Monday, June 4, 2012

Midlife Crisis? Take Control of Your Career!

“At midlife, a man or woman feels an inner siren call like an old memory.
we suddenly remember our former intuitions for a possible life.”
David Whyte, The Heart Aroused, Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America.


Midlife is a moving target, but it’s more about attitude than chronological age.  The market loves youth and each additional birthday candle after age 40 signals decreasing options unless you take control of your career.  YOU have to create opportunities, YOU are Director of Sales.
  • What are you selling?  Anyone at midlife has extensive experience and expertise.  What is unique about yours? 
  • Who are you?  What are your values? Cultural fit is the largest determiner of success or failure with an organization. 
  • What are the consistent outcomes of what you do?  How do your stories reflect effective leadership and management?
Five top reasons older job seekers fail to get offers:
  1. Focused on the past, ingrained biases and ways of doing things
  2. No evidence of continuous learning; degrees outdated, lack intellectual curiosity
  3. Try too hard to impress in interviews; talk too much, inquire and listen too little
  4. Rigid, opinionated, inflexible, know it all
  5. Lack aura of leadership and professional presence appropriate to field and industry
Five top advantages at midlife:
  1. Experience and expertise
  2. Good judgment
  3. Interpersonal skills
  4. Credibility with stakeholders
  5. Work ethics
Five ways to beat the competition!
  1. Know yourself; believe in yourself.  Do the hard work of in-depth self assessment
  2. Create powerful , consistent, comprehensive marketing materials; resume, brand statements, Linked in profile
  3. Target your job search; know what you are looking for and where you want to work; bring together your network and keep your eye on the goal
  4. Learn the marketplace; do your research; look for work that needs doing rather than wasting time applying on-line
  5. Get a Career Coach; no winning ball team ever did it without a coach, why should you? 
It’s your career.  It’s your life.  Isn’t it time to take control?

Friday, March 2, 2012

The Memory of the Future: A Contradiction in Terms?

“When you confuse the edge of your rut with the horizon, your world seems very small.”

Although it’s not possible to predict the future, we all spend an inordinate amount of time attempting to do so. Rather than trying to predict what will happen, it’s much more productive to question, “What are potential scenarios that might occur? What are strategies I can use to deal most effectively with each of them? What resources will I need, what skills, what critical competencies do I have right now that I can build upon?

We constantly imagine possible scenarios for the future, sometimes with anticipation, other times with apprehension, but the visual image and potential consequences can be very real. David Ingvar, a former head of the neurology department at the University of Lund, Sweden, calls this the “memory of the future.” The human brain automatically attempts to make sense of the future by testing possible plans of action; therefore, when the situation actually occurs, you have a “memory” of how you sorted out the potential choices before it occurred. The more practice you have, the more adept you become at selecting favorable options.

The scenario approach encourages questioning, it recognizes the reality of ambiguity and expects change. It doesn’t create a specific “plan” that can create an artificial perception of order, which is in reality the most unstable state of all as it lulls us into a sense of surety that leaves us unprepared when things don’t turn out as we planned. The scenario approach, on the other hand, encourages questioning, it recognizes the reality of ambiguity and expects change. It prepares us to deal effectively and confidently with whatever occurs, because we have “been there” already in our imaginations. It teaches us to be much more effective problem solvers and it reduces our fear of the unknown…..critical attributes for individuals and companies in today’s topsy turvy world.

Next time you’re caught daydreaming, just say you’re creating the future.