Getting a Leinster player into a tutu (previously entitled "Oval balls and square holes")

As any stand-up comedian will tell you, the best material comes from your audience.  I'm not a comedian but every time I run a career development workshop I gain more supplies for the resource larder.  Last week as I stood before forty eager undergraduate bunnies I posed my usual question: "Where do you see yourself in five years' time in terms of your career and personal development?"  For those of you free-wheelers out there who have rolled, tumbleweed-like, into your Lexus-driving, six-figure-salary career having never given a thought to much past tomorrow, bear with me.  The point is not about shoe-horning yourself into a box. 

So back to the vision for five years hence.  A back-row inhabitant of the class, jolted alert by the question, piped up: "Hang on a minute Jill.  Do you mean where do we see ourselves in five years time or where do we want to see ourselves?"  A random question and worth its weight in gold for driving home the point.  I invited her to interpret it any way she wished.  In the workshops my unsuspecting charges are forced into a lot of navel gazing.  They are asked to unearth and dissect their values, interests, personality and skill sets (the VIPS) and are then given a final question: "If you could have any career tomorrow, what would it be?"

And again, back to my wing-woman in row twelve: where you see yourself in five years needs to match where you want to see yourself (the "any career tomorrow" question).  If not, what's the point?  In sport generally and in rugby specifically we would hope not to find, or at least, not find many who would give different answers to the two questions.  In business it’s a little different.  A 2012 Mercer survey of 30,000 workers worldwide, showed that between 28% and 56% of those researched said they wanted to leave their jobs.  The reality is that the majority of those won’t - a job pays the bills.  I met one of them a year ago.  He has worked not one, not ten, not twenty but thirty years in a job and for a company he despises.  Don't let it happen to you.   If you have 15 minutes to invest then Larry Smith's morosely titled TED talk "Why you will fail to have a great career" is one to watch.

In the Irish post-primary school system pupils sit tests known as the DATs (Differential Aptitude Tests) to help them gain insight into what they are good at and therefore what career area might suit them.  Without adding in an interest profiler and, crucially, the pupil also having a conversation with a trained and knowledgeable professional to tease out whether their perceptions of particular career types meet reality, such 'testing' occurs in a vacuum.  As recruiters we ask candidates to complete similar aptitude tests specific to the jobs we have to offer.  We might also ask them to complete personality questionnaires of various hues and satisfy ourselves that if they respond in particular ways they are a 'good fit' for us. 

The bottom line is, are you netting someone who is passionate about the type of work they will be doing for you?  An aptitude test may tell you that Leinster Lock Mike McCarthy has a great suitability for a career as a ballet dancer but this is useless if he has no interest in getting his head around a pas-de-deux.  It's not just about aptitude, it's not just about fitting a personality profile, it's about having a research-informed hunger for the career you are in.  That sort of knowledge comes only from apprising yourself of lots of different options and exploring them thoroughly: reading job-profiles on-line or watching video clips of professionals talking about their roles, chatting to different people in a range of careers and organisations and, critically, dipping a toe in the pond through shadowing or work-based placements.

Pro-rugby players are like bees.  They lead short, busy and glorious playing lives.  In the after-glow of a glittering career, and particularly for those who have enjoyed a more public media profile, organisations will likely be lining up to attract 'names' into their ranks.  In an ideal world ex-players will seamlessly waltz into a perfect partnership with an employer or into a successful career as an entrepreneur but a match which is to be mutually beneficial over the longer term takes effort to discover.  

The road after rugby is long and the early post-playing days can bring an inevitable period of grieving for a career which, in the majority of cases, involved 'living the dream' every day. Whether in rugby or in business, invest the time needed with those who can help you to find what other dreams exist - the ones in which you can be your best self.

Jill Barrett is a Dublin-based Career & Personal Development Coach working with clients in the sports & leisure, education, healthcare and business sectors. She writes on a freelance basis for the Irish Independent and GTI Publishers. In 2008 she organised a charity event raising €105k in donations and over €100k in sponsorship for the Irish Republic’s first Children’s Hospice, Laura Lynn House and Horizon House, Northern Ireland first Children’s Hospice.  E-mail: theheadcoachireland@gmail.com / Tel: 00-353-(0)879837881.

Why mow the lawn (and other budgetary matters)

WHY MOW THE LAWN?

Bit of an obvious answer to that one isn't there?  I mean it's because the grass is long isn't it?  And we know what happens when the grass gets long, it looks, well, long.  Actually strictly speaking it gets taller but anyway, that doesn't really matter.  And that's just the point.  It doesn't really matter.  If we never mowed the lawn the grass would just get longer (taller) and eventually the grass would be brought down by its own weight.  And later on rain, snow, hail and frost would make it die and in the Spring it would enjoy a resurgence.

So back to the question: why do we mow the lawn?  We mow the lawn because then it looks pretty.  We mow the lawn because we want our patch to look good.  And what difference will that make to our lives and the lives of others?  Not one jot.  Sure, we may get an emotional kick from the look of the lawn, a sense of achievement at having done the job, a sense of comfort that we again 'fit in' (our lawn looking as well as or better than the Jones's we struggle to keep up with).

In Mozambique, in Syria, in the poorest areas of Brazil are people worried about the mowing of their lawns or equivalent patches of scrub earth?  Not one bit.  They are focusing on survival.  They have their priorities in order.  Those who have walked with the sick and the dying on their journey to another life have the benefit of an awareness that such trivialities are of no ultimate consequence.

Today I left a meeting in a department of the Irish Government.  The lawn had just been mowed and rolled and it looked, well, immaculate.  A landscaper struggled with his leaf blower in the torrential rain to ensure that no grass clippings would be left on the paved walkways.  I am sure that, when he was finished, it would look, anew, perfect.

So the lawns get mowed, the cars get polished, and a new (one year old) public sector office I know is currently getting a 'small' refurbishment at a cost of more than €5,000 to the Irish taxpayer so that it will look, well, nicer.  On Tuesday this week we witnessed the signing off on a budget that once again discriminates not on one’s financial status but, lazily, on some random criteria: being young, being old, being pregnant, being dead, the list goes on.  

But don't worry, there's still money left to mow the lawn.

When is a property tax not a property tax?

Yesterday morning I received my Property Tax documents from the Revenue Commissioners.  There were very comprehensive details included about how I could pay and what I needed to do to avoid paying.  A vital piece of information was omitted. The missing nugget: why are we paying this tax? What is it for?

Of course it must be obvious - if it's called a Property Tax then it must be a tax on my property, right?  But wait a minute, if I bought my property then didn't I already pay a tax on it and, wait another minute if I sell my property won't I also pay tax on the sale?

So lads, this isn't a Property Tax.  It's going to your local authority to provide local services to your area and so therefore let's call it what it is - it's a Local Authority Services Tax, payable to the local authority that is supposed to provide services to the area around your home. 

All we need to do therefore is change the name and then people will be happier to pay it. Why?  Because if you are now paying a body directly to provide a service and you're not getting it then you can request the service, complain when you don't get it and expect action when it is not provided or indeed progress to sue if it is not?

As someone who is surrounded by unauthorised developments, lives in a laneway that is unlit, unsurfaced, strewn with litter and waste of all varieties and is but 2 minutes walk from the centre of a town of c.20,000 in North Kildare I look forward to paying my tax,  The amount yielded for my area will now be documented in Kildare County Council's accounts.  The amount of tax I have paid as part of that total will be documented in my receipt from Revenue. 

So thank you Phil - we will now have a full audit trail of payment from us to our local authority and as such can expect the services you say we are getting. I for one have not been - since er, 1985.