Full Circle with Shawn
Welcome to "Full Circle with Shawn," a podcast where every episode is a journey through the twists and turns of life. Join me, Shawn, as I share stories from my life, starting in foster care, serving in the military, diving into the world of startups, and navigating the challenges of business ownership.
Each episode, we'll explore the lessons learned from each phase of life and discuss how these experiences shape our perspectives and decisions. From heartfelt personal anecdotes to practical advice for those facing their own crossroads, "Full Circle with Shawn" aims to inspire, motivate, and possibly even change the way you think about life's challenges and opportunities.
Tune in for honest reflections and bold conversations about what it means to turn life's obstacles into stepping stones.
A new episode launches every Tuesday and Thursday at 12:00am EST.
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Full Circle with Shawn
Episode 36: Breaking Through Entitlement: Strategies for Personal Growth and Career Transition
Transitioning careers—especially between the wild world of startups and the structured realm of corporate life—can feel like jumping between planets. But it's not a distress signal; it's a savvy navigation toward alignment with your personal ethos and professional aspirations. In this episode, I'll share my own experiences and insights on how to make these transitions as smooth as possible, whether you're donning many hats in a startup or seeking work-life balance in a corporate gig. We'll also dive into resources like John Townsend's "The Entitlement Cure," which offers a beacon of guidance for maintaining a sense of self-worth without tipping over into entitlement. So tighten your seatbelts; we're on a course to find career fulfillment that resonates with who you are and what you value.
Hello and welcome to Full Circle with Sean. I'm your host, sean, and, as promised, today we're talking entitlement. So what is entitlement? Entitlement is the belief that one inherently deserves privilege or special treatment without the corresponding effort or merit. So let's hunt these people down in our personal life. So if they're expecting special treatment in social settings, if they believe that they deserve success or recognition without hard work, if they have difficulty accepting criticism or feedback or they have frequent feelings of being wronged or unappreciated, and then let's look at them in business. So employees expecting promotions or raises without demonstrating performance, resistance to collaboration and team efforts and unrealistic expectations of immediate success or rewards. And if we look at some behavioral signs, we'll look for the lack of gratitude or appreciation for what they have, the inability to emphasize with others perspectives and overemphasis on rights over responsibilities, and then, of course, the tendency to blame external factors for personal failures or shortcomings. Now it's important to address entitlement, of course, because it leads to better you know personal development. So it promotes self-awareness and growth, it encourages a realistic understanding of your own abilities and limitations and it helps to foster resilience and a willingness to learn from failures. And when we address it in our relationships, it can enhance empathy and understanding between two people. It can reduce conflicts and promote healthier communication. And, finally, it builds mutual respect, right Mutual respect and appreciation In the workplace. By addressing it, it can improve team collaboration and productivity. It can reduce toxic behaviors and we've had a podcast on toxic behaviors and it can encourage a culture of fair recognition when we look at dealing with it for business success, it can prevent decision making that's driven by ego rather than data and collaboration. It promotes a healthy, adaptive community culture and it helps retain talent by really fostering an environment of respect and appreciation.
Speaker 1:And now, if we feel that we're the ones that are entitled and let's be honest, sometimes, in some situations, we might feel entitled we need to do a few things to help us try to get over that right. We should try to overcome that. We start by practicing gratitude and recognizing others' contributions. We then look at setting realistic goals and working diligently to achieve them. We embrace a growth mindset and learning from experiences and finally, we seek feedback and we try to be open to self-improvement. Let's break that down a little bit further. We want to cultivate gratitude, so we wanna acknowledge and appreciate the efforts and kindness of others, and then we could even keep a journal to reflect on positive experiences and contributions. We want to set realistic goals right. We want to establish achievable objectives that require effort and dedication, and then we want to recognize and celebrate small milestones and progress. We want to embrace a growth mindset, so we view challenges and setbacks as opportunities to learn and grow, and we want to focus on developing skills and improving through constant efforts, seek and accept feedback, so we want to actively solicit constructive criticism from trusted sources and remember I said trusted sources Use feedback to identify areas for improvement and personal development. We want to develop empathy, so we practice understanding and valuing other people's perspectives and their experiences, and then we want to engage in active listening and that'll help us foster deeper connections and deeper insights. We want to take responsibility, so we own up to our own mistakes and our own shortcomings without shifting blame, and then we want to demonstrate accountability in our personal and professional situations. Then we want to practice humility, so acknowledge that you don't have all the answers and you can learn from others and if you want to go back and listen to my leadership podcast, where I do talk a little bit about that and then recognize the contributions and achievements of those around you and finally, engage in self-reflection.
Speaker 1:I know Sean said reflection again. Sean always says reflection because it's very, very important in your life. So regularly assess your attitude, behaviors and beliefs, identify instances where entitlement may have influenced your actions. Now, just to be clear, there is obviously a difference in confidence and entitlement. Right, confidence is actually very necessary in leadership and decision making and inspiring a team. What happens is people get overconfidence and when confidence crosses that line into entitlement, it can start leading to ignoring valuable feedback, overestimating capabilities or even making rash decisions.
Speaker 1:Now there are some self-assessment tools we can use to try to measure our own confidence, strengths, weaknesses and preferences, and there's like the Myers-Briggs type indicator and the big five personality traits. So the Myers-Briggs is a personality assessment based on Carl Jung's theories of psychological types and it identifies preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. And there's basically four different areas, right? So the first is extroversion versus introversion, and that basically focuses on the outer world versus the inner world. There's sensing versus intuition and the preference for concrete information versus abstract concepts. Then there's thinking versus feeling and it's decision making based on logic or emotions and values. And finally there's judging or perceiving, which basically shows if your preference is for structure and planning versus flexibility and spontaneity. So what would you use this for? Right, and it's to really help you understand yours and others' personality preferences, and it can aid in career planning, team building and conflict resolution. And then we look at the big five personality traits right, and I'll tell you something about this one in a minute. So this one's pretty widely accepted and identifies five key dimensions, and it's based on a lot of research and empirical studies, right, so they basically say there's five traits.
Speaker 1:So openness to experience, and that's curiosity, creativity and willingness to try new things. There's contentiousness, which is organization, dependability and discipline. There's extroversion, which is sociability, assertiveness, enthusiasm. There's agreeableness, which is compassion, cooperation and trust, and then there's neuroticism, which is emotional stability, anxiety and moodiness. This test provides a comprehensive understanding of an individual's personality and it's useful for personal development, workplace dynamics and psychological research.
Speaker 1:Now, when I first got into business with two guys and the ones that I got away from later and you might have heard a little bit about that on a previous podcast, and I will go a bit further into some of the reasons and some of the things that you can look for in Red Flags in another podcast. I'm just working on how I'm going to go through that. But they actually had me take this personality test and yeah, well, you kind of try to over achieve to help other people and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So it was quite interesting. It was the first time that I'd been shown these kind of tests. So, but you can take them online. You can take your own online.
Speaker 1:The biggest thing is, especially if you're taking it yourself. You know, be honest with yourself. Don't just go. Oh yeah, well, it says you know you shouldn't. You know, would you do this in this situation? And you know this is probably the answer they're looking for. But I mean, think about what would you do in that situation. And it doesn't mean you're wrong, I mean you need to. If you take these for yourself, do them in a way so you can learn from it, because that's the only way it's ever going to help you or help identify different paths you should be on, which really leads us into the benefits of using these tools. So the first benefit is self-awareness, understanding your personality traits, and this can help identify strengths and areas for improvement. And then you have career alignment, so this can help you in finding roles that align with your personality, and this will really lead to greater job satisfaction and performance. Now, team building, so this can facilitate better understanding and collaboration among team members, which is why I was asked to take it. And conflict resolution, so it aids in recognizing and addressing personality-driven conflicts.
Speaker 1:Now let's take a step back and look at the difference between entitlement and unfair treatment, because, yes, sometimes it isn't entitlement, sometimes it's unfair treatment, but in those situations, context matters, right? So if we look at, say, you're in a large business with constant overtime, so the unfair treatment indicators would be regular overtime without additional pay or time off, lack of recognition for extra efforts, poor communication about expectations and rewards and inadequacy in load distribution among all the employees. And the employee response to that is they have legitimate concerns about work-life balance and fair compensation and they're expecting recognition and pay for extra work, which is reasonable and justified. But then let's change the context and let's look at a startup, right? So, startup environment, high pressure, fast pace, limited resources you know the expectation of long hours is due to the nature of a startup culture. Then compensation through competitive pay and employee shares is usually how they make that up, and then sometimes they don't. I mean, basically, employees often join startups understanding the trade-off, but it's still the company's responsibility for clear communication about compensation and future potential rewards. But it is reasonable to expect hard work and dedication if somebody's part of the startup journey.
Speaker 1:So you should ask yourself a few questions right, when assessing your work environment. Is the company providing fair compensation for your extra work? Are there clear communications and transparency about expectations and rewards? Do you have opportunities for growth and recognition? And then you need to do a little self-reflection. So are your expectations aligned with the role and the company culture? Are you receiving constructive feedback and opportunities for improvement and are you contributing to the team and the organization culture? Are you receiving constructive feedback and opportunities for improvement and are you contributing to the team and the organization effectively? And then we look for, say, feedback right. So we seek feedback from peers, supervisors and mentors about our performance and expectations. We initiate open and honest discussions with our management about workload and compensation and we consider the long-term benefits and potential growth opportunity in the role that you're currently in.
Speaker 1:If you're working for a startup and I'm guessing some of you are, because of my startup pain series as well start with your self-assessment, so evaluate your satisfaction within the startup environment. Reflect on your personal and professional goals and whether they align with the startup environment. Reflect on your personal and professional goals and whether they align with the startup's culture and demands, and then really assess whether the stress and the workload are suitable and fulfilling for you. And then you got to understand your preferences. So identify what aspects of the startup life you find challenging Is it the long hours, the uncertainty or the high pressure, or do you like it? And then determine what type of work environment suits you better. So do you want to more work for a structured corporate, or is it stable schedules, or do you want further defined roles and responsibilities? And you should recognize it's okay to move on.
Speaker 1:So if you're not a startup person, acknowledge that not every work environment is suitable for everybody. It goes the other way around. You could work for a corporate in the stable roles and you want to be able to wear multiple hats, which that's what you do in a startup right. A lot of people wear a lot of hats and stick their hand up and say I'll take over that. I've never done that before, but I'm going to do it. So if it's not for you, it's not for you, but understand that moving on from a startup doesn't reflect a failure, but a choice for better alignment within your personal or professional needs, and you should be evaluating new opportunities, right, so you don't just go okay, I'm gone and not have a job either, but when you're there, you should be putting in 110%. So I'm not saying switch off and then find a job and collect a paycheck. I'm saying do what you should be doing if you're moving on.
Speaker 1:So you want to research companies and roles that offer the stability and the structure that you prefer. You look for an organization with cultures that align with your values and work style, and you consider industries and roles where you can leverage your skills and experiences gained from your startup or from your other business, if you work from other business, or look for a startup based on what you've done in your corporate life, because there will always be a million of them, right? What you want to make sure that you really do, though, is plan your exit strategy professionally. You always want to make a smooth transition, so, whether you're going from one corporate job to the other corporate job, whether you're going from a startup to a corporate or a corporate to a startup, or no matter what you're doing, always ensure that it's a smooth transition and you maintain good relationships. You know I, if I had a dollar for every time that you know there were abrasion with somebody, um, whether it was an employee or you know, I worked for people in the past as well um, and and we smoothed it over and and every the parting of ways was very professional and and I ran into them later in life and I needed them or they needed me, and it was perfectly fine, and that will happen a lot. So never burn your bridges, right. But then, like I've been saying the whole time, this is why you can take those personality assessments or do the self-reflection and self-assessment and find the right fit. So you should try to find a role and a company where you can thrive and you can feel fulfilled.
Speaker 1:You definitely want to prioritize your work-life balance and when I first came to Australia, I was taking an interview right, because I'm looking for a job. When I first came and I took an interview and they said one of the questions was what do you see as a good work-life balance? And I'm American, so I was like I go to work right, and then I go home and I try to have a life when I'm not working and they're like, no, and I'm like, well, I have no freaking idea and they never told me and I kind of get it now. You know work life, you know when you're off of work, but I'm in a startup environment, so where's the life right? So, anyways, I want to look for some work-life balance is what I'm trying to say and a place where you can have career growth and job satisfaction. Okay, you want to find something that you dream about doing. If you like to come home and garden, find a job doing something in gardening. I mean, you find your passions, you stick with your fashions and you'll be fulfilled in your life when you're at work as well. And I know we're kind of on entitlement, but all of this matters, right, because sometimes you're feeling entitled because you're in the wrong place. So maybe you just need to find your place Now.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of resources that can offer a lot of practical advice and strategies for overcoming an entitled mindset. So you can look at a book called the Entitlement Cure Finding Success in Doing Hard Things the Right Way and that's by John Townsend. You have tons of articles so how to overcome a sense of entitlement and that's even in Forbes right, recognizing and dealing with entitlement in the workplace, and that's Harvard Business Review, just to mention as well. John Townsend also has a podcast called the Entitlement Cure, so, and it's all about themes from his book. And then there's online courses and workshops. So Overcoming Entitlement LinkedIn Learning even has Dealing with Entitled People. So you know other people, not just you, because I'm not saying you're entitled, but you know you are in some way or the other. And then you have websites and forums. So Psychology Today has a full section on entitlement, and Reddit actually has subs for entitlement or self-improvement.
Speaker 1:So, just to recap, we all might feel entitled from time to time and it's something that we should reflect on.
Speaker 1:Why we have that feeling? Because maybe we have lost a perspective or some of our values in some way or the other, and we really should reflect on why we're feeling that way. And then we might have colleagues or friends or families that have that sense of entitlement as well, and we need to call it out, we need to identify it and we need to deal with it because, as I said, it can lead to a lot of toxicity both in your life, in your personal life and in your workspace. So sometimes it is about getting to know yourself better and finding a place where you fit better, and sometimes it's getting out of a place that you have to deal with people that have that mindset, and it's not healthy for you. So, yeah, thanks for joining me on Full Circle with Sean today and our next episode we'll be back into startup pain and we'll be talking about the complex challenges and considerations of hardware products versus software products and even some of the impact it has on investors and so on. So look forward to chatting with you then.
