rachel brushfield

Feeling career satisfaction?

March 8, 2015 By // by DigitalJenIPC

Career satisfaction is a growing movement.

There are many reasons for this including the needs, wants, and values of Generation Y/the Millennials, the growing influence of women on the workplace in senior decision making roles and perhaps that many people are a bit (or alot!) weary from the downturn years.

Research by Bruce Woodcock from the University of Kent has explored the factors that create career satisfaction.

15 factors key for career satisfaction:

1. Living near work
2. Access to green spaces or working outdoors
3. Mindfulness – being aware of what we are doing
4. Flow – being immersed in an activity we relish
5. Learning new skills
6. Having purpose and motivating work goals
7. Helping others
8. Autonomy
9. Challenges with clearly defined steps
10. Receiving positive feedback
11. Having supportive social contacts
12. Working for small organisations or self-employment
13. Realistic deadlines
14. Reasonable hours and good work life balance
15. A conducive environment to working productively without distractions

Score your current work. Give each of the 15 factors a score out of 100%.

Add up your total – maximum 1500. What does this tell you?

Our company cat can be a distraction at work, but a furry and purring welcome one. I am sure she sends e mails sometimes!

Working in many companies does not give people many of these 15 factors. Is it really surprising then, that more and more people are choosing to become self-employed, to work for less bureaucratic smaller companies and to design work to suit them – their own business or tailor made portfolio career?

Download our free report to uncover your transferable skills – they could be the key to increasing your career satisfaction:
http://careerstrategies.co.uk/changingcareersreport/

Click on this link to read more about career satisfaction:
http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/Choosing/career-satisfaction.htm

How do you use social media for marketing

February 8, 2015 By // by DigitalJenIPC

Social media is a powerful tool which is changing the way the world interacts and communicates. Helping women to market themselves is a specialism so this is a blog for women specifically.

Social media also suits women; men are comfortable ‘blowing their own trumpet’ and asking clients directly for business. Women often find it difficult to market themselves, so social media is useful for you as an indirect vehicle for this.

Social media e.g. blogging, Twitter and Pulse on LinkedIn enable you to share your knowledge and help people without feeling like you are brazenly ‘singing your own praises’. Social media is about reciprocity and supporting and connecting with others; this appeals to women.

Using social media

Using social media feels a bit alien at first but you soon get used to it. Women are typically naturally good at collaboration, building relationships and communication and social media is a great vehicle to do this. The nature of social media and feedback from it encourages you to be yourself.

Social media is also 24/7, so you can post and schedule postings to suit your own schedule, e.g. in the evening after putting the children to bed or scheduling social posts at the weekends to go out during the week. Most social media platforms are mobile too.

You can also have a portfolio career on Twitter – I have 3 Twitter accounts for example. I recommend Hootsuite – it is a visual dashboard to tailor Twitter to you.
What are the benefits of social media?

So how do you use social media for marketing?

Benefits of social media include:

• Expanding your immediate circle of contacts without the need for face to face networking
• Meeting potential mentors
• Developing connections with women in other companies for mutual support
• Meeting successful women in lateral professions around the world

Given time, connection and mutual sharing, on-line contacts whether Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook Professional can become business opportunities as well as lead to friendships and mentor/mentee relationships.

Tips for expedient social media

• Set specific S.M.A.R.T. goals for social media e.g.

o generating clients
o finding out the latest real time information
o sourcing a mentor
o developing thought leadership
o gaining media attention

• Identify 3-5 social media platforms that will help you achieve your professional goals
• Start with 1 social media platform and do it well. Choose from LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook Professional – they have a diverse user base and high traffic numbers
• Facebook Professional is relevant if you deal with personal clients, less so business clients
• Use social media tools you feel comfortable with as you will be more likely to use them frequently
• Blogging is perfect if you love writing and analysis
• Twitter is great if you like staying on top of information 24/7 and quick paced banter in short bite sized chunks – a tweet is only 140 characters so helps you to be succinct
• Define S.M.A.R.T. social media goals to stay focused and avoid losing time and getting disengaged e.g. attracting reporters seeking information

You can lose a lot of time if you are unfocused with social media, but when focused and with clear goals, it is an amazing arena that opens up the whole world to you.

View our LinkedIn profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/energiseliberateyourtalent

A portfolio career for me!

January 27, 2015 By // by DigitalJenIPC

This is a guest blog by one of our clients, Jenny Brewer. Jenny enjoyed a successful career setting up and running her own law firm and was a pioneer for women in the law. She didn’t want to retire but to enjoy a more varied and stimulating second career, but what? Like many people, Jenny was not sure about her transferable skills, where they were useful or how to market herself as an individual brand. We helped her to think through how to make it happen and she has! The rest of this blog is in her own words:

Careers, in short, have a shelf life; portfolio careers can be timeless

When I chose to step down from my Law Practice 2 years ago I had no idea what opportunities were out there for someone like me. In 1980 I had set up and developed my own Law Firm and after a good 30 years at the helm and an exciting legal career behind me, I was ready to move on. But what was I going to do? After a lot of thought and, I have to admit, quite a lot of anxiety and doubt, I could see that it would be difficult to focus on one thing. I wanted to be free of management, free of staff, free of overwhelming regulation: a Portfolio Career i.e. a variety of jobs or business opportunities rather than one long term job, seemed a very good starting point.

So what exactly is a Portfolio Career?

For many people, instead of working in a traditional full-time job, they have several part-time jobs (including part-time employment, temporary jobs, freelancing and self-employment). When these are combined, they may add up to the equivalent of a full-time job or a working life, which is as full as they want it to be.

Getting Started creating a Portfolio Career

It is not unusual to find it difficult to get started, it feels like taking a leap into the unknown, when in fact you will soon realise that the first step is often the hardest – after that it somehow “grows”. It’s often a good idea to ask a friend to help you or to consult a Career Coach who will make that first step feel quite natural.

I was fortunate enough to be guided by Rachel Brushfield whose help was invaluable. With her advice I was able to work out what I had to offer and the areas I wanted to get into.

So we looked at:
• My skills
• My interests
• Things that I have always wanted to do
• Things I have always wanted to learn/develop – no matter how varied.

The Future of my Portfolio Career

Two years on and I now have my own Business Consultancy, which is well remunerated. In addition, I mentor professionals – including women solicitors, and I teach speaking skills. During the last two years, I have studied for and taken a teaching diploma in speaking skills. I have met so many interesting people from different areas of life who I wouldn’t have come across when I was working as a lawyer. I have also been involved in voluntary work including teaching youngsters in school to express themselves through speaking.

It has been a wonderfully rewarding experience. I have learnt to say “no” to work I don’t want and to develop the additional skills I need to do things that I am now interested in. It has surprised me how many opportunities are out there to acquire work, to learn new skills and to develop new interests.

It is said that we all work and possibly live in silos, where we are seriously focused on our individual narrow paths. We need to be focused because our work demands it. Now, I feel as though I have stepped outside into the fresh air. I’ve become more worldly and more interested in everything around me and I feel I have far more to contribute, far more to look forward to and, perhaps, most importantly, much more to enjoy!

Jennifer Brewer
www.achievingsuccess.co.uk

The unwelcome guest

January 4, 2015 By // by DigitalJenIPC

I had an unwelcome guest over Christmas. In fact they were never invited.

The guest was fear. It visits me every year around this time, the ‘in-between zone’ between the festive season fading and the business world waking from its slumber.

It paralysed me for over 5 minutes; I could feel it camping in my body.

The negative self-talk started: “What if everyone ‘sits on the fence’ until after the general election – that’s over 5 MONTHS?!!” “What if lack of business confidence means no decisions are made?” “How will I deal with the fast pace of increased competition and technology?”

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! Panic set in.

I noticed myself doing a displacement activity to sooth myself.

Luckily mine is very productive and inexpensive rather than doing drugs or shopping – I started filing business cards A-Z!

That made me chuckle. And then the fear started to shift and the positive thoughts moved the negative ones to one side out of view. I picture cheerleaders carrying pom poms – not sure why!

‘Rachel – you have been self-employed for over 17 years. Most small businesses fail in the first 1-2 years.’

‘Rachel, you are in the 1% of the population who embraces risk and change, imagine how other people feel? Focus on them, you can help them.’

‘Rachel you have a portfolio career, look at trends, have many useful skills and are resilient.’

The unwelcome guest left.

There is no question we live in uncertain and disruptive times. So what is the best way to manage fear?

10 tips to manage fear

1. Observe/sit with the fear until it shifts
2. Adopt/imagine a sense of curiosity about the future
3. Believe that you will work it out and it will be a positive learning and growing experience
4. Create a focused personal career vision, mission, strategy and plan
5. Remind yourself of what you have to offer
6. Understand yourself
7. Keep taking action to move forwards, one action at a time
8. Put aside 10% of your salary for retraining, coaching and/or a financial cushion
9. Invest in your personal & professional development and marketability
10. Define a focused sustainable niche for success

What tips would you add?

Useful resources to manage fear

• You
• Me
• Susan Jeffers books ‘Feel the fear and do it anyway’ & ‘Embracing uncertainty.’

What next?

Here are 4 actions – why not choose 1:

Download our free report:
http://careerstrategies.co.uk/changingcareersreport/

Put ‘Energise career coaching gift voucher’ on your gift list for this year.

Read our client testimonials:
http://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/energise-client-testimonials/

PS If you are ‘sitting on the fence’, here’s a thought. If you start coaching or our career e course now, you will be ready to move forward by the general election result. Ready? What have you got to lose, except 5 months of inaction and a sore arse? Get in touch. E mail me rachel@liberateyourtalent.com

Original reflection?

December 11, 2014 By // by DigitalJenIPC

Many moons ago in my youth when discos were part of my social repertoire, I was on the receiving end of a wonderful chat up line.

‘Why are you wearing your Granny’s cardigan? ‘ this voice in the noisy dark asked me.

I was wearing a cream Aran cardigan – not very ‘boob tube and mini-skirt’ brigade I agree, but then being in fashion with me has always happened by chance and accident rather than planning.

What a refreshingly wonderful non-cheesy line! We had a good chat and a laugh.

In a world where everyone is writing about everything, originality can be hard.

I have been working for over 27 years and am nearly 50, so the prospect of yet another New Year tips blog does not ignite me with passion! In fact, browsing the web recently, I found a web site dedicated to questions to ask yourself to reflect upon the year with lots of followers!

So this blog, #2 in a series of 3 in the run up to Christmas shares 4 different questions to the average – I hope!

How will you let more of yourself out in 2015?
What inner change needs to happen to enable outer change?
What’s the question you most need to ask yourself?
How will you know when you have found career fulfilment?

For more insights and tips, follow us on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/talentliberator

Are you clear on your talents? Downloading our free report will help you to liberate them:
http://careerstrategies.co.uk/changingcareersreport/

Your 2014 headline

December 7, 2014 By // by DigitalJenIPC

My late 95 year old grannie came close to falling off her rocking chair at Christmas. A plate of mince pies nearly became flying saucers. The culprit was a question.

The question I asked was:

“What are the top 10 highlights of your life so far?

Her no 1 life highlight was being proposed to on Waterloo Bridge – sweet!

The question I asked her is a BIG question, isn’t it? I mean there’s incisive questions and there’s incisive questions.

Open incisive questions are useful for purposeful refection, ideal in a full-on world.

The slowing pace after Christmas and before New Year is a good time to reflect, ask yourself big questions and plan.

I start by going through my diary and remembering what I have done and then reflecting to mine useful insights and plan actions.

This is the first of a series of 3 seasonal blogs to help you do this.

#week1 – headlines

Question for you.

What headline best sums up your 2014?

Here’s some examples:

• Fought tooth and nail for fair budgets and recognition
• Drowned in a sea of overwhelm and procrastination
• Lost time mindlessly doing social media
• Clung on by the skin of her teeth
• Quit the rat race
• Built a foundation for future success
• Created a portfolio career
• Became self employed
• Pushed out his comfort zone
• Had a life changing paradigm shift
• Played safe and stayed put

What would your headline for 2014 be?

A final 2 questions:

What would you like your headline to be for 2015?

What steps will you take to create this?

For more insights and tips, follow us on twitter:

https://twitter.com/talentliberator

“The future depends on what you do today” Mahatma Gandhi.

Wasted at work

November 30, 2014 By // by DigitalJenIPC

My eyes opened more widely recently, more than usual, and I am not talking mascara.

It was a discussion in a workshop of high growth microbusinesses about waste.

Waste is everywhere, sometimes obvious, sometimes hidden until you shine a light on it.

Common waste includes:

• Having a gym membership and not using it
• Buying too much food and throwing it away
• Meetings with no agenda where nothing is decided
• Houses where nobody lives when many are homeless
• Procrastination because of fear and worry
• Lack of focus when spreading yourself thinly
• Queuing – for anything
• Cars on the move with one passenger stuck in a traffic jam
• Energy worrying about things you can’t influence

A lot of the time, waste in many situations is preventable or reducible.

What is your biggest waste?

What is it costing you? Time, money, potential?

Waste of talent in business and in careers is scarily common too:

• Talented mothers leaving careers because of inflexible working practices
• Employees feeling disengaged because their skills are being underutilised or promotion prospects blocked
• Graduates doing a menial job because there can’t get one of a higher level
• Cruising in a dead end job because of lack of confidence or fear of change
What would you add?

No wonder self-employment and portfolio careers are growing!

Research recently got my brain ticking over faster than a lawnmower’s first outing in Spring. Employee churn is reducing, employee engagement reducing, stress increasing, trust in management declining.

So where are the policies for job redesign, where do portfolio careers fit in workforce planning? Where are the career conversations around an individual’s values? From the outside looking in, hasn’t the world of work as we know it passed its sell-by date?

Do you feel your talent is being wasted, for whatever reason?

If so, isn’t it time we talked? My job is a talent liberator; I do what it says on the tin. Get in touch. rachel@liberateyourtalent.com

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

“It isn’t where you came from; it’s where you’re going that counts.”
Ella Fitzgerald

A ‘waste of time’ is in the eye of the beholder

November 22, 2014 By // by DigitalJenIPC

What is ‘a waste of time’ and who decides?

I went to an interesting workshop this week about ‘achieving more for less.’ A catchy phrase for efficiency and effectiveness and how to waste less time. Big trend that one in business as I am sure you have noticed, and sometimes a short term myopic one.

As someone who works pretty expediently thanks to a super organised family gene, a portfolio career + Stephen Covey’s book ‘The 7 habits of highly effective people’ being the closest I get to a bible, I was very hungry to gobble up more tips.

I remember having a battle with a home/office organiser who I commissioned to ‘sort me out’ when I moved from London to Oxfordshire 7 years ago. Apparently unbeknown to me, I had a very ‘creative’ filing system = new insight!

Super office organiser tried to browbeat me into having a big household bin near to the back door so I wouldn’t have far to take it to the dustbin and not empty it very often. No. No no no. I dug my heels in and we had a standoff.

I was really frustrated that she didn’t take time to ask me questions and understand my needs but instead imposed her map of the bin and rubbish emptying world onto me. I explained that I preferred a smaller bin that was emptied more often located further away from the back door so that:

a) I didn’t trip over it and end up in A&E
b) It was less likely to smell as it was emptied more often
c) I had more trips to the dustbin = exercise & escaping from my PC.

She acquiesced. I was the client after all.

So ‘a waste of time’ IS in the eye of the beholder and stakeholder. The currencies of ‘waste’ are diverse aren’t they? Money, time, energy, sleep, thinking, relaxation, chat, rubbish et al.

A lot of other things have benefits when another person e.g. your boss might perceive it as ‘a waste of time’. My afternoon naps aren’t a waste of time; they make me more productive afterwards.

Creatives need space, percolation and varied stimulus to spark off an award winning idea. Others observing them might think they are doing nothing but a lot of chewing pencils, staring into space and drinking wine and coffee.

I spend a lot of time thinking, reading & writing sitting on trains = very productive. E.g. I chose to go to St Austell recently for its 11 hour return journey for thinking and planning and to hit some key deadlines.

So what time are you wasting or is it just how you or others are perceiving it?
What 1 change would make all the difference for you?

One change I am going to make following the workshop is halving the amount of reading I optimistically take to London, fail to read and lug around before bringing it back. But then again, maybe I won’t because it’s an alternative to weights in the gym.

So what is the moral of this story and is there one? I guess it goes back to good old marketing principles – find out your client’s needs and don’t make assumptions.

If you would like a free copy of:

‘How to do absolutely nothing’ (which I might re-name)
‘Addiction to busyness’
‘The danger of making assumptions’

e mail me at rachel@liberateyourtalent.com

PS We do gift vouchers which make a practical and thoughtful Christmas present. Please ask for details.

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

Finally if you are twiddling your thumbs today, I found this web site sharing links to Pointless sites so you can waste some time.
http://www.pointlesssites.com/showcase.asp

Hope is not a strategy – part 2

November 15, 2014 By // by DigitalJenIPC

The world of work is changing fast. Are you ready for it?

Here are 6 trends from a digest of a MPF trends seminar I attended recently by Rohit Talwar of Fast Future. @fastfuture This blog is the second in a series about world trends and how they will affect the world of work and business.

• Change the Board agenda: Most businesses focus on 1 year, so changing the order of items covered on a Board meeting’s agenda is a simple way to get management thinking, planning and having conversations for the longer term

• Up technology spend to compete: Businesses need to up their spend on technology e.g. typically companies spend about 1-3% of budgets on technology whereas disruptive small businesses are spending about 30%

• Build employer brand: Businesses need to be created so that they attract talent to choose to work there

• Reinvent business DNA: Businesses need to create a new game and think about how they can recreate their ‘DNA’

• The new business way: New style firms have a clear ‘spine’; a) technology will become the core of the firm, b) project and business management will be separated, c) expertise will be used to serve clients and also other firms

• SMEs and technology create disruption: Technology and hungry, nimble entrepreneurial market entrants are eating away at the heartland of traditional slow moving business and firms

How will these trends affect you?

What’s your first step to reflect on this?

To follow Fast Future on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/fastfuture

For more insights and tips to help you liberate ALL of your talent, follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/talentliberator

PS We do gift vouchers – they make an ideal present to reflect, take stock, plan and make your career future-proof. Get in touch. #savesshoeleather

Hope is not a strategy

November 8, 2014 By // by DigitalJenIPC

The world of work is changing fast. Are you ready for it?

Here are 6 trends from a digest of a MPF trends seminar I attended recently by Rohit Talwar of Fast Future. @fastfuture

• Old style businesses could become extinct: There is a big ‘clash’ between the old and new worlds. This is magnified for traditional businesses and where technology is changing fast/creating disruption

• Change and uncertainty is certain: Accelerated speed of change with uncertainty the new ‘normal’

• Quality thinking a must: To succeed, firms and businesses need to create time and a structure for thinking

• Danger of stress inhibiting clarity of thought: Stress of downturn pressures has created fatigue – can affect clarity of thought/decision making when quality thinking is becoming more vital

• Plans with 3 timeframes: Three different timeframes need to be considered for businesses to stay ahead; longer term ‘radar’ (4-10 years), medium term vision (3 years), short term – clear goals for 12 months

• Diverse minds needed in tandem: Different individuals and mind/skill sets are needed to be responsible for these 3 different timeframes and issues

How will these trends affect you?

What’s your first step to reflect on this?

To follow Fast Future on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/fastfuture

For more insights and tips to help you liberate ALL of your talent, follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/talentliberator