I don’t know how it is for you, but this time of year is kind of slow for me. The week between Christmas and New Year’s and the first few days of the year don’t have a lot of coaching appointments or meetings.

It’s nice, unstructured time, especially after the rush of the holidays. It’s a good time for reflection.

So this has always been a time for me to think about my life and career. The best way to do that is to ask and answer some questions. Here are some that have worked for me at various times in my life.

Am I going after the right thing?

I’ve always got one, and only one, major goal. I try to do something every day to move toward achieving it.

At this time of year I ask if it’s still the right goal. There’s no formal system for answering that question. My gut and/or my wife usually do the job just fine.

What has my life prepared me to do right now?

I picked up this question from a sermon my pastor, Father Tim Patterson, gave one Sunday. It’s a great balance for the question about the right goal.

Am I using and developing my strengths?

I believe that the most productive and happy lives and careers center on developing and using your strengths. Because I’ve always been focused on my own development, this question has usually gotten an easy “yes.” 

But not always. Several years ago I realized that I had wandered down a path in my career that led me to a place where I was spending most of my time managing my company. I loved the work and the challenge of it, but the fact is that I love writing and research more and I’m better at them. I got rid of the company.

A few years after that, I discovered that I was doing much more speaking and consulting than writing. I needed to adjust my work priorities.

If I was in a different part of my life, I’d ask if I was on a career path that was right for me. The four options identified by Dr. Ken Nowack are Manager, Specialist, Entrepreneur, and Generalist/Project Manager.

Am I making my weaknesses irrelevant?

Building on your strengths isn’t enough. You also have to make your weaknesses irrelevant.

Sometimes you do that by eliminating the need to do something. Sometimes you outsource the work to a person, company, or software. Sometimes you learn to do it “well enough.”

The time between Christmas and when business is back at full speed is a wonderful time for reflection. Use it to make choices that make your life and career a thing of beauty.

If he were still alive, I’m betting Ray Charles would have another hit with this little ditty, sung to the tune of “Crying Time.”

Oh it’s survey time again, we’re gonna learn who
Is the best leadership company of all.
But I can tell by the lists I see before me
That this one’s different from the one last fall.

That’s the theme song for this post.

Fortune magazine, human resources consultants Hewitt Associates and the RBLGroup have just published their list of “The World’s Best Companies for Leaders.” Less than a year ago, the Hay Group and Chief Executive magazine came out with their list of the “Best Companies for Leaders.”

Now I’m just a simple preacher’s boy, but it seems to me that two surveys by prestigious firms of the same subject ought to come up with similar lists. But they do not.

In fact there are only three companies, IBM, Proctor and Gamble, and General Electric, who make the top ten on both lists. And that illustrates why taking these lists as some kind of scientific finding could get you in trouble.

There are all kinds of “Best Company” lists with more coming out all the time. They can provide you with some ideas about where you may want to make a career, but only if you do a little analysis.

Find out how the list was put together. Some of the lists only include companies who apply. Others use different method. The method used makes a difference in the final list.

Check to see if the list rates things that matter to you. If you want to pursue a Managerial career path, then a list of great companies for leaders may give you lots of information. But if you’re an engineer who wants to pursue a Specialist career path, you may want to look at a different list.

Use the list to spark questions, not give answers. Enterprise Rent-a-Car has appeared for years on lists for “Best Places to Launch a Career,” but their entrepreneurial, start-at-the-bottom culture isn’t for everyone.

Lists like the Fortune list and the Chief Executive list are great to spark discussions. They’re great as a starting point. Use them to determine where you want to do more research.

Every week I check dozens of “career” blogs and other online publications, looking for things that will help you find a job, get promoted, develop your skills, and keep everything in perspective and balance. Here’s the pick of the lot for this week. I’m pointing you to items about dealing with holes in your resume, using Twitter to explore careers, leadership questions to ask yourself, the challenges of a new job at the same company, and why you should make your own choices.

From Forbes: How to Deal with That Hole in Your Resume
“Today unemployed Americans job hunt for an average of 28 weeks, and the recession is causing more people who have been full-time caregivers to look for work too. But prolonged unemployment, and the résumé gap that reflects it, doesn’t have to be a liability. With a carefully crafted résumé, you can minimize the attention paid to a break in employment yet promote the skills you honed during you time off.”

Wally’s Comment: More and more people have those holes in the resume. Here’s a solid article on how to present them so they do you some good.

From the Career Key Blog: 3 Ways to Use Twitter to Explore Careers and Job Options
“Just like “lurking” in a forum or following a blog, following someone on Twitter can teach you lingo, show you trends, and even get you contacts through direct email. You can use it as a way for you to follow your “community” of people interested in similar occupations or industries.”

Wally’s Comment: Most of the posts on how to use Twitter are boringly similar. Juliet Wehr Jones offers some things I haven’t seen before. Good stuff.

From Steve Roesler writing at LeaderTalk: Eight Leadership Questions to Ask Yourself
“Effective leaders —and those who want to be— have at least one thing in common: each is an ongoing student of leadership.  The ability to “learn and discern” forms the foundation for a lifetime of leading.   Why?  Because the key to success lies in choice. Decisions and the actions that follow determine the ultimate health of the organization and the people in it.”

Wally’s Comment: Too many people pursue the managerial career path reflexively. And many of them fall into The Boss Trap. One way to avoid the trap is to figure out if being a boss is something you’ll like and be good at. Steve Roesler’s questions will help you do some self-analysis, whether you’re a boss now or considering becoming one.

From the Wall Street Journal: New Job, Same Firm: Learning the Ropes
“While starting a new job means learning the ropes at an unfamiliar place, for those faced with a sudden role shift within the same company, the move can be even trickier. But it’s happening more these days as companies downsize and responsibilities shift. Whether you are moving from one internal job to another or suddenly answering to a new boss Rick Brandon, author of “Survival of the Savvy,” says you need to take steps to avoid the pitfalls of office politics and work overload. ”

Wally’s Comment: There’s always an adjustment when you take a new position. But there are some special things to consider if that job is in your current organization.

From Renegade HR: Why making your own path is way more fun (and other career insights)
“Several weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending a Lunch with Leaders session with one of my informal mentors at EMC, Polly Pearson. Polly’s held many titles in her time at EMC, but a unifying thread has been her drive to create and sustain an awesome culture. Today, I’d like to share a few highlights from my lunch with Polly. ”

Wally’s Comment: Chris Ferdinandi shares insights from a conversation with one of his mentors.

Every week I check dozens of “career” blogs and other online publications, looking for things that will help you find a job, get promoted, develop your skills, and keep everything in perspective and balance. Here’s the pick of the lot for this week. I’m pointing you to items about finding your way in a tough job market, networking, learning to lead, when to avoid setting goals, and mixing personal and professional.

From Anita Bruzzese: 8 tips to help you find your way in this tough job market
“You may not think you have a superpower, but if the only way you’re looking for a job is by applying to companies or job boards on the Web, you’ve just become invisible.”

Wally’s Comment: Yep, unemployment’s still going up and that means more competition for fewer jobs. Here are some tips on how to make the best of it all.

From CareerBuilder: How to Network without Being Phony, Lame or Desperate
“Let’s face it: Even when you’re on top of the world, chances are good that the idea of networking sounds like a big, fat drag. You can probably think of 100 other things you’d rather do — like cleaning the blades of your ceiling fan. But if you’re one of the 14.9 million people who are competing for what seems to be a handful of jobs, your confidence has probably taken a hit. So now is probably not the time to be meeting anyone new. In fact, now is not the time to get out of your pajamas.”

Wally’s Comment: Standard go-to-a-mixer-and-hand-out-as-many-cards-as-possible networking doesn’t work for most people. Even worse, most of us hate it. Here are some ideas about how to get the benefits of networking without the silliness.

From Management Excellence: Don’t Wait for the Title to Start Leading
“The time to start leading is now, long before anyone has bestowed the title of leader on you. Much like the famous trio of Scarecrow, Lion and Tin Woodman of Oz-fame, they didn’t really need the Wizard to bestow a brain, courage or a heart, and you don’t need someone to anoint you as a leader before you can start learning and practicing.”

Wally’s Comment: If you think you might want to follow a managerial career path or avoid the “Boss Trap,” you need to start experimenting to figure out if leadership is for you. Art Petty suggests some ways to do that.

From the Change Blog: Want to Change? Stop Setting Goals
“One of the most widespread ideas in the world of personal development is SMART goal-setting – it seems to have seeped into every self-help, business development and corporate training program out there. Just in case you’ve somehow managed to avoid attending these workshops – or more likely slept through them – SMART is an acronym for a set of criteria that people are encouraged to use to get really clear on the outcome they’re aiming for when they’re setting goals, because this increase your success in achieving your goals.”

Wally’s Comment: This piece challenges the usually unchallenged assumption that the only road to any kind of change requires a stop at goal setting. Cath Duncan references one version of the SMART acronym in her post. DePaul University professor Robert S. Rubin “examined the first 40 Web sites that contained information about SMART goals, which included a full range of sites from fitness information, to state agency planning manuals, business articles, and university counseling centers.” There were enough different meanings for each of the letters to form almost 9000 different versions of the SMART acronym.

From the Talent Revolution: Your Private Life and Your Professional Life are the Same Online
“You’ve heard it before: Much like a work-related function versus a happy hour with friends, there are different rules of protocol with a LinkedIn interaction (professional) versus a Facebook interaction (personal). In fact, according to this recent poll, 43% of people believe personal and professional social networks should be kept separate. Good luck with that!”

Wally’s Comment: It was way back in 1999 when Scott McNealy made his famous statement: “You have no privacy. Get over it.” He was talking about the line between public and private in the Information Age. Since then, even more lines have blurred. Jon Gillespie suggests that you lead a life with lots of parts and it’s only natural that the online version of that life will blend them. So what do you do about that? Here are Jon’s suggestions.

Randstad’s World of Work Report for 2009 is titled: “Managers of Tomorrow.” It’s based on responses of over 2000 workers. Some of the findings have got HR folks all over sitting up, taking notice, and asking questions.

52 percent of those surveyed felt there were not enough qualified managers in their organizations.

45 percent felt there would be a shortage of qualified managers in the future.

That’s scary enough, but here’s the one that’s really shaking things up in HR Land.

51 percent don’t want to be a manager.

That’s surprising to a lot of businesspeople who have assumed that everyone was interested in climbing the corporate ladder. But it’s not news to the people at Momentor, who’ve been pointing out that “managerial” is only one of four career choices.

From my perspective it’s a bad news/good news situation. The bad news is that we may not have the number of managers we’ve been used to at our companies. The good news is that this situation may be the catalyst for some positive change.

Companies just might start offering some alternate paths to increased pay and prestige. That would give people who do great work, but don’t want to manage the possibility of a real career.

The other good possibility is that companies may wind up selecting people with the right aptitudes for management and then training and supporting them sensibly. That simply doesn’t happen often enough right now.

It’s why too many of the people entering the workforce today don’t even want to consider management. They told Randstad that there’s too much stress in the job.

But there wouldn’t be if we promoted those with a shot at succeeding and then trained and supported them in their work. Then we’d wind up with more managers who are comfortable with their work and do it well and who would have less stress.

Is it you? We can teach you a lot of the skills. What we can’t teach is aptitude. Here’s a quick self-test you can use to assess whether you might make a good boss.

Do you enjoy having a say in the direction your team is going? That comes with the leadership job, but not everyone is comfortable being out front.

Do you enjoy helping other people succeed? That’s the core of a boss’s job. You have to be able to set aside your own ego and help the team and the team members do better.

Are you willing to talk to other people about their performance or behavior? It’s the part of the boss’s job that many people find stressful. If you’re willing, there are techniques that will help you do it more easily and effectively.

Are you willing to make decisions and take the consequences? That’s another thing that bosses do.

If you’ve got the aptitude to be a boss, give it a try. The rewards are good and it looks like there will be less competition than there used to be.

This last week I talked to three different people who are in jobs they want to leave. All three have tested the job market waters and decided to stay put for now.

That’s a common position these days. Here’s some advice for you or someone you care about who is hanging on while waiting for the job market to improve.

You’re still employed at your current job. That means you owe your current employer your best efforts. It’s easy to forget that when you’re thinking of leaving, but it will make things a lot more pleasant in the future. And who knows, the job you’re in could lead to something better with your current employer.

Look for interesting things to do. Interesting work will help keep you engaged and performing.

If there’s no work that interests you, find ways to make what you do interesting. Track your output. Compete with others or with your own best performance.

Look for opportunities to create credentials. Take on projects and assignments that help you build your knowledge and your resume. This is also a time to try assignments that help you learn about yourself.

If you think that the Managerial Career Path might be for you, this is a good time to try out a leadership role. Seek out a temporary assignment leading a project team or task force.

If there’s an area of the business that you want to learn more about, see if you can arrange to help out there as part of your work. Your employer will probably welcome your interest and you’ll learn about the area and yourself.

Look for friends you can make or relationships you can enrich. At the end of the day it’s all about people. Build your personal network by helping others succeed.

Even if you do move on soon, the job you have now offers you opportunities to grow and develop. It’s up to you whether to seize those opportunities or not.

An article in the Financial Post, titled, “Woman CEO’s View: No you can’t have it all,” got me thinking about how women are often the ones who take time out of their career to raise a family. That got me thinking about Brenda Barnes.

Brenda Barnes is the poster child for women who want to take time off. Back in 1997, she left a great job and the fast track at PepsiCo to spend more time with her family. Six years later she returned to a prominent role in the business world. She is now president, chairman, and CEO of Sara Lee.

But remember that Barnes’ accomplishment is the exception. That’s why it made news when she decided to take time off and more news when she took the Sara Lee job.

There are reasons besides “family” to take time off. And men also think about getting off the career treadmill for a while. If you’re thinking about taking extended time off for any reason, here are some things to think about.

Taking a long break is always a gamble. It’s more of a gamble if you’re on the Manager Career Path and sometimes it’s impossible if you’re an Entrepreneur.

You can improve your odds with some careful planning. Start by being honest with yourself. How will you feel if you’re not working? Will it feel like a loss of identity or will it be freeing?

Figure out how you’ll pay the bills while you’re not working. Figure that finding a job when you go back will take a while too.

Today companies are looking for ways to use talent that’s not on payroll to meet sudden surges in demand or for special projects. The Wall Street Journal reported on “mommy SWAT teams” pulled together for just such reasons. See if you have similar options.

Don’t lose touch. Brenda Barnes didn’t simply turn into “Susie Homemaker.” She stayed active through board memberships and other contacts.

The bottom line is this. You can take time off for a sabbatical. It won’t be easy and it won’t be safe. But it just might be the most rewarding thing you’ve ever done.

The article in CFO is titled: “The Next Stage.” It gets a little bit right and a lot wrong. Here’s the teaser quote.

“Want to ascend to a true leadership role? Be prepared to let go of what you’re good at.”

The part that’s right is that personal growth demands leaving your comfort zone. It demands that you move to positions and try things that you’ve never tried before. It demands that you master new knowledge and new skills.

While that’s all good, it’s not the whole story. Here are some more things to think about.

Leadership isn’t the only career path. Last week I blogged here about “The Boss Trap.” The fact is that leadership is a bad choice for a lot of people. And the fact also is that many people who could be leaders choose something else.

We’ve learned that there isn’t just one way to have a successful career. The path that CFO calls leadership, we call “Manager.” Other career paths are the Specialist, the Entrepreneur, and the Generalist/Project Manager.

Successful career development is about building on your strengths and doing work that you enjoy. And it isn’t one long development cycle in the same place either.

Careers are a series of stages. You will feel like you’ve mastered your work at several points in your career. That will be OK for a while, but then you’ll start seeking something new. When you find it, there will be a period of learning.

Most 21st Century careers are going to be made up of several jobs, and perhaps even several career changes. Most of us will have more than one employer before we’re done, too.

Leadership isn’t the only path to success. You need to select the path that’s best for you. Then plan on having several stops along the way.

Karen is caught in the Boss Trap. Her company promoted her to Team Leader because she was a top performer in her marketing analyst position. But she hates the job and wants to get out.

It could be too late. Too many companies promote people to management based on their performance as something else. Then they don’t allow the promoted person to return to the ranks if they find they don’t like their new job.

That’s the Boss Trap. You can’t do a thing about the way your employer promotes people. But you can figure out in advance if it’s a good thing for you.

The best way to find out if you like being a boss is to be one for a little while. Temporary assignments as the head of a task force are great for this. So is filling in for a boss who’s on vacation or medical leave.

Analyze the particular work that bosses do. Here are some specific things that people responsible for group performance do that others don’t do.

Bosses are responsible for group performance. Your evaluation depends on their work. If you’re not comfortable with that, being a boss may not be right for you.

Bosses are responsible for team members. If you don’t like helping other people succeed, being a boss may not be the right job for you.

Bosses have to confront team members about behavior or performance. If that makes you uncomfortable, being a boss may not be right for you.

Bosses have to make decisions and then live with the results. If you have trouble coming to decisions and then being accountable for them, being a boss may not be right for you.

If being a boss is not the right career choice for you, don’t despair. There are other career paths that you can take. But it’s way easier to seek them out before you’re offered a “promotion” that may not be good for you and catches you in the Boss Trap.

Like many people, we spent part of Labor Day at a cookout. And somehow, over the ribs and corn and drinks we got to talking about careers and how we all wound up where we did. As the conversation went on, I noticed that the way we chose our careers split along generational lines.

Oldest first. Some of our number were in their seventies. They were born into the depression and came out on the other side of World War II wanting a certain amount of security. Two of the fellows in that age group quite literally picked what to do based on reading government studies of the most lucrative careers.

Both became engineers. Neither was interested in their particular kind of engineering when they started though both became experts and did well.

The other 70 plus year old had been an ophthalmologist. He decided to be a doctor, making his mother happy, and then picked his specialty based on the idea that he wouldn’t be called out in the middle of the night.

What stuck me about those three men is that they all simply walked away from their professions when they retired. They cancelled subscriptions to their professional publications and got on with, as one of them put it, “the life I earned.”

Tom and I were after self-fulfillment in some form. He loved sales and was good at it. Eventually he wound up growing a company and selling it off so he could go back and do it all again. I started out in the corporate world, found out that I wasn’t good at it, and wound up with a career where people would pay me to be interested in lots of things.

Our children see things differently. One is creating his career in construction. He got a degree in construction management. When he got out of school he got a job with a construction firm. He’s made three moves so far, one involuntary, and he’s still in the field. He loves it and the people he works with.

Another product of that generation didn’t know what she wanted to do. But she took a job because she needed to support her husband while he was in school. It was in customer service and she discovered that she was good at it. She loves her co-workers and helping others.

For the oldest among us on Labor Day, there was a strong practical focus: how can I make a good and steady living. Hence, there were two lives, the one in the chosen career and the one afterward.

For my generation it was all about self-fulfillment. For the youngest among us there was a different kind of practical focus. One picked a career based on interest. The other wound up in a career where she makes good money doing work she loves. Loving the work and the people you work with seems like the mantra.

This is hardly a scientific survey. It’s one Labor Day cookout with one limited selection of people from three generations. But there’s something that seems right about it. How are you making your career choices?