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Simon Strong’s portfolio career 6 of 6

December 31, 2015 By // by DigitalJenIPC

This is the fifth 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.

In case you missed them, here are parts 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5

Here is part 1:
https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2015/04/11/simon-strongs-portfolio-career-1/

Here is part 2:
https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2015/04/16/simon-strongs-portfolio-career-2/

Here is part 3:
https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2015/05/04/simon-strongs-portfolio-career-3/

Here is Part 4:
https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2015/05/22/simon-strongs-portfolio-career-4/

Here is part 5
https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2015/10/19/simon-strongs-portfolio-career-5-of-6/

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

How do you approach marketing your portfolio career?
I’d really like to take advice on that one! I’ve come to realise that marketing and branding consultants suck at marketing themselves.

The café is much easier because I have a product and a place.

What if any, is the personal brand used for your portfolio career?
Human Zoo works nicely across different facets of my work. But I’ve found that it’s personal reputation that seems to be what unlocks the opportunities for me. Human Zoo is more for me than for clients. I suppose it fulfils the convention of being a company name. Maybe when some of the innovation projects take off it’ll serve a more important role.

What advice would you give to someone considering a portfolio career?
Good Lord! I’m not sure anyone should take advice from me! I’m happy to help people to create products, services, insights, culture, possible futures and even businesses. But I wouldn’t dare suggest anyone listen to advice I’d have to offer. Except that I suspect that whatever it is that you are thinking – it’s probably at least partially right.

I’m also a big fan of the minimum viable product idea – what is the least you can do to get your idea working. We’ve all done it – spent a fortune on a website, business cards, and marketing collateral in order to be ‘professional’. It’s a lot of wasted money for nothing. It could all have been done for free (a simple off-the-peg website, simple text only business cards etc.). For the most part all that stuff is just an expensive distraction (in terms of finance, energy and time) from doing the actual work.

When I opened the café I had an espresso machine. I could make coffee and tea. The espresso machine ran on bottled water, and I washed up in a bucket. The entire set up was temporary. It cost as little as I could get away with. But people loved it – rustic charm I called it! And they adored watching and being a part of this little business – watching it, and me, grow. My biggest insight from this is that my customers aren’t paying for the coffee I’ve just served – they are paying for me to be there tomorrow – they are investing in tomorrow’s cup of coffee!

Anything else you want to add?
It seems to me that the most secure occupation is the one you create for yourself. It’s unlikely you’ll find yourself such a terrible employee that you’ll fire yourself – I hope you’d be forgiving enough to give yourself another chance…!

This was the last in a 6 part guest blog series by Simon Strong.

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/

Want to work flexibly?

June 30, 2014 By // by DigitalJenIPC

Today’s the day – 30 June 2014. From today, any employee who has been working for 6 months can request flexible working in the UK, whether they are a parent or carer or not. 20 million people have the right to ask. What impact will this have do you think?

Status re flexible working

Employees want flexible working but presenteism in the office still pervades the work culture in many businesses and an old fashioned 9-5 model of work (often 8-6 in reality!) still exists that creates commuting bottle necks that could be avoided. Companies have become more open to flexible working, but because it jobs to adopt & accommodate flexible working. How to balance clients’ needs and employee demands is the key.

Impact of failure to embrace flexible working

Employee needs and wants are rarely the driver for employers embracing flexible working, when this would enhance motivation, reduce stress and enable firms to operate more 24/7. It is hardly surprising there is a huge drain of talented women from many companies as a refusal to adopt flexible working often gives working mothers no other option but to exit.

Growing demand for flexible working

The younger generation’s desire for flexibility, enabling technology and a growing employee voice helped by social media will be catalysts for change, as will be lost productivity with peak commuting bottlenecks. Flexible working has become associated with women, but men want it too and wanting a good work life balance is a common and growing desire. In many professions, a request for flexible working is like career suicide.

Transport & commuting challenges

The core problem is that too many people travel to work at the same time on transport infrastructures that are feeling the strain. Data on transport utilization and population growth, especially in London and the South East, indicates that the problem will get worse not better.

What types of flexible working are there?

There are a number of types of flexible working – which one appeals to you?

Self-employment – the ultimate in flexibility – choose your own hours

Part time working – less than full time hours

Flexi time – freedom to choose to work within agreed set hours

Staggered hours – employees have different start and end times enabling employees to avoid commuting and businesses to open longer

Compressed working hours – cover standard hours in fewer days

Job sharing – two workers agree hours and split a full time job between them

Term time working – take paid or unpaid leave during the holidays

Home working/teleworking – spend some/all hours working away from the office

V time working – reduce hours for an agreed period with guarantee of full time work when this period ends

Zero hour contracts – work only hours the employer needs

Sabbatical/career break – employees are allowed to take time off for an agreed time, either paid or unpaid.

5 tips about flexible working

If you are looking to negotiate flexible working with your current or future employer, here are 5 tips:

• Create a business case for your employer to work more flexibly with data about increased productivity working from home.
• Look ahead to tomorrow as well as today. Will you be a carer or parent in future and if so, how can you start the ball rolling today to work more flexibly?
• Get up to speed with your legal rights.
• Find out your employer’s policy on flexible working.
• Think about possible objections and barriers to you working flexibly and brainstorm ideas and responses to overcome them.

Self-reflective question

“If I could design my working life to suit my needs, what would I choose?”

Inspiring quote

“We all have two choices. We can make a living or we can design a life” Jim Rohn.

For more useful insights and tips, follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/talentliberator

PS I have just written a chapter for a new book being published by Globe Law & Business in the Autumn – ‘the impact of coaching on work life balance’. I am self-employed so I can and do work flexibly. I am naturally an early bird, so my flexible working is waking at 4am ish and having a nap at about 2-3pm! Coaching at 6am is a good time for me 🙂

10 inspiring quotes about change

June 23, 2014 By // by DigitalJenIPC

I love inspiring quotes – selective ones. It is like a well-chosen image, anything more is not necessary.

Here are 10 inspiring quotes about change and attitudes to change.

“Often people live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want so that they will be happier. The way it actually works is the opposite. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.“ Margaret Young.

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

“Control your destiny or someone else will.” Jack Welsh.

“But is a fence over which few leap.” German Proverb.

“If you have to support yourself, you might as well do it in a way that is interesting.“ Katharine Hepburn.

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.“ Gandhi.

“Your work is to discover your work and then, with all your heart, give yourself to it.” Buddha.

“Do not let what you can’t do interfere with what you can do.“ John Wooden.

“If hard work was such a wonderful thing, surely the rich would have kept it to themselves.” Lane Kirkland.

“If you think you can, you can, if you think you can’t, you are right.” Henry Ford.

Which one is your favourite? We would love to hear any inspiring quotes that you especially like.

Ready for change? Get in touch if you would like to discuss how career coaching support would help you achieve your change faster and with less pain.

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.

Who’s your Sherpa?

September 27, 2013 By // by DigitalJenIPC

I recently heard an amazing speaker at an Ernst & Young quarterly women’s network event: Herta von Stiegel.

She decided she wanted to climb Kilimanjaro as a challenge for reaching 50. Not only that, but to do it taking a group of disabled people and their helpers too. It took two years of planning and she succeeded. The climb resulted in a book called “The inner mountain” which draws parallels between leadership lessons and her experiences climbing Kilimanjaro.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mountain-Within-Leadership-Lessons-Inspiration/dp/0071773061

Two things I personally took away from her talk were:

Vision is the intersection between something you are passionate about/a major strength and how it meets a human need.

The aptness of the ‘inner mountain’ metaphor for career change.

Many people want to change career but don’t start because the change feels too great, the climb too steep, too daunting. No one who has climbed a mountain or done a marathon would say it is easy, but they focus on the motivation of the outcome and break the stages into steps just as climbers have different camps along the way e.g. base camp.

Two of the highlights for me about helping people to change career are the ‘aha’ moments – insights about what they really want to do, what is stopping them and breakthroughs in progress. Career change like climbing a mountain is an outer journey too, but very much an inner one of personal discovery and change.

Three questions for you:

What do you feel passionately about doing through your career to help others?
What are you really good at?
What’s stopping you from career change?

Here is what a client of ours said recently:

“Coaching has been very instrumental for me, because it helped me carve my own path at my own pace, to reach my goal. I’m not sure that without coaching, I would still have had the willpower to change and enter a completely different line of work – I may have thought about it, but whether I would have put it in action anyways? I’m not so certain!

Also, I enjoyed speaking with Rachel, because I knew that she wouldn’t be judgemental or biased – she understood where I was coming from and she understood why I needed the change, which has been at times, difficult to explain to friends and family.”

Click on this link for some blog about fears:
http://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/?s=fears+

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https://twitter.com/talentliberator

Opt in to receive our Energise bulletins; career strategies, smart living and working, self-promotion. You can view previous topics and opt in from this page:
http://www.liberateyourtalent.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=79&Itemid=106

Pigeon holed at work?

July 20, 2013 By // by DigitalJenIPC

Call it ‘pigeon holed’ or being ‘put in a box’, it can be very annoying and restrictive. This is even more the case if you fell into your career by accident/chance, which many people do, and your job just isn’t ‘you’.

Why does pigeon holing happen?

Sometimes it suits your company to keep you in a certain role or just doing particular tasks. It may be that you are really good at what you do, but it doesn’t make you feel fulfilled.

I am a natural organiser for example, but it doesn’t give me a ‘buzz’. HR can think of people as job descriptions, roles and headcount rather than people with unique talent to be utilized in different ways.

It may be that your boss doesn’t like certain tasks, so it suits them to get you to do these, so they just do the bits they enjoy. Because they are ‘the boss’, they can.

Recruitment agents can be very good at pigeon holing candidates, after all it suits them to place candidates in the ‘holes’ that their clients are looking for because that is when they get paid. I have found many times with clients changing career direction, they find recruitment agencies just don’t get it.

A career coach like myself helps clients to reposition themselves and become what they want to be, not what they have been.

I hate being pigeon holed. Variety and newness are two of my values. I can’t think of anything worse than doing the same thing over and over again for the rest of my working life. It suits some people, to them it’s familiar and comfortable, but not me.

If you are feeling trapped in a pigeon hole, what do you do? Here are some tips

– Restructure your CV
– Choose a portfolio career
– Do volunteering to broaden your skills and experience
– Move employers
– Get a career coach
– Identify what perceptions people have of you, who your stakeholders are and create a communication plan to change them
– Discuss job redesign with your boss
– Learn a new skill/study for a qualification

What tips would you add?

It can be very hard to change perceptions of yourself with your existing company – especially if you were a placement student and you join the same company as an employee after you graduate.

Moving companies can make all the difference but sometimes a career change is the only way to find the right hole (or holes) for you.

Are you feeling put in a pigeon hole at work? Maybe you are in the wrong career, it’s just you have never admitted it to yourself or thought it was too late to do anything about it. It isn’t. Get in touch.

For more insights and tips, follow us on Twitter @talentliberator

What’s your career strategy and plan? Part 4 of 5.

April 27, 2013 By // by DigitalJenIPC

This blog post is part 4 of 5 and looks at the opportunity cost for you of NOT having a career strategy and plan.

“Control your destiny or someone else will.” Jack Welsh.

Opportunity cost of not having a career vision and plan

What are the implications of NOT creating a vision and plan for your career?

You dislike your job
You feel frustrated
You get left behind with your peers succeeding
You leave yourself vulnerable in the world of work
You don’t feel resilient
You experience frustration and anger from being unfulfilled which has a negative impact on your relationships and health
You feel anxious and disempowered
Your talent is unliberated – what a waste!
Your career options and choices are restricted
You are on the back foot (reactive), rather than the front foot (proactive)
You don’t realise the potential you are capable of
You provide a poor role model for your children that you can have meaningful and fulfilling work that plays to your strengths, not just ‘a job’

What would you add?

In case you missed them, here are the other blogs in this series, parts 1, 2 and 3:

Part 1:

http://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2013/04/07/whats-your-career-strategy-and-plan-part-1-of-5/

Part 2:

http://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2013/04/13/whats-your-career-strategy-part-2-of-5/

Part 3:

http://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2013/04/19/whats-your-career-strategy-and-plan-part-3-of-5/

The next and final blog post in this series will share tips to help you create your career strategy and plan.

To receive free Energise bulletins on Career strategies, smart living and working and self-promotion topics, visit this web page to view previous topics and opt in:

http://www.liberateyourtalent.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=79&Itemid=106

For more useful tips & insights, follow us on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/talentliberator

What’s your career strategy and plan? Part 1 of 5

April 7, 2013 By // by DigitalJenIPC

A high proportion of people fall into their career by accident. A few, by chance, enjoy their work, but many don’t, which is a shame as it represents such a large proportion of our time and it has a big knock-on effect on other areas of our lives.

Having a career strategy and plan is like being in a boat where you can use a motor, oars, paddle or the sails, with a compass to steer you towards the horizon to the destination of your choosing, whatever the weather. It makes sense to think about your career strategies and have a plan A, B and C and to make time to think about your career choices.

“Your aspirations are your possibilities.“ Anon

This blog, part 1 of 5, explores how having a career strategy and plan gives your career choices and thinking about your career strategies is wise.

Why don’t people have a career strategy/plan?

Their parents were ‘hands off’ about their career
They received no/inadequate careers advice at school or college
They are too busy/don’t make time to reflect
They are unsure about how to go about it
They live ‘in the moment’/naturally think short term
They find it easier or comforting to focus on immediate priorities of life; eating, sleeping, shopping, doing their current job
There are more and more distractions that get in the way e.g. social media
They have never thought about how they can influence their future

“If you don’t know where you are going, you might not get there.” Yogi Berra.

Visit next week for the next part in this 5 part blog series.

To receive your free Energise bulletins on Career strategies, smart living and working and self-promotion topics, visit this page:

http://www.liberateyourtalent.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=79&Itemid=106

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” Reggie Leach.