“The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.” — Lao Tzu
“The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.” — Tony Robbins
I was talking with an acquaintance who asked me to describe the Community we’re building, Journey CxO.
At the end of my explanation, he said to me, “You need an X for Y” description.
I thought about it for a few minutes and replied, “It’s a Peloton or CrossFit for your career.” Let me unpack that statement in more detail (without using too many exercise metaphors.)
Our Values and Approach
We channel the energy of both “coaches” and “mentors”.
On your journey to self-improvement, coaches will strategize with you, ask curious questions, and co-create solutions. Mentors will provide advice based on personal experiences and share how they handled similar situations. You will get exposed to both in our Community.
The members support each other and act as cheerleaders.
We know that building a career is hard and that we can’t do it alone. We all need the support of and connection with like-minded individuals. In the last 18 months, connection with our social circles (work colleagues, friends and family) has shrunk markedly. Part of what we offer is a way to strengthen and possibly replace some past connections.
Our Members are committed to helping each other towards their goals by asking and answering questions, offering help (making introductions etc.), celebrating wins, supporting you in the tough times, and acting as accountability partners.
We create and hold a safe space for authentic conversation and honest sharing.
Our personal and professional journeys have ups and downs. We will cheer you on during the ups and support you during the downs. We know that Members may not always feel comfortable sharing challenges with their bosses or HR leaders. And it may not be productive to share with your partner.
Journey CxO offers a safe space for authentic conversations, where challenging topics can be shared and discussed honestly. We create these opportunities through small group discussion and intimate cohort-based classes.
We believe in the power of diversity to create better outcomes for all.
We all grow when appropriately challenged. Challenges often arise from being confronted with differences — in ideas, approaches, styles and people (gender, ethnicity, race, age etc.) Being surrounded by those who are similar to you and agree with you can feel comfortable, but it rarely leads to true growth.
We operate at the intersection of the personal and the professional.
We believe work is just one part of life. No one should be defined purely by what they do. And we also know that careers are important and provide a lot of meaning and purpose in our lives.
We help you find the balance that is right for you, at a point in time, between the personal (love, play, health) and professional (work). We know the relative importance placed on each element will change over time.
Feelings on the Journey are more important than any specific destination.
There is no quantifiable destination (an income number or a job title) that we counsel you to strive for. Rather we believe in your manifesting certain feelings, as much as you can, in your daily life. Those feelings could be some mixture of mastery, confidence and flow. Or being excited and energized. Or feeling satisfaction and self-worth.
We are relationship builders who think long-term.
Most traditional (for-profit) businesses value the now and the result of the latest transaction (closed sale, price paid for a new hire, financial results for the quarter, valuation of your next private fundraising round.)
We believe that if you treat your employees well while setting high performance standards, and empower them to treat your customers well, the financial items and value creation will generally work out well over the longer term. Optimizing for good relationships is almost always the right long-term decision.
We value winning. But it isn’t the only thing.
We realize the professional world rewards people and bestows value upon them through compensation and titles. We celebrate the wins of Members who are excited to achieve these milestones in their professional lives.
And, we know that more money or a raise in title is not always enough to move you from thinking “my job is ok” to “I really like what I do most of the time.” So we encourage you to ask a series of why questions to figure out what you really want which might be a mix of different things in work and in life.
How do you know if Journey CxO is right for you? Read on to see if our answers to the two questions below fit with how you would describe yourself.
Who Are You?
How would you describe yourself to others when asked to offer up a list of things that matter to you or motivate your actions?
Here is a list of concepts (some might say values) which animate our community. If these words are ones that feel congruent with your values, then Journey might be a good fit.
Authenticity and Growth
Balance and Harmony
Compassion and Kindness
Curiosity and Learning
Service and Community
Success and Achievement
What Do You Do (for now)?
We believe that what we’re building at Journey is relevant and valuable to every professional. However, we also recognize the need to focus for now on building something that is really valuable to a targeted community (and then expand outward from there.)
Our Founding Members fit into some of these categories (from a standpoint of their work):
Have 7+ years of professional experience
Have experience managing people
Work in:
Operating companies with roles in finance, accounting, HR/people/talent, strategy, legal, business operations, business intelligence etc.; or,
Have switched to careers as solopreneurs / consultants helping solve problems that serve these functions.
We also welcome people who are:
“On the bench” or between roles and could see themselves pursuing a role identified above.
Semi-retired from the roles described above and want to give back to others.
If the principles articulated above are appealing to you, and you are looking for a peer group of like-minded professional leaders, reach out to us to see if this is a fit for you. You can find out more on our website, or reach me directly via Twitter or email (adehejia@gmail.com).