Fail

Hmmm… I’ve been down this road before.

The title of this article has a dual significance. First, it’s an acknowledgement of my failure to keep this blog up to date. My new role means that I have less time and less headspace for the reflection needed to write this stuff.

A lot of my learning at the moment is around how to be a good manager (or possibly how to be less of a bad one).

Currently, my learning is following it’s usual pattern. I’m learning through doing, reading and trying to teach others. At some point the trying to teach others bit will probably extend to writing more about my learning, but at the moment it is mainly limited to the various bits leadership development training I’m delivering.

One of those bits of leadership development training was the CMI Level 5 module I taught recently on managing ideas and innovation and in my usual domain-hopping way I have started to think about how the theories and models applied here could be useful in career development work with clients and in the development of careers professionals.

It’s not just businesses and entrepreneurs who have to be innovative. In the current economic climate, individuals have to be increasingly innovative with their own career development and job hunting. Similarly, as career professionals, we have to develop more innovative approaches to address the demands of our individual and institutional clients.

And this is where the second significance of the title comes in. Wherever there is a need to innovate, there is an accompanying need to be able to deal with the possibility of failure. In career terms, this is often linked with the idea of resilience. But there is more to dealing with failure than just the ability to bounce back and stay optimistic.

Failure is an integral and unavoidable part of any truly innovative process (unless you are incredibly lucky!). Preparing for innovation requires you to anticipate failure, accommodate failure, plan to recover from failure and learn from failure.

In a recent coaching session with a client, we were discussing options for embarking on a freelance career. The issue of possible failure came up and I struggled to find a way to help her think about failure constructively. Then I remembered a concept I had introduced in the CMI module: 4F – Fail Fast, Fail Forward. She immediately got it and responded enthusiastically. This isn’t so surprising (despite the name) because it actually reflects a growth or incremental mindset and an approach rather than avoidance motivation.

Fail fast – be ready for things to go wrong, know what early indicators of potential failure to look out for and be ready to act quickly.

Fail forward – don’t spend time on recriminations and wishful thinking, focus on solutions and focus on learning lessons so that your next attempts have a greater chance of success.

 

Fail fast. Fail forward

New perspectives on career coaching – NICEC journal

Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling

March 2013 | issue 30

New perspectives on career coaching

This edition contains the latest thinking on career coaching. It features the results of a recent survey and papers focused on practice in public and private sector contexts. There are also new conceptual pieces and contributions from course providers outlining their distinctive approaches. In short, this edition is essential reading for anyone connected with this growing and exciting field.

Articles

• The changing shape of the career profession in the UK – Charles Jackson
• Career coaching in private practice: a personal view – Denise Taylor
• Lost in translation: career coaching deaf students – Lynne Barnes and Elizabeth F. Bradley
• Careers guidance and career coaching – what’s the big idea? – Bill Law
• Developing sustainable career coaching in the workplace – Rob Nathan and Wendy Hirsh
• The education and training of career coaches: a psychological model – Janet Sheath
• A positive approach to career coaching – Julia Yates
• Creating career coaching – Gill Frigerio and Phil McCash

Subscription and membership

The Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling (ISSN 2046-1348) is published twice a year (cover price £20 per issue) and can be purchased via an annual subscription (£35 UK or £50 overseas including postage).

Membership of NICEC is also available (£100). Members receive the journal, free attendance at NICEC events and other benefits. For information on journal subscription or membership, please contact Wendy Hirsh: membership@nicec.org

PDF version: nicec-journal-flyer-march-2013

Amy Cuddy: Your body language shapes who you are | Video on TED.com

Also see this excellent article by Oliver Burkeman.

Interview confidence

Getting the balance right can be tricky

A couple of months back someone asked a very interesting question on Careers Debate about how one expresses and demonstrates confidence in one’s area of expertise at an interview whilst avoiding self-aggrandisement.

Is it just a question of body language and non-verbal communication, or are there other clues that you can give in the way that you talk abut your experiences?

I gave a couple of quick responses at the time, but I thought it would be interesting to add a little more flesh to the bones here.

Call for papers on Career Coaching

Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling: March 2013 Issue

Theme: Career Coaching

There has been considerable growth in career coaching over the past few years as was discussed at the NICEC Network Meeting on 19th September 2012. There has also been growth in training and education with courses provided by independent trainers and postgraduate courses now available at some universities. Papers are consequently invited on any aspect of career coaching. This includes but is not confined to:

• Career coaching theories
• Links between career development theories and career coaching
• Career coaching with individuals, groups and/or online
• The management and marketing of career coaching
• The relationship between career coaching and other forms of career support
• The relationships between career coaching and wider coaching
• The organisation and management of career coaching
• Policy and governmental dimensions of career coaching
• Expanding areas of activity
• Tools, techniques and models
• Critical perspectives
• Case studies and other empirical work
• The client base for career coaching
• The context for career coaching
• The training and education of career coaches

 

Initial deadline for informal expressions of interest: 15th December 2012.

Deadline for final submission: 15th February 2013.

For more information, please contact the editor Phil McCash at p.t.mccash@warwick.ac.uk

 

Four pathways to meaning

I have no idea what it means but I like it.

Regular readers of this blog will know that a recurring theme is the notion of meaning in our working lives. I’m also a big fan of simple models and frameworks to help structure and analyse complex ideas. So, I was excited to discover an article which not only conducted an extensive review of the literature of meaning in work, but which presented a simple way of categorising the various ways in which people find meaning.

The tree of life

It’s a while since I introduced a new guidance or coaching model. Here is one I came across fairly recently. It appeals to me because it is quite simple and has a strong metaphorical visual image which makes it easy to remember.

Where are the squirrels?

Story crafting

Pulling the threads of the narrative together

A paper recently published in the International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance explains an approach to narrative-based careers counselling originating from a systems theory framework through ‘three levels of story crafting questions’.

A measure of success

Is he counting what he can easily measure or measuring what counts?

One of the significant changes in the new Matrix quality assurance framework for careers services is an increased emphasis on evaluating the outcomes of our work with clients.

The most significant changes are the increased focus on outcomes, competence of staff, commitment to continuous improvement, service delivery linked to outcomes and responses to information technology advances.

A few services who have stuck with collecting more traditional feedback on their services have been judged as falling short in this area. Just asking clients whether they found a session useful or interesting is not enough any more (if it ever was).

In the Value and Impact Toolkit developed by the Association of Managers of Student Services in Higher Education (AMOSSHE), measures of impact are differentiated from measures of satisfaction.

Impact is about change, which implies that a situation needs to be evaluated before an action to stimulate change takes place, and after to determine whether indeed change has taken place. Impact might also be evaluated in terms of the effect of an activity on different groups; for example, students might attend a particular programme on a voluntary basis, so impact might be measured after the programme takes place in relation to the knowledge levels of those who attended against those who did not attend.

So what else could you measure and what would it tell you about the impact you are having?

Self creation or self discovery?

Who put that there?

What metaphor do you use to describe the development of your sense of identity or self knowledge?

Do you think about increasing self awareness as an act of self discovery? As you find out new things about yourself, are you just uncovering what is already there? Are you seeking to reveal more about your ‘true self’ so that you can make choices that are more consistent and authentic? Is your core self something that is determined by your past and mainly fixed?

Alternatively, do you think about increasing self awareness as a process of defining who you are and making choices about who you want to be? Are you involved in an on-going process of self creation, shaping your identity through your choices and experiences? Is your core self something malleable and open to infinite change?

The metaphor you are most drawn to (discovery or creation) can affect your sense of meaning, your well being, your ability to set personal goals and your response to failure.