The Nature of Leadership and Career

read time 7 minutes

The Nature of Leadership and Career, is a weekly newsletter where I provide 1 illustration and ~3 ideas to help you connect to your career, leadership, or work journey in a more natural way.

Today at a glance

• Illustration of the week

  - The streetlight effect

• The Nature of Career

  - 3 times the streetlight effect is misdirecting your career

  - How to overcome the streetlight effect

• The Nature of the Mind

  - 3 reasons we decide to search under the streetlight

Illustration of the Week

Follow on Instagram and Linkedin.

The Streetlight Effect

One dark night, a policewoman bumps into a drunk man searching for something near a bench under a streetlight.  

“What have you lost?” asks the policewoman.

“My keys” replies the confused and tired man.

Together they search for keys. After an hour without any luck, the policewoman asks the man

“Are you sure you lost them here?”

“No. I lost them in the park across the road. “ says the man.

“Then why are you searching here?” retorts the policewoman.

“Because this is where the light is” responds the man with resignation.

***

How often are we looking for answers in our careers where it is most convenient, in the light, rather than where our metaphorical solution keys are obscured by ambiguous darkness?

The following instances might be familiar to you ….

The Nature of Career

3 times the streetlight effect is misdirecting your career

Instance #1 - Career Transition or Career Search

When you are looking for a new job or possible career transition what is the first thing you do?

The majority of people hit job boards e.g. Linkedin Jobs, Indeed, and Seek.

Nearly every job search strategy article, and advice from the best career job search coaches (favourites in my network are Beckie Thain-Blonk, Izzy- Piyale-Sheard, Kyle Thomas) will tell you that going straight to job boards is:

a) one of the least effective ways to land a job that you truly want, and

b) the quickest way to feel dejected and start doubting your capability and worth.

So why do we continue to do it?

Because it is convenient. It’s quick and easy. It’s where the light is shining.

Instance #2 – Navigating your career path

If you don’t design your career, someone will design it for you.

It’s too easy to follow the career path laid before us by our organizations, leaders, or mentors.

This is great if you have taken time to introspect and realize this is the path you truly want.

However for a good majority of us we either fell into a role, took a role because it was the best / only opportunity after graduating and we were desperate for a stable salary, or we joined a company because of the shiny and impressive big name and logo.

The streetlight shines you to the next promotion, next role, next rung on the ladder ….even if deep down you know it’s not what you want.

But it’s convenient because someone has done the thinking of the pathway for you… preventing you from searching in the dark and finding the key to the scary / exciting question

“what do I really want to do?”

Instance #3 - Finding solutions to complex problems on your work project, product, or service.

Most leaders and teams want to jump straight to the solution, and run away as quickly as they can from the dark and discomfort of the “problem space”

It is often in the problem space that we find the “keys” which come in the form of:

• clarifying the true question we are trying to solve for

• finding obscure, qualitative, or unstructured data; and

• framing experiments that will get us close to our desired outcomes.

What makes this even worse is when we land upon a “solution” under the streetlight, confirmation bias tunnel visions us to the data and voices that confirm our point of view.

However, customers / clients’ behaviors rarely lie. The so called “right answer” found under the streetlight fails.

This often leaves leaders and teams scratching their heads, lulling themselves into thinking “We didn’t do anything wrong, but we still lost”.

These were the exact words of Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, as he lead Nokia through its demise and sell off to Microsoft due to the uprise of the smartphone.

Ironically Nokia had ethnographic researchers looking in the dark and foretelling of the upcoming tech disruptor that would be the smartphone. The streetlight and confirmation bias were too bright for them to see their impending downfall.

The Nature of the Mind

3 reasons we decide to search under the streetlight

1. Aversion to effort

We move toward pleasure and away from pain – the hedonic principle. It’s easier to search or settle for a solution under the streetlight than it is to face the pain of fear and uncertainty in the dark.

The human brain always tries to preserve blood glucose and energy which includes taking shortcuts in how the brain views and makes sense of objects and situations. Looking under the streetlight was less taxing for the drunk man and made him feel like he was still doing something searching for his keys.

2. Status Anxiety

We search and settle for solutions based on our perception of what other people will think of us.

3. Fear

We hate being in uncertain situations. We are still ruled by paleolithic emotions and safeguards that drive us toward safety and certainty.

What can we do to overcome the streetlight effect?

Step 1: Simply put, figure out what’s stopping you from searching in the dark.

Is it:

Effort  - that is required to network and look for career options beyond job boards.

Status – caring too much about what other people think or the potential impact on your reputation.

Fear that arises from being in uncertain situations and the feeling of discomfort of not knowing

Other?

Step 2 Choose one or more hearts – heads – or hands strategies that work for you:

Heart-centered approaches - whole-body centred approaches that connect you to your energy, intuition, and emotion e.g. mindfulness, meditation, journaling, talking with friend, mentor, or coach.

Head-centred approaches - having a strategy and approach to stay and search in the dark e.g. building your career map based on your strengths, values, and aspirations.

Hands – centred approaches – tactical things to help you navigate in the dark e.g. time blocking for your job search, or choosing the right experimental approach for product/project based situations.

If you want step out of the streetlight and search for your keys in the dark, contact me to explore leadership or career coaching for you, or your team.

Catch up on recent issues of The Nature of Leadership + Career

• Who got you here won’t get you there

• Why redefining and “buffering” your self-identity are key to comfortable career transitions

• Are you getting sucked in to the false fight between leadership and management?

Let’s continue to conversation

• Join Free Women’s Community: Thriving Through Career Transitions

• This is a supportive space where you can:

  • find solace, guidance

  • boost your confidence

  • continuously expand your knowledge

  • connect and a network of like-minded ladies / non-binaries who share similar experiences.

  📅 Our next roundtable will be mind August.

  Join the community here

• Send feedback on todays issue.

Share The Nature of Leadership + Career

If you enjoyed today’s newsletter, please share it with your family and friends.

If this email was forwarded to you, consider subscribing to receive them every Friday direct to your inbox. when