Life Long Learning

“A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.”  Rosalynn Carter

Our life is one long learning process.  Learning does not come to an abrupt halt after the completion of school or college, but it continues throughout our lives. 

Leadership should include providing everybody with the scope to learn and develop.  You may say, ‘but I do, they just don’t seem to take it up’.  It’s worth finding out if this is because they haven’t made the connection between the learning and development on offer and the future direction of their role.  Equally another common reason is they’re worried to take on something new in case they make mistakes in the process and it will not be appreciated by their leaders.

Are you in the habit of :-

-  highlighting improvements made

- offering words of encouragement

- helping them learn from their mistakes

- offering guidance at every stage so they don’t lose their focus / direction

Or do you tend only to have conversations when things have gone wrong?

A great leader is conscious of all the quintessential ingredients which make up great leadership and as part of this is often already developing the future leaders of the department / organisation.   Managing that balance between striving for the growth of the organization and exerting equal preference for the growth of the staff. 

Learning and development is not just attending a course.  Courses are great when new skills need to be acquired.  More often though your staff don’t need a new skill, they need to learn the finer points and experiences of how to make more of what they already have.  A different conversation and one you can have with them on a regular basis.  If you don’t feel you can do that then talk to a business, career or leadership coach.

The Benefits Of Career Assessment

How often to you take time to evaluate the progress of your career?

Here’s the outcome for someone who did.

“By evaluating my life and going through career coaching, I was able to find a position that was more suited to my needs.  Plus, since I am happier in my job, I have been advancing faster.   I never thought that a career change at my age would be easy, but through my career coaching, I found skills that make me more adept at my job which helps me to excel more as well as to have more self fulfillment.”

“After I found a career coaching, things started to look up.  Sure, my life still follows that same lather, rinse, repeat pattern, but at least now I feel motivated at work.  For the first time, I feel at home at my job.  That comfort, plus the new challenges keep me happy and interested in what I am doing.  Now that I have a vested interest, I find getting ahead easier and my day no longer drags by.  I’m so glad that I sought out and invested in career coaching.”

You might not even need coaching.  Perhaps just giving yourself a little one on one time and asking yourself questions about your career will give you new impetus.  If you’re disillusioned, seeking a career change or just feel like you’ve plateaued or are about to stagnate, then treat yourself to our free 5 part course and a little one on one time.

Employee Presence versus Employee Engagement

Do you remember getting that perfect attendance sticker / pin / badge in infant school?  It was such a big deal, proving that you showed up on time every day for school, rain or shine.

In the workplace, attendance is also important - but it’s not a measure of effectiveness.

Whilst employees can show up every day to work it’s also possible for them to accomplish minimal productive work during that day.  Emails and meetings are two common activities that aren’t necessarily productive.  The difference between productivity and barely sustainable effort takes employee engagement.  The member of staff who’s fully engaged in their work is in agreement or alignment with the corporate goals and mission statement.  This person gets more than a paycheck every month, they also take home a greater sense of personal job satisfaction, perhaps not daily, but much more than once a month.

The UK Work Foundation discovered that the lower the job satisfaction level, the worse the productivity. Well no surprises there.  However when job satisfaction falls below 50%, productivity literally stagnates.  Research in 2002 found that the US and other countries competing with UK industries were 30% more productive than the typical UK worker.  And all the doom, gloom and continual talk of recession is hardly the obvious recipe for increasing happiness.  However that aside it’s possible to ride external factors by creating clear goals that inspire or at the very least motivate the team. 

 

Getting a job that matters to you

Wow, I’m still on a high after Friday.  The event “Getting a Job with Meaning” was a huge success, with everyone discovering useful insights and feeling more confident than ever about themselves.  Which in the current climate is a great asset.  I got to share my views on job fulfillment and walk my talk, because I was experiencing it as I was teaching it.  Plus filming and recording went really well and the product should be ready to go by mid October. 

Thank you to everyone involved, especially the attendees - you were amazing.

 

Career planning after 50

In prior generations, workers in their 50s were either enjoying the final years in the executive suite or counting the days until back-breaking manual labor was over. The over 50 workers were busy planning retirement, buying fishing gear, checking out motor homes and looking at retirement in Spain.

Look again - today’s over 50 workers are planning their second career move. They may retire from the present job at 55, 60 or 65, but they have no intention of retiring from the workforce.

In fact, they’re as excited in planning the next career as they were in securing that first job. Many are more excited because they know themselves better than they did at 18 or 21. They’ve developed work skills and preferences over the span of their career and combined with their self awareness are looking at different ways of finding fulfilment.

Here’s the great part of this new generation of non-retiring older adults: they’re energized by this second chance to have a new career choice. Whether the city manager chooses to take a less stressful job running a recreation center or the teacher from an inner city school decides to set up a craft store to make a business out of a hobby, the over 50 workers are merely transitioning to their second and possibly third careers.