The full diagnostic

It happened a few years back. I was very disappointed with my work environment. I had decided that I would be a positive change agent in my job, but the company I was working for had become impervious to my influence. As my partner Maurice would put it, I had woken up my organization’s immune system, and my attempts to make a difference were systematically falling apart. 

“Fair enough,” I said to myself, “I just have to find a job in a company that wants to do things differently and would be willing to pay me for it!“.

And quite honestly, it was much easier than I thought. In fact, the position presented itself to me, and I didn’t even have to look for it. I was lucky. Or rather, I simply happened to be visible and present at the right place, and at the right time.

For reasons out of my control (and also more or less out of the control of the company coveting me), it took a few weeks to receive an actual offer, but they told me it would be the case.

1st symptom : I knew I had to leave

I least, I knew I had to go. A lot of people are asking themselves questions very often, for far too long. 

Should I quit? Would I really be better off? What if I’m wrong? What if it doesn’t work? What if it’s the wrong choice? Will I have to start looking for another job again? Will I be able to come back to my old position? Will I really be happier? What if I suck at my new job?

All these questions are quite legitimate. Some people will try to over-rationalize to know if they should really change job (and I did it myself). Using comparative tables, we write down our criterias by order of importance, we give marks to our current job and potential jobs and compare totals, we weight the pros and cons… 

I think that doing these activities speaks volume. If you’ve gotten there, it means you are very doubtful. If you are doubtful, it means something is wrong. My partner once wrote, in an article on antifragility, that we rationalize when we try to convince ourselves of a course of action that we know isn’t good. If you’re trying to convince yourself of keeping your job, there’s a good chance that something, somewhere, is wrong. 

What I mean by that is if your current job was fully satisfying for you, you probably wouldn’t ask yourselves these questions. It doesn’t mean you can’t take a look what’s out there, but to seriously consider changing job, that doesn’t lie. You don’t have to jump on the first opportunity you see, but maybe you need to admit that something is missing. 

By the way, while your questions are totally legitimate, let’s be honest: nobody has the answers to your questions, not even your potential future employer. I recommend to simply invest this energy in other activities that are not related to trying to predict the future, or to control the chaos in your life. The only way you could get those answers would be to take the plunge. Better regret doing it than regret not taking the opportunity.

2nd symptom : The Emotional Earthquake

Once my decision was made, I kinda had to announce it to my employer. Since my first day at the new job wasn’t that close, I had a week or two to make the announcement.

Not an easy task. Really hard, actually. You see, I was leaving my job so that I could make a difference in the ways people are treated on a daily basis at work, and to do so, I had to abandon my two teams who were in a really unenviable position. They were really going through some rough patch. 

For readers who don’t know me personally, know that I have a very hard time to living in contradiction with my own values. It’s simply intolerable to me. As you’re about to see, it makes me sick, literally. 

So, you can imagine that the thought of abandoning my colleagues to their fate so that I can go and “change the world of work” created an intense clash of values of unequalled proportions. But my choice was made, and I had to announce it, and the more I waited, the more stressful it became. And the less I wanted to do it.

One night, which I remember as if it was yesterday, I was doing a puzzle with some Star Wars music in background. And all of a sudden : ouch! I felt a sharp pain in the sternum. Exactly the kind of pain you never want to deal with, ever. I drank a glass of water, and it went away. But I couldn’t really act like it didn’t happen…

At the hospital, I received an ECG test (electrocardiogram) and they took some blood samples. “Everything seems fine”. I’m sent back home, after promising to set an appointment with a cardiologist. 

The said cardiologist made me pass an ECG test as well, and sent me to the Montreal Heart Institute so that I can pass a stress test on a treadmill. Again, everything is fine. 

“Did you experienced periods of stress caused by emotional dilemmas, or did you have to make a really difficult decision, recently?”

I bet you can guess what my answer was.

All of this for… not much

I’m not going to say that my anxiety and my unrest wasn’t legitimate, far from it. But at the end of the day, announcing my departure to my employer and my colleagues was much less difficult that I thought it would be. “I’m not surprised!”, “At last!”, “Go and change the world!”, they told me. Except my boss. He didn’t see it coming at all… Surprisingly. 

In the end, in my new job, it was clear as day after 2 weeks : It was definitely worth it to accept this job opportunity. In my new position, I did what I had to do for a year, and then I announced, with much less anxiety and stress, that I was joining my friends in their adventures, and that from now on, I’d be a consultant and an entrepreneur.

On not doing the same mistakes

I’m not writing this just for the fun of talking about it. Well, I’m not really hiding this episode of my life, and I like to recount it to whoever wants to hear it. But I’m writing it here in hope that not too many people will follow my tracks in a similar adventure. 

I learned many things in this story : 

• No job or employer deserves that we make ourselves sick 
• If a company can’t survive without you, eh, maybe it doesn’t deserve to survive
• The more you do something, the less difficult and painful it becomes
• Of course, it can be sad and disappointing when an employee quits. But remember that these companies which you hesitate to leave, they wouldn’t end up on a treadmill at the Montreal Heart Institute for a stress test because of chest pain while they wonder if they should let you go or not. They call it a “business decision”. Well, announcing that you accepted a new opportunity is also a business decision, nothing more.

Are you in a similar situation?

One of the LinkedIn status that inspired me to write this article gives excellent tips to help you know if you are making the right choice. 

In the status, Annie-Claude Pineault, a coach in career transition, suggest a list of questions you can try answering if you are considering changing jobs. These questions will bring much more answers than the ones I listed earlier. In my own certainty, maybe I could have avoided so much stress if I had this list of questions handy. 

Here are those questions : 

1. How does this opportunity propels you towards your dream life?
2. How is it linked to your priorities?
3. Does it respect your values?
4. How does it harmonize with your environment and your lifestyle?
5. What need does this change serve?
6. How could you learn more on the tasks and opportunities offered?

Those are simple questions that might help you avoid over-rationalizing, or to try finding answers to questions to which nobody could ever answer. Or to try, in vain, to have a definitive control on your future (which is, let’s be honest, absolutely counterproductive, there are way too many variables in life to really have control on anything). 

I wish you the very best in your new job! Go get them, tiger!

Olivier Fortier

Owner of Primos Populi, partner and coach at Moabi. As a former manager, I prefer to use a “people first, the rest will follow” kind of approach. My favorite topics are organizational culture, safe work environments, and lowering the center of gravity of the decision making process. I cultivate people’s awesomeness.

www.primospopuli.com

Having been on both sides of the hiring process, as a jobseeker and as a hiring manager, my discussions with candidates from all walks of life leave little room for interpretation: hiring processes are really painful. So much that some people think of it as a conveyor belt filled with candidates, who are sorted out by robotic arms that reject those who are not “perfect by the standards”.

Unless you check all the items from the list of requirements (let’s be serious, it never happens), and with the growing number of atypical candidates (I am myself black belt in atypicalness), it’s not easy to stand out with the tools and reflexes we normally have.

Basically, what I propose is to invest your time and efforts so that recruiters and managers come to you, rather than having to go to them.

In short, to work on your professional brand.

It’s all about not following the herd

Let’s not be afraid to name the problems. Maintaining and sending a resume, or keeping a LinkedIn profile up to date is within anybody’s reach. The same goes for the thousands of debilitating application forms that can be filled in to be in companies’ databases. (“I just sent my resume, why do I have to copy and paste all its content into a form?”)

Even if it takes time and effort, everyone can do that. And the best way to blend into a herd is to disguise yourself as sheep and bleat.

So the first step is to understand and accept that we can not just do the same as others, or do the bare minimum. First of all, nobody was ever able to change anything, including their own predicaments, by doing like everybody else. Also, why would a company be satisfied with those who are content with doing the bare minimum? Yes, you will need to invest time and effort. Yes, it’s not always pleasant. But you will get much better results. And you will have an influence on your future: you will be an actor or an actress in your job search, not a passive victim waiting for the favor of being chosen.

Over time, with my experiene and my interactions with people from all walks of life, I’ve come up with a list of tips to increase one’s professional brand, and be able to stand out, especially when looking for a job.

1. Adopt a growth mindset

This step is unavoidable and necessary for everything that follows in this article. None of the tips I will give you here will work if you indulge in a fixed mindset. You must remove your blinkers, and ignore those little thoughts suggesting that you can not do this or that.

In short, we need to stop putting spokes in our own wheels, learn to live with our impostor syndrome and even give it a good lesson. We will talk about it later. All the results you will get will be because you will have tried something new.

2. Surround yourself with people who do what you do and who believe what you believe

It’s not just about networking. By surrounding yourself with people who do the same thing as you, it’s almost inevitable that it will generate very interesting discussions, you will develop your curiosity, you will see with whom you have the most affinities, and it would not be surprising if you embark on some projects with some of those people.

In the end, you will end up being known to your peers, who will think of you when they hear that someone is looking for an expert in your field. And this group of people will certainly become your main audience, if you apply point # 4 of this article.

LinkedIn is a great way to develop this kind of network. When I became a Scrum Master in 2015, the first thing I did was add to my network all the Scrum Masters I could find in Montreal. Not only has it brought me a lot since then, but I have been able to bring them a lot as well.

Showing up at conferences, meetups, or events related to your expertise (many are free) is also a great way to make sure that people make a mental association between you and your expertise. This is not to be neglected.

3. Network strategically

Here we fall a little more in tangible action, especially following the previous step, and it could prove beneficial faster than my other advices. When you have found a lot of people doing what you do, and you have started to develop interesting relationships with some of them, you can certainly leverage this to your advantage.

For example, imagine that you have identified 5 people who seem to work in a healthy and interesting environment, you can ask them to put you in touch with their boss, their manager. Once this is done, offer this person to have a 15 minute call, or have a coffee with you.

First, the fact that you have been referred by an employee works in your favor. You do not have to say that you are looking for a job: you meet them to discuss the challenges that the market offers in your field of expertise, or values that you have in common. You can also say that you need an opinion about their perception of the current market, and see what they hope for the future.

Whether it’s a phone call or a coffee, you’ll have the opportunity to have a human touch first, and also ask them at the very end “Could you refer me to one or two people in your network with whom you share values and whom I could contact?”

This is when your network starts working for you. It is very rare that a person with whom you have created a tangible relationship will refuse to help you.

What will it bring you that your resume won’t

Let’s be honest, no one remembers a resume, unless it is more than extraordinary. However, people will remember how they felt in your presence, or when talking with you.

By meeting managers who vibrate on the same frequency as you, they will certainly remember you. Try to create a long-term relationship with them. When the time comes, they can put you in direct contact with people from their company when a position opens, and even recommend you. It is important to do this at all times, not just when looking for a new job.

4. Create relevant content about your expertise

There are many ways to do this, and I will give you several, ranked by increasing level of required efforts.

a) Share articles related to your values and beliefs

It’s certainly the easiest way to go. Find articles that make you tick, that talk about ways to solve problems that you regularly encounter, and share them with as many people as possible (or just in a LinkedIn post), and explain why you agree.

This generates excellent discussions, you will see who in your network shares your values, and you can engage in more serious relationships with these people.

And about the people who write these articles that you share, what prevents you from contacting them too? Who knows who they could put you in contact with? I swear, people who write articles bite very rarely, and like to help their readers 🙂

What will it bring you that your resume won’t

It’s a great way to share your values with recruiters, managers, and other decision-makers in your network. Not very easy to put our beliefs and values in a resume. By sharing stories that resonate with you, it’s easier to understand on what frequency you vibrate!

Personally, I have been contacted a few times by managers (and even a VP), from companies that were quite in demand, simply because I had shared some publications they liked. I had a coffee with them, and we discussed our plans for the future. One of these meetings, which turned into philosophical discussion, was eventually considered as an interview, and I was offered a job a few days later. None of these people asked to see my resume.

b) Post Q & A about your expertise on social media

This is something I have only been doing recently. Since 2018, I have been responding quite regularly to questions on Quora. Although this allowed me to grow my network internationally, I realized that these answers could bring a lot of value to my local network, so I started doing Q & A style publications on LinkedIn.

Until now, it has been very beneficial to me. First, the number of shares of my publications is higher than anything I’ve managed to do so far. I see very well who vibrates at the same frequency as me in my network, and each time I publish, I have several connection requests in the days that follow.

What will it bring you that your resume won’t

This opens a window directly to your expertise, your knowledge, your beliefs. This provides much more tangible proof of the expertise you are putting forward. Between someone who only has a resume, and someone who has a resume and who displays his expertise in this way, you have the advantage. The only flaw is that LinkedIn posts, even if they can be found on your profile, are quite ephemeral. People need to be active in order to see them. That does not mean it’s not worth it!

c) Write articles related to your expertise

More demanding in terms of time and efforts, writing articles on the realities of your field of expertise can really help you out of anonymity.

The first thing that many people will face is their impostor syndrome. “I do not have the authority to write on this topic.” Nobody will give you permission! Besides, nobody will come to save you either. Yes, it can be scary to write, to face criticism, and to risk being contradicted by people who may have more expertise than you.

If you are determined to adopt a growth mindset, this should not stop you. Make short experiments. Start with topics you master very well. Create articles from experiences you have lived. No one can contradict you about the way you gained your experience.

An easy way to start writing is to draw inspiration from one of your professional pains. Did you solve a problem that bothered you? Write what you did! It will inspire others who are in the same situation, and if people with more experience read your article, they can even give you great advice. It’s a win-win situation.

LinkedIn articles, or blogs like mine, can be great business cards. Very often, in concluding a discussion with someone I have just met, I offer to send them 2 or 3 articles I wrote, because I referred to them in our discussion. And I do it with recruiters as well.

Besides the articles, you do not have to limit yourself to writing. If things work out for you, nothing prevents you from making videos, or even a podcast! All of this is easily accessible nowadays.

What will it bring you that your resume won’t

In the long run, a notoriety. And certainly a very competitive advantage. Imagine someone who is recruiting, and who has two candidates with the same number of years of experience, but that one of them wrote 32 relevant articles on his expertise… This makes the choice a lot easier to do, not to mention everything you could bring to the company to showcase their corporate brand with your writings.

I lost track of times people wanted to meet me after that experiment where I put my network at the service of job seekers, or after the publication of my Practical Guide To Becoming A Terrible Manager.

In this case, it is your experience and your storytelling that work for you.

d) Publish a book?

I say this in the most naively way in the world, and under all reserves, it is an area in which I’m slowly making my first steps. If you can write articles and it works, what stops you from going further? For me, it was a challenge that I gave myself last year, to start writing a book in 2019. I am currently studying how to approach this adventure. I intend to publish “The practical guide to becoming a terrible manager, and how not to be that guy” or something along those lines…

Nowadays, self-publishing is more accessible than ever. We do not necessarily need to convince a publisher (even if it helps a lot) to publish our writings. And we do not even need to print copies in advance, e-books are popular, and many platforms offer print-on-demand options. In addition, a book does not have to be very long, even between 100 and 200 pages, it remains a book.

I will refine this part of the article when I have completed the experiment myself. But the idea is not to stop at what you know. Innovate. Do what others don’t dare to do! How many people can boast of having written a book?

What will it bring you that your resume won’t

You should probably include this in your resume. But I do not need to draw you a picture. A recruiter can choose between two candidates with equal experience, but one of them has written a book about his area of expertise. It’s… significant, to say the least.

5. Impersonate your expertise

Definitely an approach that requires a good mastery of your impostor syndrome, and that will tap into your growth mindset. If writing articles and spreading your expertise is no longer too much of a challenge for you, maybe it’s time to put yourself a little more at risk, and begin to personify your expertise.

By this I mean to start giving workshops or giving lectures. To become the face and voice of your expertise. Its figurehead.

And it does not have to be a very painful or abrupt learning. You could simply begin by organizing a meetup style event, with the help of one or two people from your network.

Many events in the recruiting field often look for volunteer speakers to tell their story. You can contact teachers to discuss the possibility of talking in front of their class. There are plenty of ways to make yourself known in this way, and the only person who can stop you from doing it is yourself.

In conclusion

Whether you are an atypical candidate, or simply a job seeker expert at being interviewed, you should not lose hope. Just because recruitment in its current form does not benefit you does not mean it will always be as such.

By daring doing something new to stand out, you will never be a mere victim of “not having been chosen” just because you have agreed to comply with a recruitment system that requires you to be passive and simply smile, except when it’s time to perform in an interview.

No one is forced to be a victim in this job market, and by taking charge of your professional brand, you position yourself much more as an actor in your professional life.

Have you tried it? Do you feel that a new world is opening before you? It may be the result of your career turning antifragile!

I end with a quote that inspired me a lot as I started working on my professional branding myself…

Work until you don’t have to introduce yourself anymore

Olivier Fortier

Owner of Primos Populi, partner and coach at Moabi. As a former manager, I prefer to use a “people first, the rest will follow” kind of approach. My favorite topics are organizational culture, safe work environments, and lowering the center of gravity of the decision making process. I cultivate people’s awesomeness.

www.primospopuli.com

When I was asked (with a little too much enthusiasm) to make a speech, I started by saying “My departure is not bad news”. And it’s true for several reasons:

• I felt that I had done what I had to do for my department.
• I felt that I was bringing less and less value, having pushed the autonomy of my teams to its peak.
• The projects I had that were parallel to my work contributed more to my motivation and my fulfillment. I just decided to focus on what was bringing me the most value.
• This job helped to establish my Purpose and Meaning in life. It would have been absolutely counterproductive not to go all the way.

Having to explain this made me think a lot…

My problems with the turnover rate

As a manager, I was boasting that our department had an excellent turnover rate. And my departure was going to increase it. Yet my departure, as I said before my colleagues, was good news.

That’s when my thinking started and I discovered several problems with the age-old concept of turnover rate.

The turnover rate is reactive

It’s a bit of the same problem that I’ve already denounced with exit interviews. Although the turnover rate may be an interesting metric for many, it has little meaning over a short period of time, and requires people to leave their job for this metric to “work”.

But this metric provides no context. It is only an observation after the fact.

The turnover rate suggests that change is not welcome

It’s well known that you get what you measure. In this case, we measure the whether or not people stay in the company. It seems, at first glance, to be the right thing.

That being said, is the company moving forward? Are people progressing in their work? Have people had promotions? We do not know. But we know how many people have stayed.

We want people to stay in office. It is the objective. And that brings me to my biggest problem.

The turnover rate does not ensure that people are thriving

If the goal is for people to stay in office, what do we do with people who are miserable but still stay? And for whose who do not like their work? Who have aspirations? We tie them to their chair and cross our fingers?

Too often, I’ve seen companies keep people in a role they did not like, because they “didn’t want to lose them”, and guess what happened? They lost them much earlier then they thought.

For me, stagnation means death. The death of motivation, the death of self-fulfillment, and personal development. I’m the kind of person whose role is changing extremely fast. I need it. Can a company that optimizes for a good turnover rate help me in my journey?

Or, will the company try to keep me in a role I do not like, hoping that I bring as much value?

The turnover rate will soon be irrelevant

I have once stayed 8 years in the same company. Twenty years ago it was commonplace, nowadays, especially in IT, it’s almost unthinkable. And the trend will continue, and spread to other business domains.

People are increasingly looking for meaning in their work, and are now willing to make many sacrifices to fulfill their daily lives. Labor relations are expected to be shorter, or in another format. Companies that are very good (I will not even talk about companies of dubious morality) may have turnover rates of 60% in a few years, and it will be commonplace.

The question to ask is: are people leaving because of us businesses? Or do they leave because they no longer need us, to do things bigger than they could do with us?

When we’ll get there, I think the turnover rate will become irrelevant. People will grow, find meaning and achieve their dreams. The questions that companies will have to ask themselves will be:

• People who leave to do greater things, are they doing it in spite of us, or with us?
• How did we contribute to the emancipation of these people?
• Will these people be willing to refer people, or even find those who could replace them? Or have we broken this relationship by holding them back or preventing them from fulfulling their dreams?

In summary: Have we created an ambassador?

So I propose the emancipation rate

If I want to pretend to cultivate the awesomeness of people, I can not just keep people in office. I absolutely do not think this is beneficial. People with career aspirations will not all be able to develop in their role forever.

Isn’t it our job, we, the companies and their representatives, to make sure that our valued employees grow and thrive? Even if it’s in spite of us and our needs?

I know a ton and a half of companies that would rather have miserable employees in their jobs rather than help them grow, even if it could mean they might find work elsewhere. But I refuse their reality.

I sincerely believe that a happy person elsewhere is better than a miserable person who stays in office.

I sincerely believe that it is the duty of every manager and every company to raise people beyond their potential and their motivation to the risk of seeing them leave.

Will my recent departure bring a shadow on the company as it increases the turnover rate? I am one of those people who used his role as a stepping stone to accomplish important things for myself, for others, and for the world of work. I’m still talking about Marine Press saying “We”. I am still an ambassador for this company, I still refer candidates. It’s still my baby. I have elected myself as an ambassador for them. 

If I count myself among those who were under my responsibility, my emancipation rate is 75%. 75% of the people on my team who voluntarily left did it to flourish in other projects, and no longer needed the company for this to happen.

It’s a much more interesting metric for me. It proves that the company has done its part for happiness and fulfillment at work.

Olivier Fortier

Owner of Primos Populi, partner and coach at Moabi. As a former manager, I prefer to use a “people first, the rest will follow” kind of approach. My favorite topics are organizational culture, safe work environments, and lowering the center of gravity of the decision making process. I cultivate people’s awesomeness.

www.primospopuli.com

Little did I know at that time that it was only the first in a series of epiphanies. And I couldn’t imagine that these epiphanies would begin to be more frequent, and happen one after another, at an unimaginable rate.

Here’s what happened until now, one year later, and the results I obtained.

After finding my Vocation

The moment when I was able to name my Vocation and explain it in some sort of elevator pitch, it was suddenly tangible. From that moment, it was clear that all I would do would be aligned with my Vocation.

Every decision, every article, every intervention, every post, every discussion would contribute to bringing humans at the heart of businesses and the world of work.

And I’m proud to say that I managed to follow this guideline. There were a few situations where I could have hurt my Vocation. When it happened, I felt dirty and disgusting. I was threading on my values. So I decided that I would uphold my convictions, even if I had to put myself at risk.

It was systematic. I just could not contribute to a system that encourages the abuse or contempt of humans at work while turning them into cogs in a machine. The first thing I did was to find an environment that would be safe for people to be people, and where my beliefs would not be seen as whims, but as something that goes without saying. And that’s when I agreed to work at Marine Press as a manager.

Scattered experiments

I tried quite a few things. Experimentations on humans, if I can use that expression. I’ve created definitions of awesome, squads of managers at the service of employees, experiences to increase psychological safety, constant reflections on how not to be indispensable, experiments to rehumanize recruitment and found a way to create interviews that are optimized for the candidates, promoted benevolent leadership, savagely rebuked traditional management and its bloodthirsty and power-hungry managers, realized that being an imposter is not such a bad thing, to the point of diving headfirst into the creation of video series, more recently…

All these were my short controlled experiments to find ways to put people once and for all at the heart of work, so that they can be its actors rather than its victims.

I enjoyed every minute of these experiences, and I learned something from all of them. They all reminded me that what I was doing was worth doing.

Additional epiphanies

Other epiphanies have occurred more recently, and these were not related to all humans for once, but one in particular: myself.

Time is not an infinite resource

In my early days, my experiences were confined to the Products and Technology department at Marine Press. I was paid to do these experiments. Awesome, right?

As I expanded my playground, I realized that I could do more. My experiences began to grow outside of my work, and into my network. We exported our experiences to Spark the Change by giving a lecture, and I started to include people from my network in my experiences by giving them a voice.

The more experiments I did, the more I was exposing my network to these experiments, and the more they were time-consuming. Very time-consuming. At first, Primos Populi required about 2 or 3 hours a week. Today, if I do not hold back, it can go up to 35 hours. The thing is, I’m already working 40 hours a week.

I sometimes worked 75 hours a week because my need to bring people back to the heart of businesses is stronger than doing the minimum to live and eat.

I had to find ways not to sacrifice my physical and mental health, my life and my family while continuing to promote the place of the human being at the heart of work.

Time is Money

By spending so much time working to fulfill my Vocation, life started sending me signals. Tiredness. I was burning myself out. And this is how one realizes that of all the resources available in life, time is the only one that you can’t buy.

After reading Maurice Lefebvre‘s article entitled How to find time for meaning, and after much discussion about how much value people actually bring to companies in 40 hours, it did not take me so long to realize that what I was doing in parallel of my work was what was paying the most in terms of intrinsic motivation.

Understanding that time can’t be bought, I wondered what I could sacrifice. The family and my personal life, my vocation, or my full time job. To ask the question was to answer it.

Inspiring people is more dangerous than it seems

While working on Primos Populi, I kept telling myself that if my texts or videos helped but one person, they were worth the effort.

I have received a lot of positive feedback on my texts about Vocation. Several people wrote to me to say that they wanted to reorient their career to devote it to their vocation. That made my heart smile.

But more recently, I started to have much more meaningful and emotionally charged feedbacks. Here are a few.

I cried watching your video on the Impostor Syndrome. Thank you, thank you for saying it aloud !!

After watching your video on The Goddamn Resources, I went to see my boss who is preparing the creation of an ERP tool (Enterprise Resource Planner). I told him, “Hey, you never treated us as resources or even called us resources, why don’t we do an Enterprise People Planner?” We could add people’s skills and career management functions to it. It would make us stand out from the competition”. My boss said it was an incredible idea and gave me the lead of the project. I was thinking of looking for another job because I was lacking in challenges, in the end, I found the challenges without changing employer!

But the most significant feedback was this one:

Someone shared with me your Practical Guide to Becoming a Terrible Manager. When I finished reading it, I was shaken because I recognized all the bosses from the company I worked for in it. The next day, I resigned, with nothing else ahead of me. I had just decided that I deserved to be happy in my work.

OH. 

Oh. That was a kick in the hornet’s nest of my Meaning. It was not immediate, it took a few days for me to understand what I had just read. But when I did, I was completely overwhelmed by a sense of tremendous accomplishment. My quest for Meaning finally reached its first milestone.

If the Vocation is a goal more or less attainable but for which we will fight body and soul, our Meaning is the means by which we can reach our Vocation while having the most significant impact. That’s what determines how you make a difference. How you matter.

And I had just found the Meaning of what I was doing and realized that what I was doing mattered. This blend of Purpose and Meaning brought me a feeling of happiness as I have not known before in my professional life.

The story has come full circle

Actually, there are two stories that came full circle.

The person who gave up her job because she deserved to be happy, I contacted her recently to tell her about the effect her message had had, and that I also decided to sacrifice my full-time job because I too deserve to be happy, without burning myself out, without sacrificing my personal and family life.

The other part that came full circle made me smile. Since all this time my Vocation was clear, I was always looking for how it would become Meaningful. I thought I had to find the way that would have the most impact on people, myself and the world.

This testimony made me realize what I did mattered when I help people take ownership of their career, and take charge of their future to be happy.

And yet, if I go back to December 2017, in my article Why You Should Focus on Your “Why”, here’s what I wrote:

A good day was when I had the opportunity to help someone improve their work environment or work conditions. When I helped someone take charge of their own future. Not only someone in my team, but anyone within my organization, or within my external network.

There was always Meaning in what I was doing. It simply took some time to understand how much it mattered.

What now?

I’m joining my friends Maurice and Axel in their companies. By doing this, I will be able to help people flourish in their work or to emancipate themselves from toxic workplaces. I can devote my time to transforming companies so that their employees can take ownership of their work, bring a maximum value and live in a healthy culture. I can inspire by giving lectures, coaching, mentoring.

And what about Primos Populi?

It will be the voice of our work. You will have way more content, much more regularly! 🙂

Olivier Fortier

Owner of Primos Populi, partner and coach at Moabi. As a former manager, I prefer to use a “people first, the rest will follow” kind of approach. My favorite topics are organizational culture, safe work environments, and lowering the center of gravity of the decision making process. I cultivate people’s awesomeness.

www.primospopuli.com

As human beings, in our current society, we tend to be a little lost.

Our world can be a bit dreadful, between running it into an ecological wall, treating workers as indentured servants, putting hateful liars in charge and looking at a bleak future.

It is no surprise that the QUEST FOR HAPPINESS is such a big business at the moment. Happiness is this fantastic stuff! Happiness is those amazing experiences! Happiness is within you, and I’ll show you how to reach it in my new book/course/seminar now on sale…!

This isn’t going a blog post where you’ll have to read a long, mostly pointless generic rambling tempting you with revealing the secret to happiness at the end, which turns out to be in your heart all along. Instead, I’ll start by giving you the “secret” right away:

Happiness is a byproduct of knowing one’s Purpose and applying it in a tangible way providing Meaning to one’s life. That’s it. 

Happiness is not a superior, mostly permanent state of being. It’s an emotion. It is fleeting, like all other intense emotion, because no one can hold any kind of fierce passion for very long. It would be exhausting and pointless. 

Happiness, and it’s less intense cousin contentment, are naturally occurring when we have a well-enough defined Purpose and Meaning. Knowing who we are, why we are here, and the impact we have on the world is crucial for a human. 

Why are Purpose and Meaning important to us?

My dog is happy every time I get home. Why? Because a dog is a social animal who needs its pack to socialize and feel secure. 

We humans aren’t that different. A bit more complex maybe. We are also social animals, but since we have constructed a society for ourselves, we feel the need the know our place in it. That’s our Purpose. 

We also have a deep need, so deep that it’s quite possibly genetic, to have an impact on the world around us. You can see it in babies: no baby is happier (not merely content, but deeply happy) than one who has willingly done something that has a visible impact on its environment. It could be as simple as pushing a toy and make it fall. If the movement can be repeated with a similar result, look at the expression of pure, unadulterated joy on the face of the baby. They have a “pleasure at being the cause.” Over a century ago, German psychologist Karl Groos linked that trait with our passion for games, little make-believe worlds where we can have a significant impact without real consequences. Our ability in impacting the world around us makes us real. That is the power of our individual existence, our Meaning. 

Finding your Purpose

“Why are we here?” An important philosophical question, and one loved by stoners everywhere. It is also the wrong question. Why are we here as a species? No reason. We are a transient life-form evolved from an earlier one and slowly evolving into something else. There is no Purpose for us as a species. We just happen to be here, now. 

“Why am I here?” is far more appropriate a question. Humans, as a species, is good at creating structures. Those structures allow us to build social groups far larger than the 150 people or so we are individually able to maintain meaningful relationships with. Grouped together, these structures are called “society,” and an individual role within it has always been important. Our Purpose is our contribution to society. We must have a role to play, a use, a function, within this “society,” or be branded a parasite and shunned.

Historically a much wider range of occupations was considered purposeful, from artisan to artist, from warriors to clergy, from child-rearer to wise old person. Even vagabonds could have Purpose, from bringing news from afar and temporary workforce where and when needed to social observation and espionage. 

These days, Purpose has mostly been redefined from “contributing to society” to “contributing to someone’s wealth and power.” Where once our role within society and often the main source of income was an easy access to a Purpose, for most people it has stopped playing the same role. There is no easy access to Purpose anymore, as we have stopped serving society itself as a form of employment. We serve companies, bureaucracies, or the interests of powerful individuals, all constructs rather than our fellow men.

Nowadays we find remarkable when people actually find their Purpose. It makes us dream. “How lucky they are,” we say. But anyone can find a purpose for oneself. Everyone should try to do so. 

My colleague Olivier Fortier has recently written two excellent articles on the subject of finding one’s Purpose (Part 1 and Part 2). The gist is that a Purpose is not about you but about others, it’s a calling that’s greater than you, and that you can find it at any age. 

Purpose is about others and is greater than us. This makes sense since it takes its origin in our function within society, all the way from the role we played in helping our hunter-gatherer tribe survive. The Purpose is our service to others, to the tribe, to our society. 

My own quest with Purpose started early when I was still in high school. I found out that I was happy when I helped friends shine. For most of my life, it was a small pleasure of mine: helping someone find their path, opening a new opportunity, giving a chance to someone who needs it, making someone realize their own potential and go for it. I called that unlocking people. Few things were more satisfying for me than that, so when a reached my point of no return with my career, I decided to turn that Purpose into my new career. Now a few years later, that Purpose has continued to grow and refine itself through practice, and I now set my eyes on a more significant challenge: unlocking societies. This isn’t an uncommon path for Purpose: it starts small, you realize how important it is for you and how it defines you, and you see it evolve over time. Some people have their Purpose clear as day from a young age. Others will only find it late in life.

Purpose is an essential ingredient for the happiness formula. As social creatures, we can’t really stand being useless, worthless. We need to belong, we need to be useful, we need a Purpose. 

Now, understand me well: If you merely find your Purpose then do nothing about it, it’s not happiness you will find. It’s misery. 

There is nothing worse than finally understanding who we are and letting that revelation and all that potential going to waste. You need to turn that Purpose into action, into something tangible. Only then can we find the second part of the happiness formula: Meaning. 

Creating Meaning

If Purpose is the answer to the question “Why am I here?”, then Meaning is the answer to “How can I matter?”. 

Meaning is how you let your mark on the world. It doesn’t have to be big, but it has to be there. It makes sure your life, well, meant something. We can find Meaning in several ways, but the practical application of our Purpose is a solid one.

Nowadays we, as a society, accepted a redefinition of accepted roles that really isn’t to our advantage. We define ourselves in large part by our jobs, which is similar enough to what it was before as to remain familiar, but change the “contribution to society” part by “increasing the wealth and prestige of someone else.” We exchanged the satisfaction of trading the product of our efforts and excellence to trading our time, basically selling ourselves as indentured servants! Our expertise and our output aren’t important anymore, but that our employers own us for the time they paid for is. This explains the rise of bullshit jobs, as brilliantly decried by David Graeber In his book “Bullshit jobs,” where people are stuck doing busywork utterly devoid of any value just because they have been bought for a certain amount of time. The Purpose in these jobs is empty, prevent us from creating Meaning for ourselves. 

Purpose without a way to apply it and use it to make a difference in the world around us leads to frustration and despair. Being aware of our calling while being stuck in a purposeless occupation or, if we’re luckier, a useful profession that merely doesn’t align with our Purpose, is nothing short of soul-grinding. The remedy is to apply our Purpose to something Meaningful. 

Making the switch toward a life of Meaning aligned with our Purpose isn’t always an easy one. This is especially true if your Purpose is about something that our current society doesn’t attach much value to. Helping the homeless isn’t known as a reliable path to a stable income. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do it, it just means that you will need to find compromises with your time to help them while avoiding their predicament for yourself.

I have written a companion piece to this post discussing various ways to reclaiming enough time to dedicate to applying our Purpose and create Meaning. 

We can find Meaning in other ways than relying on our Purpose. Having children is one. Whether it’s your Purpose of not, any parent worth its salt will find Meaning in raising a child. It’s important. Children need you for survival, guidance, and care, both physical and emotional. But unless Purpose and Meaning are aligned, no source of Meaning will consistently deliver happiness. 

Meaning can be selfish (“But it means something to me”), but it’s actually much easier to find when it’s altruistic. Having other people recognize your meaning in the world is a fantastic feeling of accomplishment. 

Better humans for a better future

The QUEST FOR HAPPINESS starts making more sense at a society level when we realize that its components are not about ourselves, but about others. 

If you want to make the world a better place, the secret is by finding happiness, not for ourselves, but by becoming better versions of ourselves and improving the lives of our tribe and of society as a whole. In turn, doing just that will make that feeling of happiness a lasting one. 

Remember: Purpose + Meaning = Happiness, and a better society to boot. 

Like this piece? There’s a companion to it looking at ways to reclaim time to devote to turning our Purpose into Meaning. Go check it out!

Maurice Lefebvre

I am a futurist, system thinker and organizational transformation expert, dedicated to easing our transition into Society 5.0. I am available as a speaker through the think tank Hivernité (www.hivernite.ca) as well as a trainer and organizational coach through Moabi Formations (www.moabiformation.com).

www.hivernite.ca

It’s common for people to have a fear of success or a fear of failure, and both can be paralyzing – personally and professionally. But, what about having an equal fear of success and of failure? You might be thinking, “What does that mean,” or “What does that look like?” 

What this Paradoxical Belief “Looks Like”

I’ve seen this dynamic at work at various points in people’s lives. It looks something like this: A person has a great idea. At first, they’re pumped up, excited. But then, waves of fear and doubt wash over them, drowning out hope. They stick to non-challenging endeavours to stay “safe.”

Why? Because of old mental images, programs and beliefs, which can include any or all of the following:

• If they’re too successful, others won’t like them. But if they fail, they’ll let people down.
• They don’t deserve to be successful, but they can’t fail because that would look bad. And, if they have success, the other “shoe” must drop, and that would be “bad.” Better to be safe than go out on a limb and fall out of the tree.
• This is part of what is commonly known as the “imposter” syndrome – if people found out how “average” they really are, people wouldn’t respect or like them.

How it Plays Out

Fears of success and failure prevent them from taking risks or stretching out of their comfort zone. Better to have a mediocre career than to venture out and fail spectacularly. So, they stick with a dead-end job that is not challenging or fulfilling. Although technically, they aren’t “failing,” they become trapped in mediocrity and give up on their hopes, aspirations, and dreams.

This fear of the two opposites – success and failure – overwhelms them, prevents them from taking action, and they remain “stuck in a rut.”

What to do about it

It sounds pretty desperate and hopeless, and it can certainly feel that way, but there is always hope. There is a way out of the morass.

Tools

A few simple tools can help pave the way toward a new beginning.

• Journaling: Writing a journal (it doesn’t have to be shared with anyone, although that can be helpful, too) can provide insights. Write down ideas and any feelings that immediately come up about implementing those ideas. Try to write in it 3-4 times a week and then review the content at the end of the week. Patterns of thoughts will emerge. This can be helpful in combatting negative thinking.
• Talking to a Trusted Colleague: This person can provide objective insights and moral support. Joining supportive groups on LinkedIn to gain professional advice, insights, and inspiration can also help.
• Following Inspirational People on LinkedIn and Social Media: It is especially helpful during bleak times when despair seems to rule the day. These people are like a ray of sunshine and a breath of fresh air. See my list below for some inspirational people that I follow.
• Expressing Gratitude: The old saying, “have an attitude of gratitude” goes a long way in gaining perspective, keeping thoughts positive, and alleviating anxiety and depression.
• Meditating and Exercising: These activities can alleviate stress and tension from the body and mind, which can help in gaining a more realistic perspective of the situation.
• Utilizing Positive Self Talk: Acknowledging even small accomplishments can help to build up confidence. “I feel really good that I sent that resume out with some examples of my work!”
• Seeking a Coach or Counselor: This is especially important if the fear has strangled out all hope. Outside support may be needed. Search “Career Coach,” “Career Counselor,” or “Counselor” on Google or LinkedIn.
• Joining a Support Group: Many support groups are free. It feels good to be with others who are working on overcoming the same fears. Meetup.com is a great resource.
• Starting Small: If a project seems too big or overwhelming, break it down into small tasks. Don’t try to do everything at once. For example, if you’re struggling with something, you could start journaling about it, or you could start by incorporating a few minutes of positive self-talk each day and build from there.
• Helping Others: Nothing feels as good as helping others! It doesn’t even have to be a big gesture. Simply sending someone a positive note or paying a sincere compliment to someone can boost your morale and theirs.

Helpful Articles

• Benefits of Journaling: This is a great article that also explains the what, why, how and when of journaling. 
• Benefits of Expressing Gratitude: This article explains (with scientific research backing it) the psychological and physical benefits of expressing gratitude.
• Benefits of Meditation: This article explains (with scientific research backing it) the psychological and physical benefits of meditation.
• Simple Ways to Relieve Stress and Anxiety: This article provides 16 simple and interesting ways to reduce stress.
• Benefits of Positive Self-Talk: This article also compares and contrasts positive vs negative self-talk and explains how to change your self-talk.

Simple ways to Take Care of Yourself

Inspirational People on LinkedIn:

• Dr. Travis Bradberry: He is a world-renowned expert in emotional intelligence who speaks regularly in corporate and public settings. His posts are encouraging and informative. 
• Olivier Fortier: He is very motivational and helpful – always wanting to serve and uplift others.
• Brigette Hyacinth: She helps others to find work and hope. Her motto is “Bring back the HUMAN in Human Resources!”
• John Isbell: He is an awesome speaker and leader, who always motivates and inspires others. I’ve had the honour and privilege of hearing him speak – he is amazing.
• Liz Ryan: She is an HR Professional who advocates for the rights of employees. She offers inspiration and helpful advice about employer-employee relations, employee rights, interviews, salary negotiations and many other employment-related topics.

Beth Tarbell

My passion is to inspire others through my writing. When I interview and write for others, I make my words “speak” for them. And, I do my best to make words dance off the page and into people’s hearts and minds.

I have over 15 years of experience with technical writing, specializing in training materials for the restaurant industry – presentations, procedures manuals, job aids, handbooks, and marketing pieces.I’m also a LinkedIn “evangelist” because it is a phenomenal tool for connecting with and influencing others. I have given presentations on the benefits and features of LinkedIn to job seekers. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn.

We all have an impostor syndrome sleeping somewhere, right? This impression of being in a position which we do not deserve? This ominous feeling that our incompetence will soon be discovered and exposed?

It’s not quite binary. We’re not always in a context where we aren’t in control, and where we don’t know what we’re doing. But it happens and it fluctuates with time.

In this article, I would like to talk a bit about this elephant that likes showing up in every room. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t once felt this syndrome. The good news is that it’s perfectly fine.

I have long been an imposter

And yet it showed up quite late. I was quite self-taught well before college, and I learned by myself all the stuff I would see in my classes. The result was quite interesting: I often helped a teacher to teach by helping other students. I even often “helped” a teacher to teach, in the sense that they knew more or less what they were doing (them and computers, you know…), so I sometimes “taught” them how it worked.

So I was really good at what I was doing. However, I was very cautious about doing anything I did not know, fearing I couldn’t succeed. So it was a lot more contrasting for me.

The sham began the day I was rushed into my Peter principle. That is to say that one day, I became a team lead, and I had to manage 7 people.

Nobody had prepared me. Nobody had trained me. Expectations towards my work were generally unclear, and when they were clear, I had no idea how to meet them. I had no one to guide me. I was a complete impostor. And I was stressed 100% of the time. It was not easy …

Knowing to be vulnerable

The impostor syndrome is greatly linked to the feeling of vulnerability that accompanies it. We don’t know what we do, we don’t feel in control, but the expectations towards us persist.

Eventually, we must accept that no one can expect us to know everything or do everything right the first time. The first thing to do is to admit that we don’t know everything.

“But Olivier, in the company where I work, it’s risky to do that!”

Yes, it happens. Not all companies are necessarily psychologically safe. But the first person to whom you must admit that you can not know everything and do everything perfectly is yourself. One must give oneself the right to be wrong, and the right not to know.

Adopting a growth mindset

Once we accept that we can not be perfect and succeed all at once, the next natural step is to simply approach these challenges with curiosity rather than fear of failure.

It is very important to understand and accept that failure is not the opposite of success, it is its cornerstone. I could spend hours looking for quotes on the subject, I will use only one, because I think it is worth all the gold in the world.

Thomas Edison apparently failed thousands of times in the process of inventing the light bulb. Questioned by a journalist who asked him about all these failures, he reportedly answered this:

Some will say that this quote was made up. I don’t care much. It remains very powerful.

Everyone is an impostor

So that’s great news, isn’t it? I guarantee you that 100% of the people on this planet are impostors. That is, they arn’t in control 100% of the time, and must improvise without having any idea what they are doing.

And it’s true especially in the world of work. Many people claim to be totally in control. Can you imagine the variables this implies? Imagine a company’s president who pretends to be completely in control in his role. This means that all employees are motivated, satisfied, productive, and understand their role. Nobody resigns, all the customers are happy, nobody is sick, the market is in perfect health, there is no shortage of anything, all the positions are filled, no subway breakdown, no traffic…

Those who claim they are in control are probably a perpetual combat to keep or regain control. But being in control 100% of the time? Tell this to a wooden horse, and he will kick you in the shin. It’s pure nonsense.

Let’s use a more concrete example. I work with developers. They are good, it’s their job. They know how to code, they know the infrastructure. However, when deciding on a new feature to develop, they must rack their brains, try different solutions, they are often wrong. There are bugs, edge cases that they haven’t thought of.

They must figure out as they go, in a large percentage of their work. We pay them for that.

As for myself, I consider myself a good manager (by my own standards, of course). I would say that I am quite familiar with the big theories of the management, intrinsic motivation, servent leadership, benevolent management. And quite honestly, in 90% of problems I need to address, I have not the slightest idea of way to go. And yet, we find solutions.

Easy solution: Become a world’s leading expert

Since this blog exists, I have often suggested that people contribute to it. “Would you like to write on the subject?”

It seems to terrify people. I spoke with several people. Some have not slept well due to this question. Others simply answer “But who am I to talk about this?” Or often, “I’m not an expert at all, I do not have your experience on this topic!”

Indeed, it is quite intimidating to have to talk about a topic that interests us but in which we are not at all expert. I have often wanted to do this, and I restrained myself, because other people with much more experience could correct me, tell me that I am wrong. And yet I ended up creating this site, in which I speak about recruitment (although I hire people, I do not have much experience in recruitment), on human resources (I never worked in HR), on leadership (no one ever told me “you are my leader and I follow you”).

And now, I will give you my secret.

Whatever the subject, you are the WORLD LEADING EXPERT on:
– How you feel about the subject
– Your personal experience with the subject
– Your wishes in relation to this subject
– How does this subject affect you personally

And that’s really how I came to write articles like this. Do you think I have read all the books about the impostor syndrome? Think again. Not one. All I’m expressing in this text is my personal experience, my observations, my beliefs, and the results I’ve gathered so far.

And when you think about it, what is the worst that can really happen? That no one reads your text? Highly improbable, even on bad days, I still have a lot of readers. They might not agree? It’s possible. But I have never seen or heard anyone say “You are clearly not a leader in this field!”

On the contrary, people would be rather surprised to see how readers react, and can relate to other people’s experiences. 

Are you feel ready to face your impostor syndrome?
I am always looking for contributors!

I’m still an imposter, and it’s OK

As I hit my Peter principle in 2014, we are a few years later, and I find myself having a very firm stance on what a good manager really is. Some say “Fake it ’till you make it”. For my part, I simply read, observed, discussed, and finally I made up my mind. And despite all that, I still don’t have a clue what I’m doing most of the time.

Regarding my blog? I am still an impostor. Every time I start an article, I tell myself that I do it more for readers than for me. To inspire them. To confirm that I’m not crazy, or alone to go through these things.

I stopped worrying about it, and I push the boundaries of my growth mindset. I have many projects for Primos Populi, including a book project that will be inspired by my Practical Guide to Becoming a Terrible Manager.

When I wrote the sentence “Stay tuned for the book, coming in 2019”, do you imagine that I felt in control? I made a commitment to you to write a damn book! I have no idea how I’m going to go about it. But in 2019, I will be able to say I wrote a book. This idea is much stronger for me than the fear of writing one. My growth mindset coupled with my desire for antifragility definitely win this internal fight that’s taking place in my guts.

And I would like to finish this text by quoting a passage from Marie Pelletier’s article. This is the first and only article she has written here, which is related to today’s topic: The perks of being an impostor. 

Although the phrase “I don’t know” is one that I utter all the time, it is almost always followed by “… but I can figure it out.” Lack of knowledge is not an insurmountable obstacle, more like a small detour

Marie Pelletier

Related video

Olivier Fortier

Owner of Primos Populi, partner and coach at Moabi. As a former manager, I prefer to use a “people first, the rest will follow” kind of approach. My favorite topics are organizational culture, safe work environments, and lowering the center of gravity of the decision making process. I cultivate people’s awesomeness.

www.primospopuli.com

In this second article on vocation, I’d like to demystify the concept further by providing concrete examples of people who found their vocation. First and foremost because it’s quite inspiring, but also, I want to show that finding one’s vocation comes at all ages. 

I asked my LinkedIn network if any of them found their vocation, and I specified my definition of vocation:

“By vocation, I mean a goal that you found that’s bigger than you and transcends your career, is probably unattainable, but you’ll fight to reach even after you retired.”

Without further ado, let’s take a look at this collection of vocation I gathered. The ages you see in the titles aren’t the current age of these people, but the age at which they found their vocation.

Maelys, the altruist – 8 years old

Maelys knew she’d become a lawyer at 8 years old. At 12, she was already showing a consuming interest in human rights in an international context. At this age, she had already read the fundamental rights codes. Sometime later, she started getting involved with Amnesty International.

Her vocation started to take root in reality in her community and at school. Last year, she was one of the youngest organizer of Relay For Life in the city of Boucherville, an event to raise money for cancer. Always very active in school, it is she who is sent for all major annual events in schools where social involvement is involved.

As I’m writing these lines, Maelys is 15 years old. She doesn’t have a profession yet. But her vocation is crystal clear. 

Philippe, the poet – 12 years old

A native of Montpellier and Nîmes, Philippe was already writing poems at the age of 12. The French education system, however, will have got the better of him and broke him for spelling. His higher education was therefore aligned with scientific studies.

At age 25, he returned to writing because he kept feeling the irresistible need to write. He consolidated his practice with writing workshops. At the time his children were born, he wrote every day, and it lasted for a dozen years.

His passion, however, is coding, which he has been doing for almost as long as he was writing. It is an outlet for him, while his vocation is more to bring new ideas to the world. When he changed profession from developer to Agile coach, he gave up his coding to devote himself to his vocation: writing.

Justin, the supporter – 16 years old

Justin got ahold of his vocation pretty early. His parents always had values of mutual aid and equity, and helping people become a second nature for him while growing up. By helping others regularly, he took a liking to it, to eventually figure that his profession would be related to helping others.

Today, Justin gives a boost to anyone who needs it so that they reach their goals and recognize their own resourcefulness.  Many of the people he helps have suffered hard job losses that have affected their esteem.

His profession of employment counsellor supports his vocation, as he accompanies job seekers to return to the job market.

Gabriel, the protector – 19 years old

Gabriel had his very first internship towards the end of his studies. The system he was working with was so poorly secured that it completely changed his approach at work. Rather than doing his job as a technician, he dedicated his time to securing systems and training people on information safety.

Today, years later, all of the mandates he takes do support his vocation, and 70% of its work consists of auditing systems and forming teams of developers to adopt a safer development cycle.

Lucie, the companion – 22 years old

Younger, Lucie wanted to have a medicine-related or psychology-related job to help people, but life showed her another door: coaching people in recruitment.

Her profession is still in development, and she still wants, beyond performance, to really focus on helping people in a humane and honest way.

Lucie wants to find a way to harmonize her profession with her vocation so that she can really focus on people and make their professional lives more enjoyable.

Marie-Luc, the philosopher – 24 years old

Marie-Luc has a career in human resources, but a background in philosophy. By her training, she can not be content with simply doing her job, she rather chooses to build her career by applying philosophical and ethical principles.

It was around age 24 that she realized that it was with Humans (with a capital H) that she wanted to work. “What is the human being?” A question, once removed from the philosophical context and applied to the workplace, creates an incredible series of possibilities.

Educating humans, Marie-Luc plans to do it all her life. With her child first, and with all those who will cross her path and who are be interested in dialogue and growth.

Her profession in human resources, her passion for relationships between individuals and her vocation to bring humans to the best they can be through education are in harmony.

Alexandre, the marketer – 29 years old

It is more by obligation than by choice that Alexandre got his certificate as a senior technician. After leaving the family nest, he became a nurse. But failing to find himself in the role of caregiver, he entered the digital world through the back door, while helping a friend.

The very human side of customer and partner relationships is what he needed. He was learning to rediscover humans.

As a caregiver, he found that he was losing some of his humanity, naturally adopting a more organic, less humanistic approach. He found a more humanist approach with this agency, by accompanying customers and partners in an environment where everyone is valued.

Olivier, the disruptor – 38 years old

That’s me. Very young, I used to play on my father’s computer. I was 4 years old and I was coding BASIC by transcribing it from a book. It was obvious that I was heading towards computer science.

Years later, after 1 year in computer science, it wasn’t working at all. The notes and the interest were not there. The guidance counselor told me about a new field of study that was roughly the creation of documents with computers. I decided to give it a try. A real passion! My grades were hard to beat during the next 3 years.

From 2002 to 2015, I was a web developer. I loved that. For 13 years, I did not imagine having any other career. Until I lost my job in 2015. I stopped my initial passion to devote myself to another one, that of Scrum Master, a kind of team coach in software development.

Two years later, I reached my point of no return. I could not continue when I realized that my professional environment never took humans into account and that nobody was doing anything about it. If no one did, I decided it was up to me to do it.

That’s how I discovered my vocation. All I would do in the future would serve the purpose of bringing humans back to the heart of the world of work. I began to challenge and question virtually every traditional reflex and practice in the workplace to try to find more humane ways to adopt. Finding my vocation will have taken me 38 years. But now, what I think, what I say and what I do are in harmony.

Denis, the butterfly man – 65 years old

Denis, my father, started working in the railway industry, following his father’s footsteps. For 25 years he worked in the same organization, before being offered a choice: moving to Western Canada, or accepting compensation and finding another job. He chose the latter.

It was towards the end of his career, working as a superintendent in two office buildings that he finally put his passion to work. Amateur handyman, he always loved solving mechanical or electrical problems. During those years, he really liked what he was doing, he was really doing what he loved.

A few years after retiring, after watching a few documentaries, he began taking an interest in monarch butterflies and their fate. The population of monarchs decreases with the years. Denis put himself in the spirit of doing something about it.

He read about it and joined Mission Monarch and the David Suzuki Foundation, organizations wishing to protect the summer habitat of butterflies to maximize their reproduction. Denis created the plan for a horticultural project, including the development of a butterfly park composed of plants that could attract Monarchs such as milkweed.

The city of Saint-Constant accepted his proposal and built the park. Denis represents Mission Monarque in various events, and is approached more and more by people from all walks of life in relation to his vocation. He is not paid to do it. It takes almost as much time as if it were a full-time job. The results of this vocation will be the mark he will leave on the world.

In summary

One’s vocation does not necessarily fall from the sky. Some find it on their way, very prominently. Others will have to put some energy to find it.

It is not so bad if your passion or your profession is not aligned with your vocation. You will do what it takes to support it in some other way.

And obviously, there is no age to find your vocation. You’ll know when it happens. Be curious, listen to yourself. Find your WHY.

Olivier Fortier

Owner of Primos Populi, partner and coach at Moabi. As a former manager, I prefer to use a “people first, the rest will follow” kind of approach. My favorite topics are organizational culture, safe work environments, and lowering the center of gravity of the decision making process. I cultivate people’s awesomeness.

www.primospopuli.com

Following many discussions with people from my network and my surroundings, I felt the need to write this series of articles. It seems that the concepts of profession, passion and vocation are very often mixed or perceived as interchangeable. 

In this article, I would like to demystify the concept of vocation, and I shall do so by simply explaining each of these terms that are often used in an improper way.

What is the difference between vocation, passion and profession?

What is a profession?

Profession
A paid occupation, especially one that involves prolonged training and a formal qualification.

Oxford Dictionary

Your profession is what you do in life. It’s the work for which you are paid and wake up every morning, and with which you are generally good at. 

Some people chose their profession when they are young, and study for years in order to develop it. Others end up in their profession by chance, or out of necessity, without planning it. Some people’s profession will mutate, change, evolve into something new, and find themselves very far from the original version of their profession.

It might not be everyone who enjoy their profession: some love it, some others tolerate it since it’s necessary to put food on the table. 

A lot of people will have the same profession for their entire life, others will collect different professions throughout their life. 

What is a passion?

Passion
An intense desire or enthusiasm for something.

Oxford Dictionary

A passion is what thrills you and excites you. It’s what you do for yourself, because you like doing it. You can more or less explain why. You’d do it without being paid for it.

Your passion, you can live it outside of work, just because. Someone can have multiple passions, others don’t have any precise passions. 

Some people have a profession that’s linked to their passion, and are paid to live their passion. Others leave well paying jobs to get one that’s linked to their passion. 

Living your passion is a little bit like taking care of yourself. You do it for yourself because you love it.

What is a vocation?

Vocation
1.  A strong feeling of suitability for a particular career or occupation.
2.  A person’s employment or main occupation, especially regarded as worthy and requiring dedication.

Oxford Dictionary

Your vocation is your why. It can be linked to your profession or not. It’s something that transcends your career, your passion and your profession. Something greater than you. A cause, a goal, a belief that’s almost utopian, and that is most probably impossible to bring to a conclusion, but you will die trying.

Your vocation is not about you. It’s about others, about the world, about society. When you’ll be asked “What do you want people to remember you for when you die?”, your answer will most probably be linked to your vocation.

The odds are that the difference you bring to the world by serving your vocation is definitely linked to your passion. Because serving your vocation is extremely gratifying and fulfilling. 

It might happen that some people are not passionate at all with their vocation, and they serve it simply because it has to be done, it deserves to be done, but they get nothing out of it. But I haven’t met anyone like that so far.

Your vocation is this lighthouse in the horizon that guides you towards your goal, and helps you make decisions. You won’t be making any decisions that contradict your vocation. If you do, you will feel a great moral conflict, as you are violating your values.

Your vocation is the impact that you want to have on the world. 

The trinity

Some people, of which I am one, can reach the Trinity, if I can call it that. Meaning that there is a correlation between their profession, their passion and their vocation.

In short, what they do, how they do it and why they do it are in harmony. In a similar way, what they think, what they say and what they do are also in harmony. 

From this moment, nothing can stop them. Nothing can stand for long between them and their vocation.

And you?

Did you find your vocation?

In the next article of this series, I will introduce you to multiple people who found their vocation at very different periods of their lives. Because a vocation has no age.

Olivier Fortier

Owner of Primos Populi, partner and coach at Moabi. As a former manager, I prefer to use a “people first, the rest will follow” kind of approach. My favorite topics are organizational culture, safe work environments, and lowering the center of gravity of the decision making process. I cultivate people’s awesomeness.

www.primospopuli.com

This is a conclusion that my friend Maurice and I would sometimes draw after meeting some people who gravitate around us. You know, those sincere people who are full of good will, who believe in other people’s success and show so much faith in the company they work for, even though it is visibly a one-sided relationship. And I’m not stating this in a pejorative way: I simply happen to talk to people who go through this every other day.

While we do not wish for people to suffer needlessly, we believe that some kind of professional suffering is a necessary step when one wishes to reach a certain level in their career. I know a thing or two about that, as I went through this, and I suffered. A lot. Then I said “Enough! I’ve given enough. Never again!“

Let’s name it the call for the emancipation of our career. And this milestone, we wish for everyone to reach it one day.

The day I went past my point of no return

I remember it as if it happened yesterday. It was during the month of June. My teams and I worked more than 75 hours per week for more than a month for a client that definitely didn’t deserve any of it. And, of course, I saw this coming months ahead, and I also predicted that we would lose a lot of people if the situation persisted.

In the end, one-third of my direct colleagues resigned following this Death March. All of this sprinkled with an I-told-you-so feeling that didn’t contribute to alleviating any of my frustrations.

And on this fair day of June, I got the icing on the cake: I learned that the client would send someone to manage my teams and “get them back on the right track”. Not any guy, you see, but someone who could have very successfully managed a sweatshop in the 40’s. That kind of manager. And I must salute my then employer for not tolerating this situation, and for putting an end to it a few weeks later. But for me, this news was enough to make me go past the sign that says Point of no return.

So, on this fair day of June, I was enjoying this well-deserved beer, when I suddenly expressed my gloominess in a statement similar to this :

“My professional environment isn’t ready to do what it takes to put and keep people at the center of the workplace. Since it’s my vocation, I’ll be the one to do it, and I’ll go do it somewhere else“.

I will always remember the look on Maurice’s face as he asked me this question:

– Would you accept to work for a company that might put you in the same situation again? 

– Not a chance in the world!

– Congratulations! You finally reached your point of no return.

At that moment, Maurice could very well have been the Agent Smith character in the movie Deadpool.

The difference being that in Deadpool, Agent Smith is a bad guy who wants to turn Wade Wilson into a super-villain to dominate the world. Maurice, though, believed I could become the super-hero who could change the work world.

Why is it a milestone in someone’s career?

There are many reasons why such a moment will be an incredibly important milestone in someone’s career. Here are those reasons.

It is the confirmation that you have articulated your vocation

When you find your vocation, your “why”, and that your work environment stands between you and your vocation, you won’t feel any kind of doubt. Your reflex will be along the lines of “I need to either change my environment or change for another environment”.

One’s vocation is generally something larger than them, most probably unattainable, but that acts as a beacon for every decision. It’s that powerful. 

If your work environment, be it toxic or not, ends up obstructing your vocation, you will find that it’s no contest. Your vocation is a calling, a mission. When problems show up at your door, and that the way to the solution unfolds in front of you by itself, highlighted by the spotlight of your vocation, nothing can be more obvious: your path is crystal clear.

It is the crystallization of your values

When you hit your point of no return, it is also the confirmation that you know, and most of all respect the values that are non-negotiable for you. It is the pivotal point where you decide that your values are not to be trampled on anymore. 

From this point on, everything will look simple to you. And if you already found your vocation, dilemmas will never be dilemmas anymore. They will simply become crossroads for which your vocation and values will dictate the way to take. You will simply have to follow these indications that only you can understand and interpret.

You will never look back

Obviously, since you passed the point of no return, there’s no going back. It can be a good thing or a curse. But you got to turn it to your advantage. Once you realize that no one can stand between you, your vocation and your values, it will be quite obvious that you can’t go back in situations where this happened daily. 

This means that your tolerance threshold towards organizations or people that are toxic for you or your vocation will lower. Drastically.

One could say that you still won’t know what you want, but what you don’t want will become dazzlingly clear. It will greatly reduce the number of possible choices you might have, but it will practically eliminate any time loss with unacceptable situations you would have tolerated in the past.

For my part, going past my point of no return critically limited the number of companies I could thrive in. To the point where, I was told, most companies will probably be too conservative for my taste and values, and I might have to create my next work environment myself. 

I don’t see that as a curse, but as an opportunity. Only time will tell.

Never again will you be a victim

And for a while, you will wonder how and why you tolerated “all of this” for so long. Once you reach this step where you won’t accept the unacceptable, you will have become the main actor in your career, rather than its victim.

By no means will you always be in control (because, let’s be honest, no one ever really is), but you won’t see any benefit in asking for the permission to do your job, to take an initiative or make a decision that needs to be made. Your need to serve your vocation will be greater than your need to stand out, to avoid making waves or to deal with office politics. 

You’ll have to get used to it. Your direct manager isn’t your boss anymore, your vocation is. 

From now on, you are the one interviewing organizations

There’s no point in mincing words: the ball is entirely in your court. You will immediately discard from your list any organization that might interfere with your vocation. 

And if by any chance, you became such a champion of your own cause that people associate it to you, you might even avoid having to go through those long and painful hiring processes, since organizations that believe what you believe might actually go and get you directly.

So, if you happen to hit your point of no return, for pity’s sake: break free of your restrains, sweep all that stands in your way and let the whole world benefit from your passion. It will be much better for it.  

Olivier Fortier

Owner of Primos Populi, partner and coach at Moabi. As a former manager, I prefer to use a “people first, the rest will follow” kind of approach. My favorite topics are organizational culture, safe work environments, and lowering the center of gravity of the decision making process. I cultivate people’s awesomeness.

www.primospopuli.com