Reorganization, down-sizing, and flattening can lead to a lot of opportunities going away. While change can destroy old opportunities, it can also pave the way for new opportunities. The key is to think in terms of "things that need doing". It may help to think of your organization as a market for you to explore much like a collection of potential customers!

Rather than seeing yourself as "doing a job", start finding the work that needs doing. Here's how:

 

1. Determine what resources you bring. What are you good at? What special knowledge, skill, qualifications, or experience do you have?
2. Survey the landscape of your organization and understand your "market". Who are your customers? What problems are they trying to solve?
3. Combine your resources (from item 1) with the needs of your market (from item 2) to form your product, which is the solution to a particular customer problem.
4. Start seeing yourself as "selling a product" rather than "doing a job".

Shifting your mindset from "doing a job" to "providing what is needed" will have you delivering the best possible service or product to your customer; and this is exactly what companies in transition need today!

At Rinker and Associates we help you jumpstart your career transition and keep you on course throughout your journey!

Admission inboxes in colleges across the United States are bulging at the seams as boomers send their children back to school in a big way!

According to the New York Times, approximately "55 million youngsters are enrolling for classes in the nation's schools this fall, making this the largest group of students in America's history".

Projections published last year by the Department of Education state the nation's elementary and secondary enrollments would reach 56.7 million in 2014. Demographers indicate the increase to be comprised of the children of the baby boom generation.

A trending increase of children enrolling in schools across the country will impact demand for qualified (new) instructors. For boomers considering a career move into teaching, this could be an opportunity to help fill the need for more instructors. Alice Jacobs (MBA, Ed. D., St. Mary's College) advises people considering a new career in teaching to talk with several teachers, preferably from different districts if possible. These information interviews will provide you a realistic view of what teachers currently face in today's educational system.

Dr. Jacobs, who has been in the teaching profession for over 30 years says, "Most individuals entering the teaching profession are ill-prepared for the realities of a teaching career. The dropout rate for California public school teachers at the K-12 level is around 48% during the first five years in the profession. To feel fulfilled and succeed in a long term career as a teacher, you really need to choose this career path decision with your eyes wide open, and have a realistic picture of the hard work and dedication needed to serve the students in your classroom."

At Rinker and Associates we believe Information Interviews are an invaluable part of the research process when considering a career transition.

It’s not unusual for a star performer to be promoted into higher management before (he/she’s) ready. Yes, he (let's infer he/she from this point forward) may be exceptionally smart and talented, but he may also lack essential people skills. Rather than denying him the promotion altogether, his boss might do well to delay it - - and use that time to help develop the candidate’s emotional competencies. Here’s how.

Deepen 360-Degree Feedback. Go beyond the usual set of questionnaires that make up the traditional 360-degree-feedback process. Interview a wide variety of the manager’s peers and subordinates and let him read verbatim responses to open-ended performance questions.

Interrupt the Ascent. Help the inexperienced manager get beyond a command-and- control mentality by pushing him to develop his negotiation and persuasion skills. Instead of promoting him, give him cross-functional assignments where he can’t rely on rank to influence people.

Act On Your Commitment. Don’t give the inexperienced manager the impression that emotional competencies are optional. Hold him accountable for his interpersonal skills, in some cases taking a tough stance by demoting him or denying him a promotion, but with the promise that changed behaviors will ultimately be rewarded.

Institutionalize Personal Development. Weave interpersonal goals into the fabric of the organization and make emotional competence a performance measure. Also work to institute formal development programs that teach leadership skills and facilitate self-awareness, reflection, and opportunities to practice new emotional competencies.

Cultivate Informal Networks. Encourage the manager to develop informal learning partnerships with peers and mentors in order to expose him to different leadership styles and perspectives. This will provide him with honest and ongoing feedback and continual opportunities to learn.

Rinker and Associates is ready to set your career development strategy in motion.

From my first economics class in high school I knew I wanted to help people manage their investments and finances. Once out of college, my dream career as a Financial Advisor began in 1995 with a small privately held stock brokerage firm that had very little name recognition. I eventually left for the largest, most widely recognized financial services company in the industry. It was 1998 and the stock market was booming!

Each quarter brought rising expectations and more talk about corporate profits. I continued to do well but . . .

On September 9, 2006; dropping knowledge (a non- profit global organization) will bring together 112 thinkers from around the world to meet in Berlin as it launches "a global dialogue platform to inspire solutions to the most pressing questions of our time!"

The event will be filmed and recorded for an online archive (at droppingknowledge.org) that users will be able to search and download from at no cost.

Photo illustration by droppingknowledge.org.

The Echo Boom (or Millennials) number close to 76 million. Known as the children of the Baby Boomer Generation, they are smart, practical, and techno-savvy. Prospective employers are still trying to forecast what this generation will be like in the "board rooms" across America, but leading-edge Millennials are starting to show their stuff as they enter the workforce.

I recently had the opportunity to volunteer for an interviewing exercise with teens enrolled in the National Teen Leadership Program (NTLP) led by Chairperson and CEO Laura Segura of El Dorado Hills. At this event, I met teens who, for the most part, are sure about what they want to be when they grow up. And, they know how to get ahead!

As an ice breaker, I deviated slightly from the suggested interview questions and opened with a surprise question "what is the best thing that happened to you today?" This momentarily caught the first two teens off guard as it wasn't a typical "job" interview question. Then the third teen came in and gave me the answer before I even asked the question! Turns out, the teens were helping each other by sharing my surprise question. Process improvement at its best! Is that the sound of the future I hear, hear, hear? :) LLR