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Transferable skills – where next? Part 4.

April 7, 2021 By // by Rachel Brushfield

This is part 4 of a 4-part blog series about transferable skills.

This blog is an extract from section 6 of our Energise career e course: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/e-course/

Read part 1: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/transferable-skills-where-next-part-1/

Read part 2: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/transferable-skills-where-next-part-2/

Read part 3: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/transferable-skills-where-next-part-3/

People often don’t know how the skills they use in one context could be useful in another context, job or career. We can only know what we know and it can be hard to be clear about what other career options are open to us.

One of the things that I do with my clients is help them understand how their minds work and the steps they take with solving a problem for example; then identify other contexts where this approach could be useful. It is amazing how skills are transferable to completely new areas.

Examples of skills that can be transferred:

From cooking for a family to cooking ready-made convenient meals for busy commuters
From factory assembly worker in a company to flat-pack furniture assembler in other people’s homes
From dog lover to dog walker

From cooking for a family to cooking ready-made convenient meals for busy commuters

If you love cooking or come from a large family so are used to cooking large quantities, you can use this talent to make a living. You could sell your products online, through food festivals and farmers’ markets or start with your own network. Not everyone has the time or passion for cooking, so what you do naturally is really useful for them – a win win.

The ideal is where you get paid for doing what you love and are good at; and your customers get more time from not having to cook and enjoy food that they might never have the time or imagination to create themselves. You could also have a positive impact on their health by creating nutritionally balanced convenient meals for them when they might otherwise eat take-ways. Or specialise in a specific customer need such as gluten intolerance, creating a focused niche for yourself, with cookery workshops as an additional revenue stream.

From factory assembly worker in a company to flat-pack furniture assembler in other people’s homes

I hate buying flat-packs and assembling the bits into a piece of furniture – it makes me stressed and takes too long. I found a handyman who specialises in assembling flat-pack furniture in double quick time. He has made a career out of what he is excellent at and something that other people hate and are happy to pay him for. His specific skill, something he does naturally, is really useful to busy people who haven’t got the time, patience and interest to do it.

From dog lover to dog walker

If you love dogs and are happy to take them for walks, rain or shine, you can use this skill and passion to earn a living as a dog walker. A friend of mine loves dogs and has 8 horses so she is outside most of the day.

She looks after the dog of someone who commutes to London during the week and gets paid for it. An extra dog makes little difference to her as she has two dogs of her own. She gets paid for what she already does, the dog’s owner has peace of mind that his dog is well cared for, and the dog has a fantastic time outside with other dogs, rather than being stuck inside by itself or taken out just once a day for a walk. She is more than a dog walker she is a dog nanny!

What next?

If you are at a major career crossroads and thinking about changing career direction, becoming self-employed or developing a portfolio career, we can help.

Why not get in touch to arrange your free no obligation meeting?https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/contact-us/

Save the dates! Coming soon.

Energise seminars to help you to market yourself.

10-12 Tuesday 11 May 2021 on Zoom: “Why me? What value do you bring?” https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/marketing-seminar-why-me-what-value-do-you-bring-tickets-149507654419

10-12 Tuesday 15 June 2021 on Zoom. “Marketing me: Proactive marketing.”

Transferable skills – where next? Part 2.

April 7, 2021 By // by Rachel Brushfield

This is part 2 of a 4-part blog series about transferable skills.

This forms part of section 6 of our Energise career e course: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/e-course/

Read part 1: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/transferable-skills-where-next-part-1/

How can you use your best skill in new contexts?

People often don’t know how the skills they use in one context could be useful in another context, job or career.

We can only know what we know, and it can be hard to be clear about what other career options are open to us.

Examples of skills that can be transferred:

• From sales to fundraising
• From marketing products to marketing people
• From organising events to project management

We’ll take each one at a time and show how the skill in each case is transferable.

From sales to fundraising

If you are good at selling with the following skills: persuasion, listening, understanding needs, overcoming objections, understanding motivations, influencing and achieving a ‘win win’, then you can use these same skills in the area of fundraising. The skills it takes to persuade someone to buy something are equally relevant in fundraising – persuading them to part with cash for a good cause, whether as a one off or a regular donation via direct debit.

From marketing products to marketing people

In the past I worked in marketing in the food industry and spent time on chilled ready meals, sausages, pizzas etc.

Marketing is about understanding the needs of your customers, segmenting them into smaller groups with similar needs and creating things that are appealing to them. I now use those same skills to help people to market themselves as well as market my own business and services.

I help my clients to think about and research the needs of their target audience, whether it is an employer or customer, then define what makes themselves unique and work out how to appeal to their audience. Same skill, different context.

One of the reasons I created the Energise career e-course is because many people dislike marketing themselves. They avoid it so don’t realise their potential. I help them to understand their limiting beliefs about self-promotion, to feel more comfortable about it, define their personal brand and increase their chances of success.

I feel more passionate about the difference I can make helping people to market themselves rather than marketing food!

From organising events to project management

If you are good at organising events, creating a clear outcome, thinking about what’s involved, planning ahead, communicating tasks and deadlines clearly and effectively, and engaging the team involved under pressure, you could use these same skills as a project manager.

Project management is a role needed in many different industries and professions and it may be a question of reshaping your CV to emphasis certain aspects more.

More examples of transferable skills will be shared in parts 3 and 4 of this four part blog series about transferable skills.

What next?

If you are at a major career crossroads and thinking about changing career direction, becoming self-employed or developing a portfolio career, we can help.

This blog is an extract from section 6 of our Energise career e course: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/e-course/

Why not get in touch to arrange your free no obligation meeting?https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/contact-us/

Save the dates! Coming soon.

Energise seminars to help you to market yourself.

10-12 Tuesday 11 May 2021 on Zoom: “Why me? What value do you bring?” https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/marketing-seminar-why-me-what-value-do-you-bring-tickets-149507654419

10-12 Tuesday 15 June 2021 on Zoom. “Marketing me: Proactive marketing.”

Time to retire? Part 2 of 2.

February 15, 2021 By // by Rachel Brushfield

Read part 1:

https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/time-to-retire-part-1-of-2/

How career coaching helped preparation for retirement

We recommended three coaching sessions to help our clients plan their retirement.

During the first coaching session, we explored their situation fully and discussed any short and long term plans that they had.

It was important to establish quickly how they felt about retiring and to discuss the main issues and challenges that they were facing or likely to encounter in the first few weeks and months of retirement.

Taking stock

It is useful to help our clients to take stock of where they are from a personality, values (what is important to them), motivations and interests perspective.

Next to support them to do some thinking and planning to help them set achievable goals together with some budget planning.

The second and third coaching sessions were used to track their progress against the agreed goals and to provide mentoring support as a strategic, practical and confidential sounding board.

As with all career coaching, the client needs to take ownership of their plan and drive it forward themselves, blocking out time regularly.

Focus for career coaching

Assessing why and where they thought they would specifically need career coaching is important. Our approach is bespoke – a high quality boutique service.

What we didn’t cover

Their career coaching did not cover detailed financial, pension and investment planning. They needed specialist help on this and we suggested that they obtained separate advice from an Independent Financial Advisor (IFA). We recommended a trusted contact.

The focus of career coaching was getting them into the right mindset to deal with the “change curve” of retirement and to then give them a practical focus and clear plan to use their main life interests and preferred activities productively whilst managing their time effectively.

Career coaching exercises

To enable clarity and insights to inform their retirement, they completed a series of exercises on personality, temperament, career motivations and a strengths profile to help them understand themselves and their preferred ways of doing things.

They had not completed anything like these before and found them extremely helpful and illuminating.

We discussed the insights from these and, for them, the personal and practical implications for their future.

Getting retirement ready

For example:

structure being important
not being naturally organised
wanting to achieve too much
having no system to prioritise actions
lack of self-discipline

are things that need to be thought through.

These were pivotal exercises to complete prior to the follow up work which they agreed to do.

Retirement planning guidance

We recommended several sources of retirement guidance material and pointed them towards other relevant material to read online. They also had a copy of our Retirement Career Plan to help them.

Career coaching skills

Career coaching skills including listening, incisive questioning, coaching, counselling, challenging and action planning.

We introduced them to other areas including personal networking, research and looking at where they could build up other skills or do some further development activity.

With one client, we also looked at building in some voluntary work as a key part of their new life and plan.

The Result

The sessions were well received and both clients gave positive feedback.

A few weeks later, they individually reported that they were settling into their retirement well and were starting to achieve their defined S.M.A.R.T. goals – lifestyle, development, personal and financial.

More

Contact us to arrange your free 20 minute no-obligation meeting to explore your brief and how we can help: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/contact-us/

Andrew J Scott + Lynda Gratton ‘The 100 year life’ https://www.amazon.co.uk/100-Year-Life-Living-working-longevity/dp/1472930150

Andrew J Scott and Lynda Gratton ‘The new long life’ https://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Long-Life-Framework-Flourishing/dp/1526615169/r

Institute of Employment Studies (IES): ‘Shut out. How employers and recruiters are overlooking the talents of the over 50 workers.” January 2021. Centre for better aging. https://www.employment-studies.co.uk/resource/shut-out?utm_source=IES+emailing+list&utm_campaign=2b4e9e35ad-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_05_10_10_39_COPY_08&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f11585705b-2b4e9e35ad-364290580

Why I love being a career coach Part 2 – Peter Wilford

January 6, 2021 By // by Rachel Brushfield

This is a 2 part blog by Peter Wilford. This is part 2.

Read part 1: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/why-i-love-being-a-career-coach-part-1-peter-wilford/

Giving people focus.

As a Career Coach we need to be flexible in our style and approach to each client and their specific and unique requirements. Clients also need to know where they are going and how to get there. I am naturally structured and like to give clients a focus so that they know that they are following a clear path and can see and track their progress along the way.

This does not work for everyone of course and nor should it. When I get feedback that “you gave me a real focus to everything we did which was hugely beneficial” I know that I have delivered. I enjoy working to agreed deadlines and keeping people on song!

Positive Testimonials.

We all like getting feedback from people we work with. I have had many fantastic testimonials over the years from happy clients and this has been great. Many of them have kept in touch with me and I with them long after they have finished a programme.

Some have been with me for over 10 years and they have referred other people to me. I am always very driven and professional with my clients and don’t expect feedback without fully deserving it but it is still good to hear that my work has helped them in some way.

Getting results.

This is always motivational. For many clients a good result is not purely getting a new job. It can be to recover from a bad redundancy experience, discover new skills and undertake further training, fulfil a life-long dream to set up a business, get feedback from a successful presentation or land an interim assignment.

I especially enjoy when the outcome is different from our initial assessment and the client has surprised themselves and proved themselves completely wrong by moving into an area of work that they had never imagined in their wildest dreams would be where they would end up.

Read why I love career coaching by Rachel Brushfield: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/why-i-love-career-coaching-rachel-brushfield/

Why I love being a career coach Part 1 – Peter Wilford

January 6, 2021 By // by Rachel Brushfield

This is a 2 part blog by Peter Wilford. This is part 1.

Understanding people and what makes them tick.
I love meeting people for the first time and getting to know their unique story. I enjoy finding out what makes them tick and why they do the work that they have chosen to do. I like having these conversations outside work, at dinner parties, over a coffee or when meeting someone new.

My innate personality and interests underpin this. I have become very self-aware from doing many psychometric assessments during my HR and Training career and that has made me even more fascinated by other people and inquisitive about them. As well as this I have always had a genuine interest in others and I like to feel that I can quickly put people at ease with my warmth and openness – also with my humour!

The fact that I can do this professionally is a fantastic bonus and that is why when I first became a career coach at age 42, I realised that I was doing something that I really enjoy.

Making a difference.
There is no doubt that I have helped to change people’s lives, both directly and indirectly, through the work that I do and that this is very rewarding and a driver for me. It can be in many ways. It may be by helping them to secure a new position against the odds, encouraging them to go it alone and set up a new business or just to give them a focus and new sense of self-worth when their confidence and self-esteem has been at a low point.

I have seen visible changes in people for example when they see what they have really achieved at work captured effectively in their CV, learnt some fresh insights into their personality which make them realise what is unique about them and why then can change direction in their careers or just by helping them nail a job interview and convert it into an offer. I enjoy every new success and this has spurred me on to the next challenge.

Variety.
No two clients are the same and no two days are identical. I enjoy that. At any one point I can be working with 15 or more clients from across the whole of life and society. I used to have a saying that my clients varied from “Bankers to Ballerinas, Lawyers to Florists” and that is true.

Recently, I have been working with a CEO of a Mid-sized Pharma company, a recruitment consultant who wants to move into Risk Management, a fresh graduate who is rudderless, A change management consultant in Financial Services, a Criminal Lawyer who is developing a portfolio career, a Senior Payments executive, an Insurance Underwriter who is the other side of the world, a publishing specialist who is looking to work freelance, a Chief of Staff in the Retail sector, and a virtual PA. As well as this I have 10-15 outplacement clients all moving on from recent or pending redundancy.

I have learned to switch quickly from client to client during the day and provide a seamless level of support to each one. All of this is motivational and enjoyable. I also do some other work as well as Career Coaching and that gives me fresh focus when I return to my real passion.

Read Why I love career coaching by Rachel Brushfield: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/why-i-love-career-coaching-rachel-brushfield/

Why I love career coaching – Rachel Brushfield

December 28, 2020 By // by Rachel Brushfield

I love career coaching for many reasons.

I have been coaching for over 20 years now, and I still love it as much now as I did at the beginning.

Why do I LOVE my job?

YOU! My clients.

Some become friends.

Many come back at another career crossroads, sometimes 10 years after the first time we worked together.

Why I love career coaching

Inspiring clients – my clients really inspire me and I learn a lot from them. I find it fascinating how people are different and see the world differently and yet how the themes are similar across all of them, e.g. lack of fulfilment, not liking marketing themselves, low self-belief etc.

Help people to help themselves – my job is to help my clients to clarify what they want and help them to get it. I am simply a catalyst and a pair of wing mirrors!

Self-awareness – I enjoy helping my clients to understand themselves better. This so important, especially in challenging times. I have done a lot of personal development work on myself. Awareness of the importance of this is growing, even amongst left brain cynical markets e.g. lawyers and engineers.

Reframing – we all get too close to ourselves to see solutions. Reframing something to help a client to become unstuck, is useful – new or different perspectives.

Positivity – I am naturally optimistic and this is very useful in the uncertain times in which we live, for people who see the world as half-empty rather than half-full, and with growing competition in many markets, whether you are employed or self-employed.

Sharing ideas – one of my best skills is coming up with ideas for careers or businesses for my clients which play to their strengths. I have an insights and ideas brain!

Internal and external – career coaching is a combination of looking internally, within yourself, and externally, at the market and opportunities. I love helping my clients do both. My career heritage is in marketing and strategy, so I have useful tools and frameworks to help my clients to do this.

Overcoming blocks – understanding and overcoming a block to move forward is really satisfying. Pain then relief from the pain, gives you a brilliant ‘lift’, overcoming something that felt so difficult, so that you can move forwards.

Making a difference – a career takes up so much of our lives and has huge impact on relationships, money and happiness. It is a privilege to help people improve this.

Creative – coaching is a creative process. Sometimes I create an exercise for a client or get them to use a prop e.g. a knotty piece of string to help them to create a shift, or to create a drawing.

Connect people – I have always been a natural connector. Introducing my clients to each other for ideas and support, helps them build their network, and enables potential collaborations and opportunities.

Uniqueness – everyone is absolutely unique and yet most don’t see this or define it. A personal brand is a great way to do this.

Building confidence – many people lack confidence. Not all admit this. Helping to build someone’s inner confidence and conviction like the words through a ‘stick of rock’ is one of the most important projects in life.

Growing your resilience – I am very resilient as is my husband who inspires me so much. There are practical tools to do this, even in the most challenging of circumstances.

Marketing you – many people dislike marketing themselves. This is becoming more important. You CAN find ways to do this comfortably, I promise.

Helping my clients to allow themselves to be who they really are and do what they want to do is why I love career coaching.

What do my clients think? https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/energise-client-testimonials/

Get in touch: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/contact-us/

Self-reflective questions for 2021

December 21, 2020 By // by Rachel Brushfield

Here are some self-reflective questions to think back on 2020 and think forwards to 2021.

Block out some time for this exercise and a quiet space for some ‘you time.’

What’s worked well in 2020?

What’s worked less well in 2020?

What do I want to do more of in 2021?

What do I want to do less of in 2021?

What needs to stop altogether in 2021?

What new things, if any, do I want to introduce in 2021?

What activities can I outsource or delegate that I am currently doing myself?

What’s my ‘headline’ that sums up 2020?

What do I want my headline to be for 2021?

What does success mean to me now?

What does career fulfilment mean to me now?

What 3 S.M.A.R.T. goals do I want to set myself for 2021, a) professionally and b) personally?

What is my career vision now?

How, if at all, have my career ambitions and aspirations changed?

What tech updates/purchases need to happen in 2021 to ensure that my technology is up to date?

What are my continual professional and continual personal development goals for 2021?

What’s the question that I most need to ask myself?

What am I ‘not getting around to doing’ which is important, but hasn’t been urgent?

Best wishes for 2021.

How to choose a career coach

December 3, 2020 By // by Rachel Brushfield

Did you know that coaching is an unregulated market?

What this means is that anyone can set up and call themselves a coach.

With training of only 1 weekend.

Or less.

Scary thought!

So how do you choose a career coach?

About me

I have been coaching for over 20 years and was one of the first in the market.

My chosen training route following extensive research was NLP (neurolinguistic programming) – this gave structured support and a plethora of useful tools and insights. It was also a personal journey of heightened self-awareness and I made some lifelong friends.

At a time when there is a lot of financial uncertainty and worry in the world, as a result of Covid-19, it is important to do your due diligence when selecting a coach and deciding to spend your money.

16 questions to choose the right career coach for you

What does a Google search about them tell you re client case studies and thought leadership?
What training have they done?
What personal development have they done/do they do on themselves?
Do they have a coach or mentor themselves?
What client testimonials do they have on their LinkedIn profile and on their web site?
How active are they on social media?
What ego do they have? Will the coaching be about you or about them?
What is the quality and profile of their network?
Do they have specific experience relevant to your unique career crossroads?
What networking do they do to grow their network?
What knowledge do they have of your profession/sector?
Do you ‘connect’ with them as a person? Do you feel that you can be open with them, as topics such as confidence and fears are part of coaching?
Is their personality type different to you as this contrast can be useful to help you to think differently and grow?
Do they have Professional Indemnity Insurance?
How do they add value compared to other coaches?
What does their brand say about them?

What do our clients say about our style/approach?

At the end of each coaching programme, we get our clients to complete a form to reflect on their journey and for us to learn. It asks these 7 questions.

What do you think/feel the process of being coached gives people?
What has being coached given you personally, speaking from your own experience?
What positive insights, changes, initiatives or achievements, however small, do you feel that you have made since starting coaching?
To what extent has coaching been instrumental in the occurrence and speed etc of these positive insights, changes, initiatives or achievements, as a cynic might say that they would have happened anyway without coaching?
To what extent do you feel that you have achieved the goals that you set out at the start of the coaching? Please state some tangible achievements.
How would you describe Rachel Brushfield’s style of coaching?
How could Rachel Brushfield improve her services/approach to better meet people’s needs?

A summary of the answers to Question 6 about style of coaching in our clients’ own words is located here: https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/energise-style/

Read our client testimonials: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/testimonials/

Get in touch to explore how career coaching with Energise could help you to achieve your career goal. We provide a 20 minute no-obligation meeting to explore your needs and if we are the right coach for you. Some of our clients chosen new career is becoming a coach, so they or other coaches in our network may be a better fit for you.

A couple of clients who we helped to become coaches

Ruth Farenga, founder of Mindful Pathway: https://mindfulpathway.co.uk/

Ruth has lots of knowledge and contacts in tech, and mindfulness and authentic leaders are her areas of coaching expertise.

Valerie Teller, founder of Switched On Coaching. Valerie is very creative but chose to train as a barrister. She retrained as a company secretary, then as a coach.

https://switchedoncoaching.com/

We learn alot from the people we coach. It is one of the benefits of being a coach and we meet some fabulous people, such as Ruth and Valerie.

The fact that our clients return at their next major career crossroads means alot to us. Sometimes this is a gap of ten years.

Rachel Brushfield’s Myers Brigg profile is INTJ and Peter Wilford’s is ESFJ.

https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/testimonials/

How to increase Confidence

November 26, 2020 By // by Rachel Brushfield

Confidence is one of the 6 C’s you need to successfully create, market, manage and evolve a portfolio career.

Confidence
Clarity
Community
Conviction
Competence
Courage

This blog post shares some useful resources – articles and podcasts, about how to increase confidence.

Women especially we find, tend to lack confidence.

We help our clients increase their confidence and self-belief.

We do this using:

Self-completion questionnaires
Self-reflective questions
Practical tools to manage unhelpful thoughts
Exercises to identify insights causing a lack of confidence
Transforming negative beliefs into positive helpful beliefs
Associations e.g. music, objects, inspiring quotes
Humour
Creating unique exercises for them

Every client is different and so we tailor our approach to each client.

Building self-confidence is one of the most important things you can ever do, and it is ongoing throughout your life!

It is essential in an uncertain world and when making a career change.

And especially so when creating a portfolio career.

What affects someone’s confidence?

Many things can dent your confidence:

Redundancy
Overt or covert criticism
Unaffirming bosses, peers or parents
Narcissistic leaders
Negative self talk from yourself to yourself! e.g. perfectionist tendencies – common amongst certain people e.g. lawyers

The good news is ….you can change this!

I have.

Useful resources about confidence

Article in The Guardian: “It’s not lack of clarity that’s holding women back, it’s the myths we tell ourselves.”https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/mar/08/its-not-lack-of-confidence-holding-women-back-its-the-myths-we-tell-ourselves

Article: “Why women are less confident and what we need to do to change.“

Why are women less self-assured than men? Why does so much research point to the fact that while women have just as much talent and ability as men to make it, they all-too-often lack confidence when it comes to their careers.

https://www.brightnetwork.co.uk/equal-opportunities-menu/why-women-are-less-confident-and-what-we-need-do-change/

Entrepreneur: 4 Podcasts That Will Help Boost Your Self-Confidence

1. Mommy Millionaire Podcast with Cayla Craft

Podcast’s mission: “Bring you inspiring stories, business and mindset tips to help you be shameless in pursuing your ambitions.”

2. You Turn Podcast w/ Ashley Stahl

Podcast’s mission: “Spark inspiration to upgrade your confidence in work, love, and life. Ashley is a counterterrorism professional turned career coach, and forthcoming author, who uses her experiences and humour to spark thought-provoking conversations to up level your life.”

3. Levelling Up: Creating Everything from Nothing with Natalie Jill

Podcast’s mission: “Learn how to achieve success beyond anything you ever dreamed possible, by levelling up, even when the odds are stacked against you.”

4. BossBabe Podcast with Natalie Ellis and Dr. Danielle Canty

Podcast’s mission: “Show how to balance life and achieve peak performance while building a successful business. The real behind the scenes action takes place on this podcast with Natalie and Danielle sharing their journey with ambitious women around the world.”

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/334506

What next?

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