by Adam
As you know, we’ve decided to try something ambitious on this blog. We’re applying our mentoring framework to the life of The Office character Jim Halpert.
In deconstructing Jim, I was tempted to start at the very beginning. After all, there’s something inherently logical about ordering things chronologically. If nothing else, it relieves me from the burden of coming up with a rational alternative!
But, as I began the research (LOL) for these posts (does this make Netflix tax-deductible?), I realized there was only one starting place that made sense to me.
Season 2, Episode 3 - Office Olympics
In my opinion, this is the episode where we get the clearest inauguration of the beginning of Jim’s professional arc.
It starts innocently enough: the boss (Michael Scott) and his insufferable, brook-no-nonsense lackey (Dwight Schrute) are out for the day. Suddenly, the façade of business melts away. Jim, seeking to alleviate his boredom, plays some paper football with his co-workers. Pam (who would obviously be a prime candidate for Jim’s board of advisors) offers an incisive take: “Every so often, Jim dies of boredom”
But, I’d argue that Jim doesn’t die of boredom. And, it’s precisely what he does instead that makes this episode so interesting for our purposes. Having played paper football, Jim’s mind careens into a grand vision for the day: he will host an “Office Olympics.”
As always, hilarity ensues. But, against that backdrop, Jim organizes (and solicits participation for) an elaborate office-wide competition. He manages to get all of his colleagues emotionally invested in the outcome of a series of competitions based on games that, a mere 24 hours beforehand, weren’t so much as a figment of Jim’s imagination. This took creativity, leadership, interpersonal skills, organization, and more. But, most importantly, Jim did it because he wanted to do it. He was driven to do it. If he was lucky enough to have a mentoring relationship with Kevin (real life Kevin, not "The Office" Kevin), he might have realized his behavior harkened back to a topic Kevin had discussed with him at the very beginning: identifying your strengths.
“This can certainly be the most impactful assessment you can make of yourself. It should be the primary tool to set you on a smooth sailing to success. However, you must spend the proper amount of time reflecting on this. I have found that many mentees quickly rush through this essential step (where’s the thrill?) and therefore miss out on starting their journey with full knowledge of their strengths. They don’t start their journey working within their strength zone. I mean, if you were only given two zones to choose from--strength or weakness--which would you choose?”
-Kevin from our post “In the Zone”
Now, unfortunately for Jim, he’s never met Kevin. But the point remains true: intentionally or not, Jim is revealing his (very significant) strengths in this episode. And, that’s apparent to at least one other person around him.
Again, Pam delivers an incisive statement: “The thing about Jim is when he’s excited about something like the Office Olympics he gets really into it and he does a really great job, but the problem with Jim is that he works here so, that hardly ever happens”
The truth is, Jim has a large strength zone. He’s just not regularly operating within that zone at his job. One way to frame this situation is: well, at least he’s making the best of a bad situation. But another, more constructive way to frame the situation is: its incumbent upon Jim to alter his situation such that it allows him to maximally use his strengths and align his work with his goals. Indeed, that is the ultimate arc of Jim’s professional story.
But, I’m revealing too much, too early! There is plenty of ground to cover before we examine Jim reaching his full professional self-actualization.
In conclusion, I’d encourage you to do two things:
One: watch this episode of The Office. It’s still on Netflix through the end of 2020!
Two: Think about these scenarios in your own life. Maybe its not as dramatic (or funny) as Jim’s predicament, but, are you operating within your strength zone? If not, what steps are you taking to change that? Hopefully, you have not written off your destiny as subject to chance and the whims of the outside world!