Advice for Chapter One

At the end of each month, Dave Matthews and I (Tyler) are committed to inviting experienced leaders onto The Yo Pro as Guest Writers who desire to equip next generation leaders.

(Think of it as a Yoda message delivered straight to your inbox each month 😉)

Guest Writers will use a START, STOP, and CONTINUE model as they reflect on their young professional years, sharing what they learned along the way.

We are thrilled to have Steve Blair, Chief People Officer, as our first Guest Writer.

Below, Steve dives into what he would start, stop, and continue doing when setting goals in his twenties.

Enjoy!

One of the things I’ve thoroughly enjoyed over the last 5 years is investing time to look back at my career journey and notice the distinct chapters of unique growth and discovery.  I’ve been blessed with incredible opportunities for personal growth and exposure to remarkable leaders. It’s clear to me now that I’ve had 4 distinct chapters.  

• Chapter One: My first, and longest, chapter spanned 17 years and followed a predictable, almost expected, career path of foundational skills and experiences, with a few nuggets of self-discovery.  Chronologically, it was the “first half” of my story.

• Chapter Two: Which I expected at the time to be my “second half”, lasted 5 years and was filled with measured risk, careful pursuit, and cautious testing.  

• Chapter Three: Or my “third half,” saw me stepping into the arena and pressure testing greater clarity around potential purpose and even calling.  

• Chapter Four: My “final half,” is catching my stride and doing precisely what God has uniquely called me to do. Helping founders and leaders cultivate remarkable places to work and helping individuals discover where and how they can love their work.  Because we all deserve to love our work.  

My passion, sincere hope, and desire in sharing the following is to enable and encourage you to accelerate your own journey through exploration and discovering your unique design and purpose with intentionality.  

If I were to have an opportunity to challenge early Chapter One Steve, I would encourage him to:

START – aggressively pursuing an understanding of when, where, and how I am at my best. Explore ALL the available tools that facilitate self-awareness and a deeper understanding of who I am, what makes me come alive, and how I can bring my full self to my work.  Some of my favorites include Strength Finders, Enneagram, Working Genius, Predictive Index, 5 Voices and How To Fascinate.  Print out the summary pages, lay them across a table and invest 3 hours in pulling the threads to reveal interesting intersections and actionable insights. 

STOP – allowing the borderlines of job descriptions to restrict the full exploration of what I learned in the self-discovery of START above.  In retrospect, it was leadership and growth opportunities outside my actual role(s) that ultimately led to confidence in Chapter Three and fulfillment in Chapter Four. Volunteer for the hard projects. Get active in recruiting. Onboard and mentor new hires. Few things are more efficient at deepening your own understanding than helping someone else discover theirs.  

CONTINUE – killing it in the role you are assigned.  Drive for clarity on what success looks like because nothing opens doors and facilitates discussions about future potential and passionate exploration more than consistently exceeding expectations where you’re at.

There truly is magic in getting to do what you are uniquely created to do. Late in Chapter One, which unfortunately was 15 years into my career, I learned of the quote that would ultimately bring radical clarity for me.  

“Don’t ask what the world needs.  Ask what makes you come alive and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” - Howard Thurman

Do everything you can to explore and discover what that is for you in your own Chapter One and watch what God has in store for you in Chapter Two.

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