Success in Good Works

I have learned that success is to be measured

not so much by the position that one has reached in life

as by the obstacles which he has overcome 

while trying to succeed.

Booker T. Washington

It's that time of year where prom season quickly transitions into graduation and new beginnings. In our family, my oldest niece is preparing to graduate from high school and head off to college in the fall. My middle niece is beginning to make decisions about whether her post graduation plans include vocational training or university studies. And my son is considering the courses he will take in high school, based on his CAP assessment. Three unique young minds with one thing in common, to answer the question, what do I want to be when I grow up?

When our mom grew up, the conventional wisdom was to get a good job and begin a family. A generation ago, we were told to go to college to position yourself for a long-term career. Our children, Millennials,  have so many options and possibilities, that it is challenging to make a decision today about finding career success in a world that is rapidly changing, that will not be the same a decade, let alone 40 - 50 years from now. So what advice are you giving to children trying to decide on secondary education paths?

Over the years, I have become an advocate of vocational training before deciding on a profession. If I had one regret about the decisions I made immediately after graduation, it is that I did not know how to do anything with my hands. I can solve almost any math problem put before me, but if I had to earn a living, I have no immediate skills to fall back on. Jokingly (and seriously), I always wanted to become a welder. Fast forward to present day and my imagination runs wild with the possibility what I could do in manufacturing if I owned and operated a welding shop!

If you look at the history of several well-known colleges and universities, many began as industrial training schools that met the immediate needs of the workforce during that era. Somehow along the way, industrial, or vocational training, became stigmatized as less valuable that university training, but is it really? When you consider the cost of attending a four-year institution, you have to ask, is the return-on-investment a real value in today's rapidly changing society. I challenge that notion.

Some of the most successful people that I know are entrepreneurs with in demand skills. I have a friend who followed his families' business as a master barber and has franchised beauty and barber shops around the region. By the same token, another friend is a plumber, a vocation whose skills always have and always will be in high demand. What both of these gentlemen have in common is they started with basic skills and transformed their companies into success stories not imaginable a few decades ago.

There are no particular route to finding success in the workplace and in a career. We used to measure success by the education required to obtain the job, or the job title earned. Today, our children have so many more options because the expectation is not to get a job, work for forty years, and retire from that company. Life and opportunity give them so many more options to consider that their measure of success will be different that how we defined it. And that is OK. The thing we have to instill in them is that regardless of the path they choose, it will require hard work and dedication to overcome the obstacles they will face along the way.  How are you encouraging the young people in your life to measure what they consider success in their purposed work? Feel free to comment, or send me an email at latanyua.robinson@gmail.com. If you like this post, and want to  catch up on some of my previous discussion, please visit the full Purposed Work blog at http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/.

Perceptions of Good Works

…whatever you do, do it from the heart,

with good will…

(Colossians 3:23 )

Today is the day we celebrate the social and economic achievements of American workers! Notice the use of the word workers in the definition, because today is really about the good people who get the job done. So today, I dedicate this blog post to the millions of hardworking men and women who show up every day and give 100% for the cause. Happy Labor Day!

I ran into a college friend and former colleague from Cargill in the airport last week. We shared a few stories about our struggles and successes in getting to where we are in our lives and our careers. He said something that struck me: we may be raising a generation of children who may not be prepared to do better financially than the parents. When we went to college, leaving our small Arkansas hometowns, in many cases, the move was a step up for us. Many of our first apartments were better than the houses in which we grew up. Fast forward twenty-five years, and our kids may not have the same drive and motivation that we had. What happened in one generation?

During the flight, we talked about our similar backgrounds. We had real jobs in high school: he worked on his family’s farm while I worked as a hamburger hostess (fancy title for cashier at Mr. B’s). These were not perceived as good jobs by our teenage peers, but we showed up every day, learned some life skills, and began to develop a real good work ethic. In college, we HAD to work, period. We took various routes and jobs--many in our shared social circle have stories about working at either the Mexican Original or Campbell Soup plants in Fayetteville. These were not perceived as good jobs by some of our “educated” friends, but real bills require real hours and teach real humility and perseverance. We began our careers at Cargill after both graduating with degrees. These were not perceived as good jobs by some of our engineering comrades, but the starting salary was really great for the opportunities and experiences presented. We left Cargill in the mid-90s, taking different paths in our pursuit of careers in production. We have achieved executive level status and success, yet still encounter the perception that manufacturing is not perceived as good works. Manufacturing is not for everyone, but when you can look around and can see the fruits of your hard work and labor in the products, you feel the passion in your purposed work.

 

As parents, we have to instill in our children that you don’t just wake up one day and achieve success. George Takei gets credit for this illustration of success:

We have to demonstrate by our example that purposed work requires some key personal characteristics: drive, motivation, work ethic, humility, perseverance, dedication, commitment, and passion.  

We have to exemplify by our actions to the next generation of workers that social and economic achievement begins early, begins from the heart, and begins with a desire to do good works, and not what is perceived to please man. What are you doing to prepare your children to do better in life socially and economically? Feel free to comment, or, send me an email at latanyua.robinson@gmail.com. If you like this post and want to catch up on some of my previous discussions, please visit the full Purposed Work blog at http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/.

Who Benefits from Your Good Works?

In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha, which is translated Dorcas.

She was always doing good works and acts of charity

(Acts 9:36)

March is Women’s History Month. It’s 2013 and I am both confused about the debates over protecting women from violence or protecting women’s reproductive rights, while I celebrate Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the historical number of women elected to office or running major corporations. As a working mom, I know that we are making progress and preparing a better way for the next generation of women leaders.

In my own industry, I see phenomenal changes taking shape. In 2011, I participated in the inaugural Women in Manufacturing conference. It was rewarding to network with high-powered women who shared my passion and experiences. I left the 2012 conference feeling less enthusiastic. It appeared to me that affluent women had decided to become champions of manufacturing by using their position to influence policy. Their efforts are sincerely needed, however, I question if a person who has never worked in the environment understands the real world needs. I was actually turned off when I heard references to the “pink ghetto,” a take on a term assigned to jobs or functions typically filled by women. In their minds, it is not enough that women are ascending to C-level appointments in functional areas like human resources, finance, and marketing—that more women are needed in research and development, engineering, technology. The premise is true, but my lived experience is that the road to CEO is through the financial/commercial side of the business, not the operational side.

I was frustrated because the affluent women most likely to have a voice in the political world are least likely to know what really happens in the lower levels of manufacturing. One of my favorite songs has these lyrics: You don’t know my story. You don’t know the things that I’ve been through. These women do not know my story of a college educated, front line supervisor/manager in manufacturing,  and what it is like to work in a wet, sub-50 degree turkey processing plant, taking both vitamin B (to ward off pain in my hand from holding a knife for hours at a time) and vitamin C (to prevent colds) tablets daily or to work twelve hour shifts or to be pregnant and trying to navigate across a production floor covered with hydraulic fluid. These are the jobs you take throughout your career to prove yourself, to get the real experience to qualify you for those promotional opportunities en route to the C-suite or corporate board appointments.

I thought about this after last week’s controversy surrounding Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, and the flack she’s catching for her presumed inability to understand the challenges of women less affluent than herself in attaining professional achievement and financial prosperity. I applaud her attempts, but I question if she understands that it takes more than Lean In Circles for women to achieve their professional goals. To learn more about Sandberg’s movement, visit her Lean In community at http://leanin.org/

My self-reflection is asking what I am doing in preparing a better way for future leaders in manufacturing and technology. I can turn my frustration into a voice in the community I work and serve. I can use my participation in industry associations to discuss real world needs. I can mentor young women, advising them of career possibilities and sharing my experiences of navigating in and out of functional assignments. I can share with them the benefits of the work I have been graced to accomplish.

Sidenote explanation of the scripture reference: I remembered that my club alias, back in college, was Tabitha. Little did I know then that the name represented a woman of the bible or that the name is synonymous with a woman who does good works (Acts 9:36).

 

 

How Will You Measure Your Works?

What must we do to do the works God requires?
(John 6:28)

It’s been almost three years since I left my corporate job in pursuit of my purposed work. Rarely a week goes by without a LinkedIn request to join a former colleague’s network or an inquiring email to see how things are progressing. Today, I was honored to receive a call from one of only a handful of female executive peers (she has a PhD in Material Science) who wanted to talk to me about my experience as an entrepreneur. She informed me that my exit email (of which I had forgotten) had an impact on her.

I honestly don’t remember my parting words, so when I found an archived copy of the 2010 email, I smiled at what I had written: I wish you and the team all the best. As leaders, I challenge you to consider your personal measure of success. To guide you in the thought process, I am attaching a recent article published from Clayton Christensen, known for his research on disruptive technology and well as management practices. Today, that article in its entirety is no longer available (without purchase), but here’s a link to the Executive Summary: http://hbr.org/2010/07/how-will-you-measure-your-life/ar/1

Christensen’s theory is that your best business thinking should not be reserved for your career, but should be applied to your personal goals. He is an openly religious leader who uses his own faith-based experiences to get his students to think introspectively about their purpose by asking: First, how can I be sure that I’ll be happy in my career? Second, how can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse and my family become an enduring source of happiness? Third, how can I be sure I’ll stay out of jail? (To appreciate the third question, you have to read the article.)

I have used a bit of Christensen’s roadmap in determining how I measure the success of my works. A few of his guiding steps that resonate with me include:

1.      Creating a strategy for your life.

2.      Allocating your resources.

3.      Remembering the importance of humility.

4.      Choosing the right yardstick.

As I continue this journey of faith, I know that progress is not about my natural abilities. My personal measures of success are no longer tied to the title on the organization chart or the income bracket. My time and resources are no longer prioritized by corporate or community politics. Today, I measure happiness and success relative to my husband and son. Three years ago, these were not my goals and objectives. However, when I look at how far we’ve come, or how many people are encouraged by the testimony of our works, I know we are on our way to doing the work we are purposed to do.

No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress,

You are still ahead of everyone who isn’t trying-Unknown.

Note: I encourage you to read Christensen’s 2012 New York Times Best Seller book How Will You Measure Your Life that was written as a result of the above mentioned article. To learn more, visit
 http://www.measureyourlife.com/