Harmonics

A consistent feature showing up in our coaching practice is that more and more people in the corporate world feel trapped. They have worked really hard and made significant personal sacrifices to achieve their current Senior Level positions but increasingly they feel trapped. It’s like a bell curve in career satisfaction peaks in their forties and then tapers off if proactive steps are not taken.

Here is a common career journey we are seeing in our coaching programmes:

The Thirty Something’s

These ambitious high fliers are in a rush. They have a track record of recent project successes under their belts and a thirst for career success. They have a corporate career goal in mind – to reach Head of Function or Director Level. They are hungry for new learning; often studying for a masters while also working incredible hours. They are newly married, have just started a mortgage and possibly a new family. Salary increases are common which are often achieved by making frequent job moves.

The Forty Something’s

These ambitious high fliers are talented at what they do. They may have reached Head of or Director Level but are now burned out and consistently tell me privately that their career plan is “once I hit 55 I’m done! I’m out of here. I’ve had enough now but can’t afford to leave“. They have now settled in one organisation and while head-hunters call, they fear leaving what they know. They have also built up a number of year’s tenure and won’t leave without a severance package.

The Fifty Something’s

These are the same people ten years later. They have either taken a redundancy package or reached a comprise agreement to go for fear their role may be at risk from an ambitious thirty something who is the new messiah. They have also now realised they can’t afford to retire early because they have extended themselves too much in their thirties and forties. They hadn’t bargained for the high cost of college education or that their twenty something kids would stay in the nest (and on the payroll!) into their late twenties.

“I’m caught in a trap, I can’t get out”

Through our coaching sessions we have identified three predominant reasons why clients feel the Corporate Career Handcuffs come on.  These are the 3 F’s…

1 – Fears – the fear of changing and failing elsewhere

2 – Finances – they can’t afford to go because of current personal debt levels

3 – Facts – they have not fully researched what else they want to do

What can you do to get out of the trap?

1 – Fear – The fear of not making it somewhere else stems from a small almond shaped object called an ‘amygdala’ in our brains. The amygdala is our inner lighthouse and is constantly scanning for threats at an unconscious level. In ancient times, seeing a dangerous predatory animal we didn’t recognise triggered a fight, flight or freeze reaction. The same process occurs in the brain when making a change and stepping outside our comfort zone into an industry sector or career field unknown to us. Our over vigilant amygdala feels threatened, fearing the worst may happen and chooses an avoid response. The trick is to continually challenge ourselves to take more risks and proactively seek out change. This way, change becomes recognisable to our amygdala; it has scanned something we have encountered before.

The winners in the world of work are those that see change as an everyday occurrence and not something to fear.

2 – Finances – We find most successful people are so busy they take very little time to plan their finances in any great detail. We have met CFO’s with no financial plans. They manage million euro budgets at work but spend little time on the important numbers. In short, they don’t know where they stand in relation to their finances, thus increasing stress at an unconscious level. We provide this invaluable and impartial support as part of our Career and Financial Audit Coaching Programme. Liam Croke, MD of Harmonics Financial, is a trusted financial advisor to hundreds of busy Executives helping them complete a personal and family financial review – see our sister company Harmonics Financial www.harmonicsfinancial.ie.

It is wise to know your numbers, gain clarity and remove the financial uncertainties from your future.

3 – Facts – Busyness gets in the way of facts in my opinion. This happens because we remain busy in roles that don’t satisfy us any longer and go with the flow rather than stepping back to get a clearer picture. At the start of each year, after Christmas and after summer holidays, we get calls from busy people who want to meet and review their career future. They have had time over their holiday break to unwind and promise that they we will definitely do something different this year. When we meet up, they talk about how they hate what they do but don’t have the time to spend on their own career project. They want an instant quick fix.

To be at our career best, we need take the time to stop, know the facts about what we want and how to find it, acknowledge our fears and gain clarity about our future financial goals.

The 3 F’s – Corporate Career Handcuff Release Coaching Questions:

1. Fears – What do I really fear and how can I overcome these fears?
2. Financials – What is my number? How much do I need to target to achieve my retirement age financial goals?
3. Facts – What do I want to do next and how can I make this happen?

True freedom comes from increasing your certainty about the 3F’s and facing up to each of them with the same enthusiastic ambition you had when you were a thirty something.

I will leave you with this quotation from George Bernard Shaw that is worth looking at each morning before you start work.

“Life is no great candle to me……it is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”

Harmonics Career and Financial Audit Programme has been specifically designed with the Senior Business Leader in mind. An increasing number of Organisations are providing this programme for their Executives as part of their reward package. John Fitzgerald and Liam Croke have, between them, worked with well over 500 Executives in enabling them to plot their future career and financial goals.

Testimonial – “The Harmonics Career and Financial Audit Programme was just what I needed to gain a new perspective, it was realistic, refreshing and the kick I needed to take positive action and stop talking about it” – Senior Business Leader

Future Proofing Your Workforce for the Changing World of Work

It’s time to future proof your workforce.
The World of Work is changing at an ever increasing pace and organisations and their employees are struggling to keep up as we can see here in this Infographic.

If your organisation is facing recruitment challenges and talent shortages, then it’s time to bridge the gap between the skills in supply and the skills in demand by your organisation, now and in the future.

Harmonics Career Management methodologies are being utilised by many of Ireland’s leading organisations to bridge the supply and demand gap, accelerate career development and create a change ready workforce.

In this ever improving economy, we have returned to the race for talent. More and more talented employees are getting calls from recruiters offering new and exciting opportunities. This presents challenges for both Organisations and Employees.

Organisation Challenge

Increasingly we see Organisations counter-offering employees who have handed in their notice having been successful in securing a new position, in an effort to woo their exiting talent to stay.  More often than not, however, it is a case of ‘too little, too late’.

Monetary offers are just a quick fix, will only last so long and are not a long term sustainable talent retention solution.

So what do Employees value in today’s World of Work value? Research shows that employees today recognise that learning opportunities and career development are core motivators:

66% of employees say they value learning opportunities over monetary compensation (Learnkit Workforce Survey – December 2015)

“Employees at all levels expect dynamic, self-directed, continuous learning opportunities from their employers.” (Deloitte Human Capital Trends 2016)

Yet Organisations are struggling to meet this challenge – offering outdated and static approaches to learning and career development which do not meet the needs of Employees or the Organisation in a World of Work which is changing at an unprecedented pace.

Career Development today needs to reflect this new world of work – addressing both Employee needs (Career Development) and the Organisation demands (Future Skills Development)… a career case with a business case.

Employee Challenge

When the LinkedIn message or the call comes from the recruiter it can be quite alluring. Only last month one Executive Coaching client told me she was really enjoying her work, was highly engaged and had never thought about leaving until she agreed to a cup of coffee for “just a chat” with a headhunter. Her head had been turned by the chat, her mind-set had now changed and Lucy (not her real name) was considering leaving.

We made the next Executive Coaching session a career coaching session. Lucy had been busy in her work and had not considered what she wanted in the future. She was almost expecting someone to tap her on the shoulder and offer her the next role internally. This happened in the past and she expected it again. My advice to Lucy was to be prepared and know what she wants before anyone internally or externally invites her for a cup of coffee.

I shared the Harmonics ‘My Career, My Business Model’ with Lucy (see below). It made a lot of sense to her and allowed her to work through a number of revealing exercises to gain more career clarity. The model is predicated by our belief that every employee today should own their career development and run it like a business owner. In every successful business, there are three key functions that require attention; Research & Development, Operations and Sales & Marketing.

1. Research and Development (Creating)
2. Operations (Doing)
3. Sales and Marketing (Communicating)

From Current to Future State

As with all businesses, you may have strength in one particular area, but neglect others. In the model above (Current State) we have highlighted where people place the majority of their time and focus.

Lucy’s focus was on working very hard and spending her time in the centre silo in Operations mode, busily doing stuff. She neglected to spend time in Research and Development mode to investigate internal opportunities she could create for herself. She also assumed her great work ethic would stand up for itself and spent little time in the Sales & Marketing function i.e. communicating and building valuable networks in the Organisation.

The fatal mistake Organisations are making is not offering their ‘at risk’ talent the opportunity to engage in proactive career development programmes. If talent know what they want and have invested internally on a journey of personal career growth, the alluring headhunter offers are much less appealing and easier to resist. In this particular case, following our career coaching intervention, Lucy knew what she wanted and politely declined the external offer.

A Proactive Talent Retention Solution

At Harmonics, we have developed a number of highly successful career development programmes specifically targetting talent retention in Organisations. Career Accelerator for High Potentials; Career Accelerator for Female Talent seeking to target Executive Roles; Career Best Programme which offer Managers open workshops and one to one career coaching; and our 24/7 access online Career Development Portal with remote career coaching which offers thousands of resources for all employees to self-direct their future career development.