In today’s episode, we cover finding fulfillment at work with Carson Tate. Carson is the author of Own It. Love It. Make It Work, the founder of Working Simply, and is a renowned expert on workplace productivity.
About Carson Tate
Carson Tate is the author of Own It. Love It. Make It Work. and the founder of Working Simply, a coaching and consulting firm focused on workplace productivity. She coaches professionals on getting clear about their strengths, asking for useful feedback, and building better working relationships. In this conversation she draws on her own experience in a job she dreaded, and on the work she does with coaching clients, to show how people can make the job they have work for them.
Key takeaways
- Escaping a job you dislike rarely fixes the feeling, because you bring yourself with you wherever you go.
- Ask for the feedback you want, be specific about it, and follow up afterward to show what you did with it.
- Find the purpose in your work by asking who it serves and what would happen if it didn’t exist.
- Your strengths are your professional currency, so pay attention to what you love doing and link it clearly to your team’s goals.
- When you catch yourself on the ladder of inference, go back to the facts, check your story, and talk to the other person.
- Skip the feedback sandwich and give one specific, fact-based piece of feedback framed around growth.
If asking for feedback or having a hard conversation with your boss feels daunting, that’s a skill you can practice, and it’s part of what we work on in the X-Factor Accelerator.
We have been taught to find the job we love, but what if you could learn to love any job you have instead – what would you have to do, how can you set yourself up for success, and how do you find a great mentor to guide you?
What to Listen For
- What is the fundamental flaw behind trying to escape from your problems?
- Why does fear keep so many people miserable at their jobs and what can you do about it if running to another job just results in the same feeling?
- How do you create opportunities for positive feedback at work when you feel you are not being appreciated?
- How can you discover your strengths to forge ahead in your professional life?
- What is the ladder of interference, why do you need to get off of it, and what can you do to get off of it before it’s too late?
- What can you do to cultivate a healthier working environment so it’s not holding you back from success and fulfillment?
- What is the SCARF framework and how can you use it to improve your relationships?
- What is emotional theater and how can you use it to take a step back from a difficult situation and look at it how it is affecting you objectively so you can think clearly about what to do?
- Why is the compliment sandwich NOT an effective way to give feedback and what should you do instead?
- How should you go about finding a mentor and what should you NOT do to make sure you don’t push them away?
It has been drilled into us by inspirational speakers and countless successful people that we won’t be able to find fulfillment in what we do for work until we find the one job that we love.
But how many jobs are you going to have to work before you find that job?
What if instead, you could learn to find fulfillment in every job you take by focusing on some key aspects of the job and why they matter to you. By doing this, you can take pride in your work and give it the effort necessary for you to succeed and leave a great impression on those around you so you’ll develop a solid network that will launch you to even greater success.
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Resources from this Episode
- Carson Tate’s website
- Own It. Love It. Make It Work. by Carson Tate
- SCARF Framework by David Rock
Check in with AJ and Johnny!
Best quotes from Carson Tate
“Wherever you go, there you are, which is why escaping fundamentally doesn’t work because you show up.”
Carson Tate, 3:00
“The first one is to ask for the feedback that you want.”
Carson Tate, 8:30
“You are going to be so much more effective in your career if you play from your strengths than if you’re always trying to shore up your opportunities for growth.”
Carson Tate, 20:30
“The problem with the feedback sandwich is you’re burying my opportunity and so I am unclear on what it is I need to focus on.”
Carson Tate, 44:30
“We aren’t just cogs in a machine. We are a very important part of what’s going on.”
Carson Tate, 58:30
FAQ
How do you find fulfillment at work?
Carson Tate suggests getting clear on why your work matters. Ask who you serve, internal or external, and what would happen if your role didn’t exist. She also recommends identifying your strengths and building more of them into your day.
How can you discover your strengths at work?
Carson suggests asking yourself what your best day at work looked like and what people compliment you on. Her favorite method is to review your to-do list and calendar, mark what you enjoyed and what you didn’t, then look for patterns in the tasks you love.
How can you improve workplace productivity?
In this episode, the focus is on the human side of it. Ask for specific, timely feedback, spend more time on your strengths than on shoring up weaknesses, and hold a short regular check-in with your manager. Carson also points to the value of pausing to reflect, since breakthroughs rarely come from pushing forward nonstop.
What is the ladder of inference?
It’s a concept Carson describes as the quick climb from one interaction to a full story about someone, such as deciding a manager is bad after one tense conversation. To get off the ladder, go back to the observable facts, test your story against other evidence, and talk with the person about what happened.
What should you do instead of the feedback sandwich?
Carson says the sandwich buries the thing you need to work on. Give one specific, observable piece of feedback with a clear action step, and frame it around the person’s growth and goals.
Related reading
- What to do when you're passed over for a promotion
- How to navigate office politics
- How to connect with people more successful than you
- High-value conflict resolution
If you’re curious how practicing these skills with a group could work for you, take a look at the X-Factor Accelerator, a 90-day program with a 1:1 onboarding call with Johnny and weekly group coaching.
