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.