EG #22: Rock Climbing & Business

Creating a clear path forward

Reframe

Sometimes jobs are opened for a specific need with a well defined job description.  

Sometimes jobs are created for skilled people in the absence of any job description.

When trying to gain a competitive advantage in business, not signaling to the market what you are doing with a publicly advertised job is key. 

Last week I got a call from one of my favorite clients. He has two new jobs coming out.

There’s no job description for one. His company is deciding whether to acquire a business or build out a new business line themselves. 

He has no idea on pricing for the skills needed. 

We talked about what success would look like for this person, who this job would resonate with, and possible companies to target to begin the search. 

Now the fun begins. 

We’re speaking with people without a job description yet, getting a sense of what people would like to see in a new job, what challenges they are facing at work now, and what salary range would make a conversation worth it. 

We’ll have a shortlist of people to speak with prepared along with weekly notes on what we’re finding from conversations and publicly available data.  

You don’t always have to know how to get there, you just have to know who to ask. 

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NYC 

We met up with friends for indoor rock climbing at Central Rock Gym. 

It all looked straight forward until you started climbing yourself. 

The rocks got smaller and the path less clear the higher you moved up the wall. 

You find yourself looking down when you’re not sure where to move next, unlocking a hidden fear of heights. 

Climbing up the wall at Central Rock Gym. Notice my son on the right climbing the white rocks. You pick one color of two under the designated rope to climb.

You’d think that letting go of the wall would be the easy part.   

The goal was to sit back and push off the wall with your feet, gracefully landing on your feet at the bottom. 

Trusting the automatic rope to do its job proved trickier than expected.  

I couldn’t relax enough with the machine to make that happen. Opting instead to death grip the rope with both hands and descend until safely sitting on the ground below.

The thought of what was expected to happen overrode what was actually happening.  

My son on the other hand, nimbly climbed and came down again like a pro. Posing for pictures as he did it. Enjoying the dangling sensation on the way down. 

Get there early at 10am as it fills up quickly. 

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Running 

Spoiler alert. 

Bad runs can and do happen. 

This past week was one of those times. The schedule called for an 18 mile long run. I stopped at 6.5 miles. 

I sensed something was off when I couldn’t get comfortable in the first half mile with a weird sensation on the outside of my right knee. Sympathy pains for my husband who is nursing a knee injury on the road to recovery for race day. 

This sort of sympathy pain feeling can show up at work too. 

When a close colleague gets laid off unexpectedly, it can start to feel like you’re next. 

Any small slight or problem gets magnified in a way it wouldn’t normally. 

You’re on the look out to notice what wasn’t noticed before. 

Your brain will look for patterns where there may or may not be patterns to make sense of it all. 

If you’re feeling like this right now, take a step back. 

Notice what’s going right for you at work too. 

Write it down.

Come back to the positive when the next problem comes up to keep perspective.  

With a 24, 22, and 20 mile run in the books this training cycle along with 7 other marathons successfully completed, missing one long run isn’t going to make or break my performance. 

Don’t be afraid to cut your own run short at the company if following the planned course isn’t sitting right with you. 

Let’s keep moving,

Jen

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