I am writing this at the start of the second week in 2010. Over the past week the press, blogs and online chats have been full of resolutions and advice on how to lose weight/stop smoking/ change jobs…the usual stuff.
Also in the last week in the UK we have been hit by the worst winter weather we have had in the past 30 years. I suspect that for many people the challenges of getting to work, managing childcare because schools have been closed and keeping the house warm and might have taken the focus off any of the usual New Year resolutions.
But is this the right time to be making changes just because a new year has started?
And how can you tell if it is the right time anyway?
The ”right time” often presents itself. It might come from an “aha” moment when you have sudden clarity on what you want. It might be from a chance comment, or something you read or meeting someone new.
This is not meant as an encouragement to sit back and wait for something to happen of course! Taking some - even small - steps towards change can give great results. And you never know - you might find that when you look back on previous successes - that the “right time” was when things came together without you artificially forcing it.
According to the Skills Council in England recent research published this week 74% of the people asked said they were planning to change their career but 25% of those said they won’t because they are unsure about what they really want. This prompted the Careers Advice service to introduce travelling advice centres and the first one was sited at one of the busy London commuter stations.
The numbers got me thinking. I don’t know ( and at this point can’t find) details of the questions asked but 74% of people actually planning to change their jobs seems really high to me - talking about it maybe. In my role as coach the most common trigger for clients coming to me is dissatisfaction with their current job and to work out what they would prefer to do. Often that means something different for the same employer.
And the 25% of that 74% who won’t do anything about it because they don’t know what they want to do is much lower than I thought it would be. The first question I ask when someone mentions not liking their current job is what would you love to do? Leaving aside the dream of selling up and going to live on a Caribbean Island very few have a clear idea of what their next step would be and even less idea of what goal they would be stepping towards.
In this week where the school exam results are out in Scotland and Scottish youngsters are making college and university choices I wonder how many have a clear idea of how they want to earn a living when they graduate. Even those who do might well change their minds during their studies - it happens all the time. New experience can - and possibly should - keep employees thinking about the next stage in their careers . As has been shown in the past year in particular nothing in the business world stays the same for long and being able to respond to change will be an asset for finding and retaining paid employment as changes happen faster and more often.
To go back to the Skills Council new item if you read further it says that” 71 per cent [of those who responded] think the best way to keep their career moving forward is through gaining a new qualification which I think is really encouraging if that means taking responsibility for your own continuing development.
And I found it interesting that more people would move to a new job because of a “desire to learn new things (60 per cent)” than “earn more money (47 per cent).”
Having careers advisors out and about might encourage people to stop and think about where they are going in their careers though and I am looking forward to hearing more about it as the intitiative takes off.
I meet lots of people in all walks of life but there are often some common themes.
When teaching speaking skills in particular where I used to expect the least confident participants to be quiet and to try to disappear so as not to be called to speak what often happens is someone who feels very uncertain about their ability to participate will be loud and have comments about everything. Then in the final speeches of the day the quiet ones sparkle show their skill and talent and the louder ones fade away and stuggle to perform.
The important thing for me as a trainer is to both notice when someone is trying to be invisible and to somehow get through the “bluster” early on so that that doesn’t happen.
I was thinking about how this translates in the workplace. I am sure we all know someone who quietly gets on with things and then performs brilliantly much to the surprise of their colleagues. And I am equally sure that the loud, sometimes funny/sometimes not employee who has something to say about everything ( and everyone!) struggles to show their real talent and their loudness is covering up their uncertainty about their talent.
I recall a colleague’s frustration with a promising new guy on his team who had been hired for his great skills and relevant work experience but who talked endlessly, loudly in a very engaging way - but without getting to the point and was proving to be a real disappointment. After a very stressful appraisal meeting it turned out the new guy was so in awe of my colleague that he felt that there was no way he could live up to his expectations. With that out in the open things went far more smoothly.
I expect that the attention in terms of professional or personal development might be given to the quieter employees to try to “bring them along” when really what the noiser one is doing is calling for attention - albeit not particularly effectively.
As a personal development coach I know how effective coaching can be for both groups by challenging a quiet thoughtful person with questions, giving them time to think, probing further and allowing for long silences. And cutting through the “noise” of the words used by the loud person - questioning what those words really mean and giving them safe space to be thoughtful and voice fears and concerns.
Effective coaching allows coachees to learn about themselves without someone judging them. Everybody has their own way of dealing with lack of confidence and when it is clear what that is it can be the first step to getting over it.
I intended to write my own post on this topic then found ( courtesy of a link from my friend Steve Roesler) this excellent post by Pam Slim. There is nothing for me to add. Do yourself a huge favour and take time to read it - especially Pam’s list of good hard and bad hard.
I meet a lot of people who are passionate about something.
I meet a lot of people who are passionate about something and do something about it.
I also meet a lot of people who are passionate about something and don’t.
The guy who climbed up a flagpole to demonstrate in Beiijing is passionate about his cause. Nobody will be able to say he didn’t do something about it.
But doing something your are passionate about does not need to be as dramatic as that. It might simply involve joining a group or forum on the subject to share ideas and make things happen together. It might mean taking steps to find a publisher for your book you have kept secret. It might be taking to the boards in a pantomime or offering to sew costumes to fulfil your passion for the theatre. It might be taking off at short notice on the cheapest flights available to wherever they are going to fulfil your passion for travel if you have a tight budget.
It might involve volunteering. It might mean moving jobs.
Think about what really gets you excited or what really moves you…and then do something about it.
