Episode 82: 3 Powerful Exercises to Find Your Career Path

Jul 15

So if you have a team meeting or an offsite, or you can find some time to build this in on the next meeting, you can do it virtually or in person. I'm going to explain how to do it in person, but of course, you could do something simple like Google Forms or Microsoft survey, but really, basic, you're going to look at every person on your team, get a piece of paper.

I usually do it with card stock because people like to keep this when they're done, but you put everyone's names on top of the piece of paper. And then you basically sit in a circle and you pass your sheet to the right and you have about a minute to write something nice about the person on that paper.

And then you just keep changing it every minute or so until it gets back to the original owner. And I will tell you there is always resistance from certain team members. It's just going to happen. Some of you may be listening to this and think, I would never do this. It is such a short. Simple free exercise that is so powerful.

So be a leader, force the resistors to power through, and write something nice about the person on the paper. And every time I've done this, the energy shifts, like within the first five minutes, people get really into it. They get focused. It shifts the whole. Kind of a state of gratitude towards their teammates.

And then at the end of the exercise, you receive this piece of paper that is filled with the qualities and compliments of what people think of you, especially when it comes to work.

Hello, and welcome back to Prospecting on Purpose. I have had this theme that keeps reappearing in my life lately, and it's all around my adolescence and things that are just jarring memories that I have not thought of in 10, 20, or 30 years. And it has been really fascinating to see the parallels between my interests and passions as a child and how they're showing up in my career.

And also look at the people who influenced me growing up and how those values have translated into the professional that I am today. So for this episode, I'll be sharing just a quick backstory about how this became an episode topic and why, and then we'll cover 3 exercises. Two are solo that you can do on your own.

And we'll end with 1 of my favorite team exercises. I recently found a card box and I barely remember doing this, but apparently I saved every card from my 1st communion, which I think happened around age 7, all the way up to my high school graduation. And I could not believe how organized little Sarah was.

I had them all sorted by, uh, Holiday cards or which birthday it was. Ages 10 to 13 were particularly funny. I had multiple scrapbooks that were in this box and they were hysterical to read through. There were also some teenager journals and those were very awkward to read through. I had saved letters of recommendation from my high school teachers for scholarship applications for college.

I found my high school transcript for all four years and There were a lot of, C's and a couple D's that I do not remember in physics and chemistry, so it's probably why I didn't become a scientist, but going through this box of stuff, it took me hours to go through it all just to read them, to decide which to keep and which to toss.

There were some tears from, you know, letters from my grandparents who are no longer with us. But the reason why it was an interesting exercise is it made me understand that some of the things that make up who we are as a person never change. Maybe we get jaded, you know, because of adulthood and massive responsibilities and all that, of course, but the main core,

Values and interests and how we show up to others in our lives stay with us. And when we get into the workforce, if we can embrace them and harness them and play to our strengths, that's when we start to see alchemy happen and authenticity shine through. So in case you don't have a card box, spending all of your adolescence, I've put together a couple of exercises for reflection.

And then at the end, I'll share my favorite team exercise. I've done it about. Four times throughout my career. It's super powerful. So the first exercise we're going to go through is I'm just going to list about seven questions. I think maybe six or seven questions and you can just listen and think you can pause this and, and think longer, or you can journal it out, whatever you want, but just taking the time to start to think about this because this kept coming up when I was reading through the cards.

So the first question is, what did you want to be when you grew up? Apparently, I really wanted to be an actress when I was younger, then a writer, then the editor of a magazine or an interior designer, and all of those things. I definitely incorporated it into some level of my career and business. So question one is what did you want to be when you grew up and do any of those skills translate into what you're doing now?

Second question, who were the main adults in your family who influenced you? What did they do for work? What did you learn from watching them? Third question, who were the main teachers who influenced you? What were the subjects they taught? What was your relationship dynamic with them? Why did you enjoy learning from them?

Did you like them because of the subject or the content they were presenting? Or because of the person that they were? Or because of their teaching style? Or because of friends you had in the class? Like, why did you enjoy them? Fourth question. Who were your friends growing up? What type of activities did you do?

What are some of the fun birthday parties you remember Or, plays you put on? Fifth question. As you got older, maybe junior or senior year of high school, what were the elective classes you chose to take? I was always in plays from a young age, and I found in those scrapbooks that I had saved a lot of the different programs from the different plays over the years.

And I am proud to say I often had some leading roles, but never singing roles, unfortunately. But now when I think about Having to present training in front of clients or be on camera to record a podcast interview, those skills, and this somewhat performative nature of those activities in work, I can look back and see the plays really helped with that.

I was also on the journalism staff. I was the editor in chief of the high school yearbook and looking back at that time and reading some of the cards, we'll talk about it in a minute here. I had a lot of comments about my leadership style and how people wanted to learn from me because I, I did the work.

Like, so looking back at those elective classes. What were the elective classes you chose to take and how are they showing up in your career? Sixth question. What were the extracurricular activities you did outside of school? If your parent's friends asked you, what do you like to do for fun? What was your answer?

Did you play sports that taught you how to be a good team player? Maybe you played video games with your friends, which now helps you solve problems at work. Maybe you called your crush and you had to have to talk to his mom first because cell phones were not invented and you had to call the landline and talk to the mom.

Maybe that taught you how to make cold calls. We had a group of boys in my grade start a medieval combat club, and this is probably, they would get dressed up in protective gear and make medieval weapons, and they'd have battles out on the football field. And this probably won't surprise you, but some of them became CEOs of companies doing some really amazing things.

Taking the time to remember the things that shaped your adulthood is absolutely worth it because it's important to remember who you were before who you were told to be. So that's exercise one, some self-reflections on questions about growing up. The next exercise, exercise two is something you can think about now, but if you were to receive cards from people today. I think what was interesting about this exercise is I was reading these cards and a lot of the same qualities of my strengths were coming up in the cards.

So if you think about if you were to receive a hundred cards from different people in your life, Clients, family members, loved ones, friends, and colleagues, what would they be saying about you? What would they write in your card that are your greatest qualities and strengths? And I recommend you take some time to sit with this and write them down.

If we can recognize our strengths and remember what makes us special, so, examples are here. Are you kind? Are you thoughtful? Warm? Honest? Direct? Detail oriented? Tech-savvy? Are you funny? Are you patient? Are you silly? Are you serious? Do people feel really comfortable talking to you about things? How are people engaging with you and valuing your part of that relationship?

And if you take the time to think about this and you develop kind of a list of strengths and assets that you have that people value, this is something you're going to have as a tool to look at when you're feeling down, or if you're experiencing imposter syndrome, or if you're kicking yourself for not getting something done. Understanding these qualities about yourself serves as a tool of resilience and positive momentum.

And this is a different type of self-love than just taking a bubble bath or going on a run. You are worth taking the time to really sit with and understand what makes you special and unique. And then our third and final exercise. It is one of my favorite things to do in a group. So if you have a team meeting or an offsite, or you can find some time to build this in on the next meeting, you can do it virtually or in person.

I'm going to explain how to do it. In-person, but of course, you could do something simple like Google Forms or Microsoft survey, but basic. You're going to look at every person on your team and get a piece of paper. I usually do it with card stock because people like to keep this when they're done, but you put everyone's names on top of the piece of paper and then you basically sit in a circle and you pass your sheet to the right and you have about a minute to write something nice about the person on that paper.

And then you just keep changing it every minute or so until it gets back to the original owner and I will tell you, when you do this, there is always resistance from certain team members. It's just going to happen. Some of you may be listening to this and think I would never do this. It is such a short. Simple free exercise that is so powerful.

So, be a leader, force the resistors to power through, and write something nice about the person, on the paper. And every time I've done this, the energy shifts, like, within the first 5 minutes, people get really into it. They get focused. It shifts the whole kind of a state of gratitude towards their teammates.

And then at the end of the exercise, you receive this piece of paper that is filled with the qualities and compliments of what people think of you, especially when it comes to work. So it's something that I'm holding up on, on the YouTube video version of this. I'm holding up one from my high school yearbook that I led our team through.

And it really like, even reading it now, 20-something years in the future, it's really hitting me in a way that is really powerful. So this is something that boosts morale and camaraderie, and it reminds us of who we are. Outside of what we do is valuable.

That's what we bring to the table. So, the last thing I'm going to leave us with is that reading these cards was like going through a time capsule, quite literally, but also in the sense that we as a society, don't do that many tangible things anymore.

People don't send cards. Everything's digital. I think it's time for us to start finding ways to get back to expressing our care for others in more analog or tangible ways. So it can still be digital, but for example, I found a bunch of mixed CDs in the box that people had made for me, but I also have Spotify playlists.

The people have made it for me. I forget, but sometimes I'll make a Spotify playlist for others. Digital isn't bad, but let's find ways to be creative about how we show care for others. And it starts with caring for ourselves. And I hope that this episode gave you some new ways to think about that. I appreciate you taking the time to listen.

If you have not yet done so please feel free to subscribe and leave a review. Thanks so much for tuning in and I'll see you next week.