Newsletter April 2005

Are you developing the skills you need for the new millenium? 

The days when we stopped learning, started working and were expected to merely work and earn our living have long gone.   Today, if we are not engaged in an active process of learning as we earn, we are likely to be left behind when it comes to developing career opportunities, or in an extreme case, keeping our job.

The exciting thing about today’s world of work is that there are many different models of work that we can choose.   For example, we may choose to work in the traditional “nine to five” way, as a salaried worker.  We may choose part time work, so that we can discharge other duties such as child care, or study.  Other models are contract work, consultant work, casual work or running your own business.  The “port folio career” is becoming increasingly popular.  This would typically include a combination of the above, plus a “leveraged” folio such as the stock market, or property investment. Working from home as part of a team in a “virtual organisation” is becoming more common place.

There are new ways of doing things and each one of us can choose the way, or combination of ways, that suits us at any phase in our lives.

The workplace environment is changing rapidly and becoming more complex and new jobs are being created all the time. Others are becoming redundant. As things become more flexible and complex, we are all beginning to take more responsibility for driving our own careers as we journey through our working lives. This means that a whole new skill set is necessary if we are to enjoy or even survive, our work/life journey.

One of the most important of these skills is the ability to step back and view the rich and colourful tapestry of our work/life as it develops. Our lives move in cycles. There are times when we think about the meaning of our lives, times when we makes plans, times when we act, and times when we reflect on what we have done or where we are going….

Too often, we are jerked out of complacency by some kind of crisis in our lives.   If we are not prepared for these occurrences, we may find that we are plunged into despair and depression. Preparation and flexibility are important skills for the twenty first century.

Other important skills that will help us all to succeed in the new millennium include:

Lifelong continuous learning:   Take every opportunity to learn new skills to add to your “skills tool kit”.   Keep your finger on the pulse of what is happening around you.  Be in “information gathering mode.” Think about the skills that will add value to your own unique skill set and then look for opportunities to develop these skills.  Keep your resume updated so that your skills are clearly articulated and documented. 

Networking: One definition of networking is getting to know people before we need them. Building relationships with other people is a skill that we all have, although some of us are naturally better than others.   Purposefully develop this skill.  Nourish and enlarge your network.  Talk to people about what they are doing at work and what you are doing.  Put yourself out there and opportunities will open up for you.  Often it is not what you know but who you know.

Focus:   Develop a vision based on what is important to you.  Be flexible in how you move towards that vision.  Be persistent.  Develop resilience so that you keep doing what is important for you.  For example, a young man I have worked with was focused on a career in graphic art.  He obtained relevant qualifications and built up his network in the industry to the extent that he was offered project work on a contract basis. In order to be available for this work when he was offered it, he worked in a supermarket as a hand packer in the fruit and vegetable section. His family and friends did not always support this decision. However, it enabled him to earn his living and be available for the work he really wanted to do.  It took some time, but he was eventually offered a full time job as a graphic artist.  His focus, persistence and resilience paid off!

Mindfulness:   Work at becoming more aware of yourself and the choices you make each moment.   It is important to have long term vocational goals, which you review regularly. Each time you come to a cross roads, or a point where you have choices to make, consider your choices with your long term goals in mind.   For example, if you are offered a promotion, you can choose whether or not to take it.  Does a promotion fit in with your long term goals? Remember that you have a choice.  Make your choices with awareness, and do not allow yourself to be blinded by the extra money or status if it moves you away from the work that is really satisfying to you.

Team work:   This is often a very effective way to deal with complex, rapidly changing problems.   Look for opportunities to develop as a team member as well as a team leader.

Above all, keep your work/life in balance and make the choices that help you to work towards enjoying the work you do. Make the changes necessary to ensure that you keep on enjoying your work and your life. 

 

Newsletter March 2004

Are you Learning your Living?

The days when we were expected to merely earn our living have long gone.  Today, if we are not engaged in an active process of learning as we earn, we are likely to be left behind in some stagnant backwater.

The exciting thing about today’s world of work is that there are many different models of work that we can choose.  There are new ways of doing things and each one of us can choose the way, or combination of ways, that suits us at any phase in our lives

We may choose to engage in the traditional nine to five (often stretched at both ends!) model, in which we are gradually promoted within one industry to positions of increased responsibility and remuneration.   Or we may choose many other models – part time, casual, contracting, running our own business, or even a combination of all these models. 

This increased flexibility and complexity means that we are increasingly driving our own all terrain vehicle rather than getting on the train or on the bus. We take our own responsibility for where we go on our journey, and where we stop and start.  This means that a whole new skill set is necessary if we are to enjoy or even survive, our worklife journey.

These skills include: flexibility, resilience, the ability to network, the ability to use technology effectively, the ability to take calculated risks and to learn from setbacks, as well as the ability to take responsibility for ourselves.  We all need to keep our fingers on the pulse of what is happening around us, so that we can keep our skills current, develop new skills, and be in a position to notice opportunities and to take advantage of them as they open up.

A core skill in all this is lifelong learning.  Learning is a continuous experience grounded in things such as experience, information gathering, talking to others, and thinking about the dynamic and interactive working environment.  Increased self awareness and the complex interaction of the self with the many different facets of our own unique and constantly changing environments is a central part of the process. Our work life is very much part of our whole life, and worklife balance is becoming increasingly valued.

Career development facilitation is a partnership during which the facilitator helps the learner to increase self knowledge and to develop the skills necessary to navigate the complexities of worklife today.   It is becoming increasingly essential that the role of career education in initial education is strengthened and used as a foundation for lifelong career development.   Career guidance should be accessible to individuals throughout their working lives. The skills learnt in this process can be internalized and utilized again and again across the life span.

 

 

When something is difficult to say, it is very important to be well prepared. In order to do this, it is important to do several things:

Make a conscious decision that it is important to you to say it

Be clear about why you want to say it.  What outcome do you want?

Think about the effect that your communication may have.  Is this the effect that you want?  If not, think more carefully about how to achieve the effect you want.

Begin your communication with "I".  This will help you to focus on your own feelings and to avoid blaming anyone else.  It will also help you to work out a way of saying what you want to say in such a way that it is more easily heard.  Beginning a difficult communication with "you" often brings up the barriers in the other person immediately as they go into self defence mode.

What do you want the other person to do?  Think about whether what you are saying will help them do what you want them to.  Is it reasonable to expect them to do what you want them to?  Give them a "call to action".

Be detached.  Be prepared to move away for a while if things do not go well.  If you have prepared yourself, you have done the best you can with the information you have in that moment. Give tham the choice as to whether or not they take up your "call to action".  Give them the emotional space to creatively think of something that may work better for you both.

When you have prepared your communication well, and said it over to yourself several times, or written it down, choose the right time and place.

Take a respectful stance, and trust yourself that you will say it OK

NEWSLETTER - October 2002

We all have different ways of coping with stress and anxiety and it may surprise you to learn that some of us use worry as a coping strategy!

Those of us who worry a great deal know that it is very unpleasant.    Therefore it may seem   difficult to believe that we can actually choose to worry. If you are a “worrier” ask yourself the question, “what benefit do I get from worrying?”

The answer may be something like, “If I keep on worrying, I will eventually work out the perfect solution,” or  “I need to be prepared for what might happen.” or even “If I don’t worry something bad might happen.”

If the benefits of worrying outweigh the unpleasant effects, then we will go on worrying, even though we may not be completely aware of what is going on.

Our thoughts may go something like this: “If I worry about her, I will be able to keep her safe.” This kind of thinking may be very difficult to give up, especially if we have learnt it from our parents and they have learnt it from their parents before them.  It may have become part of our belief system.

If this is the case, and we try to give up worrying, our anxiety may actually go up, because we feel unprotected.

Things that people commonly worry about are family,      finances, work, health and that they may not have the ability to cope.  Worry may manifest itself as feeling restless and keyed up, not being able to stop thinking about the issue,  difficulty in concentrating, being easily fatigued, not sleeping well, irritability etc.

BUT DON’T WORRY!  THERE ARE THINGS YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT.

Here are some ideas:

1. Think about why you choose worry as a coping strategy. What are your underlying beliefs about worry?

When you have done this, you can choose to change those beliefs, if you want to.

2. Try to become more friendly with the idea of “uncertainty.”  Intolerance of uncertainty plays a key role in the nature of worry.

3. Are you using worry to avoid the real causes of your stress?

 

    I have recently been to a seminar on the new   privacy act.  Did you know that you are entitled to have access to any personal information kept by your health professional about you? Discuss  responsible access with your health professional.  You will, of course, have to pay their normal fee for the time spent.