The Diary of a CPO - Chapter 1

Find your purpose. Your meaning. Your job.

Photo by Marcin Skalij on Unsplash

My 15 year old daughter asked me last night, “What should I do when I graduate?” Apparently all her friends already know what they want to be when they grow up. That really made me think…I fell into HR (see my first blog post intro here) but in hindsight, I guess I had all the right skills and interests to do the work of people + business but I didn’t know it at the time. What I told her was that she needs to discover her career path on her own. It shouldn’t be my dream but rather, hers. This is how I found mine.

Find your purpose. Create meaning.

When we think about “finding your purpose,” that sounds so difficult. The truth is, you’re not finding your purpose for a job, but finding your purpose to do meaningful work. When I started out in my HR career, I reported into some really uninspiring HR leaders. Most of these leaders were truly demotivating which made the work even worse. They had dull ideas, boring execution and they evoked zero motivation to the team (and often to the company). These were the HR leaders of yesteryear. The ones that sat in back offices, never came out and when you got called into the “HR office” you knew it would be for a dreadful reason. Being part of these demoralizing HR teams was shameful to me. I felt trapped and disappointed that this is what HR seemed to amount to in the industry.

So I decided to be the change I wanted to see. I decided that in order to make real changes happen, I would first need to get “up there.” I certainly couldn’t do much down here. So I did everything I needed to do to get to the top. Learn as much as I can, on the job and in my own personal time. Take on the work that no one wants to do, and be an expert at it. Build up my reputation and commit to showing up every day, as that person. 

And then it happened. I moved into my first leadership role and quickly advanced up the ranks to executive leadership. It was exhilarating and really nerve racking at the same time. And when I got there, I never forgot the changes that I wanted to make as an HR leader. Listen to your team. Share your knowledge. Make big changes that will make a difference. Be real and be unapologetic. I found my purpose and I created meaning in an industry that I was really unhappy with. And soon, I started to see HR take a shift. That’s where I found joy in the work I did because HR really didn’t need to be this way, but someone needed to make that change happen. I realized then that if you really want to disrupt something, you have to have the courage to do it yourself. So every company I joined thereafter, I brought my new HR ideals with me.

Find the joy in work you do.

Next, you must find joy in the work you do. That doesn’t mean you need to make your hobby your full time job (unless you found a way to do that and get paid for it, bravo to you). For so many people, a job is a miserable necessary evil that pays the bills, funds their vacations and puts their kids through school. When you think of a job in this way, you are in a transactional relationship with your employer…for the rest of your life. 8 hours a day which amounts to 40 hours per week which amounts to 2,080 hours per year which amounts to 83,200 hours spanning across 40 years in your lifetime. That’s 40 years of checking in and out, hating every hour of your precious working day and doing miserable work that likely doesn’t bring out the best side of you.

So what if you could find joy in the work you choose to do? That doesn’t mean that you’ll be doing everything you love in your job, but you might be doing whole great pieces of work you love daily or weekly. You just might be inspired to do work that brings you joy several times a week. 

In HR, you are dealing with a lot of people and management issues that are really serious. You are managing the most contentious issues such as potential litigation cases or harrowing employee problems that challenge your conflict management skills to the core. And in-between all of that, someone is complaining that the kitchen is out of oat milk again and they can’t enjoy their coffee. It’s hard to find joy in the above and I often don’t. But here’s what I do enjoy.

I love getting up at Town Hall and sharing our company’s future plans with our people, especially if the plans include investing in programs to support their personal development. I love when a random employee drops by my office and shares honest feedback about what’s happening with their teams or is grateful for what is actually working. I love it when I can help solve a really difficult problem at the company that is keeping us from successfully reaching our goals so that the difference is felt from every level at the organization. And most importantly, I love sharing how critical the HR function is at any organization if it’s run right - with the right discipline, with the right strategy and with the right partners. That is where I find the joy in the work I do. Find yours.

Know your intolerance.

Lastly, not every job is a job forever. We have the ability to do the best jobs we can in our careers but only the best companies can win you over. Let me explain.

If you know your purpose and you have found meaning in the career you are in, you are likely finding joy in your work and that is absolutely amazing. Some people call this “passion” but only some people find passion in the work they do. Remember, there are still some people who are in jobs that are merely transactional. But if you’re one of those people who are in the lucky bucket, know your worth because these are the people that employers want to hire. Since you love the work you do, you are most likely self motivated, hard working, interested in learning more and eager to do the best job you can. As great as you are, you probably have zero ego because you see your job as something you love to do versus feeling entitled and expecting accolades all the time. This is just how you’re built.

When an employer hires someone like you, they are likely truly lucky and know they have hit the jackpot. Your manager is lucky because you’re going to work hard even if they don’t. Your success will not be hindered by them if they’re not a very good leader because in spite of their mediocre performance, you are leading yourself to do what you need to do because you’re in that other bucket.

But that doesn’t mean you tolerate the intolerable. And what is that you say? That’s up to you. We all have our own set of values and the beliefs that make who we are. Part of your strong values makes you an incredible hire but that also means you have a strong belief system that can’t be abused.

My intolerance is complex and easy at the same time. My intolerance goes back to my purpose, meaning and joy of work. Since becoming an executive leader in HR, I often report directly to the CEO. Anyone who has a role reporting up to the top knows that it’s not easy. You are in the hot seat all the time. You have the highest accountability for your vertical. You are a trusted confidante to the CEO and you must deliver. All. The. Time.

I know what I can bring to the table and I have a very strong “do or die” attitude (which I know can be harmful and I’m working on it, I promise). Since becoming a leader in HR, I have made it my purpose to change this industry for the better. I have dedicated my career to ensure that the impacts of my work are felt at every company I join and I will never shy away from the hardest challenges to do the work that I know will make a difference. But that means we all need to do the hard things as a leadership team. My intolerance is doing the hard things (that are often the right things), for an executive team and CEO on my own. Building an engaged culture (on my own). Creating a high performing team (on my own). Removing bad apples (on my own). Standing up to immoral behaviours (on my own). Providing direct feedback (on my own). Sharing bad news to the company (on my own).

Eventually, my intolerance bucket starts to weigh the scale down and that’s when I know, my intolerance bucket is taking away from my bucket of joy and I realize, I’m doing my job mostly on my own. That is my intolerance so for me, it’s crucially important to choose the right company to join, the right leaders to partner with and the right work to spend my time in. Know your intolerance and don’t ever get used to accepting that because when you do, you lose all of the above - your purpose, your meaning, your joy.

Make your choice - it’s 40 years after all.

For any of you who are thinking about your career or your next career move, I hope my advice was helpful for you in some way. Deciding how you want to spend the next 40 years of your life isn't an easy one, but at least if you make a choice that brings you some purpose, meaning and ultimately joy, you will live those years doing amazing work that will impact your life.

Thank you for reading my honest blog. If you enjoyed this first chapter, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below or you can connect with me on LinkedIn. Don’t forget to subscribe to my blog by clicking below. Thanks, everyone!