Inside Voice: The Calling

“As the year progressed, however, I started to hear a tiny voice inside. It began as a whisper, which to be honest, was drowned out by the rigors and joys of my growing family and the sheer whirlwind of school plays and tonsils and party shoes and Power Rangers…But no matter how much Goldman was like family, it wasn’t family. And as the demands of my job on my time became essentially infinite I found myself at war—not with our competitors, not with our clients, not with my colleagues, but with myself. The voice inside kept building, and its message was simple and direct. “you have an embarrassment of good fortune—great career, loving wife, spectacular children, and perfect health. What are you doing for the folks on the fringe?”” — Peter Kiernan, ((Disclosure: Peter Kiernan is an alumnus of the Darden School and a Trustee of the Darden School Foundation. I did not interview him for this posting or inform him in advance of its publication.))“Following Superman” ((I highly recommend this article. It appears in the new publication, 85 Broads, published by an organization of the same name. The website of 85 Broads says, “85 Broads is a global network community of 18,000 trailblazing women who want to leverage each other’s connections, relationships, and intellectual capital to increase the “return” on their investment in their education, families, and careers.” The Darden Graduate Business School is a “core school” affiliate of this organization. ))

In a compelling new article, Peter Kiernan describes his turn toward social philanthropy. No one told him to do it. He had plenty of alternatives for his time and resources. And he had some doubts about his own readiness. But a “voice inside” exercised a gravitational pull that overcame all that. This story is important for many reasons, but not least for the matter of the “voice inside.” Experience has taught me that most, if not all, issues of leadership, professional development, and life strategy come down to hearing that voice. What, then, is one to do to hear the voice?

The voice inside describes the work one should be doing. This is not your show-up-for-eight-hours-and —get-a-paycheck kind of work; it is something much more serious, variously described as one’s vocation, profession, or “calling.” ((The Meriam-Webster dictionary relates these three words around the concept of a “strong inner impulse toward a particular course of action.” And like other concepts, “calling” has been appropriated by a rock-and-roll band, a horror movie, and some unusual blogs—such is grist for another posting, another day.)) This kind of work is serious and probably a lifetime type of commitment. In a recent article in Harper’s magazine on Max Weber’s Politiks als Beruf (“Politics as a Calling”) Scott Horton writes, “Weber gives us a portrait of the person who is “called” by politics. He cannot be a simple moralist who embraces without reservation the values of the Sermon on the Mount, for this is a calling “not of this world.” He cannot be a crude Machiavellian in the common sense who scorns any sense of ethics…. The age calls for a politician who has a sense of a mission which is informed by ideals, but also has a firm grip on the art of the possible, and an unshakable resolve to do his utmost to achieve it. And most significantly, Weber believes this figure must be capable of holding these ultimately irreconcilable thoughts in mind, drawing inspiration from them, being sustained by them, without collapsing under the weight of the many inherent contradictions that the political process presents.” Weber spawned an enormous literature on the nature of professions, of which a detailed discussion would get complicated. ((For the sociologists among the readers, allow me to set aside the minutiae of professions (such as training, licensing, standards, etc.) to focus on the purpose of one’s work: one professes an aim for one’s efforts—that is the sense in which I use “profession” in this note. )) But I think Weber is close to correct; I believe you have a profession, vocation, or calling when you find work that meets at least these four tests:

**you have “unshakeable resolve.” Most consequential paths take a lot of work. For this, you will need more than a cup of coffee to get you along. You need drive. A question asked by most career counselors is, “What do you have a passion for?” The awakening to a calling is essentially the discovery of this resolve.

**you can have impact—you have choices and preparation that enable you to get results that are consequential;

**you serve integrity—you live a mission that seeks results that are Right and Good in some high sense; and you deal with others with candor, fairness, dignity, and respect; and

**you find joy. Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, a psychologist, describes the sensation of people who are at their right work as one of “flow,” a sense of absorption, satisfaction, fulfillment, enjoyment, usefulness, and being “in the zone.” “Joy” doesn’t imply that a vocation is necessarily easy or pleasant, though a vocation without joy may not be sustainable.

Peter Kiernan said he heard the “voice inside.” How do you cultivate this voice? The dilemmas of business people, students, and colleagues so often come down to this. My conversations with them invite three questions:

1. Are you listening? Finding your life’s serious work begins with a readiness to hear. This requires a suspension of disbelief that you could be doing anything other than what you are up to. And it requires that you pay attention to what is being communicated. Let’s face it: this is work; active engagement, not passive observation. Peter Kiernan says he was “at war” with himself. He described a senior partner who challenged him: “What have you ever done for anyone else?” The deaths of Christopher and Dana Reeve also propelled him. Peter could have walked away from these and others; but instead he engaged.
2. How can you turn up the volume? This question is a trap. I don’t think you can turn up the volume. Instead, I think you have to turn down the background noise. In one of the most famous callings in Western literature, a man named Elijah was called to action not by earthquake, wind, and fire, but by a “still, small voice.” ((In The Bible, see 1 Kings 19. The dominant books of most faith traditions offer numerous examples of callings, as does secular literature.)) Peter Kiernan notes that the “tiny…whisper” was drowned out at times by family and work. This is to be expected for high-performing individuals. One can hear some promising things, but be so distracted by whatever else is happening that the message gets fuzzy. Some distance may help. For instance, this is the point of vacations: to increase the ratio of signal-to-noise by dampening the noise.
3. Once the voice gets through, is that it? Maybe so, but I doubt it. There is always room for fine-tuning over time. Psychologists ((You can find a range of books that survey the phases of life and how they induce changes in work, play, and outlook. See, for instance, Daniel Levinson’s Seasons of a Man’s Life.)) tell us that people change over the course of their lives. And times change. The Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, said that you cannot step twice into the same river. Therefore one’s vocation is bound to change in ways that are age- and circumstances-appropriate. This implies that the skills of listening and managing the noise need to be sustained through time.

Some time ago, a twenty-something banker wrestled with his work. He was successful , but he really wanted to help business people understand what it would take to do better in building their enterprises, serving customers and investors, and improving society. The voice inside him told him to teach and write—the voice spoke up repeatedly and in various ways. So he quit his job, invested his savings in a doctoral program, and embarked on an academic career. Decades later, he believes the move was the second-best ((The first-best? Marriage.)) decision in his life. That person was me.

Peter Kiernan’s story resonates with me (and I suspect will do so for many others) because it evokes the impact, integrity, and joy from listening to “the voice inside.” Do you hear your voice inside?