At Barton Career Advisors we have found it to be exciting to have the opportunity to interact with
professionals from many different disciplines and practices such as healthcare,
financial services, pharmaceuticals, insurance and education. If you are curious about the work that your
friends and colleagues do every day you pick up a few nuggets of wisdom here
and there. WE give a shout out to our many IT and disaster recovery friends over the years for helping with this CareerFlash™. Specifically, the concept of implementing a
Career Emergency Preparedness Plan (C.E.P.P.) came from countless hours and
meetings with those devoted to business continuity in the face of the worst
possible scenarios. Yes, there is an
entire profession devoted to ensuring businesses are ready for
emergencies. If a tornado hits, the
business is ready. Building burnt down? The business has a plan and has been
doing quarterly fire drills. If there is a snow storm affecting mid-west
operations, capabilities get moved to the south-west. It begs two questions-
- If businesses plan and devote resources to the protection of assets and capabilities, why don’t individual professionals?
- As a professional do you have a Career EPP to weather the storm of career transition?
An
EPP for professionals contains three core components that prepare an individual
for the worst of times in career crises.
This is illustrated in a simple acronym- Exercise Plan Pray.
Exercise is perhaps one of the most
important life sustaining habits for professionals exposed to the daily rigors
of demanding leadership roles. This
concept goes well beyond the narrow thoughts of taking care of your physical
health through regular movement. Our
mental health and spiritual well-being are vastly improved through the process
of “sharpening the saw” as made famous by Stephen Covey. Exercise in the purely physical sense has
many published, researched benefits for the human body. The number one advantage to old-fashioned
exercise as published by the Mayo Clinic is the improvement of our mood. Who can’t leverage this benefit? Beyond this,
consider the critical nature of exercising your grey matter through a regular
reading list on topics that not only entertain but inform. Additionally, make time to feed your personal
hobbies and passions (including family) so that resentment does not create
hostility toward the sacrifices you must make for your career.
Having
a Plan for “career emergencies” and
the act of daily planning are inextricably bound together by necessity. How can one plan for the future if one is not
willing to make a to-do-list for today? This is where the discipline of
professional focus comes into play. Within
the “art” of planning the “duty” of goal setting manifests itself. We need a road map to get to a destination
and we must have a plan to make a career long journey. Just as we plan for a family vacation,
prepare for that big presentation or take steps toward losing 10 pounds, we
must document what we will do in the event of involuntary career
transition. Better yet, let’s come up
with a plan to identify the signals that lead to major career changes. Among other items on your checklist to
mitigate the effects of career transition, you should plan around the following
questions- How strong is my current network of contacts and what can I do to
develop it? Do my search materials set me apart from the crowd and do they reflect the most recent writing principles? Have I chronicled
a quantitative set of wins to share with others? Do I need additional education or
certification to update my skills? Have I allotted enough time to manage the
stress of my career on a daily basis? Do I need professional help to prepare
for a transition? Answering these questions and taking action will ensure that
a company downsizing does not turn into a personal career apocalypse.
We tread lightly on the concept of Prayer because I understand the
diversity of spiritual beliefs in our society.
However, we tell anyone who asks on a personal level about the
importance of prayer as a powerful cornerstone in our preparedness
planning. When all else fails,
meditative reflection enables a fountain of serenity that can come from no other
place. In a December 2009 article written for the Harvard Gazette (“Want to
Live Well” By Alvin Powell Harvard Staff Writer Thursday, December 17, 2009)
Cheryl Giles a professor at Harvard Divinity School said-
“…..spiritual practice — regardless of personal belief
— should not be limited to Saturdays or Sundays but should be part of every
day. Giles recommended that people find quiet time each day for meditation,
prayer, journal writing, or other forms of reflection. It’s an important
exercise, she said, that helps people to avoid being consumed by routine daily
demands.
“You should take 10 minutes, 15 minutes a day to sit
down and be silent,” Giles said. “All this stuff goes through your head. This
is an opportunity to let it out.”
Take the necessary time to invest in yourself and invest in your professional future by developing a Career Emergency Preparedness Plan. You will not regret it.