Making a Career Satisfying

The ideal career is an enjoyable one that utilizes a person's skills and abilities in a pleasant environment with good co-workers. However, a self-defining career that brings joy is unattainable for most people.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 67 percent of American workers are unhappy on the job because they dislike their boss or co-workers, the duties they must perform, lack of a challenge, and other reasons. To better understand why two thirds of Americans are dissatisfied, interviews were conducted with individuals experiencing both joy and disdain for their careers.

One worker enjoyed her job because of some of the conditions: decent pay, an easy commute, and prior knowledge of what she was expected to do. In addition, despite feeling a little bored about the work itself, she appreciated having the job during a period of high unemployment.

At the other end of the spectrum, another worker cited politics, too many changes, and 60-hour workweeks as reasons for the stress and dread he faced each day. Instead of appreciating what he had, he felt the company owed him more.

The first challenge around the aspect of career is for both employers and employees to ask the hard questions to better understand the roots of any dissatisfaction. Employers should consider whether or not they are respecting their staff by providing fair wages, competitive benefits, clear expectations, the right tools to do their jobs, recognition for their work, and opportunities for them to voice their opinions.

Employees are recommended to explore the following questions:

* Are you giving it your all? In other words, workers need to determine if they are performing to the best of their abilities, doing an honest day's work, and surpassing both their supervisor's expectations and their own.

* Would a different job matter? People who stay in unsatisfying positions are not helping themselves, their bosses, their customers, or the company as a whole, and would be better off making a change. Showing up at any job with the wrong frame of mind contributes to a culture of disengagement.

* Is it time for a change? Some workers fail to realize that what started out as a "job," has turned into a "career," and that it is not the right fit for them. Perhaps they lack the skills to excel and make a contribution, knowledge of their industry, or the motivation to deal with office politics or other challenges. The other challenge is to continually focus on one's own personal growth. By enhancing their own skills, employees not only add value to their company and earn more appreciation and respect from their bosses, but they prepare themselves for more satisfying opportunities that become available.

Here are some good action items:

* Pursue training offered by the company. Employees should take advantage of learning opportunities, especially those that enhance their job performance or teach transferable skills.

* Take advantage of online training opportunities. Instead of wasting their computer leisure time at social media sites, people should look into taking online courses, many of which are free or affordable, and offer more flexibility for people who lack the time and resources to head over to a college campus. Sometimes training is not offered by the company, so employees must take the initiative to learn themselves.

* Read a book a month. Reading is one of the best self-paced methods of personal development. Some self-improvement books can be borrowed from the library or a friend for free. You may also want to sign-up for book summaries available on Business Book Summaries.

Finding Synthesis in Dealing with Dilemmas

Finding synthesis and creating options are the two "pillars" of dealing with dilemmas. Finding synthesis means going beyond analytics and thinking outside the box to form new solutions and perspectives, rather than making straightforward choices.

Let's take a look at German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's dialectic of thesis-antithesis-synthesis. Thesis refers to the prevailing view or common wisdom.

But it typically carries disadvantages that cause others to develop an opposing viewpoint, or antithesis. While this may solve the original disadvantages, it typically brings new ones, creating a dilemma between thesis and antithesis.

At this point, however, there is not an either or choice. A synthesis can be arrived at, generating a new thesis.

Consider again the top down or bottom up dilemma between the financial and business process perspectives. There is the traditional "thesis" that upper management should set strategic objectives and that the rest of the organization should become aligned with them.

This centralization allows for more uniformity, economies of scale, and greater control but has the disadvantages of reduced flexibility, a reduced focus on changes in the market, and a lack of empowerment for middle management to find alternative solutions to opportunities or problems. Out of this comes the "antithesis" of decentralization, a bottom up approach that brings the decision making power closer to market opportunities and allows for more agility and growth.

But this may bring the disadvantages of fragmentation and higher costs from inefficiency. The two approaches appear to be mutually exclusive; the advantages of the thesis are the disadvantages of the antithesis.

But perhaps synthesis can be achieved with standardization. A standard is a "a uniform approach for people to apply in different situations."

Standards can help maintain some uniformity while still empowering people to tailor solutions to specific situations. Standardization becomes the new thesis which will eventually be challenged by a new antithesis.

For instance, how should a company deal with exceptions in a standardized environment? Will standardization stifle innovation?

A new synthesis will have to be developed.

Resolving the dilemma of value or profit requires the same kind of thinking. If business is thought of as a zero-sum game in which the customer's gain in value is the company's loss in profit, the dilemma will never go away.

What needs to be found is a synthesis of how profit can be made while also giving value to customers and others in the value chain. For example, Apple's iPod is a synthesis of the you-and-me dilemma between the customer's value of free downloadable music and the industry's need for profitability.

On one hand, Apple considered that embracing the trend of free downloadable music might create customer value and might allow it first-mover advantage in the market, but it was not clear how to compete with free. On the other hand, trying to maintain the industry's existing model would keep profitability and control of the end product, but it risked creating greater numbers of unsatisfied customers and becoming a market casualty.

Again, the choices appear to be mutually exclusive, but Apple challenged the assumptions to find the "and." How could the trend be maintained and be used to generate profit? The company noticed that free mp3 files were not always high quality and were often difficult to put onto mp3 players.

Apple found synthesis by 1) integrating hardware and software with its iPod and iTunes store to meet the needs of the demand chain and 2) by making music highly available through distribution contracts on the supply chain. By uniting integration and distribution, they were able to charge a modest price for each track and make a profit.

Value and profit were both achieved. Finally, the inside out or outside in dilemma (the tension between the back office and front office) must also utilize some kind of synthesis.

Organizations cannot really choose one or the other; they must be both efficient and effective, focused on streamlined business processes and meeting customer needs. One strategy companies have used to synthesize these competing demands is through mass customization principles, where each transaction is customizable and customers have greater self-service abilities.

This article is based on the book "Dealing with Dilemmas." The book summary is available online at Business Book Summaries.