Earlier this week, I had the chance to guest lecture for an undergraduate business class at USC. I’ve had this opportunity several times, and each time two things remain true.
We power through an incredible amount of content in two hours.
The students ask brilliant and discerning questions.
So this week, I wanted to share a couple of questions I particularly loved, and I think everyone can glean value from.
Question 1: How do we shift into a creator mindset when working on something we don’t enjoy?
I love this question first and foremost because it’s so relatable. We all have to work through things that, on their face, may not bring us joy, but that doesn’t mean we need to live with an internal narrative of “why me.”
The answer lies in reframing.
When we work on reframing, I offer two directions: go bigger or go deeper. Let me explain.
Go bigger.
Going bigger means stepping back and looking at the 10,000-foot view. When we look at the macro, not the micro, we can often find something more meaningful, personal, and important to focus on.
Let’s say you’re in the middle of applying for jobs. The tedious work of scanning for open positions, refining your resume, writing cover letters, submitting everything, and then playing the waiting game can easily feel like something we have to “deal with”. In this scenario, we’re focused on the micro, the problems we’re encountering, and there’s no question that’s draining.
Going bigger means understanding and focusing on the larger picture, the more important thing we’re passionate about (that the micro-level tasks support). It could mean staying focused on the life that you want to create for yourself with a new work environment and fresh challenges. Or focusing on the type of work you’re wanting to pour your energy into. The application process is a baby step that gets you closer to that envisioned outcome.
Go deeper.
To me, this means going inward. It means anchoring in how we want to be. We’ll spend time working on job applications regardless. How do we want to be while we’re doing it? What version of ourselves do we want to show up as?
If we stay in our initial mindset, we’ll keep showing up grumpy or maybe resentful. For most of us, showing up this way leaves us feeling out of alignment with ourselves. It’s not really how we want to operate. So the question becomes: how do you want to operate to feel most aligned with who you are? Maybe we shift our focus to being patient, thoughtful, and diligent when facing challenges. That’s going deeper.
Question 2: Do you have to earn the right to coach and challenge others?
I’m paraphrasing this question a bit, but for context, one of the students brought up another professor’s belief that you need to earn the right to ask big questions.
Now, we can “ask big questions” for a lot of different reasons, and to many different ends. Maybe we’re curious and want to learn. Maybe we’re doing so to persuade. Or to support the other person. These are all valuable (but different) contexts for asking questions.
In the context of the content we were discussing, I considered his question through the lens of asking questions to support someone else (aka playing the coach role). When he used the word earn, my mind immediately went to the role of trust.
For our questions (or challenges) to have impact, often we need trust. Particularly if we are coaching or challenging someone who may be feeling stuck.
If I’m sitting in the mindset that we discussed in Question 1— I’m solving problems, “dealing” with things, stuff keeps getting thrown at me, and I don’t feel like I have a lot of control— it likely takes someone who I believe really cares about me and has my best interests in mind to pull me out of that.
When we have high trust, it means our intent to help is often clearer. Folks give us more grace; they show up more open-minded; they’re more willing to listen.
Anyone can coach or challenge, but the effectiveness of those roles often depends on both our skill and our trust.
I took a short hiatus from Home of Elevaters over the past couple of months as we’ve been working to build and launch some incredible new things at Cohd. I’m excited to share more soon, and even more excited to get back to our weekly posts here on Substack! Thank you to everyone for the continued support!
