About the author: Erica Mattison is a Boston-based Certified Career Services Provider, who specializes in working with mission-driven individuals to clarify and achieve goals that support a fulfilling career and life.
Is it possible to increase luck in your life and career?
Let’s start with the definition of luck: “Success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own actions.”
So, what is the definition of failure? “Lack of success.”
And what’s the definition of success? “The accomplishment of an aim or purpose.”
Given the definition of success, is there anything you can do to create an environment where chance can work its magic? We can identify strategies by learning from career and leadership development principles.
Activating your best ways of thinking
From neuro-axiology, the combination of mind-brain science and value science, you can learn to be aware of your underlying thought processes, beliefs, perceptions, and value judgements, which shape your results, performance, actions, and behaviors.
When you learn about your top cognitive assets (your best ways of thinking) and how to activate them, you are able to minimize the role of your cognitive biases (your less good ways of thinking). When you clarify your aspirational purpose (what it is you’re seeking to achieve, and by when) and identify the attributes needed to achieve that purpose, you get on the path to making meaningful changes. Questions to ask yourself:
What is it I am seeking to change or improve in my life?
What is going to need to change in order for that to be possible?
Do I need to be more something and less something else to make my desired change/improvement?
When you learn to get out of your own way, you free up the possibility for more good things to happen. In their book “Answering The Central Question,” authors Peter D. Demarest and Harvey J. Schoof pose a question that can be used as a guidepost in everyday life: “what choice can I make and action can I take, in this moment, to create the greatest net value?” When you take on a mindset that is focused on value creation, opportunities will present themselves all around you.
Being open to opportunities
Career theorist John Krumboltz is known for his work developing Happenstance Learning Theory (HLT), which recognizes that unpredictable social factors, chance events, and environmental factors are important influences on our lives. Questions to ask yourself:
Instead of focusing on making decisions, what if I focused on being curious, persistent, and flexible?
What if I observe where these qualities lead?
According to Krumboltz, these qualities help us to take advantage of chance events and turn serendipity into opportunity.
What is serendipity? “The occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.” So, by demonstrating curiosity, persistence, and flexibility, you can turn beneficial chance events into opportunities. What is an opportunity? “A set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something.” What can help you view a situation as an opportunity?
Adopting a growth mindset
Stanford University psychology professor Dr. Carol Dweck conducted research and developed the terms “fixed mindset” and “growth mindset” to describe beliefs people have about learning and intelligence. Her research revealed that when students believed it was possible for them to get smarter, they understood that effort made them stronger. This resulted in them putting in additional time and effort, which led to higher achievement. Essentially it’s a “self-fulfilling prophecy” – you believe something, and so it becomes your reality. You perceive challenges as possible to overcome, and you aren’t deterred or deeply discouraged when something doesn’t work out as intended. Questions to ask yourself:
When I’m faced with a challenge, what is the story I tend to tell myself?
What mindset changes are needed so I am better equipped to handle challenges?
Putting it all together
When you combine these approaches, you have a picture that looks like this – someone who:
Uses a value-based approach to themselves and the world around them.
Focuses on creating the greatest possible amount of overall value through their decisions and actions.
Regularly demonstrates curiosity, persistence, and flexibility.
Recognizes that life is a continual process of growth and learning, and that setbacks are not an end point.
What if a key to having more luck in your life is your ability to develop the skill to recognize and receive luck when it presents itself?
Don’t be surprised if adopting these approaches and mindsets results in increased luck in your life.
A Client Story: Stay put or focus on growth?
During the pandemic, Tim was underemployed. After working in the food service industry for many years, his hours had been cut back to a point that he was faced with a decision that would impact his and his family’s daily quality of life.
Option A: Stay in the industry and seek more hours
Option B: Focus energy on making a pivot to an area he was deeply passionate about
If Tim pursued Option B, how would he go about it?
A mutual contact referred Tim for career coaching. He shared that he was feeling stuck and lost. “I don’t know what I want to do” and “I don’t know what I’m qualified for” are common statements that are made at this stage. Many people have also shared, “I didn’t intend to be in this industry, but after all these years, I’m still here.” Over the course of a few months, Tim and I worked together so he could pursue Option B.
Career pivot starting point
We started with assessments and conversations to identify his skills, values, interests, and goals. It was necessary to address mindsets that were holding Tim back before he started applying to jobs. We identified that a scarcity mentality was getting in the way of imagining what was possible in his career.
Tim was interested in public policy and community engagement, but hadn’t pursued these kinds of opportunities because his cognitive biases were making him think he wasn’t sufficiently qualified. He had some experience in these areas and had obtained a Masters in Public Administration, but wasn’t sure how to translate that into opportunities for his career. An overriding thought was: “I’ve never been paid for that type of work, so how can I convince people to pay me for it now, when my years of work experience are in a totally different space?” There were other concerns too, such as, “What if mission-driven work won’t enable me to make enough money?”
How did we get past these insecurities and fears to help him get unstuck? We cultivated a growth mindset that focused on Tim’s ability to be receptive, learn, grow, and improve. We identified ways Tim could build his confidence, skills, and network by increasing his engagement with organizations and issues of importance to him. We focused on how Tim could create value with everything he put time and energy into. This helped Tim land a leadership role as a board member with a nonprofit organization he was excited about, which he added to his resume right away.
A focus on skills
We used a strengths-based approach, focusing on Tim’s transferable skills – skills he had developed throughout his life that would be relevant for positions of interest. We also focused on identifying roles at an appropriate level, given Tim’s experience – not too junior and not too senior. Like Goldilocks, we were looking for just the right fit.
Once Tim believed this career change was possible and had increased clarity about the types of roles and organizations he was seeking, we turned a corner. He was ready to share his vision with others. We developed a system for him to identify dozens of people in his existing network and build his comfort reaching out to them. At the same time, we identified opportunities to grow his network, which would help him tap into the hidden job market, where there are loads of interesting opportunities and less competition.
Identifying suitable roles
Tim learned a system for dissecting job postings to identify their essential elements and determine whether it was a close enough match, meaning he demonstrated 60%+ of what the job description called for and the opportunity was well-aligned with his values, skills, interests, and goals. We utilized a system for him to keep track of positions of interest and his application status, since being highly organized in this way is a key quality for an effective job seeker. An application tracking system helps save time and energy so those resources can be directed to research, writing, and connecting – not continually searching for files, names, and details.
Becoming a strong job candidate
Next, Tim learned a system to overhaul his resume and cover letter so they were appropriate for the types of roles he was seeking to attract. He became accustomed to tailoring each document before he submitted job applications.
From there, we tapped into his new and improved resume and cover letter to develop his brand and enhance his online presence on LinkedIn. “My LinkedIn was so on point and ready to go, and when a job opportunity literally fell into my lap ‘to share with my network,’ I realized it was actually for me! Since my resume and cover letter skills were so sharp, I was able to turn around a job application in three hours,” said Tim.
Now that he was regularly finding opportunities of interest and submitting a couple of strong job applications each week, it was a suitable time to start interview preparation. Tim learned how to research and prepare succinct, accomplishments-oriented responses to common interview questions. Most importantly, he honed his ability to tailor his responses for the particular opportunity at hand. Being comfortable with oneself is key to building a connection with conversation partners, such as interviewers.
Cultivating relationships
Meanwhile, Tim’s confidence was growing. His excitement about his new chapter was increasing and he was ready for primetime. He started putting himself out there more and started hearing about opportunities of interest from people in his network. He started landing interviews. All the while, he reflected on his experiences and identified opportunities to continue learning and growing.
Making the pivot
Soon after these pieces were in place, he landed his dream job, which came with a compensation package he felt great about. (Remember the job that fell into Tim’s lap? That’s the one he got hired for!) Today, six months later, Tim is finding the work challenging and fulfilling, and is proud of himself for making a career change that enables him to do the policy and community engagement work he long dreamed of.
Aided by a coach/accountability partner/trainer, Tim learned and implemented the mindset and skills it takes to create opportunities and make a career change. So can you.
Share your stories about creating and seizing opportunities: erica@ericamattison.com