Career Development In Real Life

“As organizations are becoming more focused, we as individuals must focus on our strengths and develop our careers within these strengths.”

I made this statement to a group of community and business leaders in March of 2009 during a presentation for the National Center for Community Collaboration regarding Career Development in a Challenging Economy.

While I believe we may be able to reinvent ourselves to pursue our passions and strengths, it may be difficult for many to fully accomplish this objective. Don’t get too discouraged, because I believe far more people may be able to reinstate themselves instead of reinventing . Reinstatement means that we return to our core values, strengths and beliefs; to a time before we were “corrupted” by society, before corporate sanitation, and social dominance. We are who we are, but we may have forgotten what got us here, what tools and talents we used, the purity of the effort, and the satisfaction of accomplishment. This goes for organizations too!

To get to this point of reinstatement, we must conduct a self-assessment and engage ourselves, just as organizations should be engaging their workforce. We want to observe where development is coming from, what experiences are true practice sessions, and how we are moving forward towards our predetermined goals. This is your permission to really talk to yourself.

In our pursuit for career development we must also find, discover and utilize our resources to meet our career development goals and get focused. We need to look to our mentors, advisers, and career guides. These may be co-workers, business associates, managers or executives whom you trust to provide you with candid developmental feedback and opportunities to practice your craft and talents.

And finally, career development can be achieved when you recognize and appreciate the “culture” you are in or where you want to be regarding your career goals. This is a different type of explanation, so let me clarify. Believe it or not, golf is a culture. Whether or not you play, you can recognize a set of norms, rules, behaviors and customs. And when fully recognized, there is trust, honor, fun, competition, and passion. When you are engaged in this culture you have an appreciation and respect for it (and the game itself) and it does not go away. Regardless of who we are or wherever we are, a culture exists and we must identify it, organizationally or individually; to discover where we may take ourselves. Culture is our key support mechanism to help us achieve career development, individually or for our organizations. We must define and identify the cultures we are part of for us to succeed in the future as professionals or for the success of our businesses.

Reinvent and you may look and behave like Frankenstein's monster.
Reinstate and you are a stronger focused you.