Career strategy and planning

Stop Christmas. Start career clarity!

December 17, 2020 By // by Rachel Brushfield

It is hard to ‘wrap’ our Energise career e course’ so it looks Christmasy!

Many people cannot have the Christmas they want due to Covid-19.

Rather than feeling annoyed about something that you cannot influence, because of government rules about Covid-19 and the tier system – an easy way to create frustration, reframe the situation. Take control and turn it into a gift of unexpected time to think and focus and get clear about your career and what next.

I created the Energise career e course on some of our career retreats, slaving over a hot laptop! It contains all the exercises used in career coaching.

It is structured into carefully planned modules with practical exercises, it helps you to get clear about who you are, what you want and how make to happen.

The e-course is ideal if you are working full time, making time for coaching difficult, or you want to plan a future career change, e.g. you are a working parent wanting more flexibility.

If you are thinking of creating a ‘side-hustle’, a common beginning of a portfolio career, it is a great way to get clarity, and more cost effective than individual career coaching.

Section 1: Introduction

Overview of the e-course and insights into the changing world of work.

Section 2: Where am I and why am I there?

Insights from reviewing your career to date to inform your future career.

Section 3: Am I ready for a change?

Understanding your motivation, values and job likes and dislikes: the crucial components of making good career decision and choices

Section 4: What is stopping me making a change?

Fears and blocks about career change that can inhibit success and how to overcome them.

Section 5: What resources do I have?

Insights about your skills and career achievements to help you market yourself confidently and successfully.

Section 6: Where could I be?

Ideas and inspiration to help you identify career options matching your skills and experience. It will help you weigh up all the options open to you, including those you have not previously considered.

Section 7: How could I get there?

Defining your personal brand to appeal to employers and how to leverage your network to create new job and career opportunities.

Section 8: How will I know that I have been successful?

Defining your new career goals, vision and plan, giving you a clear sense of purpose and focus.

Section 9: How do I keep on track?

A recap and summary of all your insights and goals from sections 1-8.

Section 10: Further resources & inspiration

Examples of clients who have changed their career, our own career journey and useful resources.

Our e-course is available to buy in individual modules or as one course – all 10 modules.

It includes:

1 hour of coaching with Rachel Brushfield (worth £160+VAT)
Over 250 pages
20+ practical exercises
Tools and tips you can use again and again
Clarity and insight guaranteed

It is set up on PayPal, so you can pay using a credit card, smoothing your cashflow, with Christmas expenditure.

Buy it now, and give yourself a great Christmas present, or gift it to someone you care about. https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/shop/e-courses/e-courses/

What is career agility?

December 2, 2020 By // by Rachel Brushfield

This image is one of our career coaching clients, Olivia Streater, who has a portfolio career.

http://linkedin.com/in/oliviastreaterlavizzari

What does agility mean?

The dictionary definition of agility is:

“the ability to move quickly and easily”
“the ability to think and understand quickly”
“the skills of pivoting quickly”

Until I looked up the definition of agility, I had always associated the word just with the physical, not the brain and thinking.

Impact of Covid-19 on accelerating change

Covid-19 and its impact on businesses has been a great example of agility at work!

Things that would have taken a long time to change, possibly 100 years, have happened in a matter of just months through necessity.

Pain is often a catalyst for rapid change.

“It is not the most intelligent of the species that is the most likely to survive, it is the ones most adaptable to change.” Charles Darwin.

We have all been thrown ‘in the deep end’ at work by Covid-19!!

We have had to adapt very quickly to on-line meetings on Zoom and Team, on-line webinars instead of face to face and much more!

Working parents have been forced to combine work and home-schooling. Something I have huge admiration for.

Covid-19 has forced people to be agile.

This is one of the positive aspects of Covid-19.

Times are changing. At last.

Working from home has opened up many people’s eyes to how things could be different.

How career agile are you?

Career agility is a form of intelligence. It is also a skill that can be learnt.

A very apt quote for our times is: “When the winds of change blow, some people build windmills, others walls.” Chinese proverb.

Lockdown = time to think

Lockdown in 2020 has given many people unexpected time to really think.

About what they want.

Are you ready to make a change?

Get in touch to arrange your free no-obligation meeting. https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/contact-us/

More

4 reasons career agility is a must and how to get there:

https://www.womenonbusiness.com/4-reasons-career-agility-is-a-must-and-how-to-get-there/

What is your career agility quotient?https://www.atalent.com/define-improve-career-agility/

How to create career agility post-Covid: What it takes to be most competitive. Forbes article May 2020.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sheilacallaham/2020/05/03/how-to-create-career-agility-post-covid-what-it-takes-to-be-most-competitive/?sh=62fc187b7c13

FREE Webinar – “How to unlock opportunities in the unadvertised jobs market. Advice and Tips.”

October 28, 2020 By // by Rachel Brushfield

12-1pm on Tuesday 10 November 2020.

Advice from 2 experienced career experts – Rachel Brushfield and Peter Wilford.

This 1 hour free webinar will share:

Direct approaches to create new opportunities
Proactive approaches using LinkedIn
Leveraging your network to gain advice and new options
How to build your marketability confidently + comfortably
Strengthening your network with new on-line networks due to Covid-19
What’s your USP? Why you?

Benefits

New ideas and approaches.

How to turn Covid-19 into a positive for your networking.

Practical tips to make marketing easier, effective + expedient.

S.M.A.R.T. actions to move forward.

Book your place on EventBrite now:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/how-to-unlock-opportunities-in-the-unadvertised-jobs-market-advice-tips-tickets-126722086171

How to future-proof your career

June 18, 2020 By // by Rachel Brushfield

The Brexit/political impasse and more recently the impact of the coronavirus has been very stressful for many people

With redundancies now likely to be on the horizon, and many companies currently having recruitment freezes, it can feel very challenging indeed to get a job/paid work.

Even in these challenging market conditions, a sense of moving forward and progressing is vital.

So how can you take steps today to future-proof your career for the longer term?

This blog shares some practical tips and further reading to inspire and help you.

V.U.C.A. world
The current world is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous, or V.U.C.A. This is the new ‘normal’.

Focus on how you can help senior management and businesses with the challenges they face, for example business agility and transformation, creating a competitive advantage, original communication etc.

The competencies of control, curiosity, commitment, confidence and concern are important to be adaptable in your career.

5 career adaptability competencies

Control – being proactive, decisive & taking responsibility for your career;
Curiosity – broadening your horizons by seeking options, possibilities and knowledge;
Commitment – passionately pursuing & taking action to move to the career horizon of your choosing;
Confidence – belief in yourself & that you can achieve your goal;
Concern – having a positive & philosophical attitude to mistakes or rejection.

How would you rate yourself on these competencies?

Here are some tips to future-proof your career.

Build your career adaptability competencies: If you think of the above career adaptability competencies as ‘muscles’, how can you exercise them? What S.M.A.R.T. goals can you set yourself and what CPD can you undertake to build these ‘muscles’? This will put you in good stead now and in the future.

Understand your transferable skills: Skills you possess are useful in many different contexts outside of your current sector. Investigate new work areas where the skills that you already possess are valued.

Look at trends: Keeping an eye on changing trends is very important at all times, and especially when things are changing fast, which they are at the moment. In any shrinking market, there will always be areas that are growing. What specialisms are growing, for example, cyber crime and data analytics? Where are there skill shortages?

Update your skills: There are lots of free on-line courses, called Moocs shared by universities all over the world. Take advantage of these to learn new skills and develop your knowledge. For example critical thinking is a key skill of the future. Change management and commercial awareness are also good areas to develop. What actions could you take to refresh and develop these specific skills?

Build your career capital: With more competition, you need to have a higher level of qualification to succeed, and add value. Consider new accreditation and building a specialism. Investment now can create more opportunities in future. Explore thought leadership and initiate key note/panel opportunities.

Widen your options: It is wise in uncertain times to develop a portfolio career. Rather than having all your career ‘eggs in one basket’, and just have one source of earning money, explore new/different options, and develop multiple strands to future-proof your career. This is called a portfolio career – it is ideal for uncertain times. You develop different work ‘strands’ so you can pivot as markets change and you change. As an analogy, as with ingredients and cooking a recipe, the more ‘ingredients’ you have of skills, knowledge and experience, the more you can create opportunities for yourself.

Become tech savvy: New tech tools can be daunting at first, but learning them satisfying. Being tech savvy is important so that you hit the ground running in work. If there are two candidates of comparable skill and experience, having superior digital acuity will go in your favour.

Broaden your network: In the digital age, it is becoming more important to have a large diverse network. Many networks are providing free Zoom sessions during lockdown – take advantage of this and attend some networks you wouldn’t normally consider to broaden your network. Join some new LinkedIn groups, and connect with the members.

Free resources: Take advantage of any free resources from your professional body. There may be webinars, case studies and other resources you can access on their website.

Do a skill swap: A skill swap costs nothing, and enables you to learn a new skill, for example Excel spreadsheets, social media, cashflow planning etc. When you’re worried about the future, skill swaps are a brilliant way to skill-up.

Consider retraining: Retraining into a work area where there are skills shortages is worth exploring to improve your security and prospects for the longer term.

Build your resilience: Some people are naturally resilient, but it is a skill that can be learnt. Persistence and not giving up are very important. Determination will take you a long way. In fact, according to Charles Handy, a pioneer in modern ways of working, in his book ‘The New Alchemists’, determination is THE no 1 factor for success. Don’t give up!

It can feel like very challenging times at the moment. Remember you are not alone. Keep going.

Contact us to receive a free report ‘Discover Portfolio Careers’ https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/portfolio/connect/

Recommended further reading

Our articles for the award winning Future of Work Hub:

Future skills for a lifelong competitive advantage part 1 https://www.futureofworkhub.info/comment/2019/3/22/future-skills-for-a-life-long-competitive-advantage-part-1

Future skills for a lifelong competitive advantage part 2 https://www.futureofworkhub.info/comment/2019/6/26/future-skills-for-a-life-long-competitive-advantage-part-2

What are your career KPIs and do they matter?

December 24, 2015 By // by DigitalJenIPC

Preparing for a recent career event has made me think about career key performance indicators or KPIs; an often cited phrase for measuring performance. Lawyers, for example, are measured in 6 minute units of fee earning time, a key KPI, with published league tables – can you imagine how pressured that must be?!

Definition of KPIs

“A key performance indicator (KPI) is a metric used by business to evaluate factors that are crucial to the success of the business.”

How do you measure career performance specifically? If you are employed, your employer may use very different measures to what is important to you and if this is the case, it may be a good time for a job or career rethink.

If you are self-employed, is it the rate per day, how many days you work a year, enjoyable work, prestigious projects, number of referrals, client testimonials, repeat business, value per transaction/project or number of new clients?

Here is our definition of career KPIs for individuals:

“Career key performance indicators (KPIs) are metrics used by an individual to evaluate and measure factors that are crucial to their own perceived career success and progress.”

Types of KPI

• Financial; salary, rate/day, rewards, bonus etc.
• Progress; speed of promotion, increases in responsibility
• Work life balance; flexible working hours, sabbaticals taken, no of days holiday/year
• Fulfilment; feeling satisfied and enjoying your working hours and career
• Reputation/career capital; being seen as an expert, testimonials, sought after and needing to do less marketing over time
• Fit; a role that plays to your strengths and in which you feel ‘in flow’
• Purpose; giving back, making a difference to the world, involvement in CSR, working for an employer with clients in the charity sector or social enterprise
• Academic; membership level e.g. fellow in professional organisation, grade for further qualification attained

What are your top 3 career KPIs?

KPIs may change with life stage e.g. needing to fund children through school or university can make salary or a pay rise very important even if you are not that motivated by money, whilst flexible working is essential if you have young children for example.

7 tips to think about your career KPIs

1. Define your own unique career KPIs – don’t feel obliged to use standard measures – what is important to YOU?
2. Track your progress; measure and monitor at least every 3 months
3. Know your industry averages so you can bench mark/negotiate armed with facts and examples
4. Build self-awareness; know what motivates you and your personal values; what is important to you
5. Get a career coach to protect time to focus on your career and help you to see your full potential, something people often can’t do as they are too close themselves
6. Give yourself an annual performance review, or ideally a career review and planning meeting 4 times a year
7. Grade your KPIs; primary and secondary or ‘must do’ and ‘nice to have’

When will you make time to think about your career KPIs for the next 12 months?

A coaching session is a great way to ring fence time in your diary to focus on your career KPIs and career capital for the next 12 months. Book yours now, e mail us:

http://careerstrategies.co.uk/careercoaching/what-next/

What’s your career capital?

December 24, 2015 By // by DigitalJenIPC

Career capital is the value of competencies, knowledge and individual personality attributes and other career assets that you have to produce economic value.
Your career assets combined = your career capital; the sum total of your time, talent and potential. You need to consider it in terms of its present and future value when considering your long-term career prospects. If the internet is an ocean full of ‘fish’ i.e opportunities, you need bait to catch the fish you want. Career capital helps you to do this. What ‘fish’ do you want to catch e.g. employer or clients?

Why is career capital important?

In future, in less than 5 years, employers will have reduced permanent headcount and resource up on an as needed basis with individuals and employers rated transparently on-line.

Are you ready for the new world of work; differentiation and visibility on-line?

What does the future look like?

People per hour is a taste of the future. The Sense Network is one example of on-line resourcing. Employer evaluation sites like Glassdoor are a growing trend.

Career assets

Your career capital is made up of multi-faceted career assets which accrue over time.

Accolades
• Patents
• Awards
• League table rankings e.g. Chambers
• Who’s who listing

Academic
• Higher qualifications e.g. MBA, PHD, MSc/MA
• Links with academia or prestigious universities e.g. guest lecturer

Endorsements
• Client testimonials/employer references
• Peer testimonials/endorsements

Published works
• Articles
• Chapters
• Books
• White papers

Talent
• Multiple mastery areas
• In-demand skills e.g. creativity, big data management
• Languages
• Good emotional intelligence e.g. empathy

Networks
• Professional association involvement
• Membership of elite clubs
• Size & diversity of network
• Quality of network e.g. senior decision makers, high net worths

Events
• Hosting an event
• Speaking at an event
• Conference speaking
• Conference chairing

Charitable
• Pro bono
• Trustee post

Career credibility
• Prestige/trophy employers & clients e.g. FTSE 100
• Senior leadership positions e.g. C-Suite

Miscellaneous
• Personal brand

What would you add? How would you rate your career capital?

7 tips for healthy career capital

1. Create a career strategy and ensure your career capital is aligned with it
2. Define your ‘fish’ – i.e. target employers or clients
3. Audit your career capital quarterly and define career asset S.M.A.R.T. goals
4. Ensure you have insights about what is important to and valued by your target audience e.g. who are their heroes/heroines?
5. Measure stats for your career capital so you can monitor progress
6. Monitor your reputation – set up Google alerts & track your name/brand on Twitter
7. Use/monitor LinkedIn stats to evaluate the quality and profile of your network

Download your copy of our free report now to find out your transferable skills:

http://careerstrategies.co.uk/changingcareersreport/

What is your career risk?

December 24, 2015 By // by DigitalJenIPC

In an uncertain and fast changing world, career risk is a very important factor to consider. One person’s attitude to risk is very different to another’s which is why self-awareness is essential with career strategy and planning.

“Life is inherently risky. There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing.” Denis Waitley.

Being clear about the risks you face in your career and having a plan A, B and C will help you cover all eventualities. I have been much more risk aware since marrying a lawyer as this is their job!

15 career risks

How likely are these to happen to you in the next 6-24 months?

1. Your boss leaves the company affecting your career progression
2. Your department or division is shut down
3. Your skills become obsolete
4. Your role can be replaced by technology
5. Funding or budget cuts occur
6. Your layer of management is removed
7. Your role is outsourced to save money
8. Your company goes into liquidation
9. Your employer is merged with another or acquired
10. The market for your product/service disappears with fast changing markets & disruption
11. Illness inhibits your ability to work
12. Your role is made redundant
13. Your work can be done cheaper by younger or foreign workers
14. Your performance is deemed to be unacceptable with the spotlight on productivity and you are ‘performance managed out’
15. There is a new CEO who creates many changes- ‘new broom’

What are your top 3 career risks and what is the likelihood of them happening?

What other career risks would you add to this list?

7 tips to mitigate risk

1. Create a career strategy and plan
2. Get a career coach
3. Invest in keeping your skills up to date
4. Keep an eye on fast changing trends & disruptive competitors
5. Do some career scenario planning; create plans A, B and C
6. Start developing a portfolio career – a future proof career option
7. Create a financial cushion to give yourself some breathing space

There is a trend away from employers taking responsibility for your career to the individual taking responsibility. This is a new concept for many as we do not get taught or trained in how to do career strategy and planning at school or university.

How can we help you?

http://careerstrategies.co.uk/changingcareersreport/

The Food Judge – Nicky Richmond #2

June 4, 2015 By // by DigitalJenIPC

This is part 2 of a 3 part guest blog by Nicky Richmond. Nicky combines being a joint managing partner for Brecher with being a restaurant critic, and is a property and property finance lawyer with over 25 years’ experience. She is The Food Judge and writes a regular column for The Lawyer magazine. As a Foodie myself as you can see from our food themed LLClub web site, I am inspired!

Here is part 1:
https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2015/05/16/an-edible-portfolio-career-1/

The rest of this blog are in Nicky’s own words.

When people ask you ‘what do you do?’ – what do you reply?

My day job is a lawyer but what I really love to do is to review restaurants.

To what extent did your portfolio career happen by chance/luck and to what extent was it planned?

My portfolio career was not planned at all and I fell into it and only realised how much it gave me once I have been doing it for quite some time. Doing the reviews didn’t feel like work and it was easy to combine it with my work life as whilst I will never willingly attend a sporting event, I will happily take a client to a food event and I have to do client entertaining as part of my business.

What do you most love about having a portfolio career?

Finally managing to incorporate my obsession with food into my day-to-day life other than just by way of eating it. Meeting a whole new group of people and getting to understand another industry, which has been fascinating. Feeling that I’m using all parts of my skill set and that there is still a lot to learn. Getting stale is so dull.

What are the challenges of having a portfolio career?

Realising that you can’t do everything that you want to do because there are not enough hours in the day. You have to really plan and be disciplined about the time you spend on each thing that you do and you have to be equally committed to the non-core aspects of your portfolio career.
The temptation with law is to let it take over – I certainly did for the first 25 years and I ended up being tired, and a little bit jaded. Doing the charity work is good for the soul however much of a cliché that might appear, and the upside is that you get to meet a whole new group of people from different walks of life. The sort of people who volunteer are the sort of people that I really like to spend time with.

Part 3 of this 3 part guest blog coming soon.

More about Nicky Richmond

Nicky Richmond, Joint Managing Partner, Brecher:
http://www.brecher.co.uk/people/nicky-richmond/

The Food Judge – never knowingly underfed.
http://thefoodjudge.com/

Blog – Not Entirely Legal
http://strictlylegal.me/author/nickyrichmond/

More about portfolio careers:

Could a portfolio career give you the variety you seek? Download our free report ‘Discover Portfolio Careers’ and find out:
http://www.llclub.org/discover-portfolio-careers/

Interested in finding out more about whether a portfolio career is to your taste? Come along to The Law Society Portfolio careers event on Friday 12 June. See link for more details:
https://events.lawsociety.org.uk/ClientApps/Silverbear.Web.EDMS/public/default.aspx?tabId=37&id=1077&orgId=1&guid=eb63cc9e-13ed-45c4-8b66-4b52db7a0c94

Simon Strong’s portfolio career #1

April 11, 2015 By // by DigitalJenIPC

This is the first in a series of 6 blog posts by Simon Strong about his portfolio career.

Reading how people have created their own portfolio career can be useful to inspire you to create one yourself.

The rest of this blog is in Simon’s own words.

What are the components of your portfolio career e.g. study, paid freelance work, part time job, volunteering etc.?

I don’t really have components as such. More a load of stuff that I’m doing. Some I get paid for. Some I invest in. Some is just because I want to. Interestingly, it’s often the stuff I do just because I want to that leads to the most satisfying and lucrative work opportunities. Probably the easiest thing to do is tell you what I’ve been doing recently and what I’m up to now.

I ran Pecha Kucha Night in Guildford for a couple of years which allowed me to connect with so many amazing creative people and their stories. This led to being asked by Ellen Dowell (who runs Einstein’s Garden at the Green Man Festival, and whose academic work is based on interdisciplinary collaboration) to help set up Bright Club Guildford – where University Academics do stand-up comedy based on their research. Ellen and I ran Bright Club for 3 years before we stepped down in January this year. We have handed over to a fresh committee who we hope will be able to take it on to the next level.

I run a creative consultancy, Human Zoo, named after a book by the amazing Desmond Morris with whom I had the great honour of working when in advertising. We work with our clients across a broad range of projects including branding, innovation and culture change, running lots of seminars and facilitating workshops and conferences. We act as Ambassadors for the University of Surrey Business School and are involved in delivering seminars on their MBA and executive MBA programmes. I’m currently consulting with a global print company and am about to go out to Dubai to run a conference.

Last year my business partner in Human Zoo and I got bored of expending so much energy on client projects that went nowhere, so we decided to start investing time in our own innovation projects. We’ve got three projects currently underway:

1) We won a funding competition from the Technology Strategy Board (now Innovate UK) under ‘Re-Imagining The High Street’ for a feasibility study on an innovation we developed and we’ve just been asked to apply for phase 2 funding for a market test which we are just about to submit.

2) We are working on developing an accelerated learning platform which has been proven to deliver the same learning outcomes as 27 hours of traditional classroom based learning in just 1 hour. We are working with the University of Surrey Business School to run a learning tournament to compare different learning techniques in one of the largest studies of its kind – and we are engaging the top 1,000 businesses in the UK on how this will impact on engaging Gen Y and creating ‘Business Ready Brains’.

3) We are working with one of the University MBA students to take a charity start-up idea to market. We are about to go into a funding round…

Part 2 of Simon’s 6 part guest blog series coming soon.

View Simon Strong’s LinkedIn profile:
http://https//uk.linkedin.com/in/simonstrong

View the Human Zoo web site:
http://www.humanzoo.biz/

What could your portfolio career be made up of?
Find out what your transferable skills are by downloading our free report:
http://careerstrategies.co.uk/changingcareersreport/

Could a portfolio career make you dance?

May 25, 2014 By // by DigitalJenIPC

More and more people are doing a portfolio career. Could you be one of them?

This blog shares what a portfolio career is, the components and why they are growing.

What is a portfolio career?

A mixture of different strands

Doing more than one thing for work

A shifting blend of work components

Work that gives you options

A growing trend

Components of a portfolio career

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” Alan Kay

Part time job/jobs (employment)

Freelance/contract work (self-employment)

Non-Exec director

Volunteering

On-line business

Study

Travel

Career break/rest

Why are portfolio careers growing?

Changing world of work

Shortage of full time jobs

Growth in self-employment

Desire for choice

Gen Y/Millennials/Gen Edge different values

Desire for meaning and purpose

Shift to employees taking responsibility

Second career post redundancy

Less middle management jobs with automation

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”
Maria Robinson.

Next time, we will share the pros and cons and some examples.

Are you at a career crossroads?

Now is a great time to take action. Career coaching helps you focus, create change and achieve more faster. Starting now, 6 weeks on a fast track programme would enable you to move forward before the summer holidays. Get in touch for more details.