Gut Renovating Your Job
The self imposed way to grow by demoing what you live in
In 2008, I was dumb enough (and smart enough without knowing it at the time) to buy and gut renovate an abandoned Brooklyn “brownstone” rowhouse.
In 2013 I was dumb enough (and smart enough without knowing it at the time) to take a job that would gut renovate a 100-person production department.
In 2016, there was the merger, and my team jumped to 270 overnight. Some of the best moves during that time came from those willing to embrace renovation and even gut renovate their roles.
Earlier this year, thanks in part to my Instagram community’s feedback, I stumbled across a brilliant analogy about how your job is like a house. You usually have 3 options if you are fortunate to have a roof over your head in the first place. Option one is the obvious one of staying in it as is. Option number two is also relatively apparent in that you could move if you find another house that suits your needs. The final option makes a ton of sense, but I had not thought about it quite like this. That option is to stay in your house but renovate it.
The analogy that I read in Harvard Business Review’s “Purpose, Meaning & Passion,” part of their brilliant Emotional Intelligence Series, didn’t quite get into the detail that I am about to so consider this a remix of sorts. My IG peeps chose that book when I gave them three choices of what I should read on a 15-hour flight to Tokyo. This is dedicated to them and those I have worked with who have practiced what I am about to preach.
Moving is moving. We can put that one aside for now, though I will say that when asked, “when do you know it’s time to change jobs/companies?” my answer is almost always, “when you have another job offer to consider”. Moving means moving, boxes and all. But you have to start the moving process by perusing the market to see what houses/jobs are up for grabs, and it’s a long ass process to get that offer on the table. I think anyone should always be aware of what the market bares (bears?) and be willing to explore open houses whenever you can. That doesn’t mean you don’t love your home/job. It just means you are smart about having a total sense of what is out there and what might interest you.
If you are willing to get your hands and mind a little dirty (maybe that wasn’t the best analogy for this – I mean dirty as in construction dirty, not the other kind…), then renovating your current job might be something to strongly consider and start building some rough floorplans around.
I just did this. It was terrifying and liberating. You get halfway through the demo and want to sit in the rubble, cry, petrified that you just destroyed the core of what you knew best, and perhaps it will never feel like a home again.
If you are lucky enough to get to that breaking point, then you are likely onto something brilliant. Some of greatest long-term careers I have seen unfold around me have come with a good amount of self-inflicted job renovations.
Those that I have seen pull this off have similar patterns.
1) And open, curious question about what might be a more impactful place for them to best contribute to the team/company
2) Immediate “oh shit” reaction once that question appears to be a brilliant one that could lead to some substantial role change
3) Concern and fear that what was in one’s head is a mistake be too difficult or potentially be seen as a step backward or sideways versus up
4) Blueprints are developed, and excitement takes over the concern
5) The work begins, and there may be a couple close calls on a complete panic attack (either by the employee renovating their job or the people around them that might be impacted by the change)
6) Completing the renovation and much jubilation on a moving day
7) Frustration when leaks in the plumbing might be found and slightly imperfect paint jobs are obsessed over
8) Settling in, making it your home, getting all kinds of compliments from neighbors about what a great job you did and how it added so much value to the neighborhood
Those who have not pulled it off and got swept up in the debris usually let the understandable excuses take hold. They become a victim in the circumstance and not the ones leading the way. Yes, there are a lot of variables outside your control, but if you take on this renovation process, you have to be okay with changing while you are changing to adapt to what you have in front of you along the way.
I’m somewhere between 7 and 8 right now.
I was the Vice President of Production & Creative Services for 10 years, and now I am the still-being-defined Vice President of Content.
No formal job description yet. Just alignment. Alignment with my brilliant boss (I mean that with incredible sincerity; the man gave my career a breath of fresh air like I cannot explain when he got the job I wanted 3 years ago), alignment with my counterparts/internal clients, and alignment with my new-ish team.
There is a lot of grey and dust to clean up. It is the same as fully moving back in day 1 after the renovation. Even if you lived and survived the demo and rebuild there is an expectation that one day there is an immediate “construction is over so everything is perfect”, but that is not realistic. There is what some may call the “punch list” or the things that still need to be addressed after the renovation, and that list can be long and as daunting as any other phase. But you are home again, and this phase is a gift to get things as perfectly fine-tuned as possible.
I look forward to reporting on how things proceed and sharing the work along the way. I am exceptionally fortunate to say that Spectrum Reach has one of the best but lesser-known stories in advertising history to tell. If I can get this punch list right, the entire neighborhood benefits and I would love to put us more boldly on the map.
So, if you feel stuck in your career, keep the above in mind. Even if your job feels like a tiny studio with no options, you’d be surprised how much you can do with the space you have. Not to mention that you can always move too.
Cheers.