Steps to Making a Successful Career Transition

Are you in the wrong job? Maybe the wrong career? That’s an alarming thought if you don’t have a clue what the right job might be.

What’s the point of leaving if you don’t know where you’re going or what you’d do once you’d get there? The last thing you want is to end up in the same sorry mess you’re in now.

There are plenty of reasons people stay in the wrong careers:

They may like their job, dislike their boss; like their boss, dislike their job; like them both, dislike their colleagues; like none of them but need the money; like the money, can’t do the job. Whatever the cause, they’re not making a contribution and they know it.

You and others like you, are burning out, dragging around, working at 50% potential, making yourself and everyone around you miserable.

Burnout isn’t terminal, it’s grown up ‘time out’. It’s a place to think and regroup when you’re not where you’d like to be.

Can you be productive in time out? Yes, you can. That’s what it’s for, that’s why you’re there.

What happens? Your brain goes to work, organizing, cataloguing, figuring out stuff that it will tell you about later.

What can you do in the meantime? Hard work. In order to progress to networking and then interviewing, you need to know your strengths and weaknesses; what brings out the best in you and what brings out the worst.

Although you’d probably like to figure that out by sitting alone in the dark, don’t. Haul yourself out of hiding and ask for the opinion of people you trust, who know what it’s like to work with you. Need more help? Ask more questions. It’s a good idea to write down what they say because, chances are, you’re going to be surprised.

What’s next on the agenda? Take what you’ve learned about yourself, pore over old performance reviews, add what you already know and prepare your case.

And your case is? Your rationale for seeking a different career opportunity; strengths that you bring to the table; ways that you can contribute to a company’s bottom line.

Are you ready to interview? Not yet.

Work on your style. Ask others to tell you how you’re coming across: your body language as well as your voice pitch, tone, tempo.

How do you look? Like last week’s laundry? Treat yourself to some new duds. Exercise, socialize, read more and watch less television.

Where’s your resume? Find it or write it or update it. Format it to highlight the strengths you want to emphasize in the future.

Are you ready for primetime? Not unless you’ve practiced for interviews. That means doing role plays, answering open ended questions. (They’re the ones that sound easy but aren’t, like, “tell me about yourself”; “what do you want to be doing in five years?”’ and “what qualifies you to work for us?”)

Rehearse with mature humans who have held responsible jobs. Enlisting the services of your cat, your baby, or your baby sitter’s friend may be convenient and non-threatening, but not a good reality check.

Networking. Come to grips with how to do it right.

We’ve got to come up with a better word than networking. It conjures up images of sweaty palmed, glad handing back slappers telling everyone in earshot, “give me a call me if you hear about a job.”

That’s not networking. That just tricks you into thinking you’re looking for a job while you’re really wasting your time and everyone else’s.

What is networking? Come back Thursday and we’ll continue your job search. In the meantime, do your homework.

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Yes! You may use this article in your blog, newsletter or website as long as you include the following bio box:

Joyce Richman (www.richmanresources.com) has been specializing in executive and career coaching since 1982. She works in a variety of environments including: higher education, manufacturing, sales, marketing, media, technology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, banking and finance, service, IT, and non-profit sectors. A member of the adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership, Joyce is certified to administer a number of feedback and psychological instruments. Joyce is a weekly guest on WFMY-TV and the career columnist for The Greensboro News & Record. She is the author of Roads, Routes and Ruts: A Guidebook to Career Success and co-author of Getting Your Kid Out of the House and Into a Job. A popular speaker, Richman conducts seminars and workshops throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Her coaching profile can be found at www.thecoachingassociation.com.

Is Organizational Change Taking Your Breath Away?

If the rapid rate of change in your organization is taking your breath away,  read the late Isaac Asimov’s take on the situation:

“If the last 50,000 years of man’s existence were divided into lifetimes of approximately sixty-two years each, there have been about 800 such lifetimes. Of these 800, fully 650 were spent in caves.

Only during the last seventy lifetimes has it been possible to communicate effectively from one lifetime to another – as writing made it possible to do so. Only during the last six lifetimes (375 years) did masses of men ever see a printed word. Only during the last four (250 years) has it been possible to measure time with any precision. Only during the last two (120 years) has anyone anywhere used an electric motor.

And the overwhelming majority of all the material goods we use in daily life today have been developed within the present, the 800th lifetime.”

You’d think with that perspective, everyone in your organization would feel overwhelmed by change.  But, as we all know, it just ain’t so. Some folks thrive on it. Particularly those who are in charge of making it happen. The rest find themselves somewhere along a continuum: some frozen solid, some grudgingly moving along, some gasping for air while running as fast as they can.

How about you? If  you are stuck, why are you? And what are you still holding onto?

If you lead a team and they’re stuck; why are they? What are they holding onto and why won’t they let it go?

Take the time to figure it out. Relentlessly pushing yourself and your employees won’t get you “there”  faster when you’re not ready to leave where you’ve been.

William Bridges, a leading change management consultant and author of several books on work transition issues, is complexity simplified when he writes, “It’s the transition, not the change that people often resist. Every transition begins with an ending. We have to let go of the old thing before we can pick up the new – not just outwardly, but inwardly, where we keep our connections to the people and places that act as definitions of who we are.

Bridges’ Seven Principles of Transition Management elaborate:

1. You have to end before you begin.

2. Between the ending and the beginning, there is a hiatus.

3. That hiatus can be creative.

4. Transition is developmental.

5. Transition is also a source of renewal.

6. People go through transition at different speeds.

7. Most organizations are running a “transition deficit.”

Does it help to change the word “stuck” to the word “transitional”? It should, if the description better fits the condition.

Anyone who has lost a long held job or meaningful relationship, knows and understands grief. Grief fills a transitional period that separates what was from what is yet to be.

Wise managers understand and acknowledge that time. They realize that many employees grieve their losses as sweeping change moves across a formerly stable workplace.

Wise managers help their employees gain closure. They know that denigrating the past or those who represented it only extends the period of mourning.

Wise managers remove excuses to hold onto the past. They make their case for why change is necessary; what is at risk if change doesn’t happen; and what the future direction will be.

Wise managers figure it out. They involve more minds than their own. They consider solution options and assess the upside and downside impact of each.

Wise managers make their decisions while developing  an organized plan of implementation. They incorporate multi-level feedback loops and adjust as necessary.

Wise managers communicate more times than they think it’s necessary, then communicate some more. They say it, write it, and say it again.

WHY we’re making these changes;

WHAT are the means and method for making them;

WHO will play a part in moving the organization forward;

HOW it will look like when we’re done.

A sense of urgency is enough to stimulate some to action; others just need a road map. The majority need a reason why. Give them what they need and there’s a better chance they’ll follow you into the future.

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Yes! You may use this article in your blog, newsletter or website as long as you include the following bio box:

Joyce Richman (www.richmanresources.com) has been specializing in executive and career coaching since 1982. She works in a variety of environments including: higher education, manufacturing, sales, marketing, media, technology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, banking and finance, service, IT, and non-profit sectors. A member of the adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership, Joyce is certified to administer a number of feedback and psychological instruments. Joyce is a weekly guest on WFMY-TV and the career columnist for The Greensboro News & Record. She is the author of Roads, Routes and Ruts: A Guidebook to Career Success and co-author of Getting Your Kid Out of the House and Into a Job. A popular speaker, Richman conducts seminars and workshops throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Her coaching profile can be found at www.thecoachingassociation.com.

Thinking of Making a Career Change?

You may have friends who changed careers when it didn’t look like they needed to. You may have wondered what gave them the courage to believe they could start over, doing something they’d never done before. You may have marveled at their immense pride in even modest success.

“Could you do that?”

You may have known others who walked away from seemingly comfortable careers and life styles to follow a dream. Their stories didn’t end as well. They lost their savings and worked several jobs just to pay bills. They’re miserable.

“Could that happen to you?”

How come it works for some and not for others?

The most successful career changers take the time necessary to know what they’re leaving and why they should. They know where they’re going and most of the steps it takes to get there. They’re emotionally prepared (as one can be) for personal and professional setbacks. They are sufficiently capitalized to get through start up without having to compromise their basic savings. They are calculated risk-taking optimists with one eye on the future and the other on the road.

Successful transition begins with self-awareness: an ability to objectively evaluate your state of being in conjunction with your state of doing. In other words:

Are you well matched to your work?

You perform tasks and interact with people. Do you have a proper balance between the two? Do you need more of one and less of the other?

What do you value most about what you do, where you do it, and who you do it with? How do your values compare to those demonstrated by your business leaders?

Are you optimistic about your career’s future? Do you believe that your area of specialization will continue to be in demand?

Are you doing what you need to keep pace by taking essential courses, reading, and learning from others?

Your continued career satisfaction is enhanced by your ability to objectively respond to the above and to determine where you stand.

It’s not unusual to find that people can be well matched to their work, share values with their organization, have the proper mix of tasks and people in their workday, believe their career’s future to be relatively safe, and still be unhappy.

How do you fare when you put these into the mix:

Recognition. Are you acknowledged for your work effort? Are you fairly compensated? Are you perceived as accountable as well as promotable?

Economic security. Are you concerned about your financial future? Do you fear that your company will be closed or purchased by a company with deeper pockets?

Control. Does your authority match up to your responsibility? Are you second-guessed or micro-managed? Conversely, are you pushed beyond your capacity in both your role and your learning curve?

Belonging. Do you feel that you are an essential player on a well managed team? Does the team communicate effectively and synergistically? Are managers communicating directly and honestly? Do you agree with the direction the company is taking?

What do you have in your career that you want to keep? What are you missing that you want to have? What questions do you have that you want to have answered?

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Yes! You may use this article in your blog, newsletter or website as long as you include the following bio box:

Joyce Richman (www.richmanresources.com) has been specializing in executive and career coaching since 1982. She works in a variety of environments including: higher education, manufacturing, sales, marketing, media, technology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, banking and finance, service, IT, and non-profit sectors. A member of the adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership, Joyce is certified to administer a number of feedback and psychological instruments. Joyce is a weekly guest on WFMY-TV and the career columnist for The Greensboro News & Record. She is the author of Roads, Routes and Ruts: A Guidebook to Career Success and co-author of Getting Your Kid Out of the House and Into a Job. A popular speaker, Richman conducts seminars and workshops throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Her coaching profile can be found at www.thecoachingassociation.com.

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