73. On Building Your Career Operating System with Al Dea

Overview

Today I’m joined by Al Dea, the founder of Betterwork Labs, an organization focused on helping companies create cultures where their people can thrive. Al is an author, speaker, podcast host, and researcher on workplace trends and talent development.

In this conversation, we talk about key aspects of building a sustainable career. Both Al and I believe in paying attention, following your curiosities, and the power of community. Al shares more on the importance of being self-reflective while also getting into action, building your career operating system, and fostering a mindset for career growth. Al offers a lot of great wisdom bombs in here!

Al - I love what you champion and appreciate your ambition to create better work for all. Thank you for sharing your experiences and insights with us!

More About Our Guest

Al Dea is the Founder of Betterwork Labs, an organization focused on helping companies create cultures where their people can thrive. He is an author, speaker, podcast host, and researcher on workplace trends and talent development. Al is passionate about helping individuals and organizations flourish in the changing world of work and in unlocking individual purpose and potential to achieve organizational performance. Al researches, writes, and publishes on leadership development, workplace trends, and company culture, and his thinking and insights have been published in outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, MIT Sloan Management Review, Business Insider, The World Economic Forum, Inc, Fast Company, and Time Magazine. Al previously worked at Salesforce as a Product Marketer, helping launch products and features that touched thousands of customers. Before that, he also worked as a management consultant at Deloitte Consulting LLP, where he advised Fortune 500 companies on developing and executing digital transformation. Al received his Bachelor’s Degree in Business and Theology from Boston College and his Master’s in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina Chapel-Hill.

Topics Covered

  • We start, as we often do, hearing about Al’s career journey, what made him major in what he did at college, and how that has benefited him throughout his career. I love how at an early age Al leaned into following his curiosities. This becomes a theme in our conversation.

  • Al and I share a lot of common philosophies, one of which is to pay attention and the importance of attuning to oneself (Al would articulate as being about self-reflection and awareness). We talk a lot about these concepts throughout the episode.

  • We talk about Al’s pivots and what led him to step into those. I appreciate how Al brings forward that it can be both life and work changes that can lead to career pivots and making a change.

  • And yet, while self-reflection is important, we talk about the importance of also getting into action. I appreciate how Al frames this simply into Thinking and Doing and being intentional about being in which mode. As Al shares later, we can also get trapped in doing without thinking, which has its own challenges, as well.

  • I ask Al his tips on getting past being stuck in thinking mode. His top three: 1) a partner who reminds you that you are in a default thinking state, 2) ask questions to get you into action, like “What’s the smallest action I can take to move this forward?”, and 3) time box your thinking.

  • We talk about what I sense at times—people being resistant to self-reflection. We discuss why that might be the case and how to get comfortable and move into being more thoughtful. After each of us butchers expressions and quotes, Al lands this one from Blaise Pascal, the French philosopher: "All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

  • I ask Al his opinion on having a vision for one’s career. He’s shifted his thinking here and believes in being a little bit more open than what he might have thought in the past. And yet, this requires having what he calls a career operating model, having a mindset for career growth, and paying attention and being reflective or sensing and responding, as Al says.

  • We talk about how companies need to shift to allow more space for different types of career growth. As Al ends with saying, there’s definitely more work to do in this space.

  • I ask Al his thoughts on the importance of people and community around career. I love that he says career is a “team sport” vs. an individual sport. Listen in to hear why.

  • We hear more about Betterwork Labs, Al’s talent development and advisory firm, and the work he does and what he is championing for the world around better work for all and what motivates him to be doing this work.

  • And I close with squeezing in Al’s perspective on Sustainable Ambition. He notes that if we want to be at our best and accept how long careers are today, we can’t treat the marathon of our careers like a sprint. Yes! We need to think about career growth given our stage. And he encourages us to define our own ambition, just as I do here at Sustainable Ambition, because that is what will make it sustainable.

Resources Mentioned

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73. On Building Your Career Operating System with Al Dea

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2022-2Kathy OnetoRight Aspiration, Right Success, Right Effort