book made me realize it’s not the degrees that make the difference. It’s you. Of course, you need a specific level of education for certain jobs. You can’t be a lawyer without a law degree, and many businesses will not hire you unless you’re a college grad. But it’s you, not your degrees, that will make you effective.
There is an obsession worldwide with obtaining more certificates and degrees and adding more skills to your résumé. Go to the gates outside any university campus in Japan and you will see a small army of people handing out flyers to undergraduate students. The flyers advertise cram schools for job hunting, classes for job interviews, schools for taking the Graduate Record Exam or the GMAT, or for becoming a CPA. And there are professors and counselors who will tell the students they should take as many of those courses and classes as they can.
There is nothing wrong with having these skills and certificates, but when I’m asked if they’re a good idea and are necessary, I simply say, “Know what you want first.” That’s the place to start.
How about you?
What do you want work to be?
What do you want to create at work?
What if you looked at work in a different way?
What if you looked at work as a place where you could make the dreams of your life come true?
What if you focused on the kind of life you would like to have at work?
What
