Career Management - Part 1: Planning

Let's chat a little about managing your professional life. Part 1 will address the essentials of planning, Part 2 will focus on career change and Part 3 will open up the subject of re-entering the workplace after being home with your family.

Part 1: Planning

Whether you are looking to the future within the context of your current profession or employer, dream about owning your own business or see some time off with your family in your future, you absolutely have to start with a plan.

I've worked with hundreds of employees and job-seekers and when it comes to career management I'm amazed at how many times people don't have a written plan for their future. Forget your resume for a moment, I'm talking about some type of document, poster...something...that addresses what you see for yourself in the upcoming working or family years.

In the case of the job-seeker, if you don't start with a plan, your search will take AT LEAST TWICE AS LONG COMPARED TO SOMEONE WORKING FROM A PLAN!! Dreams usually stay dreams unless you put some ink around them, set some milestones for decision making and track your progress along the way.

Let's talk about some planning basics that you can find in many life/career/project management publications. I don't think any of these will be totally new to you, but hopefully I'll shed some light on how to help you embrace these essentials in a way that works for how YOU work.

Understand your planning style: Arm yourself with the tools you need to create a living plan document. This may be an electronic document, or several, created on your computer. Neat, tidy...and always edited and up to date. Or maybe it's a poster-size document, hanging on your wall in the house somewhere. Handwritten, colorful... whatever! How about a notebook - yes, a good old fashioned notebook, where not only do you keep your plans, but you also jot down ideas, accomplishments and contact information for anyone or thing related to your career development. Don't limit your planning skills with how you've planned in the past. Knowing your style will help you keep the plan alive, up-to-date, motivating and top-of-mind.

Begin with your priorities and values: Identifying the most important things to you in life will help bring order and peace into your world. I'd compare it to holistic medicine. If you break your life into disconnected pieces (health, fitness, career, family, spirituality, friendship) they'll stay in silos and compete for your time. If you plan to integrate them from the beginning, you'll treat the source of your condition, not merely suppress errant symptoms. Write these important beliefs down and define what they MEAN TO YOU. Don't just write down your priorities, RANK THEM!!

Create a Project Plan: You may not know every step you'll need to take to go from today to getting that new job, but start with what you know and fill in the gaps as you learn. Project plans are fantastic tools because they can fulfill the role of an accountability manager! Capture key milestones with basic tasks that will need to be accomplished in order for the milestone to be completed. The milestone then allows you time to pause and make decisions about moving forward OR prepares you to take the next step. Sit down with a calendar and map it out...on excel or a piece of paper...remember your planning style!

Gain Perspective: GET OUT OF YOUR HEAD FOR THIS ONE!! The last thing you want to do when you create a working plan is to lock yourself up and work alone. Yes, you'll need think time and research time, but make sure you engage a learning perspective throughout the process. Have coffee with friends, old colleagues, attend an event that might feature a speaker or topic that is of interest to you, make inroads with someone who might help you gain knowledge on a particular topic...you can even pull together a small working group of moms who also need to nail down a career plan and work together. You can touch-base regularly (weekly, monthly) and work through the process as a team. Group/team work can have outstanding results - lots of support, creativity and motivation come from a healthy team environment.

That's a good dose of planning for now...remember, wisdom's greatest enemy is fear. Don't let your fears of failure, inadequacy, rejection or criticism prevent you from developing an inspiring, actionable plan about your professional future. You're only stuck if you want to be stuck.

Funny Friday!

Ok, so I can't even believe we caught this moment on camera!

It was Fall '08, Calley was 18 months, Ava was almost 4 and Sydney was 6. We were on our way to a local farm to go pumpkin picking. The drive was about 40 minutes and the older two girls were starting to get antsy, which usually starts a roller coaster of bickering.

We turned around to discipline Ava and Sydney only to find out that Calley had found a cure for listening to her older sisters' annoying chit chat. HA HA!! Once again, we are impressed with the youngest sister's sense of balance and need for peace!!

Have a wonderful weekend...next week will start a three-part series on career management. Get ready!

Where the heck...

IS THE SUMMER GOING??? This seems the be the theme of the conversations I'm having with everyone lately. Heck, we're finally having a cookout WITH OUR NEIGHBORS tomorrow for the first time since the kids got out of school.

I didn't think I planned very much for the summer - as you recall, I wanted to keep the summer simple and open for daily adventure. NOT!!

With the three girls it's been more than what we expected - they each had a couple of weeks of swimming lessons, our oldest daughter is wrapping up softball and we were all at vacation bible school this past week (tons of fun and very moving - I'll share next week for sure). All of a sudden, BAM, 6 weeks of summer are gone and we have only 6 more to go.

I couldn't even manage to get a Funny Friday posted yesterday. I'm trying to keep my blog posts authentic, so I don't write in advance. I could, but I think that would take away from reflecting what really goes on in our family and the things that challenge and excite me as a mother. I do, though, have a bit of an editorial calendar of topics I'd like to share or open up for your input.

Most of you probably know that several weeks ago I applied to become a "mommy blogger" and host a weekly call-in show focused on motherhood for a great radio station in town. I have a radio show on my dream list for inspiringmotherhood.com, but this popped into my life unexpectedly. I've been following up with the radio station for about a month now and have the sinking feeling that I will not be chosen. Although I'm totally bummed that I will most likely not become a member of this team, it DID wake up a part of me that got more excited than I expected. A sort of wake-up call to make this a reality sooner rather than later. Consider this goal posted in my kitchen for me to see EVERY DAY, reminding me of my dreams!!

Now, if I could only get time to slow down a bit...

Funny Friday

We seem to be having a lot of "to have a pet or not to have a pet" discussions lately. Cats are out of the question because I am terribly allergic to them and having a dog is still a theory.

The other day Ava sat down next to me at the kitchen table and said, "Hey, mom, I really want a kitty. But if I get a kitty then I'll need to get a new mommy. And I don't want a new mommy. You're MY mommy and you're just perfect for me."

It was a neat feeling...I was smiling ear to ear, chuckling at the thought process I just witnessed, and at the same time my heart was just melting!!


Come on, let's here one of your funny stories...post one today!!

Funny Friday!

Our sweet and mild mannered third daughter, Calley, turned 3 last February. Her personality keeps eeking out and this story happened a month or so after her birthday:

All three girls were in the car with me, lined up across the back seat in their various car seat contraptions. Calley had decided to take both her shoes off on the ride home. I was able to pick the shoes up while stopped at a red light and handed them to our oldest, Sydney, and asked her to help Calley put her shoes back on before we got home.

I heard bits and pieces of the conversation and physical tug of war that took place for a long two or three minutes. This was not going well. Finally Sydney asserts, "Calley, put your foot up here and let me put this shoe on!" Calley responds, with her teeth gritted tightly and each word spoken (not yelled) sternly and slowly,

"YOU - ARE - NOT - IN - CHARGE."

After about 5 seconds of silence we all busted out laughing. The little tag-a-long sister drew her line in the sand and let us know that she was NOT to be messed with! She ended up putting the shoes on all by herself. ;)

Have a safe and fun-filled Fourth of July. Amidst all of the picnics, swimming and games, let's not forget to spend some time sharing the meaning of this holiday with our children...and help them become more aware of the sacrifices many men and women in our armed forces have and continue to make to protect our freedoms.