Chris, you are amazing. Even when you are frustrated and p’o’ed you are coaching, and you are coaching me, another coach who’s been doing it for a while longer. I wish you lived here where I run my business: I’d drive to wherever you lived and hire you in a second, no matter how many more books I’d have to sell to do it.

In Hawaii right now the job market is virtually at zero unemployment, but all that means is that the people you need to hire are already working someplace else. Complacency, a sense of entitlement and downright laziness are running rampant and it magnifies/proliferates the problem you are speaking of: Companies are not reinventing themselves and their approaches because they spend so much time wringing their hands over being short-staffed. They use the excuse that they are not innovating because they have to cover the basics first. The employees don’t raise the bar because they don’t have to: Complacency makes them feel their bosses should be grateful to have them as is. Complacency, apathy, boredom - these are all business cancers.

Frankly, those companies who settle for complacency deserve to fail. However this is where you end up coaching me: My impulse is always to tell the people I coach, “keep looking, don’t settle for second best” but the reality is just that - their reality. It’s very real for them, and something I have to empathize with. So these days my approach has been different: I try to help them out by tackling the companies and businesses themselves (and writing a book about it) AND by coaching the employee themselves to be empowered even within a flawed system.

I still believe that people shouldn’t sacrifice themselves by working for dumb and clueless companies, and that making a better choice for themselves is always job one. However if the initial assessment shows they’ve tried to the very best of their ability, and are shackled to that job for a very real reason, then reinvention from within is the next step.

Perhaps that is what we must focus on if we are to be most helpful: Fact may be you have to stay where you are - how do you thrive within a broken model in a way that’s good for both of you?

Well Christopher, you have just encapsulated my day. We are in synch once again.

I’ve spent my whole day being angry and frustrated with what happens when the soulful work is pursued but the ’system’ can not and will not support it.

I’m ending a contract I had to produce a piece of theatre only half way through. I am passing up good coin and big profile, because my soul can’t last 3 more months. As difficult as it was to break the news to my client, I had no trouble, after it became clear, deciding what to do.

And this is the creative world. A world that should be exempt from such crap. But, in my view, as long as $$ is the focus, then it doesn’t matter what the job is, it doesn’t take much for the goodness to be sucked right out of it.

“I Will Be Complacent No Longer” either!

Rosa, your businesses in Hawaii will never change unless the people who comprise them say, “Enough.” This likely won’t happen until we see that there are no shackles, only choices. If an individual must remain in a soulless job or at a complacent organization, it’s time to figure out why that is. Getting paid to do a job does not equate to being bought.

I don’t think you’re off the mark by advising your clients to not settle. The whole point is that we must demand better. I admire your two-pronged approach of tackling the person AND the business. It’s what sets you apart and makes you a vital asset to your community and our world.

Cyn, I admire the courage and self-respect that you have which made it possible to exit that contract. It takes insight to recognize when core principles are being violated and strength to say, “No more.” My hope is that your decision will come back with a gift of allowing you to produce a piece that truly reflects your soul. My best to you.

I share your hope. Sometimes we are fooled by the prospects of the ‘good work’. Sometimes we are fooled into thinking the work is good at all.

A couple of other projects I’m working on gives me clear vision as to what the ‘good work’ is, and thankfully I was able to see the difference.

Wow. You are so totally on, Chris. Your words continue to shed light on those dark places which continue to hold fear within workplaces.

In my work I’m faced with certain people who believe there is no chance to make a difference within organizations, but I believe that there have to be those of us who do believe a difference can be made, even if it means bringing the cynics to light and then dealing with the cynicism head on. At least we’re talking about something that matters.

Keep up the great work, my soulful friend. You’re making a difference to me - which inspires me to make a difference with those around me.