Is Variety the Spice of Life? Change vs. Stability

With Spring finally here, change is in the air for many of us; however, we all may not be equally excited to see it.

We took a quick poll to see what our newsletter readers preferred: stability or change. An overwhelming majority (93%) preferred at least some change; 43% liked more stability than change, 27% liked more change than stability, and 23% could do without stability altogether, appreciating variety and new beginnings. Only 7% indicated a preference for stability and continuity.

Although change occurs in almost every facet of life, it sometimes feels like an unnatural process and can result feelings of anxiety and worry. Bridges proposed a three-stage model of transitions where, after experiencing a precipitating change, individuals work through (1) endings and (2) the neutral zone before reaching (3) the new beginning. Although “the neutral zone” is a time of uncertainty and confusion, it’s by working through this transitional phase that an individual can set/achieve new goals and begin to move forward toward the new beginning. Although stability can feel “nice” and “safe” it may lead to stagnation; changes can help you continuously strive for improvement.

According to one change-management website, change preferences are on a spectrum where “stability” and “change” are the endpoints and there are gradations of preferences in between the two. Problems arise when a stability-oriented person encounters rapidly changing circumstances or when a change-oriented person finds him or herself in a slow period with nothing new happening. Understanding our own change preferences, and those of others, can help us navigate the transition process more effectively.

If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living.
~ Gail Sheehy

Recognizing the Importance of Professional Development – Taking and Making Time to Learn

This time last week I, and about 250 others, had just finished listening to an amazing “Day 2” keynote address given by Denise Bissonnette. For “Day 1” we’d been privileged to hear John Krumboltz. These two, and a host of others, presented at the BC Career Development Association’s 2012 Career Development Conference. Attendance was down this year, likely as a result of BC’s “Business Transformation” which has seen a number of agencies closing and Career Development Practitioners (CDPs) losing their jobs. Those who are working are in training and probably scrambling to be ready for the launch of new services on April 2nd. I’d guess that limited resources, which include time and money, drew many away from CDC 2012. This made me wonder, however . . . how many of us see the conference, and other professional development activities as something “nice to do” but an overall low priority vs. a “must attend” event? Clearly, I shouldn’t make assumptions about what stops someone from engaging in professional development but it is curious.

Given the huge changes in BC’s career development landscape how did people not “move mountains” to attend the conference? The networking opportunities, alone, can be a huge benefit for someone in transition. Taking this further, is it just the conference or an underlying reluctance to invest in our own lifelong learning? I remember one discussion, in particular, that had colleagues sharing comments they’d overheard; things like “Now that I’ve got theories and ethics I don’t have to take any more courses” or “Now that I’ve got a three year contract I’m not going to bother keeping my professional certification.” Again, a few comments aren’t likely representative of a full population but this isn’t new – several of us have noticed that some CDPs simply aren’t willing to make learning a higher priority.

According to the 2009 Pan-Canadian Mapping Study of the Career Development Sector, “access to professional training is the highest rated priority by CDPs for future directions needed in the sector” (p. 5) yet I’d suggest that much of this training already exists. The Career Development Chapter of the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association recently updated an inventory of career training programs that are available across the country and/or online. So, if the challenge is lack of awareness, this resource would go a long way in solving that problem. The other challenges that I’ve heard relate to time and money; we’ve developed two tip sheets to help with those (1) 10 Tips to Fit Professional Development into a Busy Life  and (2) 10 Tips to Stretch Your Professional Development Dollars.

So, I challenge everyone to find some way to invest in your own professional development this year. Read a book then pass that learning on through a blog post, take a webinar (see our series to support the Where’s the Work? project ), take an active role in a LinkedIn group like Careers Debate, find a conference, or take a course. Sometimes all it takes is a willingness to spend the time and it is worth investing in your own career! Good luck and let us know how you make out.

Where’s the Work? Helping Career Practitioners Explore Their Career Options

Life Strategies Ltd. was honoured to be awarded a 2012 Canadian Career Development Foundation (CCDF) Building for the Future Endowment Fund in support of the Where’s the Work? Helping Career Practitioners Explore their Career Options project. To support the development of a series of webinars and workbook, we surveyed Career Development Practitioners (CDPs) to find out where they’re working now, what alternative work settings they may be interested in, and how prepared they are to work outside of “traditional” settings.

We found an abundance of CDPs working in the government-funded setting with most respondents agreeing that this represented the “traditional” workplace. Survey respondents expressed interest in learning about many other work environments including Business / Corporations, Private Practice / Self‐Employment, Education (Post‐Secondary), Recruiting / Placement, International / Global Career Services, and Government (Policy / Program Development).

When considering level of preparedness for working outside of the traditional setting, the majority of respondents reported they were personally prepared (at least somewhat) but didn’t believe the average CDP was as prepared as they were. Could this truly represent higher levels of personal preparedness or is it simply an overestimate, a blind spot, for many CDPs?

Interested in learning more? Click here to read our preliminary report.

We are hosting a 3-part webinar series that will introduce the Where’s the Work? project, review our research, and help career practitioners explore alternative work roles and settings.

• March 14, 2012: Part 1: What Does a Career Development Practitioner Do? - FREE
• March 21, 2012: Part 2: What Roles Do Career Development Practitioners Fill? – Only $49.95 (plus tax)
• March 28, 2012: Part 3: Where Do Career Development Practitioners Work? – Only $49.95 (plus tax)

Click here to learn more about the project and the upcoming webinars. Please note: space in the webinars is limited so register early.

Step Beyond Your Comfort Zone

In recent research for our Look Before You Leap suite of resources, we discovered something simple but surprising nonetheless. We were trying to identify factors contributing to self-employment conversations (i.e., why do some career counsellors/coaches put self-employment on the table as a possibility for all clients to consider while others never bring the topic up at all?) We discovered that the single best predictor of a self-employment conversation between a counsellor/coach and a client was something we’re calling “self-employment coaching self-efficacy” (i.e., the counsellor/coach’s confidence that s/he had the knowledge and skills to discuss self-employment intelligently).

This made me wonder – what else are we reluctant to discuss because we don’t know enough about it? What resources are being withheld from our clients, employees, or students because we don’t know what we don’t know? According to the 4 stages of learning model, we all begin in “unconscious incompetence” – it takes feedback and exposure to new ways of thinking to move us through conscious incompetence (i.e., we recognize a gap), to conscious competence (i.e., we’re practicing something new, but it’s still a bit awkward), to unconscious competence, where we’ve seamlessly integrated the new knowledge, skills, or attitudes into our day-to-day way of being.

As career counsellors, coaches, managers, and other leaders working with diverse people and problems today, what other specific kinds of self-efficacy do you need to encourage you to branch out a bit in the types of support you can and do offer? Within our Career Management Professional (CMP) program, it sometimes feels like we’re “preaching to the choir” in our
specialized courses. We have courses on International and Global Careers – and students have typically had some international experience themselves. Similarly, our course on the Immigrant Experience tends to draw people who, themselves, have immigrated. Women in the Workplace would rarely attract a male student. Outside of CMP, Look Before You Leap (our self-employment course) typically attracts people who have already been self-employed.

I’m definitely a fan of building on strengths. However, our research results highlighted the danger of not stretching our boundaries – we’re unlikely to even explore possibilities with others if we don’t feel knowledgeable enough to have a conversation.

What do you need to learn more about? Where can you start? Of course, we welcome you in our e-courses and workshops but also encourage you to set some personal learning goals and begin talking with others about how to fill them. To learn more about diverse cultures, consider attending special community events. To learn more about self-employment, check out the free resources on our Look Before You Leap site. To learn more about how to champion diversity in your workplace, explore the free resources through our Diversity at Work site. The only way to build specialized self-efficacy is to step out of your comfort zone . . . I encourage you to take the first step today.

New Year, New Career Survey Results

New Year’s marks a time of change for many people – some resolve to work off those holiday pounds, or reconnect with family / friends, while others plan to return to school or transition from one career (or job) to another. In a recent survey, exploring career transition, engagement, and balance, nearly 63% of respondents indicated they were considering a career change in 2012. Some noted external factors for the change (e.g., changes to BC’s employment services contracts, retiree needing to supplement pension), which can be easier to pinpoint than the internal factors noted by respondents (e.g., not happy in their current job or seeking to move onto something else). These internal factors may require a bit more reflection to determine the underlying reason for the anticipated career change (e.g., why aren’t you happy with your current job? Why do you want to move onto something else?). Level of engagement with your current work may be one reason to explore.

The Career Engagement model demonstrates that individuals need to balance the level of challenge with available capacity (e.g., skills, resources, support from colleagues) to be fully engaged. Those who are engaged in their current career are more likely to stay and less motivated to leave. If, however, challenge and capacity are out of balance, an individual will slip into disengagement through one of two ways – becoming overwhelmed (i.e., too much challenge for the available capacity) or underutilized (i.e., insufficient challenge for the available capacity). Although both processes lead to disengagement, they require different interventions.

When considering their own engagement, 70% or more of respondents reported their available capacity and level of challenge was fairly balanced and only a small proportion felt overwhelmed in their current job (i.e., 2% completely, 7% very much). But one’s level of career engagement isn’t the only factor impacting whether or not an individual may be seeking a new career in the New Year. An imbalance between work and life commitments (e.g., a single mom needs an office with day care facilities) is another area our survey explored. The majority of respondents (54%) reported a balanced life (i.e., either completely or very much); unfortunately the remaining 46% are struggling to find balance in their lives.

So why are 63% of our respondents considering a career transition? If they are engaged and have good balance between work/life demands, it’s possible that more external factors (e.g., labour market uncertainty) are at play. The good news is that, if respondents don’t follow through with a career change, their current jobs are working well.

Of those who indicated they were considering a career change, resources most commonly utilized by respondents include: websites (51%), informational interviews (30%), courses (27%), workshops (24%), coaching (22%), and webinars (22%). A small portion (5.4%) noted that they were not using any resources – whether or not this is because they weren’t aware of any or just didn’t feel like they needed any, we don’t know.

For whatever reason, if you are looking at a career transition in the near future, consider searching the Internet for websites or reaching out to your network to find key contacts you can speak with. One resource you may want to explore is Life Strategies’ Career Strategies for a Lifetime of Success workbook which walks you through the career cycle from self-reflection to proactive career management. We’ll also be running an e-counselling workshop based on this book starting January 18^th – register here

Having a Stress-Less Christmas

As we struggle with shopping lists and invitations,
compounded by December's bad weather,
it is good to be reminded that there are people in our lives who are worth this aggravation,
and people to whom we are worth the same.
~Donald E. Westlake

The holiday season often seems like a great time to relax and unwind. Work tends to be quieter; there is a brief pause from the morning hustle of getting kids up, ready, and off to school; and many hope to enjoy the extra days off that come with the holidays. Unfortunately, Christmas can be one of the most stressful times of the year – a quick Google search of the “stress of Christmas” resulted in over 100,000 hits! In 2010, we put together 10 Tips for Surviving the Christmas Season; with just 5 “sleeps” until Christmas morning, they are worth revisiting.

Given the stress the season can bring, it may also be important to take a moment to review some stress management strategies; HelpGuide.org has a great list that is worth reviewing.

Remember to take time to enjoy the holiday; even if you don’t celebrate Christmas it can be a great time to focus on friends, family, and the joys that life can bring.

Pre-Employment Screening in the Workplace

Most employers and job seekers are familiar with the traditional methods for screening applicants (i.e., reviewing application forms, resumes, and cover letters, as well as conducting interviews, background checks, and reference checks); however, assessments can be a valuable addition to your screening process. Pre-employment screening assessments can help employers weed out applicants that either don’t meet their standards/requirements or don’t seem to fit well within the organization.

As there are numerous screening options available, we advise employers to follow Stephen Covey’s principle: Begin with the end in mind. Once specific assessment needs are clearly identified, tools can be selected to achieve those goals. Keep in mind that assessments for entry level positions may be different from those for managerial positions. Ensure you have a qualified test administrator interpreting results – someone who’s trained in assessment techniques and is equipped to use the test(s) you’ve selected.

A word of caution – assessments should be used in conjunction with other screening methods. Don’t base hiring decisions solely on assessment results but, rather, take a holistic evaluative approach integrating information from a variety of sources. A consultant can be helpful in determining which assessment will best fit your testing needs and how to integrate results with other screening methods.

One pre-employment screening assessment that Life Strategies Ltd. is excited about is the AMITAI Integrity assessment. It’s a computerized assessment, currently widely used in Latin America, which predicts an individual’s workplace behaviours related to loyalty, theft, bribery, credibility, substance abuse, and sexual harassment. What’s particularly innovative about this assessment is that organizations can set their own weighting and norms for each scale item. What this means is that if theft is a big concern for your organization, you can give it a higher weight leading to the theft scale contributing more to the overall integrity score (similarly for any of the measured factors).

We are currently researching the validity/reliability of the AMITAI Integrity assessment in North America, on behalf of the test publisher, HRD Global Solutions Ltd. Complete the assessment yourself to enter a draw for a $100 VISA gift card – click here for details. Interested in free credits for the validated assessment? If you’re an HR professional, manager, or recruiter, refer others to us (e.g., family, friends, colleagues); receive one credit for each of your referrals who completes the assessment – click here for details.

To learn more, or to get an access code for completing the assessment, email cassie@lifestrategies.ca

Let us know if you’ve used or have been asked to complete a pre-employment screening assessment. What was your experience like?