Beth Gallego

​What do we need to do to be happy and fulfilled: to make considered decisions, operate well, know what we want and how to articulate it, and be confident to drive our own development?
 
For some years, I taught an evening class at Wellington High School Community Education Centre entitled “Find a Job You Can Love”. I met many wonderful people on these courses who had a variety of motivations for attending: tired of the job they were in, wanting a way to think more purposefully about their work and lives, wanting to meet with others to hear about their careers and seek out similar experiences – to name a few.
 
One of the first exercises we did was to set up three groups to debate which aspect was the most important in career development – Knowing how? Knowing why? or Knowing Whom?  The conclusion was always that they were equally important – that investing in these three aspects of career increases the likelihood of positive experiences and outcomes, and leads to better work opportunities and ongoing employability.

As a result of the assessment work we did together, one participant Diane discovered that until then her thinking about her career had been two dimensional.  She was a very good networker, and she had invested heavily in education, training and experience.  What she had never thought about were her motivations – what was most important to her in her work and life, what gave her a sense of meaning and purpose, what was the source of her energy?  Making this discovery provided another dimension to inform and empower her thoughts and decisions about her career.
 
Awhina had come to the course certain that she wanted to change from a career in which she had committed much in terms of qualifications and training.   After completing an exercise around her deeply held needs for her work and life, and reflecting on this, she had come to an interesting conclusion.   Her career was a good choice.  However, she identified that there were some aspects of her job she would like to be doing far less of, and other aspects she would like to be doing more of.  During the four weeks of the course, she put these thoughts down in writing, and was then able to articulate clearly to her manager how she would like to develop in her role.  She was listened to, and was excited that her manager was open to providing some of the opportunities and changes that she had identified.
 
If career development seems like a mystery to you, and you would like to make a balanced investment in your career, do get in touch to discuss possibilities for working together.
Nga mihi
Beth
 
The framework of Knowing How, Knowing Why and Knowing Whom was the result of research by Kerr Inkson and Michael B Arthur.  Their article “How to Be a Successful Career Capitalist” was published in the Academic Journal Organizational Dynamics; Summer 2001, Vol.39 Issue 1, p.48.  It is still highly cited today.

This week I had a very happy and excited call from Jo who had secured ‘serious’ employment after twelve years of being a mother and a very busy participator in her community, in both paid and unpaid work. 

Jo outlined the steps that had enabled her to get to this point.  Before I met with her, she and her family had identified financial and other goals.  The work we did together was to identify her strengths. She then ‘mined’ her experience, both paid and unpaid, to think of times when she had used her strengths to benefit specific pieces of work, using verbs to describe the particular actions she had taken that made the difference.  With this information, we wrote a CV that made claims about what she could contribute to an organisation and provided the evidence or proof from the examples she had come up with. 

Along the way, Jo told me that she had had a big setback when a young recruiter clearly made a judgement about her experience (mother returning to the workforce) and minimalised what she had to offer.    Her response was to use the networks she had within her family and friends to gain a referral to a recruiting consultant. They recognised what she had to offer, and backed her to get a role that was an excellent fit for her experience, strengths and interests.  This process took several months, and it would have been easy to give up.
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Jo told me it was the work we had done together and her CV that gave her the confidence ‘to give it a go’ and keep going in the face of setbacks to get a very good result.  

​If you are returning to the workplace and not sure of your strengths and how to market them,  do get in touch to discuss possibilities for working together.
Beth

Have you been working in the same job for seven years? Nine years? Eleven years?  Feeling that you have left it too long to make any changes? Not sure if your skills are marketable, not sure if you have any skills? Feeling you are too old to change?  Stuck between feeling desperate to change and not being able to do it? 
 
If so, you are not alone – this is a very common dilemma.  It is easy to keep going on with everything, hoping that something will happen to cause things to change, or that eventually you will find a way to initiate change yourself.     In the meantime, your happiness may be  affected and as a result your relationships.
 
The way to solve this puzzle is  to look first within yourself: to assess the activities that you enjoy and that interest you and then your deeply held needs for your work and life right now.  Making  sense of the your skills and experience is the next step; identifying the transferable skills you are motivated to use and have developed to a  high level, and those that bring a new sense of energy when you think about having an opportunity to develop them. 
 
This information can give you a set of criteria for considering new options without burning any bridges, and can provide the foundational material for marketing yourself towards a new role, or putting a case for development where you presently work.
 
Paul had been in his organisation for eleven years and was delivering very professionally in his field. But over several years he had slowly grown dissatisfied and had recognised the need to make some changes.   We worked together to identify his deepest needs for work and life, the activities that most interested him and the skills he was most motivated to use. Then we progressed to writing a powerful CV that reflected the essence of what he could and wanted to offer.  In the safety of our confidential meetings he was able to hold a mirror up to how disgruntled he had become, and how, subtly, this was affecting his approach to work and life.
 
Our conversations and work provided the impetus for Paul to make clear plans and act confidently to do what he really wanted to do.  He secured a part time contracting role, and  continues to be associated with his existing employer in a very satisfactory working relationship.   He is in the process of moving to working for himself completely and is feeling excited and alive about present and future opportunities.
 
If you are feeling stuck and not sure how to make a change, do get in touch to discuss possibilities for working together.
 Beth