Preparing for personal change?

Preparing for personal change? – try thinking in different ways but above all else – hold your nerve!

So the August bank holiday is almost upon us. The leaves are starting to turn a mild shade of orange. The heavy dew on the grass in the mornings and evenings warns us of the cooler nights and days ahead. There’s even some early marketing for those Christmas corporate parties. It’s all change!

And so too all those working in the public sector will return to busy times again in September when the main holiday phase ends. Parliament opens and the raft of bills just waiting for approval will move swiftly through – and then it begins.

Everyone knows what lies ahead. Organisations are to be abolished. Funding is to be cut. New corporate entities are to be created. Mergers are welcomed! And amongst all of this there’s an element of needing to continue to deliver the day to day business as well as trying to find the time to focus on personal futures. Just where do you start if you’re in the middle of this shuffling pack of cards when you know that you won’t be where you are in 2 years?

Take a step back and try a different approach. We’ve all heard the saying that if you carry on doing the same things over and over again, you’ll get the same results. So here’s how I’d play out my time right now, if I was back in gainful public sector employment!

• Make best use of the up and coming ‘caretaking roles’. Organisations that are being abolished still have a statutory duty to deliver their responsibilities and will need people to fulfil certain roles as key personnel start to leave. Keep an eye out for those roles that can offer you something different that you could move into and gain new insights, skills and experiences. Caretaking is a wonderful opportunity to get some new exposure whilst also helping out the organisation.

• Make best use of those people around you who really challenge your thinking about how the future will look and feel. If you carry on talking with the same clique and group of people you generally work with, you’ll end up with the same conversations. Seek out those whom you would not normally link in with and open up some new avenues – most people love being listened too and sharing thoughts with someone new.

• Don’t get hung up on job titles as you start thinking about what your next role is likely to be. This whole public sector transformation is likely to throw up new ways of working and thinking that goes far beyond the traditional roles that we have seen over the last decade – it has to if it’s to succeed. Look beyond the title into the potential for the role and how what you enjoy doing most, is likely to feature in it.

• Know your values inside out! We all know there is the standard practice of knowing your strengths and weaknesses. Also, understanding your skill base and using your experience to move you into your next career phase is an expected approach. But there is something much more fundamental than this that can help carve out your future – your values! You need to be clear about those personal values which make you who you are and which underpin your beliefs. If your next career move compromises them in any way, you’ll be even more frustrated than you might be right now.

I remember once being in an organisation that was being abolished. It was hard to hold your nerve and still do your day to day job, as people started leaving around you. But you have to find ways and breakthrough strategies to do just that, as you may be the one who is actually turning the lights out!

If your own personal future is in a dilemma – start thinking in ways that you’ve never done before. The changes this time round will be colossal and demand new approaches. But above all – be true to your values!

Just be up to something interesting!

I remember once reading in the plethora of leadership and management journals, about one particular individual’s view that leaders should always ‘be up to something interesting’. I remember at the time that it stopped and made me think. After pondering for some time, I tended to agree with the statement.

I believe now that whatever we ascribe to the definition of leadership, I would argue that we are all leaders of some make, if only leaders of our own destinies. Therefore by this definition alone, we should all be up to something interesting!

And as the threat of unemployment looms for many in the public sector over the next 12-24 months, the challenge to be ‘up to something interesting’ will just be too much. But it will be this positive frame and outlook which will give people the edge for future gainful employment. After all, would you employ someone or want to work with someone who has nothing different or interesting to say?

And so I write this blog now because a very dear friend asked me this week – ‘What are you up to then Renshaw?” My answer was as swift as his curiosity:

• Dibley, my Newfoundland dog had just passed her first stage of the water life saving tests by ‘rescuing’ me from a lake.

• We were just back from a week in Somerset where I found out to my surprise that all businesses only deal in cash at the tills!

• I’d had an amazing night at the theatre with my Mum seeing The Sound of Music.

Now of course none of this was work related – and oh how he had expected something about contracts, clients and climate! But our conversation had lasted longer. We both shared some personal experiences that none of us had known about the other before……..and of course we smiled and laughed together. We also found out how better we could work together in the future!

So where ever you are right now – do you have your answer ready?