Reach Your Career Goals in 2016!

Monday Morning Pep Talk

It is the most wonderful time of the year. Champagne, resolutions, good intentions and promises that 2016 is going to be different. What’s on your career menu? A new job, developing a retirement strategy, securing your current job or researching starting a business?

How will you make 2016 different from other years when you thought—this is the year, something has to change! Try these three steps to make 2016 the year of your professional breakthrough.


Commit to Action: The difference between the person who dreams big and the person who makes that dream come true is action. Years ago, I worked for a guy who managed by spreadsheet. He had a tracker for everything—an expense tracker, an attendance tracker, a pending sales tracker, a daily sales call tracker—his team was so busy filling out Excel spreadsheets very little else was done. Since the trackers only mattered to him because the organization was focused on results; he was my manager for a very short time. A classic case of analysis paralysis. This is not to say that you haven’t planned to change jobs or dreamed of your exit plan from work; you may have been doing that for years. If taking the action step is hard for you—create or join an accountability group, enlist a career coach or work with a trusted mentor. At the very minimum, every day take step toward your dream no matter how small.

Inspire Yourself: Did Nelson Mandela dream he could be President of South Africa while he spent 27 years in prison? When J.K. Rowling was an unemployed single mother on public assistance and her manuscript was consistently rejected for over a year; did she think Harry Potter would make her the first billionaire writer? Ursula Burns is not a household name but she’s the little girl who grew up in a New York housing project with a single mother working two jobs that became the first Black woman in America to become CEO of a Fortune 500 company. She has led Xerox for the past five years. Do whatever it takes for you to become inspired- visit with inspiring people, listen to motivational speakers or music that pumps you up. I have podcasts of interesting TED Talks I listen to in my car, audio books and of course, great collections of music. Who or what inspires you and how can you tap into that energy?

Have Fun: Life is short, I am constantly reminded of that and 2015 was no different. Celebrate small achievements: you didn’t miss any meetings of your Master Mind group; you took PTO to “shadow” someone in the career you’re interested in pursuing or you watched a YouTube video or webinar to move you closer to your goal. Maybe you discovered your goal needs a tweak- make adjustments. Smile- research studies show smiling activates neural messaging that benefits your health and happiness. It also activates the release of neuropeptides that work toward fighting off stress plus smiles are contagious. It’s kind of fun to watch other people smile back at you. Gratitude is terribly underrated, so everyday, I find something to be grateful about; it keeps my life in perspective.

Have the best year ever!

“If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”       ---Toni Morrison

OWN Your Career (Part 2)

This week I’ve been inspired by two dear friends that have taken action to manage their careers. If you have not had a chance to read part one, please do.

http://workinglater.blogspot.com/2015/10/you-have-to-own-your-career.html

I received an e-mail this week from someone who has had it! She is done, she is through, she’s worked hard to make a difference  at her organization and you know what?….it is time to move on! That is career management and owning your career. It is knowing when it is time to stop trying to save an organization that doesn’t want to make changes and when you have to take Mahatma Gandhi’s advice personally, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”

There comes a point in a career when making a move is a better answer than beating your head against a wall. I have been there. I have done it. It is scary and SO worth it. Even if the move is temporary and you have to make an additional career move; you gain confidence by taking action to stand up for yourself at work. If you have children, you show them the example maintaining self-worth in their careers like they would in a personal relationship.

This individual added me to her ‘circle of trust’ as she makes her escape to a better job situation. She is working on her resume, updating her LinkedIn profile, doing selective networking. It is all about taking  constructive ACTION—she is working, updating, doing. She’s not expecting the organization to change; she’s not waiting for someone to save her career and she’s not just going to sit there and let something happen to her. Hint: None of those things work. Even if you wait to get laid off and get a severance, the emotional will impact your confidence to interview for a better job. The severance is never enough money.

People ask me how do you know when it is time to move on. Tony Robbins puts it like this, “Change happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change.” Here are some other signs when you need to do the hard work to make a job change:

1—You are moving toward something, not running from a bad current job situation. You are looking for an opportunity to learn something new, to move into a leadership position and expand your experience or to learn a new skill.

2— Going to work makes you sick, literally. I know a person who had migraines that usually started Sunday evening or Monday morning. Some Sunday nights the back of his neck was so stiff he could barely move his head from side to side. His body was trying to tell him something.

3— From a personal business perspective there’s no compelling reason to stay. You have reviewed options for health benefits, you don’t have to repay tuition reimbursement or relocation benefits if you leave now. You are not weeks away from being vested in a company pension,  401(k) plan or receiving an annual bonus. If you can, do not leave any money on the table when you leave your present company.

4— You are being put in a compromising position. I received a telephone call from an executive assistant I met at a career talk several years ago. Her boss repeatedly asked her to lie to his wife when she called while he managed several affairs with other women. My advice to her was to get away from him as a boss ASAP. She found another role in the company. Anytime you are being asked to do something illegal or you experience illegal behavior toward you—tell HR. They are obligated to investigate. If the offensive or illegal behavior is part of the company or department culture—it is time to find a new role—out of the company or department.

5—Nothing you do is right. You may have done the job for years, but now it is not good enough. Your performance appraisals or other documentation (warning notice, performance improvement plan, suspension or occurrences) put you at risk for being terminated with cause. Your manager tells you verbally your work is poor; your work is returned to you for a re-do or worse yet, it is given to co-workers for a do-over. Unless that manager leaves, it is seriously time to consider a change.

You Have to OWN Your Career!

You brush your own teeth, try to make healthy food choices and take vitamins. Take responsibility for your career in the way you manage your health. I can’t take enough spoons full of liquid fish oil to help you realize the benefits of Omega 3s. Expecting someone else to manage your career for you is like asking your spouse to get a knee replacement to alleviate your knee pain.

Two interesting things happened this week. I took a couple of days of PTO to reconnect with friends and was totally inspired by two career stories.

The first is about a friend who put together a business case to ask for a raise. That in itself is career management and owning your career. How many people think they deserve to be paid more? Most. How many people can put together a business case that shows that above and beyond performing their job in an excellent way—they presented a plan to save their organization a lot of money and have helped another department meet their goals?  Very few. My friend called her meeting with her boss an “Epic Fail.” She wanted a merit increase or a substantial bonus. Instead she received a one-time (4-figure) bonus after meeting with her manager.

I don’t consider this an Epic Fail at all. My friend doesn’t realize her conversation was probably a genius move. First you have to understand how organizations work (sadly, this does not apply to family-owned businesses). No matter how much power, clout or bravado your manager has-their hands are generally tied in matters of compensation. The HR professionals that read this blog will confirm that “Comp” is 80% science and 20% art. Compensation is benchmarked with similar roles in the market, industry and region. There are minimums and maximums your salary must land in or you find yourself in the unenviable position of being paid more than your range. If you receive a flat one-time payment when everyone else receives a 1-5% merit increase—you’ve maxxed out of the range. The only way to stop that madness is to be promoted to a “Senior” title in your current role or increase a step like moving from a Scientist II to a Scientist III or make a lateral move that puts you in a different classification. If your organization does business with the federal government, paying employees random salaries can land them in BIG TROUBLE with an acronym that strikes fear in the hearts of HR professionals across America—the OFCCP.

Why is it Genius Move? Her boss now knows more about what his employee does which could help at merit time. If she can do her job, identify organizational saving strategies and help another department while performing her job highly—maybe it is time to leverage her skills in the next level job. No matter what happens internally, it is time to update her LinkedIn profile incorporating these new accomplishments. Her options are to stay put if she’s happy and look around if she’s not—she’s given herself options. That is career management at it’s finest in my opinion. (Read About the Second Story in Part 2).

Career Management IS Urgent

I am often asked what is career management. Career management is the steps you take while you are employed to insure that if you are suddenly unemployed or in an unacceptable situation, you can bounce back quickly with a great new job. Those steps include face-to-face networking with key contacts in and outside your organization; updating your resume, managing your profile and presence on LinkedIn, actually attending local meetings of your professional organization and maintaining certification. At that point, most people tell me that with their family and home to manage, kids, grandkids, pets and aging parents, they don’t have time to do their job at work and do that career management stuff.

The comment bubble over my head says, “well, join the club!” What comes out of my mouth is, “wow, you’re really busy.” 

Could you manage being unemployed six months or more? That’s the question you have to answer for yourself if you decide not to proactively manage your career. The situation for 40+ workers is that it takes longer to rebound from an unexpected career transition. That’s how it happens-suddenly, unexpectedly, shockingly fast. Here’s what happened to me.

Memorial Day weekend 1997, I was enjoying a cook-out with family in the Chicago suburbs. A family member came outdoors and said, “Don’t you work for Boehringer Mannheim Corporation?” (badly butchering the Boehringer part) “On CNN they said the company was just sold.” As a member of the human resources leadership team my manager reported to the CEO and I worked closely with the executive team. This made me confident my relative heard it wrong. So, I went inside to listen since CNN cycled the same stories repeatedly on the slow news days of a holiday weekend.

“In a deal exceeding 11 billion dollars Roche Group of Switzerland purchased the German entity, Boehringer Mannheim GmbH in a move that caught industry analysts and experts by surprise.” Everything said after that was a blur. What did it mean? How was I going to be affected personally? Where is my boss? I called his home, no answer. (No cell phones or texts back then.) Finally I reached an HR colleague on the phone. We were both stunned.

My story ultimately had a happy ending. The acquisition was an opportunity to learn a lot about HR very quickly since I had just come to the function from sales a year before. There were more opportunities to learn about global issues. Four years later, because of contacts made and experienced gained, I was able to launch an independent human resource consulting firm. It didn’t have to work out that way and many times it does not.

Managing a career does not have to be a time-consuming activity. You can exchange resumes with a friend and share critiques over a quarterly face-to-face catch-up. Once a week I spend 10-30 minutes managing LinkedIn connection requests, deleting connections trying to sell me anything, hiding inappropriate posts, reading articles and using the “settings” feature to prevent connections from being notified of my maintenance. Once a quarter, I try to enroll in a free webinar, attend a workshop or attend a professional talk. Arizona State’s, ASUx has free courses online and MOOCs (massive open online courses) are offered by many colleges. Over the course of a month, it is a couple of hours at most.

Proactive or reactive, it’s your choice. It’s your career.

Clearing The Career Fog Without Overdriving Your Headlights

Career direction not quite clear? Friend of the Blog, Michael Scott offers this wisdom:

One of the most common frustrations I hear from transitioning professionals is about their lack of clarity relative to a career path. In acknowledging the saying "If you don't know where you're going, anyplace is fine," many of us find ourselves stuck with our emergency brakes on, unable to proceeed forward in a meaningful way towards our highest goals and endeavors.

A number of years ago I driving late at night through the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina, scared out of my whits by a dense fog that had literally cut my visibility to zero. It became acutely aware to me that my headlights were of little use, particularly as I attempted to pick up the pace in hopes of finding a convenient exit sooner rather than later. It's here where I began to realize that I was engaging in a practice affectionionately known as "overdriving ones headlights" or driving too fast in the dark. Basically, because my headlights only shined so far ahead, I was frightened by the prospect of not not being able to see dangers ahead in time to react.

All of this speaks to the dilemma that many of us face when confronted with an uncertain career direction. On one hand we recognize, particularly when there's an urgent need to earn a steady income, that forging a path in the shortest amount of time possible is vital for one's survival. Yet we simultaneously recognize that making a decision in haste can have adverse consequences in terms of our long-term career trajectory.

Below are a few of my ideas on how to address this quandary

1. Pump The Breaks: Mashing on the proverbial accelerator in order to clear through the career fog faster can have dire consequences. It's better to be deliberate and thoughtful in pursuit of your options. This may involve employing the help of a career coach to keep you accountable and grounded amid the process. Reading, journaling and quiet contemplation are also valuable activities. To this point, consider picking up the book Unique Ability by Catherine Nomura and Julia Waller. You'll find it a must read for forging a sense of clarity in a deliberate yet productive way.

2. Try Out Multiple Gears: The overriding message here is to try on multiple hats or options for determining what might be the right fit. Identify your perfect picture opportunity and work backward. Vary your experiences by attending Meetup Groups focusing on topics or experiences that are unfamiliar to you. It's through this latter idea that I discovered the Colorado Bitcoin Society and a subsequent gig writing blog posts for Bitcoin. Go Figure!

3. Relax: As was the case with me on that foggy evening in North Carolina, uncertainty can cause one to stress out and clench up behind the steering wheel. So find ways to relax, have fun and clear your brain. Putting your career pursuits in neutral from time to time can reduce strain on your bodily engine. Another Tip: Be sure to maintain peak energy levels by drinking copious amounts of water and through Glutathione supplementation. A healthy body results in the fuel to proceed forward with clarity. 

4. Maintain Your Line Of Sight: While it's OK to look in the rearview mirror of life from time to time, your primary focus should be centered on what's in front of you. Like a good mindfulness practitioner, stay present in the moment with what's right in front of you versus getting distracted by the past. In the same way that proceeding too rapidly can create pileups, driving your career ship too cautiously and in a distracted way can cause it to aground. 

5. Embrace A "Forward Thinking" Attitude: Navigating through career fog can be grueling and lead to negative thoughts. Whenever you find yourself headed down this path, be reminded of the fact that thoughts play a key role in determining your outcomes and direction. So avoid or limit the time you spend with those friends and family members who moan and complain about the life struggles mode they're experiencing. Watch what you are listing to, viewing, or reading--avoiding those things that run counter to a positive state of mind. As was the case with my trek through the fog, self talk focused on my intended direction was much more productive than a "woe is me" mindset that could lead to smaking into the backend of a semi. 

Michael Scott's passion is in helping emerging professionals become profitable, productive and strategically aligned with the New Economy. For a complementary 30-minute discovery session with Michael, feel free to connect with him at either neweconomyiq@gmail.com or on LinkedIn  http://www.linkedin.com/in/orgbrain?_mSplash=1

Success in Autumn

“When we are young, we learn. When we are old, we understand.”

--Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach

Re-imagine the Spring of Youth giving way to the Summer of Adulthood and an inevitable decline in Autumn and Winter. What if, the longer life spans we enjoy in the 21^st century are a gift of extra time to accomplish goals resting silently inside our hearts? No one knew that you always wanted to learn to play the keyboard or learn Spanish or visit Yosemite. Now that studies are predicting lifespans of ninety years as nearly average; we are challenged to find excuses to not live our dreams.

In her book, In Our Prime: The Invention of Middle Age, Pat Cohen offers a reason to believe middle age careers can be extended. “Generation X has nearly 30 million fewer members than the 78 million strong baby boom generation. Even though many from this group will work past 65, there will still be fewer employees overall,” according to Cohen’s research. It sounds like great news, but what is the best course of action to take while waiting for the business world to beat a path to the door of the 50, 60 and 70+ worker? Remember this:

·         Reid Hoffman founded LinkedIn at age 35. (Old by Silicon Valley standards)

·         Col. Harland Sanders founded Kentucky Fried Chicken  at age 65

·         Grandma Moses began painting at age 78 (she painted 25 paintings after turning 100 years old)

·         Diana Nyad swam from 110 miles Cuba to Miami in 53 hours at age 64 on her fifth attempt

·         Henry Kaiser established Kaiser Permanente w/ a business partner at age 63

Most of these people lived in America at a time when the average life expectancy was closer to 70. Could the fact that I listed above were engaged in work of their calling give them additional years to make the impact they desired? What is your calling? What is the project you are so passionate about, that you lose track of time?

There is a lot of information online about jobs, careers and callings. Time slows down so a person may discover which phase they are experiencing: a job, a career or a calling. There is no right or wrong answer and each serves a purpose. It is  going to vary for each of individual. As a mid-career professional, just know your best ideas may still be inside of you and like Reid, Col. Sanders, Grandma Moses, Diana and Henry--your greatest accomplishments in life may be realized in your autumn years.

  

Are You Invisible at Work?

In a society where the President of the United States takes “selfies” and people are judged by their number of Twitter followers, LinkedIn connections or Facebook “friends”; it is easy for older workers to feel invisible at work. No one who knows me personally would consider me a shrinking violet by even a stretch of the imagination. However, even I was told by a former manager that none of his peers knew who I was and it made it difficult to “sell” me as a candidate for special assignments. His suggestion was that I do something “crazy” to get noticed. Then when he mentioned me again to the other managers they would remember me as the one who sang karaoke or did the splits at a sales meeting. After a nanosecond of careful consideration, I decided to decline his career advice.

After that discussion I began to observe other workers more closely and discovered a trend. In a room filled with multi-generational employees if a younger manager was leading the discussion; the older workers listened more and contributed less. If the manager was older (50s- 60s) the conversation was more collaborative with people of all ages participating. Watch in your next company meeting and see if holds true for your organization. I am not sure what particular dynamic this phenomenon indicates, but it has been consistent. Younger workers in their 20s and 30s exhibited an almost “Horschak” quality (fans of the mid-70s hit, Welcome Back Kotter will remember Arnold Horschak). When he raised his hand in class he wanted to be called so badly he grunted. And, so were the grunts of the Millennial and GenerationX’ers hoping to have their voices heard. Everyone has to be handed the microphone to make a comment.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered a new book, The Invisibles by David Zweig that examines this from a management perspective not through a generational lens. It discusses people who are not necessarily at work to tout their brand, expand their platform or increase their Klout score. They are there to do the job and take satisfaction in completing work correctly. It sounds like many 40+ workers who take pride in a job well done. Every time they finish a project, they are not running to their manager for validation or firing off a series of e-mails or my new favorite term—humblebragging. (i.e. Humble Brag- when one consciously brags about themselves while couching it in a phony show of humility). Humblebragging  is prevalent on Facebook and Twitter.

Invisibles are a management challenge. In some organizations they are taken for granted because they don’t survive on recognition or the jealous applause of their peers. I know older workers that have watched the rise and fall of self-promoting young peers that were given more responsibility than they could handle. (Who read the 1969 classic, The Peter Principle? His premise is true). How many corporate lay-offs have targeted people capably getting the work done and kept megaphone toting stars only to add headcount because they laid off the people who did the work? It is true there are older workers who also bask in faux modesty, banter about how hard they work and have pet names for their young peers---that is annoying too. Making sure people know you and your work is important in the current corporate culture.  It is also difficult for many experienced workers who matured in an era that didn’t include social media, so strive for balance.

Finding Your Career Passion in Mid-Life

Americans 55 years or older comprise 21% of the U.S. labor force according to the US Department of Labor. Here’s the problem, it is the first time in history that these 55+ year olds have a lot more than ten years remaining in the workforce. Blame the Baby Boomers for not retiring at age 65 to spend twenty years focused on golf, grandchildren and grand buffets. And even if you are in still in your 40s, these are the years when you need to evaluate and investigate secondary career paths so when you hit the decade I consider the most dangerous to your work/life, “The Fantastic Fifties,” you have the widest range of choices.

It is always exciting to meet someone in their 40s, 50s or 60s that love their jobs and the companies they work for love them back. (That is an important part, the company loves you back—but I’ll deal with that later in this post). I meet more people than ever that adore what they do for a living. Whether it is an entrepreneurial pet sitter earning more money than he ever expected; a medical capital equipment sales star turned award-winning vintner; a health information management professional turned online educator or a person who went from automotive executive to ordained minister, people are creating work they can see themselves doing post-65.

I also talk to a lot of people who say, “As soon as I am 62, I’m outta here-retired and never working again.” Those are the people who I know have not found their passion. Sometimes it is a hobby that can be monetized. Others prefer to keep their hobbies separate from work and go back to school to learn a new skill or turn their volunteer work into a paying job. How do you get started on your career exploration? You don’t have to come up with the answer immediately. Just keep the thought in the back of your mind and jot down ideas as they come to you. Focus on your strengths and activities you enjoy-- thinking about your skills that others often compliment you on performing. Over time and maybe with assistance, you will find your vocation, a word with Latin origins that means “to call.” 

Not all industries, companies or human resource professionals are prepared for the reality posed by Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964). A January 2014 Gallup Report stated, U.S. retiree age has risen steadily from 57 to 61. According to Gallup, “nearly half (49%) of boomers still working say they don’t expect to retire until they are 66 or older, including one in 10 who predict they will never retire.” Companies have not created talent development for mid-life career professionals (hoping they will gracefully retire—no thanks!) As older worker salaries stretch the range of broad bands and other compensation structures, they often find themselves targets of lay-offs because companies are not creative enough to leverage their talent, skills and abilities. So, if you are 40+ at a company that loves you back, enjoy it, use the tuition reimbursement to extend your skills and pack your resume with accolades—trust me, one day you will need it.

Baby Boomers @ Work

By the end of 2014, every Baby Boomer will be age 50 or over.  The generation born between 1946 and 1964 that has reshaped every phase of life is challenging how, when or if their working years end. There is a glaring disconnect, because Corporate America is youth obsessed. While I am not giving business a green light on its behavior, it is easy to understand how this happened.  

Thirty-six years ago, my professional career began at a medical publishing company in downtown Chicago. The executives smoked in their offices, drank heavily at lunch and retired promptly at 65. A couple of years after the hard-driving, uber-traveling, carb-fed publishing executives retired; they died. American life expectancy has increased nearly twelve years since Boomers were born which also extends midlife careers. It is not just how long we are living as much as how well Boomers are living. Our generation is not focused on merely surviving into our 60s, 70s and 80s—we totally expect to thrive. At work, the Gen-X and Millennials are not quite sure how they feel about our sustained ambition. As the younger generations move into hiring and management roles, some want Boomers to take a permanent seat on a chaise by the pool and stay out of the office.

What are the implications for our careers?

1)      Focus on your immediate supervisor. If you have a good relationship with your boss and they value you and your work; they can shield you from corporate dysfunction.  However, while the good boss is there, you need to build other allies. I remember my all-time favorite direct supervisor taking a new position in California. His replacement wiped out all but one director in our department. Fortunately, my internal mentor was in a position to insure I made a soft-landing in another part of the organization where I stayed another six years. Your company can be on the list of best companies for older workers, but if your boss doesn’t support you—none of that matters.

2)      After age 40-Every Job is a Temp Job. It used to be 50, but the age of business irrelevance ratcheted down as tech innovation skyrocketed. Unless you are a software application developer, network and computer systems administrator, engineer or CPA---once you get in your forties, career moves must be strategic. Why do you want to work for this company? Is this a job or a career move? Evaluate the total reward package-salary, long & short-term employee benefits, perks and work/life environment. Are the employee benefits low and the 401(k) match high? Is there an attainable pension? In a small company-can you buy an equity position? The Employee Benefit Research Institute saw job tenure increase to 5.4 years in 2012 (for males it is less).

3)      The Safety Net has a Hole In It: Once upon a time jobs in the public sector were considered “safe” and jobs in health care never had lay-offs. Welcome to the 21^st century, the game changed. Hospitals are doing more with less (people, that is) and even patient-facing jobs need less people as care moves home ASAP. The home health aide is not making nearly the salary of workers in an acute care setting. Government workers can remind you of the shut down in October. And local governments are filing bankruptcy and ditching pension responsibilities as fast as Kardashians are getting divorced. Choose your industry wisely, but stay open to change.

4)      Develop Yourself: Companies pay for training that benefits the organization—legal training so you are aware of what is considered harassment or regulatory training- so if you do something wrong-you’re fired.  If you are in the succession plan, you may score management training specifically for the next level. Staying relevant at 40+? Learn how to use social media strategically to network and for job search. Learn a foreign language if it fits into your future career plans. Get a Bachelors degree online if you don’t have one already.

5)      Manage Your Emotional Intelligence: Crying at work? Very 1980s-no longer tolerated. Managers that scream at employees? Once one employee gets worker’s comp for stress b/c of your “leadership” unless you own the company—you are out! Screaming, bellowing and belittling employees-very 1990s. Arrogance? Check your ego at the door and save it for your friends outside of work. CEOs and GMs can still get away with being prima donnas at large organizations, but for everyone else, your EQ, like your reputation will follow in 5.4 years when you make your next job move. Social media sites like Glassdoor, Twitter and industry specific are searched by recruiters and hiring officials—so it is more like a glass house. Too much online chatter is a red flag to the elite executive recruiters.

3 Career-Boosting Steps for Thanksgiving

Monday Morning Pep Talk

Thanksgiving will be celebrated in the United States on Thursday and by now everyone knows what their plans are—where they are eating dinner, what time the meal is being served, who is preparing their favorite holiday recipes and all the details. Have you spent as much time thinking about your career as you have your holiday plans? It doesn’t have to be an onerous task. It just takes a few hours to figure out if what you are doing today will get you where you want to be in the future. During this time of Thanksgiving is the perfect time to spend a few hours thinking about your career plan. These three steps are  thought-starters. Feel free to share your ideas as comments on the blog; you may comment anonymously if you are more comfortable.

STEP ONE: DETERMINE WHERE YOUR CAREER IS TODAY IN YOUR WORK/LIFE CONTINUUM

At 40+ your career is no longer entry-level, however due to a change of industry or career break you could easily find yourself in your 50s or 60s in a “starter job” and that is okay. The important element is to identify a realistic career goal from where you are today to what you plan to do at the end of your working life.  Remember Stephen Covey and the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People? One of the tenets of his approach was beginning with the end in mind. If you are working to earn a living in your 40s, 50s and 60s---contingency plans are vital. You survived the economic downturn post-9/11, the recession of 2008 and the craziness of 2013 as the 16-day government shutdown brought clarity that no job is immune to disappearing. Entire industries are changing as business reacts to implementing the Affordable Care Act (like business reacted to the implementation of Medicare and Social Security decades before). Here are three questions to ask in this phase:

1.      What is the cost/benefit analysis* to my family, health, financial security and personal happiness to invest in moving to the next rung or two up the corporate ladder? (*You may call it pro/con or risk/reward). Are your positioned to do it with your current organization?

2.      How much longer do you plan to work in your current work environment and what does your next stage look like? Retirement planning is more than reaching a dollar goal-that’s  one element of a very complex stage of life. You need a holistic exit plan.

3.      What is your game plan if your current work ends suddenly or you can’t perform the type of work you are currently doing? Life happens-do you have a back-up plan?

STEP TWO: WHO IS MY NETWORK? MY SUPPORT TEAM?

These are two different groups of people with a few crossovers. Your network consists of people in your industry or in your profession that can open doors to a new opportunity. One thing has not changed; it remains difficult for an experienced person to find new employment.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics  (BLS) data has shown since 2008 it takes mature workers over one year to find a job. BLS data doesn’t factor the employees who are underemployed, start a business or job-hunters that drop out of the job market. Your support team members are the shoulders you cry on and the people you vent to—I think these people should not be your professional network! These are people who think you are great, your champions and personal cheer squad. They don’t need to know a lot about your work or your industry—they just know you and think you are the best thing since French toast.

Two questions for the network and support team:

1.       When was the last time you met face-to-face or on a live phone call with your two top  network partners? Let’s make that a priority before the year ends.

2.       If you don’t have a wide support team, start recruiting today—because if you depend on one or two people you will run those “besties” away during a prolonged career reinvention or job search. My 85-year-old great-aunt is part of my extensive support team. A conversation with her leaves me ready to take on the world!

STEP THREE: GIVE THANKS!

Whether you are employed and you are planning for the future or unemployed and seeking a new opportunity, 40+ workers that network, have a great attitude and keep their skills sharp ARE finding opportunities.  2013 is the biggest year of success stories in several years for experienced workers. Independent business owners have flourished this year; two of my favorite corporate refugees that are now franchisees reported double digit growth and people are working their networks and finding great opportunities. The stock market is up and hopefully so is your 403(b) or 401(k)! And even if none of this is true for you----you’re sitting upright and reading. Have a great week and a festive holiday!

Career Notes from Alice in Wonderland

Monday Morning Pep Talk

Lewis Carroll never imagined how the cleverly written tales of Alice would apply to 40+ workers managing their careers. Sometimes the wisdom we need is there all along as we read this tale with our children and grandchildren. Here are three quotes from Lewis Carroll’s, Alice in Wonderland to help you think through career management strategies:

“I can’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.”

We are constantly changing and so are our career goals. What was acceptable in our twenties or early thirties—constant travel, working weekends, missing holidays and school events—becomes less acceptable to men and women after a decade or more.  Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO and author of Lean In, advises young women to not rely on their companies or mentors for career advancement. Her advice is to join Lean In Circles for support from other women, marry a spouse that will be an equal partner at home and behave more confident and ambitious at work. She’s a 44-year-old, billionaire, daughter of a Ph.D. Mom and physician Dad, married to the CEO of SurveyMonkey, former U.S. Treasury Department Chief of Staff, former VP of Google and twice graduated from Harvard with honors. Her experience in Corporate America is nearly fictional on so many levels; it’s a separate blog post. For the rest of us, age tends to bring workers (male and female/ executive and non-“C” suite) to a point where we recognize “the working to live or living to work” paradigm shift.

“If you don’t know where you are going any road can take you there”

A few years ago I read about the most common career missteps in a book called Chasing Stars by Boris Groysberg. Even though it focused on Wall Street investment bank analysts, there were two things that stood out about changing jobs. One is don’t chase the money and leave for a salary boost. The second is getting so angry you move “from” a bad work situation “to” a situation that is not well researched.  I’ve watched people leave jobs for a $5,000 annual salary increase. The net increase is laughable. I remember being recruited to talk an employee into remaining with the company as an HR person. We discussed the total cost of the move and I focused on total rewards beyond pay because the employee was certainly giving up a lot except salary. Even after our conversation, he couldn’t save face so he left anyway (and stayed on the new job two years). The same employee committed both mistakes. He was looking for a new job because he was passed over for a promotion. Emotions lead employees into many bad decisions at work. Create your career goals when you are not at an emotional high or low. Try to map out what you plan to do in the next 6 months, year and five years. What will it take to get there? Who can help you? What’s your game plan if your career hits a speed bump?

“Why sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast”

Believe in Yourself!  As you move into your 40s, 50s, 60+ at work, it requires effort to keep your confidence high. Later in your career, the chest-bumping Lean In-type of horn-tooting may not be appropriate. Despite career bumps you have experienced personally and watched happen to others in Corporate America, recent research shows Baby Boomers are working longer than ever. So, how do you keep one foot in front of the other moving forward? You have to believe in yourself, your goals and at times in the impossible.  The Queen’s advice to Alice is my advice to you. You know what you know. Own it. Even if you are not quite sure where you are going, you know what you’ve already conquered. Go into this week being you’re A-B-C “best” Accomplished, Brilliant, Champion of your own career.

Resilience: A Skill to Increase Your Employability

Monday Morning Pep Talk

Do you bounce back from career disappointments, setbacks and frustrations relatively unscathed? Or, are you still angry about the “Meets Expectations” rating on your performance appraisal three managers ago?  Resiliency is one of the most critical success factors to develop as you spend time in the workforce. Being resilient is important for workers starting out as they face their initial disappointments of not getting the job they preferred or experiencing their first layoff.  As your career progresses, the stakes get higher, acceptable job options become more limited and the idea of bouncing back and landing on your feet is crucial. Resilience is a learned trait. Some of us may be born with a more positive outlook on life, a more bubbly personality or openness to taking risk—resilience can be developed.

No one writes or discusses the fact that work is a brutal experience for many employees. Like the school years that preceded it---work has a hierarchy, in-crowds and cliques, bullies and sometimes a bully-boss; workplaces have class clowns, prom queens and teacher’s pets. The special needs employees are mainstreamed into your workplace—and you could be working for or next to someone with very real emotional or mental issues. All of these personalities are made more complicated by having four generations in the work place for the first time in history! Does it make you feel better about your situation, knowing that no one taught your manager how to lead a multi-generational workforce? The key to surviving this potential madness is RESILIENCY.

Think of it this way, a well-inflated ball will bounce when it encounters resistance or a hard surface. So, your first order of business is to find an appropriate level of self-confidence, belief in your abilities, knowledge of your intrinsic goodness/worth and remembering that you matter. Pump up your self-worth by thinking about the obstacles and challenges that appeared insurmountable and you have already overcome. This isn’t your first job or the first setback you’ve encountered. You’ve managed tough times before probably personally and professionally. I was recently at a mall in Dallas and a billboard showed a well-dressed shopper wearing lots of bling (aka jewelry) and the caption read, “Of course it’s Flashy, this IS Dallas!” That is called swagger. While rebuilding your confidence, remember what happens when the ball over-inflates!

I have known people enduring terrible situations at work while they looked for a new opportunity. When I ask how they survived their passive/aggressive boss or harsh treatment by co-workers all of them have mentioned strong relationships and interests away from work. Whether it is being involved in your children or grandchildren’s activities, volunteering for an organization you are passionate about or doing activities with your family that bring you joy; don’t make your life about work.  If you do, you are setting yourself up for inevitable disappointment. Reaching out to others outside your workplace so you are not constantly focused on the situation is a critical step in building resilience. Seeking professional help through a therapist to build problem-solving skills and gain perspective is also an option. Therapists also provide an objective sounding board to the situation. Counseling services are confidential and often free through an Employee Assistance Plan (EAP) or the cost of a co-pay through medical insurance.

It is also important to exercise adaptability and flexibility in building your resilience skills. Personal change management skills work together creating resilience as a core of our emotional intelligence. Researchers report empathy, compassion and self-awareness are attributes of resilient people. These are also components of emotional intelligence.  In today’s challenging work environment change is the only constant. Resilience is the only answer.  One of the greatest benefits of developing resilience is that it is a skill you can model for the children in your life because as we all know, these are even stressful times for kids.

You’ve got 168 hours, make it a great week!

Welcome to the Sandwich Generation!

MONDAY MORNING PEP TALK

When the hour I spent with my tax preparer marked the highlight of my week, it showed what a rough seven days had passed. From a four-hour business trip that morphed into a twenty-two hour travel odyssey and enough family drama to quiet the Kardashians; this is my tribute to the Sandwich Generation.

You probably fit in this category too. According to the Pew Research Center over 1 in 8 Americans aged 40-60 is caring for a parent and responsible for a child (of any age). An additional 7-10 million adults care for their aging parents from long distance. Make the picture more complex by looking for work (a stressor unto itself), being under-employed (almost worse) or having a full-time job. I’m sure you have felt the squeeze. Everyone has their own way of dealing with the sandwich, and that is one of the benefits of getting older. You have experience—muscle memory of what you did before that succeeded.

I remember the first time the pipes froze and burst while I was away on a business trip. It was January 1994 and it seemed like one of those my-head-is-going-to-explode moments. My then 2 ½-year-old had a bad cold and could not go to day care; a major proposal needed me in the office to negotiate internally with business unit marketing, sales and finance on where to position our initial offer. As I opened the door from the garage to the house with luggage and snotty-nosed toddler in hand, water was everywhere! Without a lot of experience, I began to cry. Out of sympathy, I guess, my son began to wail uncontrollably expelling yellow phlegm all over his coat. I shut the door, left the luggage in the garage, hopped in the car and drove ten miles to visit an older wiser friend and mother of six children to get help and advice.

I share this personal moment with you because nineteen years later, I’ve evolved into that older wiser woman (without the six kids) that others come to visit for help and encouragement. Many pipes have burst in my life and I’m sure you relate as well. The sandwich generation knows when we are tested at work or at home; our true nature comes to the surface. The essence of who we are really begins to shine and the years of experience we have in life begins to trump what we think we’ve lost in getting older.

Create a great week! I know you can do it.

Avoiding a Mid-Life Career Skyfall

Monday Morning Pep Talk

Over the weekend I saw Skyfall, the new James Bond movie (which I highly recommend) and from a mid-life career management standpoint, this is a case of art imitating life.

New (younger) management comes into the company and tells the older person in charge to retire voluntarily “with dignity” or get dragged through the mud and be forced out. Stop me if you’ve heard this one. But in the movie (and I am not giving the plot away) the older person says, “To hell with dignity! I’ll retire when the job is done!” and storms off. That’s the part when you remember it is a movie.   It never quite plays out like that in real life.

In Skyfall, our hero James is older and somewhat worse for the wear. Obviously, the very negligent HR professionals at his employer have never suggested the Employee Assistance Plan for his hard-drinking or counseled him about habitual sexual harassment and gratuitous violence he’s shown in getting the job done.

Here are a couple of Skyfall moments to pack your mid-life career parachute with:

1. When a mistake is made, organizations make someone pay. The bigger the error, the more heads roll. Skyfall had an embarrassing security breach and people died. Hopefully your job it is not quite that intense.

007 TIP: Don’t sign up for any high-visibility projects tipping toward the probability of failure, lead a project that is not fully-resourced or align yourself with someone in career freefall. I know it is not always your choice. If someone signs you up for a project with the Codename: TITANIC, update your resume.

2. If you are not constantly adding to your skill set, reinventing yourself and expanding your network; you might as well get measured for a blue vest at the nearest big box store. In Skyfall, the war was fought technologically. The weapons were laptops, computer hacking and viruses. The days of exploding pens are long gone.

007 TIP: Is your latest education over ten years old? It is time to supplement your experience. Bond’s nemesis asked, what was the super-spy’s hobby—his answer “resurrection”. Get comfy with technology. There’s always going to be a new boss to prove yourself to if you want to stick around.

3. What comes around goes around. In business as in life, time heals wounds and time wounds heels. It is better to err on the side of being kind (even in the hard cold world of business) than being a heartless robotic jerk, because over the span of a career lifetime, it comes back at you in spades.

007 TIP: Skyfall was the most dramatic Bond movie with the least amount of special effects. There were plenty of explosions and the Aston Martin DB-5 was back, but the drama was in the emotion. M was stoic as her past actions were called into question. Over the years, we become more introspective. A philosophical Bond had to go home literally and metaphorically to face his past.

From my vantage point, it was great to see 007 hold on to his job and be given a chance to work with the new management team.  Although the HR part of me still thinks his employee relations rep should have that heart-to-heart talk with Bond and begin documenting (just in case)- lol. You’ve got 168 hours to make it a great week!

Owning Your Work/Life Balance

Monday Morning Pep Talk

You are one of the lucky ones, you have a job. If you feel like you’re working harder, you are probably right. According to the mandarins at the U.S. Department of Labor workers over fifty years old work harder than their younger counterparts because they value work more. In 2010, Professor Jean Twenge, from San Diego State University, published results of a generational differences study in the Journal of Management. The study found, “young workers place little value on teamwork, company loyalty and see their jobs as merely a means to make a living; they like their leisure time, want more vacations, and don’t want to be under a lot of pressure at work.”

It is up to you to carve-out some “me time” away from the pressures of work to create some work/life balance. Your company isn’t going to do it for you and working 60 hours-a-week is no guarantee you won’t get laid off in the next round of  job cuts.

"The impact that taking a vacation has on one's mental health is profound," said Francine Lederer, a clinical psychologist in Los Angeles who specializes in stress and relationship management. "Most people have better life perspective and are more motivated to achieve their goals after a vacation, even if it is a 24-hour time-out." Various other studies support the impact of vacations and time away from work on increased productivity, stress relief and a boost to overall health. So, why don’t more people take time off?

 Corporate America has a “24/7, never stop culture” and when senior corporate managers work seven days a week it permeates throughout the organization. Europeans embrace the idea of time away from work to recharge almost religiously. Vacations are enshrined in law. In countries like Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, employers are required to provide up to 20 days of paid leave. Americans, on the other hand, get an average of 12 days every year. A study conducted by the Families and Work Institute found that less than half of U.S. employees take their full vacation benefit.

Probably the best evidence of the “vacation effect” can be found in the Framingham Heart Study, which scientists have examined for years to understand what contributes to our well-being. More than 12,000 men who were at risk of heart disease were followed over nine years to see if there were ways to improve their longevity. Among the questions they were asked annually was about vacations. "The more frequent the vacations, the longer the men lived," says Karen Matthews, of Pittsburgh’s Mind-Body Center, who analyzed the data to assess the benefits of vacations.

Even if you can’t afford a trip away or you are unemployed and feel guilty about taking any time off your job search, a “stay-cation” in your own town or house-swapping with friends or relatives from another city are ways to recharge your batteries. According to Matthews,"It is important to engage in multiple leisure activities, both as a way to enjoy life more, but also to potentially have a benefit on health and be a stress reliever.” This Monday Morning Pep Talk was written a little late as I am taking my own advice and enjoying some time off.

Increase Your Job Satisfaction

Recently I addressed an alumni group about navigating the multigenerational workforce and creating a satisfying career. The overall age of the audience is somewhat younger than the groups I generally present to—most of them were at or close to a decade in the workforce. This provided a great opportunity to learn how the work experience differed than what they expected in college. I also asked what the audience thought they might be doing if talked again in ten years.

Their responses were surprising. Over half the audience had aspirations to own a business. Now maybe it was because the audience was young, intelligent and ambitious (they were spending a Saturday morning at an alumni networking breakfast) or maybe this audience viewed their roles at work much differently than the 40+ worker.

I’m guessing it is the latter. Of the twelve participants that planned to evolve into entrepreneurs, all of them are currently employed by large business and many are already promoted into supervisory roles with direct reports. Three of the young 30-somethings had impressive budget responsibility and large organizations reporting to them. Rather than look at their current companies as a place to make the proverbial climb into the corner office with plush carpet, a gatekeeper in front of their door and other discreet executive perks; they appeared to view their jobs as an extension of their education. Their income was being used to pay off student loan debt, but what company’s name was on the business card could not have matter less. Emergency in the employee engagement aisle!

Employees joining the workforce in the 1970s and 1980s, came of age in more of a “carrot and stick” management style. The carrot was the first promotion. If Bob performed well as a technician II; then Bob become a technician III or (gasp)—a Senior Technician. That changed for many Fortune 500 companies in the mid-1990s as they dabbled in “Broadbanding”. If you worked for a company that missed the Broadbanding bus (lucky you)—it is when a company flattens the hierarchy, eliminates levels of management, makes it really difficult to get a promotional title change and replaces a large number of salary levels with a small number of salary grades with broad pay ranges. That is as simple as I can make it sound. It would take a highly paid consulting practice leader to make Broadbanding sound logical today. In the era of mergers/acquisitions that was the 1990s, a suave HR consultant could spin it to make sense. My audience impatiently expects titles and pay increases now--or they are leaving even with 8% unemployment.

The 40+ worker believed their company was the beginning and the end while this cohort of twenty-five to thirty-two year olds view their work as a means to an end.   They were much more interested in my four years of entrepreneurship and how I build blog traffic than an audience of their peers a decade or two older.  They appeared to be simultaneously engaged in their jobs today and could fire off a text with their resignation tomorrow. Corporate loyalty? They snickered as if my AARP card had fallen out of my wallet.

Over dinner, I was discussing this event with friends for their assessment. One astute observation was that my audience included children of Baby Boomers. They lived through their parent’s being laid off in corporate downsizings; they were relocated as children when their parents moved to start new jobs and they understand that for as much as a company provides their payroll direct deposit today—these young people think like freelancers or 1099-workers. More experienced workers have additional considerations including aging parents, health issues, young adult children or in some cases second families with young children---adopting the mindset of a younger generation where it makes sense, could be your ticket to increased career satisfaction.

Innovation, Disruption and YOU

Monday Morning Pep Talk

Innovation is a good thing, right? Companies win awards for their innovations and it is the buzzword of the moment in business. It drives profits, market share growth and top line revenue. Innovation solves problems we didn’t realize we had with products and services we didn’t know we wanted that now we can’t live without. It is the reason my home is filled with gadgets that start with lowercase, “i”.

Everyone at their company wants to be known as an innovator. It is an honor. The lucky sap that is viewed as an innovator can show up anywhere in an organization, but generally innovators reside in R&D, marketing or I/T. The innovator’s reward is a big salary, a title on his/her business card as Senior Director of Something No One Understands and Teflon status during corporate reorganizations. Innovators appear relaxed and smiling in a sea of nervous chaotic types when senior management enters a room.

Innovation leads to disruption. Disruption leads to....job loss. The innovation of ATMs made bank tellers nearly irrelevant and the ones that remain work as slowly as possible to remind us of their fate. Other innovations led to the demise of the switchboard operator, the ice man, newspaper print setters and manual street sweepers. Because of innovation, there are fewer jobs for radio announcers, executive administrators, general manufacturing, parking lot attendants and a broad spectrum of other positions. It is all automated.

Since innovation is not slowing down and it leads to disruption and ultimately job loss; what is a 40+ worker to do? First, we have to acknowledge that with innovation and the disruption is produces there is going to be change. Jobs will be lost and other jobs will be created. For every milliner, bookbinder or pinsetter that isn’t needed today; there is a job for a Director of Digital, a Patient Advocate, Social Media Strategist or Interior Design Stager. A couple of years ago, there was an uproar about the Karl Fisch video clip reminder, “The jobs in highest demand in 2010 did not exist in 2004.”  Today we accept that premise. As experienced workers have to think ahead about problems that don’t exist yet—we have to anticipate, stay flexible and embrace continuous learning. There is no guarantee the job you do today is going to be done the same way with as many people--there is no guarantee your company will exist the same way it does today. Technology will somehow impact every job we are doing in 2012.

Innovation is a good thing, and we have to start by innovating ourselves. Create your own disruption—learn a new language and become bilingual. Take a vocation vacation. (Check out: http://vocationvacations.com) to learn more. Brush up on your technology skills or take a class to learn about social media. You have 168 hours—make it a great week!