Strictly Hot Air?

A row has broken out in Britain over the axing of one of the judges from a highly popular talent show on the BBC, Strictly Come Dancing. A highly experienced choreographer, Arlene Phillips, has been replaced as a judge by a previous contest winner, Alesha Dixon.

That sounds innocuous enough. But less so when expressed in tabloidese: Nation’s favorite judge, 66, ousted by hot babe, 30! BBC viewers, average age 52, splutter into their cups of tea…

Respected broadcasters chip in. BBC Newsnight political editor Michael Crick condemns his peers as having “contempt for its viewers”.

Even Government weighs in. Culture Minister Ben Bradshaw warns the BBC not to succumb to “the cult of youth”. Equalities Minister, Harriet Harman, accuses the BBC in Parliament of ageism.

The general public has a whinge. First Sharon Osborne gets booted out as a judge of The X Factor, replaced by a young, cutesy (and, incidentally, much better) girl-bander, Cheryl Cole, now the same is to happen in Strictly Come Dancing!

What a load of hot air. As the BBC rightly says, Strictly Come Dancing is an entertainment show. Entertainment shows need continual refreshing. End of story.

Let’s revisit the concept of Key Kapabilities, or K2s. As introduced in the Backing U! books (Chapter 5), they are what employees need to do to succeed in their job. Or, for the self-employed, they’re what they need to get right to be able to meet customer needs and run a sound business.

What were the K2s for the job of judge on Strictly Come Dancing? I don’t know - I used to dance a bit of rock, soul, calypso and reggae in my time, and I would love one day to dance salsa and tango, but I can only imagine. How about if the most important K2s were: proven dancing knowledge; experience; screen presence; blend with other judges; and communication skills?

Phillips had all of that – a choreographer for Broadway and West End shows and Hot Gossip; years of experience; authoritative, pleasing presence; reasonable blend with other judges; and excellent communication of her points.

But after five hugely successful years, the show needed refreshing. And that introduced a new K2 into the mix: freshness.

Enter Dixon. Not a professional dancer, but pretty good and a proven winner on the very show. Good experience of showbusiness, having fronted a successful all-girl R&B band, Miss-Teeq, for 6 years before going solo. Stunning screen presence. Potentially electric blend with other judges. Good communication skills.

And, above all, fresh.

So: not only does Dixon rate highly against the formerly important K2s, but she has no contest against the new K2 of freshness.

It’s a no brainer. Sure, there will be people who see undercurrents of ageism, sexism, looksism, maybe even reverse-racism in the decision, but they are oblivious to the hard, commercial reality of the labor market.

The rules of the game had changed. The contract was up for renewal. Dixon was best placed for the job. Someone wins, someone loses. That’s the labor market. That’s life.

Sure it's tough on Phillips. But she has been fortunate to have had such an amazing employment experience in her 60s, when so many are cast out of the workforce in the private, non-taxpayer funded world in their 50s.

Noone, Mr Crick, Mr Bradshaw, Ms Harman, and other hot air blowers, owes any of us a job.

A Demand-Driven Approach to Backing Your Passion!

This blog is going to help you find a job or business that consumes you with passion and where you’ll be backable. Take Katherine’s word for it:

"Life is to be lived. If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well better find some way that is going to be interesting."—Katherine Hepburn

First a word on the approach we’ll be taking. There are loads of books, e-books, and blogs about changing career. Many of them are excellent and if you want a steer, just ask me!

But they nearly all use the same approach. It’s a bottom-up approach, starting from identifying who you are – your skills, interests, values etc – and then finding a job to match.

I have nothing against this approach. It’s structured, and sound. And it works. But changing career is a big, big step. And you deserve to be introduced to more than one basic approach. You need an alternative - one which may work better for you.

This blog's approach starts from the other end. It’s a top-down approach. You’ll find a job that you love and then work out whether it’s right for you. As distinct from the other way round.

In business-speak, it’s a demand-driven, not a supply-pushed approach.

In most cases it should get you to same end-point. But I hope you’ll find this approach simpler and more inspirational. You’ll find out why later…

In this top-down, demand-driven, passion-driven approach, you’ll start with where you’d like to end up. What job would you love to have? In which job would you be happy? It could, according to Abraham, be yours!

"You can have anything you want, if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish, if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose."—Abraham Lincoln

Which job can you think of where work would no longer be “work”? You would be so fired up that it wouldn’t seem like work at all. You would rush to work in the morning and you wouldn’t want to leave in the evening.

Who would you most like to be? Whose job, or business, do you most covet? If you were in his or her job, would you consider that you had the dream job?

In which job would you be consumed with passion? You would feel such emotion, such fervor, such spirit about the job that you would be uplifted to extremes of success.

This is the top-down approach. It’s demand driven, in that it seeks to pinpoint those jobs that attract you to them, that draw you toward them. Rather than supply pushed, where you steer yourself toward a job that suits your skills, interests, and values.

And it’s driven by passion. The job will entice you with its promise of passion.

Putting Passion into Your Career Change!

Are you fed up at work?

If so, you’re not alone. You could be one of the 50% of US employees who are "dissatisfied" with their job, up from 40% a decade ago. Or one of the 50% of UK employees who feel they are “stuck in the wrong job”. Or one of a similarly high proportion somewhere else on the globe.

If you’re not fed up, or if you are fed up but determined to stay and perform better in your current job, good on you. This blog isn't for you, but you might want to take a look at Becoming More Backable, which forms Part II of the Backing U! books*.

But if you’re thinking of career change, read on. That’s the focus of this blog. Let it be your guide. Use it to look for a job or business where your passion lies... and where you’ll have a good chance of succeeding!

Look for a job where you’ll be backable. Where you’ll be backing the passion!

There’s no point in shifting to a job you know you’ll be good at, but you only feel so-so about it. You’ll soon become dissatisfied in your new job, like you are where you are now.

Likewise, there’s no point in shifting to a job you’re passionate about but no good at! You may be hopelessly under-qualified or inexperienced for that job. You won’t get far.

Your new job or business should fulfil both conditions. It’ll fill with you with passion. And it’s one where you can do at least reasonably well.

That’s what this blog is about. Over the weeks and months it’s going to help you find a job you love and which you can do successfully.

The blog will borrow freely from Backing U!, especially Part III on Backing the Hwyl - the Celtic concept of passion, fervor, spirit. But you won’t need to buy the book to follow the blog. It will be self-contained. A coherent story will appear in these posts, with handy references from one post to another. Nothing relevant will be held back. Its over-riding aim will be to help you, not me.

We’ll meet a number of exemplars in the blog. They won't be the same folk as in Backing U!. They’ll be new – some imaginary, some real, some celebs. Some, I hope, will be you, as the site becomes interactive and readers begin to offer their own experiences.

Along the way, we may look at other blogs, newspaper or magazine articles, books, audio or video clips.

And, now and again, we’ll have some light relief...

Here we go!

* Backing U! A Business-Oriented Guide to Backing Your Passion and Achieving Career Success, www.backingu.com/2, or
Backing U! LITE: A Quick-Read Guide to Backing Your Passion and Achieving Career Success, www.backingu.com/3