MY PAIN LETTER (in a very free-form style)

:( :( :( ??? :) :) :) Taking my cue from Liz Ryan, owner of the Human Workplace, I am writing a Pain Letter. This letter is addressed as much to myself as to future employers, business or creative partners. I feel torn, Janus-faced, between where I was, where I am and where I want to be. Perhaps you too can relate? ___ Upfront, I confess the job search is enervating. Liz Ryan, on Linkedin, calls this the interview/application ‘Black Hole’ which swallows a candidate’s aspirations ruthlessly, delaying meaningful organisational and social change. ___ I am therefore struggling, invisibly perhaps to networkers, yet visibly with myself in reference to my Inner Negotiators. Erica Ariel Fox defines these negotiators as the ‘Big Four’ who form one’s internal C-Suite. Thus, every person negotiates each day with their ‘Dreamer’, the CEO; their ‘Thinker’, the CFO; their ‘Lover’, the VP of HR and their ‘Warrior’, the COO. ___ What is my struggle about? How to find, I believe, the right path for personal growth aligned to a suitable vehicle for collective imagination and effort. In plain English, where and whom will I work with such that I actualise my potential in harmony with my employer/partner, as together we strive to attain laudable common goals? ___ I want people to use my brain. In that sense, I am rather inflexible: I have low tolerance for temporizing and employers who take me for granted. Below the surface, however, I am expressing vulnerability. ___ I feel exposed, in short, to a market vacuum where my ‘connective’ skills – the capacity to synthesise disparate and inter-domain knowledge and information – are seemingly disregarded. In terms of stalled progress, I feel like I am facing a ‘dharma-sankat’, somewhat akin (in this case) to a cosmic, moral and practical dilemma concerning where I go next let alone what I do.. (I am indebted to Gurcharan Das for his views on the concept of Dharma – defining Dharma is as much about finding what one’s Dharma is). ___ [And… ___ I’ll confess – I don’t play like the other kids! Nevertheless this is precisely where I may serve to greatest effect and fellow travellers may derive, from me, the greatest mutual value. ___ Thanks for reading my free-form Pain Letter and here is a good link to leadership in times of crisis: http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemyatt/2013/10/24/8-ways-to-spot-great-leadership/