Be Successful – Making A Personal Change – Part 1 Admit A Change is Needed

Posted on 6 May 2012 | 1 Comment

Be Successful – Making A Personal Change – Part 1 Admit A Change is Needed

Personal Development Seminar (21)

Change happens

Yes, change is inevitable – you can’t avoid it but sometimes we do our best to try!  At the end of the day, though, we all get caught up in it.  If you look back at your own life and your career, you will know that this is true.

Some change is positive and some negative but change is inevitable. So how do you make the most of it for you and your career?

Facing reality

You need to recognize when a change is needed and you need to admit to yourself when that change needs to be within you.  Start to  monitor the world around you and how those about you are beginning to respond. How have things moved on and how are you going to respond?   Make scanning your horizons a regular routine.  For example;

  • Read the professional and trade journals for your sector,
  • Take part in your professional organization,
  • Keep in touch on the internet with others in your market place – LinkedIn groups are a great source of information.

Locally, listen to what your boss and your colleagues are saying about the future.

Before you make a change, you need to truly acknowledge and accept that one is required.  Sometimes that change is within ourselves and it is about our own performance.  Are you fully meeting the needs of your job as they are now, not as they were when you were first appointed?

Admitting we have a weakness, can be very painful.  It is far more comfortable to blame the boss, our colleagues, the customers or a supplier.  It is easier to make excuses and rationalise, rather than admit to things as they really are.

Making the first step

Facing reality,  admitting there is a problem and taking responsibility for action will setup the conditions needed to make progress.  They contribute to that first step to the personal change needed for career success, now, and in the future.

Look out for the next post in this series. It will be about defining the change properly, so that it will be successful.

I would love to hear about successful changes you have made.  Meanwhile, If you need support in making your change, my email address is below.

Wendy Mason is a Life and Career Coach.  She helps people have the confidence they need to be successful at work and to change career while maintaining a good work/life balance. You can email her at wendymason@wisewolfcoaching.com

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Posted in Career Development, change, Change Competence, performance, Personal Development

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Career Development – Dealing with a difficult boss

Posted on 3 May 2012 | 3 Comments

Dealing with a difficult boss

Emotion: Fear (Photo credit: Cayusa)

We’ve all had them, those cranky bosses who make life difficult! Often, this not just for you and the team but for themselves as well!

I’m not talking about bullies; I’m talking about people who find it difficult to get on with other people and end up in senior management positions.  In a fair world they wouldn’t be there, but no one said the world was going to be fair?

Nevertheless, these cranky bosses can create lots of stress in the workplace. If you work to them with a team working to you, you are going to need to handle the situation.  You will need to relieve the stress on you and on your team, so that you can all concentrate on the real job.

Reality says that, if you want to stay, you are going to have to find a way to work with your cranky boss – you need a strategy.

Here are some tips;

Find a common interest   How much do you know about your boss?  See what you can find out.  What are they interested in?  Where have they come from and where do they want to go?  What are they trying to achieve in this role?  See if you can find some common ground.

Don’t jump to conclusions Try to keep an open mind, don’t start to assume that your boss is going to be difficult about everything/ Start expecting and behaving as if your boss is going to behave reasonably until it proves otherwise.

If your boss becomes emotional, stay calm Acknowledge the emotion, for example, “I understand that you are upset” but try not to become upset yourself.  Don’t react with emotion to emotional outburst; try to show understanding without being patronizing.

Keep focused on the work and what needs to be done Address the problem and sort out practical solutions and some options – reassure your boss that you are going to solve the problem if you can.

Manage your own emotions. You might find yourself getting angry or upset with your boss. Take some deep breaths concentrating on breathing out, then count to ten.  If necessary take some timeout and go to the bathroom.  Do whatever you need to do to calm down.

Stay real If you have a difficult boss, remember, the problem is about them not you.

Do your best to build a relationship that works with your boss.  If you can’t, then only you know whether it is worth staying around.  If it slides into bullying then you need to take advice –in the UK you can ring the National Bullying Help Line on 0845 22 55 787.

Use the power of good relationship building before and during all negotiations with your difficult boss. People sometimes forget than former opponents often make the strongest allies. You may find that a  well managed approach, working things through with your boss and trying to see their point of view, will earn you respect over time. It may even mean you get that promotion!

If you need advice from a coach, my email address is below.

Wendy Mason is a Life and Career Coach.  She helps people have the confidence they need to be successful at work and to change career while maintaining a good work/life balance. You can email her at wendymason@wisewolfcoaching.com

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A New Post on Dave’s Blog – Dave Starts Planning for Self-Employment But What About June?

Posted on 2 May 2012 | Leave a comment

Dave starts planning for self-employment but what about June?

There is a new post on Dave’s Blog at this link. He has designed his own checklist for starting a business! But of course there is June to consider – she isn’t enthusiastic.

Dave has been a regular on the Leaving The Public Sector site and in future he will be appearing here.

Dave was a fairly average kind of UK Civil Servant and last year he took voluntary retirement.  But he didn’t really choose to go.  He was “persuaded” by his senior managers to make the move.

Dave has been following our advice on finding a way to his new future.  But it has been a rocky road.  His wife, June, and the rest of his family have not liked what the change has meant for them!

It is now over a year since Dave left his Civil Service job and he still hasn’t found the right role! But now he thinks he knows what he wants to do!  You will find the early part of his story at the bottom of his blog.

We are giving Dave advice, but you can advise him too using the form below!

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Job Search – Saying Thank You After The Interview Is A Must

Posted on 2 May 2012 | 2 Comments

In a successful job search, saying thank after an interview is a must.

Quill pen

Photo credit: Wikipedia

You can do it by email or by letter but you can’t avoid it.  It has become so much of a custom that some employers think less of you these days, if you don’t do it.

Send your thanks within 24 hours of being interviewed, if you can, and you need to tailor your letter it to suit the organization!  The style should reflect the kind of organization and the type of interview you’ve had; a formal process requires a formal response.

If you are not sure what to write, then you can use a thank you letter template as a guide.

Your letter is a chance to emphasize what a good fit you are for the job.  Even, if you have decided the organization is not one you want to join, still send polite thanks. Who knows what the future holds?

You can use the letter to reinforce what a good fit you are for the job, now that you know more about it.  And your letter is a good opportunity to flag up things they need to know but didn’t ask at the interview. You can add what you didn’t mention or make something clearer.

If you have some information that might be useful to them or thoughts on helping to solve an issue they raised, that can make you to stand out from the crowd.

Some people recommend writing to everyone you spoke to in the organization. But, personally, I prefer to write to the person who is leading job search within the organization.

Remember to proof-read your letter carefully – nothing is more off-putting than reading a letter from a candidate that includes typos.  If you are not sure of the spelling of names and the correct titles, then ring the organization to check.

Remember timing comes before creative brilliance – get your letter in as soon as you can – most organizations make their minds up about interviewees pretty quickly.

If you need support in your job search then please get in touch – my email address is below.

Wendy Mason is a Life and Career Coach.  She helps people have the confidence they need to be successful at work and to change career while maintaining a good work/life balance. You can email her at wendymason
@wisewolfcoaching.com

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Managing People – Know Yourself!

Posted on 1 May 2012 | Leave a comment

Managing People – Know Yourself!

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. Aristotle

N-Plants

I’ve been writing a lot recently about the personal development mindset.  A key part of the mindset is self-belief.  But before you can believe in yourself, you need to understand yourself; particularly your strengths, your weaknesses and your personality.  This is particularly important if you want to be successful at managing others!

I have important news for you – there are no perfect managers.  Managers have strengths and all of them have weaknesses too.  You are no different to the rest.  There will be things that you are good at and there will be other things that you might prefer not to talk about, or even to admit to yourself.  And every one of us has our own quirks of personality.  Believe me, you need to understand yours!  If you want to succeed as a manager, you need to be honest and, not least, with yourself.

Being a good manager doesn’t mean you need to be perfect or to know everything.  But, you do need to be good at covering the gaps; that only works if you know where the gaps are.  Then you have options.

You can:

  • Put together a team that includes people who are what you are not and can do what you cannot. Sometimes this can be a challenge – often our first instinct is to recruit people just like us! If you are putting together a team for an important, business critical, task,  you need to have all the bases covered,
  • Outsource/buy in the ability you need, when you need it, for example, HR advice when faced with a large-scale organizational change.
  • Adapt the task so that it uses the skills and experience you have available. This may be negotiable more often than you think.  But without an honest appraisal of your own strengths and the strengths of the team, that would not be possible.

If you would like to understand yourself better then “Personality: What makes you the way you are” by Daniel Nettle comes well recommended.  Also, there are lots of free personality tests on line – HumanMetrics provides one of the more widely used ones.

If you would like to work with a coach on strengthening your understanding of yourself, my email address is below and I’d be very happy to work with you by Skype or email.

Wendy Mason is a Life and Career Coach. She helps people have the confidence they need to be successful at work and to change career while maintaining a good work/life balance. You can email her at wendymason
@wisewolfcoaching.com

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