Defining your self – who are we?

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It’s interesting, but for many of us self-assessment and self-evaluation are very difficult things to do. Being able to identify strengths and weaknesses, admitting there might be room for improvement or even where your skillsets and talents lie, can be difficult for individuals to do under their own steam. Speaking from experience, it’s part of my role to ensure that clients are made to feel relax and honest – but what does it feel like to be put in the hotseat?

Who am I?

I often ask new outplacement clients to tell me about their career history starting from the age of 16. This is the point when we choose our next step into further or higher education, or go into the workplace as a trainee or apprentice straight away. This discussion process can take considerable time and I often get apologies, as people think they’re ‘rambling’ – as we can be covering many years and many roles. It’s great to get information in this way though, as it starts to draw out themes and provides an excellent starting point for the coaching or career assessment process that follows.

Only once have I ever had the tables turned on me. Several years ago, a new client asked me to tell my education and career history and choices. I was quite discomforted at the time – I didn’t know whether I was being tested for my pedigree in career coaching, or if there was a genuine interest. It felt awkward and I couldn’t help looking at her for approval or otherwise. I received some stern looks and wondered if I was veering off course. At the end of about 20-30 minutes, I’d told my story and she smiled. We had made similar choices in our higher education and first employment roles back in our teens and were now in wildly different sectors and roles – both to one other and to where we thought we would be now. Importantly, we were both very happy and satisfied with what we were presently doing. It struck me that there are so many starting points and routes to identifying our self, why we’ve reached where we are now, and where we will be in the future.

What am I?

“I was…”. These are often the first words clients tell me when I ask them to start telling me about their career and what they’ve done and achieved.  We tend to define ourselves by our job roles, not who we are as a person. I’m passionate about my job and love (almost) every day of it. However, in describing myself, I’m so much more than my job role, but the sum of many aspects of my life – all the family and friendships, hobbies, interests and lifestyle, as well as my character, define me as a person. So I suppose the answer is that “I am Sue Thomas”. It’s a much healthier way of thinking – the present tense rather than the past – and defines us beyond our job and everyday work.

Most of us have job titles that relate to our last role rather than a traditional profession, e.g. Marketing Director, Operations Manager, Chief Financial Officer. If we’re out of work, we feel that we’ve left those titles that define us behind. Some people in their profession can always identify and confidently say what they are, whether they are in employment or not – e.g. doctors, architects, lawyers, writers, accountants. They are what they are, whoever they work for. But in the end, when it comes down to it, we are all somebody – we are ourselves.

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Don’t lose sight of your destination

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I often find, that when a client has lost their job, one of the first things I do with them is to scope out what they want to do next, to help them reach their career destination. As they can be feeling bruised, battered, with low confidence and anxious, this can be difficult. If they’ve lost confidence in what they’ve done, how can they be expected to express that they want the same – or more – in their next role?

My first task is to help take them out of that negative mindset. Between us, we draw up a list of what they want – this includes everything from job role, seniority, sectors, culture, working hours, salary, location etc. This list can be exhaustive as necessary. This activity helps them refocus on, or identify, what is important to them.

Stick to the path

During a job search, it is easy to deviate from the goals you set. While I am not an advocate of rigidity, it is very important that my clients remember the non-negotiables that they set themselves at the start of the process. Great people are often sought after by people or organisations which want their skills, but don’t necessarily offer what has been scoped out. It is all too easy for an applicant to be swayed by the attention, especially if they are feeling vulnerable.

The best answer isn’t always ‘yes’

When there is a job offer of the table, it is really important to revisit the main list and see how the package matches up to the non-negotiables that have been identified. While it might seem tempting to accept a new role for the surety it will provide, it is essential that the role you eventually take will provide you with more than just job security. Lifestyle, professional achievement and personal satisfaction are all important elements to consider in the decision-making process.

By keeping your non-negotiables in mind, you are helping secure yourself the best kind of career move and reach your destination.

Speak to our team if you are in need of our services.

Career Evolution back out and about!

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After over two years of working from home, I have carried out my first face-to-face meetings during April – from workshops to client lunches. Prior to heading out for my first face-to-face meetings, I admit to some anxiety about doing it, not least because I have only recently got over Covid myself.

Deepening connections

However, the meetings went well, and it was great working with our Coach, Jo Clare again on one of the workshops. What really surprised me though was the deep sense of satisfaction that I experienced having successfully carried out the meetings, and the depth of connections that were developed quickly, largely because we were in the same space.

A time and place

While I don’t intend to fill-up my diary with meetings in the future – I have certainly seen the benefits of remote meetings from a focused and time efficient perspective (no travel time for starters!) – I do recognise the strategic importance of some face-to-face interaction, particularly when I am building the relationship with a new client.

Making the right choice

I think it is important that we remember that everyone will have a different approach to meetings in the future and developing best practice will probably result in a hybrid approach, much like the return to the office versus working from home. There is certainly much more choice now about how work is carried out and while the last couple of years has shown the effectiveness of online meetings, more recent months have demonstrated first-hand the power of face-to-face.

Welcome to our first vlog!

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Welcome to our first vlog from Career Evolution!

We will be sharing weekly advice and updates from the industry on outplacement, career management, and coaching.

In this first video our director, Sue Thomas, rounds up some of our posts from April, including authenticity, proving yourself, and finding the right blend of hybrid working.

Watch the video below:

Employing the right blend for coaching

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Every individual is different and methods and techniques that work for one person may not be appropriate for another. Coaching can help all kinds of people to focus their careers and identify where their strengths lie. Every Coach has their own style and knows what works and what doesn’t, when it comes to helping an individual reach their full potential.  But in the current work environment, is a blended delivery style the way forward, to deliver the best service and most effective results?

A conventional approach

To truly engage with a client who is undertaking coaching, it’s important to make sure the delivery of the coaching is suitable for them. The conventional way to deliver coaching was via in-person, face-to-face sessions.

The in-person approach is ideal for fully understanding the personality and capabilities of the Coach’s client. You get a much better sense of someone’s character, their presence, confidence, strengths, and so on. But now, with ever more employees requesting – or being encouraged/forced into – working from home, a more blended delivery approach is now required.

Adopting new tech

For a variety of reasons, staff are increasingly working from home or adopting a hybrid work pattern.  Many companies are downsizing their office space, while others are recognising the myriad advantages of staff working in a hybrid model of home and office. The increasing prominence of online meeting and communication platforms for everyday office business – the deployment of Google Teams, Zoom and other tech – has allowed a much greater focus on efficiency and productivity. There’s no commute and preamble to an online meeting, so business can be discussed, in theory, at a greater pace. In coaching too, remote learning has become a great way to undergo training and guidance.

Connected coaching

Setting up online meetings for coaching should perhaps not be carried out from the outset. The initial contact ideally should still be in person, but the remote aspects of coaching can conserve resources, such as time and money, in the long term. It also, of course, means that distance is no object, when it comes to the coach-client relationship. Coaches can engage with and guide anyone, anywhere in the world. The content of the coaching will remain the same, but the mode of its delivery will change.

A combination of these two methods means that coaching can still be ‘fit for purpose’ and deliver high-quality, expert advice, whilst embracing the latest technological advances, work practices and approaches. This ensures that both client and coach reap the benefits of this 21st Century blend of coaching.

Speak to our team if you are in need of our services.

Something to prove

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What separates one candidate from another? When we’re looking to advance our careers and move onwards and/or upwards, we strive to make ourselves appear an ideal candidate for our new role. We can do this a number of ways – via contacts on LinkedIn or other social media, researching the business and sector, filling in application forms. But our main tool in this is our CV. How it is written, how it is presented, is crucial from differentiating us from other candidates. But it is just words and qualifications. How can we prove beyond that, that we are the ideal candidate for the role?

Spot the difference

It’s interesting when you look at two comparable candidates on paper. You’re up for a role against someone who has exactly the same qualifications and experience as you for a single job. How do you make yourself appealing, so that the interviewer or manager can make a judgement call in your favour? How do you prove yourself when the margins are tight? Connections online that align with the new firm are a good indicator that you’d be a good fit with the company – online business platforms such as LinkedIn or local business groups or forums can help with this. But when it comes to any kind of in-person contact with your prospective employers, you have to make an impression. It’s somehow proving what you’ve achieved against that job description, rather than simply carrying out the requirements of a job description.  You have to be able to demonstrate the value you add to an organisation, which is usually about the bottom line – how will the organisation become more successful, and therefore increase their profits, as a result of hiring you?

Proving yourself

You can demonstrate this in a CV to a certain extent – think of our recent blog where we talked about using STAR to show how we overcame challenges in practical situations. But part of this too is the added value, the over-and-above bonus you can bring to the company, its team and ethos. Take the example of a marketing manager. The job description may include such elements as developing strategy, writing and posting social media posts, writing and issuing press releases, conducting interviews, creating web copy or physical literature, such as fliers or brochures. But the remit is cast much further than that – to include personal communication skills, the day-to-day operation of the business, managing staff, managing clients, and having a deep and plausible knowledge of a number of sectors. It’s not just getting a marketing degree and some work experience writing copy.

If you’re able to demonstrate and prove your value to the business in more ways than your CV, then you’re more than halfway there. There are additional elements, such as how you present yourself visually, your personability, posture and manner, that will also feed into your business persona. But as long as the interviewers like you and feel that you would be a good fit in their organisation, you’ve got the job!

Speak to our team if you are in need of our services.

The genuine article – authenticity

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It is often the case that we behave and interact slightly differently to our ‘normal’ selves with colleagues at work. This is not that unusual, as often we don’t know our work colleagues as well as we do our friends. It’s a bit like having a ‘telephone voice’. It’s you, but a bit more well-spoken. Perhaps this has now been supplanted by having a ‘Zoom’ or ‘Teams’ manner – how you behave when you’re using an online meetings platform. However, authenticity is a very important part of your working life and your work persona shouldn’t be forced or ‘an act’. When it comes to business relationships, the name of the game is authenticity.

Being true to you

I always deem authenticity to be particularly important when taking part in job interviews. It’s a word that has been in the dictionary for centuries, but authenticity is being used more and more in relation to how people should present themselves to others. Being your authentic self means trying not to mould yourself to meet other people’s expectations, which we can often try and do when attending a job interview, for example.  If we don’t present ourselves according to our skills and personality, it could be that we become a wrong fit in the company, which wouldn’t be beneficial to anyone. It’s entirely counterproductive to secure a position at a firm by convincing them you’re the ideal candidate for the job, when in your heart you know that’s not the case.

A balancing act

Think about how you present yourself, your ‘public persona’ if you like. Many people feel the need to ‘conform’, to be very much part of the mould, to meet others’ expectations. And some people are scared to be seen as too different. But one person’s ‘different’ is to another person an innovator. In an interview situation, it’s a balancing act between being yourself and ensuring your potential employers like what they see – without trying to be someone else. Speak well, clearly and concise, but don’t overdo it, by overenunciating words, or using terminology or jargon that you wouldn’t normally use in conversation – you’ll only get caught out, when you don’t know what they mean.

Be the best you are

In an interview situation, there’s a big difference between being confident and being overconfident. Importantly, if you have pre-rehearsed a couple of answers, don’t make them sound too trite. Retain a natural delivery and not speak as though you’re trotting out an opinion, parrot-fashion. Retain what makes you ‘you’, and play to your strengths. If you feel you are the kind of person who is a little shyer and more reserved, then it helps to have some practiced responses to stock questions you may be asked. This will give you confidence and in its own way allow you to be more yourself in the interview, despite your nerves. Authenticity is something that is impossible to fake however and people will know if someone is being insincere, or even misleading. Being yourself means that an interviewer can assess your personality fit for their culture as well as you being able to assess them. That is, as long as they’re being authentic with you too, of course!

Speak to our team if you are in need of our services.

A STAR-ing role – the use of STAR in CVs

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There are many different ways to approach writing a CV and in some respects, it depends on your own strengths as to which road you go down. One popular method of CV collation is the use of STAR in CVs. This way allows you to demonstrate your practical aptitude for the role, with examples of how you have surmounted challenges and approached your work in similar arenas in the past.

STAR is an acronym for Situation, Task, Action and Result, a process that can also be used to answer interview questions about past employment. In this way, an initial situation can be seen to have a positive outcome, with the process explaining how the goal was reached. It’s a great way to show what you are capable of and how you have used your skillset in specific situations.

A STAR is born

The four-part process can easily be applied to CV writing. Before you begin, look at the job description and the requirements the potential employer is looking for. Think about how well suited you are to the role and see whether your CV can be tweaked to show your skills for the role. Think too about instances in your own career where you have shined. Instances that show how you have used your key skills, intuition and experience to address challenges that would be applicable in the role you are seeking.

Then use the STAR methodology in the skills section of your CV. Choose three or four key skills that are essential to the role that you’d like to showcase and create some written responses around them in the STAR style – imagine you’re answering interview questions about yourself and write your responses down. So instead of simply listing out your skills in the workplace, you create a series of bullet points, with illustrative examples.

Applying the science

As you write your career history in your CV, rather than just reiterating your previous job descriptions – use your SITUATION (your role and its part in the wider team/company).

Then choose a TASK or series of tasks you carried out in that role that demonstrate what your role consisted of – for example a large project you headed-up, or an initiative you introduced.

You can then elaborate with the specific ACTION you took during the process. This will highlight your input and how your steered the project, or managed a team, or contributed to the design, or however you worked within the remit.

Finally, demonstrate your ability with the RESULT and show how you contributed to the positive outcome. This can be carried out for each of your former jobs, where pertinent experience to the application can be demonstrated. It’s particularly important to qualify as much as possible the benefits to the organisation that your examples have given.  For example, did the task you performed increase sales, efficiencies, profitability, staff engagement?  Can you quote figures and percentages?

A practical approach

Many applicants find that STAR allows them to demonstrate their value in real terms, in real-life situations. It also allows you to go into a few specifics of detail, with the context of the details clearly outlined – for example, rather than simply noting ‘good team worker’ demonstrate how you work well within a team.

If you think this practical approach may be beneficial to you, have a go yourself. Choose one of your past job situations and create a STAR analysis of the salient points where you were successful in the role, following the STAR subheadings process. Candidates using the STAR method find this linear approach gives them focus and structure when pulling their CV together, to create a body of writing that both reflects their experiences but will also be attractive to potential employers.

Speak to our team if you are in need of our services.

Sharing advice

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I was recently asked to contribute to a local business magazine called VOX about the best piece of advice I could share with other business owners. It got me thinking about all the great advice I have been given – or shared – over the years since I set up my business over a decade ago.

I certainly had a wealth of insight to choose from, but what I shared with the magazine was the following:

“Create and develop your business through building great relationships, be authentic and deal with like-minded people. People don’t like to be ‘sold’ to. Your product or service will sell itself at the right time, to the right client if they know and trust you.”

In this instance I was limited to a word count, but my quote felt like good advice and something I have kept in mind throughout my time running Career Evolution. However, I would also have liked to add, that sometimes, the right thing to do, is to turn business away.  To any business – young or old – out there, this sounds anathema, but it is sound advice as it is imperative that you remain true to your service and its value, and you work with people and businesses where you can add real value and the benefits are mutual.

Speak to our team if you are in need of our services.

Setting up office – the hybrid model

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In many instances, the ‘hybrid’ model has emerged as the most prevalent way of working, if your role has been traditionally office-based. This involves a merging of working from home and working in the office, with specific days allotted to both each week. It has been welcomed by many as allowing staff a much great degree of work-life balance, and the flexibility of the system can help things like commute times and fuel consumption. But it can also become a headache for managers, when they are left in the dark as to who is working where, and when.

A structured approach

Which days are worked in each location can be a flexible arrangement – with days decided on a week-on-week basis – or it can have more structure. The structured approach can be more important in larger firms, where organisation for access to the building and to desk space may require greater thought – especially if social distancing measures are needed occasionally, due to employee numbers. This can be especially true of health locations, such as GP’s surgeries or consultancies, where there is a degree of mixing between office-based staff and the general public.

Time and Space

The ‘new’ hybrid working method, which for some savvy workers has already been part of their work routine for many years, has impacted businesses in all kinds of ways. It’s made managers think about their office space, their best use of their resources and if indeed the same degree of office space is needed. Staff can be allotted certain days to be in the office, to log into a specialist computer system for example, that they cannot access at home, but these visits can be scheduled not to overlap with other staff. In this way, a more ‘hot desk’ approach may work best – with desk space used by many individuals, with no set ‘placements’. Of course, this will lead to an end of the personalised desk tradition, but will perhaps result in tidier offices.

Making connections

Working from home necessitates a much more coherent approach to technology across businesses too. With everyone familiar with online meeting tools and platforms, it’s easy to keep in touch with staff, whilst also allowing them the freedom to work at home, managing their own workloads, at their own pace. Of course, some general rules still apply – such as working hours and the times of day you’re getting you work done. There’s no point working until three in the morning if your job requires you to interact with other businesses in normal working hours on UK time.

Virtually working anywhere

Often the hybrid model has not only seen an increase in productivity, but also an unconscious increase in working hours. Closing the door to the office on a Friday for the weekend can be difficult, if the ‘office’ is also your kitchen or lounge. On the whole however, the hybrid model has been welcomed in most quarters and when it works, it works very well indeed. There needs to be a degree of trust and faith on both sides – both managers and employees – but as long as the safeguards are in place, the hybrid model is well and truly here to stay.

Speak to our team if you are in need of our services.