An Unconventional Path from “In Transition” to New Career

by Cheryl Crumb

I reconnected with a colleague today who was “right-sized” by his employer after 15 years. He told me he’s currently an “in transition consultant”, a way to put food on the table while scrambling to find a new job.

In these uncertain times with high performers out of work, here are some less conventional ways to proceed.
 

Become conscious of your mood

The first step is simple, but not easy. Examine and reflect whether you’re feeling bitter about your “ex” and how you were unfairly treated after years of faithful service. While resentment is natural — and there are hundreds of friends who will fuel the evilness of The Dastardly Company — it’s essential to consciously put energy into accepting the situation.

Why … especially because feeling “victimized” makes you feel so “right” and them so “wrong”?
As human beings, we’re always communicating, and people can “hear” what we don’t say loudly. In other words, our bitterness will be evident to potential new employers, and that’s not something they find attractive. Employers are looking for resilient people with positive attitudes.

Consider that resentment is a choice we make (albeit unconsciously). That opens the possibility of our choosing acceptance, a counter-intuitive, but healthy alternative. To do so, we need to find a way to reframe the situation that allows us to move on to the future rather than getting stuck in the past. How? Come up with reasons why the business decision to let you go was smart. It’s not about right/wrong, but moving yourself through the change process.
 

Don’t automatically drift

The second step is to realize that we can design our future or drift into the future. Again, it’s our choice.

Let’s call my colleague “Fred”, and his project “Designing Fred”. Rather than drifting into applying for jobs similar to what he did previously (knee-jerk reaction), “designing” has two components “Reading Fred” and “Reading the World”. The former is getting to know yourself better and the second is increased knowledge on the world (business) since you will be uniting both.

Take a computer/pencil/paper and jot down answers to the following questions. Keep a journal so you can reflect, input, wait, sleep on it and input more. Allow yourself to float in the questions rather than look for “right” answers.

Reading Fred

• What is the value that you bring to an organization? (This is not “resume speak”.)
• What are activities you love doing, even if they don’t add up to a “job”?
• For each, what about it gives you energy and joy?
• If you could design the worst job in the world for you, what would it be asking you to do?
• What are your talents? (Don’t be shy.)
• What were key moments for you in life? What did they offer you or what did you learn?
• What haven’t you done, but the thought sounds exciting? Why?
• What environment brings out the best (worst) in you?

Ultimately, you’re a collection of talents and preferences that shouldn’t be constrained by the jobs you’ve previously held.

Reading The World
Your access to “the world” is through perceptions of senior level people in various fields. Your goal is to engage them in provocative conversation, not to sell yourself as a possible candidate, but to learn insights and perspectives. Consciously get outside of your comfort zone industries. Questions to ask them might include

• As you look off to the future, what are the challenges you see organizations facing?
• What are the changes you see coming down the pipe?
• What is different about what you’re looking for now compared to a few years ago?
• What kinds of jobs/roles are becoming more (less) necessary?
• What are lessons you’ve learned from your customers/suppliers/shareholders?
• Where recently were you blindsided? What did you learn from that?
• What lessons have you learned through success and failure?

 

The results

Why are the questions valuable? These are the issues that will drive job creation. Consider that a job is the gap that exists between the world as it was and the world as it’s becoming. Why might an executive even engage with you? I believe that profound and extraordinary conversations are a gift to executives. These questions help them articulate thoughts never uttered but dancing in their heads.

So, if you were downsized out … consider that your Ideal Future might be something more invigorating than a repetition of the past.

Links

• image courtesy of Svilen Milev

Cheryl Crumb helps you get customers for keeps. She is an ISO 9000 accredited trainer, coach, transition consultant and facilitator who designs training programs to fit specific corporate needs. You’ll find more details on her website, the Experion website and LinkedIn.

Reasons To Get A Mentor

by Cheryl Crumb

What makes successful people successful? Sure, they’re likely bright. They might have advanced education. Maybe they were even lucky. There’s another hugely important ingredient to add to the mix.

Think about it … what do the following successful people have in common: Sir Richard Branson, Alexander the Great, Oliver Stone, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and David Beckham?

They all had mentors … experienced people who thought, “You are worth my time and effort; I can offer you ways to expand your horizons and increase the likelihood that you will achieve success”.
The Chinese ancients had a proverb:

“A single conversation across the table with a wise man is worth a month’s study of books”.

Albeit politically incorrect and gender dismissive, this belief was echoed by Dr. Beverley Kay in her recent book “Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go” when she said,

“Behind every successful person there is one elementary truth: somewhere, somehow, someone cared about their growth and development. This person was their mentor”.

Enlightened organizations are realizing the truth behind these statements and are orchestrating formal mentoring programs as part of their knowledge management and succession management strategies. Find a wise and experienced individual and team her/him up with an emerging leader.
 

Why A Mentor Matters

Why do you want to have a mentor? Look at this laundry list and select what appeals to you:

• Offer you experienced guidance and support
• Further your professional development
• Share the pros and cons of various career paths
• Offer new and different perspectives
• Be a sounding board to test your ideas and plans
• Expand your personal network
• Provide you constructive feedback on your developmental areas

Boiled down, a mentor’s role is to help you become a better observer of yourself and your blind spots. That let’s you take new actions you didn’t have the knowledge, perspective or courage to take previously.

From a more personal level, a mentor is there to:

• Be someone you can confide in during your darkest hours
• Help you to get back up when you crash
• Help you to accept changes or change what you can’t accept
• Rebalance yourself
• Find your motivation when it’s temporarily lost
• Help you to think outside your box
• Introduce you to contacts
• Step out of your comfort zone

 

Finding A Mentor

But what if your organization isn’t enlightened? What if you’re on your own with no company resources behind you? Take charge and find a mentor!

Keep your eye open for people you respect … people who have enjoyed the “thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” as ABC’s Wide World of Sports proclaimed decades ago. Since wisdom isn’t gained easily, learning includes spectacular failures! Be bold and ask an individual if they would be willing to be your mentor, that you would be honoured to learn from them.
 

Why Mentors Mentor

Why might mentors willingly invest themselves in you? Past mentors have told me

• mentoring renews their enthusiasm
• they enjoy the opportunity to share expertise
• mentoring enhances their skills in coaching
• mentoring allows them to practice a more personal style of leadership
• mentoring enhances their generational awareness.

 

How To Be A Mentee

Being a mentee isn’t about sitting at the feet of your mentor and waiting for her/him to pontificate brilliance. Instead, actively take ownership, identify your initial learning goals, use your initiative to drive mentoring sessions, be open and coachable, seek feedback, accept criticism graciously, and ask questions.

Contrary to popular belief, the most effective mentoring relationships are ones in which the mentee is relatively proactive and the mentor is relatively passive. In other words … you as mentee need to be in charge!
 

The Process

The mentoring process begins with definition: together, define your boundaries, set your ground rules, clarify your objectives. Share perceptions you think others have of you, and what you see as your strengths and weaknesses. Be honest with your mentor and yourself. The second stage is identifying your developmental needs and priorities. The third stage is action: ask for insights, discuss options, set a plan, practice, do it, debrief.

Remember, mentoring should lead to change. It was Darwin who said,

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change”.

Mistakes are inevitable!
 

Get Started

Start by reflecting:

• What do you really want to be and do?
• What are you doing really well that is helping you get there?
• What are you not doing well that is preventing you from getting there?
• What are you willing to do differently tomorrow to meet those challenges?
• How can your mentor help?

Arrangements can be formal or informal. To formalize with your mentor, create a contract including your willingness to be coachable, the number of times you will connect monthly, how long your meetings will last, how you will deal with confidentiality, and how you will periodically assess the value to both of you.

Mentoring is a science and an art. And don’t despair if The Most Respected Individual You Know is 4,000 km away … phone mentoring can be very powerful!

Find a mentor. Be a mentor. Buy the T-shirt!

Links

• Why a private mentor matters (and how to get one for free) (Marketing Actuary, Oct 2012)
• Every woman should have a mentor at work (Business Insider, Dev 2012)
• Why you need a mentor (OPEN Forum, Jan 2012)
• Why you need a mentor (BusinessWeek, Feb 2007)
• 10 good reasons for having a mentor (CIO Update, Nov 2006)
• image courtesy of Studio CI Art

 
Cheryl Crumb helps you get customers for keeps. She is an ISO 9000 accredited trainer, coach, transition consultant and facilitator who designs training programs to fit specific corporate needs. You’ll find more details on her website, the Experion website and LinkedIn.