1 Discover what you really want from your career and how it can help you lead the life you want. uandu. com Career Clarity Workbook 2 Welcome to your Career Clarity Workbook! At u&u our purpose is to change lives by connecting potential with opportunity - but not just any opportunity - we strive to be trusted advisors to our candidates to place them in their perfect job. Whether we place you or not, we hope to add value in your job search, and helping you gain ca- reer clarity is the first step. In this Career Clarity Workbook, you will be mapping out your own career path. Career clarity and career success are subjective things that can only be defined by you, for you. You may be wondering where your career will take you next. Perhaps you aren’t happy with the company you work for, or your current role, or your day to day activities. Or perhaps you are simply wondering how to get to the next level of your career. Use this workbook as a tool to help you step back from your day-to-day activities, ask yourself some challenging questions, gain insight into what you truly want from your career, and ultimate- ly use it to create the life you want. Let’s dive in! 34% 51% 27% 46% of employees say they plan to leave their current role in the next 12 months (Mercer) of employees change jobs each year, 17% are actively job-hunting and of workers are looking to leave their current jobs (Gallup) are passively looking (ADP) Shanelle Moloney Executive Career Coach u&u Recruitment Partners 3 Stages for Obtaining Career Clarity What is your ‘ideal future state’ ? What are your workplace priorities and preferences and how can knowing them lead to great success? What are your career milestones and how can they inform you for future career success? Do you have reliable, objective and timely career feedback sources to allow for more effective career navigation? What are your motivators and strengths & how do you lever- age them for greater success? What is purposeful work for you? What is your career navigation strategy? Are you clear on what your current and ideal ‘personal brand’ is? 3 4 Define Your Ideal Future State Have you ever become so entrenched in your daily routine that you realise you don’t know how you got to a particular place at a particular time? Many times we forget to take a step back from our reg- ular lives and ask, “Am I on the path to my ideal career and life?” For some people, this very question causes a tre- mendous amount of anxiety as they begin to delve into their definition of success. What if my defini - tion of success is different than my friend/neigh- bour/partner? What if I am never successful? How will I know when I have achieved success? In reality, personal contentment and happiness are not defined by attaining one thing. Rather, these conditions are made up of many facets all coming together in a variety of ways, thus comprising your definition of success. Do you know what your ideal future state looks like? To assist you in answering this question, you may like to complete the ideal future state template on the next page. 4 5 Your Ideal Future State What’s your vision for your life? What would bring more meaning, purpose, reward and enjoyment to your current career role? What does career ‘success’ look like for you? What sort of work would have you jump out of bed every morning to go to your job? How would my career fit with my home/social life ideally? 5 6 6 Become Self Aware The first step to navigating the journey from where you are currently to your desired ideal future state is through self awareness. Self awareness is an essential ingredient for achieving career clarity and career success. Steven Covey, author of “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” and one of the world’s foremost personal efficiency experts says, “Every human has four endowments: self-awareness, conscience, independent will, and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom. The power to choose, to respond, to change.” It’s up to you! “ Every human has four endowments: self-awareness, conscience, independent will, and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom. The power to choose, to respond, to change.” - Steven Covey BECOME SELF-AWARE: IDENTIFY YOUR ‘BLINDSPOTS’. Self awareness is a skill in itself. Take our Johari Window activity to identify your blind spots. DOWNLOAD http://bit.ly/2gqXDJ5 7 In order to achieve career clarity and success, it is important to get to know your motivators and strengths. Only then can you harness them to optimise your career success. Your key motivators are your values and priorities that you hold in high regard. Like tastes in clothing or food, these key motivators may change over time as you grow and experience more in your life and career. As you are shaped by your experience, the things that you value also evolve, with changes to what motivates you following suit. You may like to list your motivators and strengths in the table on the follow - ing page. Since true self-awareness is incomplete without acknowledging your challenges, make sure you list your weaknesses as well. Be honest! Strengths A strength is an energising activity that is done well and often - they are what you do instinctively. When you do more of what comes naturally, you are us- ing your area of greatest potential - the basis of your unique power and your competitive advantage, as well as your best opportunity for success. People who use their strengths every day are: 6X 8% 15% more likely to be engaged at work less likely to quit their jobs (Gallup) more productive Harness your motivators and strengths 8 If you found that activity hard to complete, because you are unsure of your strengths and motivators, then you are not alone. Many of us are unsure of what motivates us and what strengths we truly have. If you would like to gain some insights and clarity in this area, there are a number of tools that can help you dis- cover your motivators and strengths more accurately. Do you know your motivators, strengths & weaknesses? Answer key: 1 - Rarely 2 - Only Sometimes 3 - Most of the time After listing your motivators, strengths & weakness, give a numerical weight to the extent to which you satisfy each motiva- tor in your life and current career. Likewise, give a numerical weight to how each of your strengths are being used in your present life and career. Finally, weight the extent to which you are allowing your weaknesses to dom- inate your behavior in your present life and career. Do you satisfy this motivator in your current role? Motivators Weaknesses Do you leverage this strength for greater success in your current role? Do you allow this weakness to hold back your career success? Strengths 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 UNDERSTAND AND HARNESS YOUR INHERENT STRENGTHS For a full assessment of your EI strengths and areas of opportunity, arrange a consultation with our leadership coaching partner, Moloney Consulting. BOOK NOW http://bit.ly/2yg7hEF 9 For many people, purposeful work is the defining characteristic of a career they love. But what is it? Put simply, purposeful work is work that you find fulfilling, that you are pas - sionate about. Purposeful work not only satisfies your key motivators, it also uses your strengths and talents while feeding your workplace priorities and preferences. Simon Sinek, one of the world’s leading experts in leadership, marketing, and organisa- tional behavior gave a now-viral TED talk titled, “How Great Leaders Inspire Action” In this twenty minute video, he uses “The Golden Circle” to explain what defines purposeful work in the human brain and how we can tap into that purpose. Can you list what is purposeful work for you? How much of this purposeful work are you able to complete in your current career role? List in the table below the strengths and motivators that you listed on the previous page as being either ‘satisfied’ or ‘not satisfied’ in your current role. Strengths WATCH ON YOUTUBE The Golden Circle or search ‘Simon Sinek Golden Circle’ Motivators Strengths Motivators SATISFIED NOT SATISFIED Seek Purposeful Work 10 Whether you are cognisant of it or not, your workplace priorities and preferences are your default workplace behaviours. In other words, they are your behavioural “comfort zone”. As vital as it is to understand your motivators, strengths, and your definition of purposeful work, each of these steps focuses inward. Understanding your workplace priorities and preferences as they are expressed through your behavior provides you with insight as to how others see you in the workplace. What are your behaviour ‘comfort zones’ in the workplace? On the next page there are some questions that will assist you in identifying your workplace priorities and preferences. 10 Know your workplace priorities and preferences 11 Select one response to each of the below questions from column D, i, S or C and circle it. The key is to select the response that you feel is most like you and don’t over analyse it. The column that had the most responses circled may be an indication of your workplace priori- ties and preference style. The graphic on the next page gives a little more description on each of the DiSC profiles. How close are the descriptions for you? Undertaking a DiSC workplace priorities and preferences assessment would certainly help con- firm your priorities and preferences, but this activity is a good start. D In your workplace do you like to... Do you like to make decisions... Do you prefer your work environment to be... Total circled Others would describe you as being... Have flexibility and variety More spontaneously so you can approach situations differently Stimulating, personal, friendly Expressive, enthusiastic, opti- mistic, energetic, action oriented, collaborative Be in control Quickly so you can get on with achieving the outcome Busy, formal Self-confident, outcomes focused, competitive, action oriented, impatient, risk taker, enjoys challenge Build and maintain close relationships With consideration for others and the impact your deci- sion may have Relaxed, personal, closely knit Friendly, genuine, cooperative, per- sistent, patient, collaborative, supportive, stable Be structured, systematic and prepared After consider- able research and thought to ensure it is the right one Structured, organised, functional, formal Accurate, detailed, cautious, high standards, like things to be right, enjoys challenge, stable S i C Understanding your workplace priorities & preferences a helpful guide 12 13 Before you can truly plan for the future, you must acknowledge where you have been. In fact, one of the most important parts of this exercise is to examine how you have learned from the successful and less-than-successful decisions you have made to date. You may like to plot your career milestones to date on the path below. You’ll have reached some heights, and there will have been some speed bumps too. See if you can list 3 career highs and 2 challenges or setbacks. Career Commencement Present Day What were some of the best career decisions/changes that have occurred? What lead to them? What were some of the least successful career decisions/changes that have occurred? What lead to them? How will you let this review of your career journey so far inform your future career journey? Look Back Over Your Career Milestones 14 At u&u, we’re not huge fans of the term “career plan”. To us, a plan assumes you have total control over the “what” and the “how”. Careers today do not come with a set of “career controls” which can be used to achieve success. Instead, we believe that a career navigation strategy is the best way to set yourself up for career success. However, developing such a navigational strategy is not a one-time process, but rather one that evolves as your values, strengths, and experience evolve. At its core, career navigation also accepts that there will be some elements to your ca- reer path that are within your control, and others that will remain well outside of your influence. Internal change within your organisation may occur. Market conditions may impact your career growth and the timing of your career milestones. Whatever the bump in the road may be, it is important to focus on the aspects you can influence rather than lamenting those you cannot. Design Your Career Navigation Strategy 15 Do you know what your career navigation roadmap looks like? As you look to fulfil your short and long term career goals, consider the following questions. You may like to map them out using the diagram below. As you’re working through this, ask yourself these questions: 1. Do my goals provide outcomes that will motivate me? 2. Do my goals leverage my strengths, enabling my success? 3. Do my goals focus on working in an environment that aligns with my workplace priorities and preferences? Career Navigation Roadmap 16 As an individual you must be clear on who you are, what you stand for, and how you con- duct yourself in order to create your ‘brand’ perception in the mind of others. Put simply, your brand is a combination of your reputation, your unique value proposition and your strengths. Building your ‘brand’ is not about creating a key message marketing campaign about you - it is about how you conduct yourself every day and how that behaviour is perceived by others. Whether you want to grow your career inside your current organisation or expand your horizons to a new environment, your personal brand should be reflected in every thought, word, and action. Your fit for another position or company will be determined just as much by how they perceive your personal ‘brand’ as your resume, experience or career successes. You may like to answer the following questions to discover how well you know your per - sonal brand: What do you believe your personal ‘brand’ is currently? What would people say about you if they were asked? (do some online research if you need to). What does your online brand represent? Does it accurately represent you? (Think LinkedIn, Facebook, your resume) What would you like your personal brand to be? What do you want to be known for? What do you want people to say is unique about you? Be Clear on Your ‘Brand’ 17 For many people, taking the next step in their current career or embarking on a new ca- reer path may be an anxious time. However, many of the best revelations come from an interim state of confusion. Instead of remaining paralysed by uncertainty, consider asking for advice or assistance from external sources. They can help you spot risks in your plan, or challenge you if you’re selling yourself short, which means you move forward with more confidence. Whether you are seeking a mentor, career coach, or both, the most important factor to consider is how they can help you achieve clarity. Do they have knowledge and experi- ence born from a successful career journey? Have they toughed through less-than-suc- cessful moments and learned lessons they can share with you? • Identifying your current career roadblocks • Diagnosing difficulties with reaching short and long term career goals • Exploring the possibility of a career change • Integrating work and life to maximise your satisfaction in both areas • Positioning yourself for success when applying for a new position or promotion • Optimising your interview techniques • Achieving career success as a woman • Determining your motivators and strengths, priorities and preferences to help you make better career decisions • Helping you seek challenging work TAKE YOUR NEXT CAREER STEP WITH CONFIDENCE Gain insight and devise actions in a Career Clarity Session with our Executive Coach, Shanelle Moloney. BOOK NOW Mentors can be found in your work- place or within your industry and can assist you with advice, skill develop- ment, knowledge sharing, or help with navigating office politics or dealing with challenging colleagues. On the other hand, career coaches are best located outside of your current organisation. They’re unbiased pro- fessionals who can offer independent assistance on a range of career clarity issues such as those below. Mentors Career Coaches uandu.moloneyconsulting.com/career-coaching Embrace mentors & career coaches 18 Believe in Yourself! Even if you need a career coach or mentor to get you started, you have the power to unlock your career clarity. You only need to take the first step! 18 19 Shanelle has spent her career in senior executive Corporate Services and Human Resources roles, most recently with an ASX200 organisation. WIth more than 20 years of ex- perience in human resources, 15 of which were on senior leadership teams in Australian and Asia Pacific businesses, across a range of in - dustries, Shanelle recognises that leadership is a learned skill that requires the right invest- ment of resources to develop effectively. Hav - ing spent much of her career specialising in this area, Shanelle found herself responsible for the development of group-wide people de- velopment strategies, in addition to managing functions such as governance, procurement and building services, continuous improvement, and Six Sigma initiatives in Australia and Asia. A graduate of Queensland University of Tech- nology (QUT) with a Bachelor of Business, and of Deakin University in Victoria with an MBA, Shanelle decided to continue her education by qualifying for a Diploma of Executive Coach- ing from the Australian Institute of Executive Coaches (AIEC). Today, she is a certified DiSC and Strengthsfinder administrator and facilitator. Using her broad commercial and leadership ex- perience and her substantial educational back- ground, Shanelle founded Moloney Consulting (MC), providing career coaching and leadership development services for organisations through- out Australia. Her proven consulting specialties include strategy, talent management, leadership development, coaching, employee engagement, change management and interview optimisation. Personal, practical career consulting. All the advice you need and nothing you don’t. uandu.moloneyconsulting.com/career-coaching Career Clarity Session 1 hour career coaching session delivered by phone Career Clarity Session 1.5 hour career coaching session delivered by phone Career Mastery Session 1.5 hour career coaching session and choice of psychometric assessments BOOK NOW BOOK NOW BOOK NOW About Shanelle Moloney 20 We are U&U At u&u our purpose is to ‘change lives by connecting potential with opportunity’. We are pas- sionate about ensuring that we make a positive impact in the lives of all our candidates, even those we might not place. u&u Recruitment Partners is a privately owned firm offering a more personalised, yet profession - al and quality focussed approach to recruitment. We strive to be the absolute best candidate experience in town and so much so, we even have a full-time Candidate Experience Consultant. Since we opened our doors in 2010, we’ve grown to a team of over 60+ specialist recruiters across our Brisbane and Sydney offices. We hire experienced recruiters that are passionate about what we do and the positive impact our profession can have on people’s lives. In fact, our Consultants have an average of 13 years recruitment industry experience. Some of our accolades include being independently voted Executive Recruiter of the Year by HRD Magazine in 2017 and being recognised as the 26th fastest growing privately owned organisation in Australia by BRW. At u&u we believe our success has come from our purpose led culture. We believe if we pro- vide a fantastic culture and engaging, personalised employment experience for our staff, they in turn will provide a wonderful, personalised service to our clients and candidates. That culture is driven by our unique values: 1. Play as a team 2. Dare to be different 3. Good things happen to good people We believe in creating long term relationships, in fact our networks includes many candidates who we have previously placed, candidates who have thrived in the roles we found for them. We strive for the u&u experience to be a positive one and whether we have placed you or just given you career advice we hope we have helped in some way to get you where you want to go. After all we exist for u! 4. The pursuit of wow. 5. Oomph! 6. We appreciate your business