Timestamps

00:00:00: Introduction
00:04:19: Consistency through community
00:05:30: Consistency through relationships with managers
00:09:33: Consistency equals pride
00:11:37: Some watch-outs
00:15:04: 3 Aids to maintaining consistency
00:17:41: Where consistency counts …
00:18:02: … 1: in your day job
00:22:17: … 2: with your learning
00:26:59: … 3: in the relationships that you build around your career
00:31:49: … 4: with your strengths at work
00:36:10: Final thoughts

Interview Transcription

Sarah Ellis: Hi, I'm Sarah.

Helen Tupper: And I'm Helen.

Sarah Ellis: And this is the Squiggly Careers podcast.  Every week, we talk about a different topic to do with work and we hope we give you some ideas and tools to navigate your Squiggly Career with that bit more clarity, confidence and control. 

Helen Tupper: And this is episode 400!  Can you believe that we've sat down together and recorded 400? 

Sarah Ellis: Arbitrary number that no one cares about.

Helen Tupper: It's a marker in our friendship and our careers together. 

Sarah Ellis: Is it?

Helen Tupper: Yeah, it's a lot of time; it's a lot of time we spend together.  It's also a lot of time that listeners have spent with us, so we should definitely -- it might be arbitrary --

Sarah Ellis: I'm more grateful for that. 

Helen Tupper: There we go.  She's like, "I don't care about spending time with you, but I'm quite grateful that people have listened to the conversations that we've had".

Sarah Ellis: I'm very grateful. 

Helen Tupper: And some people have even listened to all the episodes.  Please message us if that is you, because I'm slightly amazed.

Sarah Ellis: There should be like a name for that, you know, like they're a Squiggly Careers Original.

Helen Tupper: A constant, they're a Squiggly Career Constant, yeah; OG. 

Sarah Ellis: They were there from the start.  They were a starter.  Oh God, don't, I dread to think what those early episodes are like. 

Helen Tupper: Don't listen!

Sarah Ellis: If anyone's listened to them recently, let us know.  No, don't listen, actually.  Listen to the more recent ones! 

Helen Tupper: Just start at episode 300.  But as well as this being just a random moment that we've reached 400, it's also the moment that we released the Squiggly Careers PodBook, which is the last 100 episodes.  Each of those episodes has a PodSheet.  So, maybe you've never downloaded the PodSheets before.  Maybe you're a regular listener and you're like, "I don't know about this PodSheet.  Well, we've now put it into a PodBook, which is an awful lot of learning.  It is a summary of each episode, it's got ideas for actions, it has got coach-yourself questions, and you can work the way through the PodBook.  It's a free resource to help you with your career, you can do it together in your teams.  We just want it to be used by people and to support your listening on the podcast. 

So, we will put the link to the PodBook in the show notes, we'll be posting about it on Instagram and LinkedIn, so follow us there.  It's the @amazingif account in both those places.  And if you can't find it or whether you want to let us know that you've listened to every episode, just email us, helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com. 

Sarah Ellis: So, I don't think it takes a giant leap to figure out how we got to this week's podcast topic!  We were like, "Oh, it's 400 episodes. I know, let's talk about consistency".  And actually, we've never talked about consistency before.  So, I always keep saying to Helen we're going to run out of podcast topics and she keeps telling me it's not true.  So, this week we're going to talk about how consistency contributes to your career success.  And when we say consistency, what do we mean, what have we got in mind?  We see consistency as repeated actions that create a positive outcome for your career.  Typically, I think those consistent actions are probably quite small, because if they were really big things they're usually not something that are as repeatable, but where it sort of adds up, where the whole adds up to more than the sum of the parts. 

So today, we're going to talk a little bit about where consistency has helped us, what to watch out for, what helps you to be consistent, and where we think consistency counts in your career.  And I think it's fair to say with this week's podcast, there is not much out there to read or research on consistency.  So, either that's because it doesn't matter, but I think we think that it does; or we have discovered a new area that needs people to dive a bit deeper into it.  So, these are very much our thoughts and ideas this week, everyone. 

Helen Tupper: So, it started out with Sarah going, "Oh, there's no more things for us to cover", and now has discovered that we've got a brand-new area, an under-researched area.  But I think as well with this, consistency can sometimes sound a bit boring, because I think newness is so sexy and exciting and we both like newness.  But I really think that consistency matters and increases your impact and creates lots of opportunities.  So hopefully, we will convince you that consistency isn't boring and it's a pretty fundamental thing for your career success.  So, maybe we talk first about how it has helped us.  So, I'll maybe share my take on it and then Sarah can share hers. 

I mean, consistency has helped me in lots of ways.  I'm just going to move on from the podcast for a moment, because that has definitely helped us with our business and probably my confidence and my learning.  There's loads of things that consistently recording the podcast has helped me with.  But I think if I look at my Squiggly Career as a whole, I think one of my biggest benefits for my career in terms of consistency has been my investment in my network.  So, I have consistently joined communities and I have contributed to communities, whether it was more marketing-based ones when that was part of my career; now, I'm connected to new communities that are slightly more about people who run their own businesses.  But I have always invested in them.  I've always joined those communities, I've always been active in them, whether they were I think like pre-pandemic, they were very in-person, and then they went virtual, and now I'd say they're a mixture of communities that exist on WhatsApp that I'm active in contributing to, and then I think it's also gone quite back to in-person again.  I don't have many only-virtual communities; maybe our podcast community. 

I think I've also got better at creating communities as well, so there's lots of ways in which I've consistently contributed to and created communities, and that has been like really significant for my career success, definitely. 

Sarah Ellis: So, I had a slightly different take on answering this question.  I thought more about how it helped me practically in the jobs that I've done.  And then overall, I think that then added up to helping me in my career.  Also, this doesn't apply now because this is just not a thing in my world.  But for most of my working life, it was, and that's my relationship with my managers.  So, I am somebody who really values space, freedom, autonomy, and variety.  That variety is one of my values, ideas is one of my values, and also I think most of us want space and freedom and autonomy, everybody would say those things.  And I've worked in lots of very big companies where it could be quite hard to give those things to people.  And I always think none of us like being micromanaged.  But the reality is sometimes that happens, sometimes unintentionally, or maybe you're new to a team and people are not sure how good you're going to be and can you do the job.  And I really, really don't enjoy people getting too much into the detail with me.  I want to be left alone to get on and do what I need to do.  So, I always found that very quickly, if I could consistently do what I said I was going to do, do it really well, keep reminding my managers I was on top of it, that they could trust me to make progress. 

I always really remember seeing a tipping point in my relationships with managers where my consistency paid off, where I suddenly found after a bit like, "Oh, they've relaxed", like, "They get that I can do this, they feel confident that I'm going to come to them if I'm stuck or if I need support, so it's not like I'm faking it in the background".  I will tell them, like I go, "Oh, I need your help with this", and probably because I'm okay asking for help as well.  So, they wouldn't see me just the whole time being like, "Oh, back off, because I never need you".  That would never have been how my managers would have felt.  But I feel like that's been the biggest payoff for me in my career.  I think then that consistency just then meant that I could be both brilliant in what I was trying to do in my day job, but then just enjoy the experience and the process so much more. 

Helen Tupper: So I guess, with Helen and her alliteration, mine is, "Consistency creates community", around my career, and Sarah's consistency is, "Consistency creates confidence with her manager", and those things have both had benefits to us in lots of different ways. 

Sarah Ellis: Do you feel it?  I guess you're sort of my manager.  Have you got confidence in me, that I'm going to do what I say I'm going to do? 

Helen Tupper: Yes, utmost, and that's not me just saying it.  Yeah, absolutely.  I also know, and that's probably not a good thing, but I also know that you catch things as well.  So, I think your consistency actually goes beyond just your work.  Because you're good -- also I think you kind of consistently look ahead and you look around, so it's not just you look at what you need to do, you're looking ahead at what's coming and then you're looking around at what other people are doing too.  So, I mean maybe sometimes I even over-rely on it to be honest, but I have confidence that things don't get missed because you have such a wide view of work and you are able to hold a lot of that as well. 

Sarah Ellis: Yeah, and I guess that's really interesting there because I don't think I would have -- I recognise that in what Helen's just shared, but that just shows that your consistency is about more than one person.  So, actually I've gone, "Oh, it's been about my managers", but actually it's about your peers and your colleagues and how they see you and perceive you.  Also, it's quite a good question to ask someone else like, "Where do you see me being consistent and how is that helpful?"  That is essentially what Helen just did sort of unprompted, and I learned quite a lot from listening to that.  And I also thought, okay, I felt proud.  So, back to the payoff, I was like, "Oh, that's how I can be useful", and I feel good about that. 

I think one of the other things is when we are consistent, Helen talked about we feel good about our impact, and I think we feel proud about the difference that we make.  And often actually, we don't necessarily think consistency equals pride, because we maybe go, "It's a bit boring to be consistent".  But I think actually, when you start to get to the examples, often it's the work that we feel really good about.

Helen Tupper: So, go on then, where do you see me being consistent and how is that helpful? 

Sarah Ellis: So, I mean I assume it's always obvious that we haven't prepared these!  I always think, "Oh, do people think they're going to spontaneously…?", and I'm like, "Right, okay, God, I've got to answer this question in a moment.  What do I actually think?"  So, what I would say is, where I consistently see you have the most impact is when you bring your energy.  You are a light-up-the-room person and you're so consistent, I don't understand how you do it.  You're always upbeat, positive, energetic, and then I see that everybody leaves their time with you better because of you, always.  I'm in meetings with you, and I'm just like, "Yeah, that person has got more clarity, they feel more motivated, they know what they need to go and do", but even when it's hard, they will just feel better.  I think people feel better when they've spent time with you. 

Helen Tupper: That's a very nice thing to say. 

Sarah Ellis: And I think that's really, really unique.  And you also manage to do it in moments where I know behind the scenes how hard things are.  So, I think I have a unique perspective into you in that other people won't see that, but I will know what's just happened 15 minutes before.  And then I'm like, "How is she managing to smile this much, and just be so supportive; and also, just be really in it with people and not get distracted when there are 4 million other things going on?"  So, there you go.

Helen Tupper: Stuff that only Sarah sees! 

Sarah Ellis: Oh, there's a book in that, right?!

Helen Tupper: Is there?  That's the most narcissistic book ever! 

Sarah Ellis: Yeah, I'd be like, "Oh, yeah, all this stuff that I see that no one else does".  I'd love to do that "behind the scenes".  You think Helen is all positive and upbeat, but let me tell you…!

Helen Tupper: "Here you go, here's the truth".  Don't publish that book!  Right, let's do what to watch out for. 

Sarah Ellis: Watch-outs. 

Helen Tupper: Yeah, what do you think? 

Sarah Ellis: So, this is the one area I did read a couple of interesting bits of research on, which was actually particularly around leadership.  So, the one area where consistency is talked about is leadership.  But I think there's a bit of a mistake there because it's like, "Oh, you only need this once you're a leader", and of course it's good to practise it before becoming a leader.  But I think it's perhaps a bit narrow-minded to see this only as a leadership capability.  But I did read some of those articles to get a bit of inspiration and there's quite a lot of description around the need to balance consistency with agility. 

So, I guess the flip side of consistency is when it goes too far, you become rigid, maybe stubborn, you stop being open to other ideas or alternatives.  And I think again, maybe if that's where you get to, and I think we all do get to that sometimes when you're being consistent about something, you've got into your rhythm, you've got into a routine with something, and then someone might say to you, "Oh, well how about if we did this differently?  Or, maybe we don't need to do this anymore", and that can feel quite hard.  I think it's probably a real trigger for being defensive and going into fixed mindset, and it's just being able to stay open enough to continue with that consistency where it matters most, but also knowing where to let go, where to be flexible. 

I think we've talked about it before, but I guess I bet most people are slightly more agility-focused or consistency-focused probably naturally, and perhaps just knowing where you are.  And one of the things this article talked about was maybe surrounding yourself with someone who is slightly the other end.  So, if you're actually someone where you're like, "Actually, the agility I feel really good about.  I'm open to ideas, I like new things, I'm good at changing direction".  It's like, okay, well, who do you know in your team or you're working alongside?  Who's consistent, really good at being consistent at reminding you what you've said before, being good at constantly iterating and improving?  So, it might just be good for people to reflect on.

Helen Tupper: I was thinking like a real example of where I think I've ended up in that trap a little bit.  Early days of what we did, I used to do career tips every day on Instagram. 

Sarah Ellis: I remember. 

Helen Tupper: That was back in the day, only the OG, remember?  But really, that to me was a thing that I just had to do, had to do, had to post on Instagram every day.  I did it in all kinds of situations in order to make that happen.  And then I think I got to a point where I realised that the doing it every day had become more important than what I was trying to achieve, as in so what I'm trying to do is help people with their career development.  And I'd become so fixed on the way that I was doing that, that actually I'd kind of lost focus in terms of why I was doing it.  And actually, stopping -- that's where consistency had sort of created a bit of a problem for me.  So, I think when that might be happening, I think you need to zoom out with, "Why was I doing this thing in the first place?  Am I doing it for learning; am I doing it for connection; am I doing it for my impact?" and then just thinking about how else that you could do it, would be my tip. 

If you see that that kind of consistency and doing it in the same way all the time at work, or whatever it is you're doing, is maybe risking you becoming quite closed, just zoom out a bit on why you're doing it in the first place.  It might help you to keep some of the agility. 

Sarah Ellis: And before we get into where consistency counts, which we hope are some universal themes that we think might be useful for everybody, there are a few things that we think just help you to be consistent.  And I would say this is something where I think, I reckon, Helen, you're naturally slightly more consistent than I am.  So, I have got variety as a value; that is sort of the opposite.  So, I was really trying to interrogate where I have managed to be consistent, what really helped.  And these were just the three things for me.  I think one was something I enjoyed, you know, I just had a good time doing that thing.  Not all the time, obviously everything has ups and downs, but it felt much more enjoyment than it did draining, much more energising than draining.  I think the second thing for me was being able to see the impact.  That didn't always have to be straight away, and it could also be really small.  So, I can think about some things I have done consistently, where my impact was tiny maybe compared to some of the things that we do now, but I still really enjoyed it and I was sure I was making a positive difference. 

Then, I think the final one, which has been mixed for me, but has helped me to be more consistent, is doing something with someone else.  So, I guess inevitably, that increases your accountability.  But I have had the first two, as Helen actually pointed out to me when we did do a tiny bit of prep before chatting, I have done the first two without the third one and it still worked for me.  I have done some things consistently where I didn't have to be part of a group or a community but I enjoyed it, I could see the impact, and that was enough for me to keep going, to keep committing to something. 

Helen Tupper: I'll tell you something that I think you do consistently for us is something called Win Watch.  So, we have a Win Watch, it's largely for Sarah and me and it's about what we do in our company, Amazing If, but Sarah leads on it.  And so, every quarter, it's a summary of what we are working towards.  And then we look at it every couple of weeks or so and give it a red/amber/green status so that we know if we are on track with what we are working towards.  So, it's a win watch.  But I think maybe you enjoy it because it's achievement, possibly, and that's one of Sarah's values; it's something you can quickly see the impact of, because it's literally red/amber/green, and it's very visual; and then it's something that we do together.  So, we kind of have a shared -- while Sarah, I think, leads the Win Watch process, actually the conversation about it and the discussion and then that kind of shared sense of achievement is a thing we do together.  So, I think that's something that you've done consistently for quite a while.

Sarah Ellis: Yeah, I'm going to give myself a little bit of credit for that. 

Helen Tupper: I know, I'm adding a bit into the bank for you.  I feel like you might need a bit of extra credit this week. 

Sarah Ellis: Yeah, something else I do consistently. 

Helen Tupper: So, let's move on to where consistency counts then.  So, we have looked at four different areas where we think it makes a big difference and we'll go through each area in turn and just talk a little bit about what that consistency might look like, and we're also going to focus on the payoffs, like what's the benefit of being consistent.  And then, we've got a couple of ideas for action just to make it easier for you to do. 

So, let's start with area number one where we think consistency counts, so build on what Sarah says, it's in your day job, and this is really about doing what you say you are going to do.  And we think the payoff here is that this leads to autonomy, trust and space.  So, if people know and trust that you're going to deliver on your objectives, or maybe what you might share that you're going to take action on in a meeting, they kind of leave you alone a little bit and they give you more space.  So, even though that might sound a bit boring, just doing the day job, so hopefully you like your day job, but just doing what you're expected to do, as a result of doing that you get the opportunity to do other interesting things as well. 

Sarah Ellis: And so, I think here a couple of top tips.  One is, it's not enough to say it, I think you have to write it or capture it somewhere as well.  So, it's not enough for me to just say to Helen, "Well, these are my three priorities this week, this is what I'm going to do when", and hope that Helen remembers.  And I think sometimes we fall into that trap, because obviously for us, it's very clear and it's very front of mind and it's really important because it's our day job.  But let's imagine Helen's my manager and she's also got six other people that she's managing and her own job to worry about, there's no way she's holding that all in her head.  And so, I think one of the things that really helped me is, I was always good at saying it, but it was even better when I started writing it.  And when I say writing, I'm not talking about some sort of incredible master document.  This was often just an email before things like Teams and stuff even existed; or sometimes it would be a one-page Word document where I'd sort of go, "Priorities, tasks, this is what's happening in this order". 

When I was working on projects, I did a lot of project work, I would have project status updates and I would commit to when I was going to send those.  So, "Every Friday morning, I'll send you a status update".  And I would even include my manager on those, or maybe send them on to them, even if they weren't part of the project, just to be like, "Okay, well I'm including you".  And then often, there'd be a point where they'd be like, "Oh, okay, yeah fine, I don't need to see them anymore", and I'd be like, "Yes, that's because they know that I'm going to do the thing".  And I think the other thing is to just overcommunicate a bit.  So I think, back to Helen's point, it can feel a bit boring and you might feel like you're saying the same thing, but people forget and so you will have to be a bit repetitive here, I think. 

Then the final thing is signal where you can't be consistent.  So, I think this is often just as important, particularly when people have got used to, "Well, Sarah does what she says she's going to do".  If you can't, for some reason, because there will always be moments where you can't be as consistent as you would like to be, sharing that and saying to, you know, Helen is my manager, "Well, usually you'd get the project update on a Friday.  Do you know what?  This came in middle of yesterday, so that's going to get delayed until Monday".  And so, Helen isn't left waiting or starting to worry, but not telling me.  And then suddenly maybe we get into that funny manager relationship of then I feel like I'm being micromanaged, and I don't know why.  And so, overcommunicate the dos, but also overcommunicate the do-nots like, "Oh, I'm not going to be able to get that done".  And I think that's just when people feel like you're on it and you're all over it, and then I think you do get that space.  But I think my biggest learning was, yeah, write it, don't just say it. 

Helen Tupper: It creates quite a lot of confidence as well, that someone's really -- weirdly, even when someone's saying, "Oh, it's not possible for me to work on that this week", I feel still confident that they're managing their workload because I'm clear.  And I really agree with the writing-it-down thing.  So, I often refer back to, we'll have people in our team that will write things on Microsoft Teams and they'll have mentioned it in a quick chat for me, but then it'll be later in the week when I've got a question in my mind and I'll be able to go and look at it and it just answers the question.  So, I do think it is useful to say it, particularly if you want to have a bit of discussion, like I'm not just going to say to Sarah, "I'm just not going to do that and that's it".  It's useful to have a discussion about what you're working on and what you might not be working on.  But I think actually writing it down helps people refer back to it when they actually might need it, not when you're in a position to say it to them. 

So, where consistency counts, number one, is doing the day job.  The second thing where we think consistency counts is with your learning.  And this is about investing in your learning, being continually curious.  And we think one of the parts of the payoff here is that you have always got something to contribute, whether that's an article that you've read, or an insight that you've got from something you've listened to, or a little bit of wisdom from a conversation you've had with someone; there's always some sort of newness that you've got to give, and that's really valuable for your team and it's really valuable for lots of people that you work with, that you've always got something useful new and unique to contribute. 

Sarah Ellis: And a few ideas here for things that we found helpful.  So for me, I find having a home for my learning and curiosity really helps it to be consistent.  So, I would always learn and be curious, but the consistency would drop off if I like -- I'm like, "Where does it go?" 

Helen Tupper: Yeah. 

Sarah Ellis: "What's the place for it?"  And since, as a team, we started using Borrowed Brilliance and it is as simple as having a Teams channel called "Borrowed Brilliance", that's where all my curiosity lives.  And it obviously works for me, because I think I was looking and a lot of those contributions come from me.  So, I am a bit like, "Oh, it's sort of my curiosity channel some of the time".  But I honestly think that's because that's how my brain works.  I see something interesting or useful and I don't want to lose that learning.  And so, I put it in there and then when I want to refer back to it, I've got somewhere to go back to.  And I think it just keeps me consistently on the lookout for, "Oh, that feels interesting".  Even now, I can think of one post that I read on LinkedIn where somebody was talking about how, it was actually someone at Microsoft, talking about how they had integrated AI into their HR function, and I saved it in LinkedIn because I thought I'll go back to it, take it out of LinkedIn and put it into our Borrowed Brilliance channel.  And it's funny how you can't remember very much, but I can remember that.  And so, I think it just helps me like, I'm like a little magpie, but then I've sort of got a home for my treasure. 

Helen Tupper: I think, because I go into that channel, but actually not consistently, quite sporadically, and then I'll scan through and I'll be like, "Oh, that's interesting.  I should have spent more time here", normally.  But my even-better-if for myself on this one is that I have some things that work for me.  So, my top tip here is to find a format that works for you for consistent learning.  So for example, almost every day, I use an app called Feedly that I've mentioned so much before, because it's all set up with things that I like to read, and I can scan through it really quickly and it just gives me ideas and headlines and snapshots of stuff that's happening in psychology and business and leadership that I find useful.  It doesn't take me very long.  So, that's a format that works regularly for me.  The other formats, we know that people listen to podcasts weekly, maybe you listen to the Squiggly Careers podcast weekly, or you might join our PodPlus community, or whatever it is you do.  So, I think you've got to find the format that works for you. 

But my even-better-if is that I see those things that you share, and often when you post it isn't often when I've got the time or attention to engage with it, and then I kind of forget about it.  And so, I wish I had, like you know there are tools like Pocket that you can use, where you save the thing to Pocket, or whatever, and then I would like to have like 15 minutes in the morning, which is normally my Feedly time, where that is the time.  So, I'll take the things that you've curated and then I've got a time or place to read them.  I think that's the bit that I'm missing.  My even-better-if away from today I think might be consistently absorbing what you've curated or created. 

Sarah Ellis: Yeah, it's interesting.  Having those moments I think makes a massive difference.  So, I was doing PodPlus the other week, which is the sort of short workshop we do every week about the podcast topic, and I think I was asking people about rituals and rhythms and what works for them and what doesn't, and they were all saying -- there's a core group of people I think now who come every week, and what they've just done is like, they were like, "That is how I learn each week.  I guarantee my learning by, that always goes in the diary, that's immovable, I make that a must-do".  And then a few people talked about how, I don't know, they changed companies or something and then suddenly that Thursday morning slot didn't work, and they were like, "I was gutted", because you've found something that's worked for you and then it's inadvertently, and no one's fault, it kind of gets taken away.  So, I was like, "Oh, that's so interesting."  I suppose that's also learning together and being part of a curious community, that can make a really big difference too. 

Helen Tupper: So, the third area where we think consistency counts is in the relationships that you build around your career.  And this is really about staying in touch with people and spotting ways in which you can support them.  And the payoff of doing this is that those people are then there for you when you need them, and that might be for advice or introductions or support or a sounding board, all the different ways that we need people in terms of our career.  But you can guarantee that they're going to be there if you have consistently spotted ways you can support them and stayed in touch with them throughout a period of time as well. 

So, I think this is one of the areas that has been most helpful for me, as I said earlier. I think that one of the things that I do here to try to be consistently helpful and useful, is that I definitely prioritise time with people and I protect that time.  That's probably one-to-one time as well.  So, there are loads of things that I could do in my diary and I could be in an awful lot of meetings, but there are some relationships that I prioritise for loads of different reasons, like that I find those people engaging or interesting, or they just spark my thinking, or they've got different perspectives.  But when I put that time in with that person, and that might be in person or it could be virtual, I really protect that time.  It is prioritised in my diary, it is protected, I am very, very resistant to moving that.  And there might be internal meetings or other things but in my mind, that investment in that person is as important as another meeting.  And it's making sure that I've got that regular point of connection with people. 

It doesn't actually have to be the same person.  I think maybe because I'm an extrovert, I quite like a wide range of relationships.  But if you scanned my diary, you would definitely see that I prioritise and protect time with people outside of my immediate world, and that's something that I've always done.  And I'm always thinking, "How can I be helpful?" in those conversations and outside of those conversations.  So, I might just send someone a quick WhatsApp message and say, "Oh, I've seen this and I thought you might like it", or in the conversation, I'll be listening to what's going on in their world and I'll be thinking, "What do I know or who do I know that might be helpful for you?"  So, as well as prioritising that time and that person, I'm always thinking about what have I got to give to them, and that is just part of how I work now.  I think I've been doing that for so long that it's not like I prep for the meeting and think about it in advance, it's just sort of what I try to bring to those people. 

Sarah Ellis: Yeah, and I think what you have touched on there is those areas where we are naturally consistent, probably because it links to something that we are good at and that we enjoy, and probably some of those areas where you have to work a bit harder on to get to that consistency; you want that because you also want the payoff.  And we were reflecting whether we were high, medium, or low for each of these areas that we've talked about where consistency counts, and I don't think anyone, or I mean, imagine if they are that good, but I don't think anyone would be high, high, high on all of these.  So, I think you've just listened to Helen talk about one she would be high on; I think I would be medium or low.  Whereas learning, I think I'd be perhaps high on that one.  So, perhaps also just worth, as you're going through just being like, "Where am I?  Am I high, medium and low?" and then, "How important is it to me to be consistent in that area?" 

So, we think all of these are pretty important.  So, I look at that relationship one, and I think my challenge at the moment is to let go of the idea that relationships necessarily always have that immediate impact.  So, I think I'm better at building relationships now where I think, "Oh, okay, well this is going to help".  Maybe it's going to be a podcast guest or something that we're doing for the companies that we work with to do with career development.  And I think I've then maybe not made the time for some of my relationships with people actually I just really enjoy spending time with, and they are high-energy people that will give me ideas and that I just know that that's always been useful for me in the past.  So, I need to re-find a way of doing that consistently.  And probably for lots of people, I think through the pandemic, everyone sort of had to re-shift how relationships worked, and then now I think you've got to do a bit more unlearning and relearning again.  So now you're like, "Okay, well are all my relationships virtual; are they hybrid; are they back to being in person?  What does that look like for me?" 

So, this is one where I'm like, I think I'm medium to low, if I'm being generous, because I don't like the idea of just being low obviously, but I would like to be medium.  I don't think I'll ever be the highest, as someone who's a bit more introverted, but I think I could be better.  Basically, I just need to learn a bit and borrow a bit of brilliance from Helen here. 

Helen Tupper: Wow, we're both taking away some stuff from this episode of our even-better-ifs.  And so, our fourth and final area where we think consistency counts is with your strengths at work.  And the point here is that it is important to consistently show up with your strengths, so the things that give you energy that you want to be known for, and it is important to consistently grow your strengths.  So, it's about showing and growing your strengths consistently.  And if you do it, the payoffs are quite big, because we think this is what pulls possibilities towards you, because people associate you with those things that you want to be known for, they probably spot opportunities for you to use them more, so you exponentially increase your impact when you take action consistently with your strengths. 

Sarah Ellis: And when we say strengths, these can be generalist strengths or specialist strengths.  So, these could be a behaviour.  You might think, "I really want to be known for being empathetic and a brilliant listener", or it could be something really specialist like, "I'm going to be incredible at Python".  People keep talking to me about Python in workshops, I don't know loads about it, but when I ask people what do they want to learn this year, they definitely keep saying, "Python".  So, I'm going to learn more about it, just so I understand what people are telling me.  And so, whatever the answer to that question is for you, there is no, "Oh, it must look like this", your strengths shouldn't look a certain shape.  But I think once you start to think about opportunities to consistently show that strength, we talked previously in a podcast about how to make your strengths stand out and show up, and that's always a really popular episode, and I'm like, "Oh, that reassures me that it is, because we want that to be consistent", again, you'll just enjoy the work that you do more.

But sometimes, I think you perhaps have to inject a bit of newness into your strengths, because you just get quite used to using them in the same way.  So, there's quite a lot of sameness sometimes with strength.  So, it might be that you want to think about, well how could you share that strength that you've got with other people?  Could be in a one-to-one way, it could be at scale, it could be mentoring, really informal mentoring, it could be teams at work that might benefit from that.  And we know that sharing strengths is always a good way to stretch them, because it's actually quite hard to share a strength, I think, because you have to sort of figure out what it is that makes you good at that thing, and be able to describe it in a way that makes sense to other people. 

I think certainly for Helen and I, one thing that we've realised over time, and we didn't know this when we started, is careers is not just our strength, it's not just researching and experimenting with anything to do with careers; for us, well actually, we are at our best when we are providing useful and practical Squiggly Career support.  It doesn't matter what career stage you're at or where you work or who you work for, it's just about being useful and practical.  And actually, that usefulness and the kind of practicality, it's that bit that we need to keep finding new ways to share and to keep making stronger, and we keep challenging ourselves on that all the time, because that's how we will pull more possibilities towards us to increase our impact. 

Helen Tupper: So, with this one, maybe just reflect on what do you want to be known for; how much are you using that today; and how can you consistently and uniquely use it more?  They're the bits that we really want to get to.  And it can be small scale.  I know we talk about the podcast, and that might seem like quite a big thing now, and it is now, but it wasn't in 2017, it really wasn't.  It was small.  We just kept rocking up every week and talking mainly to each other. 

Sarah Ellis: Did anyone even listen?

Helen Tupper: I don't know.

Sarah Ellis: I mean, that first year?  I'm a bit like, "Who were we doing that podcast for?" 

Helen Tupper: I don't know! 

Sarah Ellis: Because no one really listened to podcasts, I don't think we even really knew what it was, and we were definitely using it as an excuse to escape our babies, both of us.  Let's be honest about, "What was that time for?"  It was just like, "Oh, let's just talk about careers with each other", with a screaming baby!  But I do really enjoy talking about careers.  It doesn't really matter whether anyone listens to it, but we both enjoyed it.  And I think the odd person listened and would tell us, "Oh, that was really helpful", and that was probably all we needed!  That was all the encouragement we needed! 

Helen Tupper: So, this thing, you don't have to be amazing at it, everybody, you just have to do that strength thing consistently.  But I think, you also do get better at it.  I hope we've got a bit better by doing it consistently over the last, goodness gracious, since 2017, all 400 episodes of it.  So, quick recap then, the four areas that we think are important and where consistency counts for your career are, on the day job; make sure you are being consistent with your learning; consistently investing in your relationships; and consistently showing and growing your strengths. 

Sarah Ellis: So, we hope you found that helpful.  As always, if you've got ideas for the next 400 episodes --

Helen Tupper: She looks so scared!  I can see Sarah now, and she's terrified!

Sarah Ellis: -- or maybe we'll just do ten more and that'll be done. 

Helen Tupper: You're not doing ten more.  No, there's more coming, everyone, don't panic.

Sarah Ellis: Yeah.  Even I know we're doing more than ten more!  I like to look ahead, so I do know that.  You can email us at any time, we really love hearing from our listeners.  We're helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com. 

Helen Tupper: And please, please, please download, use and share the PodBook.  It is a tool that we've taken quite a lot of time over the last 100 episodes to get to, so we really want it to be something that's valuable for people.  So, look out for it on LinkedIn, look for it on Instagram, and please share it with people that you think might find it useful. 

Sarah Ellis: That's everything for this week.  Thank you so much for listening and we will be back with you for episode 401 next week.  Bye for now. 

Helen Tupper: Bye everyone.