Interview with Peter Bregman Harvard Business School Press

Tell us a little bit about yourself:

I run Bregman Partners. It’s a management consulting company. I do alot of CEO advisory work, leadership training, organizational design usually in the context of CEO work. The focus is on  whether organizations are moving strongly  and strategically in the direction they want to go. But the focus is really on the people side of it. Sometimes it looks like  coaching, training, and sometimes advice.

How did you get started writing for HBS Press?

I’ve written a book and I was going to start a blog. HBS asked me to start the blog there as a guest blog. Then my first couple of blogs did really well . People were engaged with it and HBS asked me to be a permanent blogger. One of the blogs I wrote got picked up by the Wall Street Journal and then by CNN and now I do some writing for CNN as well on a fairly regular basis.

The article you wrote on finding a job was kind of contrary to alot of other advice? What’s led you to these philosophies and how did you arrive at some of your conclusions?

One distinction I want to make is that’s really important to not only have a positive mind set, but it’s also where you focus your efforts. I think it prepares you better to be successful at a job. You said it yourself, rather thank talk about the job you want to do, you actually have to focus on activities to prepare you to do that job and starting a blog if you are interested in social media marketing is a great way to demonstrate that.

It’s more than just the psychology of getting drained from spending all your time on the job search, it’s just a better way to get a job. There has been a tremendous amount of research that shows you will be far more successful if you chose to work in areas you are tremendously passionate about.  Have you ever read Outliers by Gladwell? What it basically says, you become great at something and an expert by practicing something. You  practice what you are passionate about.

Alot of times we spend alot of energy working to try to achieve things we think will get us success or what other people have told us will get us success.  We end up in jobs that are not a great fit for us and we work to fix a tremendous number of weaknesses in what is not exactly the right job for us. You’ll never be as successful in a job you’re not passionate about as you will in a job that you are passionate about. Your process over the course of your career should be to notice that and keep moving in that direction. You will be far happier, far more successful and make far more money.

What do you think is a good way to make yourself more marketable in this environment?

I know I mentioned volunteer work in my article. You want to figure out things to do for organizations that give you an opportunity to flex your muscles in the areas that you really are interested in. You can work at soup kitchen which is fine. But, if you are really into something like accounting, then maybe you should be volunteering to help them with their books or do their purchasing instead of just serving food. You want to have other people see you doing the thing that you love and that you are really good at it. Then, they’ll look for you and think of you in that opportunity.

Let’s say what you really love doing is selling. If what you want to do is have someone hire you to sell, then the role you should take is getting more people into the organization you are volunteering for. Then you’ll actually be able to use your skills in selling, learn skills in selling, and people will see you sell. Then they’ll actually offer you a job in sales because they see first hand that you are good at something. It’s not just the organization you chose to work for but what you chose to do for that organization and how other people see you.

I saw the graduating class from  this past year and it took them a while to find a job. Let’s say that people are unemployed for a year or an extended period of unemployment that could last from 6 months to a year, what kind of suggestions do you have?

Find the thing you like to do and do it. If you spend the whole year just looking for a job it’s really depressing. A year of unemployment doing stuff you love is only depressing in terms of not making money. Focusing solely on a job search is really bad for you in so many ways, it shatters your confidence, it makes you depressed. What you really want to do is isolate the most difficult element of your situation, and don’t let it infect everything else in your life.

The most difficult element of not having a job is not making money. But, it doesn’t mean you have to give up other things in your life.  We’re driven by the desire to achieve, connect with other people, and have influence and respect. Just because you don’t have a job it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do those things. Those are the things that are going to drive you. So, you do them and don’t make any money. That’s better than not doing them and making any money.  Don’t let the fact that you are unemployed infect every other element.

Peter Bregman is CEO of Bregman Partners, Inc., a global leadership development and change management firm. He advises leaders in many of the world’s premier organizations throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia. He is the author of Point B: A Short Guide To Leading a Big Change.

Tags: Peter Bregman, Bregman Partners, Harvard Business School Press, Goal Setting, Career Success

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