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7 tips to think about your career KPIs in 2021

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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/

Is career coaching worth it?

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Is career coaching useful?

Is career coaching worth the cost?

Is career coaching really worth it?

This blog tackles these questions head on.

Below are some of the conversations that you may be having with yourself, or with your partner/friends about whether to do career coaching or not.

I’m too busy and lack time

  • 30 mins. coaching/week saves 8+ hours /week because you become more focused, productive etc.
  • Alot is achieved with just 30 minutes coaching/week or fortnight
  • Coaching often takes place on the phone/Zoom so it is very convenient and can fit into even the most hectic of schedules/lives.
  • We are happy to do early bird weekend appointments (I am an early bird!) and also weekend appointments.

I can’t afford coaching

  • Clients say that the results from coaching, whether saving time, making more money, feeling more fulfilled etc. are more than worth the investment
  • We provide additional added value, sharing marketing & personal brand insights as well as coaching with our clients
  • With outplacement (redundancy coaching/counselling), your new job is more likely to be achieved faster and with a higher salary than without coaching, so you end up banking more of your redundancy money and ultimately saving money
  • Often people unfulfilled in their jobs make ‘comfort’ purchases to make themselves feel better. This is a temporary ‘fix’. Career coaching to identify the right career for you provides sustainable reward
  • Many people have saved money in 2020 because of Covid-19, as they haven’t had the cost of train or tube tickets/petrol or lunch and coffees. This could be your budget pot for your career coaching

Getting coaching is ‘a sign of weakness‘

  • Coaching, as with sports coaching is about enabling already talented people to achieve even more and bring out their best
  • Many famous people, the perception of whom is far from weak, have a coach e.g. Madonna, President Clinton etc.

Wise people ask for help rather than struggle

How do I know that career coaching will really be worth the time, money and energy?

  • You can speak with Rachel’s clients to hear it from the horse’s mouth & read our client case studies and testimonials
  • Coaches have a coach – they would hardly pay for/do it if it didn’t work!
  • Coaching has agreed timeframes and goals and makes clients self-sufficient & more resourceful  – it’s not an ‘open-ended arrangement’

My job is to help people so that they don’t need me any more

When my clients come back at their next major career crossroads, sometimes over 10 years later, this makes me so happy

Isn’t coaching like therapy?

  • No, coaching isn’t like therapy because it is practical, has goals and focuses on moving forward positively. It’s all about achieving more in the present and creating the future you want
  • With therapy, the past is an issue, with coaching it’s a fact. Therapy is about addressing issues from the past because without doing this, the client can’t move forward positively.

A coach tells you what to do, I don’t like being told what to do

  • This is the complete opposite of what happens – a key principle of coaching is that the client has all the answers within them and if they come up with their own solutions, it is more empowering
  • Coaching gives the client time and space to think, reflect and plan and the coach acts as a sounding board, facilitating & focusing the client’s reflection and turning these into focused actions to move forward towards defined goals. The coach shares any thoughts & ideas only with the client’s permission
  • Friends and family might tell you what they think you should do, but a coach certainly doesn’t, they are completely objective and yet supportive to your desired outcome. The people closest to you can be a barrier to you, because they have their own agenda and may fear change. E.g. they may like the status or money associated with your current role or career

Partner objects e.g. career change or partner confiding in someone other than them

  • They can have a chat with me so that they feel comfortable
  • It may be relevant to have a joint coaching session with you and your partner to work through the blocks
  • The increased happiness and fulfilment of you being in the right role for you has a positive knock-on effect on your loved ones, whether a partner and/or children
  • Fear of change is part of being human and this can be explored in the coaching

More

“5 times career coaching is well worth the splurge”. Muse article: https://www.themuse.com/advice/5-times-a-career-coach-is-well-worth-the-splurge

How to choose a career coach: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/how-to-choose-a-career-coach/

How does career coaching work? https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/how-does-career-coaching-work/

Interesting in having a no obligation chat to explore how career coaching could help you? Get in touch:https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/contact-us/

What is career agility?

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

http://linkedin.com/in/oliviastreaterlavizzari

What does agility mean?

The dictionary definition of agility is:

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

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

Impact of Covid-19 on accelerating change

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

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

Pain is often a catalyst for rapid change.

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

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

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

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

Covid-19 has forced people to be agile.

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

Times are changing. At last.

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

How career agile are you?

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

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

Lockdown = time to think

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

About what they want.

Are you ready to make a change?

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

More

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

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

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

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

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

How to create clarity in your career

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“How do I decide what career I want?”

A big and important question, is it not?

Clarity is one of the 6 C’s you need when deciding what career you want.

It is especially important to successfully create, market, manage and evolve a portfolio career, because a portfolio career has multiple components, and therefore more options and decisions to make.

  • Confidence
  • Clarity
  • Community
  • Conviction
  • Competence
  • Courage

This blog post shares some useful resources – articles and podcasts, about how to create career clarity.

Why is career clarity so important?

As career coaches, helping our clients to get really clear about who they are, what they want and how to get it, is an important part of our job.

Investing time in creating clarity saves you a lot of wasted time, money and stress going down the wrong road.

In the digital age, there are millions of career options, resources to read, people to talk with.

A big decision like what career option to choose is a massive decision to make.

Especially in the uncertain times in which we live, with Covid-19 and Brexit.

How do we help our clients gain career clarity?

  • Self-completion questionnaires
  • Self-reflective questions
  • Personality and psychometric tests
  • Exercises – values, motivations, career drivers and many more
  • Creating unique exercises for them

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

Career clarity is especially important when creating a portfolio career.

It is also important to review your career strategy regularly, as you change e.g. at different life stages, and as markets change.

Rachel, Energise founder, takes regular away days and career retreats to think, reflect, plan and create. House sits provide a brilliant way to do this, explore new places, meet new people, and some gorgeous pets! Newness is one of Rachel’s values.

How clear are you on what you want from your career next?

What’s your career goal, strategy and plan?

Useful resources about gaining career clarity

Blog. What is lack of clarity costing you?

https://www.juliehyde.com.au/what-is-lack-of-clarity-costing-you/

Podcast. Journey to clarity – This episode is all about getting clear and building a new path to evolve your life. This is what clarity can do for you!

https://www.disruptnowprogram.com/blog/disrupt-now-podcast-episode-40-journey-to-clarity

What next?

Get in touch to arrange your free 20 minute meeting to explore how we can help you to gain career clarity:

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

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

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12-1pm on Tuesday 10 November 2020.

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

This 1 hour free webinar will share:

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

Benefits

  • New ideas and approaches.
  • How to turn Covid-19 into a positive for your networking.
  • Practical tips to make marketing easier, effective + expedient.
  • S.M.A.R.T. actions to move forward.

Book your place on EventBrite now:

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

Common Career Conundrums

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Furlough ends on the 31 October.

This is a MASSIVE SCARY career crossroads for many people.

What next?

How do you know what the right decision is for your career?

Common career conundrums are:

Should I:

•          Retrain?

•          Become self-employed?

•          Go freelance?

•          Set up my own business?

•          Create a portfolio career?

•          Study for a new qualification?

•          Do contracting?

•          Change career direction?

•          Take a career sabbatical?

•          Take early retirement?

Making the right decision is always important at a career crossroads.

It is especially important with Covid-19 because the stakes are high.

And there is a lot of competition.

It is a buyer’s market.

Making a robust career decision needs 5 things:

  1. Internal analysis – you

2) External analysis – the market

3) A strategy for screening your career options and making a robust decision.

4) A career plan A, B and C for uncertain times.

5) A marketing strategy and plan.

Get in touch, for your free career consultation, no-obligation: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/contact-us/

Career Reinvention

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Many people at the moment, because of shrinking sectors are being forced to rethink their careers. They may have been with the same company or in the same profession for their whole lives, so this can feel very very daunting.

In times of economic growth, I help people change career direction because they want to, e.g. for better work life balance, to have more fulfilling work, or to turn an enjoyable hobby into paid work.

Experience of career reinvention

I also have alot of experience of helping people reinvent themselves, because they have to, i.e. redundancy. My company was one of the first to be awarded a contract to do ‘Steer your career’ workshops after the credit crunch in 2007/2008, so we have lots of experience to support people being made redundant at this time.

I have also done many career events and workshops for membership organisations including the Law Society, ICAEW and the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) on portfolio careers, career reinvention, career strategy, personal branding to name a few.

Why I love career reinvention

I love career reinvention because it is helping people to see what they find it hard to see themselves as they are too close and seeing their confidence grow as they work out what they are going to do and how they are going to make it happen, with my support.

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Career coaching is both practical and creative. One of my favourite client briefs is starting with a ‘blank sheet of paper’ i.e. a client who doesn’t know what else they could do, but do know that they have to or want to reinvent themselves in their career.

I have reinvented my own career. See my LinkedIn profile for detail: Rachel Brushfield’s LinkedIn profile

One trick pony

Often my career coaching clients feel that they are ’one trick ponies’ having done the same thing for years, when actually they have hugely transferable skills and just need help to see this and to market themselves, as they feel rusty, not having updated their CV or had an interview in ages.

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Career transition client examples

My clients’ career reinvention transitions include:

  • An insurance broker becoming a teacher of children to learn the piano
  • A barrister becoming a company secretary
  • A direct marketing expert becoming a self employed photographer
  • A human rights lawyer retraining as a dance therapist
  • An education lawyer moving into music management
  • A project manager setting up a company doing cheese holidays in France

Common barriers to career reinvention

There are many barriers in people’s minds to career change, some actual and some perceived:

·       Fear of change/uncertainty

·       Resistance from partners, peers or parents

·       Worrying about money, making the wrong decision or taking a step down the ladder having worked so hard to progress up it

·       Not knowing what you don’t know

·       Being in the dark about how to find out about new options 

·       Believing they are ‘too old’ to change

·       Pleasing others e.g. parents living their lives through their children’s success instead of focusing on their happiness

·       Lack of time

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·       Not wanting to let go of a benefit of the current job e.g. being admired at parties for being a Doctor

11 Tips to reinvent your career

1.  Research employment growth areas; sectors and jobs

2.  Think about when you have felt most alive and fulfilled in your work and how you can have more of this

3.  Source examples of achievements and initiatives from outside your career to demonstrate your marketability

4.  Think your career change through thoroughly and create a long term vision with small short term steps

5.  Make time regularly to make your change happen

6.  Research your options and ensure they will give you what’s important to you e.g. security, learning or challenge

7.  Consider retraining and acquiring new skills to become more marketable

8.  Analyse what makes you distinctive to other people in your field – that unique combination of your skills, qualities and life and work experiences – this is your unique ‘brand’

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9.  Speak to people already doing what you want to do to get inside knowledge

10.               Be creative about how you can get experience to prove your capability and demonstrate the transferability of your skills in a new area e.g. do voluntary work, help out a friend’s business etc 

11. Enlist the support of an experienced career coach

Get in touch

Client testimonials

“Energise helped me focus on my strengths at a very negative time for me, during redundancy. I found the whole process very rewarding.”

“Coaching has given me extra confidence. The process was very rewarding. The CV now looks punchier, and I feel ME again.”

“Coaching with Energise has given me choices, freedom and liberation.”

“Coaching gave me an objective, practical and understanding sounding board when I needed to get my life back in gear again. It really is a personal service that works around who you really are and what you really want to do. “

“Coaching gave me a positive attitude, confidence and insight. It has been instrumental in my success and by setting targets and deadlines it has speeded up the whole process of finding another job.”

More client testimonials

Redundancy – problem or new opportunity?

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How are you feeling about the ‘R’ word?

If you are over 40, then you will remember the late 1980’s/early 1990’s when redundancy and negative equity were commonplace.

I was made redundant in the late 80’s. It was very stressful at the time, but a problem became an opportunity as it was the beginning of my career going in a direction that was more true to me.

I used my redundancy money to pay off my debts and give my discoloured teeth ‘a face lift’ with some porcelain veneer crowns, so redundancy ironically helped put the smile back on my face!!!

The positive aspects of redundancy

All the clients I have ever worked with who have been made redundant have gone on to something better. Did you know that only 20% of people actually enjoy their work?

Often we fall into a job almost by accident, choose a career because our parents did it or thought it a ‘proper’ profession e.g. law or accountancy, or perhaps a teacher influenced our choices. 

Companies can take a short-term view of saving costs, cutting headcount without considering the longer-term implications of losing people or having a talent shortage post recession. 

If redundancy is a possibility for you, it’s worth having a chat with your employer about your skills being redeployed in the business differently, reducing your hours, or having a sabbatical.

Redundancy = new beginning

Redundancy can be a push to make a positive change, even if it feels out of your hands and more like an unwelcome shove that makes you angry and steals your confidence. A redundancy lump sum is often used to start a business or fund a training course to increase marketability.

Examine skill shortages = opportunity to retrain/up-skill

A skills shortage is an opportunity for people being made redundant to skill-up in the areas where there is a shortage. Sheep shearing or being a trained ballet dancer may not be your thing, but jobs such as an engineer, maths teacher or specialist nurses could be. Markets such as care homes, tech, big data and cyber security are growing for example.

Part of my role as a career strategist and coach is keeping up to date with changing trends – in demand skills and new emerging careers.

Get comfortable and competent marketing yourself

The British are very modest and people get so close to ourselves that we find it hard to see what makes us unique and marketable and how we can use these transferable skills in a different way. I can help.

The older we are and the more financial responsibilities and dependants we have, the harder and more risky the change feels.

A career crossroads is a positive opportunity to take a step back and look at who you are, what you want and how to get it.

We help our clients to achieve an uplifting breakthrough at major career crossroads such as redundancy, and have been doing career strategy coaching for over two decades.

How can we help you or someone you know at risk of redundancy?

Get in touch https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/portfolio/connect/

What’s your career insurance?

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It is vital in uncertain times to have career ‘insurance’ – a plan ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ for your career. 

Do you?

Not having an insurance policy for your career is like driving a car in winter with only one headlight, a 10 year old map, a nearly empty tank of petrol with no spare petrol can in the boot and with one wing mirror hanging off.

You wouldn’t, would you?

Why then, do most people do the equivalent with their career?

You only have to look at what has happened during the coronavirus period to see the danger of how fast a sector can change.

So – what’s your career plan ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’? 

Reasons for neglecting this vital area include:

·        Fear: Of feeling regret and disappointment

·        Time poor: Let other’s needs take precedence

·        Overwhelm: Don’t know where to start

·        Empty toolbox: Don’t have the tools and frameworks

·        Short termism: Focus on the here and now

·        Life stage: Feel no point with other life priorities

·        Habit: Fell into a career and leave it to chance

·        Resigned: Don’t feel deserve anything better/different

·        Unaware: Never done any personal development

·        Blinkered: In the dark about the fast changing world of work 

Do you relate to any of these? What additional factors would you add?

Inspiring quote

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

Self-reflective question:

What 1 action can I take straight away that would most help my future career security & prospects?”  

7 tips for your career reassurance

1.  Support: enlist an experienced career coach

2.  Headspace: book a career retreat/away day

3.  Think: replace mindless time frittering e.g. FaceBook

4.  Focus: write your ideal role/career description & plan ‘A’, ‘B’ & ‘C’

5.  Habit: make ‘dead’ time fruitful e.g. a commute to create options

6.  Prioritise: ring fence a monthly time slot & budget

7.  Informed: look inwards (self-awareness) & outwards (trends)

What tips would you add?

Get in touch https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/portfolio/connect/