From Energise - The Talent Liberation Company

You are here: Home / Archives for energise -the talent liberation company

energise -the talent liberation company

7 tips to think about your career KPIs in 2021

By //  by 

Career KPIs – what are they and do they matter?

“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 paid 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 career KPI

Here are types of KPI with examples of each.

  • 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.
  • Fulfillment; feeling satisfied and enjoying your working hours and career, and having a sense of well-being with low stress.
  • Reputation/career capital; being seen as an expert, testimonials, being sought after, e.g. headhunted 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 corporate social responsibility (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 and work 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 that 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 diarise a career review and planning meeting four times a year.
  7. Grade your KPIs; primary and secondary or ‘must do’ and ‘nice to have’.

Get in touch for a no obligation 20 minute meeting:

https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/contact-us/

How does career coaching work?

By //  by 

This blog post shares a detailed example of how career coaching works in practice.

This case study is one of Peter Wilford’s clients, Mark P.

Objective

  • To provide a tailored programme of 1:1 career and executive coaching for a senior employee in his 50’s who was leaving his employer after over 30 years’ service.
  • To explore alternative options including securing employment with another organisation, moving into consultancy or starting up a new business.
  • To build rapport with the client over a period of time and deliver a tailored programme of sessions.

Background

From my experience of working with many people facing similar situations, I was able to spend some initial time with Mark in a “Review and Explore (Taking Stock)” phase during which he completed several documents including a series of profiling tools (personality and psychometrics).

These allowed me to clarify in some detail specifically what he, uniquely, could bring to his next role or work.

From here we discussed the different work and job options open to him.

There were four alternatives and each one required a full analysis and discussion.

Four career options:

  1. Setting up his own business

2. Marketing himself as a specialist consultant

3. Developing a portfolio career

4. Targeting the not for profit / public sector or SME organisations in the private sector.

Each option and strategy needed careful thought and positioning. 

Mark was keen to keep all options open and I coached him in how to do so whilst not losing momentum.

I helped him understand what he would need to do to move forward in each of the agreed options.

How the programme evolved.

During our sessions, it became clear that Mark needed to draw up a formal marketing plan for each option, and a structure to help him keep on track. 

We agreed that we would need to test out the necessary marketing actions and approach required for each option to establish a priority order.

It was important that Mark was comfortable with and could own and drive forward this plan and the actions confidently in the months ahead.

My coaching also revolved around building Mark’s confidence and giving him the tools to use on his own both with, and without my support, once his coaching was complete and we stopped working together.

He needed to have a good CV, to develop a good ‘talk’ about his career and work, and to be able to position himself in the market professionally both on paper and face to face at interview. 

He had to believe in himself and his career strategy.

How did we achieve this?

  • By agreeing a plan of action at the end of each coaching session, by following up on agreed actions and by reviewing these and revising them both at the start of and during our next session.
  • By maintaining momentum so that Mark was able to see progress moving forward.
  • I needed to challenge Mark and he wanted to see me do so in order to build up his confidence in me as his coach.
  • By narrowing down the options as time progressed so that Mark was able to focus his attention on the options that were likely to reap the most benefit.
  • By helping Mark come to terms with his situation and to move forward confidently from employment to a new life and a fresh career, after being made redundant and 30 years working with one employer.

Building confidence and momentum

Mark favoured a structured approach and we needed to develop a good relationship so that he trusted me and knew that my advice and coaching would benefit him. 

We worked in a way that suited him, but I needed to take him out of his comfort zone on several occasions. 

He valued this and it helped to strengthen our working relationship. 

I ensured that Mark saw real progress through regular reviews and email / telephone conversations in between our sessions

Challenges that we faced

A challenging jobs market. Slowness in the job market.  I coached Mark to learn how to persevere and overcome the slowness of the market with confidence.

Networking. Mark was not a natural networker and had been cautious about the value of networking and using LinkedIn. 

Social media. Like many clients initially, social media was quite alien to him. We had a session on this so that he bought into its value as part of his marketing activity.

Developing progress on his career journey

Gaining quick momentum gave Mark greater confidence in his marketability and him as a person.

He started to see things in a different light to what he had experienced in corporate life.  

We measured success by delivery against actions and making progress towards the agreed plan.

We also measured it by the number of new conversations that he started to have, both through new network contacts and from more established routes.

I saw Mark’s confidence grow in how he viewed and progressed the option to set up his own business and develop a portfolio career as opposed to going into another PAYE role.

What were the results?

Mark has set up his own business and picked up some initial retained consultancy work and this has been very motivational for him. 

He now has a portfolio career in place.

It has also helped him to recognise that this was the best way forward for him and that he has an offering that people want to buy. 

Also that he is able to make the transition to self-employment and run his own business.

Mark has become confident in managing his career by himself with me as a mentor as well as a coach. 

He has driven his own career being self-employed with myself as more of a ‘back stop’.  A career coach is like a pair of armbands, essential but then not needed anymore, as the client has learned to swim.

Phase two has worked well and he is now developing a successful business.

He is also developing, with a partner, an interesting and potentially lucrative project for regional businesses. 

He is working through the business plan and financials.  

He is also in contact with a multinational retailer who is interested in the programme.

Client testimonial

“Following my redundancy last year, Peter worked with me to assess my situation and help me consider the options open to me. Throughout this process he was unflagging in his enthusiasm, support, and encouragement. His approach was excellent – he listened sensitively to me as well as challenged and motivated me to make progress. He helped at a practical level too by, for example, drafting of a new C.V. for me. Peter’s professionalism backed up by his extensive knowledge, sources of information and a range of practical tools enabled me to explore options that I would never have thought of and ultimately helped me to decide on my new career path. Peter has been both a mentor and ‘critical friend’ and I have greatly valued his support. He was also fun to work with at a time that was fairly testing for me, which was a real bonus. I hope we can keep in touch!”   Mark W.

What next?

Why choose a portfolio career? https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/why-portfolio-career/

Who is a portfolio career for? https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/who-has-portfolio-careers/

What is a portfolio career? https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/what-is-a-portfolio-career/

When is it time for a portfolio career?https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/when/

Curious about how career coaching could help you at your career crossroads?

Get in touch to arrange your free 20 minute meeting: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/contact-us/