5 Career-Change Myths Exploded

5 Career-Change Myths Exploded 5 Career-Change Myths Exploded However,whats also beginning to slowly change is the expectation that a workerwill have one career for their entire life. In todays world, its possible you might start your career as a high-powered accountant and end it as a chilled-out tree surgeon. Massive forces are acting on the workplace e.g., greater independence and self-determination, globalization, automation, unprecedented levels of economic and corporate instability, etc., which means that very few career paths can be truly considered secure.What I mean to say is that we are moving into a career-change world soon, thecareer-changers will be the rule, rather than the exception. And many people will become multi-career-changers that is, many people will change careers multiple times throughout their lives.Themulti-career-change world is a new and untested environment for employeesand employers alike. As a result, many myths prevail that can hinder workers who are seeking to change careers these myths may also causeemployers to pause when looking atcareer-changer candidates.Therefore,I thought it would be useful todisprovesome of the myths surrounding career changes and career-changers. Doing so will help us build a healthier environment in the talent ecosystem.Myth No. 1 The Average Person Will Have Seven Careers in Their LifetimeThestatistic that the average person will have seven careers in their lifetime has been floating around the Web for some time now. However, this stat welches never really plausible, and now it has been roundly debunked by many researchers. In my personal opinion, I would expect that the average person might squeeze in two or threecareers in a lifetime.Myth No. 2 You Cant Change Careers, or If You Do, It ComesWith aHigh Risk of FailureAlot of people view career changes in a negative light, but this perspective is not totally justified. Research from the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) found thats uccess rates for career changes are astonishingly high. The institute found that 82 percent of people over 47 who tried to move to new careers were successful in making that change. The truth, then, is that you canchanges careers and if you do, you have a high chance of doing so successfully.Myth No. 3 Youll Have to Take a Pay Cut If You Switch CareersAccording to the AIER study cited above, sideways career changes are possible.The AIER found that, for68 percent of career changers, pay remained the same (18 percent) or increased (50 percent). Thirty-one percent of courage changers took pay cuts.So, while pay cuts are areality for many career changers, they are not the norm in fact, career changers who saw their pay decrease were in the minority.Myth No. 4 You Are Too Old to Change CareersRemember when the AIER found that82 percentof people over the age of 47 successfully changed career? I also want to mentionresearch from the AARP Public Policy Institute, which found that63 percen t of older workers who went through long periods of unemployment found jobs in completely new lines of work.The point here is that career change is an option open to anyone, no matter their age.Myth No. 5 Needing to Change Careers Is a Sign of Bad Career PlanningSeveral pieces of research show that our personalities change over the course of our lives. And as your personality and values change, its only natural that your career expectations and needs might also change.So, needing to change careers is not necessarily a sign of bad career planning or failure in you current career path. Rather, deciding to change careers can be an acknowledgement of the natural change in your personal priorities and preferences as you age.

6 Steps to Coach Employees Effectively

6 Steps to Coach Employees Effectively6 Steps to Coach Employees EffectivelyThe first step in any effort to improve employee performance is counseling or coaching. Counseling or coaching is part of the day-to-day interaction between a teamberater and an employee who reports to her, or an HR professional and line managers. Coaching often provides positive feedback about employee contributions. Employees need to know when they are effective contributors. By providing this positive feedback, you are also letting the employee know the actions and contributions that youd like to reinforce so that you see more of them. Coaching When Performance Issues Exist At the same time, regular coaching brings performance issues to an employees attention when they are minor. Your coaching feedback assists the employee to correct these issues before they become significant detractions from herperformance. The goal of performance coaching is not to make the employee feel bad, nor is it provided to s how how much the HR professional or manager know. The goal of coaching is to work with the employee to solve performance problems and to improve the work of the employee, the team, and the department. Employees who respond positively to coaching and improve their performance can become valued contributors to the success of the business. Employees who fail to improve will find themselves placed on a formal performance improvement plan, known as a PIP. This sets up a formal process wherein the manager meets regularly with the underperforming employee to provide coaching and feedback. At the meetings, they also evaluate how well the employee is performing in achieving the performance goals that were enumerated in the PIP. Generally, by the time an employee has received a PIP, Human Resources staff are significantly involved in both the meetings and in the review of the employees progress and performance. Employees who fail to improve when on the PIP are likely to find their employment terminated. Second Example of Performance Coaching In a second example of the use of performance coaching, managers can use performance coaching to help employees who are effective contributors improve and become even more effective contributors. Done well, coaching can help an employee continuously improve their skills, experience, and ability to contribute. From years of observing managers coaching, the time managers spend in performance coaching with their best, fruchtwein contributing employees is time well spent. It is more likely to produce increasing results for the organization and for the managers department and priorities. It is ironic that many managers find that they spend the majority of their time with their troubled, or underperforming employees. This is despite the fact that the most significant value from their time and energy investment comes from the opposite priority. Coaching is an effective tool for managers to deploy in their efforts to help employees succ eed, and especially help employees increase their skills and their potential opportunities for promotion or lateral moves to more interesting positions. 6 Coaching Steps Use these six steps to provide effective supportive coaching to your reporting employees. Show confidence in the employees ability and willingness to solve the problem. Ask him or her for help in solving the problem or improving their performance. Ask the employee to join in with you with the goal of increasing the employees effectiveness as a contributor to your organization.Describe the performance problem to the employee. Focus on the problem or behavior that needs improvement, not on the person. Use descriptions of the behavior with examples so that you and the employee share meaning. Ask for the employees view of the situation. Do they see the same problem or opportunity that you do? Determine whether issues exist that limit the employees ability to perform the task or accomplish the objectives. Four comm on barriers are time, training, tools, and temperament. Determine how to remove these barriers. Determine whether the employee needs your help to remove the barriers- a key role of a manager- or if he is able to tackle them by himself.Discuss potential solutions to the problem or improvement actions to take. Ask the employee for ideas on how to correct the problem, or prevent it from happening again. With a high performing employee, talk about continuous improvement. Agree on a written action plan that lists what the employee, the manager, and possibly, the HR professional, will do to correct the problem or improve the situation. Identify the core goals that the employee must meet to achieve the appropriate level of performance that the organization needs.Set a date and time for follow-up. Determine if a critical feedback path is needed, so the manager knows how the employee is progressing. Offer positive encouragement. Express confidence in the employees ability to improve. Recogni ze, however, that the only person who is in charge of their performance improvement is the employee. As much as you try to help, he is the one in charge. You can help your reporting employees improve their current performance, or in the case of an already effective employee, help them become more effective. Performance coaching is a powerful tool when managers take advantage of its usefulness.

Your Bar Dues At Work

Your Bar Dues At WorkYour Bar Dues At WorkTo much deserved ridicule (see also here), The New York State Bar Associations Special Committee on Balanced Lives in the Law has concluded that the majority of lawyers find it nearly impossible to achieve work/life balance. This study took 3 years.This is sure to join Attractive Women Are Distracting To MenFaraway Objects Are More Difficult to See and Swallowing More Than One Magnet Is Dangerousin the pantheon of truly useless studiesAnyway, isnt work/life balance a misnomer? As a wise man once said, scales balance in all sorts of ways. -posted by brian