The Asia Pacific Headhunter

Thinking About Zen, Careers and Spiritual Work

As an Executive Search Consultant I'm constantly talking with people about their careers. The funny thing is that most people don't think about it that much. Certainly not as much as I thought they would considering the amount of time and effort they are putting into it. Studies show that most people spend more time at work than they do with their family. For such a huge investment of their time it's still quite rare for me to talk with a candidate who's extensively mapped out the career path they seek, or even a candidate who has put a lot of effort into understanding what makes them happy at work.

However, I can undeniably say that the candidates who are the greatest pleasure to work with are those who've taken the time to know themselves well. And more often than not those who have tend to get a great deal of satisfaction from what they do, not just their title, remuneration or the quality of company they work for. One of the best books I've read on the concept of getting satisfaction from the work you do is "Finding Flow". The concept involves searching for those moments when you feel most productive, when you are really into your work and trying to create them more regularly.

I'm currently reading another book, "Zen at Work" by Les Kaye. Kaye is interviewed online here where he gives a peek into his experience of studying Zen and why it helped him in the workplace (Kaye worked for IBM in Silicon Valley). Although he goes to great pains to say it didn't necessarily help his career, it's interesting that he obviously believes that in can be very beneficial for anyone to consider work as a spiritual practice:

Through continued Zen meditation practice, one comes to recognize that work is a spiritual activity, not just a way to earn a living. As this recognition subtly grows and takes shape, the individual very naturally approaches work with a more giving, selfless attitude. Work becomes less stressful, more joyful and creative, more collaborative as the individual becomes more reflective and less reactive in responding to work situations.

I'm most interested in whether Kaye's ideas on work being a spiritual activity can help people find more enjoyment at work. Not necessarily for any type of spiritual benefit, but mostly in the search for happiness. As Kaye says in the interview, the world of work has become more and more difficult. There are more things trying to take our time than ever before and less security as well. So if work is such a huge part of life, it would seem to be excruciatingly painful for that time to be without joy. Yet it's my experience that this is certainly the case for many people.

What's the next step? I'm just not sure, I think that the concept is wonderful, but is difficult to grasp and just the idea of "spiritual" is likely to turn a lot of people off immediately. However, I truly believe that if you are going to find happiness in your career, or even just in your everyday work then considering a search for deeper meaning than just pay and benefits could be the answer. Although it mightn't necessarily be Zen or "Flow", I do believe the search would be beneficial. And if you've found another way, then feel free to share in the comments.

 

Friday Links

Some great articles for you to take in over the weekend:

Evidence from Japan that companies that offshore operations are more successful at maintaining and growing their domestic workforce. This is worth a read for all the anti-offshoring types. Offshoring has been a big issue in Japan since the 80's thanks to all the manufacturing done there. And while the study can't say what type of employees are hired in the domestic operations, the results do show that perhaps not offshoring is a bigger risk to the growth of a company in their country of origin.

Immigrants Fuel Workforce Growth in Canada - Canada's foreign-born population has reached it's highest point in 75 years with 20% of the population born overseas. They have given a much needed boost to an ageing workforce.

South Asian Blood Sweat and Tears in the Middle East - A damning article on the treatment of nearly 600,000 Sri Lankan domestic workers in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, and the UAE. The Sri Lankan government reports that 50 domestic workers return to Sri Lanka "in distress" every day! More needs to be said about this, it's disgusting that this type of abuse of workers continues.

Indonesian Economy on The Rise But Jobs Scarce - Quick article on economy growth in Indonesia but also how that growth has been confined to certain parts of the country. In some cases people can make more money offering themselves as passengers to commuters so they can use the car pool lane, than they can from working near their homes.

Dow Chemical cuts 1000 jobs - Includes leaving the automotive sealers business in Asia. Hardly even causes a blip on the share price which always seems to be the case when there are layoffs.

UK Investment Bankers Predict Doom in 2008 - But they still think they'll personally get bigger bonuses!  You've gotta love their optimism. Not that those bonuses weren't bad last year either.

Indians and Filipinos Happiest People in Asia - Who would of thunk it? Filipinos in particular are happy about their career prospects and families but are most of all happy about their health. Unfortunately they came last in "preparedness for retirement". Still at least they aren't unhappy about it.

A Quote for All Entrepreneurs and the All Blacks

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotion, spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never tasted victory or defeat.”  - Theodore Roosevelt

Well done boys, you didn't get the result you wanted but you gave your all and never gave up. That in itself should be an inspiration to all of us.

What you can learn from NFL Quarterback Steve Young

I always get so much from these podcasts from Stanford's Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders series. In this one, Stan Christensen interviews former San Francisco 49ers star quarterback Steve Young on his perspective on negotiating based on what he's learned from his football career, business ventures and personal life. Many of you may know him just as the the quarterback that replaced Joe Montana, or may even know he is a Pro Football Hall of Famer and MVP of Super Bowl XXIX. But he's also a successful entrepreneur, having formed one venture fund with other NFL buddies back in the mid 90's when they were practicing out of Silicon Valley and is now the co-founder of another Sorenson Capital.  Throughout his career, both in football and after, he's been negotiating and leading others to success - which he talks about - all the tactics, strategies and soft skills that helped him along the way.

It's a long one (1 hour 28 mins), but well worth it - Steve has some great stories and I'm sure you'll find it useful, motivating, and pretty funny.

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If you're committed to being a life-long learner and want to find more useful podcasts, videos and articles check out Stanford Technology Venture Program's The Educator's Corner.

Find information on Diversity recruiting at DiversityJobs.com.

Interview with Takafumi Horie - Japan Times

Link: Horie didn't like his job, he was just good at it | The Japan Times Online.

Here's an update to the Livedoor debacle last year in Japan when CEO Takafumi Horie was arrested for violating Securities and Exchange laws. Even though he's still in criminal proceedings, this week he gave the Japan Times an exclusive interview about his views on the whole prosecution, why it happened, how he feels about Livedoor today, and what's in store for him in the future.

Staying in line with his brash, straight-talking, anti-corporate Japan attitude, Horie maintains his innocence, and that he was just good at being an entrepreneur. Why the prosecution went after him so suddenly and quickly, he theorizes that they perceived Livedoor to be a "criminal grab bag" (he notes - people buy grab bags because they're exciting, but once they open one up, there's really nothing exciting inside).

As for the future, he's pursuing projects overseas, and will most likely stay away from corporation building in Japan. His verdict will come in this Friday.

How Small Companies Play Big

I love stories like this one from Forbes about how small companies are competing, and beating larger companies due to the advantage that technology and the internet is providing for them. The greenies should also be happy about the efficiency that webex and other online collaborative tools provide by cutting down the amount of travel that salespeople need to do.

Online in Asia: Bloggers, Gamers and Money

Three interesting reads that I thought were worth noting down. First on the influence of China's 80 million Bloggers. There are a couple of interesting cases on how Volkswagen and Ice Cream maker Haagen-Daz made marketing mistakes and how quickly the response was on local blogs.

The second on the incredible growth in online gaming in China. Some games, such as Korean developed - Crazy Arcade Bomb and Bubble, have as many as 130 million users! I really feel old when I read this. I have enjoyed games in the past. But now that I have my own kids I no longer feel like I have the time or patience to try. Even though the online games look really interesting I just can't see myself spending an hour let alone 24 hours like I hear some other people doing!

The third read I recommend a blog: Web 2.0 Asia from Korean Blogger Chang W. Kim. One post that I found really interesting was about monetizing blogs in Korea and what he calls the "Show Off Economy". Definitely worth a read.
 

Furst Person provides call center outsourcing services to employers.

Business Podcast of the Week: Tina Seelig

This is a great motivational and insightful podcast by Tina Seelig, Executive Director for the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, where she reflects on "What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20." She initially came up with this "list" for her 17-year-old son, and soon realized how useful this would be for so many people at all levels. From young graduates, to mid-career executives looking for the next step, to employers and entrepreneurs building their companies and ideas, there are so many fundamental ideas to take away from this and put to use right away in our own lives.

I especially liked her first point: Every problem is an opportunity for a creative solution. Turning problems into opportunities for creating solutions and value is key for anyone wanting to get ahead . Listen to her problem-solving lesson she assigned to a Stanford design class. She gave each team a sealed envelope containing an undisclosed amount of seed funding and gave them a week to come up with a business idea to create value. From the time they opened the envelope they had 2 hours to implement their business plan. How much was inside? Five bucks.

At the end of the week, each team had to give a 3-minute presentation on what they came up with. What do you think those teams did, and how much do you think they made from that $5???? I'll give you a hint: the winning team made over $600...

Listen here.

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Why Trademe is New Zealand's Google

Last week at Webstock 2006, Rowan Simpson of Trademe made an excellent presentation on some inner secrets of Trademe's success in the NZ marketplace. Not long after I was listening to Rowan, I listened to a podcast from Marissa Mayer (mp3), VP of Search Products and User Experience at Google on nine ideas that Google feel have helped foster innovation and creativity within their business. Ideas which have ultimately contributed to their success. It was interesting to hear some of the ideas that they both spoke about, and it's obvious that intentionally or not, they have done some of the same things.

One factor that is obvious in both companies is their passion for making constant changes and improvements and letting their customers decide. They actually share the same technique in testing new changes (Google calls it "split AB testing", Rowan didn't say what Trademe calls it). Basically it means they serve up one choice to 50% of the users and the other choice to the other 50% and see which is more successful. The idea of failing fast or trying an idea and then seeing what the data says is really critical to both. They continually try new things just to see what will happen, and they do it in all areas.

Both are also religious about using numbers to make decisions. Marissa spoke in particular about having to reeducate people who joined Google about how they do presentations to senior management. In other firms, management often only want to know the conclusions, whereas at Google they really want to know the data - how many people they tested, what the results were when parameters were changed etc, etc. Marissa also felt that relying on data to make decisions meant that Google had less internal politics going on than other companies. Basically because people don't have to worry about their project getting chosen over someone else's on whether or not they have kissed up to the right person.

I think another area we can add is that both companies feel they can try their hand at many things, because since they are willing to make mistakes and then iterate, then they will ultimately succeed. For example, I asked Rowan why he thought Trademe could compete in the job board market in NZ (something they announced recently). His answer was pretty simple: "We started with Car Classifieds a couple of years ago and now we are number one, after that we set up Real Estate Classifieds and now we are number one. We are just working our way through the newspaper". Those sound like fighting words to me. Hope someone from Seek was in the audience.

Getting Real From 37 Signals

Yesterday I downloaded the PDF book Getting Real from 37 Signals. I have been using their web application Backpack for a year and while it hasn't been the most useful tool for me, I do love the idea and philosophy behind the software and the company. The idea of less is more is one that hasn't occurred to most software companies. But 37 Signals has made it their mantra with some great success.

So I was expecting their first book to be interesting but not necessarily groundbreaking. However, there are some fantastic ideas in this book and it is such a quick and exciting read that it was well worth the investment. I highly recommend it for anyone, although it would probably help to have an interest in the software industry. Without that some parts will be a little bland.

BTW, I can tell you the exact part in their pitch of the book that sold me on buying it:

"37signals used the Getting Real process to launch five successful web-based applications (Basecamp,  Campfire, Backpack, Writeboard, Ta-da List), and Ruby on Rails, an open-source web application framework, in just two years with no outside funding, no debt, and only 7 people (distributed across 7 time zones). Over 400,000 people around the world use these applications to get things done."

I love the idea that a small company can work across time zones and achieve so much with their major resource being creativity. And that is really the theme throughout the book itself. Using size restraints to actually achieve more. Staying small and using that to your advantage rather than considering it a negative. I do a lot of recruiting for the software industry. Often software companies will say that their only barrier to growth is the number of good developers they can hire. Getting Real throws that claim right into the trash with some really interesting arguments.