Training Q development cater Bevslopment — | December ao00 , rover 2 || ASTD , Doc USA eee By David D. Dubois ur “career work” (as 1 call it) progresses (a! though not necessarily in an orderly way) through a series of stages in whieh we take certain actions that we hope ‘career work, as it is used here, is the process of determining what one’s path or journey through life will be, how that {joumey should or will be made, and how y our value systems—cultual, work, personal, and interpersonal. In order for people to do their carcer work (or any other work for that matter) effectively, they must possess and appro- priately use @ wide variety of competen- Lecquea Nt Feu) One's Career And the new career competencies for the future. cies. A competency is any personal chat- acteristic that underlies successful per- formance of any type. A competency can be a skill, body of knowledge, way of thinking, motive, or social role. People perform tasks in order to achieve a result fr an output; they use their competencies to perform tasks. Virtually all ofthe competencies peo- [ple use to succeed in their overall carcer rark also can be used to complete thei pay-to-day work. So, organizations are ‘wise to invest in helping their employees to acquire and use critical career work competencies correctly. ‘The important questions: @ Whatis the business environment that influences people's career work and or- fs. Decision making . Planning ‘6. Implementation or development 17. Life-work management. ‘A person's progression through the stages is seldom linear because pre- dictable and unpredictable life factors can occur at any time and, TT Smpertiht Me viewed or ap- plied rigidly Stage 1: Exploration. This stage includes a person's earliest recollection of “what I want 10 be when I grow up” and the revi- sions on that dream as the person commits to his or her career work. This stage is usually heav- ily affected by spoken and un- spoken messages that people receive from family or signifi- ccant others regarding what their life path or journey should be. ‘The messages are usually from & person's elders about their desire Tor the type of work the person should do, where he or she should live, and spiritual dimen- sions and lifestyle such as choice of a partner, number of children, and so forth. ‘When someone begins career work formally, he or she usually has already had a variety of oc- cupations (such as nurse or chef) and life or work roles (such as student or homemaker), And people have typically already considered a variety of subject ‘matter areas, such as chemistry, ‘mathematics, or nutrition for their life's Journey. Some people, however, might arrive at this stage of career work with no options in mind. They can now take formal actions such as information inter- jewing, reading and Internet research jr informal actions such as brainstorm- Ing or talking with friends to determine thei initial options. Stage 2: Personal assessment. At this stage, people bring with them a list of potential life and work options. The activites ofthis stage help people assess and understand their competency strengths: personality traits; abilities: interests; leaning-style, work-style, and work-environment preferences; and personal, interpersonal, work,.and cul- tural values. At this stage, people usually receive detailed information from having com- pleted formal or informal appraisal in- struments, checklists, simulations, jinterviews, and so forth, Obtaining that information through online systems is The First Consideration When a person's values are whathe or she consid ers first in setting career work goals, the process looks like this: VALUES “Cultural Personel “Work Interpersonal Coeaets ies anit Con eprntes with permission trom Linda K Kemp Understanding cffective and efficient. The output con- tains highly specific information about & person, including the effect of his or her vvalue systems on personal preferences. People can use that appraisal informa- ton to revise the options they developed in the exploration stage. ‘Stage 3: Analysis. This stage involves analyzing information from stage 2, the personal assessment stage. It's rare that the life and work options determined in stage 1, exploration, survived stage 2 in their original form. ‘Once someone completes the person- al assessment stage, he or she better un- derstands the information from that stage of their career work, which in- ‘cludes assessing the circumstances of their lives or lives of significant others that might affect their future career work. During the analysis stage, people break down that information and trace the smaller parts to past, present, or fur ture cause-and-effect relationships so they can be understood in a more pro- found and holistic way. ‘At this and the remainin stages of career work, the impor tance of a person's personal, in terpersonal, work, and cultural values again becomes apparent in setting life and work goals. The values affect what will or ‘will not be included in a person's life journey or career. People’s value: help them determine what's important in their lives and what's worthy of their atten- tion and energy. One’s cultural values are a particularly power ful influence. ‘The figure, created by my col- league Linda K. Kemp, :!lus- trates a special case in which ‘8 person examines his or her cultural, personal, interpersonal ‘and work values before attending to remaining information that should be included in career work goal setting. The illus- tration implies that people sort out their values through a process of awareness, analysis, and understanding. The out ‘comes are the primary drivers of the career work goal setting For certain people, values are equally or more important to their career work than are their Training & Development, December 2000 47competencies, interests, abilities, and the like. ‘The analysis results are expressed as 1 set of tentative or candidate career ‘work goals. People use those goals dur: ing the next stage of career work, deci sion making. Stage 4: Decision making. The candi date career work goals defined during the analysis stage are now reviewed and subjected to a decision-making process of the person's choice. He or she must decide which goals to pursue and over what time period. The person evaluates how important the pursuit of each goal is and an approximate time for achieving each goal. Once those decisions are ‘made, he or she can choose all or @ few full-service-e-testing ee ead ear’ peers Testing Weve ee cen eaotie tuscan ut ete) ©, Secure, completely automated testing protocols. isi eeemecen eee toners Sou cadens ©) Acessibie from any PC or Intemet device, anyime, anywhere Mares ue Mu iclewe= cue R aus ti Sern © Stale-of-ihé-art lunctionality in your unique pan Box environment..e= Rue thee cet Lea acne ©) Register on-ine for your FREE pan B : aan well Meat Oe ue com Reader Servc0 # 138 48 Training & Development, December 2000 Of the possible goals to pursue. ‘This isa delicate stage of career work because the outputs must be grounded in reality o the greatest degree possible. If they aren't realistic, people are likely to experience frustration or disappointment ler on. That could cause ther io be dis- couraged, which could lead to abandon- ing any further effort. Thus, the ecision-making process should result in set of realistic career work goals, given the information available at the time Stage 5: Planning. Ar this stage peo- ple define how they will achieve each of their goals. They write a plan similar to a Getailed project management plan: Each goal becomes a career work project. In the plan for each goal, people identify 3 tasks they must complete to achieve each goal approximate time to complete each of the tasks a order in which the tasks will be ‘completed 2 other people who might have a role in achieving each task 2 target date for completing each task expected outcomes once goals are met. As people formulate their plans, they might discover that their goals aren't compatible or that some goals should bbe modified to make them more consis- tent. It's essential to make those adju ‘ments at this stage rather than later and that people know how to obtain the nec: Stage 6: Implementation and/or development. Here, people execute the project plan. This stage is often referred to as “working your plan.” The order of work depends on the complexity of each ‘goal and whether there are dependent re Tationships among the goals. You 1 bbe able 10 accomplish some goals s taneously, others sequentially ‘Stage 7: Life-work management. Ass person achieves each goal, it becomes part Of his or her life-work management sty In’s here that people reap the rewards of achieving their goais. That requires peo} tomaintain successful performance of the ‘work resulting from goal achievement (For example, suecessful performance as a ‘manoger, partner, or laborer). Additional- Jy, they must maintain balance among all of life's elements while they pursue their remaining goals or they cope with unan: ticipated challenges, such as having to care for anil family member or becoming. 4 parent. Such events can occur at any stage of career work and can present the greatest challenge of any stage TPoopleusuly nd Unansclves recy- “lode or procoes ta balp mus cargge™"h cling through prior stages of their career work as they achieve, modify, discard, or rework their goals, of as life or work cir: ‘cumstances surface that require changes to their paths. ‘Completing career work successfully — which means completing the journey through life successfully—requires that people have and use, in appropriate ‘ways, certain competencies. Recall that ‘8 competency is any personal character- istic that underlies successful perfor- mance. A personal characteristic is not a sompetency unless it can be shown to {uires the use of only one competency, it’s more common that people have to jere are some key competencies focople can use for success in their, cazeer work: orientation. | wih ths competency Tend to be action- | oriented in order to continuously tuhance their fe and Work circum. stances or work performance ard pe font suisfecton 7 Beabysign’n ndersianding of exer Bare a ation or situations by Weak ing down the factors and tracing pees tocause-and-effec relationships Assassment. People complete asses Peano acthitis and receive imeem preferences, apebilin com Dersralty actors and oo fort freon: pleting thet caret werk Awareness, peing conscious or in- Stance and ber factors hat an ae | the sucessful completion of one's | cover work henge management. The ability 0 ee re cvicnle changes afecting the achievertet of Computer Hteracyand fait rears or safware applications, te 7: reer work, Decision making. Being able to ident i PreTerred decision-making Boal setting. Defining realistic lie or making a personal con- mitment to achieve them, Information identification/collection. career work terpersonal skills. A desire 0 un é FEF PEOMEWhether as ind wg decisions eloretion. Identifying life and work econtenpet sibilities, options, values, interests, or achievements a ani stage of career work iduals or groups and to demonstrate 10 ‘Ou want your people to think ould the oe SS 4 don’t give them a training program that’ from one: Successful companies are a natural result of capable, forward- thinking individuals. And there's no better way to foster such talents than with PDI's customized training and development programs. Our offerings range from internal consulting and coaching to instilling sound leadership principles In short, we'll have your people thinking in ways that make clients think well of you. Call PDI Client Relations at 800.633.4410, or outside the U.S. call +1.612.904.7170. PERSONNEL DECISIONS I Internet, that will help achieve one’s Reader Service # 108 Training & Development, December 2000 49 aneobservers an accurate perception and comprehension of other people's unspo- en or partially communicated feelings, concems, or thoughts. Abapoasking, The ability 1 bald ee tionships Hat promote a flow of informa: tion useful o career work. Oral communication. The clear ex oF the ability tolisten effectively and respond so thatthe speaker fels understoo Perseverance. Demonstrating in a pos STE Tapeh and persistent though feelings, and actions relative to the achievement of carer Work Conflict resolution. The abilty use TOTTI niques effective- Iy during the pursuit of career work Planning. Identifying the necessary is for achieving career work an isting the tps in the logical or opi- mal orer for their completion Résumé and portfolio development. the ability to organize and format them a- tractively and easily readable, towards fchieving career work Self-management. Demonstrating pues EMMITT cfectve use of such techniques as adopting and maintain- ing a postive mindset, expressing grati- tude, and managing emotions while pursuing achievement of career work. oie thinking Ldenifying and ee trends, changes, opportunities, threats, Strength. and weakesses that can af fect achievement of career work, and identifying appropriate responses. Written ggmmunication, The silty STS Sreetively one’s thoughts, feelings and eter information in written form so that other people agp their meaning As ou read each competency, dd you nove its useful ess for completing caver trork sucessfully? Cacor works about Tiving one's life meaningflly as you un- derstand and vant ibe, The compton ties are aligned with the fequement for scoesfl ving, “Two questions remain: What ean on nizations do mhalp employees achiev thaircwecr work? How can poole mae progres in ackiving thei eer workin the organizations? Career work in organizations ‘Work in organizations can be complex and 50. Teaining & Development, intense, and how wor ‘changes as worldwide b o economic conditions cand retain competent workers who invest in their organizations, To do that ‘workers must see a future in the energy they expend. That's an employee retention issue, But an organization's leaders and ‘employees must do their part for their mu, Teaggis must in an-UMfetstanding of career work ang its mutual importance to employee ‘and organizational success recognize that career work isa continu ‘us lifelong process that everyone, includ ing leaders, can’t escape if they want to have a meaningful and productive life understand career work as a key ele: ‘ment of employee satisfaction and reten- tion, giving those continuous attention through climate surveys and targeted areer work is about living one’s life meaningfully, as you understand and, want it to be. - ‘organization-wide actions that suppor all ‘employees’ career work 2 see that providing opportunities for ‘workers to acquire and use career work competencies enhances the pool of worker competencies available tothe organization for achieving business objectives —a win- ‘win situation that Igaders a Creae-an competency Terelop- ‘ment and application opportunities avail- able to employees through enhanced job assignments, job rotations, external as- sigaments, and so forth. 2 Implement the use of succession plan- ning programs nen toall employees who aspire to roles or positions in & Offer a formal career tion program as a li make its services aye employees; staff thd well-trained and expd development facilitators 2 Establish innovative and customized job ‘competency development and application December 2000 17 ‘opportunites to improve emplayee compe tencies needed by the organization and that also suppor employees’ career work. 3. Provide financial suppor to employees so that they can take advantage of extemal ompetency development opportunities Support or sponsor informal compe- jency development activities such as, Hunckime seminars learning circles, and similar activities Make itahigh priority to keep employ ces informed of planned change and help them align their career work with new or differen opportunities that might become available as result ofthe chang ‘What should employees do to make sin completing thegcareet Wor? fer it 2. Accept full responsibility for doing ‘one’s own career work. a Use the seven-siage model as a roadmap for completing carer work. 2. Use community 5 braves, job bank centers, and univer Employees mo and intentions 0 people in the ora oF 10 other who have a able that an employee believes will help achieve his or her career work, the em-| ployee must let other people know of his or er interest. Employees should also vol unteer for new or different assignments that are consistent with their career work. ‘Employees should consider taking a lateral assignment as a way to broaden their competency base and functional or technical capabilities. They should even consider taking a demotion if that will place them on a more direct path to com, pleting their career work. are plen- ty of free or inexpensive life and work re sources, Leave the organization if that will help you pursue your career work in amore prodbctve and meaningful way, Coni "There are no easy solutions or gin for completing one’s career work. It fs the difficult work of living successfully But take heart and realize that you're not alone in your journey, and there can ‘many blessings along the way. David D. Dubots Tepresident, Dubois & Associates, Rockville, Maryland; duboisassociates@ yahoo.com.