Honing Your Craft

Recently I listened to an Audible book by Rob Bell called “How to Be Here”. Of the several concepts that resonated with me in that book, one that stood out was a concept the author called “your craft”. Listening to it made me think about what my craft is.

We all have jobs, or most of us do anyway. We get paid to do these jobs. Success in these jobs is generally measured by salary growth, promotions, expanding scope. And, of course, there is nothing wrong with having a job. That is how the world works economically: people get paid to do a job, they then use that pay to provide for their families and, in doing so, contribute pay back into the world’s economies, which creates more jobs. Generally, if someone is delivering value into the world economy, they get a return on that input cost/time by getting paid. That’s an exchange of pay to do a job. 

A craft, on the other hand, is something where you develop a skill – perhaps even receiving formal training or apprenticeship – something you are passionate about, and a skill you continue to hone, seeking to master it, through your life. Success in your craft is the inner sense of joy that doing your craft well brings. Success in your craft is that thirst to keep doing it better and better. The world economy may or may not actually pay you to deliver your craft into the world.  

People who develop, use, and continually hone a skill with passion over a period of time can eventually become a master of that skill, a master of their craft. And ironically as you master a craft you realize that there is always something more to work on; so, a master is also a continual student of the craft, never done learning. Being a master also means appreciating, respecting, and honoring the craft enough to share that mastery with others, mentoring others in the craft.

My wife and I were wandering through a market in Cape Town, South Africa a few weekends ago. We passed many stalls where people were selling items. Most of the people selling were also the actual artisan, the craftsman or craftswoman. Some were even continuing to work their craft on a new item while there in the stall. And I thought again about this word “craft”. They were still working to master their craft right in front of us.

Growing up I watched my dad and his career. He had a job as a project manager for an engineering firm, designing and constructing new textile manufacturing facilities around the world. He retired before computers became a regular tool of business, so he can barely even turn on a computer. But he can tell you everything you ever wanted to know (and more) about various textiles: fabric types, different weaves, fabric dyeing. This textiles expertise was his craft: he was skilled, passionate about it, never don learning about it, and wanted to share with others.

Sometime after he retired, my dad took up woodworking as a hobby, but that has now become his craft. He has worked for years now in retirement perfecting how to make bowls, pens, pepper grinders, and cups. He makes beautiful wood things these days. When he first started woodworking, the things he made were sometimes a bit misshapen or crude, but over time he developed his skill, got some formal training, became passionate about woodworking, and has just kept at it.

Almost every day, even at age 92 now, he goes down into his workshop and hones his craft. I think his stuff is beautiful now and is as good as many things I see people selling in shops. He could go out and sell these things, I suppose, but that’s not why my dad makes those bowls. He makes them because he loves doing it and is increasingly good at it.        

So, we all have jobs. Do we have a craft? Do we need to wait until we are retired to develop a craft? A craft may be separate from a job, but when your job is also your craft, work life can be very fulfilling indeed. So, a consideration is how to turn our job into our craft (or turn our craft into our job).

A craft that is also a job you get paid to do could be scheduling meetings, writing software code, running a healthcare facility or delivering nursing care, managing a partner relationship, managing a project for a client, doing analysis, developing HR programs, or leading a team. As long as it is a skill you are passionate about continuously honing and seeking to master, it’s a craft.

I have lots of other hobbies that I put energy into: tennis, golf, singing, cooking. Of those, I suppose at one time I would have said singing could have been my craft. I certainly spent a lot of time over many years honing it: taking private voice lessons, practicing, singing in multiple choirs, doing solo work. Perhaps it was when I saw what a real singing artist looked like – my daughter Caroline – it became clear what mastery of that craft really looked like! Not only was she way more naturally gifted than me, but she poured her whole soul, time, and energy into perfecting the singing craft, including practicing every day.   

While I dearly love singing and it will always be a part of who I am, over the last fifteen years it has become clear to me that business leadership is where I can add the most value to the world. So I have put emphasis on that.

My job is CEO. My craft is leading organizations.

I have spent most of my career now as a student of leadership; how to make organizations better at achieving their economic and societal aims through leadership. And now I am focused on being the best leader I can possibly be to help BroadReach Group (where I currently serve as its CEO) achieve its goals and mission. I can get up every day passionate about my craft, honing that craft, never done, always learning and further developing. As I said in my book: seeking to be a complete leader while recognizing my incompleteness.   

As I do every year between Christmas and New Years, in the quiet and peace of that time, I block time to reflect, listen, assess, and consider what I want the next year to be about thematically. And I write that down on a single piece of paper which I review throughout the year. This exercise integrates both personal and professional worlds for me. For this year, one of the themes I wrote down was to hone and leverage my craft (leading organizations). That could be captured in a leadership statement: to bring my whole self – the very best of who I am and what I have learned personally and professionally to cause results in the organization I lead.

What is your craft? You’ll know you have identified your craft when it’s something you have skill in, are passionate about doing, and are committed to mastering and sharing it with others.

2 thoughts on “Honing Your Craft”

  1. Enjoyed this, Chris. My craft, as you might guess, is having leaders, like you, step up into leadership roles and successfully execute them.

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