What Do You Do?

Recently, while attending my wife’s master’s thesis presentation, I was asked by some peers and professors there what I did.  That, along with some recent lateral partner coaching conversations, made me reflect that this can be the wrong question and, in any case, is too limiting to be helpful in navigating our careers.

We are living through a time of incredible disruption: AI and its impact on jobs and on how people are thinking about their own work futures; the second-largest generation contemplating what to do in retirement; a wave of quiet quitting; and a general re-examination of what work means to us.

And yet, as the question suggests, we identify our work by the tasks that comprise our jobs. But work can be, and usually is, much more than that. Getting in touch with what that is for you will help you make better career decisions and find more meaning in the work you're already doing.

Most people don't know why I started The Advocates 23 years ago — and honestly, the whole story is too long for a newsletter. But I think about my own decision-making process back then more than people might expect. Partly because it still informs the way I work with leaders on succession planning. Partly because it comes up constantly with anyone navigating life in the age of AI. And, partly because of several recent conversations with law firm partners and business owners navigating serious life challenges and career transitions, who were asking, for the first time in a long time, what their work meant to them and what they actually wanted their work to mean.

When I decided to leave my corporate job as a Vice President at Randstad, I initially focused on what I wanted to do next, which I later realized was the wrong question entirely. What I really needed to understand first was why I was leaving, what my real goals were, and where I found genuine satisfaction and meaning. I had young kids, and being a present father mattered enormously to me. But I was also the main breadwinner, so I had to hold that alongside my financial goals. I thought through what consistently gave me energy at work, how it aligned with my values, and where I found meaning.

When working with leaders in organizations large and small on succession planning, and with people contemplating their next career move or transition, I've found it helpful to step back from what they do day-to-day, which matters, but less than we think, and instead look at their goals, their values, and the patterns of what actually brings energy, satisfaction, and balance to their lives.

If you are contemplating a career transition, "retirement," or just wondering how to squeeze more joy from your work, here are some questions I've found genuinely useful. They're not exhaustive, and some will be more relevant to your situation than others but start with the ones that make you slightly uncomfortable.

First, some broad values-based inquiry:

• Do you feel like your personal and professional lives conflict, coexist, or support each other?
• Do your professional choices align with your values and priorities, or have you largely been carried along?
• Does your work contribute meaning to your life and others' lives in a significant way?
• When you look back on your professional life someday, what do you want to remember and be proud of?

Then, some situation and role-specific questions to think about:

• When in your career have you felt most energized and satisfied?
  • What were you doing, and who were you working with?
  • What were those people like — what traits do they share that energized you?
• When things have felt frustrating or draining, what was missing? Was it the work itself, the people, or perhaps the environment around it?
• How closely does your current day-to-day align with what you value most? Where is there a gap?
• If you could keep the parts of your work that you enjoy most and adjust the rest, what would you keep and what would you change?
• Five years from now, what do you want to be true about your life — and what pieces of that aren't fully there yet?

Here's what I know from 23 years of these conversations: most people have never sat down and answered questions like these. Not because they don't care, but because the day-to-day doesn't leave much room for it. Taking the time to sit with these questions and write out your answers will help you make better choices, whatever you're navigating. It may even help you decide to keep doing what you are currently doing professionally, hopefully making you more present and reconnected to the meaning your work provides.

My hope is that one or two of these stops you long enough to be useful. I'd genuinely love to hear which ones, if any, land for you.