Hasson Shortcuts

The Proven Path To Purpose, Excellence, and Calling
1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-1-952421-22-8
Verlag: NEWTYPE Publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet/DL/kein Kopierschutz

E-Book, Englisch, 188 Seiten

Finding your dream job. Discovering your purpose and passion. Achieving success and mastery in your field. Building healthy work-life balance. Experiencing fulfillment in all areas of life. These are all worthy desires to pursue, but not only do we lack a roadmap to make these things happen, the world pressures us to skip the line and use the latest 'hacks' to reach these goals. Yet most of the time when we go looking for shortcuts, it makes things harder in the long term. Leadership coach and popular podcast host Bob Hasson shares the secret to making real, lasting change in his book, Shortcuts. Packed with proven wisdom rooted in biblical truths, Shortcuts reveals processes for you to overcome discontentment and confusion, and gain courage and clarity on how to achieve the life you dream of.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hasson, Bob

Leseproben

“If you do the work you get rewarded. There are no shortcuts in life.” Michael Jordan CHAPTER 1
Gaps
When I met 24-year-old Sabrina at a fundraising event, she quickly impressed me as being smart, energetic, and confident. As our conversation progressed, she opened up and began sharing her story with me. It started like a classic tale of the American dream. She had been raised by loving Christian parents who were also first-generation immigrants. Her father owned a small business and worked hard to give her everything she needed to succeed in life. Talented and driven, she was a top achiever through high school and inspired her teachers to comment that she would probably end up being the CEO of a company later in life. She studied science in college and graduated with honors. At twenty-two, she landed a summer internship with a leading biotech firm in Boston, and by the fall, she had been hired on to an entry-level position. She was on her way to a successful career in the biotech field. By the dismissive way that Sabrina narrated these steps of her journey to me, however, I began to suspect that somewhere along the way, her dream job hadn’t worked out the way she’d hoped. Sure enough, the next part of her story was marked by struggle, frustration, and disappointment. Sabrina explained that her biotech job had required her to put in sixty-plus-hour weeks doing tasks that she felt were repetitive, boring, and lacking in purpose. Her boss was critical, demanding, and totally uninterested in helping her grow and/or feel valued in her role. After making friends with a small group of work colleagues, she soon found their company to be a toxic mix of gossip, complaining, and cutthroat competition. Within a year, the honeymoon was completely over and Sabrina felt disillusioned and lost. The passion she had carried to work in biotech was gone, and she began to believe she was entirely on the wrong career path. Why continue to pour out her life in a job where there was no camaraderie or support, no sense of connection to a noble mission, and no clear path to promotion that didn’t involve years of drudgery and climbing over other people’s backs? She didn’t just hate her job, she hated who she was becoming in it. It felt like all her compassion, hope, and idealism had been sucked out of her and she was on the verge of becoming like her colleagues—cynical, power hungry, and selfish. “So what did you do?” I asked Sabrina. “I quit,” she replied. “I’m working part-time in the fashion industry right now. I’m still not sure what I want my career to look like, but I guess at least I know one thing I don’t want to do.” I nodded and said I understood, but I couldn’t help feeling troubled. Sabrina’s was by no means the first story I had heard of a young person deciding to leave the job and career they’d trained for in college, but I couldn’t help feeling there were aspects of her journey that could and perhaps should have been different. Had she really picked the wrong career when she was obviously talented in science and technology? I wondered. Could she have found more effective ways of working with her boss and colleagues? Were her expectations about the job unrealistic? What if she had picked a different company with a different work culture? What if she had found better friends or a church community to support her in Boston? Before I could ask Sabrina any of these questions, however, someone interrupted our conversation and whisked her away. A few days after that fundraising event, I attended a Christian leadership conference. After one of the meetings, a smartly dressed young man, who appeared to be in his late thirties or early forties, approached me. “Hey, Bob, I’m Lance,” he said, grinning with confidence and extending his hand. “A mutual friend of ours over there told me I should meet you.” “Nice to meet you, Lance,” I said, shaking his hand. “So why did this friend send you over here?” “I just started a spiritual coaching business,” Lance said. “I think he thought you might be interested in talking to me about it.” It sounded to me like Lance was about to ask me for some business advice, so I responded, “Okay, tell me a little more about your business.” “Well, I meet with business owners and CEOs, pray over them, and help them develop kingdom strategies for their businesses,” he explained. “Funny enough, I actually know a couple of people who do that,” I smiled. “So how’s it going and how can I help you?” Lance’s face lit up. “I would love to help you, Bob! How would you feel about me coming to your office to pray over you and your employees?” I paused for a moment to decide how I should best reply to this direct and frankly off-putting pitch. I decided to ask Lance a few questions about his background. He explained that he had primarily worked in churches but decided to pivot into business after deciding he just wasn’t into traditional pastoring anymore. He admitted that (unlike those I know who do Christian consulting) he had never run a business, owned a business, gone to business school, or mentored under someone in business. When I responded that it didn’t sound like he had the kind of background to help me with my company, he tried to convince me that he didn’t need a business background to do what he did for business owners. He then told me about several incidents where he had done “ministry” on site at several businesses. What he described was fairly alarming to me and I knew nothing like that would ever fly anywhere near my executive team or employees. Finally, I said, as gently but honestly as I could, “Lance, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I’m sorry to say everything you’re telling me is a turnoff. I don’t know you. You haven’t asked me anything about my business. You haven’t shown me evidence that you understand the kind of problems I need to solve or have experience or wisdom that I would find relevant or helpful. I think you’re going to have a hard time winning business as a coach if this is your approach.” Lance looked shocked. After a moment he asked, “Are you being serious?” “Absolutely,” I nodded. “Thanks for the offer, but it’s going to be a no from me.” “Oh . . .” Lance seemed even more surprised by my response than I had been by his offer. He smiled awkwardly, mumbled, “Well, thanks anyway,” and hurried off. Like my conversation with Sabrina, this encounter left me feeling troubled, for a couple reasons. First, there was Lance’s apparent assumption that because we were both Christians and had a mutual friend, he could fast-track building trust and connection and get right to a transaction with me. There was his lack of awareness that until he built up more training and experience in his newly chosen field of business, someone with a mature business like mine probably won’t be interested in hiring him. Finally, there was the fact that Lance didn’t seem able to read me, pick up the significance of the questions I was asking him, and shift to a more curious and humble approach instead of doubling down on his pitch. I wasn’t offended by these things—they made me feel badly for Lance. Starting a new career and business in middle life is hard enough, but doing so without knowing how to build trust and credibility with people is going to be really rough, I thought. Within a week or so after returning from the leadership conference, a friend and business colleague from another state, Grant, reached out to me for some advice. He told me that the pastor of the small church he and his wife had faithfully attended for years was retiring. This man, Pastor Lewis, had often called on Grant, who owns a successful business, for advice on how to manage the church finances and to ask for financial help with both church initiatives and personal needs. This had created many uncomfortable situations for Grant. No matter how many times he sat down with Pastor Lewis to go through the church budget or opened his checkbook, it never seemed to translate into helping the pastor become a better financial manager or helping the church grow and become financially stable. Most of the initiatives he tried to start never got off the ground. Now, Grant had just learned that Pastor Lewis had no retirement to fall back on, having opted out of Social Security, saving, and investing over his entire career. “I’m not sure what to do,” Grant told me. “Pastor Lewis is goodhearted and well-loved by many people in our little church. At the same time, he just hasn’t had any real vision, ambition, or work ethic. Again and again, he has coasted on the strength and support of those around him. He’s been a mediocre leader and pastor, and it seems like I’m the only one who has ever challenged him to do better. He’ll take my words to heart for a while but soon falls back into his old habits. Now he’s in his late sixties with nothing to support him and his wife in their later years. I feel for him, but I also don’t know how to help him.” I told Grant I empathized with his situation, and we discussed a few ideas for how to help Pastor Lewis and the church move toward a better future. After we hung up the phone, however, I once again felt troubled. As a father, husband, and...