“What is the Weirdest Job You’ve Ever Had?” One Question Every Leader Should Be Asking
“What is the weirdest job that you’ve ever had?”
This is a question I often encourage leaders to ask their teams. Your journey to the job you have now, was likely not a straight line. Sometimes, we gain skills (or even new interests) that seem unrelated to our current position, but upon reflection, could provide something that no one else could contribute to our team.
This is in the spirit of the improv principle “Make each other look good,” where we intentionally look for ways to set one another up for success and allow folks to use the skills and talents they possess to be rockstars.
A unique jobs of my past was as a “Paleontologist/dinosaur chaser outside of the Jurassic Park ride at Universal Studios California.”
Here is what I learned:
How to hone my improvisation skills: Our goal was to entertain folks around this ride (kids who were too small to ride, waiting for a sibling) and those waiting (for over an hour) in the line in the summer heat. Imagine the variety of folks (and moods) to whom we were tasked with bringing laughter.
How to build trust and create the psychological safety needed to take the creative risks that good improv requires in an unpredictable environment. We needed to be able to rely on one another and have each other’s backs as we stepped out “on set” each day.
How to connect with folks who don’t speak my language. We paid attention to body language as we tried to bring a smile to someone’s face, respected the responses we were given and built on the common silly ground discovered.
The importance of hiring folks for their skills and talents and then giving them the autonomy to use them, while keeping in mind the impact they have on other teams: Once hired we were set free to create whatever type of characters and scenes would entertain folks. However, if that included riding the ride (which ended with a literal splash), the costume department needed us to do so at the beginning of the day, so that we wouldn’t be handing in sopping wet costumes.
The impact of allowing folks to grow, even if that means losing a bit of their day-to-day productivity. From time to time, we would have auditions for TV/Film projects during our shift. Universal had a policy, where we could miss a part of our shift if we had to leave for an audition. They understood the compromise they’d need to make if they wanted to employ working actors.
Did I mention we had a puppet named “Girdy” as well? Whelp, I gained some puppeteering skills to boot 😁
I’ve used each of these skills/insights in different jobs, with different clients (and even in parenthood) since holding this position, from the obvious, using improv principles to improve interpersonal communication, leadership and teamwork, to teaching folks about body language and presence, to advising folks on creating great company cultures.
Here are some additional questions you could ask your team to not only find opportunities to “make them look good,” but to also learn more about them as a whole human being (which in and of itself has a whole slew of benefits, but that’s for another blog).
What did you learn in that job (maybe something a little unexpected,) that you’ve taken with you and used in your current position?
What was something that you really enjoyed doing in that job?
Is there a place for you to use that skill here? (This is your chance to collaborate and get creative!)
For more on how to use the “Make each other look good” principle, check out my book Approaching Improv - Communication & Connection in Business & Beyond.”
Break a leg!