"Not so much finding a path in the woods as finding a rhythm to walk in." ~ Robert Lax

Photo Credit: Kevin Jordan

Greetings -

I hope you, your families and friends are well! 

The start of May finds my wife and I in Salt Lake City, on the first half of a 2+ week driving journey across the mountain states and central CA. The focus of our spring sojourn is to celebrate our daughter earning her undergraduate degree from the University of Utah (more on that below) and landing a competitive summer internship here in the city. We are over the moon for her, and we are as proud of her results as we are of the hard work and commitment she demonstrated these past few years. While we will miss her, we are excited as she embarks on her post-collegiate time with a gap year in Salt Lake City focused on internships/work and preparation for her graduate studies.

Following our time here, my wife and I will revisit several stops from last summer's travels, including hiking in St. George and Ivins, UT and dining and wine tasting for a few days in lovely Paso Robles, CA. We are looking forward to new adventures and re-experiencing favorites.

Our return to the Bay Area will mark the start of a new transition for my wife as she embarks on the next phase of her professional journey in a new and exciting role! I am thrilled for her and look forward to celebrating her future successes.

The voyage of discovery continues and I will share insights and experiences throughout the course of the summer months. Stay tuned!

With respect and deep admiration for you all, happy reading and listening!

Be well, take good care of yourselves, families and community. 
-kj

PS - (Missed a newsletter? Past editions can be found here: https://www.kevinjordan.coach/blog. And if you hit paywall on an article(s), feel free to send me a note and let me know what you need. I have subscriptions to many of the sources that I cite.

Featured: David Foster Wallace's 2005 Commencement Address, "This Is Water," to the graduates at Kenyon College. [The link provides both an audio recording and a transcript of his talk.]

"It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:

'This is water.'

'This is water.'

It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out. Which means yet another grand cliché turns out to be true: your education really IS the job of a lifetime. And it commences: now."

As I sat waiting for our daughter's name to be called to receive her diploma and flash her radiant smile across the Huntsman Arena's Jumbotron, I reflected on the late David Foster Wallace's words to the graduates of Kenyon College 20+ years ago. (This has particular resonance for me, as our daughter completed her first year at Kenyon before deciding the University of Utah best met her academic requirements.) I quietly chuckled, as I thought of the opening story he told of the older fish swimming past the two younger fish and asking them "how is the water?" And the younger two fish, puzzled, swimming on until one asks the other "what is water?" 

The value of higher education has and continues to be a hotly debated topic and one that I will not take on here. I will say that both the benefit and value of any educational experience goes beyond just imparting knowledge, facts and data. We must cultivate in ourselves and others awareness, curiosity and significant amounts of empathy. Concurrently, we must develop the ability to deeply and meaningfully question, especially when it makes us uneasy and/or leads us to uncomfortable introspection. *[KJ note: see below for more on the introspection debate.]

This is no small feat. Our current world is like an upside down snow globe: fuzzy, chaotic and discordant on a good day. It is marked by exceedingly divergent perspectives on everything from justice, equity, politics, economics, healthcare, climate... and the list goes on. In this context, it will be tempting to take the ostrich approach to life; put our heads down, shoulders to the grindstone and focus our lens narrowly on work, family, community, etc. to the best of our ability. A challenge (and there will be many) will be to first see the water and then see the water as it is: to navigate the continuum of our personal and professional lives with grace, gravitas and in community with each other.

As the festivities and celebratory days recede, some graduates will be pursuing additional studies. Some, if they are lucky enough in today's exceedingly erratic labor market, will be embarking on the early days of their careers. All will be navigating new contexts, expectations and opportunities. There will be successes and lots of learning. There will be ambiguity, risk and uncertainty. And there will be mistakes and failures of all shapes and sizes. How they respond and what they learn will be driven as much by their own curiosity and desire for growth as it will be by the people and organizations they study with and work for. 

While the class of 2026 dutifully accepted their diplomas, often accompanied by the joyfully thunderous congratulations from family and friends, I wondered if and how they will see the water that awaits them? Will their formal and informal education lead them to a life of learning, cultivating awareness and curiosity about the world around them and their place in it? Did we, as parents, family and friends, facilitate consciousness and attention?

"I wish [them] way more than luck."

*[KJ note: The purpose and value of introspection has recently taken center stage in and around Silicon Valley, with Marc Andreessen essentially calling it a waste of time and energy. I am squarely for introspection, when done in structured and helpful ways and not leading to unhealthy rumination. David Brooks offers a counterpoint to Andreessen and it's a good read.]

Change is not limited to our graduating emerging leaders. This time of year is normally characterized by a fair amount of voluntary job/career changes and professional transitions. While some are making planned and structured changes, many are not, especially in technology and technology-adjacent sectors. The waves of disruption and instability continue to pound, bringing ever more unpredictability crashing down on already tense labor markets. For many that have the choice to make a change, the risks of moving often outweigh the potential benefits of staying in their current roles. In those situations, job/career crafting can be a viable and productive alternative that clients and I use to navigate their current situations and positions themselves for a better future.

For those able and wanting to make a career change - be it a significantly new or different strategic approach or a smaller, tactical move - the desire to do so thoughtfully and deliberately is key. Yet, with an often overwhelming set of professional and personal choices that need to be considered, it can be difficult to define and implement a meaningfully tailored plan.

As I work with clients in this space, we focus extensively on understanding their values, strengths and the professional identity attributes. This process is grounding, as it offers them the opportunity to construct a framework to direct what they value the most to organizations aligned to their purpose and ambitions. The rigor in this work is fundamental, as it also allows them to determine how they can best move forward to realize their career consonance and achieve their career aspirations. Ultimately, the goal is to be able to answer the question: is this role, organization, etc. truly worthy of my greatest gifts?

This edition looks at the strategic and tactical considerations of navigating career transitions of all shapes and sizes.

Articles
Harvard Business Review: What Values Do You Truly Stand For? "...You won’t always have complete information or the luxury of time when your leadership and judgement is tested. But knowing your most important values provides something more powerful: a clear sense of what matters and the confidence to act on it. In a world that rarely slows down or simplifies itself for us, that clarity is essential."

Psychology Today: How to Find Your Purpose [and] What You Truly Want In Life. "The idea that purpose must be grand leads to stress and feelings of inadequacy. The key is to focus on 'little' purpose' those tiny moments in which you are most alive."

Harvard Business School: Questioning Your Next Move? These 10 Lessons From Tim Ferriss Can Help. "Serial entrepreneur Tim Ferriss paused to ponder his next act as his podcast turned 10. A case study by Reza Satchu probes what leaders can learn from how Ferriss has navigated this milestone—and his life." [For the audio-inclined, Tim gave a great interview on The Cold Call podcast: Tim Ferriss at a Career Crossroads: How Should He Shape His Next Chapter?]

The Wall Street Journal: Think Work-Life Balance Is Overrated? You’re Hired! "Employers are getting brutally honest with applicants, warning them of long hours and few boundaries; ‘Companies are in control again.’"

Harvard Business Review: 6 Red Flags That Keep Good Candidates from Getting Hired. "A survey of hundreds of executives point to six red flags that derail organizational hiring, sometimes preventing otherwise qualified candidates from securing roles to which they might be suited. They include poor self-awareness, lack of preparation, poor manners or professionalism, excessive self-interest, problematic relationships with past or present employers, and a history of unexplained job-hopping. Both candidates and hiring teams can prevent these factors from derailing the process by focusing on the “three Cs”—clarity, courtesy, and coherence."

KelloggInsight: New Job, Different Industry: How to Succeed When You Make the Leap. "When you don’t just switch companies but entire sectors, you need to do your homework, focus on the culture, and build credibility fast."

Harvard Business Review: Where Traditional Succession Planning Falls Short. "The potential upsides of effective succession planning are huge, and yet most companies are not realizing these benefits, even though many are spending countless hours on the effort. Although most succession planning processes no longer work for today’s business realities, companies can make a few key adjustments to derive far more value from this work. They should move from replacement planning to future proofing, from calibration to preparation, from exercise to execution, and from leaders as talent assemblers to leadership producers."

Blog Posts & Opinions
Kellogg Insight: 3 Signs It’s Time for Your Next Chapter. "To keep your career on track...consider changing jobs when your career growth stalls, when you have a bad boss, or when you start to feel too comfortable in your position."

Forbes: What Is Generation Jones And Why It’s Reshaping Succession Planning. "Generation Jones: born between 1954 and 1964, now ages 62 to 72, disproportionately represented in CEO and board chair roles over much of the past decade. The term, coined by cultural commentator Jonathan Pontell, refers to a cohort that inherited the cultural promises made to early Boomers but entered adulthood in a more constrained economic era. Almost completely invisible in the generational workforce models guiding your talent strategy. This invisibility isn’t trivia. It’s a structural failure with consequences playing out in every organization right now."

Cat Holt: The Human Cost of the Machine: What the Research Says About AI in the Workplace (And What I’ve Learned the Hard Way). "The research is clear. The enterprises that will outperform are not the ones that deploy the most AI. They are the ones that design the best human-AI systems — where the technology amplifies what humans do best, and humans catch what the technology will always miss. That is not a technology strategy. That is a human systems strategy."

Podcasts 
WorkLife with Molly Graham: The Right Risks To Take For a Great Career. "What does it take to have a great career? And how do you know what job you should take, which you should quit, and which you should try to change?...Molly discusses what she's learned working at incredibly successful companies, the benefits of taking a meandering path, and how to take more risks for a fulfilling life." [As a companion piece, I am including her 2024 TEDNext Talk: Forget the Corporate Ladder — Winners Take Risks.]

ReThinking With Adam Grant: Following Your Purpose (Not Your Passion) With Comedian Zarna Garg. "...[B]efore she ever set foot onstage, [Zarna] went to law school and tried her hand at entrepreneurship, failing at a vegan chili company, a tomato sauce brand, and even a matchmaking service...Zarna reflects on how her daughter challenged her to consider a career pivot, debate the usefulness of a humanities degree, and break down the meticulous process that goes into developing a hit performance."

Simon Sinek: A Bit of Optimism: Prepare for the Life You’re Meant to Live With Chaplain John Fox. "Often the biggest transformations we undergo don’t arrive as lightning bolts, but as quiet shifts we’ve been preparing for all along. For John Fox, the transformation from a 25-year career in high finance to becoming a chaplain wasn’t sudden at all. It was a slow burn—shaped by loss, reflection, community, and a deep desire to live a more meaningful life."

Arts, Music, Culture & Humor Corner
Colossal: Striking Photos by Peter Li Capture the Soaring Majesty of Sacred Spaces. "London-based photographer Peter Li considers the cathedrals, basilicas, and historic spaces he captures to be 'living vessels of light, symmetry, and time."

A.P. News: Volunteers Turn a Fan’s Recordings of 10,000 Concerts Into an Online Treasure Trove. "The growing Aadam Jacobs Collection is an internet treasure trove for music lovers, especially for fans of indie and punk rock during the 1980s through the early 2000s, when the scene blossomed and became mainstream. The collection features early-in-their-career performances from alternative and experimental artists like R.E.M., The Cure, The Pixies, The Replacements, Depeche Mode, Stereolab, Sonic Youth and Björk."

Sam Jacobs: Billionaire Boys Club: Power, Permanence, and the Perils of Concentration. "The control surface [for A.I.] is shrinking. Fewer hands on the wheel. Everyone can feel it. That’s why the anxiety is so high. The opportunity is enormous. The distribution is not."

McSweeney's: Cover Letter For a Job I Don't Want. "I am setting aside my aspirations and sense of self-worth to apply for the Global Account Project Management Executive position at Capital Ventures."

Reflections
“Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you.” ~ Parker J. Palmer

"I can hear change humming. In its loudest, proudest song. I don't fear change coming, and so I sing along."~ Amanda Gorman

"To be happy at home is the end of all human endeavor. The sun looks down on nothing half so good as a household laughing together over a meal, or two friends talking over a pint of beer, or a person alone reading a book that interests them; and all economics, politics, laws, armies, and institutions, are only valuable in so far as they prolong and multiply such scenes."~ C.S. Lewis