I have to practically stand on my head when I coach leaders in transition or those who want to make massive strides (quickly) to ignite a stalled career. I feel like I am speaking Vulcan (channeling Mr. Spock) to earthling clients.
The conversation usually goes something like this…
Me: I know you want your next role to be similar to your current job. We will develop a job search strategy to identify these opportunities. However, let’s also consider developing a strategy to attract what I call ‘1-Off’ and ‘2-Off’ opportunities.
Client:
“What?”
Me: Remember the typical normal distribution bell curve from your college Statistics course? Most of us tend to build our career by moving up within a specific career field and often within the same industry. This area represents the exact middle of the bell curve.
Client:
“So?”
Me: When I ask you to consider ’1-Off’ and ’2-Off’ opportunities I am asking you to become more agile in magaging your career. Developing
career agility means you are moving forward and upward in your chosen career, AND you are simultaneously working on a
Plan B, C and sometimes D.
I define Career Agility as the ability to experience success and satisfaction while exploring and implementing new and sometimes ambiguous job, industry and/or career decisions that allows the individual to achieve specific goals.
Client:
“Aarrrghh!” (Inarticulate response.)
Me: So if you want to make major strides or you want to become re-employed, I want you to take the time and identify other avenues.
Let’s begin to identify your career agility accelerators: network connections, key influencers, distinguishing career accomplishments, Value Proposition, competencies, unique talent (
X – Competency),
leadership career brand, etc.
Client:
“Huh!”
Me: Let’s take an in-depth look at your current role. If we plot it on a typical normal distribution bell curve, think of a ‘1-Off’ opportunity as one standard deviation from your current role and a ‘2-Off’ opportunity as two standard deviations from your current role and so on.
A low standard deviation indicates that the data points (position requirements, industry type, marketplace challenges, etc.) tend to be very close to the mean (center of the bell curve), whereas a high
standard deviation indicates that the data points are spread out over a large range of values.
Client:
“Can you repeat that?”
Me: Think outside of your career box.
Client:
“So what am I supposed to do?”
Me: Why don’t you consider looking for the same type of role in a related industry, the same role in a different industry, a different role in a related industry or a different role in a different industry? Or how about playing in the fringe – finding new ground and creating your ‘extreme’ career opportunities?
Client:
“Are you speaking English?”
Me: Hopefully, you understand what I recommend even though I am speaking Vulcan. If you broaden the scope of your thinking and begin using career agility to transform your career – you can: ‘Live long and prosper.’
Client:
“Back at ‘cha’!”
A question for you to consider:
* If you were to develop a Plan B, C or D for your career, what could you achieve in the next five years? If you want to begin to think outside of your career box, contact me at: cglasco@charter.net
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