“Career Planning is like a parachute… you need to pack it before you need it.” 

What with the recent events in America shaking global financial institutions to the core, now is a good time to pause, reflect and then plan and act for the future.  When the economy and job markets are booming it’s easy to get complacent, it’s when things change unexpectedly that you’ll wish you had the foresight to invest in a little planning.  

Career Planning is the process of aligning your strengths, interests and needs with skills development opportunities so that you can continue to grow and develop (and remain employable).  It’s like a parachute in that the best time to tend to it, is before you actually need it.  It takes time and effort to work out where you want your career to head, and often even more time to actually go out there and make it happen. 

‘Making it happen’ could mean anything from attending a course to establishing and/or developing your professional network to increase your profile.  Because these things take time you don’t want to leave it till the last minute.  Have you noticed just how quickly circumstances can change? 

Although our unemployment levels are still solid, there have recently been more and more reports of mass layoffs and redundancies both here in Australia and overseas.  The financial crisis has been catastrophic for those staff at the banks and investment houses that went under!  Now it’s debatable whether a good career plan would have saved those employees but it’s certain that those employees with good marketable skills, who have been thinking about and preparing for the future will be in a more competitive position when seeking their next job.  

We’ve just updated our Self Paced Career Planning Kit too – you can view it online here.  

When working with our clients I’m routinely reminded of the benefit of sound planning and some forward thinking… and not just for career.  Many clients when contemplating the ‘bigger picture’ really struggle to articulate what it is that they want out of life.  Can you imagine how much more difficult it is to take the right sort of action (or even to get motivated to take any action) when you’re not really sure where it is that you’re going?  It’d be like trying to plan a holiday to no-where.  What to pack, when to go, how to get there and what’s going to happen when you arrive… is impossible to determine without knowing the destination.  Same goes with your life. 

So its million dollar question time… are you ready? 

“Do you know what your future looks like?” 

Do you have a clear idea or is it vague, ambiguous and fuzzy?  If it’s the latter you really will benefit from sitting down and setting yourself some goals.  Try it, its fun.  

You could start by writing down 15 or 20 goals and grouping them by timeframe.   You could try setting some 3 month, 1 year, 3 year and 10 year goals.  Keep in mind that everything starts with a thought. 

Recent research by the Dominican University of California  has shown that those people who write their goals and action commitments down, and provide weekly progress reports to a friend achieved 76% of their goals.   If you need a hand let me know, we have some free resources for goal setting that we’ll happily share. 

Let me know your thoughts… you can post your comments or your goals here if you like. 

Warm Regards

Sean

A.         Poorly planned, executed and attended staff meetings are perhaps one of the single biggest timewasters around.  Depending on the location and the level of participants some meetings can cost an organisation up to $100k in real costs.  Regardless of the level of investment required to run a meeting, people’s time is one of their most precious commodities.  We only have so much of it and once wasted, you can’t get it back.  Here are some pointers to make sure your meetings are effective.

·          Do I really need to have a meeting – can the information be shared more effectively another way?

·          Who do I need to have in the meeting - do I have the necessary skills, experience or authority in the room?

·          Is there a clear agenda – outlining what’s being discussed, including the resolutions being sought and providing any relevant supporting documentation?  Keep it simple.  One effective staff meeting structure is Keep Doing, Stop Doing & Start Doing.  A review of staff input against each of these three points makes for a very focused meeting that doesn’t go on for ages and also has clear outcomes or actions.

·          Manage the agenda – get permission up front to interrupt people if they are getting off point or taking too much time.  Make sure you stick to the times advertised on the agenda.  People will appreciate that you respect their time.

·          Don’t bring a late arrival up to speed during the meeting – the message you’re then sending is that everyone else’s time is not valuable and it’s okay to be late.   Instead try “Thanks for joining us Fred, we’re up to point 3 on the agenda, I’ll bring you up to speed on the earlier points after the meeting.”

As the Chair of the meeting it is your responsibility to make sure everyone is involved.  There could be a number of issues preventing involvement that includes shyness, a lack of preparation, dominant individuals hijacking the discussion, or even staff simply being over awed by the level of others at the meeting. 

As the chair you could simply ask specific individuals for their input, but be careful not to make people uncomfortable by putting them on the spot.  Asking a specific question that acknowledges an individuals expertise, ideas or contribution helps a shy person to feel more comfortable and contribute better.  Brainstorming is a good way to stimulate the flow of ideas, and it also allows for the more reflective individuals in your group to think about and write their ideas down before sharing them with the group.  Sharing responsibility for meeting leadership can also get more reserved individuals to contribute and provides a development opportunity for your team.  If a member of your meeting is not a good public speaker, help them out by summarising their key points (make sure you don’t speak over or interrupt them though or all your good work will be undone).  As chair you must take control of the long-winded speaker.   Setting ground rules up front is the easiest way to manage errant speakers.  “Excuse me George, I hate to interrupt you but I need to remind you of the time allocated to each speaker.  You only have 2 minutes remaining.”  Or “George that’s an interesting point you make there, thank you.  Fiona, what do you think of the venue arrangements for the launch?”

I get a lot of clients talking about wanting to know what there passion is so they can follow it.  I've come to the conclusion that there are a couple of false assumptions around living a passion-filled life, or at least following a career you are passionate about.

The first is that your passions are instantly recognisable by the bright shining light surrounding them.  I think people believe their 'passion' will be instantly recognisable and that's just not proving to be true.  Something that you are passionate about is something that you've immersed yourself in.  You've acquired some skills, knowledge or experience about it.  That can't happen unless you move down the path towards it.  From a position of "I don't know what my passion is" you can't scan the room and automatically spot it.  It requires effort, committment and exploration.  Put simply, passion evolves over time.

The second false assumption is that once you identify your passion it will all sort itself out.  This also is not the case. 

Following one's passions requires courage more than anything else. 

Courage is not about the absence of fear, it's about action in the face of fear. 

And I can tell you, many people when faced with the challenges of following their passion simply back down and complain about now knowing what their passion is.  

To pursue your own career, to dance to a different tune and to move away from the well worn path requires courage.  Ask yourself, if there were no barriers to following your passion, do you think it would be easier to actually identify it?

Want to change your life?

Well, firstly... you're not alone. 

The Self-Help industry is booming and globally is worth billions of dollars each and every year .  What that tells me is a couple of things. 

1. There's a strong demand among the population for a life that's more... "Meaningful'    "Passionate"  "Purposeful"  "Energised"  "Focused"  "Balanced"
2. People are prepared to pay for it.
3. Most of what's available is not working (or at least not for long).

I like the simple approach to doing things (although friends of mine often say I take the harder road).  I've found that the more straight forward a solution is to implement then the more likely it is that a client will actually develop the resolve to stick with it and make meaningful changes to their lives.

Here's my simple tip to change your life.  You don't need to spend heaps of money to make it happen either.

If you want to change your life, the first (and most important) thing you have to do is change the quality of your thinking. 

What do I mean by this?

Good question kemo sabi.  The quality of your thinking can be measured in a number of ways, perhaps the most common is whether you are thinking optimistically or pessimistically... glass half full or half empty?  Optimisitic thinking can be learned and the draw card for learning this style of thinking is strong.  For example, optimistic thinkers report higher scores on life satisfaction tests, they experience fewer illnesses and some studies have demonstrated that they even live longer.  What's more the time thay they are on this planet for is characterised by a positive emotional state rather than a negative and depressed state. 

My favourite thinking model is the Circle of Influence vs the Circle of Concern.  Using this simple model to 'check in' on the quality of your thinking (especially when anxious or stressed about something) helps you to determine whether your thoughts are focused on the things that you cannot influence (thereby robbing yourself of your power to act), or on the things that you can influence (creating personal empowerment, action and motivation).  This second state is far more empowering and often goes a long way towards alleviating the situation or circumstances that caused you to worry or be anxious in the first place. 

Remember massive change requries massive action and the pre-cursor to massive action is the simple belief that it's both possible and worthwhile.

Now I know simple doesn't always mean easy but if you start becomming conscious of the quality of your thoughts you go a long way towards making something marvellous happen.  And even if nothing changes, looking on the bright side of a bad situation can take some of the sting out of that situation.

All the best and let me know how you go with your thinking.

 Sean

Like a good wine your career should be getting better with age.

As we move through life we often lament the loss of our youth.  I mean it's practically encoded genetically that we value youth, vitality and the endless possibilities of our future over the realities of aging, slowing down and having to live with the choices you've already made.

I've had the privilege of working with people who in one way or another are committed to improving their lots and are doing it through a focus on their career.  In my view it's never to late to embark on a new career.  NEVER.  I mean, that time it would take you to retrain or change careers is going to come and go anyway.  Why not put it to good use and focus on something that can provide you with a great source of inspriation, fulfillment, meaning and enjoyment. 

If you look at all the definitions of career you will see that a career is a series of experiences (learning, teaching, doing) that are unified by a central or core component.  Like a fine wine left to mature, your career can do the same thing.  The more time and effort you invest in it (becuase it's enjoyable, fulfilling and rewarding - not because you have to) the greater the rewards will become over time.  You also continue developing your skills in a certain area and you can then take advantage of the time honoured law of supply and demand.  The more skilled you become, the more likely your skills will become scarce and intersect positively with demand.  At this point you can often derive income.

Remember though, not every career is worth keeping or maturing.  Some jobs are simply vinegar no matter how you bottle it.

Be great.