MEMBER EXCHANGE – Tools and resources to get ahead

In an opinion piece for the Sydney Morning Herald, Jim Bright, professor of career education and development at ACU, discussed how to get ahead in your career and leadership. Bright states, “If you want to get ahead, work with what is in front of you, not what you think should be in front of you. Great leaders are great improvisers in the sense that they make do… with whatever is at their disposal”.

Indeed, it can be so easy to blame others or external circumstances for your situation – but leaders are decisive and get on with it regardless of the situation. They take limitations and turn them into opportunities to innovate and collaborate.

That’s why having the right tools or resources at hand matters. Depending on the situation you face, there is a wealth of materials leaders can draw upon to help them tackle the challenges.

Constructive criticism

Bright also discussed the need to surround yourself with “people who care enough to be critical in a positive way”. If leaders only surround themselves with “yes” people, a toxic environment can result as colleagues and staff resent the narrow view and are frustrated with their own inability to make changes. The “yes” people can be reasonably safe, but only for so long. Good leaders need people they can trust, who keep them honest, question, critique and explore opportunities.

Soft skills

Effective leaders need to have a vision, but the vision is limited if it can’t be communicated effectively. Effective leaders are hard on themselves in a way that creates growth rather than destruction. Effective leaders are flexible and adaptable enough to seek solutions to challenges and strong enough to hold their vision and include others in their successes.

Analytics tools

As a leader, it’s very important to have a grounded assessment of your strengths and areas of challenge. There are many psychometric tools available and if used as a tool, rather than a prescription, are very effective to know what strengths you play to and where your areas of growth could be. The list below is just a sample of what’s available – all have similarities and it’s really a matter of personal preference, access and cost.

  • Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) – personality tool
  • DiSC – behavioural profiling tool
  • Print – Unconscious Motivators tool
  • Strengths Finder (Tom Rath)
  • Life Styles Indicator (LSI) – underlying thoughts and motivations leading to behaviours
  • Enneagram – personality tool
  • Harrison Assessments – talent management tool

Books on leadership

There is a huge spectrum of leadership books on the market. The following list is a small introduction to get you thinking about different leadership elements and approaches.

  • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey, continues to be a very powerful self-development tool for leaders, especially if you are new to leadership.
  • The Truth about Trust (in Business), by Vanessa Hall, provides practical and anecdotal insights on how to increase results, retention and improve business relationships.
  • The Five Literacies of Global Leadership by Richard David Hames focussing on authentic leadership in a changing, and frequently challenging time.
  • Primal Leadership: Realising the Power of Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman who builds on his Emotional Intelligence book and specifically looks at its application to leadership.
  • The 5 Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximise Your Potential by John C. Maxwell explains how leadership doesn’t come from a title, but it’s about the ability to inspire and build a team that produces not only results but also future leaders.
  • Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek. Explores beyond what and how we do our roles and delves into the Why – because this is the thing that inspires us and those around us.
  • Leading from the Emerging Future: From Ego-System to Eco-System Economies by Otto Scharmer and Katrin Kaufer who explore the need for shifting from an “ego-system” focussed on oneself to an eco-system which emphasises the well-being of the whole.
  • Dialogue: The Art of Thinking Together by William Isaacs. This book, based on over ten years’ research, discusses the value within organisations to use language and listening successfully to build positive cultures.
  • The Leader’s Digest: Timeless Principles for Team and Organization Success by Jim Clemmer is a series of insights and bite-sized briefings on the timeless principles of leading people.
  • Clear Leadership: Sustaining Real Collaboration and Partnership at Work by Gervase R. Bushe who provides interesting and challenging insights into how to build organisational cultures without fear, creating a culture where healthy partnerships and collaboration are organised and sustained.
  • Leadership Matters: 7 Skills of Very Successful Leaders by David Pich and Ann Messenger. IML ANZ’s Chief Executive, David Pich and Board Chair, Ann Messenger provide insights on leadership shaped by practice rather than theory – the ‘perspiration’ rather than the ‘inspiration’.

MEMBER EXCHANGE – Tips for perfecting prioritisation

In the hustle of the modern workplace, it’s very easy to spend a lot of time completing not much. That is, people put a lot of time and effort into completing the least important jobs, while the things that really matter are overlooked or not given the attention they deserve.

Sometimes this is because we prefer to work on things that interest us, or we do the easy quick tasks because it is so satisfying to look at a list of completed jobs. Frequently, however, it is because we have not properly identified and prioritised what we should be doing.

So, what are the demands on your time? What techniques do you currently use to manage your time effectively? What tools can you use to help schedule tasks? How can technology help you prioritise?

Below are some guidelines to get you thinking about how to effectively prioritise your tasks and manage your time:

The five Ds

Most peoples’ days are so busy that they find it impossible to do everything. It is essential to decide what you will deal with now, do later, delegate, do only if time permits, and what you won’t do at all. This can help you develop a work schedule and set priorities that concentrate on activities that will contribute directly to your overall job goals. It allows you to distinguish between what’s important and unimportant, what’s vital and superfluous.

In summary, the five Ds:

  • Do it now
  • Do it later
  • Do it if time permits
  • Delegate it
  • Dump it

To-do list

A lot of people use a to-do list but how effective and methodical is yours? No matter how good your memory is you’re probably far too busy to remember everything you need to do. Lists are indispensable to keep you focused on what you need to accomplish to achieve your goals, no matter how hectic things get. They save you from the ‘tyranny of the urgent’ – attending to whatever floats across your field of vision, whatever seems the most urgent at the time, or whatever ‘makes the most noise’.

Here are some specific things that to-do lists can be useful for:

  • To plan your day or week
  • To establish priorities to remind you to do things
  • To note down promises and commitments you’ve made so you don’t forget them
  • To remind you to follow up on promises others have made, tasks you’ve delegated, and finish off part-completed work.
  • To group like tasks together, and to do them together in blocks of time

The A-B-C priority shorthand

The A-B-C method can be an effective way to set priorities. Look at your tasks, identify the important ones, those that most directly contribute to achieving results in your key result areas. Assign them an ‘A’ priority. Matters that are both urgent and important are ‘A’ priorities too.

Which tasks contribute least and can wait if you don’t have enough time to do them? These are activities that don’t contribute directly to your key result areas and are not urgent. Assign them a ‘C’ priority. The rest are ‘B’ priorities.

Try to get through as much of your to-do list each day as you can, focusing on your ‘A’ priorities. That way, if you don’t get everything done, it will be the least important things that are left. Don’t ignore the ‘Bs’ and ‘Cs’ though because many of them will be urgent ‘As’ if you don’t get on with them.

Tame the telephone

If someone calls at a bad time, say so and arrange a time when it will be convenient for you both to talk.

To prevent lengthy calls, stand up. Your voice will take on a more urgent tone and encourage callers to be to the point.

Make several outgoing calls together and have a note of what you want to discuss.

Keep a note of what you want to speak to people about as well as a note of telephone messages you leave for others on your to-do list. Cross their names off when they return your call and follow up anyone who doesn’t get back to you.

Conquer emails

Where possible control your emails by turning off the audio alert that announces new mail and check for new mail only when it’s convenient to do so in blocks of time.

Remove your name from distribution lists that send information you seldom have time to read.

Scan emails for priority and subject titles and read only the most important; delete the unimportant ones. Pop the rest into folders to read or action. Keep culling and filing read and sent emails, so the size of your files doesn’t build up to unmanageable proportions.

Master time management tools

Effective time-management primarily depends on personal discipline and willpower; planning tools can help you win that daily battle with time.

We are working in a modern workplace, with modern productivity issues. That means we need to resolve these issues with modern tools and approaches to productivity. Your team might all use the electronic calendar to manage their meetings, but that is only half of their workload. Most may still be using paper tools to manage their priorities, meeting notes and project information. Lead by example here and fully embrace technology to centralise and organise all of your work.

Here are a few additional guidelines to get you thinking about how to make the best use of diaries and calendars:

  • At the beginning of the year, enter important dates such as staff meetings, vacations, and conferences.
  • Break activities into time blocks, with a beginning and an end. Time management problems are often caused by fuzzy end times.
  • Don’t allow the entire day to be booked out. Leave some spare time to accommodate unexpected interruptions and thus reduce messy rescheduling or cancellations.
  • Avoid scheduling yourself too tightly. The pressure to finish one task or meeting in time to begin another reduces your effectiveness.
  • Allow time for rest, lunch and relaxation; error rates and stress increase with lack of rest.
  • Block in time to complete important projects and schedule enough time to build up momentum.
  • Ensure you can always carry your paper-based or electronic diary with you.
  • Understand your unique energy cycle. When are you full of bounce and energy, a bit flat, or somewhere in between? Learn to use your peak energy periods for activities requiring careful thought and effort and avoid interruptions during this time.

MEMBER EXCHANGE – The problem-solving process

We all encounter problems daily. That’s why we all benefit from good problem-solving skills.

In the workplace problem solving is an important part of any job. The skill with which we solve problems has a direct impact on our professional effectiveness. So let’s consider what problems you have solved recently. How have you handled them?

Although we are not always conscious of our method, most of us follow similar steps to solve problems. It is useful to increase our consciousness of these steps and apply a variety of proven problem-solving techniques to ensure we find effective solutions. Using the following process can improve our effectiveness in solving problems:

The process of solving problems

Identify the problem and establish objectives

This step is the most important and often the most difficult. It can be easy to jump into solution mode and spend surplus time looking for answers rather than having clarity on what really is the problem. Try to state the problem in a single sentence and ensure not to confuse the symptoms, the causes and the problem.

To establish objectives, think about the result you want. Compare where you are now and where you would like to be and be clear in what you are setting out to achieve.

Analyse the problem to determine its cause

In this step, it’s important to gather facts, ideas and opinions of others that may help in your analysis and assess the information without prejudice, preconceived ideas, or emotion to effectively determine the problem’s cause.

A technique used to uncover the main cause of the problem is to ‘ask why’ five times. Here is a ‘why’ chain for high employee turnover:

Why is there high employee turnover?

Why were the wrong people hired?

Why aren’t recruitment and selection techniques applied?

Why am I not confident in them?

Why is more training required?

We can determine from this chain the likely causes of this problem are poor selection and poor induction.

Generate alternative solutions

A choice of options needs to be considered in problem-solving. To find the best option, you must consider several solutions, that way you’re less likely to overlook the best course of action. Work on eliminating the cause of the problem and not just covering up its symptoms. Use brainstorming, creative thinking and ask others what they think to get the ideas flowing.

Evaluate the alternatives and select the most suitable

Evaluate your alternative solutions by considering the advantages and disadvantages of each. Remember the best solution will normally be the one with the most advantages and the fewest disadvantages. Ensure the most suitable option best meet your objectives.

Implement the decision

Now is the time to plan carefully how to implement your decision. Use the “who, how, what, where, why and when” prompts to develop your plan. Consider what could go wrong and how you will monitor progress to ensure your decision is working. Also, consider how you will communicate your decision to those impacted.

Follow-up and evaluate results

Routine follow-up checks will ensure that you have solved the problem. Check the symptoms again – have they gone? Take corrective action where necessary.

In summary, to continue to grow your problem-solving skills and build your personal effectiveness keep these guidelines front of mind:

  • Adopt a systematic approach
  • Focus on important decisions
  • Avoid making snap decisions
  • Don’t become a victim of analysis
    paralysis
  • Base your decision on facts
  • Don’t be afraid of making the
    wrong decisions
  • Learn from your mistakes
  • Use your imagination
  • Resist making decisions under
    stress
  • Make your decision and then move
    on

Enhance your problem solving skills with our short courses

As you can see, these skills are essential to enhance your leadership and deliver results to your teams and clients. To become the best leader you can be, consider enrolling in our short course on problem solving and decision making where you will learn all of the above guidelines and essential skills to tackle any problem head-on.

MEMBER EXCHANGE – How to conduct effective meetings

One of the many disadvantages of becoming an ‘accidental manager’ is that most of the time they become managers largely due to technical abilities and less because of their people management skills. After all, it’s never easy to manage people, especially their former peers.

Although new people managers are keen and excited about new challenges there are some fundamental aspects of managing teams which they may have taken for granted. One such example is when they inherit a team meeting format. While this format may be highly effective, often it is heavily influenced and suited to the previous manager.

Being a new manager is the perfect opportunity to make your mark and running an inclusive and effective team meeting is an excellent place to start. Below are some key elements which the research indicates will create a dynamic and purposeful meeting culture.

Have a purpose

Why is the meeting being held? The answers to this question will inform the agenda, structure and style. It helps if the purpose is aligned to the team goals, even in a broad sense. A team meeting is also a perfect opportunity to achieve a lot of things and a chance to catch everyone up on what’s going on in the overall scheme of things – gives the team the big picture context and how this relates to the team.

Set an agenda

If you have a purpose, you need an agenda. This list of things you want to cover will determine how much time can be spent on each item. If an item on the agenda requires more time than is available, it needs to be prioritised, moved to the next meeting or given a meeting of its own. Regular meetings also help provide focus and momentum for the team.

Stay on time

Meetings need to start on time and finish on time. Avoid recapping for people who are late, as this indicates that lateness is OK. Update them after the meeting. Timeliness also relates to following the agenda and being purposeful.

Take minutes (distribute promptly)

Someone should be assigned to take minutes at every meeting (ideally someone different each time). The minutes provide a record of what was discussed and agreed. They help keep everyone in the team aligned and set tasks and time frames for action items.

Create a mindful environment

We don’t mean integrating meditation into your meetings. This simply means making sure everyone is aware and, in the moment, not distracted and wandering mentally. One effective way of doing this is to implement ‘no phone’ periods when discussing the most essential items on the agenda. By doing this you’ll ensure that every minute of the meeting counts toward achieving outcomes.

Paint the bigger picture

Always provide people with a fundamental understanding of where the business is going. Don’t just provide a cursory statement like, “Everything’s good”. Go into detail. The better informed your team, the better decisions they’ll make. Avoid the temptation to launch into long diatribes with too much information. Remember, it’s about getting the broader view.

Encourage participation

A simple way to do this is to have different team members lead the meeting. It’s important that this role is voluntary, so people are in their comfort zone or do so due to a desire to grow and develop in this area. Create a safe environment to encourage contribution. When team members are invited to share ideas, different perspectives emerge. Don’t be quick to shoot new ideas down and commend participants when they volunteer their thoughts.

Celebrate successes

Team meetings provide an excellent opportunity to acknowledge successes for the whole team and individual contributions. Team members are more likely to proactively contribute to tasks and roles if their contribution is valued and appreciated. It doesn’t always need to be a big deal, a simple thanks for specific rather than general contributions will usually do. The key is to be genuine and specific – that way it feels personal.

Make it fun

A simple way of building and maintaining rapport within the team is to have some fun together. Although team meetings need to be purposeful, having personality, a few laughs and celebrating successes all contribute to the effectiveness of a team meeting and connection between team members.

These suggestions and recommendations need to be adopted within the context of your work environment and how your teams and structures are organised. Don’t discount good ideas from team members around what would work well for your meetings. The key is to make the meetings relevant and give them your flavour – it’s a great way to establish your own management style.

MEMBER EXCHANGE – Steps to successful networking

After building your personal brand, networking is an excellent opportunity to promote it to others. Your reputation will well and truly be on display and yes, you will be assessed by those you meet. Don’t worry, you’ll be doing the same to them. Networking can come more naturally for some than others, but it is an important ingredient in career development.

We live in an age of connectedness and being an effective networker assist you in remaining engaged with your peers and mentoring is often viewed as a proactive and positive means of networking. Mentees –ask your mentor to suggest useful networking events, or even accompany them. Mentors – this can be a great opportunity for you to role-model effective networking strategies, but we would also suggest that you make sure they stand on their own two feet and you take the role of observer to provide them with some constructive feedback.

Our focus here is on the ‘in-person’ networking. However, it is also helpful to think about how you will maintain your connection with these new contacts online. You may also consider using special groups for networking. Once you’ve connected in person, think about sending an online connection request. A word of caution – be careful who you connect with given that they will also have access to your contacts. Be conscious of your personal band, bearing in mind your connections will also reflect your brand. Simply put – use online networking to support your in-person networking.

Effective networking can have profound benefits for both mentor and mentee.

Here are some key steps to assist you in your networking (and a few tips on what to avoid!).

Step 1: have a purposeful networking plan

Networking in order to grow your career needs to be purposeful. One of the subtle traps that both mentees and mentors can fall into is thinking that “I’ll be at XYZ event and get a chance to network.” However, when they get there, they bump into someone they know who they haven’t seen for some time and get chatting and before they know it the opportunity to network outside of their current network has passed. Some simple steps to keep in mind are:

  1. Know the why. Decide why you are attending this networking function – have a clear expectation of what the benefits are going to be of you giving your time, energy, effort and (potentially) money to attend.
  2. Set a target. Specify how many new contacts you wish to make at this event. Be realistic. You might want to limit it to three or four.
  3. Be purposeful. It’s easy to meet many new people at an event, but before arriving, hone in on the types of people you want to connect with. Be clear on what benefit you will be to them and them to you. We’ll come back to this point later.

Step 2: be productive

Networking often takes us out of our comfort zone. After all, no one likes to be rejected. So it’s important to be in charge personally of your strategy and. Being proactive means you ask for what you want and need.

This requires energy and effort. Being proactive can be tiring but it always pays off. Being a fringe dweller isn’t a proactive position at a networking event. It may be more comfortable for you, but it certainly won’t get you noticed or get you right into a conversation. Be prepared to be persistent as you may need to approach certain individuals several times.

What about when it comes to breaking into a closed conversation circle? A top tip from a senior diplomat is to take the direct approach. This doesn’t mean pushing in and taking over the conversation – this is never OK. Instead, approach the group by moving directly to the person who is speaking and gain eye contact with them. They will naturally then include you in the conversation and you will find members of the group shuffle around to fit you in. Then you have the opportunity to contribute to the conversation. Remember, don’t linger along the sidelines, don’t be a fringe dweller.

Step 3: think win-win

Thinking in terms of ‘What’s in it for me’ doesn’t focus on relationship building. This isn’t to contradict Step 1 – this is to reinforce the need to be purposeful in who we want to meet. In the purposeful plan that we develop, a key element is to identify what you might have to offer in return. It’s about keeping the balance in the networking situation and the resulting professional relationship.

So, what are you going to give in return? How are you going to maintain appropriate contact? A simple way of giving back is to be mindful of them and what you know about them. For example, you may have read a journal article that relates to something you spoke about. Take the initiative to send it through to them acknowledging that it may be of interest to them. It doesn’t matter if they’ve already seen it. What matters is you’ve demonstrated that you were genuinely listening to their input and that you are mindful of the connection. You may like to invite them to an event you’re attending and take them as your guest. Mentees, it’s easy to take on the mindset that your mentor doesn’t need anything from you – this is not true. These networking step also relate to your mentoring relationship.

Step 4: build rapport

Your mentoring resource guide refers to the need to build rapport as a foundation for building an effective mentoring relationship. The same can be said of networking connections. It’s too easy to go to an event and be caught in the business card shuffle. This isn’t networking! This is scattergun marketing, a completely different style and purpose.

If you accept the premise that networking is about creating purposeful professional relationships that are mutually beneficial then it is natural that you will take the time and effort to build rapport. This may not happen at a first meeting. You may, indeed, exchange business cards but the follow-up request to catch up for 30 minutes over coffee is when you can build rapport (this meeting also needs to have a purposeful plan). Therefore, a purposeful plan and gathering only a few contacts per event is important.

Step 5: prioritise

Effective networking takes time, effort and energy. You need to step out of your comfort zone and be consistently engaged. Making purposeful networking a priority is so important for moving forward in your career.

IML ANZ’s mentoring program is a great start for this kind of networking. Whether you are a mentee or mentor there will be opportunities to network with and through each other. We understand that you are all extremely busy people. Life is full and yet, we do suggest you prioritise the time and energy on effective networking.

We would encourage you to participate in purposeful networking events, be proactive in how you engage with others and the way you contribute to them. The benefits of making this a priority – putting time, energy and effort into building rapport far outweigh the challenges. This is another way of building your reputation and growing the career you truly want.

MEMBER EXCHANGE – Building personal brand

This question is something we all need to ask ourselves regardless of where we are in our careers. But what is actually being asked? Do you have a clear understanding of the elements that creates brand “you”? Brand is more than a name, it encapsulates the qualities and values attached to you. It includes the vision you have of yourself and your career while others will have an expectation of what to expect from you given your brand. Your brand is not your company. Your brand doesn’t only get turned on when you walk through the door for work. Your brand needs to always been on – it needs to be authentic and consistent if it’s going to provide value to you and your career aspirations. Your brand is your reputation and it needs to be guarded carefully and built purposefully.

So, how do you build your personal brand? How are you going to set yourself apart from others within your organisation or within your industry? Career opportunities are highly competitive even within your current company. Your qualifications, your experience, your extra-curricular activities all contribute to your brand, but there’s so much more to be considered to set you apart from the rest. Before we move into the ‘how’ of building a personal brand, please note that we are assuming you already have an online profile on a reputable professional networking site such as LinkedIn, so when discussing building a brand, that brand in person needs to also be accurately reflected online. We encourage you to modify your online profile according to the learning you have regarding personal brand.

The Venn diagram below identifies the four key elements to your personal brand. These elements are the broad categories to focus on when building your brand.

For each of these elements the following strategies are useful in assisting you to build your brand.

Reflect – you will need to ask yourself some, at times, challenging questions and provide honest answers to gain an accurate appraisal of the brand element.

  1. From your reflection, create a short list of descriptive words to describe yourself. This is your starting point. Include the ‘gaps’ or areas that need attention or development.
  2. Allocate these descriptions into lists of positive or ‘challenging’ attributes. These challenging attributes can be weaknesses if not addressed.
  3. Look for connections between career attributes, personal attributes and contribution attributes. By this, contribution relates to the non-work contributions you make in life, with teams, groups, even family and friends. The fuller the picture, the more accurate the starting point.

Research – how do others perceive you, your contribution and skills, and the way you relate to others?

  • Do you notice any repetition or themes with your list? Are there any surprises at this point? Have you asked people to be honest and genuine in their responses?
  • What aspects of the feedback will you build on in your brand and which ones will you try to minimise?

Modify – once you’ve identified aspects of your brand which need attention you will need to develop appropriate strategies to modify them to include them in your brand.

  • Develop a strategy to enable you to effectively modify your approach, interactions, language, skills, knowledge to highlight your strengths. We’d recommend focussing on those elements that can be easily modified just by being more conscious or purposeful about them.
  • Don’t try to modify or adapt all the ideas at once. Work through logically and assess for yourself how important each element is for you and your brand.

Apply – the modified elements are applied to improve personal brand.

  • Make it real. Authenticity is vital at every stage. Be practical in your application too, for example, through your online profile and through feedback from your colleagues and clients.
  • Identify and be involved in activities, projects, conversations and groups which reflect the positives of you and your brand.

Repeat – use this process periodically to ensure that your brand accurately

The four elements of personal brand are discussed below. We’d recommend you apply the above strategies to each.

Strengths

It seems natural to identify and highlight strengths when building your personal brand, after all, this is your reputation which is being built and reflected. We would certainly recommend you focus on strengths, but don’t lose sight of the growth and learning potential that can arise from understanding your weaknesses. They are an excellent impetus to make changes in your life.

Strong self-awareness = strong brand.

One of the interesting aspects of examining your strengths and weaknesses relates to the perception of others. This photo of the woman rock climbing, for example, can be used to represent strengths such as courage, willpower, determination, agility, flexibility and skill. However, another person may perceive this image and view her as reckless, irresponsible, unable to measure risk, ego driven or even a little crazy! As you work through the element of strengths, you will need to be mindful of identifying descriptions that are meaningful, knowing that what you perceive as a strength may not be so to others. Your strength of being flexible and adaptable in an environment of change could be seen as a weakness of lack of consistency in a more regulated or structured work environment. Qualifying your strengths with quantitative and qualitative examples can be helpful.

Values

Do you know what’s important to you? If you do, it’s probably related to the values you hold – those core aspects of how you engage with the world (self, others, and the environment) that you pride yourself in. Those aspects of being a person who seeks to demonstrate what’s important to them, what they put value in. We talk a lot about a company’s values, usually, they’re referenced on websites or in their marketing material. The standards of conduct they expect from every single employee. Company brands reflect and build upon these values, and essentially, we need to do the same. There are values audit tools you can download from the internet if you want to go down that path. But you can simply ask yourself – what’s important to me, and why? We would recommend that you identify approximately 5-7 values and these need to be included as part of your profile. You need to build a reputation for living these values consistently. Ideally, you want people to say that you “walk the talk”. These are the essential elements of how you want to be known and how you choose to conduct yourself.

Passions

Passions can be easy to identify – ask any of your friends, even your colleagues and they’ll know exactly what you love! Be it a creative pursuit, community activity, sporting team or relationship – they know because you can’t help talking about it, you want to spend time with what you’re passionate about. If we’re fortunate, our career may include an element of a passion we might have. For example, you might be really passionate about everyone being treated fairly and in your work you’re the diversity officer, the advocate for the new team members, or part of the union. Similarly, in your personal life you volunteer for a community group or work on a helpline to support others who are less fortunate. Your passions often reflect your values and when they are aligned the synergy in your brand is easy to demonstrate and sustain.

One of the traps people can fall into is referring to their passions too often and at inappropriate times or through inappropriate forums. We’ve talked about having an online presence through a professional networking site. Most of us also use social media through Twitter, Facebook or Instagram – for example. It’s vital that you know the purpose of each, the audience of each and that your personal brand remain consistent. People will be “assessing” your brand online. This forum can be used to assist in building your brand or can be detrimental, so be wise in what you ‘put out there’. One of the interesting aspects of having an online presence is seeing what people are passionate about and often who or what they ‘follow’ can give you a good indication of what’s important to that person. Just as we do it to others – they will be doing it to us. Is your online presence aligned to your personal brand?

Purpose

The final element of your personal brand is to pull together your strengths, values and passions, (minimise your weaknesses) and fulfil your purpose. It’s actually a challenging question to ask yourself – “what is my purpose”? Your personal brand development enables you to live your purpose specifically in your career, but this can easily be translated into your life generally. This article has talked about the need to be authentic and a key reason for that authenticity is for you to live your purpose. This isn’t genuinely possible if you haven’t been honest with yourself in the process of building your brand. Your reputation is going to be evaluated, often sub-consciously by others based on the evidence you demonstrate around your purpose. The “why” you deal with others using integrity. The “why” you put time and energy into growing your team. The “why” you treat others with respect; provide solutions; follow your dreams; give back to the community; have a ‘can do’ attitude; provide excellent service, and so on. So many of these “why” questions are answered in subtle and overt ways through your personal brand.

We’d encourage you to take the time to go through the five stages and apply them to each of the four elements of personal brand “you” to create the reputation your desire and deserve.

MEMBER EXCHANGE – Successful careers through solid planning

Gone are the days when careers meant moving straight up a ladder. These days, career paths have become more like a lattice – you might take steps upwards, sideways or even downwards.

That’s what makes career planning a crucial step in managing your learning and development. Regardless of where you are in your career, it’s useful to explore the path that you’re on. By developing new knowledge and skills, you’ll be well equipped to move into that new opportunity, no matter where it is on your career lattice.

Think of career planning as a continuous process of:

  • Reflecting on your interests, values, skills and preferences
  • Exploring the life, work and learning options available to you
  • Ensuring that your work fits with your personal circumstances
  • Fine-tuning your work and learning plans to help you manage changes in life and work

You can revisit and use this process at any stage of your career.

Start at the step that is most relevant for you now.

Planning cycle

The career planning process has four fundamental steps:

Step 1: knowing yourself

Step 2: finding out

Step 3: making decisions

Step 4: taking action

Let’s take a look at each step.

Step 1: knowing yourself

Ask yourself:

  • Where am I at in knowledge and skills now?
  • What do I want out of a job or career?
  • What do I like to do?
  • What are my strengths?
  • What is important to me?
  • Where do I want to be?
  • How will I get there?

After this, you can work on getting to know your skills, interests and values.

At the end of this step, you will have a clearer idea of your work or learning goal and your individual preferences.

The SWOT analysis in Article 1 can also be of great use to you at this point. You can use this information about yourself like your personal ‘wish list’ against which you can compare all the information you gather in the next step: finding out. Your personal preferences are very useful for helping you choose your current best option, which you can do in Step 3: making decisions.

Step 2: finding out

This step is about exploring the roles and learning areas that interest you. Once you have some idea of your job preferences you can research the specific skills and qualifications required in those professions.

  • Explore. Ask people around you about their roles, how they achieved success in their career. This mentoring program is an excellent forum for learning about others’ stories how they built their career.
  • Identify. Pick out roles that interest you. Assess whether your skills and interests match up with the job’s requirements. Do you have skills that are transferrable for this particular role or profession?
  • Develop. Taking on projects in your current workplace is a great way to close any knowledge and skills gaps to further your career journey. Also, look at developing skills outside of work. Sporting, community and charity groups always need people with a vast range of skills.
  • Locate. Do research not just on careers but on companies who you think you’d like to work with and where your interests and values align. Find out where your preferred roles are on offer.

At the end of this step you will have a list of preferred roles, companies you’d like to work with and opportunities for further learning.

Step 3: making decisions

This step involves comparing your options, narrowing down your choices and thinking about what currently suits you best.

Ask yourself:

  • What are my best work or training options? How will these currently impact on my work and life situation? How long will it take to get appropriate knowledge or qualifications and how do I manage my career in the meantime?
  • How do they match with my skills, interests and values?
  • How do they fit with the current labour market? What’s happening in the economy and politically? Is there opportunity for career growth within my current organisation or region?
  • How do they fit with my current situation and responsibilities?
  • What are the advantages and disadvantages of each option?
  • What will help and what will hinder me?
  • What can I do about it?

At the end of this step you will have narrowed down your options and have more of an idea of what you need to do next to help you achieve your goals. We would recommend that you use the Kolb Action Learning model in your Mentoring Resource book. This will provide an excellent tool to assist you at this stage of planning.

Step 4: taking action

Here you plan the steps you need to take.

Use all you have learnt about your skills, interests and values together with the information you have gathered about the world of work to create your plan.

Begin by asking yourself:

  • What steps will help me achieve my work, training and career goals?
  • Where can I get help?
  • Who will support me? Who can give me a reality check about my choice at this stage? What might be some of the barriers moving forward and how will I overcome them?

At the end of this step you will have:

  • A plan to help you explore your options further (work experience, work shadowing or more research); or
  • A plan which sets out the steps to help you achieve your next learning or work goal
  • Decide which step is relevant for you right now and start from there.

In all of this you need to remember that your career doesn’t happen in isolation to other aspects of your life.

As you work your way through the model ensure that you’re taking your entire life circumstance into any decisions you make.

Real rest: Switch off from work and feel good

By Jane Caro

We live in an era that worships work. Far too many of us believe that unless we are actively doing something every waking moment, we are wasting time. Many people feel guilty about scrolling aimlessly through social media, whiling away an afternoon (or even a whole day) binging on a TV series and/or nodding off on the couch.

I am not one of those people. We all have our gifts and my ability to be completely idle without guilt is one I value dearly.

Such is our worship of work that we even turn attempts to relax into a form of pressure. Wellbeing, mindfulness, meditation (yes, yes, I know they benefit many) are far too worthy and earnest for me. I don’t want to be lazy and do nothing because it’s good for me (even though it is). I want to do it because I like it and my joy in skiving off is actually enhanced by a messy house, laundry that needs doing or dishes that need washing.

SLAVE DRIVER

Perhaps this is also because I work for myself and I have never had a more demanding boss. She (me) is always taking on more work, agreeing to impossible deadlines and working on weekends. She says yes to far too much. Some of it unpaid! This slave-driver (me) is the reason I feel entitled to rebel against her (myself) on a regular basis and collapse on the couch, Netflix remote in hand and give myself over to blissful self-indulgence.

If you run a small business or work as a freelancer or subcontractor, you will know how hard it is to carve out a little time for yourself. If you are not actively working, you are accounting for that work, taking care of the inevitable admin tasks or you are actively seeking more work. It is hard to escape the nagging sense of guilt whenever you’re not actively engaged. But, take it from me, it is necessary both for you and your business. Let’s not even mention your family.

Recreation is a word that we no longer understand. It literally tells you to re-create yourself through activities – or lack thereof – that have no purpose but fun. It is no accident that creativity is part of the word. If you work till exhaustion, if you haul yourself miserably through every day or even most days, your productivity will fall. You are not at your best. Your heart is no longer in it. You’ve lost sight of why you started your business in the first place.

LOVE WHAT YOU DO

Every successful small business has one important similarity – a principal who loves what they do. Now, that doesn’t mean you have to love it every day, or love every task, or even every customer, but you have to love what you do and what you provide – at least most of the time. The paradox of hard work is that you can have too much of a good thing. If you lose your joy in your business for too long, you are at risk of eventually losing your business. When you lose joy, you lose creativity and the ability to come up with new solutions.

We have an epidemic of anxiety in our modern world, brought on for many, I believe, by overwork. Exhaustion is a result of working too hard for too long with no emotional reward. Exhaustion is useful to those who would control our world. Exhausted people, terrified of losing their income if they take so much as a holiday, are compliant people. It’s not just their businesses that become plodding and uninspired, it is their citizenship, their family lives and their view of the future. And, I know this is modern-day heresy, but I believe that if everyone worked 30% less, everything would improve. We’d be more joyful, rested, fun-loving, hopeful, generous, energetic and creative.

I know this is modern-day heresy, but I believe that if everyone worked 30% less, everything would improve.

Maybe the essential paradox of running your own business is that it may be the time when you let yourself lollygag, laze about, daydream and, yes, scroll aimlessly through social media, that is when you are able to have your best ideas and come up with solutions that all the agonising and late nights in the world will not liberate. You will also model sane behaviour to your employees so they too learn the value of rest and recreation, and so become more productive and enthusiastic. It isn’t the hours you put in that are of the greatest value. It may well be the hours you take out.

This article originally appeared in the December 2019 print edition of Leadership Matters, IML ANZ’s exclusive Member’s magazine. For editorial suggestions and enquiries, please contact karyl.estrella@managersandleaders.com.au.

MEMBER EXCHANGE – Personal SWOT analysis

A useful tool as a mentee is to work through a SWOT analysis with your mentor. The value of this tool is that it can provide a first stage in identifying those aspects which are particularly important to your career and the direction you want to take it. We would recommend that you do a first “run” at the SWOT on your own before discussing it with your mentor. It can be helpful to have some clear ideas before a mentoring conversation so that the mentor can ask targeted questions to help you analyse further.

Your career doesn’t happen in a vacuum but within the context of other aspects of your life. There may be non-work-related experience, knowledge and interests that will have a direct bearing on the transferable skills and knowledge you can bring into your career. So, when using a SWOT analysis it’s vital that you look at the four categories of the SWOT across a range of life aspects such as those listed below:

  • personality
  • beliefs and values
  • personal situation including relationships, children, finances and age etc…
  • education and training – career and personal
  • experience and skills – career and personal
  • interests – career and personal
  • drive and desire in relation to career
  • others’ perceptions
  • special interest groups

Each of these points listed above need to be related to each element of the SWOT in order to get a very accurate and comprehensive picture of you within your career.

S = Strengths. Simply – what are you good at? What strengths do others believe you have? What motivates you and drives you – these will be natural strengths because you will put time and energy into developing them. What inspires you? What gives you satisfaction?

W = Weaknesses. What are your gaps or areas for development? What do you find challenging? What are the things that don’t interest you and you don’t want to incorporate into your career? What are those aspects that you have a great desire to improve but are currently limitations for you?

O = Opportunities. A reality check – what is within the realm of possibility for you at this time in your life? What opportunities are available to you within your current situation? What opportunities are available to you based on developing some skills/expertise or maybe getting a further qualification? What’s realistic?

T = Threats. What limitations are there on you achieving your goals? Who may be blocking your path? What gaps in experience/knowledge will be limiting or challenging to the point of blocking your progress? What external ‘forces’ are threats to you achieving your goal eg: political; economic; geographical etc?

Some things to be aware of are:

  • The more thorough the SWOT analysis the more useful and valuable it will be.
  • A comprehensive SWOT analysis takes time and should be done over a number of goes so that you can keep building on it. It’s like writing a first draft – go back and review and add to it before deciding you want to share it with your mentor.
  • Be utterly honest with yourself. The true value of this tool is that you can have a good look and reflect upon your current situation and needs and areas that need attention.
  • Once you have explored SWOT in relation to the life aspects listed previously it’s time to get some additional perspective from your mentor. Remember to be very open to their questions and perspective. Their role is to help grow you.