The document discusses the importance of versatility for professionals. It defines versatility as the ability to adapt to different tasks and fields of work. It notes that versatility helps professionals reinvent themselves when their skills are no longer needed, such as due to automation or changes in their industry. The document provides many examples of ways for professionals to develop versatility, such as learning new skills, taking on different roles, and staying aware of changes in their field. It emphasizes developing a strong professional core and the ability to handle uncertainty.
In the published Slideshare we talk about ways that could help in keeping the employees happy, which in turn would result in organizational growth.
Read more interesting content, at www.thecareermuse.co.in - We intend to inform and inspire recruiters, job seekers and anyone with an interest in the workplace and HR technology.
Hope you enjoyed reading the Infographic.
Feel free to share your feedback with us at @CareerBuilderIn
Training Slides of Coaching and Counseling for Peak Performance, discussing the importance of Coaching.
For further information regarding the course, please contact:
info@asia-masters.com
www.asia-masters.com
Emotional Intelligence: is at the core of this process: This is about building self awareness and self belief in order to achieve your full potential and to be able to maximize your performance in all areas of your life.
Coaching generates Emotional Intelligence through an understanding of SELF.
Emotional awareness increases PEAK PERFORMANCE, which in turn increases bottom line profit.
Coach Approach to Leadership - Conversations for SuccessRay Lamb
Defining coaching for leaders, and a guide to coaching conversations for successful leadership using a 'coach approach' what, why and how of coaching for leaders
Performance Coaching PowerPoint Presentation Slides are designed to showcase performance management process and practices. The performance planning PowerPoint complete deck displays creative and professional looking slides such as performance management program, core performance criteria, performance planning, guidelines, goal setting process types of goals and priorities, performance coaching, employees’ responsibilities, supervisors responsibilities, do’s and don’ts, performance feedback, multiple sources of feedback, feedback forms, performance review and development, performance assessment, ratings, improvement plan, supervisors comments, employee development program, performance management KPIs and dashboard etc. It has professionally designed templates with relevant visuals and subject driven content. Managers can use performance management PPT visuals to align company goals with goals of employees and teams in order to improve the efficiency, productivity, and profitability. Download performance measurement presentation layout to create transparency in the achievement of company goals.
Developing the Coaching Skills of Your Managers and Leaders - Webinar 08.19.14BizLibrary
Whether you’re a manager developing your employees or working to improve your own skills andcapabilities, effective coaching skills impact business results. According to a study by Bersin by Deloitte, organizations with senior leaders who coach can effectively and frequently improve business results by 21% compared to those who never coach.
In this webinar we'll discuss:
why coaching skills are so important
the objective of coaching in ourorganizations
emerging principles in employee coaching for managers
the objective of coaching in our organizations
traditional models and how we can improve them
a coaching toolkit for your managers
www.bizlibrary.com/webinars
In the published Slideshare we talk about ways that could help in keeping the employees happy, which in turn would result in organizational growth.
Read more interesting content, at www.thecareermuse.co.in - We intend to inform and inspire recruiters, job seekers and anyone with an interest in the workplace and HR technology.
Hope you enjoyed reading the Infographic.
Feel free to share your feedback with us at @CareerBuilderIn
Training Slides of Coaching and Counseling for Peak Performance, discussing the importance of Coaching.
For further information regarding the course, please contact:
info@asia-masters.com
www.asia-masters.com
Emotional Intelligence: is at the core of this process: This is about building self awareness and self belief in order to achieve your full potential and to be able to maximize your performance in all areas of your life.
Coaching generates Emotional Intelligence through an understanding of SELF.
Emotional awareness increases PEAK PERFORMANCE, which in turn increases bottom line profit.
Coach Approach to Leadership - Conversations for SuccessRay Lamb
Defining coaching for leaders, and a guide to coaching conversations for successful leadership using a 'coach approach' what, why and how of coaching for leaders
Performance Coaching PowerPoint Presentation Slides are designed to showcase performance management process and practices. The performance planning PowerPoint complete deck displays creative and professional looking slides such as performance management program, core performance criteria, performance planning, guidelines, goal setting process types of goals and priorities, performance coaching, employees’ responsibilities, supervisors responsibilities, do’s and don’ts, performance feedback, multiple sources of feedback, feedback forms, performance review and development, performance assessment, ratings, improvement plan, supervisors comments, employee development program, performance management KPIs and dashboard etc. It has professionally designed templates with relevant visuals and subject driven content. Managers can use performance management PPT visuals to align company goals with goals of employees and teams in order to improve the efficiency, productivity, and profitability. Download performance measurement presentation layout to create transparency in the achievement of company goals.
Developing the Coaching Skills of Your Managers and Leaders - Webinar 08.19.14BizLibrary
Whether you’re a manager developing your employees or working to improve your own skills andcapabilities, effective coaching skills impact business results. According to a study by Bersin by Deloitte, organizations with senior leaders who coach can effectively and frequently improve business results by 21% compared to those who never coach.
In this webinar we'll discuss:
why coaching skills are so important
the objective of coaching in ourorganizations
emerging principles in employee coaching for managers
the objective of coaching in our organizations
traditional models and how we can improve them
a coaching toolkit for your managers
www.bizlibrary.com/webinars
This is the worksheet that goes with the slides.
A Situational Leadership Workshop. Based on the Hersey - Blanchard Model and the Blake and Mouton’s Leadership Grid this workshop introduces the concepts of how leadership style can be matched to situational factors - in this case follower readiness.
For some new managers, the idea of giving performance reviews and being responsible for others can be intimidating. For others, there are fears about how to manage people older than them. And then there are others who worry about being accepted by their new team. I too, had these fears. But over time, I have learned a lot from peers, from mentors, and from my own employees. I made some terrible mistakes, and I had some pretty good successes. These nuggets of insight are some of the best personal learnings I’ve had in my management career, and ones which I wish I knew when I started managing people.
The Manager's Resource Handbook is an online source of tools, templates and articles relating to business and management in the global environment. Our mission is the help managers and businesses succeed through the benefit of our experience. You can contact us at http://www.managersresourcehandbook.com.
The Search for The Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine is our exercise that focuses on leadership, strategy and collaboration. This file is an overview of key learning points and ideas for how users can link the game to real organizational issues. Designed by Scott Simmerman, we have been selling this worldwide since 1993.
Dutchman gives you:
-- Serious learning outcomes tightly anchored to real-world behaviors
-- A fun and engaging Team Building challenge
-- A crucial understanding of how Collaboration increases ROI
-- A Powerful Debriefing Opportunity as a tool for Change and Improvement
-- A view into the pivotal role of Leadership in helping teams succeed
-- The benefit of 20 years of continuous design improvement and established success (used worldwide)
-- A path to implementing new behaviors for improved performance results
This is an inexpensive, powerful and flexible tool for organizational development and for improving alignment and collaboration between teams. This half-day program easily links to a wide variety of different course materials.
There's a lot of nonsense talked about employee engagement and a lot of people think you can get it be throwing a few incentives around. They're wrong.
Ultimately employee engagement is simply a choice. It's a choice between how you want your organisation to thrive.
So ask yourself - do you want to engage your people or eliminate your people? It's up to you.
Out of four Style of communication or behavioral choice viz Direct Aggression(bossy , arrogant , bulldozing , intolerant ,opionated ,overbearing),Indirect Aggression(sarcastic , deceiving , ambiguous ,insinuating ,manipulative ,guilt inducing),Submissive( Wailing , moaning , helpless , passive ,indecisive , apologetic),Assertive(direct ,honest, accepting , responsible ,spontaneous ) recognizes our right, respect right of others, ensures responsibility for ourselves and our action without judging or blaming other people and finally enables les us to Constructively confront and find mutually satisfying solution if conflict exist
Developing The Coaching Skills of Your Managers and Leaders BizLibrary
Developing effective coaches in your organization is critical to its success. When armed with effective coaching skills and the inclination to coach workers regularly, managers and supervisors can dramatically uplift business results and the performance and lives of their workers.
According to a study by Bersin by Deloitte, organizations with senior leaders who coach can effectively and frequently improve business results by 21 percent compared to those who never coach.
Join BizLibrary's Libby Mullen, as she uncovers key elements of training you can implement to develop leaders that are able to create measurable differences in performance through coaching.
You will learn:
- The difference between coaching and mentoring
- How to assess, match and apply key coaching skills to align with specific employees and situations
- How to develop the most effective coaching models for your organization
- Skills development exercises to include in your training design
A "coaches’ toolkit" that includes emerging competencies for managers and leaders
Leadership is an important skill, but even more important is the ability to lead well. A strong leader inspires, encourages, and empowers those around them. Here we share with you several of the skills associated with successful leaders and what it means to embody those abilities as a truly great leader.
Want to be on the top of your profession, you need to develop Soft Skills along with your professional skills. With time , need of soft skills changes. Thus you need to upgrade your soft skills regularly.
This PPT is a tool to help focus a team / group / or stakeholders into a high performance team. It concentrates on results, commitment, processes, communication, and trust.
I created this tool as a means to transition a team through the four stages of team maturity: forming, storming, forming, and performing.
I know you may have the title of leader, however that doesn't automatically make you one.
You must know this: You cannot lead those whose trust you have not earned!
Introduces the famous DiSC profile and gives basic information about interpreting the results. Please read the copyright information. I really appreciate you acknowledging The Business Center as the source for the material. If you need DiSC profiles, please contact us to order them at bizcenter.com .
Rob livingstone - Australian Payroll Association's Annual Conference May 2011Livingstone Advisory
Rob Livingstone - Australian Payroll Association's Annual Conference - Is global warming likely to shrink the (skills) iceberg on which you have based your career?
This is the worksheet that goes with the slides.
A Situational Leadership Workshop. Based on the Hersey - Blanchard Model and the Blake and Mouton’s Leadership Grid this workshop introduces the concepts of how leadership style can be matched to situational factors - in this case follower readiness.
For some new managers, the idea of giving performance reviews and being responsible for others can be intimidating. For others, there are fears about how to manage people older than them. And then there are others who worry about being accepted by their new team. I too, had these fears. But over time, I have learned a lot from peers, from mentors, and from my own employees. I made some terrible mistakes, and I had some pretty good successes. These nuggets of insight are some of the best personal learnings I’ve had in my management career, and ones which I wish I knew when I started managing people.
The Manager's Resource Handbook is an online source of tools, templates and articles relating to business and management in the global environment. Our mission is the help managers and businesses succeed through the benefit of our experience. You can contact us at http://www.managersresourcehandbook.com.
The Search for The Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine is our exercise that focuses on leadership, strategy and collaboration. This file is an overview of key learning points and ideas for how users can link the game to real organizational issues. Designed by Scott Simmerman, we have been selling this worldwide since 1993.
Dutchman gives you:
-- Serious learning outcomes tightly anchored to real-world behaviors
-- A fun and engaging Team Building challenge
-- A crucial understanding of how Collaboration increases ROI
-- A Powerful Debriefing Opportunity as a tool for Change and Improvement
-- A view into the pivotal role of Leadership in helping teams succeed
-- The benefit of 20 years of continuous design improvement and established success (used worldwide)
-- A path to implementing new behaviors for improved performance results
This is an inexpensive, powerful and flexible tool for organizational development and for improving alignment and collaboration between teams. This half-day program easily links to a wide variety of different course materials.
There's a lot of nonsense talked about employee engagement and a lot of people think you can get it be throwing a few incentives around. They're wrong.
Ultimately employee engagement is simply a choice. It's a choice between how you want your organisation to thrive.
So ask yourself - do you want to engage your people or eliminate your people? It's up to you.
Out of four Style of communication or behavioral choice viz Direct Aggression(bossy , arrogant , bulldozing , intolerant ,opionated ,overbearing),Indirect Aggression(sarcastic , deceiving , ambiguous ,insinuating ,manipulative ,guilt inducing),Submissive( Wailing , moaning , helpless , passive ,indecisive , apologetic),Assertive(direct ,honest, accepting , responsible ,spontaneous ) recognizes our right, respect right of others, ensures responsibility for ourselves and our action without judging or blaming other people and finally enables les us to Constructively confront and find mutually satisfying solution if conflict exist
Developing The Coaching Skills of Your Managers and Leaders BizLibrary
Developing effective coaches in your organization is critical to its success. When armed with effective coaching skills and the inclination to coach workers regularly, managers and supervisors can dramatically uplift business results and the performance and lives of their workers.
According to a study by Bersin by Deloitte, organizations with senior leaders who coach can effectively and frequently improve business results by 21 percent compared to those who never coach.
Join BizLibrary's Libby Mullen, as she uncovers key elements of training you can implement to develop leaders that are able to create measurable differences in performance through coaching.
You will learn:
- The difference between coaching and mentoring
- How to assess, match and apply key coaching skills to align with specific employees and situations
- How to develop the most effective coaching models for your organization
- Skills development exercises to include in your training design
A "coaches’ toolkit" that includes emerging competencies for managers and leaders
Leadership is an important skill, but even more important is the ability to lead well. A strong leader inspires, encourages, and empowers those around them. Here we share with you several of the skills associated with successful leaders and what it means to embody those abilities as a truly great leader.
Want to be on the top of your profession, you need to develop Soft Skills along with your professional skills. With time , need of soft skills changes. Thus you need to upgrade your soft skills regularly.
This PPT is a tool to help focus a team / group / or stakeholders into a high performance team. It concentrates on results, commitment, processes, communication, and trust.
I created this tool as a means to transition a team through the four stages of team maturity: forming, storming, forming, and performing.
I know you may have the title of leader, however that doesn't automatically make you one.
You must know this: You cannot lead those whose trust you have not earned!
Introduces the famous DiSC profile and gives basic information about interpreting the results. Please read the copyright information. I really appreciate you acknowledging The Business Center as the source for the material. If you need DiSC profiles, please contact us to order them at bizcenter.com .
Rob livingstone - Australian Payroll Association's Annual Conference May 2011Livingstone Advisory
Rob Livingstone - Australian Payroll Association's Annual Conference - Is global warming likely to shrink the (skills) iceberg on which you have based your career?
How can organizations promote individual engagement to meet the extreme challenges and uncertainty of the times? And what can PXT Select™ do to help?
We explore the answers to these questions in Managing Rapid Change Through Employee Engagement.
Nick krest - skills for a successful management careerNickkrest
Effective leaders must master all forms of communication including written, verbal and listening skills. As a team manager you're the line of communication between frontline staff and senior management.
Everything You Need to Know About Interim ManagementPrashantneta1
While permanent contracts continue to dominate business, in a troubled environment, interim executives are an indispensable resource for organizations seeking to adapt and change. They bring with them a specific set of skills and experiences, and offer great expertise and agility.
Understanding the core attributes that help you excel in any workplace.
1. Ability: the volume of things you can DO.
2. Capacity: the volume of things you actually DO.
This takes you on a journey of all the possible things you need to imbibe internally and demonstrate externally to move ahead in your career.
On the Job SuccessIn this section, we will cover some basic tips.docxhopeaustin33688
On the Job Success
In this section, we will cover some basic tips and techniques that might help you succeed once you have landed that great job and are ready to start your career. Like all the information included, there is no golden ticket or cheats along the way. Instead, these best practices and suggestions are a collection of common knowledge and proven experience.
Being successful at work has a lot to do with your attitude and candor. Your personal characteristics as well as your behaviors in groups and the organization as a whole reflect on your performance and ability. The recognition and development of your soft skills as well as your ability to adapt to organizational culture, understand power, and create healthy relationships with your supervisor and peers will more often than not help you become a more successful employee. We will also discuss how to become knowledgeable about your job, how to execute and excel in your given responsibilities, and what some of the advantages are to continue your education as a lifelong learner. The follow sections will elaborate on these strategies to employ that can lead to greater job success.
A Positive Attitude and Other Tips for a New Job
Especially when you start a new job, there are a lot of things you need to learn. It probably won’t be expected that you know how to do all of your job duties perfectly when you first arrive but by presenting yourself appropriately and by properly managing the areas that you can control, you will find that the rest will come pretty easily. Most of the following tips and techniques are good suggestions for a new position but should continue even after you are more established with a company.
· Stay positive. Forget the wrist; it’s all in the attitude. Keeping a positive attitude about your responsibilities, new tasks, challenges, and the company as a whole is an amazing step toward success. Your enthusiasm and eagerness to try new things, handle pressure and frustrations, and stay optimistic through diverse situations will not only keep you in good spirits professionally but will make you a stand out for new opportunities and a pleasure to work with.
· Try your hardest and learn from mistakes. It could be interpreted to be two separate actions but your ability to give 100% of your effort is actually very closely tied to the errors you will make. Mistakes are inevitable; you will make them. Be accountable for your actions by being able to say that did your very best and takeaway a lesson learned to avoid the same mistake again later.
· Be respectful. There are many things to learn from your new colleagues. Demonstrate your willingness to learn from their experience by valuing their opinions, being grateful of the assistance they offer, and treating everyone (no matter their position in the company) with the respect you feel you deserve in return.
· Be a team player. It is not likely that your job functions will be completely autonomous. You will most likely.
Selecting and developing capable and confident leaders has become more critical today than ever before.
Discover 4 proven strategies to guide you through today's white water leadership challenge.
Coming into a new management role, the first three months are crucial. How you assert yourself within the role and how you establish the relationships with those whom you are managing can be crucial to your success or failure at leading the team and the projects that lie ahead...
10 Highly Sought After Transferable SkillsLucas Group
Education and training can help you develop the technical skills and experience needed for a particular industry, but the more innate “soft” skills—aka transfer skills—can help you succeed at any job and any company.
Public Speaking Tips to Help You Be A Strong Leader.pdfPinta Partners
In the realm of effective leadership, a multitude of skills come into play, but one stands out as both crucial and challenging: public speaking.
Public speaking transcends mere eloquence; it serves as the medium through which leaders articulate their vision, inspire action, and foster engagement. For leaders, refining public speaking skills is essential, elevating their ability to influence, persuade, and lead with resolute conviction. Here are some key tips to consider: https://joellandau.com/the-public-speaking-tips-to-help-you-be-a-stronger-leader/
The Team Member and Guest Experience - Lead and Take Care of your restaurant team. They are the people closest to and delivering Hospitality to your paying Guests!
Make the call, and we can assist you.
408-784-7371
Foodservice Consulting + Design
The case study discusses the potential of drone delivery and the challenges that need to be addressed before it becomes widespread.
Key takeaways:
Drone delivery is in its early stages: Amazon's trial in the UK demonstrates the potential for faster deliveries, but it's still limited by regulations and technology.
Regulations are a major hurdle: Safety concerns around drone collisions with airplanes and people have led to restrictions on flight height and location.
Other challenges exist: Who will use drone delivery the most? Is it cost-effective compared to traditional delivery trucks?
Discussion questions:
Managerial challenges: Integrating drones requires planning for new infrastructure, training staff, and navigating regulations. There are also marketing and recruitment considerations specific to this technology.
External forces vary by country: Regulations, consumer acceptance, and infrastructure all differ between countries.
Demographics matter: Younger generations might be more receptive to drone delivery, while older populations might have concerns.
Stakeholders for Amazon: Customers, regulators, aviation authorities, and competitors are all stakeholders. Regulators likely hold the greatest influence as they determine the feasibility of drone delivery.
Specific ServPoints should be tailored for restaurants in all food service segments. Your ServPoints should be the centerpiece of brand delivery training (guest service) and align with your brand position and marketing initiatives, especially in high-labor-cost conditions.
408-784-7371
Foodservice Consulting + Design
Comparing Stability and Sustainability in Agile SystemsRob Healy
Copy of the presentation given at XP2024 based on a research paper.
In this paper we explain wat overwork is and the physical and mental health risks associated with it.
We then explore how overwork relates to system stability and inventory.
Finally there is a call to action for Team Leads / Scrum Masters / Managers to measure and monitor excess work for individual teams.
Artificial intelligence (AI) offers new opportunities to radically reinvent the way we do business. This study explores how CEOs and top decision makers around the world are responding to the transformative potential of AI.
Senior Project and Engineering Leader Jim Smith.pdfJim Smith
I am a Project and Engineering Leader with extensive experience as a Business Operations Leader, Technical Project Manager, Engineering Manager and Operations Experience for Domestic and International companies such as Electrolux, Carrier, and Deutz. I have developed new products using Stage Gate development/MS Project/JIRA, for the pro-duction of Medical Equipment, Large Commercial Refrigeration Systems, Appliances, HVAC, and Diesel engines.
My experience includes:
Managed customized engineered refrigeration system projects with high voltage power panels from quote to ship, coordinating actions between electrical engineering, mechanical design and application engineering, purchasing, production, test, quality assurance and field installation. Managed projects $25k to $1M per project; 4-8 per month. (Hussmann refrigeration)
Successfully developed the $15-20M yearly corporate capital strategy for manufacturing, with the Executive Team and key stakeholders. Created project scope and specifications, business case, ROI, managed project plans with key personnel for nine consumer product manufacturing and distribution sites; to support the company’s strategic sales plan.
Over 15 years of experience managing and developing cost improvement projects with key Stakeholders, site Manufacturing Engineers, Mechanical Engineers, Maintenance, and facility support personnel to optimize pro-duction operations, safety, EHS, and new product development. (BioLab, Deutz, Caire)
Experience working as a Technical Manager developing new products with chemical engineers and packaging engineers to enhance and reduce the cost of retail products. I have led the activities of multiple engineering groups with diverse backgrounds.
Great experience managing the product development of products which utilize complex electrical controls, high voltage power panels, product testing, and commissioning.
Created project scope, business case, ROI for multiple capital projects to support electrotechnical assembly and CPG goods. Identified project cost, risk, success criteria, and performed equipment qualifications. (Carrier, Electrolux, Biolab, Price, Hussmann)
Created detailed projects plans using MS Project, Gant charts in excel, and updated new product development in Jira for stakeholders and project team members including critical path.
Great knowledge of ISO9001, NFPA, OSHA regulations.
User level knowledge of MRP/SAP, MS Project, Powerpoint, Visio, Mastercontrol, JIRA, Power BI and Tableau.
I appreciate your consideration, and look forward to discussing this role with you, and how I can lead your company’s growth and profitability. I can be contacted via LinkedIn via phone or E Mail.
Jim Smith
678-993-7195
jimsmith30024@gmail.com
2. According to Dictionary.com the definition of versatility is “capable of or
adapted for turning easily from one to another of various tasks, fields of
endeavor, etc” Being versatile is going to be a major challenge for many.
We get so used to doing something the way we have been doing it that
we don’t consider other ways. Many of us don’t try to learn new ways or
methods or even new fields of endeavor because it takes us out of our
comfort zone. The problem becomes that when our skill set is no longer
needed we are stuck and jobless, or at least not receiving the
compensation we were once earning because we are working in some
job that requires a lower skill level.
Those of you that plan on being in the workforce seventeen years from
now need to know today that you are likely to be replaced by
automation or the need for your skill set will just disappear. We had a
taste of that in the recession. Companies let people go and then
retooled with machinery and methods that did not require those
employees when business improved. They needed different skill sets,
more advanced skill sets.
3. Professional versatility helps you make the most of situations like
these including, when necessary, enabling you to completely
reinvent yourself in the workplace.
Even when their career is progressing according to plan,
professionals still need to be versatile in order to move
successfully to the next stage such as accepting an international
assignment, transitioning into management or becoming a
specialist when they have to date been a generalist. Versatility
and the ability to, in part at least, reinvent yourself can be a
valuable skill when a new CEO or other senior manager takes
over.
Professional versatility is something everyone can work on as an
integral part of their overall approach to professional
development. Versatility in professional life involves:
knowing and building on your core professional qualities;
doing things at work that make you more versatile; and
developing certain personal skills that enable versatility.
4.
5. Many employers use cross-training to ensure that
operations run smoothly if anything goes wrong. That
means you need to be flexible and willing to expand your
skill set. Learning several job functions shows your
employer that you’re a valuable asset. Take the initiative to
step outside of your normal duties, and meet the demands
of your company, not just your job.
If you’re not excelling in your current position, but are
expanding your skill set, your employer may be willing to
move you into a different role. Employees that use their
varying skills to increase efficiency and contribute to the
team will always be able to find a place within the
company.
6. Some challenges may require you to step out of your
comfort zone. This is good! Being a human “Swiss Army
Knife” can help you face the most challenging situations.
No matter where you work, today’s fast-paced
environment almost guarantees that you’ll need to adapt to
new business practices and technology standards. As this
technology enters the workplace, you need the ability to
keep up. Additionally, changes in company culture and
environment call for diverse and open-minded employees.
Those that see the importance of versatility during rapid
growth, or changes in a business model, are likely to
excel.
7. If you manage stress well, creatively solve
issues, handle unpredictable work situations
with professionalism, and seek opportunities to
learn within the organization, then you’re
showing your boss that you have what it takes.
Take the time to learn each day. Work toward
that promotion. Take advantage of any
seminars, workshops, or meetings that might
expand your knowledge. Personal and
professional growth is the key to upward
mobility.
8.
9. Just as athletes need a strong core physically,
professionals need a strong core of qualities
that together define who they are as a
professional. These are the qualities they take
with them, and build on, whatever their career
trajectory. Core professional qualities stay with
you including when your career takes an
unexpected turn. They are enduring and
transferrable; for example, commitment to high
standards, ability to work under pressure and
ability to relate to a wide range of personalities.
They are a valuable anchor especially when
professional life hits some turbulence.
10. To be clear about your professional core, start by
listing the professional characteristics for which you
are, or want to be, known. The following checklist is by
no means exhaustive but is intended to help you get
started:
Lifelong learner
Effective problem-solver
Team player
Independent thinker
Respected leader
Influential communicator
Creative innovator
Competent business analyst
Productive networker
Sought-after adviser
11. It’s important to remember that core professional
qualities are different from, yet have a significant
bearing on, specialist technical expertise. When you
are clear on the constituents of your professional core,
you are well-placed to keep them in mind and pay
attention to developing them further in parallel with
technical capability.
For example; a qualified vet, with several years of
small animal practice behind him, came to realize that
he wanted to move away from veterinary practice. He
effected a successful transition into selling veterinary
pharmaceuticals and subsequently progressed to a
senior management role in that field. The rigor he
applied to diagnosis and treatment in his earlier career,
his capacity to relate to a very diverse range of people
and his enthusiasm for technological advances all
accompanied him as he reinvented himself at
12.
13. Putting your hand up to take on new, challenging responsibilities can
be a great way to develop and demonstrate your versatility.
For example, a business analyst had noticed a succession of account
managers attempting to improve the organisation’s relationship with a
particularly difficult customer. It was a relatively small account and
each had found they were too taken up with the demands of larger
clients to resolve issues with this client once and for all. Seeing an
opportunity to apply her strengths in problem-solving, negotiation and
relationship-building to a new challenge, the business analyst
volunteered to deal directly with this client. A successful outcome led to
her becoming the go-to person for dealing with other seemingly
intractable situations.
Many professionals have discovered opportunities to apply their
versatility at times of significant organisational change such as when a
new CEO or senior manager comes on board. And restructuring often
opens up new possibilities for professionals who have worked on their
versatility.
14. When you’re working hard to build your reputation as a
professional and to fulfill current objectives at work it’s easy to
lose sight of what’s happening beyond your immediate work
environment. Yet your versatility as a professional depends on
observing the ‘bigger picture’ around you – in your immediate
workplace and in the broader working environment – so that you
are ready to act in the interests of your career.
For example, a change of government from one political party to
another and associated increases in funding for social services
led to the opportunity a young psychologist had been hoping for
– to move from part-time employment in a small private practice
into a full-time role in community health. She was clear about
her core professional qualities and had thought enough about
their transferability to convince her new employer that she was
sufficiently versatile to succeed in this new environment.
15. Changing customer expectations, the application of
emerging technologies and shifting competitive
forces all mean that organisations can’t afford to
stand still. Making yourself indispensable is a way
to demonstrate your versatility because
indispensability is about remaining relevant when
everything around you is changing.
It’s important to note that being indispensable as a
versatile professional is very different from making
sure the organisation is dependent on you and only
you to perform certain tasks.
16. Most people are resistant to being pigeonholed –
personally and professionally. Yet when
professionals establish their reputation is one
relatively narrow field of work, the perception can
easily form that their career advancement potential
is limited. It pays to think about career
advancement potential and to make sure that you
address any skills gaps well ahead of applying for
specific opportunities. For example; moving into
management or taking on more responsibility in
other ways will require you to demonstrate the
versatility needed to make that move.
17. Professionals who have successfully transitioned their career know the
value of particular personal qualities that have helped them do so – in
particular, the ability to tolerate anxiety and the willingness to live with a
degree of uncertainty.
The versatile professional knows that in order to try something new you
have to be able to tolerate a degree of anxiety and even fear. They
know that the way to deal with those emotions is to think about what
they are fearful or anxious about, acknowledge it and, when relevant, do
something constructive about it.
A capacity to live with a degree of uncertainty also helps you become
more versatile at work. Familiar routines, applying well-honed skills and
working with people you know all help you feel comfortable. But to
engage in the activities suggested here that help you be more versatile,
you need to be able to live with uncertainty – about whether you have
the necessary knowledge and skill and about whether you will succeed.