Are you years or decades into a job choice you made when you were younger and are finding that it just doesn’t fit the bill or make you happy any more? Here are some things to remember when considering a change of career:

1. It is never too late. It is more important in life to undertake work that makes you happy then to assume that it can never happen because you have invested so many years in a different career. Be positive, be brave, it won’t happen unless you make it happen. It is down to you.

2. So many skills are transferrable. Sit down with a pen and paper right now and write down all the skills that you think are generic enough to apply to other roles. If you don’t get anywhere ask someone who knows you well to do so. You may well be surprised at how long the list is. The time you have invested in your current career is not wasted.

3. Think through the financial implications. Is your new career less lucrative than the first? Do you need to take unpaid time out to retrain? What needs to happen as a result? Look at your outgoings and think of ways to spend less money and make it happen. Talk things through with your family. Is it more important to you to be fulfilled and happy at work or to have more money? You need to weigh up what matters most.

4. ‘Try out’ your new career. Get some experience. Do some voluntary work. Make connections in the sector and use them. Plan in time to do this. That way you won’t jump ship without making sure that it is for you.

5. Not sure where to start? Phone up prospective employers and ask about entry requirements. Find out where jobs are advertised. Be cheeky and phone up organisations, use existing connections and find new ones. Use a coach to help keep you motivated if you are struggling and get support from your family and friends.

6. Call in the professionals. I have found a fantastic organisation called ‘Careershifters’. They have a very useful website and offer workshops, expert advice, free top tips, and a 70 page e-book (just £19 at the time of writing). They also and profile lots of sucess stories that will help get you motivated and see what others have done. Their website is at www.careershifters.org.

The following tips are from someone who dramatically changed their career and has kindly offered to share her experience….

7. Remember that it could be hard work, may involve sacrifices/compromises and you may constantly question if you are doing the right thing, so make sure the new career is something you are passionate about and stay focused.

8. Talk to other people who have successfully changed career for advice and empathy.

9. Allow yourself regular time slots to think through problems and resolve any issues that come up. Find something that removes you from the everyday goings-on that allows you to really think about things, or to drift off for a while, such as swimming, getting out into the countryside, or any activity where you do not have to concentrate and are not disturbed.

10. If things get difficult, remember that you only live once, and that you don’t want to spend that life stuck in a job that you are not enjoying, or does not make the most of your abilities.

Have you changed career? Please share your tips and advice below.

I hope the information is useful and good luck.

Claire

• Sleep!  Bit of an obvious one this.  Some organisations are actually installing ‘sleep pods’ and rest areas for afternoon naps in recognition of the importance of sleep on productivity.   I ran a poll to find out what people do on their time off and one person added an “as little as possible” category. On the same poll sleeping got the second highest number of votes.
• Spend time with your family.  This got the highest number of votes on my poll.  It is important to reconnect with those closest to us, and work is usually a separation.  Sometimes this is a good thing of course!  Time away makes time together more precious.
• Read.  There is so much out there.  Even if you are not normally an avid reader there will be a book out there to captivate you, you just need to find it!  Join a library, ask for recommendations, read reviews, or (best of all) buy a Kindle, where you can download unlimited first chapters of countless books.  This was another popular choice on the poll.
• Exercise.  So important for physical release of stress, looking after number one, and keeping yourself healthy.  A friend of mine recommended swimming as an opportunity for some ‘Zen’ time.
• Cook.  Whether this is meals to make the week easier, restaurant quality meals for your loved ones, or trying out that new recipe that you have been hanging on to, cooking can be very therapeutic and a great way of switching off.  Just be prepared for it to be demolished in half the time in took to cook, even if you have cooked it for yourself.
• Clean.  This was a suggestion on the poll.  For some it is a neccessity, for some a hobby (yes really) and for some the one thing to avoid at all costs.  Whatever you feel about it, you can’t deny that it is very satisfying once it is all done.  Looking after your own environment comes up a lot in coaching as a factor in personal satisfaction.
• DIY.  The same can be said about DIY as cleaning, except it is not as straightforward!  Some of us are better than it than others….
• Nuture a hobby.  Language classes?  Book groups? Calligraphy? Local choir? Running club? Allotment? Eating out? Cross stitch? What is the one thing you have always wanted to try?  Find time, book it in.  Doing things at the same time every week or month mean that they will become a habit sooner.
• Go on a trip with a child that you know (get permission first if they aren’t yours)!  Showing the world to children makes you view everything through fresh eyes.
• Get out into nature.  Whether this is the beach, the forest or the mountains, nature has a way of calming and refreshing you. I am lucky enough to live next door to Epping Forest and stepping foot there is instantly relaxing.
• Plan your next holiday.  Making sure you have extended time off and away is so important, and looking forward to it is all part of it.
• Ebay your clutter.  It is very satisfying to find new homes for your unwanted items, you will give someone a bargain and also avoid adding to landfill.  Only danger is that you might end up buying someone else’s!
• Volunteer.  If you have any energy left from your day job then there are organisations desperate for extra help.  Find somewhere to invest your time and help, and do a good turn.
• Dance!  This was a suggestion from a friend who runs a dance class who says that dancing is good for your soul.  She should know….
• Write a book.  Another suggestion from a friend who is currently writing an amazing autobiographical book that he plans to get published.  If he reads this I am hoping he will post the link below so he can share a preview with you and tell you what he is getting from the process….. apart from entertaining us all of course!
• Learn to play an instrument.  Again another suggestion from a friend who learnt the guitar, and if the clips on Facebook he posted are anything to go by it is well worth doing.  He said that it only takes half an hour a day to be as bad as him….think he was joking about the bad bit but surely we can all spare half an hour a day?  Playing an instrument is a stress reliever.
• Find a child to read a book to.  I watched a programme recently that said that 33% of children in the UK don’t own a book, and that many parents don’t read to their children at bedtime.  It is so important for language acquisition, interaction and learning about the world.  Just ten minutes would be an investment in future generations and build a bond with the child.
• Finally, just ‘be’.  On a leadership course I attended they spent the first couple of days bringing it home to us that we are human ‘beings’ not human ‘doings’.  If you are anything like me you have a list as long as your arm of things to do, and are rushing to get them done.  If you rush through life doing things then you miss what is going on around you.  Take time out to do nothing and just be yourself.  On the course they sent us into the elements up the side of a fell on our own for a few hours to try it out.  You don’t need to do that, just go out somewhere peaceful, be quiet, and observe all that is going on around you.

This is by no means a comprehensive list, it is just some ideas for you to think about.  It doesn’t really matter what you do, you just need to find the things that suit you, help you wind down and relax, and enjoy life to the full.   This will be different for each and every one of us.

Please do share what works for you by adding to the comments section below.

Enjoy your time off!

Claire

What is the one thing everyone wants to improve at work?  Finding time for the big things. These things may not necessarily be big in terms of how long they take, but their impact is big, and they are important.  Whatever your level, managing your time and putting your energy into the right things is key to moving on and up.  But what are the big things?

One attempt at answering this comes from a book that was recommended to me many years ago by suberb management consultant and trainer Louise Shepherd (http://www.louiseshepherd.co.uk). The book is Stephen Covey’s “First Things First” and his time management matrix.  He neatly divides all our activities into 4 areas as follows:

1 - Urgent and important, all those immediate problems and deadlines you have to respond to.

2 - Not urgent and important, planning, prevention, values clarification and other strategic activities

3 - Urgent and not important, interruptions, some meetings, and all those things we enjoy doing!

4 - Not important and not urgent, trivia, junk mail, ‘escape’ activities and some phone calls.

Take some time and think about all the things that you have done in the past week.  Where would you categorise them? Covey estimates that most people spend time in areas 1 and 3.  Not spending enough time in area 2 pushes many tasks into area 1, they become urgent because we don’t manage them. Spending too much time in areas 1 and 3 pushes us into area 4 for an escape, which does not really contribute to our overall goals.  In his book Covey challenges the reader to name the one thing that would make a difference to you if you did it well.  He says that this is probably in area 2.  He also says that the answers to this question fall into 7 key areas:

1. Improving communication with people
2. Better preparation
3. Better planning and organizing
4. Taking better care of self
5. Seizing new opportunities
6. Personal development
7. Empowerment

Because these aren’t urgent, it is important you make time to act on them.  Are you making time for these things?  If not look at what you are doing in areas 3 and 4 and stop doing some of them to make time.  You will find you have less problems to deal with in area 1 as a result.

This is a brief overview, it is worth taking a look at the chapter in full in the book, and also reading the rest of the book if you really want to work on this. Here’s a link to the book, it gets great reviews on Amazon too.

First Things First

Feel free to leave feedback and your own recommendations,

Claire

Here are my strategies for surviving redundancy:

• Don’t splash the cash. Armed with a redundancy payout, feeling sorry for yourself with time on your hands, it is tempting to treat yourself to something to make yourself feel better. It is wise to eke the cash out as long a possible. You might regret spending it if it runs out before your next job appears. Find free things to do to make yourself feel better. Go for a walk, invite a friend round, watch an uplifting film on the television.
• Don’t take it personally. It feels personal, it really does, but remember it is the job that has been made redundant, not you as a person.
• Fight the blues. Don’t have empty days stretching ahead of you, structure your day and keep planning things in. Book in time for job-hunting, time for exercise and time to do the things that will make you feel better, such as meeting friends.
• Access help. See what your local job centre can do, borrow business books from your library, find out about job clubs, and see if there are any local or government programmes to help you back into work. When I set up my business I was amazed at the amount of free training and professional advice I could access through Business Link. You might want to consider using the services of a coach to help you set goals and keep motivated.
• Be persistent. The current climate is tough. There are stories about candidates submitting hundreds of applications before hitting on the next job. Hopefully that won’t be you, but you may need to put in a lot of applications before you are successful. Statistically speaking, you are more likely to be successful if you put in a greater number of quality applications.
• Network! This is so important. Keep in touch with all your connections from your old job. Internet applications such as Linked In are great for this. Put the word out that you are looking for work. If you are recommended for a job, then you are at an advantage. Networking also keeps you in touch with the world of work.
• Be open minded. Think creatively about all the careers that are out there, and consider a change. A lot of skills can be transferred. Spend some time considering all the opportunities that are out there, and what you enjoy doing in life. Don’t rule out ideas that seem wild and wacky, but might actually suit you well.
• Volunteer. This will look good on your CV, keep you active and interacting, and might actually lead to paid work.
• Try to focus on the positive aspects of your redundancy. What are you doing now that you weren’t able to previously? Whether this is spending time with the kids, cooking for the family, or improving your health, consider this a gift.
• Don’t take each rejection as a set back. You won’t be out of work forever, and each rejection is one step closer to your job offer. Try to learn from it, get feedback, and accept it as part of your journey back into employment.
• Imagine you are doing the job before you go for the interview. Really think about how you would be in that role and play it through in your head. This will make you feel and act more confident at interview.
• Stick with it and talk to your support network. Find out what keeps you going, and don’t bottle it up.

As time has moved on, employees seem to be able to invest more in their staff, and I am taking on employee and management coaching, as well as individuals looking for help with managing their careers around their life. I would like to take this as a good sign that things are back on the up!

With redundancy affecting more of us, maybe there is something you can also recommend?  Please share it below!

Claire

I discovered the Floatworks at London Bridge some years ago, and often used to pop in after work.  I went there yesterday and thought I would share this secret.  I’m honestly not being paid to spread the word!  The centre has a number of individual floatation tanks.  You have your own room, your own shower, and your own tank in which to spend an hour totally free of gravity.  Because your body is able to completely relax, your brain doesn’t need to work to focus on keeping it upright and supported, and is able to have a good old rest.  The water is heated to skin temperature, so that after a while you can’t tell where the water stops, and feel like you are floating in mid-air.  You have the option to leave the door to the tank open and the light on, for those not good with the dark!

Floating has many health benefits, check out their website to read more here  http://floatworks.com/about/what_is.  But the overriding and immediate benefit for me is that you come away with an overall sense of wellbeing in just an hour.  And it is not even that expensive, especially if you buy up vouchers in advance with their 3 for 2 offer.  The ulitmate cure for executive stress!

Let me know if you try it, and share your own secrets below!

Claire

I often have a couple of piles of paper on the go, but read an article in the Guardian’s work section last Saturday all about managing paper.  One of the main things they recommended was to get a filing box, categorise your files from A-Z, and go from there.  Such a simple system appealed to me, so I dutifully spent Sunday evening following this advice.  The results?  My two piles of paper are now either in the recycling bag, or in my new shiny filing system.  No agonising about which filing categories to have, or where to file that elusive document that spans two categories.   I cheated and added ‘to do’ and ‘in-box’, but the filing was so quick to do, and very satisfying.  Filing is boring, I’ll admit, but this made me feel better organised, tidy, and I hope it will save me a lot of time and mental clutter.  So simple!  Why didn’t I think of it?  Whether I can find anything again remains to be seen.  Share your own tips below….

1. Know your stuff. It sounds obvious but if you don’t know what you are going to say then the nerves will come through. Run through your subject in your head before-hand, make sure you know the point you wish to get across.
2. Add some humour to the situation. Think about what will make you feel amused, whether it is imagining everyone naked (!), two feet high, or imagining the room to be empty. Find that thing that you can remember at the critical moment to help you feel entertained and relaxed, and lessen the formality of the occasion.
3. If you have time to plan, really play the situation out in your head before it happens. Sit quietly and think through the process, think about sights, smells, feelings and sounds. Really think through the detail and walk yourself through the experience step by step. By the time you get to do it, it will feel familiar, like you have already been through the experience. That will give you confidence.
4. Practice. Again an obvious one but it is easy to feel daft doing so and to put it off thinking ‘it will be alright on the day’. Find someone to practice on if that helps, and get some feedback.
5. Actively seek out these situations. The more you do it the more it feels like second nature. I once took a sales job because I knew I would need to approach people and I wanted to build my confidence.
6. If you start to falter then remember that everyone is on your side, they would rather you continue confidently than stumble and forget. It is more engaging that way and comfortable to watch. If you do stumble remember that this does not spoil the whole thing, pick up where you left off and continue confidently.
7. Engage your audience. Check volume levels, ask engaging questions, ask for a show of hands on something, or ask how they got here today. Anything that will make them seem more human and break the ice.
8. Experiment with ways of remembering your material. I prefer to work with the information in my head, with just bullet points or a powerpoint to refer to if I get stuck, but that doesn’t work for everyone. It is good to have something to refer to if your mind hits a blank, but not so engaging to read word for word from a piece of paper. In some situations notes aren’t appropriate too. Make sure you have a safety net whilst keeping your mind free to ad lib and change track in response to your audience.

These are just a few ideas, try them out and see what works for you. If you have a personal barrier about speaking in public and want to explore this in depth to get a more tailored plan of action, then get in touch to talk about how coaching can help with this. In the meantime, good luck and remember to leave feedback and your own tips in the comments section.

Claire

1. Dress for the role ahead. So they let you come in in jeans at your level but not for the more senior roles? Don’t succumb to the easy wardrobe option in the morning, dress like you have a more senior role and you will be taken more seriously when you apply for one.
2. Model your behaviour on a senior colleague that you admire and who carries weight in your organisation. If you have a tricky situation or conversation at work, think what they would do and act accordingly.
3. Talk to your manager about any skills gaps that you have, and if you can, be open about your goals. If they are worth their salt, they will want to help you develop your role, and move upwards. They can support you in giving you the chance to get more experience.
4. Some companies have amazing internal training opportunities. Find out what is on offer and make the most of this. It will beef up your CV, help you build networks around the organisation, and get you ready for the next step.
5. Get a coach. Yes really! Coaching will help you work out what baby steps you can take now in order to make the big jump upwards sooner. I know I also found coaching invaluable when newly-promoted and needing a confidential and non-judgmental lifeline.
6. Build your internal networks. The more people you know around the organisation, the more you will hear about opportunities, and gain a credible reputation for yourself. Don’t be shy, go on in there and build your rapport with others, it is vital.
7. Finally, and especially if you find confidence an issue, act as if you have a more senior role. By the time you have an interview for a promotion, you will already feel like you are doing the job and are more likely to impress.

These are just a few ideas. What works for one doesn’t work for all, so try some out and find out what feels right for you. If you want to explore your own situation in-depth and work on a very tailored programme based on where you are right now, and what works for you, then please give me a call or email me to book a session.

I wish you the best of luck, and as always, please do share your own tips with everyone below.

Claire

Most would advise taking regular breaks, and working shorter days.  In many organisations there is not a culture of doing this, and it is hard to be disciplined about it, to break the habit of working on.  Let’s face it, when you are in the middle of something, it is something hard to pull yourself out for a bit of ‘me’ time.

So, to this end, I have a book recommendation for you all.  A coach recommended this to me some years ago when I was at a low ebb, juggling study, a busy full-time job, and suffering from ‘flu.  The not so snappy title is “The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal”, by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz.  I actually bought the audio version to listen to during my commute, and it works on the main assumption that if you can manage your energy, and maintain yourself so you are at peak performance, then you won’t need to put so many hours in.  Taking regular breaks is a part of this, and it provides some useful insights, such as viewing your working day as a series of sprints rather than a marathon, and giving you the tools to make your breaks become habitual.  It encourages the reader to take a holistic look at health and well-being and to change your approach to improve your performance.  And if it gives you more time to yourself in the process then it can’t be a bad thing!  It made the world of difference to me, and enabled me to feel on top of everything and work shorter days too.  I recommend it to everyone who is burnt out and struggling to cope with endless busy days.

To see prices and options on Amazon please click here: The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal

Please feel free to share your thoughts on this below, and if you buy it I would love to know if you found it useful.

1) ‘Live’ through the conversation or experience in your head before it actually happens. Think about exactly what you want to say or do, and what may happen as a result. Imagine yourself there. By the time it actually happens it will be much less scary.

2) Use props. I once worked with someone who had to put on her ‘presentation shoes’ every time she had to stand up in a room and talk to more than three people. If that extra couple of inches in height or expensive tie make you feel better, get them out of the wardrobe!

3) Props don’t just need to be clothing. Shaky hands? Hold a pen. Jiggly legs? Cross them or hide them behind a table. Sweaty brow? Make sure you have a hanky to hand. Body language can give you away, so have what you need to give you the impression of confidence, even if you don’t need it.

4) Walk tall. If you look confident, you will feel more confident. They don’t need to know that your tummy is doing back flips!

5) Believe in yourself. You are you, and what you are saying is valid. Don’t let others sway you if that is what you believe in. Have faith in yourself, and others will follow.

6) Get support and validation. If you are wavering, then talk to someone who knows and supports you. Knowing someone else believes in you will help you to go forward with confidence.

7) Think of someone you admire. What would they do in this situation? How would they handle it? Model your behaviour and words on them.

And if things don’t go your way? Don’t give up! Life wouldn’t be life if we got what we wanted all the time. It is far less stressful to be flexible, take on board what has happened, and learn for next time. Change is an ongoing process, and whatever you tried differently this time is a great step forward.

Please share your own confidence tricks here, or let me know what has worked for you. If you want to book a coaching session to help you explore what you personally want to do differently, and to look at what will work for you, then please get in touch for an obligation-free chat and coaching programme.

Good luck!

Claire