Don't kettlebell your career

Swing….exhale….swing…avoid sever injury…swing...exhale… remember to inhale....swing...



Such have been my mornings this past week, swinging a kettle bell to try and supplement my post-January health kick. Tim Ferriss and the Four Hour Body are the inspiration for the choice of exercise, though I am not sure whether it is the wanting to have an efficient exercise or the fear of having some delicate parts of my anatomy crushed which mean that I am keeping a close eye on my form. Either way take care with your exercise, it can hurt otherwise.


With the 'bell moving in the air it can be a real delicate balance of getting the right action so you do get the benefit of it, whilst at the same time not losing control of circumstances. In some ways it is a near metaphor for a lot of us who are wondering about how best we can refocus our efforts on our career whilst at the same time not losing track of friends, family, sanity, etc.


Worried about not having the right balance with your own professional/personal kettle bell? Here are some ideas to get your grip in gear:


1. Wheel of Life
Ok it is in every book going and most of you will have heard of it before but I always think it is worthy of mention. I remember the first time a mentor presented it to me it blew my mind - not only about the possibilities that lay ahead for development in a variety of areas but also realising that I did not have to get everything right at once but that I was succeeding in other areas. I like this Mind Tools version which has a guide and one you can complete online.


2. Call on council
Napoleon Hill talked about creating his ‘Master Mind’ group or council, an imaginary group of real life luminaries in different fields who he would draw upon to get ideas when he was in a quandary.


Have a blast at imagining your own (it can be quite fun) but feel fortunate that we live in an age where it is easier than it has ever been to try and create your own council to draw from. Use your own networks to get second opinions and strategies of how to cope better. No one in your immediate or peers networks able to advice about the path you want to walk? Then fall at the altar of social media and scream hallelujah! With sites like Twitter and LinkedIn it is now easier than ever to find peoples contact information and find out how they got in to the position where they are today.


Furthermore it gives you a chance to add a personal touch when you first get in contact (“I notice from your information that prior to school teaching you were once a member of Bros – I loved you guys!”).


3. Purpose, Learning, Enjoyment
Still a little lost? Get back to basics. I often find if you are able to get two out of the three above correct then the third has a habit of presenting itself.


Enjoyment – examine what it is you are doing day to day. On first sight it might not be clear but upon further examination you might find there is a lot of what you do that you enjoy. Now you just need to see how it is that you can maximise this in your time and what you do. You owe it to yourself to try and do right by you, no?


Learning – if you feel you are on a path of development this will help a great deal with any feelings of anxiety about progression, as well as that guilt we all get sometimes when we look at peers and think “why am I not where they are at?” Furthermore, when you enter in to a programme of training/education you often find that…

Purpose - …. reveals itself, as you have been shown a means of progression, perhaps not in the field you first thought but a path that is worthy of further exploration nevertheless.


The alternative? Well perhaps you just drift and then one day realise that you have self sabotaged yourself. And then I imagine you would feel like this.

With dead man's shoes one size fits all

I met with a colleague recently who was having some thoughts about their career and used the phrase 'dead man's shoes' to describe their promotion prospects - no place to go in the organisation they are in, hoping for the person above to move on/get promoted/pass away.

Well you would like to think they would be hoping for two out of those three, but you catch my drift.

So what can you do in the meantime? Move with a purpose - make sure that you are working on the assumption that the next promotion is going to become available, either inside or outside your organisation, and think of what skills and experience you might need. The results could be two fold.

Firstly were you to apply for role elsewhere you are showing, at a minimum, a commitment to continuing your professional development -it shows this is not just a job for you, it really is your chosen career. A mindset like this and the good habits it creates will look after you acting as a psychic defence if you will.

Ring once for job security, promotion opportunities and a sense of well being in the context of self actualisation. Ring twice for Steve (found via Flickr)

Secondly you never know when that opportunity might occur where you are currently based- life has a funny way of throwing up instances where people are called up to take on more responsibility at the least notice. Would you not be kicking yourself if you were to miss out on something that would have been a shoe-in for you had you kept up the good habits mentioned above?

Seem an impossible prospect? Well check out the video below. Don't know about you but I really miss Behind the Music, and really enjoyed their profile of Metallica - though at points it is a bit Spinal Tap.

Fast forward to about 7 minutes in and then tell me that the roadie who stepped up for lead singer James Hetfield was not living the definition of dead man's shoes. Despite that, when the time  came, he was ready to help make sure the tour did not go off the rails - I bet you when it came to end of year bonuses he cleaned up!

io

a

3 Weeks till you get turbo charged!

Leaves are turning brown on the trees, Christmas cards are going on sale and my summer exercise regime has totally lost its edge. With these events slowly creeping up on me can only mean one things - yes, that's right, 3 weeks until we all get turbo charged at the West London CIPD Mentoring event! 

Image via Wikipedia

What? We were all on the same page in that regard no?!

I have mentioned about some of the events content in previous posts but just as a reminder Dr John McGurk, Learning and Development guru to the CIPD (no joke - he is a Dr so surely guru goes without saying right?)  

will be talking at the event and you will have an opportunity to register as a mentee/mentor, meet people who have used the scheme, eat pringles* etc.

Not sure whether this might be for you? Well the scheme is of use to HR practitioners across all different spectrums of the career ladder - have a look at the CIPD website if you are not convinced. 

Not got time for the link? Well think about whether you would be interested in a free service which could benefit your professional development, help accelerate elements of your career management, therefore making sure what you do during 35-40 hours of your week has more purpose to it.

Interested? We both knew you would be!

*confirmation of Pringles and related food stuff tbc.

Home Improvement

Frustrated at the lack of promotion opportunities? Worried about how cut backs might limit the chance to develop in your role? Just generally fed up or stuck in something of a career standstill?



Everyone experiences this from time to time but there is something positive to take from the fact that you feel this way in the first instance – you are looking for the means with which to grow in what you do and how best to facilitate your learning.


So here are some suggestions of ways you might be able to find learning and development opportunities both in and out of the workplace:


1) Become an active part of your professional community

Its like Facebook. But if Facebook gave you homework and other stuff

The immediate thought when reading that might be to view this from a position of networking opportunities. There is no problem with this, however do not underestimate the fresh perspectives meeting peers from across industries and sectors. Not finding a CIPD branch event that covers a subject in HR you are passionate about? Why not look or set up forums for advice on places like their website or Linkedin – what, you did not think that social media was created just to throw sheep at people on Facebook?


Involvement in acts of citizenship outside of the standard needs of your job shows that you are passionate about what you do and are looking for new solutions to help improve it. Also you never know what new ideas or perspectives which might present themselves to you.


2) Examine where a service or policy can be improved upon


Everyone is looking for ways to achieve more with less. Is there an area in which you think your employer could either become more efficient or better at servicing their client groups? An easy way to start such an analysis would be to look at areas you are passionate about – for example, want to get more involved with L & D? Could you show that perhaps there is a need to improve upon the induction and probation training for managers? Using an argument of the need to improve rates of retention, lower costs in recruitment, people being more quickly integrated and hitting the ground running and so on, could you suggest this might be something that the organisation considers?


If you are able to show means of providing quantative improvements you have the start of a case to promote you being the one who gets to work on this – and suddenly you have exposure to a project in the area you are interested in/have a skills gap for.


Even if you are not, at the least is shows you are concerned with improving service and engaged with the need of the business.


3) Be a go-giver, not a go-getter


Napoleon Hill coined this phrase in his book ‘Think and Grow Rich’ and I think it still has relevance today.


Plenty of people are enthusiastic with excellent skills and in return expect certain rewards. This is fine but if you do not think your rewards are matching what your expectancies or skill set you need to take a look at yourself in the first instance.

Steve's perception of the results of his appraisal were different of those of his line manager

It is easy to point the finger at a third party and the way they have mistreated you or how you have been dealt a bad hand. However, and I hope this is a clear underlying them to the first two points you have read, although circumstances and your environment are out of your control (and at times turbulent) what changes you implement by yourself for yourself are your choices to manage.

What is the alternative? Well maybe you could complain and do nothing – but as David Schwartz once put it “no one promotes a problem”. If you feel dissatisfied with your circumstances keep that in mind and see if you can find solutions to try and beat the malaise.

Related articles by Zemanta

• If I would have known just one thing... (ifiwouldhaveknownjustonething.com)

How do you replace the CIPD?

‘Missing the CIPD? Have you gone soft in the head?’

These were sympathetic words of a friend who was rather thrown by my explanation as to why I have been slightly wrestles recently. Well you would think I would be elated it is at a close but it seems that it is true that you don’t know what you got till it’s gone.

Although it was hard work at times and the final exams drinks were well deserved (and well drunk) I can honestly say that I feel as though there is a slight void from the absence of the regular study.

I wondered if this was the case with other HR practitioners. Having spoken to colleagues who have completed post graduate studies whilst also holding down a full time job, the consensus seems to be that although tough to juggle at times there does seem to be common feeling of post-study ‘come down’ – I can now read texts of my choosing and spend time reading on the latest developments in the field, but where is the feedback? Where is the examination?!

Perhaps that is what I have not understood - with a professional qualification the examination is applying day to day what you have learnt; the criteria being able to provide a service that meets the needs of your client groups?

I can agree with that – but what do I do with the spare 6-8 hours I have back with my week now?! If you have any original suggestions I am all ears - directly applicable to professional development or something more left field, which ever you think might help fill the void and regain a lost sense of purpose!

You down with CPD? Er, well, sort of

Hand on heart, how many of you complete and keep up to date your CPD log?

Now of those who have said yes, how many have completed it under instruction- with it either being linked to a recent or upcoming appraisal, or perhaps part of your studies towards your CPP or CIPD?

I have yet to meet someone who is anti their own professional development, yet at the same time do not know many of my colleagues in HR who without fail will keep an up to date log of their CPD independent of a deadline or direct order to complete it. Maybe this is perhaps a reflection of the company I keep- there again, most of those I have spoken to are soon to be fully qualified CIPD practitioners or long gone being qualified. A mix of the future and current graduate (and higher level) representatives of the CIPD and beyond seem to not want to prescribe to the log itself.

However, when I have raised the subject the first answer always tends to be a defensive one shrouded in an off the cuff response along the lines of “If it is the CIPD asking I can get it to them- but my dog ate it last night so I might need a little time for a redraft”. People are weary of falling foul of the CPD log police but would not seem to exhibit many other motives in wanting to get it completed.

I think this might be partly due to buy in from CIPD members. It should be like preaching to the converted- we all tell our managers and staff to take their appraisal process seriously, approaching it as a reflective space of what has been achieved, what will be required in future and so on. Yet we are not jumping to get on board.

Would we take as much care to our own review as part of our organisation’s appraisal system if it did not often have the possibility of an extrinsic reward waiting for us in the form of a pay rise or promotion as a result of it? Not to assume we are all chasing extra pay but as a certain giant retailer likes to remind us, every little helps!

There will be some reading this that are using the log as a template for a structure for their appraisals and will undoubtedly be reaping the benefits. If this is the case please comment, we need to know you actually exist! But I feel comfortable by making the generalisation that the majority of people I have come across do not take part in it.

So what can be done about this? I think there might be some benefits in the CIPD considering a different approach other than stick. I say stick as there would seem to be no carrot at present as the motivation is all about just in case- “I will do it just in case I get audited/door stepped by the CIPD”.

What about rewarding the most original entries or suggestions that some people make on their log? Perhaps introducing something for the local branches to award and regulate? One would assume that if you are taking part in local branch events you have some interest in your own development as it is so this might be an easy audience to pitch to. It might also be a little easier to implement than the CIPD having to take on at national level. Once the branches have made their choices/nominations there could be a comparison with different regions, a la the Great British Menu. It could end up a modern day HR version of the war of the roses, or Guys Vs Dolls- but with action plans for all parties to take forward afterwards.

Apologies in advance if there is something already in place that I have not mentioned (again, those completing the log step forward or forever be the silent minority!) but if there is it has slipped past myself and those I have spoken to.

An opportunity to share ideas with peers, possibly leading to local and possibly national professional acclaim? Whilst continuing your own journey in professional development? If someone asked in that context was I down with CPD, I would be obliged to say yeah you know me.