the talent liberator

Are you ready for career change?

June 20, 2020 By // by Rachel Brushfield

Some of our clients have been unhappy at work for up to 10 years before they contact us and in some cases, have are ill having resisting the change that they need to make – they are so ready for change.

The outcome for some of our other clients is that they choose to stay put rather than change career, and improve what they can influence where they are.

In a challenging jobs market with increasing uncertainty, taking responsibility for your career is not something you can afford to ignore.

Self reflective questions

What’s stopping me from making the change I seek from work a reality?

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

4 tips to check if you are ready for career change

Identify your personal values so you know if there’s a mismatch between you and your organisation.
Keep a diary of how you feel about work for 2 months and notice the patterns and factors that affect your highs and lows. Review what’s frustrating you and what you can influence.
Do a satisfaction audit of the different aspects of your role. What does it tell you?
Are there opportunities to progress in the way you want at work? Explore job redesign as an option with the changing needs of the organisation.

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

Exercising your entrepreneurial muscle

June 19, 2020 By // by Rachel Brushfield

More competition for jobs and consultancy work makes being entrepreneurial as well as resilient essential.

The word entrepreneurial can make people put pressure on themselves, as it is associated with entrepreneurs, and many people don’t identify themselves in this way.

Alternative words for entrepreneurial

Other words that you can use instead of ‘entrepreneurial’ that may feel more ‘you’ are:

Enterprising
Imaginative
Ingenious
Inventive
Pioneering
Resourceful
Creative

Coronavirus has forced entrepreneurial behaviour

The coronavirus has seen a massive amount of fast change and reinvention with on-line learning and teaching, for example.

Our local pub is planning to re-open in July re-organised to accommodate social distancing with an App to pre-book tables and pre order and pay for food and drinks. Food and drinks will be placed in a holding bay, for people sitting at tables to collect themselves, protecting the staff and minimising touch and risk of infection, instead of staff serving at the tables. This system will also enable more planning, and perhaps less waste, with prior knowledge of what ingredients are needed and in what quantity.

Invention and innovation

Entrepreneurial behaviour underlies the inclination to undertake invention and innovation, including the creation of something new, as well as the distribution and adoption of the new throughout society. Think Zoom and Team which are now the norm, when a few months ago, not everyone had heard of or used them.

Portfolio careers require entrepreneurial behaviour

Entrepreneurial behaviours are essential with a portfolio career, a career made up of different work strands, where you create different opportunities for yourself. As an analogy, just as with cookery, the more ingredients that you have – skills, experience, knowledge and contacts, the more ‘recipes’ you can create for yourself.

What are entrepreneurial behaviours?

Confident/’can do’ attitude

Proactivity

Learning

A mistake/failure is an opportunity to learn/relearn

Try different things

Curiosity

Assertiveness

Being inventive/enterprising

Resilient

A preference for change

Desire to change the status quo

How would you rate yourself currently on these entrepreneurial behaviours out of 100%?

Developing entrepreneurial habits helps to develop entrepreneurial behaviours.

10 habits of entrepreneurs

What are the habits of entrepreneurs?

1. Plan a day in advance

2. Get proper nutrition

3. Position themselves to serve others

4. Set clear S.M.A.R.T. goals

5. Take calculated risks

6. Know their strengths and weaknesses

7. Hire ‘A’ team players

8. Are constantly learning

9. Always look for opportunities

10. Evaluate their actions and priorities every day

6 tips to develop your entrepreneurial ‘muscle’

Block out time in your diary each week for personal and professional development
Diarise a half day or whole day away day every 2 months to think, reflect, plan and create
Read Charles Handy’s book The New Alchemists
Learn to coach yourself – ask yourself open incisive questions e.g. for a trainer: ‘What trends are growing in the tech sector that I could adopt for the training industry?’
Diarise ‘important not urgent’ tasks to make sure that they happen. According to Stephen Covey, author of the international best seller The 7 habits of highly effective people these tasks are:

Preparation
Prevention
Planning
Relationship building
Empowerment
Self awareness, learning, exploration & development
Learning new skills
Creative thinking
Networking
Prioritisation
Training & development
Exercise

6. Push out your comfort zone each week – do something that you have never done before

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

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

How’s your career capital?

June 17, 2020 By // by Rachel Brushfield

Career capital is the value of competencies, knowledge and individual personality attributes and other career assets that you have to produce economic value.

In competitive markets, career capital is even more important than usual.

In times of redundancies with supply of workers outstripping demand, the market will be more competitive. If the quality of two candidates is the same, what will differentiate them to be chosen?

What is career capital?

Your career assets combined = your career capital; the sum total of your time, talent and potential. You need to consider it in terms of its present and future value when considering your long-term career prospects. If the internet is an ocean full of ‘fish’ i.e opportunities, you need the right ‘bait’ to catch the ‘fish’ you want, whether it is a job or a self employed project. Career capital helps you to do this.

What ‘fish’ do you want to catch e.g. employer or clients?

What will your ‘bait’ be?

Why is career capital important?

The market for workers is changing. In future, employers will have reduced permanent headcount and resource up on an as needed basis with individuals and employers rated transparently on-line.

Are you ready for this new world of work?

Differentiation and visibility on-line is critical.

Career assets

Your career capital is made up of multi-faceted career assets which accrue over time.

Accolades

Patents
Awards
League table rankings e.g. Chambers
Who’s who listing

Academic

Higher qualifications e.g. MBA, PHD, MSc/MA
Links with academia or prestigious universities e.g. guest lecturer

Endorsements

Client testimonials/employer references
Peer testimonials/endorsements

Published works

Articles
Chapters
Books
White papers

Talent

Multiple mastery areas
In-demand skills e.g. creativity, big data management
Languages
Good emotional intelligence e.g. empathy

Networks

Professional association involvement
Membership of respected clubs
Size & diversity of network
Quality of network e.g. senior decision makers, high net worths

Events

Hosting an event
Speaking at an event
Conference speaking
Conference chairing

Charitable

Pro bono
Trustee post

Career credibility

Prestige/trophy employers & clients e.g. FTSE 100
Senior leadership positions e.g. C-Suite

Miscellaneous

Personal brand

What would you add? How would you rate your career capital?

10 tips for healthy career capital

Create a career strategy and ensure your career capital is aligned with it
Define your ‘fish’ – i.e. target employers or clients
Make time to think about what ‘bait’ is the best to catch your ‘fish’
Audit your career capital quarterly and define career asset S.M.A.R.T. goals
Ensure you have insights about what is important to and valued by your target audience
Define your personal brand
Measure stats for your career capital so you can monitor progress
Monitor your reputation – e.g. set up Google alerts & track your name/brand on Twitter
Use/monitor LinkedIn stats to evaluate the quality and profile of your network
When, where and how will I make time to accrue my career capital?

Thought leadership is one of our specialisms. How can we help you develop yours?

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

What do our clients say? https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/energise-client-testimonials/

10 tips for happy self-employment – part 3 of 4

June 16, 2020 By // by Rachel Brushfield

Self employment is on the rise. This is a 4 part article series sharing 40 tips for happy self-employment.

Read part 1 https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/10-tips-for-happy-self-employment-part-1-of-4/

Read part 2 https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/10-tips-for-happy-self-employment-part-2-of-4/

1. Follow up is key – don’t waste effort going for the ‘new shiny thing’

2. Be clear on your attitude to risk

3. Adopt smart tech to work expediently and plan IT reviews and updates

4. Create a financial ‘cushion’ for quiet times

5. Design your business and working environment around your personality type e.g. extrovert or introvert

6. Make the most of the quiet months (August/December/January) to think and plan, don’t worry that it is quiet – it is a gift!

7. Utilise the support of a Virtual PA – play to your strengths

8. Be honest with yourself – what do you really want, rather than what you think you should do?

9. Know the key words for your specialism – use Google Keyword planner

10. Define your personal brand and personal brand assets, e.g. avatar – this is increasingly important in the digital age

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

Client successes

May 19, 2020 By // by Rachel Brushfield

Guest blogs are really useful to help us create awareness as a small business.

I really enjoyed writing this one ‘Magical NLP’ for NLP School. reflecting on some of our clients’ successes over the last 20 years of coaching.

Magical NLP: https://www.nlpschool.com/course-faq/guest-blog-magical-nlp-by-rachel-brushfield/

Supporting our network

May 19, 2020 By // by Rachel Brushfield

We’ve been writing an article a day on LinkedIn as well as sharing an inspiring quote to support our network. Here are a selection:

Insight mining

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/insight-mining-rachel-brushfield-the-talent-liberator/

Saying yes more to saying ‘no’

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/saying-yes-more-rachel-brushfield-the-talent-liberator/

Successful difficult conversations https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/successful-difficult-conversations-the-talent-liberator/

What creates trust?

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-creates-trust-rachel-brushfield-the-talent-liberator/

For the latest articles, check our postings on our LinkedIn profile. https://www.linkedin.com/in/energiseliberateyourtalent/

If you have any specific topics that you would like us to write about, please e mail us: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/portfolio/connect/

Chris Jones guest blog about his portfolio career part 2

April 15, 2020 By // by Rachel Brushfield

This is a 2-part guest blog by Chris Jones for Energise – The Talent Liberation Company about his portfolio career. This is part 2.

Biog

Chris Jones is a multiple business owner based in Oxford. His current businesses are:

Glooo: digital analytics
Boys and Girls Promotions: events staffing business
Boys and Girls Events: events management business
Oxford Influencers: Oxford Instagram solution

His events business, both Corporate and Private events, provide event design and staff in #Oxfordshire and #London. Clients include: The University of Oxford, Blenheim Palace, Soho Farmhouse, Oxford City Council, The Westgate Shopping Centre and many colleges and venues.

Chris is husband to Julie, father of 2 young adults finishing University, and a social butterfly.

Read part 1:https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/chris-jones-guest-blog-about-his-portfolio-career-part-1/

The rest of this guest blog is in Chris’ own words.

What do you most love about having a portfolio career?

My portfolio career and the whole digital world growth happened at the same time.

I.T. developed off the back of IBM and Microsoft delivering personal computing solutions and from 1983 web sites developed at a rapid rate.

It was very interesting being at the forefront of PC / website delivery in the UK.

What are the challenges of having a portfolio career?

The continued changes and improvements to the digital world, so it is always been a learning curve of new technologies and solutions.

My ‘skill’ for want of a better word is that I’m very good at understanding technology and seeing where it can be implemented.

Who or what helps you to manage your portfolio career?

I think it’s a ‘self-improvement’ journey, either in a broad format for your whole industry or specialisation in specific areas.

How do you approach marketing your portfolio career?

It always will be for me working in the digital world (although a marketing mix is important) first and foremost and then backed up with networking. I network 2 3 evenings per week. LinkedIn is our key social media platform for my businesses.

Image below: Boys and Girls Promotions doing the ticketing for Countryfile Live at Blenheim – one of our greatest achievements in winning the work and delivering on the 3 days of the event.

What if any, is the personal brand used for your portfolio career?

Have fun, be professional, and deliver on promises. That’s it!

I won’t work with people who are going to be difficult (don’t tell the bank manager!) and I need to enjoy and be inspired by my work.

What advice would you give to someone considering a portfolio career?

“The journey is long, don’t worry about things you can’t control.“

What 5 tips can you share for people considering a portfolio career?

1 Gain in-depth knowledge of your sector

2 Have an individual career plan a), b) and c)

3 Work with likeminded people, and be easy to work with

4 Always trust your ‘gut’

5 Value yourself and don’t compromise

More

View Chris Jones LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-jones-8a88b05a/

Browse the Boys and girls promotions web site: https://www.boysandgirlspromotions.co.uk/

Want to discuss a future face to face event? E mail Chris Jones: chris@boysandgirlspromotions.co.uk

Interested in a portfolio career yourself? Contact us for your free report ‘Discover Portfolio Careers’: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/portfolio/connect/

Thanks to Chris Jones for making the time to write a guest blog about his portfolio career for Energise. We are looking forward to his future original events, when the world returns to normal socialising and networking, post lock-down!

Chris Jones guest blog about his portfolio career part 1

April 15, 2020 By // by Rachel Brushfield

This is a 2-part guest blog by Chris Jones for Energise – The Talent Liberation Company about his portfolio career. This is part 1

Biog

Chris Jones is a multiple business owner based in Oxford. His current businesses are:

· Glooo: digital analytics – new web site being created at present in this fast moving dynamic business area

· Boys and Girls Promotions: events staffing business

· Boys and Girls Events: events management business

· Oxford Influencers: Oxford Instagram solution

His events business, both corporate and private events, provide event design and staff in #Oxfordshire and #London.

Clients include: The University of Oxford, Blenheim Palace, Soho Farmhouse, Oxford City Council, The Westgate Shopping Centre and many colleges and venues.

Image below: Event managing the opening of the Westgate shopping centre in central #Oxford. “It was wonderful to win the business, as a local business owner and deliver on a venue of importance to the City of Oxford.” Chris Jones.

Chris is husband to Julie, father of 2 young adults finishing University, and a social butterfly.

The rest of this guest blog is in Chris’ own words.

What are the components of your portfolio career e.g. study, paid freelance work, part time job, volunteering etc.?

This is such a massive question!

First and foremost, my career journey hasn’t and isn’t a planned/classic career path. It had no planning, direction, or reasoning, after School, O levels /College ONC. My list of jobs has included:

· I.T.

· Accountants

· I.T.

· Web Developer

· I.T.

· Then self-employment

The accountants’ role was pure desperation for a job and lasted for 3 months and ended after I suffered bullying. (I didn’t realise it was at the time, and only realised when told 20 years later by a colleague).

The I.T. companies were a range of distribution, channel, reseller and manufacturer, all roles in ‘business development’ and ‘account management’ roles. The web developer role was again business development – this rounded off my digital/I.T. journey.

I have been sacked, made redundant and chosen to leave companies, but I always felt I maintained relationships with the businesses, which is weird and good in equal measure.

How did your portfolio career come about?

As stated above, my career bumped from pillar to post sometimes by necessity, and sometimes by choice. The phrase I use now is that “at 53, I’m totally unemployable!“. With hindsight, I think I was unemployable at 20! Due to that fact that a) I always did a lot of research and training for jobs so put myself in a strong position but b) I didn’t suffer fools and found a good percentage of my bosses stuck in archaic ways of doing business.

How has your portfolio career changed over time?

It has changed with experience and knowledge, but I still had a clear vision of what I wanted to achieve based on the job requirements, but this didn’t always align again with line managers/owners.

When people ask you ‘what do you do?’ – what do you reply?

“I have a digital business, an events staffing/management business and an online Influencer website.”

Depending on the environment/network, I might only mention one of the businesses as I don’t really want the entrepreneur ‘label’. I’m an operational business owner not a visionary.

To what extent did your portfolio career happen by chance/luck and to what extent was it planned?

My journey has weaved!

I was always very good at getting jobs, being quite personable and strong in my knowledge base.

The second part of Chris’ portfolio career will include his tips for aspiring portfolio careerists.

More

View Chris Jones LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-jones-8a88b05a/

Browse the Boys and girls events web site: https://www.boysandgirlspromotions.co.uk/

Want to discuss a future face to face event post lockdown? E mail Chris Jones: chris@boysandgirlspromotions.co.uk

Interested in a portfolio career yourself? Contact us: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/portfolio/connect/

Emotional resilience

March 30, 2020 By // by Rachel Brushfield

The dictionary defines emotion as ‘any feeling that disturbs or excites the mind.’

Some people are naturally more emotional than others with more highs and lows than people who are more logical and analytical. Likewise, some people are more positive and see the glass as half full, whereas others see the glass as half empty. Life and work can present us with situations and people that we find challenging and sometimes threatening.

The good news is that how we react to these situations is within our control. Nelson Mandela and how he handled his confinement is an example of being in a hugely difficult situation, and coming up trumps. Emotions are often created by thoughts so having self-awareness of your values, motivations and insecurities can help you to have emotional resilience.

Unless we are very lucky, we don’t get taught how to be emotionally resilient, but learn it as we go along and using shopping, alcohol, drugs and busyness can be an easy way to anaesthetise difficult emotions.

We can learn to be more resilient and challenging situations have a lot of gifts, even if we don’t see them at the time, e.g. opportunity to be more creative, assertive etc

What situations test our emotional resilience?

Coping well in one area and struggling in another is normal.

The Coronavirus period
Redundancy and unemployment
Mergers over which we have no choice
No pay rises over a period of time
People pulling rank
Lack of planning by others affecting us
Unreasonable behaviour and bullying
Bosses and employers with values different to our own
Trauma and crisis e.g. end of a relationship, death of someone we are close to
Financial pressure and hardship
Covert undermining behaviour e.g. passive aggressive

5 FREE tips to maximise your emotional resilience

What’s the worse thing that can happen and what is the likelihood of it happening?
Ask yourself ‘What are the positives of my challenging situation?’
Ask yourself what qualities and resources you have to help you to deal with the challenge you face
Focus on what you can influence not what you can’t
Map out vicious circles of the thoughts and emotions and work out how you can create virtuous circles

Self-reflective question

“When have I been most emotionally resilient and what enabled me to do this?”

More

A portfolio career is a resilient career. Why? Because it is made up of different components, so you can change direction or ‘pivot’ as external trends change or your own circumstances change.

Contact us to receive your free report ‘Discover Portfolio Careers’: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/portfolio/connect/