How To Effectively Use Those End of Year Quiet Times To Get Ahead

Jessica Kiely – The FRANK Team

When all of the Christmas parties are almost over for the year all most people can think about is going to the beach, Christmas Shopping and what they’re doing for New Years. But you are still “open for business”. How can you and your team effectively use that quieter end of year and early New Year time to get ahead and set yourself up for stellar results in 2009?

Here are some FRANK ideas for you and your team:

v The quiet time is the perfect time to reflect on the performance of your team and see how 2009 can be even better. Creating an open and fun environment to cover areas like highlighting successes & challenges experienced in the year, identifying areas for improvement and brainstorming solutions. And then most important, creating an action plan for implementing solutions to create an even better 2009. All of this needs to be done in a fun and open environment where everyone contributes.

In the “festive spirit” we have a great bonus for you today. We have a created a Day Outline for your End Of Year Team Performance Reflection, or what we call Re-Fresh that follows The Frank Team’s SCITSA formula. You can use this template to run your own Re-Fresh Day.

To get your FREE Re-Fresh Workshop Template email us at jessica@frankteam.com.au

v Schedule some team building activities. These don’t need to break the budget either. You can organise and run some simple and fun activities yourself. Or even better - get each person on your team to come up with their team building activity that they run with everyone, so you get all different flavours of activities. A quick web search gives you a huge list of Do-It-Yourself activities http://wilderdom.com/games/InitiativeGames.html and http://www.teampedia.net/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page You could try a Mini Olympics, Cooking or Art. It can be team building just coming up with the team building activities!

v Have a spring clean in your office environment. Identify as a team what needs some “work” and then schedule in blocks of time to get it done, doing it in blocks of time. Your work environment will feel lighter, more organised and ready for a brand spanking New Year. And if effective spring cleaning is what you are after then check out http://directory.homestead.com/article/spring-clean-up-of-your-office ! And to make it fun, turn it into a competition. As a team create the Spring-Clean-O-Meter that is a rating system. Give everyone a time period and then go around and rate each area using your Spring-Clean-O-Meter. Give away a cool prize to the best spring cleaner!

v Identify skills gaps in your team and find opportunities to fill those through some skills training. Perhaps your team needs better sales, technology or finance skills to produce even better results in 2009. As a team, identify those areas and see who would like or benefit from training in what. Give each person a budget and then they need to research and find the best option for their needs and budget. Then to ensure the learning is widespread, once the training has been undertaken each of those people gives a short presentation to everyone else, helping them to learn the skills they have just learnt. See below for the skills training that The FRANK Team can help you with.

v Spend time on Career Progression Planning for individuals in your team. We often don’t take the time, because we don’t have the time, to do a check in on how we are progressing in our career and where we would like to go. Similar to how businesses do their end of year review, giving staff the same time to review their careers is really beneficial to help staff re-focus and feel valued for your investment in them. It can really be as simple as where are you now, where would you like to be, what do you need to do to get there to then create a Career Profession Plan from.

If running this yourself totally freaks you out then see below how The FRANK Team can come in and run a fun, interactive and cost effective session for you, cos we love doing this stuff!

Even if you do this regularly with your staff, and have a structured program for it, the end of year is still a great time to do this, as a period of time is coming to an end and this is a natural time to reflect and reassess goals and priorities for the coming year.

The Frank Team can help you with:

v Career Progression Plan workshops

v Team Building activities that are run in-house

v Facilitating your Re-Fresh End of Year Team Performance Reflection Day

Ask us how: Jessica@frankteam.com.au Ph: (02) 99664333

All of our sessions are fun, engaging & cost effective. For session information you can visit us at http://www.frankteam.com.au/corporates/ .

Build Your Creativity – Build You as an Asset

I went to a business innovation workshop this week, and interestingly enough it focussed on creativity. Being able to come up with new ideas, new questions and being able to express them clearly is becoming a fundamental skill for all of us, in order to fuel innovation with those ideas. Those who have the ability to be effectively creative (come up with ideas) and implement them (innovative) are highly valuable and becoming even more so. Sounds right enough, but how creative are you? How do we become more creative?

Someone did a study on creativity. I’m not 100% sure how “creativity” was defined, but the results were interesting nonetheless. Apparently 98% of 5 year olds are creative, 30% of 10 year olds are creative, 12% of 15 year olds are creative and less than 2% of over 35s are creative. (Source: Dr YKK You Are Creative). Woe – I understand all of those 5 year olds wondering around in their fun fantasy lands are highly creative, but that it declines so rapidly is quite scary.
So how can we lift ourselves out of this void and re-ignite our brain that created all of those battles in the backyard with aliens from Plotonia?!

Ways to ignite and develop your creativity:

- Laugh alot; this helps creativity

- Activate your right brain as much as you can by using the left half of your body eg: brush your teeth with your left hand, tie your shoe laces with your non-dominant hand, brush your hair with your non-dominant hand etc.

- Hang out with people who have different ideas, views, styles and lives to you. Tom Peters says “Hang out with weird people and thou shalt become weird. Hang out with dull people and thou shalt become dull.” So bring on the weirdness!

- Find a role or take on a role in your work life that requires you to come up with new ideas all of the time, there is nothing like the constant need to have new ideas to have new ideas.

- Hang out with 5 years olds and create and fantasise with them. Just throw yourself into it and build the cubby house and fight the dragons, put on funny accents, wear dress up clothes, dance silly – and I promise I wont tell anyone how much you enjoyed it!

- Do some theatre sports; this requires on the spot thinking which is great brain exercise, but also pushes you to just go for it with ideas.

- Do something “cultural” regularly eg: look at art, listen to different music, see a live show. Anything that makes you look at life from a different perspective and so opens up new ways of thinking and seeing things.

- When people around you mention or contribute what you may consider to be silly or outrageous ideas, instead of responding straight away with a “geez that is stupid, no way is that possible”, answer with “That sounds interesting. What do you mean? Please tell me more.” This is because often in the somewhat silly idea is the seed of an amazing idea, and with discussion and input from others it becomes that amazing idea.

- Deliberately ask the “Why” and “What if” questions to yourself and others. This will force you and others to re-think assumptions and come up with new ideas.

- Meditation is a great way to quiet the mind and focus on nothing for a while. From this nothingness all possibilities open up. Find a meditation that works for you – whether it is just 5 minutes of breathing with complete focus on your breath, or saying a mantra......there are many methods, so find yours.

- Create a new look with your clothes. Wear them in different combinations, wear colours and just create something new with them for yourself.

- Brainstorm with coloured paper and textas. Bring out the kid in you.

- BIG TIP: Start a scrapbook or notebook and record all of your ideas that you have. You can also record your dreams in this book too. This is so your creative flow of ideas comes out in front of you, to re-read at another time when you can act on those ideas. Some of these ideas may for you to do something with, or for you to give away to others to help them. Just give your ideas a place to be.

- Take a piece of paper and write 10 – 15 words that are not associated at all. Then take another colour and circle 2 of those words – then force yourself to think of how they are connected and record that connection. Do that again until all words are linked and you have found ways to connect the ideas behind them, from no-where.

- Read, read and read more! Turn the TV off – that thing is a sure way to dull the brain and have you NOT THINKING – and pick up a book or search online and read. Read biographies, read stories, learn how others come up with new ideas, see what the latest inventions are in the world.......just sit and read for 30 minutes and fill your brain with new content. Oh, or course watch some great content – see below for 2 great ones to start with.

- And lastly get out and exercise! Yep, the good ole run or walk or dance or skip starts that oxygen pumping around the body with helps to relax and clear your mind so creative thoughts can then pop up. And of course, it is great for your health aswell!!!

Dr YKK (www.mindbloom.net ) – who gave the workshop – also left us with a great quote from Albert Einstein: “Great spirits have always experience violent opposition from mediocre minds.”

So great spirits out there – go forth and unleash your creativity and ideas unto this world, we need them. And don’t listen to those mediocre minds!!

Tell us about the ways you like to be creative and massage that right side of your brain....

Two great watches:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AGTpu_i8sc – Tom Peters
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html – Do schools today kill creativity? Sir Ken Robinson.

Grad Programs - Are they hitting the Mark?

Many large and small companies have graduate programs for their new recruits. To what extent are they hitting the mark for those young and eager young professionals? Are you getting what you want that help you on your career path? Here are some ideas I put together - tell me if you agree and how your company is measuring up!

Retain your grads – Copy Google!

Google Inc has recently been chosen as the Australian graduate’s employer of choice, with Macquarie Bank and Microsoft a close second and third in a survey by CareerOne.com.au in February 2008. A Onetest study also found that if a graduate’s needs are met, 39% would stay with a company for 3 – 5 years and 30% would for 5 years or more.

So what does Google do that has the grads swarming to them and sticking around? What do graduates “need” that you can deliver on? How can your organisation mimic Google and get those same results?

Google is known for its fun culture as well as being a highly reputable and successful company. These are two key elements that attract and retain grads there. So how is your company viewed in the graduate market? Do you have a good reputation? It is that reputation that gets a graduates attention in the first place. And what about your culture from a graduates point of view. Would it be considered fun?

Research has also found that graduates are also looking for:

• Roles with responsibility

• Training and progression plans

• Acknowledgment
  

• Access to opportunities like travel

• Competitive salary

• Work/life balance

The “how’s” of these are many and varied and you need to find the right mix for your company’s graduate program, or for those one or two grads you’ve just recruited. Here are some suggestions:

• Help grads to work out what it is they REALLY want to do in their careers and how you can help them achieve that. This generation is seeking purpose and satisfaction but often struggle with working out what they really want in amongst all of the options they have. Provide some time, training and coaching around exploring this and it will have them develop trust and respect for you and your organisation.

• Getting it right from the beginning involves being clear and up front about salaries, expected work-loads, explanation of day-to-day functions in their first role and how that will evolve. These should all to be covered in the recruitment phase.

• Understand that in the recruiting process that it’s not just your company choosing the them, it is also them choosing you!

• Be honest! If you expect your grads to work long hours, let them know. This is better than just dumping it on them when it’s needed and when they weren’t expecting it.

• Create a graduate network that has regular events and socialising activities. This will help them with the transition into full-time work, and will increase the ‘fun’ factor as they’ll be spending time with friends, not just colleagues.

• Set up mechanisms from the beginning to assist them with career planning within the organisation. This could be anything from online systems, to regular career goals sessions with managers, to career management training to ensure they are taking responsibility for this. This allows them to see the bigger picture and how their role will develop overtime.

• Provide lots of information about the training the grads will receive. They are usually highly aware that they have the degree but not necessarily all of the skills needed to do the job and will appreciate the reassurance that training and support is provided. Let them know you’re willing to invest in them.

• Focus on a graduate’s potential, interests and values and use those to create the best rotation plan for them and the organisation, so that everyone wins. This can be part of the career planning that is put in place at the beginning, and leads to strategic rotation plans for individuals.

• Have ongoing touch points in their first six to nine months with an emphasis on personal and professional development for the graduates. This could take the form of training, presentations, time with the directors, events, meetings with managers or off-site forums. You can also use these as opportunities to acknowledge the graduates for progression, achievements and the like.

• Match them up with mentors from across the organisation. This helps with access to opportunities and career planning. Some level of structure or assistance will ensure an effective mentoring relationship is formed.

• Ensure managers have an understanding of the graduates needs and they are equipped to work with them effectively. Plus ensure they have the time required and are making it a priority to provide the regular feedback that these grads are seeking.

• Consider some reviews are taken by people who are not the graduates manager/s to encourage more openness

• Show you care about them as a person by giving them structured time off to learn something non-work related eg: volunteer work, art course, or team stuff like Artescape (http://www.specialevents.com.au/archiveprev/2001/11nov01/featnov01/art.html) or Go Karting

• Work with them on their need for work/life balance by starting with the expectation that the things they will want time off for are concerts, trips with friends, travel, and other fun life stuff that they don’t want to miss out on. Be clear on your organisations needs in regards to their role and responsibility and work on finding the win-win. There is nothing that will turn a grad off quicker than missing out on the “must-see” concert/event/holiday/whatever that all of their friends are going to because their “boss wouldn’t let them.”

• Give grads evidence that your organisation acts ethically and is socially aware. This may be through information about your CSR programs and how they can get involved.

• Communicate the values or the organisations and the values you are looking for in grads to ensure you get grads whose values are aligned to yours.

• Ask them directly what is or isn’t working about their grad experience. Help them to explore it if they don’t know. And use this collective information to re-vamp and re-fresh your graduate program.

• Set up special innovation teams where grads and other employers can provide ongoing ideas on ways that new technology, especially web 2.0, can be used to do business better.

• Provide training for the grads on how to work with multi age teams.

There is also an opportunity for those providing career services to students. Career services at tertiary institutions could also be helping students to learn more about these career realities. From starting salaries to career progression can be explored in Career Readiness presentations and workshops for students, as well as career management skills like self promotion, presentation and networking skills. This helps with setting up student’s expectations early with some frank information about those realities, thus helping organisations. But also, building students career management skills helps them to be in control of their careers early helping employers with their career planning programs.

The Frank Team can work with organisations and career service providers to implement and refresh your graduate programs. They know how to blend creativity and fresh thinking with process to implement the ideas. They provide workshops, presentations and consultancy services. More information is available for Employers at http://www.frankteam.com.au/corporates/ and http://www.frankteam.com.au/youth2youth/workshop-package.aspx for Career Service Providers.

Your Career Pathway

Did you know that $1.3billion is lost to the economy in poor and mixed transitions of young people per year (DEEWR 2008). That is from young people starting in one area and then changing after realising it is not for them, or changing tertiary courses, or moving around to really find “what they want to do”. Part of this is inevitable as it does take some time to work it out, but perhaps with a little more self reflection and quality career advice at a younger age it would reduce this amount and have more young people “living” what they really want to do earlier in their careers.

Through our Frank Team workshops and programs we often hear the comment “I wish I had done this analysis earlier”. What is involved in this analysis?

• Explore past experiences, achievements and milestones since your were about 14 years old.

• Identify those elements that stand out because they helped you to learn something, you thoroughly enjoyed, you felt strongly about or gave you great satisfaction.

• See what actions and skills describe those moments and how important they are to you

• Combine your top ones into a perfect job description.

• Reflect and see is your tertiary studies or current work conditions in line with this job description.

• If yes, woo hoo! Keep progressing in that area. If no, then where would you like to get to and how are you going to do that. This may involve a re-think and some changes.

This basic analysis of skills, actions, values and interests is essential and really listening to what the results are saying to you.

When you are at the beginning of your career journey, what should be a part of everyone’s career program to help this analysis?

• Combine study with work experience and on the job training. This is so you can take your theory and put it into practice straight away. But also it has you experience the “real” world in that area/industry earlier so you can really work out if it fits with you.

o You can do School Based Apprenticeship and Traineeships these days that do on the job training and school study. It is a wonderful way to get this combined experience and get a foothold into the job market early.

• Don’t expect it all to be “fun and games.” Some people start in their chosen career/industry and within 2 weeks start saying “I hate it.” Now if this is truly connected to not enjoying the core work involved then fair enough perhaps you need to re-think and potentially change. But I would say 2 weeks is not enough to truly experience and see the opportunities in that career/industry. Everyone has to start somewhere, and sometimes that is at the bottom but there are always opportunities and ways of learning more and moving ahead; so perhaps you need to grit your teeth and see it out a little further before making the rash decision of doing a complete change. And remember, your progress is UP TO YOU so start finding the opportunities and doing something about it.

• Online personality and career quizzes are available to help you too. Check these out below, but remember that many of these “quizzes” are limited and need to put you into a box so use them as a guide only rather than a decision making tool! But be honest with yourself when you are filling them out. See if they indicate you are heading in the right direction.

o http://jobsearch.gov.au/careerquiz/careerquiz.aspx

o http://www.jobjuice.gov.au/jobjuice/apps/quiz/views/quiz.aspx

o http://www.princetonreview.com/cte/quiz/career_quiz1.asp

o http://www.personalitytype.com/quiz.asp

o http://www.hr.unsw.edu.au/osds/mycareer.html

• Go to networking events to meet the people who work in that area. See if they are your kind of people, what they are talking about and what different career paths are available in that area.

• Check in with your own motivations. Are you going into that industry for the right reasons? If you are doing it cos all of your friends are doing it, your parents want you to, it makes good money or cos it sounds like fun then you may not be 100% happy in the near future. Career choices need to based on your passions, interests and aspirations. Combine this with your skills you enjoy using and you should see a few options open to you.

• Encourage your school/university (or seek out for yourself) to start:

o Having guest speakers in many different areas/industries.

o Regular reflection on activities (from work experience, to sport, to musicals etc) to see what skills you have learnt but most importantly what elements of them that you enjoyed and would like to learn more about.

o Check out websites about careers and early career development.

o Encourage parents to tell their career stories to students and their kids.

o Build your career management skills eg: networking skills, presentation skills, goal setting.

o Have local employers do presentation about what day-to-day is like in their organisation and the career opportunities.

These are just some initial ideas – what do you wish you had done earlier to help to work out what you “really” want to do?

They say that you can tell you are on “purpose” when your work doesn’t feel like work; well for at least 60 – 70% of the time! That feeling of enjoying yourself, feeling happy and being positive the majority of the time in the workplace shows that you are in the right place. If there is a lack of motivation, you are disengaged or just plain unhappy then you probably want to have a re-evaluation of your career and put yourself in the driver’s seat of making some changes. Anything is possible, so see what you can create for yourself!